The next morning, Kylie eyed her breakfast muffin suspiciously. "We had the same ones yesterday. Are you the taste of the rest of my life at Dauntless?"
"Are you getting sentimental now because you might have to endure muffins for breakfast every day?" asked Lucas with a teasing sideways glance.
Kylie shrugged her shoulders. "Haven't decided yet."
Alex snorted into her tea with a smile, letting them dominate the conversation.
Today she would have to pass her first match and so in her head, she went through all the possible options of who Eric might pair her with and how in which case she could possibly bag a clumsy-looking win after all. For now, her goal was to stay in the good midfield of the group, but would she really let the win slip away?
Alex winced inwardly as she thought again of how in earlier years leading initiates had been incapacitated in their sleep by their competition. Maybe it was best to let her competitors take the lead for the time being.
Kylie snapped Alex out of her thoughts as she stood up and tidied her tablet. Lucas and Alex followed her example and made their way to the training room, where Four was already waiting for the initiates.
Like the day before, he first led the group outside, where they had to jog around the lake. Then the initiates were to repeat the previous day's stations in the same groups.
"Hey, you're getting better," Alex said with a grin on her face directed at Lucas who had just sunk a knife into the target.
"I know!" replied Lucas with a sincere gleam in his eye.
Alex was really glad to see Lucas in a better mood today, as his good humour spread among the surrounding initiates like a fire in an arid forest.
Alex set out to retrieve her knives from the target when she instinctively jumped aside at a whoosh in the air. At the same time, a startled scream was heard behind her. Alex eyed first the knife, which was now lying on the ground a few metres in front of her, and then Carla, who was looking at Alex with her hands clasped together in front of her mouth and her eyes wide.
"Oh God, I'm so sorry - I didn't mean to - it just slipped," she stammered to herself. Her hands were shaking and her eyes were almost glazing over, so Alex picked up the knife from the floor and brought it back to Carla.
"It's all right. What is it they always say? No master has ever fallen from the sky," with a wink she put the knife back in the box to Carla's right. Carla was still looking at her with wide eyes. The moment grew longer and longer and Alex wished desperately that Carla would react. She wondered if she should just walk back to her spot, but Carla looked quite upset.
Fortunately, the decision was taken away from her when Four arrived, lured by the scream. Carla could hardly get a word out so Lucas took over the stage and described the events. Four eyed Alex briefly and then nodded at her, which she took as a dismissal and left the commotion behind.
When she arrived back at her place in front of the target, she glanced over her shoulder again at Carla, who by now had tears streaming down her cheeks. Alex's heart briefly slipped at the sight. Muffled, she could hear Carla whimpering. "I could have hurt her or even killed her," was all Alex could hear before she abruptly turned and marched off. She probably should have walked toward Carla again, but she wouldn't have found the right words anyway. So instead she made her way to the water bottles at the edge of the hall.
The black water bottle felt refreshingly cool in her hand and so, after a few sips, she pressed the cool container to her forehead and closed her eyes for a moment.
Only when she became aware of footsteps did Alex open her eyelids again and had to blink. Eric was leaning against a pillar next to her with his arms folded. Like every Dauntless member, he was dressed all in black, with heavy boots and dark jeans. His black jacket stretched slightly on his upper arms, accentuating the muscles underneath. With an unchanged expression, Alex watched as he slowly eyed her.
"Impressive reflexes," he remarked, looking at her intently.
Alex took a moment to look him over as well and then replied curtly, "Thank you."
Eric narrowed his eyes slightly before casually pushing himself off the pillar and turning back to his group.
She stared after him for a moment longer and then made her way back to her group as well. Carla had gone briefly to the toilets to calm down. Lucas began to bombard Alex with questions, but she cut him off.
"Nothing happened. Let's not make a bigger thing out of the story than it was," she forced herself to smile at him and then refocused on the target in front of her.
One by one, each knife hit its target precisely - the middle to outer area of the target. Satisfied, she collected the knives again and was about to continue when Four announced the lunch break. So she returned the knives to the table at the side and joined Kylie and Lucas on their way to the canteen.
By now Alex was pretty sure that the more nervous or depressed Lucas was, the more he talked. Alex, on the other hand, was getting calmer and more introverted at the sight of their first fight this afternoon. In the meantime, she had several ideas in her head about how she could secretly win without revealing herself as a dangerous competitor. She played them over and over in her mind until it was her turn.
"Alex and Ben," Eric's voice sounded distant. Alex's focus was solely on the ring and the boy from Abnegation, who now entered the ring unsteadily. She mimed the uncertain looks, the unsteady hands and rapid breathing and placed herself opposite him. Despite the sweaty hands and the pulsing vein above his eye, Ben looked surprisingly determined. At Eric's go, he lunged at Alex with a speed that was almost impressive. Not wanting to invite any more questions about her ability to react, she let him throw her to the floor. There she began to struggle uncoordinatedly, flailing wildly, and finally placed a punch in his stomach hoping it wouldn't look too planned. In fact, Alex's punch was precisely positioned and Ben flinched. She used this pause to free herself, only to "accidentally" jam her elbow into his face. Ben slid to the floor beside her and Alex eyed him with an acted mixture of shock and pride. Part of the surprise she actually didn't have to play. For someone with such a great fighting spirit, Ben had been knocked out surprisingly quickly.
Her eyes fell on Eric, who was eyeing her intently.
Knocked out far too quickly.
