That morning I sat on the table with my legs dangling over the edge, "Two more laps to go!" I shouted watching the initiates run laps round the training room. After we had seen them throw knives and shoot guns one more time we made them run laps around the room whilst we entered the data into the system. As usual Tris went off to enter the data, and I was left in charge of the initiates.
By the time Tris was back in the room the initiates were done with their laps and were sweating like pigs. "The next part of training consists of physical combat, you will be taught efficient fighting techniques and they will be put to the test tomorrow when you all are put in fights." I say, a couple of initiates gasp, "Who will we be fighting?" Casey asks. "Eachother… You will be fighting eachother." Tris says shaking her head. "What? You can't make us do that…" Sadie exclaims. "We can, but it wasn't up to us. It was up to a very nice man called ERIC…" I spat, his name tasted like venom coming out of my mouth; I might have to go wash my mouth out with a bar of soap.
The sound of heavy boots smacking off of the floor echo across the room, who would be in the training room now? "Thank you for the compliment, Natasha." An annoyingly familiar voice says. Eric. "Oh, I'm sorry do you not recall a year ago when I was in initiation and I told you that my name was Tasha… Hmm, maybe you are getting a bit old, it's never too late to retire and become factionless!" I sneer giving him a deadly glare. "You're teaching the initiates physical combat aren't you," Eric begins, I nod my head. "What better way to teach combat than fighting the best fighter in dauntless… Me." He grins. Tris looks over at me wearily and shakes her head. "I don't know… I'm not sure you would want to be beaten by a girl… So I'd rather not embarrass you." I shrug turning back to the group of initiates. A large hand grips my neck and it begins to squeeze it and I can slowly feel the air being pushed out of my throat. Tris looks at me with alarm, and the initiates stand still watching Eric ruin whatever reputation I had built up over the last two days. I sense that he is right behind me and with a quick motion I raise my elbow and bring it back into his chest, his grip loosens on my neck and I slip out of his grip. I spin round quickly and bounce up and down on the balls of my feet, I have to be ready for him to make the next move. He lurches forwards and his fist collides with my jaw, almost instantly I feel it begin to ache and I take a couple of steps backwards creating a bigger space between the two of us. Even from a distance Eric towered over me, I could use this to my advantage by knocking him off of his feet. He grabs my hair and drags me down onto my knees, I thrash around praying he'll let go but he keeps a firm grip on my hair. "Bastard!" I spit at him, Eric grabs my chin making me face him. "What was that?" He asks threateningly. He is distracted by the fact that he is expecting a response from me, this is exactly the distraction I need to be able to get out of this. "I said 'Bastard' you dumbass." I shout as my fist collides with his eye sending Eric sprawling backwards on the floor, giving me enough time to get back on my feet. Just as he gets up I dash forwards dodging him and kick the back of his knee violently, Eric bucks forwards onto his knees and I raise a fist and bring it to his face quicker than I am in the queue when they serve pizza in the cafeteria. Eric is down on the floor but not knocked out he grabs at my ankle and tries to knock me down, I sway a bit but I manage to shake his hand from my foot. And without hesitation I kick him in the side. "That is how you get your opponent down, you use expose their weakness. Eric is taller than me so it would make sense to get him down." I tell the initiates as I pat my hair back into place. "How," Clary begins. "How did you do that… He is taller and stronger, no offence. But just… How?" I sigh. "No offence taken, just as I said , I exposed his weakness. And he underestimated me… Which was a big mistake. I might seem small but I spend a lot of time down here training."
By lunch time the initiates had all practiced a range of punches and kicks on the boxing bags. As soon as Eric had become conscious he left, he must have been really annoyed at me. But at the end of the day I couldn't help it that I beat him in the fight. I sit in amongst all my friends in the cafeteria, but there is one person missing. Liv. "Were's Liv?" I ask Meg, she smirks tapping her finger to her nose. I think she's up to something. "What happened to your jaw?" Uriah asks, skimming his thumb across it. "Eric happened to give me some tips on teaching the initiates." I shrugged. The whole table turns to stare at me. "What happened?" Four asks. "Well," I smirk. "He thought that it would be suitable to show the initiates how to fight by actually you know… Fighting." Christina gasps, Four shakes his head and the others stare at me open mouthed. "What the fudge did Eric think he was doing… This is it, I'm going to kill him." Christina says getting up from her seat, I glance at Tris who looks like she is about to burst into laughter any second now. "Well… You can't, I already kicked his ass. Seriously. He was knocked out cold." I grin. "You did not!" Meg chuckles. "I did…!" I laugh. "Nicely done, all that training finally did come in handy." Four said smiling.
Liv is still not here… And they are serving dauntless cake today… How can she not be here? Oh well… If she isn't here that means more people are going to get cake… And by more people are going to get cake, I mean Liv won't eat all of it.
Suddenly I feel a cold sensation hit my back. I spin round and Liv stands in the doorway with a bucketful of waterballoons. Specks of colour fly through the sky and I am pelted with more and more waterballoons. "Oh… I'm gonna get you now!" I shout and grab my bowl of spaghetti and throw it at Liv, it splats all over her head and long strands of spaghetti dangle from her forehead. "Food fight!" Liv yells grabbing the nearest tray of food from a table, which happens to be a table full of initiates and she takes Mark's tray. Soon it is mid air and headed straight for me, I duck and it skims my had by centimeters. Splat! The tray splats straight into Elis'face, she has custard dripping from her nose and pieces of cake stick to her eyebrows. "LIV!" She yells standing up and flinging her bread roll at her. Soon enough the whole cafeteria is a blur of flying food and I happen to be right at the center of it! I am so distracted by pieces of flying hamburgers and doughnuts that I barely realize when someone grabs my arm dragging me to the side. "What the fuck did you do to my room?" Owen shouts at me, tightening his grip on my upper arm. "I just… re-decorated it a little." I shrugged. "A little… I got back to my apartment and it was wrecked!" He glared at me, "Not my fault you were ass in initiation, otherwise I wouldn't have had to get revenge." I sighed. "It was a year and a half ago! People change you know!" He exclaimed. "Well… I doubt you have changed, now can you get lost… I'm on my lunch break." I glared at him. "You owe me an apology." He spat. "Hell to the no!" I shouted slapping my other hand to his face, his grip loosened and I pulled away and walked back over to my friends avoiding being hit by one of the taco's I saw flying across the room.
Lunch had already finished before I could think about planning capture the flag, Tobias told me that I was in charge of it all. Oh well… I'll plan it later!
The rattles of the initiate's punching bags fill up the training room and I walk around inspecting the physical ability of each one. There is one bag spare and I look around… Everyone is here… Everyone but Casey. Ugh… Why was she so much like Sadie, she could be nice if she was friends with someone else…
I have to say I wasn't expecting Clary to be such a fighter, she of all people… Clary can hit the punching bag twice as powerful than anyone in the room, coming from amity is an immediate disadvantage, everything we are taught in dauntless is the opposite of amity but sometimes I think I to be peaceful you have to rid yourself from aggression by fighting it.
I come across the room and notice Isabelle, she is pounding the bag punch after punch but it moves only a little. She has more muscle than she did since she transferred but she still lacks the strength the dauntless born have. "There is no use trying to punch the bag. It's not working, and both of us can see that. It takes courage admitting your weakness' and courage, I think, is a part of what makes a person brave. Look, you're not weak but the strength you need isn't in your punches. It is in your knees and elbows. Try elbowing the bag." I tell her, I can see the look of disappointment flash across her black eyes but soon they are replaced with a flicker of pride from when she soon discovers that the bag is moving more when she elbows it. "Thank you." She nods her head at me. "No problem." I wink at her.
Capture the flag… I have spent all day avoiding planning it and now it's time to play I wish I had actually planned teams. 11:30… It was time. I grab my paintball gun; yes I had my own one… I was given it as a birthday present. Tris, Uriah and Four would be waiting for me by the tracks and so would eric, so it was my responsibility to round up the transfers. I jogged slowly towards the dorms and creaked open the doors, I think this was the first time all of them had been in the one place I had asked them to be. Just a couple of pulls of the trigger would get them to wake up. I aim my paintball gun at the small light bulb dangling from the ceiling, and I pull the trigger. Glass explodes and little shards are sent flying in almost every direction, initiates sit up startled to find that I have woken them. "Get up and be at the tracks in five minutes." I say. "You cant possibly expect me to do my hair in five minutes… And then I have to find an outfit, with matching shoes… This is an abomination!" A voice rings round the room. "Mark?" I ask, taking a stab in the dark, I hope it was him. "Yes…?" The same voice replied, it was him. "Stop being so vein… Anyway it's not like you have to look nice, it's not as if anyone fancies you." I sigh. Mark lets out a small gasp," You did not just say that…" I chuckle; I just completely dented his ego. "I did, deal with it!" I smile.
I was surrounded by the initiates, both transfers and dauntless born. The train rattles as it makes its way along the tracks. "Right… Teams," I begin "We are going to need two team captains-" I sigh as Eric rudely cuts me off. "The two captains shall be me, and you" He sneers pointing his fat finger in my face. "But I didn't want to be a captain-" Eric chuckles, "Why, afraid you were going to lose." By now I am angry from head to toe, "NO, I was just thinking maybe some of the other instructors wanted to lead a group… You know this is only a bit of fun… " I shoot back. "My word is final… And I will be picking the teams." Eric glares at me. "That's not bloody fair! I was meant to organize this." I scowl. "Tough…" Eric stares at me. "At least let me have pick my own team." I sigh. "No." Eric replied. "I thought dauntless rejected cowardice… Maybe you're scared that you're going to lose if I can pick my own team… A bit cowardly right… My first pick will be, Tris." I smirk as Eric glares. "You must pick an initiate." He scowls at me. "Fine, my first pick will be Clary."
By the time we are done picking teams I end up with: Clary, Casey, Mark, Izzy, Jordan and some dauntless born. Tris joins me and Uriah and Four head off to join Eric, they said it would be more fun if we were against each other.
Eric isnt on the best of terms with Tasha... And i think he may have something planned, but what? That is for me to know and you to find out. -T