Parker's POV
I wake up to Eric shaking me gently, "Come on sleepyhead, breakfast time." I hear him say. Yawning I get out of bed, and follow him out the door and we make our way to the initiates dorm. When we get there he goes into the dauntless-born dorm to wake them up, so I take this time to change my clothes before the transfers are woken up. Just as I put my dirty clothes under my bunk, Eric walks in with the metal bar, I quickly make my room into the corridor and cover my ears, dulling the loud sound of Eric waking the others up. I look up to see Eric walk out of the room laughing at me and I remove my hands from my ears. "Hey, it's not funny" I tell him indignantly, "it's too early for loud noises." He chuckles slightly, before following me to the mess hall.
Breakfast was rather uneventful, not that it had ever been, and by the time the other's emerged for breakfast I had finished and making my way down to the training room. I see that Eric and Tobias are already in there setting up the targets for knife throwing. I walk over to my usual bench, and watch as Eric and Tobias lay out the knives. Soon, the other initiates start to enter, we are quickly set to work on knife throwing. From the start I hit the centre of the target every time and a quickly look round to see how everybody else is doing, a few people have got a knife or two to stick but most just tend to bounce off the boards and I am the only one who has managed to get my knives near the centre let alone all of them right in the middle. As I look around I see Eric standing behind a boy called Al, I watch as Al throws his third knife and it falls to the ground, barely three foot from his feet. "Well that was pathetic." I hear Eric say,
"It slipped" Al answers him
"Well go get it"
"What, while their throwing?"
"Are you afraid?"
"Of getting stabbed by an airborne knife? Yes." Al says with an air of flippancy. I shake my head slightly, admitting to cowardice was bad enough, but somewhat understandable, having an attitude with a Dauntless leader, let alone Eric, was just plain moronic. Eric doesn't say anything for a while, I'm sure this cannot be good. "Everybody stop!" Eric shouts, we all do as told and turn to look at him. He has turned back to look at Al, who looks like he might pee himself. "Stand in front of the target" Eric orders Al, who does so, but only after a lot of hesitation. "Now, you are going to stand there, while Four throws these knives, and if I see you flinch, you're out" I watch as my brother approaches the table, and quickly picks up four knives. I glance over a Tris, who is standing next to me, it is clear she doesn't sit right with this, "Don't you dare say anything" I mutter to her, "You're going to make it worse for everybody" I watch her carefully, not sure whether or not she is going to say anything. She is watching Tobias, and just as he brings the knife up to throw it she has to go and open her mouth. "Stop!" she shouts, and everybody looks at her in shocked silence. "Any idiot can stand in front of a target" she says "it doesn't prove anything except that you're bullying us. Which, as I recall, is a sign of cowardice", Eric stares at with such anger that let's just say, if looks could kill.
"Well then, it should be easy for you to do it then" she nods and starts to walk over to where Al is standing, but Eric stops her, "No, your own target, just because you've mouthed off doesn't mean he gets out his punishment". She nods again and walks to the next target. Well now you've gone and done it, I think. I suddenly notice everybody is staring at me, oh shit, I said that out loud, I realise when I see the smirks on Eric and Tobias's faces. I see Eric wave the knives in his hand slightly, and I know what he is asking me to do, so I take the knives from him and stand in front of the target Tris is at. I know she is my friend, but I cannot feel much remorse for her, I did tell her not to open her mouth. That she would just make it worse, but she didn't listen. So really she deserves what she's getting in my eyes, besides everybody knows what good aim I have, it's not like I'm going to kill her by accident. "Parker first" Eric calls out, "Same rules apply stiff, you flinch, you're out", Eric then motions for me to start. I throw the first knife, it lands a few inches away from away from her leg. I throw the second one and it lands barely an inch away from the top of her head. "You can get closer than that" Eric calls out to me. I throw the third and final knife at her, it clips her ear and I know that she is bleeding, after all, that is what I was aiming for. I can see that she is not happy, but I don't care, she deserves it. I walk out of the room, not bothering to wait to be dismissed. I go to the dorm, and sit on my bed. After a few minutes the others come into the dorm, I notice Al is with them, so clearly he didn't flinch and he is still in initiation, not that he is going to be much longer. He is weak, he cries at night and he doesn't even try, he is bound to get cut at the end of this stage.
I sit on my bed minding my own business as everybody else talks in small groups, when I notice Tris and Christina are standing in front of my bed. "What do you want?" I ask wearily, not really wanting to deal with any drama, "you cut me" she tells me, clearly she is angry
"No shit. You should be thanking me" I tell her, really getting annoyed
"Why should she thank you, you cut her on purpose" Christina interjects, but I ignore her.
"You really think Eric would have let you get away without a scratch? Besides you deserved it" I say turning back to Tris.
"How can you say something like that? I thought we were friends" she says to me and I'm getting extremely angry now.
"We still can be. But you still don't seem to get it, I told you not to open your fucking mouth, but you didn't listen and had to just speak up anyway. You didn't help you friend out, you just made it worse for the both of you, like I said you would, so yeah I think you deserved everything you got, besides, you could have gotten much worse." I'm all but shouting at her now.
"Just ignore her Tris, she just wants to suck up to the instructors, to make sure she doesn't get cut." I hear Christina chime in and I see red, I punch her in the face repeatedly until I finally hear the crack of her nose breaking before storming out and to the training room, wanting to take my anger out on something.
As I leave the dorm, I hear people yelling at me, and see Tobias running in, giving me a weird look. But I just ignore him and carry on my way to the training room. Once I'm in there, I am even angrier than before, and plan to take my anger out on a nearby wall when I am stopped Eric, "What do you want Eric?" I shout at him, not liking him being in my way.
"You are angry right?" he asks me, "Then save yourself the hassle of another broken arm and fight me" I look at him for a while, not sure if he is serious. I decide that he is not joking and walk over to the mats, bring my arms up in the defensive stance, and watch as he does the same. We circle each other for a bit, like I did in my match with Tobias, but Eric is the one who throws the first punch, and catches me in the ribs, I send a punch at his face but he easily blocks it. I fake a punch to his face again but he doesn't fall for it and sends a kick to my side. I fall to the fall, slightly winded. I slowly get back up and Eric waits for me to do so.
We send a few more punches at each other, but he manages to block most of mine, and I barely get a hit. I send another hit to his face and land a punch to his eye, he barely notices it but I'm sure he is going to have a black eye. He sends a kick to my stomach and I fall back. But as I fall, I kick at his legs. Not expecting the attack, he loses his balance and falls on top of me.
Our faces are mere inches away, and before I register what is happening, his lips crashes against mine, I'm still for a split second before kissing him back. His hands go to my waist, and I put my arms round his neck, running my hands through his hair. We break apart, both of us breathing heavily from the lack of oxygen. Once we've both got our breaths back, I pull him back to me, our lips crashing into another, equally passionate kiss.
After a few moments, he stands from the mats and helps me up before, almost sauntering off to lunch, a big smirk plastered on his face, and I can't help laugh slightly as I watch him walk out the room. I shake my head and make my way back to the dorm, thinking I should probably apologize to Tris and I suppose Christina as well. This initiation, is about to get a whole lot tougher, once stage one finishes in a couple days, and the less people angry with me the better, there are already some shady people in our transfer group.
When I enter the dorm, I see Tris and Christina talking together, with Will and Al. as I approach them, Al notices me first "You here to break someone else's nose?" he asks me, this catches the attention of the girls, Christina glaring daggers at me, but I ignore her, and Al's comment, "Look, I'm not here to start anything, okay, I just want to apologise for overreacting slightly," I tell them both, but I'm only looking at Tris, I don't really care for the Candor. "I'm not saying you were right, because you weren't, but the less people on our wrong side the better, people are going to get more desperate after the first cuts. So what do you say we put this behind us, and try to get along? Yeah?" I continue. I can see Tris thinking over what I've said in her head, she knows I'm right. Not just about the thing with the knives, but also that people are going to get desperate. After a few moments TRIS accepts my offer and so does Christina, albeit rather begrudgingly. I smile at the girls before making my way to my bed, happy that issue has been resolved.
After changing my clothes, I see Peter and his three cronies, Molly, Drew and Brent, he seem to be reading a piece of paper. "Hey stiffs, you're going to want to hear this," he was addressing both me and Tris but I act like I'm not listening, it can't be good. "Listen, the recent transfers of Beatrice and Caleb Prior, children of Andrew Prior, call into question the soundness of Abnegation's teachings and values. What prompted them to leave? Perhaps the answer lies in the corrupted ideals of an entire faction. The theft of resources, the general incompetence. Or was the abuse of their children, after all, Marcus Eaton has already been accused of beating his son and it is known his second child transferred this year as well." Peter continues. I look at Tris, she is absolutely fuming with hurt and anger, and I don't blame her, her parents are innocent, some of the nicest people I've ever known. "They didn't beat anyone. They are good people" she shouts at Peter, but then she turns to me and I fill with dread. I know what she is going to say but for some reason I can't move, I'm frozen to the spot. "Why aren't you defending your father, did you hear what they are accusing him of?" I can't say anything, I can't defend him, and not with everything he did to me and Tobias. Everybody is looking at me now and I know they all know. I hear someone laugh, its Brent, "So is it true, did your daddy beat you?"
At this I run out the room, I can't stand being in there anymore, so many pitiful faces. I run as fast as I can, tears streaming down my face. I'm not looking where I'm going and I turn a corner sharply, and slam into somebody, "Get out of my way!" I scream at the poor person, who really didn't deserve to be shouted at. I roughly push past the people in my way, and barely hear someone call my name. But I don't stop, I know it is Eric, but I keep on going, I need to get away from everyone. I turn down another hallway, this one is empty. "Parker!" Eric shouts, I'm not surprised he managed to keep up. I turn round this time, "Just leave me alone!" I all but scream at him. He easily catches up to me, but I refuse to look at him. "Parker, what's wrong?" He asks me, but I can't answer, my breathing starting to become erratic. "They know" I manage to get out.
"Who knows what, Parker?" he asks me clearly confused.
"Th-the others, the-they kn-now about Marcus. Erudite. Article." I try to explain, but I can't get the words out.
"Hey, it's gonna be okay, who cares what they think anyway, you're better than them" he tells me, sympathetically.
"It's, it's not that" I continue "It's Tobias, he's going to hate me, he's worked hard to keep it a secret for the past four years and I'm here barely a month and I've gone and fucked it all up"
"Your brother is not going to hate you" Eric tells me but I don't listen, I just shake my head, still looking at the ground. "I mean it, Parker." He tilts my chin, forcing me to look at him, "those articles were going to come, no matter which faction you had gone to. Ok?" he asks me sternly but he's not angry. I don't say anything, I just nod. He closes the short distance between us, his soft lips on mine. It was a long, slow kiss. Not rough like our previous kiss, but just as passionate. We break apart, his hand still on my jaw. I lean forward, resting my head against his chest, my eyes closed revelling in being so close to him, the smell of his cologne, consuming all my senses.
After a few minutes, we break apart and Eric looks down briefly at his watch, "I've got a few things I need to discuss with your brother about the next part of training, in the training room, so how about I walk back with you to your dorm?" he asks me. But clearly sensing my hesitation offers another suggestion. "I suppose I could always talk to your brother after training has finished for the day, and let you talk to him for the next half hour before the fights." He doesn't wait for a response before walking back the way we came. I have to jog slightly to keep up.
Thank you to VampireAngel99 for answering my question, it really helped. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, any feedback is welcomed and greatly appreciated, i'm very new at this and cant help thinking i getting it wrong, so thank you to everyone who continues to read and review. thank you. And remember if i get two more reviews by new years i will update as soon as the final review has arrived.
~depressedintorvert~