I must have fallen asleep, because I awaken by the slam of the training room door. I sit straight up, cold on the ground, to look Uriah straight in the eye. Eric is no where around, so I can only assume he had left me during the night. Following the kiss, we laid together on the ground, just talking about the other initiates. Not the most romantic pillow talk, but it was better than nothing. Sometime following that, I must have fallen asleep and Eric didn't even have the courtesy to wake me.
With a sigh, I stood up, realizing how late it must be. But Uriah doesn't look to be too impressed either, so it couldn't be too late. He would be at training by now. Uriah walks over to me, only wearing a pair of plaid pyjama pants, shirtless and helps me up. He puts the back of his hand on my head, his eyebrows creased in worry and confusion. By the look of relief on his face, he found nothing wrong.
Uriah escorted me silently back to the transfer dormitory, where he kissed my cheek and walked away. No words were passed between us, but his actions only confused me more. How did he know where I was? More questions that will fall on deaf ears.
I do not understand why Uriah suddenly feels the need to be affectionate with me, like it was the first time we had ever met and our emotions for each other were different. But I felt nothing more than an intense friendship for Uriah, we had grown up together after all, he has helped me through a lot. I sighed, slumping into the dormitory, finding everyone already awake and fairly well dressed. Knowing I was still in the same clothes as yesterday, I grabbed them and walked to the showers. After a quick rinse, I got dressed and hurried to breakfast. Everyone was already there, and almost done, except me. Because of the night's events, I was running late and it was obvious that Eric had been able to tell, too, because he only slightly glanced at me, smirked, and turned back to his conversation with Max. That was the last time he looked at me all breakfast. I headed over and sat down with Tris, Christina, Al and Will, who looked at me as if I was some stranger.
"Hello?" Will asked, a single eyebrow raised. I looked at him, gave him a slight grin and looked back down at my hands in my lap. I didn't realize that I had let my friendship with them slip this much, sure Christina had a mouth on her and I could no longer stand Tris, but at least I knew they would have my back, but after everything that has happened, I don't think anyone can really trust each other. We all knew that it was Peter who had stabbed Edward, but for some reason that didn't make a difference. Everyone was on edge, and suspicious of each other. I suppose spending so much time with Eric didn't help their suspicions against me very much.
"Hey." I said, finally collecting my thoughts enough to speak an intelligent sentence. I wasn't nervous or scared of what they thought of me, but I merely needed to get something off of my chest, to make sure that they weren't going to try anything. I looked up to Al and Will, glancing briefly at Tris and Christina, so they wouldn't know that I resented them both. I didn't need more issues in the dormitory. It was bad enough as it is. "I am uh, sorry. Sometimes I'm not the most compassionate person. But I grew up here and that's what they taught us."
"Don't go soft on us, Zee." Will grinned, punching my shoulder lightly. I laughed, nudging him back before stealing the bacon off of his plate. "Hey!"
"Who's soft now?" I asked, flicking his nose. I noticed everyone was done, so I stood from the table, inviting the rest of them to come along too. We may as well go and wait for the next stage.
When we arrived in the empty hallway, they were all confused, thought I had gotten us lost.
"I've lived here my whole life, I don't get lost." I snapped, pointing to the metal door behind me. Tris, Christina, Will and Al all looked at it then back at me, still confused. "There is the next stage."
"What is it?" Al asked, looking at it in confusion. No one had told them what awaited them on the other side of that door, they couldn't prepare for it anyway. "It seems all the dauntless-born know what to expect. How is that fair?"
"No, you're wrong." I replied, giving him a glare. I hated to think that all the transfer's thought the only reason we were better is because we knew what was coming. "No one can prepare for this, no matter how much you know."
"Why is that?" Christina asked, trying to look through the glass panel on the door, but it was one way glass. They could see out, but we couldn't see in.
"Because what you will face isn't physical, all the data that you will encounter is taken straight from your deepest depths." I said abstractly, hoping someone would figure it out. Seeing as they all remained silent and stared at me as if I wore abnegation clothes, I decided to key them in. "Don't you get it? They're going to hit you with everything they've got. You're fears are coming out to play today and there is nothing you can do to stop them."
Soon after, everyone else arrived, Four in the lead, as we all sat against the walls. Four stood before us, his arms crossed. His hard eyes glanced over us, making sure we were all here before speaking.
"From now on, you will be training together. I hope you get on well, but then again, I don't care if you don't. All I can say is I hope you know yourselves well enough to tell a nightmare from reality." Four said, before disappearing behind the door I had pointed out earlier. I sighed, running my fingers through my hair, nervously. I was scared now, of course I would be. Everyone is. No one is fearless and right now, I knew that I was going to go through hell and back behind that door.
"Zania is scared? What the hell are we going to see behind there?" Peter called out loudly, drawing everyone's attention to him and myself. I wasn't the only one looking scared. All the dauntless-borns knew what was coming, we were all scared.
"Peter, if I was you, I would just shut up." I reply softly, knowing that we didn't need arguing right now, if anything, we needed something to distract us. Lynn decides to pipe up.
"So," she says, scuffing the floor with her shoe. She sits on the right side of Uriah, across from me. Uriah catches my eye and beckons me to go to him, so I did. He wrapped me into a hug. "Which one of you is ranked first, huh?"
At first no one replies, until Peter clears his throat, smirking lightly, "me."
"Bet I could take you." Lynn says it so casually, but I knew she probably could. Peter was strong, but his mentality and planning was not, we had the same flaw I suppose. "I'm third, but I bet any of us could take you, transfer."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that, if I were you," Peter says, his eyes glinting. Then again, Lynn was cocky and arrogant, so maybe Peter could take her on. If it ever happened, they really would have to be careful. They'd be pretty evenly matched. "Who's first?"
I laughed, as if it should be obvious. I have spent the last week with him, I thought I had shown off more than that. I needed some credit around here.
"Zania." She says, her eyebrow raised as if they should already know that. All the transfers looked at me in shock. I didn't know why they were surprised. I huffed, offended by their incredulous looks. "Uriah is second, barely I heard."
"What did you get?" I asked him, looking into his eyes. Uriah grinned proudly, announcing he got a 22 out of 30. The transfers looked confused, probably because they weren't told their mark. It would only confuse the more. "Only 22?"
"What did you get then, smart ass?" He asked, tapping my forehead. I grinned, feeling extremely proud of myself. I knew I was first, but by 5 points? That's huge. It makes a lot of difference here.
"I got 27 out of 30." I shrugged casually as Uriah gaped. It seems Lynn threatened the others, but I didn't hear it, because four walked out, calling her in. Suddenly, I got really nervous again. Uriah pulled me close to him, resting my head on his shoulder. It was going to be a long day and unfortunately, I knew there was going to be more.