Chapter 21

Tris POV

School is weirdly going by quicker. I'm not sure if it's having friends in most of my classes and being with Tobias or just the idea that we're finally in a routine for the school year. But I am definitely not complaining. As much as I love to sit in a desk for eight hours a day listening to the lectures of teachers and the dumb comments of peers, I'll take a fast day.

Christina and I were finally clued in about Marlene's surprise birthday party this weekend. Apparently Uriah has been planning it for a while now and that was the cause of him acting weird around Marlene sometimes. Christina was a little upset to hear that she wasn't a part of the planning process but got over it when Uriah gave her the job of decoration duty. I was perfectly fine with my job- getting her a present from Tobias and I. He was lost in the department of what to get her, considering that he doesn't know her that well and he's Tobias. So I'm helping him out.

"Okay this can't be real chicken." Christina exclaims looking down at her grilled chicken sandwich. The expression of disgust on her face causes all to laugh. "I hate school lunch." She says, wrapping her chicken sandwich back up in the foil and moving it aside.

"You could always bring your lunch babe." Will comments. She looks over at Will in disbelief.

"I do not have the time or energy for that." I laugh and look around the table. Tobias is talking with Zeke and the boys and Shauna is talking with Marlene. Uriah and Will are in the own conversation and Christina is picking at her food. Al has been pretty quiet. I'm not sure if he doesn't like the new seating arrangement or just that Tobias is here and he's sitting next to me. I glance over at Lynn and she is typing something on her phone- probably texting. A smile arises on her face and she holds back a laugh. She goes back to typing and I can't help but wonder who she is texting.

The lunch bell rings and we all get up, moving to throw away our trash and head to our next class. I wait for Tobias to throw away his trash as he is still talking to Zeke. Shauna drags Zeke away and Tobias finally catches up with me.

"Hey sorry- I was talking to Zeke about something." He says as we start walking to study hall.

"It's fine." I wave my hand off.

I've definitely noticed all the new looks I get now. Ever since the news that we were dating went around school every time I'd be walking in the hallway- with or without Tobias- I'd get looks from other girls. Some were just glances, but others were almost sizing me up with confusion and distaste. I don't think Tobias notices it though. I told Christina about it and she said, her words, "they're just jealous because you're a smoking hot babe that happens to be dating Four." I smile at the remembrance of her words.

Tobias starts talking about the away game Friday as we reach study hall. We make our way to our seats and he continues until the bell rings. Sadly Mrs. Wu doesn't have anything for Tobias and I to deliver so we're stuck doing homework. We both put our ear phones in but pick the songs for each other. It's a small gesture but we both enjoy it. I start working on some English and he begins on History. I'll occasionally pick a better song for him and he does the same.

(-/-/\-\-)

I walk into Geometry and find Lynn on her phone again smiling. I sit down next to her but I don't think she notices me. I get out my binder and she still doesn't notice me. I'm tempted to look over and see who exactly she's texting but before I can the bell rings. She texts one more thing before taking out my headphones and looking over at me.

"Oh hey Tris." She turns her phone of, setting it in her backpack.

"Hey Lynn." I reply back with just a hint of curiosity. Mr. Harrison comes in, closing the door behind him and we begin working on the problems on the door. I look back at Lynn and she's sitting there working, but I do catch the occasional glance down to her phone.

(-/-/\-\-)

"Hey tonight I have to leave early for dance so you might want to get your mom to pick you up." Christina says as we walk to the dance room. I nod my head and make a mental reminder to text my mom. We open the door, turning the lights on. We beat all the boys here today so we decided to go ahead and set up all our stuff. Christina plugs her iPhone for the music and I move a standalone barre to the middle of the room.

"So what are getting Marlene for her birthday?" Christina asks sitting down next to me as we start to stretch.

"I'm not sure yet. I'm going to go shopping with Tobias Saturday after dance to help him find something so I guess I'll find something then. What about you?" I ask moving positions.

"Well last weekend I found this really pretty teal dress, so I got it for Marlene." I nod my head as she finishes and groups of guys start trickling in. I don't notice the first couple guys but after I see Uriah and Edward. But not Al. They come over and start a conversation with Christina. I listen until I see Tobias at my side. I smile and he smirks.

"Hi."

"Hey." Zeke comes over putting his arm around Tobias' shoulder, smiling as he looks at me. I squint my eyes at him.

"What now?" I ask he laughs and looks over at Tobias who suddenly does not look very happy.

"Nothing." He replies after receiving a glare from Tobias. I look the two over one more time, still confused and decide to start class.

"Okay..." I move and close the door and all the guys move back to a position at the barre. Christina explains the normal combination first giving the chance to see if anyone remembers it. No one does. She goes through it and after she's done I turn on the music and decide to walk around. I start on the far side, just making sure the guys are doing it semi-correctly. I pass over Peter quickly. We're still not friends if you can imagine. Uriah gives me a toothy smile at me as I pass him and I return it. Before I get to Tobias, the music ends and Christina starts explaining another combination.

My eyes scan over the room as she talks. Some boys try doing the combination with her, some just listen, and others just stare at the wall. She finishes and the people that weren't paying attention start moving when the music begins. I pick up where I left off only adjusting a couple people. I take my time so I don't reach Tobias before the song ends. I know what combination is next and I want to see him try with a front row seat. It sounds a little mean but he's just hilarious. I walk back to the music and turn it off once the combination ends. I listen as Christina explains the next combination.

"So this is something we've never tried before. This is called the fondu. It means to sink down." She shows the move a couple times before giving the combination for it. Most of the guys look apprehensive and I move to turn on the music. I watch the boys begin the combination and their eyes are glued to Christina and how she's doing it. It is a simple routine but I don't think the move has resonated in the boys' minds yet. I adjust Hayden's leg and move on to Tobias. I bite my lip as I watch him from behind. His head is faced to the side as he tries to follow Christina, his arm- that is supposed to be in second position resembles a dead limb, he is two counts behind every move, and last but not least, he is not even doing the fondu correctly. I stifle a laugh and move beside him.

He catches my appearance and is thrown off even more by it. I first move his arm upward and position his fingers. I then try to figure out what the bottom half of his body is doing. I squat down and catch his leg as he bends both and begins to straighten his legs. I open up his knee for a better turn out and make sure it's straightened and his foot is pointed. I lead his foot to the next position and do the same. I stand back up and he continues the combination. He is smirking as I catch him roll his eyes at me. I smile and move to Zeke. Zeke at least has the combination down but is struggling so I do a smaller and shorter version of what I did with Tobias to him. The song finally ends and I swear I hear a sigh of relief behind me.

I decide to take over for Christina as we finish the barre work. We move to the center and give them some simple jumping combinations. They're still learning which one is which.

Soon the hour is up and they're filing out of the room for the rest of they're practice. I take a gulp of water from my bottle and wait for Christina to unplug her phone. As we leave the room, closing the door behind us we hear yelling in front of us. I look to Christina.

"What is that?" She shrugs and we start to walk forward to see a little crowd has formed. I'm inclined to just walk around it until I hear the loud voice of Tobias. Oh god. Christina's eyes widen and I know she heard his voice too. I push myself through the crowd of football players to the first ring of boys. There standing is Tobias and Peter with Zeke in between them trying to get Tobias to walk away. I stand in place as I watch.

"Say it again, you dick!" Four yells at Peter.

"What are you going to do if I do?" He retorts. This enrages Tobias even more and he lunges at Peter. Zeke throws himself into the mix trying to pull them from each other. Uriah tries to pull Peter away and I find myself yelling.

"Four!" I boom. His head moves to look back at me and I'm met with his angry countenance. It calms as his eyes meet mine, but he breaks the gaze as he looks back in front of him. Uriah was able to get Peter to the other side. Zeke's hands were still bunched in his hands from trying to pull him away. Zeke lets go of me once he thinks he's cooled down. He takes a step back and wipes off the wrinkles on his t-shirt. He gives Peter another glare and I decide to step in again.

"Four." I say sounding more authoritative. He looks back at me and this time his eyes stay on mine. The crowd breaks up as they head to the locker rooms. Peter shuffles away with his group of friends and now only Zeke, Hayden, Tobias and I stand in the hallway. Zeke and Hayden decide to head back to the locker rooms as well. I stand in front of Tobias, arms crossed on my chest, eyebrows raised. What the hell was that?

"Tris." He breathes out finally.

"What the hell was that?" I question angrily. He sighs and closes his eyes for a second and opens them up to see me waiting for his answer.

"He said some shit and I just didn't want to hear it." He says.

"Seriously? You almost got in a fight with Peter because he said some crap? What if Coach Max came out and saw this? You'd be lucky if he wouldn't have kick you off the team." He looks down and I continue. "You can't be that careless Tobias." I say this softer, hoping he'll figure out that I just want him to be smart. He looks up at me as I say his name and steps forward.

"I know." He gives in. He looks down at me as I look up. "I'm sorry, he just said some stuff and I lost it." I nod.

"I know how you feel, trust me. Half the stuff Peter says is complete shit." A hearty laugh escapes Tobias at my words and a smile arises on mine. "But you need to have some self-control." I finish a little more serious. He nods and steps forward again, closer.

I rest my hands on his chest and continue to look up at him. His eyes jump to the each of mine and he slowly leans down. I feel the warmth and softness of his lips pressed against mine and I reciprocate. I sigh in comfort and the feeling of complete fullness I feel. His hands snake around to the small of my back, slightly pressing us closer. I tilt my head for more access and feel Tobias do the same.

We pull away to catch our breath and I hear the sound of someone clearing their throat.

We separate and see Zeke standing their smiling. My cheeks burn as I take my hands of Tobias' chest and he unsnakes his arms. I look down, trying to hide my embarrassment.

"You need to hurry up and change if you don't want to get in trouble by Coach." Zeke states. I look up and see Tobias nod his head. I can tell that he's a little embarrassed as well but is much better at concealing it. He gives me a smile before turning to walk away. I give him one as well.

"I'll text you tonight." I say as he begins to walk away. I turn around myself and hear the faint laughs of Zeke behind me and shake my head at his immaturity. I walk into the locker room and Christina is already sitting there, changed.

"What happened?" She questions. I give her a brief story of how Peter said something to Four which made him angry. I decided to leave out the ending, wanting to keep it to myself. Now I just hope Zeke will too.

Four POV (A/N: same day)

I walk Tris to Geometry and head to English. I sit next to Mykel in my usual seat. He talks about the game and Hayden joins in when he arrives.

"Isn't it only like half an hour away?" Hayden asks. I shrug.

"The cheerleaders are coming so it can't be too far." Mykel exclaims with a smile. He has a thing with about half the cheer team. I don't understand it but don't question his choices.

"You know that one girl was kicked off the team?" Hayden asks. Mykel's eyebrows furrow as Hayden nods.

"Which one?" He asks. Hayden shrugs. "Hannah? Lizzie? Sarah? Brittany? Cameron? Florence?" He started spattering out all the cheerleaders. I move my attention to something else until the bell rings.

"Hello class. As you know, now that we have finished reading 'Romeo and Juliet' we will be acting out certain parts for the class." Wait what? "You'll be separated into groups of 5 with a selected scene. It's your choice who can play who but this will be performed at the end of class so you guys have about thirty minutes to assign who is who and practice a couple times. Here are your groups." Mrs. Reyes finished talking and writing the groups and I find my own name. You gotta be kidding me. My name is next to three girls. That's it. No boys. Shit.

Suddenly three girls appear at the front of my desk all holding the paper for our scene. I groan in discomfort knowing this is going to be hell.

(-/-/\-\-)

"Hey Four." Zeke states coming into the football locker rooms. I've already changed into some basketball shorts and t-shirt. "Excited for ballet class?" He jokes.

"So excited." I joke back.

"At least you have Tris." He comments.

"I guess but it's not like we can do anything. She just teaches it." I reply back.

"She may not be able to do anything but you check out her ass every chance you get." Zeke states laughing. The tips of my ears get red.

"Shut the hell up Zeke, you know that's not true." He has caught me staring at her butt a couple times, but only a couple. And to my defense her butt is much more interesting than listening to Christina talk. And it's super adorable.

Zeke laughs at me and shakes his head. "Okay Four. Sure." He exclaims still smiling. I roll my eyes and we head out to the dance room.

I see Tris sitting next to Christina who is talking to Uriah and another kid. I walk across the room and stand next to Tris until she turns and notices me.

"Hi."

"Hey." I say back. Suddenly Zeke comes over putting his arm around me. He smiles over at Tris as he looks at the athletic leggings she's wearing. Tris senses somethings up and I currently want to kill Zeke.

"What now?" She asks. I swear if he says anything. I glare at him and he responds.

"Nothing." Tris looks us over one more time before stepping aside to start class. I turn to Zeke, my glare still present.

"I swear to God, Ezekiel." I say using his full name. He just smirks at me as he moves back to the barre. I take a deep breath before doing the same.

Christina starts talking about a combination that she says has been the same one since we've started but I swear I've never seen it before. I barely get through it and only whispering expletives a couple times. Christina explains another combination and I rely on Zeke to get me through it. I'm able to follow Zeke on the first side but when I turn around and try to follow Hayden, I realize he's as lost as me. I somehow get through the song and wait for Christina to say another combination.

"So this is something we've never tried before." Oh freaking great. "This is called the fondu. It means to sink down." She shows the move a couple times, but I could still use a slow motion action of it. She starts talking about another combination and I try to follow it. As she finishes talking I've completely forgotten what I'm doing and mentally curse. I watch Christina and try to copy her movements. As expected, I begin to get lost in her actions.

I feel eyes on me and see Tris standing there biting her lip. I know she does that all the time but now she's probably doing it now so she doesn't burst out laughing. That's the thing I really didn't like about this set-up. I completely embarrass myself in front of Tris for a whole hour.

Tris adjusts my arms up and fingers until I see her look over at me as I continue the combination. Not that I know what I'm doing, her staring really isn't helping. She crouches down, almost sitting by my feet as I continue. I feel her hands on my outer leg as I bend my leg and straighten it. She moves my knee closer to facing her and tells me to straighten my legs. I thought I was. She guides my foot in her hand to what I guess is what I'm supposed to be doing. She does it again and stands back up and watches as I try to copy her movements without her. She must be somewhat pleased because she moves on to Zeke. I can't help but smile and roll my eyes at this entire thing.

"At least you have Tris." Zeke's words ring in my head. I then remember that he meant I had the ability to stare at her ass for an hour. I watch her fix Zeke's leg like she did to me and for a split second I let my eyes drag over her butt. Yep, still cute.

I shake myself out of it as she stands up and I try to look concentrated and that I'm working on the combination- not checking out her behind.

The song finally finishes and I legit a sigh of relief that that stupid combination is done with. Tris moves to the barre and explains the next few routines. She demonstrates them with us and I follow them a little better than the last ones, which isn't saying much. She calls us out into the floor and I take my position in the back, my way of trying to hide behind everyone. We do a couple minutes of jumps and then Christina tries some balancing exercises. Half the boys end on the floor but oh well.

We're finally dismissed and I can't be happier. As much as I like looking at Tris for an hour, ballet is too much for me. I start to walk out with Zeke, Hayden, and Mykel when I hear Peter in front of me.

"What a bitch. She can just go fuck herself." My ears go alert to his voice.

"What'd you say?" I say though it resembles a yell. Peter turns around to face me while I stop. I can hear a faint sound of Zeke's voice but block Ito out, waiting for his answer.

"That that shortie is a bitch." He spits out with a smile. I step closer to him looking him right in the eye. "And that she can go fuck herself." That's when I lose it. I lunge at Peter with all my weight, pushing him down to the ground. I don't know if I've ever felt this type of rage before. Yes, there's been the type of rage towards my father. But not the type of standing up for one another. No one says that about Tris. Not if I can help it.

"Say it again, you dick!" I yell at him, trying to fight against the multiple hands and arms trying to pull me off of him.

"What are you going to do if I do?" He yells back. I fight harder trying to get ahold of him until I hear her voice.

"Four!" The familiar voice turns my head around to see Tris standing there. She instantly calms me and I turn back around to give Peter one more glare.

"Four." She yells again. I break my glare from Peter and look back at her again. The crowd of people that I hadn't noticed had formed begins to leave and I see Zeke in the corner of my eye still standing there. He leaves after looking back at Tris. I can tell why.

She stands there with her arms crossed staring me down. She doesn't look very happy.

"Tris." I try but she stops me.

"What the hell was that?" She questions angrily. I sigh not knowing what to say right now. I close my eyes and open them again.

"He said some shit and I just didn't want to hear it." I state. She scoffs.

"Seriously? You almost got in a fight with Peter because he said some crap? What if Coach Max came out and saw this? You'd be lucky if he wouldn't have kick you off the team." Ugh she's right. "You can't be that careless Tobias." I look back at her and she looks a little less upset. I take a step towards her as I answer.

"I know. I'm sorry, he just said some stuff and I lost it." It's not the best excuse but she nods.

"I know how you feel, trust me. Half the stuff Peter says is complete shit." I laugh at her comment. It was true. She smiles and continues. "But you need to have some self-control." I nod and step closer to her.

She rests her hands on my chest as she looks up to me. I look between her eyes and before I can even try and stop myself I'm kissing her. Her soft, pink lips against mine soothe me in the best ways possible. I move my hands to her back, slightly pushing her towards me, wanting to feel as much of as I can. She tilts her head and I tilt mine. This is bliss.

She pulls back, smile on her lips as she catches her breath. I do the same for a second, until I hear something.

Tris steps away from me, looking to her right. My head follows and sees Zeke standing there, a huge ass smirk on his face. You've gotta be kidding me. I'm never living this down. I unwrap my arms from Tris and she looks down. Her cheeks are pink and I imagine mine follow suit.

"You need to hurry up and change if you don't want to get in trouble by Coach." Zeke states. I nod my head and look over to Tris. I give her a smile before starting to walk away and she does the same.

"I'll text you tonight." She states as I start to walk away, following Zeke. She turns around and begins to walk to her own locker room. I avoid looking over at Zeke but he walks beside me laughing. He jumps in front of me as we walk out the doors.

"Damn. Ballet really is worth it for you."

A/N: Hello! Sorry this chapter is a littler shorter than my regular and not as much action but on the flip side we now have some tension between Four and Peter and Four got the kiss he wanted. I have a lot planned for next chapter. By the way, leave some ideas for 'Candor or Dauntless' below. I need some ideas! See you next week!

Disclaimer: happy national donut day. If I was veronica Roth I would've opened my own donut shop, but here I am, with no donut shop.