Sorry this is a day late! The chapter was done long ago, I only had to edit it, but homeschooling 3 kids is kicking my ass. And it's official that school buildings will not reopen before this school year ends. If I'm late again, I haven't forgotten, I probably just had a rough week!

CHAPTER TWELVE

Tris POV

"Christina!" I hiss while shaking her shoulder with my free hand. The other is occupied holding Landon. I let go of Christina to adjust my hold on him, he's so squirmy this morning.

"Go away," she groans and Uri snickers behind me.

"Get your loudmouth ass out of bed Christina!" Uriah shouts. "Or else you'll have to meet at the tracks with bedhead and no makeup!"

Christina shoots upright. "I'm up, I'm up! Jeez, Uriah!" she shrieks and Uriah and I laugh.

"Get dressed, pansycake," I laugh. "I'll get these monsters to daycare. Uriah, would you please grab muffins for Christina and me for breakfast? We'll all meet at the tracks in twenty."

"Yes!" Uriah shouts, startling Adeline so she starts crying. Uriah points a finger at me, not reacting to the baby's screaming. "I told you I'd bring 'pansycake' back! You just used it!"

I groan as I take Miss Cranky-Pants, aka Adeline, in my free arm and head to the daycare. The goodbye is tearful on Adeline's part while Landon is cheerful as ever greeting his teachers. When I finally pry myself away from my daughter, I have to sprint to the tracks.

I can already hear the train approaching when I reach the group of initiates. Uriah tosses me a plastic-wrapped chocolate muffin. I catch it with one hand then shove it into my pocket.

"Cutting it close, initiate!" Tobias shouts as he begins to jog alongside the train.

Tobias jumps on and I quickly follow. "Your daughter is rather demanding," I say quickly as I pass him, intentionally brushing my hand against his just as Uriah swings through the door.

Tobias looks at me apologetically as more initiates pile in. I know he feels badly that he can't help me more. Soon, when initiation is over, things will be different. Better.

The cliques sit together, as usual. Peter, Molly and Drew huddle together in the far corner with Edward and Myra making out a few feet away. I sit a few yards away from them with Uriah, Christina, Will and Al.

Uriah stretches with a yawn that turns into a groan. He had to fight Peter yesterday. Uriah won, but he didn't come out unscathed. "Feeling a little… Stiff?" Peter shoots at Uriah, snickering, and his friends laugh along as if he just made the most clever joke they ever heard. When Molly laughs, she sounds like an animal in the Amity farms, and Drew's laugh is silent; I can only tell he's laughing by the way his body shakes, but he looks like he could just as easily be crying.

"Did you think we missed the way you hobbled over here, Peter?" I retort. "You looked like the stiff one. You and Molly, both beaten by former Abnegations in your first fight, I'm surprised you wanted to remind everyone."

"Oh, don't worry, Stiff, that won't happen again," Peter sneers. "You and your little boyfriend caught us by surprise yesterday, but that was a one-time thing."

Uriah rolls his eyes. "First of all — boyfriend? Gross, she's my sister. You may be into that sort of thing, but we're not." Peter scowls. "And second… I can see why you didn't choose Erudite, because you must be pretty stupid. It's not the first time I've beaten you in a fight."

"Enough!" Tobias shouts from his spot by the door of the train car. "Am I going to have to listen to you bicker all the way to the fence?"

Peter glowers and looks away, defeated. He and his minions huddle together, whispering. It makes me a little nervous, since Peter has proved more than once that he won't hesitate to attack someone when they aren't ready for it, but I ignore them. Or pretend to, at least.

My friends are chatting with one another but I'm not really listening. I am too busy watching Tobias. I've found that this happens frequently — I'm always tuning out everything going on around me, too busy checking out my sexy boyfriend.

On his rare visits over the past few months, I witnessed the ways Tobias had changed from our childhoods in Abnegation, but I am still awestruck when I look at him. In Abnegation we had trained frequently, but he was still pretty scrawny. Not only was he underfed by his bastard of a father, but Marcus's punishments often left him too injured to train with the rest of us. But here, now that he has been in Dauntless for a year… wow. No more baggy Abnegation clothes; his Dauntless black is always fitted, hugging his defined muscles in just the right way. His hair is still short by Dauntless standards, but much longer than it was in Abnegation. Every time I notice it I just want to run my fingers through his soft, dark curls.

Right now, those curls are blowing around in the wind created by the train's speed. Tobias stands at the train car door, his toes hanging over the edge. Both hands grip the sides of the doorway, arms stretched wide, and he leans forward, just a bit out of the car.

I don't realize I have completely zoned out and been staring at him until Christina says in my ear, "He may be scary, but there's no denying that he is smoking hot, right?" My cheeks and ears immediately heat up; she caught me staring. It's not all embarrassment; I push down my impulse to tell her to back the hell off, because he is mine. I hate having to hide what he is to me.

So I just nod. Christina laughs at my red cheeks. "Still a Stiff, aren't you, Tris?" she giggles.

I glare. "I'm pretty sure there are two little babies in the daycare that prove I'm not, thank you very much," I retort. Then I blush harder, feeling like I practically just agreed with all the people who have taunted me, calling me the "Slutty Stiff." It's like I can't win — I'm either frigid, or I'm a slut. Can't there be an in-between? There must be, right? I'm Dauntless now, after all. I wonder if I will ever be able to fully set aside the Abnegation principles I was raised to live out, and, more importantly, the baggage that comes with it. I sigh heavily.

"Speaking of that," Christina says, drawing out her words. "You still haven't told me anything about how that happened."

I raise an eyebrow. "I guess you weren't paying much attention in health class, Christina? Are you looking for a tutorial?" I tease.

"Shut up!" Christina laughs. "You know what I mean! Spill! I want all the dirty details." I laugh nervously. Tobias glances back at us, and Uriah looks uncomfortable. There's my out, at least for now.

"Not a conversation I want to have with my brother three feet away, Chris." My eyes dart to Tobias for a fraction of a second. "If at all," I add.

"Aw, come on!" Christina whines. I roll my eyes and shake my head, and she huffs, knowing she has lost. "You'll tell me eventually. I will get it out of you," Christina smirks.

-oOo-

The visit to the fence is quite uneventful, though I did briefly see Robert, my former neighbor from Abnegation. I was too anxious about trusting my babies with Shauna, still a stranger to me at the time, to watch the rest of the ceremony after I chose. I had not even realized that Robert had chosen Amity until I saw him hop off that truck today. He spoke with Uriah and me and was polite and friendly, as always. He asked about the twins, and waved at Tobias, who didn't respond at all.

And thanks to that awkward hug that Robert gave me, Tobias has been pouting the whole train ride back to Dauntless. Uriah whispered to me not to worry, that Tobias will get over it. I am sure he will, but I still don't like feeling as though I did something to upset him. There has never been anything between Robert Black and me and I would never betray Tobias. Robert was only giving me the usual Amity greeting, as he has been learning in his initiation into Amity.

Tobias's scowl distracts me as I prepare to jump when we arrive back at the Dauntless compound. I guess that is why I am not staying nearer to Uriah and my friends, and why I am not paying attention to my surroundings as Tobias jumps out of the train and I start to position myself to follow. I feel a shove from behind me and stumble forward, dangerously close to the open door of the train car. I scramble to regain my balance, and just when I know I will be successful, a foot catches my ankle. This time, there is no floor left for me to step on, there will be no catching myself.

I scream as I fall, flail as I scramble to find a position that will allow me to roll when I hit the ground. I fail. The heel of my left palm slams hard into the ground just before I belly flop onto the hard asphalt. I barely have time to register the intense jolt of pain shooting up my arm before the wind is forcefully knocked out of me. I can't breathe, my need to suck in air is all I can think about because I simply cannot do it. It's like my chest is paralyzed.

After a moment my lungs begin to expand again. I am so grateful for the feeling of air coming into my lungs, but it is short lived; I am overcome by an excruciating pain in my chest as I breathe in.

The ground vibrates beneath me each time Tobias's boots thud against the asphalt as he runs toward me. My eyes are squeezed shut from the pain radiating through my arm and chest in waves, but I know it's him, and I know he's right there when his hand touches my cheek. "Beatrice?! Tris — are you alright? Look at me, baby," he says frantically, the last part just a whisper as I hear more footsteps pounding toward me.

I take a few shallow breaths before answering, and by the time I do there's a smaller, lighter hand on my back and Tobias is no longer touching me. "Y-yeah," I say shakily. "No — yes — I don't know, it really hurts."

"Where does it hurt?" I hear Uriah ask as he sets a hand lightly on my back.

"Arm and ribs," I grit out.

"What the hell happened?!" Tobias shouts, and I just keep focusing on breathing in and out, still shallow.

Christina speaks up. "Molly pushed her. She had almost caught her balance then Peter tripped her right out of the train car!" she fumes. "Those three" I assume she means Peter, Drew and Molly "were blocking us and we couldn't reach her." I open my eyes and look at Tobias; his fists are clenched and his face is red. It is clear that he is furious.

"Uriah!" Tobias barks. "Get her to the infirmary. I need to speak to Max."