When I return to the dormitory, everyone is just getting up or has left. I open my trunk and take out another pair of black clothes. Peter is sitting at his bed, loosening the shoelaces of his shoes, glancing at my bed every now and then.

I keep my eyes on him as I go into the bathroom. Fortunately, the padding greatly reduced the severity of the punches, though my knuckles look red and have the imprint of the foam bands. I shower just enough to get the sweat off, and I am just slipping my legs into my pants when I think I hear some shouting and a clatter on the floor.

"Dammit, Eaton, what's your problem?" I hear Peter yell as my heart pounds in my throat.

"My problem? What is yours, Hayes?" Nomi retorts as I pull my tank top over my head and rush out of the bathroom. Stopping when I see Peter and Nomi a few meters away from each other. I notice what looks like a can of red spray paint next to their feet as Peter advances toward her.

He's a good half-foot taller than Nomi, but that doesn't stop Nomi from pushing Peter back with her palm.

"What's going on?" I demand as I see Ally come through the doorway of the dormitory. As if she wanted to know what was holding us up.

Peter turns towards me. "Ah, just your fellow Stiff not taking a joke."

"Yeah, spray painting her bed would be a cruel one," Nomi retorts. "You're just lucky that I thought to turn back. Otherwise, you'd make the mistake of doing the same to mine."

"Oh, I like to see you try," Peter goads. His green eyes lit in amusement. "To try to take me on."

"Fuck off, Peter!" Ally demands. "Read the damn room, you tactless Candor trashmouth. Most of the Dauntless born would be disgusted with what you were going to pull. Most of them didn't find you funny last night when you said Tris and Nomi would be factionless!"

"Please, even if both are cut, at least Eaton seems to have a spine and has the guts to want to take me on." Peter points to me. "She's just letting you fight her battles instead of standing up for herself." He turns to me. "Go on, Prior! Step up and stop being a lousy coward."

The blood reaches my face as I force a glare at him. I could do it, stand my ground and assert myself. Then there is the feeling that Peter is trying to get a reaction out of me. That this is what he wants. To start an altercation and lay the blame on me. That's what Christina said about him when we hung out with the Dauntless-born yesterday. That back in Candor, as a young boy, he would instigate fights and later lie about who started them.

I just shake my head and walk towards the door where Al is waiting.

"Keep it, Hayes," I hear Ally say as I walk out of the dorm with Al. "She just doesn't want to entertain your bullshit. That has nothing to do with cowardice."

"Ignore him," Al says. "He's an idiot. He'll stop eventually."

"Yeah, it's easy for you to say," I reply. "He's not poking at you."

"Are you, um…ready for today?" Al asks, "because yesterday, you did not fight."

I shrug. "I might not win, but I think I'd manage better today than if I did yesterday."

That's not exactly a lie. Since we're going to be with the punching bags this morning and my session with Eric before then, I might have a slightly better leg to stand on.

"If you don't win, well, I might not win either," said Al. "Not after I put Will in the infirmary yesterday."

I clear my throat. "One of you had to get knocked out, you know. If it hadn't been him, it would have been you."

"Still, I don't want to do it again." Al shakes his head too many times, too fast. "I really don't."

I wonder if Al really did receive Dauntless on his aptitude test. He would have fit in well with the Amity.

"That would be giving people a doorway to walk all over you, Al," Ally tells him as we reach the training room. "You have to assert yourself before you give them that chance, even if you don't like it."

Four gives us a refresher of what he told us the first time we were in here, only telling us, "Try not to exert yourselves, otherwise, you wouldn't have the energy for this afternoon."

I try to heed it, but whenever I punch, I fantasize that it's Peter I'm beating up.

Think about what makes you angry. That might help.

The anger fuels the force of my punches, and the bag sways almost violently as a result. Before I could kick the bag, I felt a hand on my shoulder and see that it was Four.

"You need to take it easy," he says. "Remember what I said earlier: Keep your tension in your abdomen."

"I am," I pant before proceeding to kick and punch the bag with strong force.

I feel him stand by as I continue pummeling the bag before he leaves my side.

My fists are red, with two of my knuckles split as we leave for lunch.

Lunch passed by with no incident, and when it was time to go back to the training room, my stomach ties itself into a knot. I didn't have to fight yesterday, but today I definitely will. Just my luck, Eric might pair me with Peter just to see what I could do with the things I learned.

Not that I argue, I'd be happy to take him on this afternoon. To show him that I am not a coward he can walk on. Even if I can't walk right for days afterward.

Scanning the list from the bottom up, I see that, no, I'm not with Peter. He's paired with Ally.

Edward's and my name are on the top row.

"Good luck with that," says Will. "He read self-defense books since he was ten for fun."

"That's encouraging," I say with sarcasm. Edward is nearly the same height as Peter, but he seems faster when he fights than Peter. Yesterday, he beat Tony in three minutes, who's walking today with a noticeable limp. Though the two are conversing and laughing as if nothing happened.

I haven't spoken so much a word to Edward. Though he hasn't made it his goal to try to make my life miserable like Peter and his crew. Edward is one of Nomi's friends, so I shouldn't be too worried.

I look at Peter and see that he's shaking his head about the matchups. As if he's not happy with who his opponent is. "Very funny, Molly," I hear him tell her.

"Alright, may the first pair step onto the ring," Eric announces. "We haven't got all day."

"Good luck," says Christina as I take a deep breath.

"Thanks," I say. I go up to the platform to meet Edward. Judging by his physique, it's like he didn't just spend the first part of his life behind a computer or a book. His muscles indicate that he probably practiced self-defense. Will did say that Edward did read books on fighting techniques. Ally did mention that some of them practiced fighting moves in secret.

And he did win yesterday's fight. Which gives him a little more of an advantage.

As I get in position, I look over Edward's shoulder to see Four standing by the door with his arms folded. Though I see his eyes turn to Eric, who seems to be watching us intently. As if I need that.

We both circle, our legs bent. I spread my arms apart like what both Eric and Ally told me. Edward was positioning himself the same way as I was.

After a few seconds of circling, I try throwing a punch at his jaw. He blocks it, and before I can shield my face, he punches me in the eye. I hold my palm to my eye, and like Will, I hold out my elbow to block another punch. I stumble backwards from the force of the punch, but it doesn't hurt like he would have had he punched my nose.

"Don't go easy on the Stiff!" I hear Peter jeer.

"Can you shut that stupid mouth of yours?" I hear Vi shout. "You're not in Candor anymore, you know."

I noticed that everyone was watching us. Christina, Will, Al, Nomi, Ally, Tony, Vi, and Myra are huddled together. Some of their arms are folded as they gaze at us in apprehension. Myra looks pale, almost as if she's worried about the outcome of this match. Likewise with Christina. Drew, Molly, and Peter are looking as if they are watching something amusing. I don't want to know the meaning of the glint in Eric's eyes either as he watches us.

I block another punch with my elbow and but he's too fast to react when I try aiming at his jaw. I try to kick his side, but before I can, he flips me. My back hits the floor. I hook one of my feet around his legs and yank him to the floor.

I get up my feet before he does, and we circle again. I try throwing a punch, but he blocks it, and I'm not as fast as he is when it comes to deflecting punches when he punches me in the nose.

I don't know how many minutes it's been, though I do know that he's punched and kicked me more than I have kicked and punched him. Feeling halfway conscious, my nose dripping with blood and my body throbbing with pain, I manage to get on my feet.

I try throwing a punch, but he blocks it with his elbow and sends a punch to my abdomen before I can even react. I fall to the platform and try to get on my knees, but I drop to the surface of the platform.

"Get her up," I hear Eric say. He doesn't sound pleased, but he does not sound angry or eager. Perhaps that would be a good thing if I didn't know any better. I feel Edward's arm around my shoulders, and he drags me from the platform.

"Next up – Al and Drew!" I hear Eric shout. Once I'm off the platform, I feel someone else support me from my waist and lead me out of the room. I expect to see Four, only to see that it's Eric instead. It's rather uncomfortable to have him touch me, and worse, I don't know why he feels it's his obligation to take me to the infirmary. Four begins to outstretch his arms as if he wants to take me from Eric but seems to have changed his mind, stepping back. Almost as if Eric glared at him and silently dared him to.

I feel uneasy when we walk by the chasm, but he keeps walking until we reach the infirmary. When I'm placed on a mattress, I allow my eyes to close.

"What happened to your face?" I say to Christina when my friends meet me in the infirmary. Ally looks just as bruised, if not a bit worse, as one of her eyes looks swelled shut. Then again, she had Peter.

Christina laughs. "And you look just as bad."

"I can't believe you couldn't beat Will," Al says, shaking his head.

"What? He's good," she says, shrugging. "Plus, I think I've finally learned how to stop losing. I just need to stop people from punching me in the jaw."

"You know, you'd think you would have figured that out already." Will winks at her. "Now I know why you aren't Erudite. Not too bright, are you?"

"You don't have to be a genius or at least to be high average to be bright, Will," Ally tells him.

"You feeling okay, Tris?" Al says. His eyes are dark brown, almost the same color as Christina's skin. His cheek looks rough like if he didn't shave it, he would have a thick beard. Hard to believe he's only sixteen.

"Yeah," I say. "It could have been worse. I could have been paired with Peter."

"Don't worry. Peter is going get brought down a peg by Edward before or after you get paired with him," Will says.

"He will," Ally pitches in. "Edward's the best fighter in the class so far."

"Good," says Christina. She checks her watch. "We're missing dinner. Are you sure you're up to going to the mess hall with us?"

I nod. "I'm fine. Go ahead. I'll catch up later."

Christina, Ally, and Will get up, but Al waves them ahead. He has a distinct smell—sweet and fresh, like sage and lemongrass. When he tosses and turns at night, I get a whiff of it, and I know he's having a nightmare.

"I just wanted to tell you that you missed Eric's announcement. We're going on a field trip tomorrow, to the fence, to learn about Dauntless jobs," he says. "Then we're going up to the Pire to fill out some forms. We have to be at the train by eight-fifteen."

"Good," I say. "Thanks. Al, are you okay?" I say. He stares blankly at me, and I add, "I mean, is it getting any easier?"

"Uh…" He shrugs. "A little."

My question must have embarrassed him, because I've never seen him so red before. If I spent my nights sobbing into my pillow, I would be a little embarrassed too. At least when I cry, I know how to hide it.

"I lost to Drew. After your fight with Edward." He looks at me. "I took a few hits, fell down, and stayed there. Even though I didn't have to. I figure…I figure that since I beat Will, if I lose all the rest, I won't be ranked last, but I won't have to hurt anyone anymore."

"Is that really what you want?"

He looks down. "I just can't do it. Maybe that means I'm a coward."

"You're not a coward just because you don't want to hurt people," I say, because I know it's the right thing to say, even if I'm not sure I mean it. "Come on, let's catch up with our friends."

"Peter seemed like he was holding himself back, but probably because I think he likes me rather than the fact that he was fighting a girl." Ally shrugs as she opened her bottle of apple juice. "I told him there was nothing to be afraid of, and….well…."

"It seemed like you were holding back," Christina noted.

"You got to preserve one's ego once in a while," Ally maintains. "I figured he be less of a problem if I let him win."

Even if I see her point, I don't see why I would allow Peter to win if the two of us were paired. I'd try to beat him whether it ended with him winning or not.

"How are you holding up, Stiff?" I hear Molly jeer behind me. I didn't need to turn to see if Peter and his friends were behind me but they are. "Nice makeup, by the way."

The heat reaches my face as Peter says, "Could have been worse if she was more pathetic. A little better than I thought, but it doesn't mean anything." Then he turns to Ally. "How are you doing, Ally?" he asks, only he dropped that snideness he had earlier. "Want me to give you a ice pack for that eye?"

Drew laughs but stops when Peter slaps the back of his head. "That's not meant to be funny." Molly gives Peter a side eye. If I didn't know any better, I wouldn't have realized that it was jealousy she seemed to be displaying.

I don't know why she'd be threatened by Ally if she and Peter seemed to be two peas in a pod.

"I'd be better if you and your lackeys leave," Ally answered.

Peter just shrugs. "Whatever." Then he pats my head like an adult would do to a child that was five. "Let's see what happens if the two of us get paired. Who knows, you might be a little better than today, but don't try your luck. You'll still wind up in the infirmary."

"Tactless Candors," Ally mutters under her breath as the three move on. "He better be careful what he wishes for, because it just might so happen that you'd hand his ass to him."

"Why is it always Candor that produces most of the bullies?" Marlene mentions, shaking her head.

"We had to say what was always on our mind, even if it was hurtful," said Christina. "I could see why you'd think that."

I am half listening to Uriah recounting how a fighting match went when I just so happened to turn towards the tray return to see Nomi dumping the contents of her tray into the garbage.

"Guys, I'll be right back." I don't know what drove me to do this. Nomi and I rarely spoke to each other during initiation and we barely knew each other in Abnegation before that. Maybe it's to not to think about anything outside of the sessions of training today.

Edward spots me before I manage to speak. "How are you, Tris?" he asks me. No trace of malice. Just wants to see how I'm doing after our fight, it sounds like.

"Still sore but managing," I tell him. I bite my lip before asking, "Um, Nomi, mind if I talk to you for a moment?"

Nomi raises her eyebrow, as if she didn't know what to think of my question before nodding. "Sure." She turns to Edward, Tony, Vi, and Myra, who are no doubt having questions of their own. I can still feel them gazing after us as we leave the mess hall.

"I…" I bite my lip, wondering what to say. "I want to thank you for this morning."

"I wasn't about to let Peter to get a chance to poke at us." Nomi snorts. "Part of me hopes to fight him so he…you know."

There's that part of me that thinks that even if Peter has it handed to him by one of us, he'd still poke at us. Only out of his own pride because an Abnegation dared to beat him in a fight.

Then I notice something about the way Nomi says it. The gleam in her pale gray eyes as she looks at the chasm ahead. Almost as if someone had hurt her in the past and she wants a taste of that power after years of being kicked around. My mind wanders to the Erudite report accusing Marcus Eaton of cruelty. What if there is a possibility that it's not a lie as father insisted it was, even to a degree?

"Your brother is here," I say. "Have you got a chance to speak with him since we got here?"

Nomi shrugs. "A little but not much. He's been busy for the few past few days. Even if you met him, I doubt he let it slip who he was or where he was from."

Even if you met him.

When I asked Four if he was a transfer after he revealed Eric's former Erudite status, he seemed to not want to answer the question. Almost as if he was afraid what we'd do with the information.

What I'd do with the information.

There is no fighting today, though I still wake up around five to get ready for that dreaded private training session. Traveling through the corridors, I hope that he would actually not show up at the training room; that he would have better things to do.

Like I want to see him after I lost my fight yesterday.

Though most likely, that thought is in vain. When I enter the training room, I see that Eric is already there. He's already holding the leather straps that will be used to pad our knuckles to make the injuries less severe.

"You didn't hold up too bad yesterday, though you still could have done better. One thing we need to work on is your reaction time when it comes to threats from an opponent," he says. "Also, let's see if you can catch me off guard this time."

It will be difficult, and in the first few minutes, it's difficult to take him by surprise. However, overtime, I begin to quickly deflect his punches, though I doubt that my reaction time is not up to the desired pace.

"You're improving, but it was more like a dance of blocking punches," he tells me when we're done. "You got to work on determining which moves your opponents might make, that way you can make the first move on them."

"I might be cut before that time," I tell him. "I lost yesterday."

"I wouldn't be so sure. Not with your pace."

As if people are not going to notice my sudden increase of skill, I want to say. Eric told me what story to give if people ask questions. I doubt they think I was lying when he hovers over us like a ravenous lion during our training sessions.

I take a deep breath after sitting down. "What faction was Four from?" I ask. It comes out of nowhere. Due to the animosity the two share, perhaps Eric wouldn't be hesitant to tell me just like Four wasn't when telling us about Eric's faction of origin.

"He was a Stiff just like you," he answers without a beat. "His gray clothes were practically swallowing him up when we entered the Dauntless compound. Why do you ask?"

That narrows it down then. Four could only be one person when the last Abnegation transfer to Dauntless before Nomi and I was Tobias Eaton from two years ago. "I asked him if he was also a transfer after he said you transferred from Erudite," I answer. "He said something how he didn't expect to deal with a Stiff asking too many questions like the Candor."

Eric's microdermals fold into his skin as he raises a brow.

Never met a curious Abnegation before, Tori's words repeat in my mind, and I am certain he is probably thinking the same thing.

Then he just shrugs. "Typical," he answers. "He practically shed everything relating to his old life when he first stepped in here. Just dance around the idea who he was, and he go on the defensive. His sister only took the 'a' from her name when she got here a few days ago."

"But you'd have to know his name at the first week," I asked. It took me a couple days to know the names of my fellow transfers. So the same should have been said for Four and Eric's class. Unless they had a different instructor. Who did things a little differently.

Eric pauses before he answers, "Technically, you are not supposed to know the truth of mental aspect of stage three until you're cleared to stay after combat training, but I'll tell you right now. Our transfer instructor thought it was a good idea to put us in our Fear Landscapes right when we got here, as he said, to better prepare us for initiation. A Fear Landscape is a simulation where you'll have to navigate all your fears, only moving on to the next one when you resolved them or lowered your heart rate."

I swallow. The sweat collecting on the back of my neck as I think back to the aptitude test. How one decision led to the next choice. I thought I'd have enough of simulations after that, but to hear that I might go through another. Not one with choices but my fears….

"I went first. You could say that the way I handled my fears scared people," he continued, smirking as if the thought alone satisfied him. "Only I navigated the best way I knew. Tobias Eaton went last and finished his faster than the rest of us. Our instructor was so impressed with him that he gave him a moniker based on his number of fears."

That's where he got his name then. Four, after four fears.

"How many fears did you have?" I ask before stopping myself. Oh, that went too far.

His eyes hardening in response lets me know that I went too far as well. "I see that you are too curious for your own good, Stiff," he says. "This concludes this morning's session. I don't think you want to be late for today's field trip."

With that, he turns his heel and leaves.