Chapter 4

Hi again guys! I am sooooo sorry that I haven't posted for so long. I got caught up working and then I went on holiday to Edinburgh; it was absolutely awesome! I went to Edinburgh Dungeons and this really cool ghost tour. Anyway, back to the fanfic: this chapter is pretty long and has a bit of Petris in it because someone (not mentioning any names) may have doubted it being a Petris fanfic so in this chapter, Eric and Four are going to back off a little bit and give Tris some space. I hope that you like this chapter and credits to some of my reviewers are going to be given out next chapter so if you want your name credited, please review!

Disclaimer: / I do not own any of these characters or plot; all of this belongs to Veronica Roth

Previously

"Since when do you care about my health anyway? I'm just a weak girl from abnegation. Most people would be glad if I died." She said hastily. For once, Eric didn't know how to answer her back in a clever way; he gritted his teeth and flashed his eyes at her.

"Don't you ever say that; no one would be glad if you died." He said in the end angrily. Tris looked back at the door.

"You still haven't answered my question yet." She muttered and with that entered the dining room.

It was breakfast time and all the dauntless had already been allocated to their seats and we're eating single pieces of toast. This reminded Tris of home; there was no margarine, however, given out. Christina looked up from her daydream. Her black hair was covering her face, strands of it seeping in her eyes but from a distance, Tris could see they were grey and tired. Eric was still behind her, wordless as Tris casually walked down to the last seat remaining.

Quite a lot of the dauntless were now staring at Tris but she swiftly brushed past the glares and sat down. Unfortunately, she was sitting in the middle of Molly and Edward with whom she had encountered some awkward pleasantries in the past.

This was one awkward conversation she and Edward had had the day the rankings were announced:

"Hey, listen Stiff, if you think that being higher than me in the leader board is okay, then you're wrong. I may be third but I can still beat the shit out of you with my eyes closed so you better watch out."

This was one awkward conversation she and Molly had had the second day of initiation:

"I can't believe you can just flounce around and think that just because you're pretty, you can get anything you want. Well guess what, princess, abnegations don't pass for dauntless material so no matter how much you bat your pretty eyelashes, you're not getting anywhere!"

Molly wasn't ugly in Tris' opinion. She had dark brown hair up to her chin with a too long fringe, large brown eyes, short eyelashes and to go with that, a short temper. She was larger than Tris, much larger, but then again, Tris was the smallest initiate in the group.

As Tris sat down, both Molly and Edward said nothing and munched on their toast in complete silence. Tris cleared her throat and nibbled on the crust of her own toast. Edward gave her a side wards glance, his dark hair not being able to cover his dirty expression. Tris looked over and gave him a smile that said: "what you lookin' at?" He quickly swivelled back his eyes to his empty plate in astonishment. Tris looked at his hands; they were skin and bones.

"Here, have my toast, I'm not really hungry." She offered to Edward and he gladly accepted, nodding appreciative way at Tris. For now, she was good with Edward. When breakfast was over, Tris stood up, brushing her already worn-out trousers with her hand and then walking over to some dauntless born girls who were whispering to each other and giggling. One of them had light auburn hair tied up in a high pony but was facing away from Tris whereas the other was facing her way and had golden brown eyes with her hair short and spiky like a boy. She was laughing at the other girl's remark, her head bobbing up and down.

Tris approached them nervously and stood next to the one whose face she couldn't see. She coughed quietly to get their attention and the girl turned around, her auburn hair whipping around the free space. She had green-brown eyes that would have been beautiful but they were encased in a sort of hollowness as if something she had needed was lost. However, a smile stretched onto her thin lips as she saw Tris and she held out her hand.

"Hey, you must be Tris. I'm Marlene and this is Lynn." She gestured over to the short-haired girl who was frowning at Tris in an unfriendly manner. Tris gulped as she shook Marlene's hand, still looking at scary Lynn.

"It's nice to meet you; I'm trying to make a few more friends outside my group because most of them are boys so I can't really rely on gossip and girl conversing over there." Tris joked, smiling her most generous smile at Lynn. She didn't react unfortunately but Marlene started giggling and clapping her hands.

"That's great, we need a few more girlfriends anyway, right Lynn?" Lynn grunted in response. "We're having a girly sleepover today in the abandoned dauntless training room and we were actually hoping to get some more girls in so maybe you could invite your friend over there?" she pointed at Christina who was still talking to Will. Tris nodded eagerly.

"Yes, that would be great!" she answered at Marlene who was jumping and squealing.

"Also, we're inviting every dauntless initiate to a truth or dare party before the sleepover so get some word around. We'll play for a bit and then leave for the sleepover." She said in a low voice so that the approaching Four couldn't hear. Tris felt a lump come up her throat. Truth or dare in abnegation was asking polite questions and easy dares that you didn't have to do if you didn't want to. Tris knew that dauntless truth or dare meant embarrassing questions, alcohol drinking, hard dares that you have to do if you don't want to be stripped from a piece of clothing and of course, kissing…

"I'll, um, spread the word." Tris muttered out before flashing her last smile and flouncing off to Christina who was practically leaning on Will. Al turned around, pulling on a flirty smile and Tris rolled her eyes.

"Hey guys, there's going to be a truth or dare gathering after training and everyone' s coming so be there, okay?" she looked at the baffled two boys who were now looking strangely at each other.

"Tris, you do know that dauntless truth or dare is pretty rough, right?" Will said uneasily. Tris nodded and looked at Christina.

"Lynn and Marlene have also invited both of us to a girly sleepover after that, you are coming, right?" Tris said hopefully. She didn't know any of the dauntless born girls so she needed a familiar face to back her up. Lynn and Marlene wasn't enough; especially when Tris was a shy person. Christina sighed and looked down at Tris who was now pouting.

"Yeah, okay, I guess making a few more friends that are girls wouldn't hurt." She said in a sure voice and Tris let out a whoop of joy. Will and Al laughed and all four of them went off to get changed for training.

The room was already full with people getting changed next to their beds, in bathrooms, underneath pieces of furniture even. Tris grabbed a too big black T-shirt and put it on followed by some baggy black trousers that were surprisingly a perfect fit. She retied her pony and sat on the bed, waiting for Christina who was spending too much time on her hair.

"Hey, are you going to that truth or dare gathering?" a voice came from the corner of her bed. She looked up and saw Peter. Her lips parted but she stayed sat on the bed. He was wearing similar clothes to hers, his hair messy but cute on him.

"Yeah, but I'm a little worried about it." She shrugged, prepared to be laughed at but instead, Peter sat next to her and began to speak.

"Well, it includes alcohol that's passed along the circle, most of the dares are to kiss someone else who is part of the circle, the truths are all really rude and mostly about sex and if you forfeit a dare, you need to take off a piece of your clothing; preferably your top, not a sock." Peter said, looking directly at Tris. He didn't look worried but she saw he had a small fear lit in his eyes that made her want to not go.

"Um, I don't think I want to go anymore…" she said in a shaky voice. Peter chuckled and held out his hand.

"I'll go if you'll go, deal?" he asked. Tris thought about it but fought against being a coward; how hard can a stupid game be?

"Deal." She said, shaking Peter's hand firmly. For once, he wasn't being a total douchebag.

Tris finally saw Christina's bored face amongst the initiates and ran over to her. She was wearing a tight, black tank top with baggy trousers with her hair spilling into her eyes. Christina always regretted it being short as to not being able to tie it.

"Third to last day of training mentally; then we go onto facing our fears apparently." She said in a stress-free voice. Tris looked up from her wandering gaze in silence and gawped at Christina.

"What do you mean: facing our worst fears, Chris?" she said in a wobbly voice. She had many fears that she did not particularly want to overcome. After all, there was no such thing as becoming fearless. Tris had some smaller fears as well as big fears. She was scared of spiders, retarded chickens, duck pencil cases (don't ask), old-fashioned mirrors and karaoke parties including high definition microphones. She zoned back into Christina's talking after some terrifying thoughts.

"… and after you do the final test, which Jeanine will be watching, you get determined if you are dauntless worthy." Tris only managed to hear the last part of her explanation and froze in horror. What if her fear of duck pencil cases came on screen; what would Jeanine Mathews think of her then?

"I don't feel too good." She whispered in a raspy voice after imagining Jeanine's face after watching the screen where she was running away from a chicken or screaming down a karaoke microphone. A shudder came to her spine. Christina giggled and punched Tris on the shoulder jokily.

"C'mon, don't worry about it; we need to go." She dragged Tris out of the room, still laughing and they both made their way into the training room that was already full of dauntless. Tris spotted Marlene and Lynn in the corner of the room, talking to three boys and another girl. She decided to introduce Christina to them so took the lead, Christina slowly following behind her.

The group paused as Marlene looked down at Tris and smiled. Her hair was now down and in well-brushed beach waves; she looked like a tall fashion model. Tris grinned back and stepped to the side to reveal a shy Christina who was nervously playing with her hair.

"Hi, Marlene, this is Christina, Chris, this is Marlene." Tris said cheerfully and Marlene stepped forward confidently to shake Christina's hand. She then looked back at Tris and to the remains of the group.

"Well, you've already met Lynn but this is her sister Shauna and her brother Hector." She said in a sweet voice. Shauna looked just like Lynn but had a thin face, long hair twisted into a braid and hazel eyes; she also looked much friendlier. Hector looked identical to Shauna but with shorter hair and was much taller. Tris nodded at them both kindly.

"It's nice to meet you, Tris and Christina." Shauna chirped and Tris' grin widened but then shrunk back as Lynn scowled at her. Then her eyes swivelled over to the remaining two boys who were still standing behind Marlene and chatting about who knows what. Marlene cleared her throat at the boys loudly and they stopped.

"These are Zeke and Uriah. They're brothers if you couldn't tell." Both boys smirked and posed in a humorous way. They had Asian features and the same hairstyles but one was older and had muscle whilst the other one was skinny and smaller.

"It's nice to meet you Zeke and Uriah." Tris said in the kindest voice she could and they grinned back at her as if she were their little sister. The group stood awkwardly for a while but then the moment was finally broken when Will, Al and Peter shouted at them to come over. Tris sighed in relief and gave a little wave at the group before walking to the three boys who were unfortunately accompanied by Molly and Drew. Christina skipped over behind Tris and they both leaned into the group.

Time skip Time skip Time skip Time skip Time skip Time skip Time skip Time skip Time skip

Tris screamed in frustration as she punched the last punching bag. Finally training was over but unfortunately, truth or dare was next. She looked at her bleeding knuckles and sighed wearily. Her hands were still weak and soft. Most of the initiates were already beginning to change and "go to bed" (preparing for truth or dare more like) but Christina was still sitting huddled up on the fighting mat, waiting for Tris to finish at last. She got up impatiently and nudged Tris who was about to throw in another punch for good luck.

"Come on, we're gonna be late." Her voice strained Tris' ears and she stepped away from the punch bag that was still waving around from her last punch; she was getting better at this. Christina clapped her hands in delight like she always did and ran out of the training room, clenching Tris' wrist. Tris screamed and tried to keep up with Christina who was speeding up like never before.

"We need to look fabulous!" she giggled in an annoying way and Tris rolled her eyes; she had begun to do this and it was becoming a bit of a habit; especially around Christina! They entered the buzzing room only to see the first time that the boys were spraying deodorant on themselves in attempt to actually smell nice and girls enveloping themselves madly in cheap perfume. The whole room smelt of intoxicating lavender with a hint of other disgusting scents. Tris held her breath, trying to not breathe in the awful smell but failed miserably.

Christina, however, didn't seem to realise how awful it smelt and carried on prancing around the room like a dramatic fairy, looking for where all the clothes were kept. She started throwing around some random clothing, some of it landing in Tris' face but Tris didn't care; it blocked out the terrible smell so she was fine with it. Some of the girls were pushing at Christina to move but she pushed back and carried on jumping half into the laundry basket and digging for good clothes. Again another piece of clothing fell in Tris' face and this time, she swore it was someone's pants. She shook her head wildly and shuddered.

Finally, Christina pushed back to Tris holding a lot of dark-coloured clothing and gestured towards the full bathroom. Tris looked at all the clothes Christina had picked out: a few tank tops, T-shirts, leggings and jeans. She scanned the pile for something good and quickly settled for some navy jeans followed by a short-sleeved military khaki top. To go with that, she grabbed the nearest set of plain black converses and a green gem-stone bracelet to go with the outfit.

She wrestled into the clothing and then looked back at Christina who was still not dressed. Instead, she was still deciding on what top she should put on. Tris rolled her eyes for probably the twentieth time and looked at herself in the mirror. The top gave her a good figure and the jeans fit tightly around her waist, showing the shaping of her thin hips. Tris smiled in appreciation and tied her hair in a high pony with her spare bobble.

Christina was ready after a long time when most people had already gone. Her outfit wasn't even that impressive: black and white patterned leggings with a low cut tank top which was plain black with worn out converses. She looked happy with her outfit and then nodded at Tris' in approval. Both girls hurtled out of the room; Christina was doing most of the hurtling.

When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

Audre Lorde

Okay then. I am really sorry I didn't do the actual truth or dare in this chapter but the next chapter, there are going to be a lot of Tris and Peter moments and also, the next chapter is going to be about the sleepover too and what happens then…

See you next time!