GOD SCHOOL IS A BITCCCHHHH.

I haven't updated in so long and I feel terrible.

AND I feel even more terrible that this chapter is kinda short.

Have any of you heard about AvaLynn?!

She's a 5 year old who was bullied the first week of school, and she was kicked and beaten until she fell off the slide the first week of school! SHE WAS BEATEN MORE THAN TRIS WAS BY PETER, DREW, AND AL! And the pictures? It's so f*ckin messed up. And you know what's even more messed up?

THE FACT THAT THE SCHOOL DIDNT EVEN DO SHIT. THEY DIDNT EXPELL ANYONE OR SHIT. WHAT KINDA SHITTY SCHOOL IS THIS SHIT.

ANYWAY.

You guys DEMOLISHED THAT GOAL! TY SO MUCH!

Goal: 267 favs, 335 follows, and 540 reviews! Come on, I know you guys can do it!

Please review, follow, and favorite!

Chapter XXV. Progress Reports and Tattoos

TRIS

Oh no.

Oh no.

Oh my god.

Four knows about me.

I wipe the tears welling up in my eyes with the back of my hand and make my way back to the dormitory.

I expect to see the usual, the initiates mulling around, lying on their beds and staring up at the ceiling, but find the initiates crowding Eric, who stands with a chalkboard that is faces backwards. I walk up next to Will and Christina. "What's going on?" I whisper.

"Rankings for stage two," Will whispers, his eyes trailing mine, and I see the light greens in them flared—which means he's nervous.

I look at Christina, who stands with her arms crossed and her lips turned down a bit. "I thought there weren't any cuts after stage two," I hiss.

"There aren't," she looks at me. "It's just a progress report, sort of."

"Here are your statuses for stage two," Eric says, and he flips the board.

Tris

Peter

Will

Christina

Molly

Drew

Al

The silence in the room is deafening.

I am first.

I've been so nervous about fears though; I thought that I wouldn't even make the top three.

"Nice job, Tris," Will says the first words, breaking the silence. Christina squeals and wraps her arm around the two of us, forcing us into a group us. I smile. They are genuinely happy of me.

My eyes travel over to the other side of the room and I almost flinch.

Peter is steaming. "I will not be outranked by a Stiff, again!" He hisses. "How did you do it, huh? How the hell did you do it?" He pushes me roughly against the wall, his forearm closing off my steady breathing on my neck; a jolt of pain goes through my shoulder and I wince.

I stop, my breath short, and my words choked, remembering what happened the last time he pinned me against a wall. I beat him again, this time I hope that he won't do anything to me.

But I highly doubt that happening.

He leans in close, and I can feel his hot, angry breaths.

I gulp in fear.

Thankfully, Will pulls Peter off of me.

"Leave her alone. Only a coward bullies a girl." His eyes turn red and his fists clench.

Peter scoffs. "A girl? Are you blind, or just stupid? She already got first in stage one, she is not weak. She's going to edge you out of the rankings and out of Dauntless and you're going to get nothing, all because she knows how to manipulate people and you don't. So when you realize you befriended someone that's going to ruin us all, you let me know."

I scowl. "Okay beotch, I don't think you're understanding this. I am not going to edge my friends out of Dauntless, because the only people that I will be edging out is you, moldy carrot," I point at Peter and Drew, "And rat face." At this, the room erupts in laughter. "So stop."

I don't know where I got that sudden burst of confidence, but it somehow felt good. Defeated and left wordless, Peter storms angrily out of the room. Molly and Drew follow him, looking disgusted.

"Thanks." I say to Will, who looks skeptical.

"Is he right?" He asks quietly. "Are you trying to manipulate us?"

"Why and how on earth would I do that?" I scowl. "I'm just doing the best I can, like anyone else. I would never do that to a friend."

"I don't know. By acting like our best friend, then stabbing us in the back by edging us out of Dauntless? Acting tough to psyche us out?" He shrugs, and I feel my heart shattering. My own friend doesn't believe me.

"Will, she is our friend. She'd never do that. Remember?" Christina chastises. Will relaxes, snapping out of protective friend mode.

They exchange a look and walk out of the dormitory together, leaving Al and I alone.

The first, and the last.

I awkwardly roll my heels around, my hands clasped together.

"Are… you alright?" I ask.

"Sure," He says nonchalantly.

"It's not over," I say, trying to give him hope, although even I know he has none.

"You can improve your rank if you…" I trail off, not knowing how to give him a few pointers. How can I be worried about Al when I have so many worries of my own?

"See? It's not that simple." He replies.

"I know it's not," I say.

"I don't think you do. For you it's easy. All of this is easy." He snaps. I frown, slightly hurt by his cautious tone. What happened to the cheery, Amity-like Al I know?

"That's not true," I say quietly.

"Yeah, it is." His voice drips with sarcasm. He closes his eyes.

"You aren't helping me by pretending it isn't. I don't… I'm not sure you can help me at all."

He looks at me with tears in his eyes. I sigh.

"I'll leave you alone for a bit," I stand up and exit the dormitory.

I decide that I want time alone to think, so I don't go find Will and Christina. I sit against the wall in my hidden hallway.

Divergent.

Four knows.

I ranked first.

In the first stage I got stabbed by Peter.

Peter will do something to me.

I'm sure of it.

I put a hand to the black Dauntless bandage on my upper left shoulder.

There I sit, on the floor, back against the wall, and I clear my mind and close my eyes.

I look up when I hear multiple footsteps and familiar voices. I look up to see Uriah, Lynn, and Marlene, who's holding a chocolate-chip muffin.

"Hey Tris! What you doing here alone?" asks Marlene. I hide a grin. She used to not like me, heck, despised me before she found out that Uriah likes her. I shrug.

"Nothing to do, I guess."

"Want to come with us to the training room? Marlene bet me that I couldn't shoot a muffin off her head." Uriah says. I laugh at the stupidity of it.

"Sure." I attempt to stand up but a small shock of pain sparks in my shoulder. I try to not double-over, and Uriah helps me up. I give him a small appreciative smile and we walk to the training room.

Uriah turns on the lights and Marlene stands by the target, her curly brown hair reaching the center.

"Are we allowed to be in here?" I ask.

"Relax, as long as we don't get caught by Eric, we'll be fine." Uriah says. He pulls up the waistband of his shorts and pulls out a gun. I see a tattoo peaking from underneath his shirt, resting on his abs.

He catches me and Marlene looking and smirks. "Like what you see?" Marlene blushes and I roll my eyes.

"Haha, very funny." I say with sarcasm. "What's your other tattoo?" I ask.

Lynn raises an eyebrow. "I thought you only had the snake?"

Uriah shakes his head. "I got a new one a while back."

"Well, what is it?" Marlene asks, still red-faced. She steps away from the target and approaches Uriah.

"Here," He lifts up his shirt and there is a large tattoo of black flames horizontally on his abs. There is another speck of ink a little bit above it, but it is much smaller.

Lynn squints her eyes. "What's that?" she points at the speck.

I look closer and my eyes focus. I look up at him. "Really?"

"What?" He puts his hands up in defense. "Dauntless cake is love, Dauntless cake is life." He places a finger on the small tattoo of a slice of Dauntless cake above his belly button.

I roll my eyes, and change the topic to keep Marlene from fainting at seeing Uriah's abs. "Are you really going to shoot at her?" I ask.

"No. It's a B.B gun. Worst it'll do is give her a welt." I nod.

Marlene resumes her position at the target, and stands up straight with her chin held high.

Uriah faces her, and she puts the muffin on top of her head.

I raise my eyebrows and look at the gun held in Uriah's hands. "You do realize that letting Uriah shoot at you is like letting a six-year-old aiming a gun at you, right?"

Marlene smiles, and Uriah rolls his eyes playfully.

Uriah's right hand goes up, and his finger pulls back on the trigger. A small pellet slices through the air and hits the muffin dead center, and the muffin falls on the floor.

"We both win!" He shouts.

"What was Marlene's bet?" I ask.

"That she wouldn't chicken out, standing while Uriah shoots at her." Lynn casually replies.

Marlene happily picks up the muffin and eats it. "Eww!" Uriah yells.

"So you enjoying Dauntless, Tris?" Lynn asks, making side conversation while the two obliviously flirt.

I shrug. "If I get in."

"Oh please Tris! You're first ranked in stage one and stage two. You're practically a Dauntless prodigy!" Marlene says with her mouth full of floor muffin.

I blush. "What'd you guys rank?" I ask, trying to get the topic off of me.

"I got first. Lynn's second, and Marlene's fourth." Uriah says, wiping a small piece of smudged chocolate off of Marlene's face, making her blush.

"You're only first by a hair." Lynn says.

Uriah continues to shoot at some targets while Marlene, Lynn, and I talk about random topics.

The door bursts open and I tense in fear of it being Eric, or even Peter, but I turn around to find Shauna, Zeke, and Four.

"I thought I heard something in here," Four says with a hint of humor in his voice.

"Turns out it's my idiot brother," Zeke carries on. "You're not supposed to be in here after hours. Careful, or Four will tell Eric, and then you'll be as good as scalped."

Uriah wrinkles his nose, and Lynn eyes Four suspiciously.

"You wouldn't tell Eric," She states it unlike a question.

"No, I wouldn't," We walk out the door, and Four rests his hand on my back, making me wince in the process. I shiver and he looks concerned for a second, but replaces his hand between my shoulder blades. I feel the electricity coursing through me.

"Wait a second." I turn to him, eyeing him curiously.

"You belong here, you know that? You belong with us. It'll be over soon, so just hold on, okay?" He looks embarrassed, and he scratches the back of his neck.

My heart rate picks up and I blush. I stare up at him, and we exchange smiles.

Be Dauntless.

I slide my hand in his. I blush in embarrassment in what I just did.

The touch of his skin sends a flow of blood, burning like acid through my veins, straight to my heart. We stay like this for a minute, then I smile at him and run after Uriah.

Did I really just do that?

Will I tell he be the first to know about Peter?

These questions flow through my brain. I walk back to the dormitory with a large smile on my face.

"What you so happy about, Tris?" Christina smiles slyly.

I smile. "Nothing. Ranks I guess," I shrug. "Probably that I beat Peter." I whisper the last part because he is currently in the same room.

"Sorry how I was acting earlier. I was a jerk. Forgive me?" Will says.

I decide to psyche him out. I put a frown on my face. "Will," I make my tone so quiet and deadly that his eyes widen. I will myself to not burst out laughing. "Do you have memory loss, because I already do." I grin.

He breathes a sigh of relief and Christina bursts into a fit of laughter.

"By the way," Christina says, "Thanks for sticking up for us, when Peter said that you would edge us out of Dauntless." She gives me a small smile. "But I know that you'd never do that!"

I give her a smile. "Thanks. And I wouldn't; the only people that's leaving Dauntless are those three," I whisper, gesturing to Peter and his minions. "I'm heading to bed." I say.

They nod and head off to their bunks. Someone turns off the light.

"Night Chrissy." I whisper.

"Night Trissy." She replies.

"Night Willy," we whisper in unison, and laugh when we hear Will groan out in annoyance.

SO SORRY ITS SHORT GAHHHH.

#JusticeforAvaLynn

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Goal: 267 favs, 335 follows, and 540 reviews! I know you guys can do it!

~TrissyPoo