Chapter 6
Jamie POV
For the past week or so, I've been working in the training room after dinner every day, trying to get more strength in my hits, preparing for a situation when I can't be prepared, as Eric told me, but I still haven't seen what he's talking about yet. I'm really good at thinking on the fly and still haven't lost a fight yet. I haven't even been in a situation where I thought I could lose. Even so, I'm still training. We actually aren't supposed to be down here unsupervised during initiation, but no one has caught me yet. A lot of times, the majority of the Dauntless do early morning training and party in the evening, so right about now, they're all out getting drunk, while I'm getting the chance to train. It makes everything easier on me.
"And, what do you think you're doing here?"
I turn around to see who it is, and realize that I'm probably about to die. It's Eric.
"I was training."
"Yeah, got that far. You know you're not supposed to be down here though."
"Well, not without supervision. You're here now, so, technically, that counts."
I turn back around to keep hitting the bag, trying to sound cool, when, on the inside, I am freaking out. Not only was I breaking the rules and got caught, Eric was the one that caught me, and I just pulled out the sarcasm… again.
"Okay, so you talk like a Candor, think like an Erudite, and act like a Dauntless. I just can't figure you out."
When he says this, I try not to tense up, I can't let him know anything.
"Yeah, I've heard that before. So what's going to happen, am I going to get in trouble?"
He thinks for a minute before responding.
"Nah."
Wait, what? The toughest Dauntless leader just gave me a free pass?
"Actually, you know what? You're right. I do count, so now would be a good chance for me to get to talk to you a little bit, help you figure some stuff out."
"What stuff?"
"Well, you've got the the strength in your hit just fine, but you haven't had the chance to try your speed. You're still on top in fighting, tied with Edward, you haven't had to worry yet. I want to put you against somebody with a little more experience, you might have to scramble, and you won't get to think, you'll have to do it on instinct. That's the best way for you to understand what I'm talking about."
So, Eric is willing to train me? This is kind of terrifying, but this might actually be really good. With him behind me, I can get even better. I mean, I might even get ahead of Edward. Our fights have just been draws so far, he still gets up every time I take him down, but I can read him too well for him to take me out. After too long, everybody gets bored, they call it a draw.
"Okay, I'm in"
He nods, and claps his hands together once.
"Let's get started."
Eric POV
"Alright, so I'm not going to say anything yet, we're just going to go for a few minutes, and when I call, I'll tell you what you need to know. Sound good?"
She nods, already in stance to fight. Always eager to learn. So we start to fight, and the next thing I know, she's on my shoulders and puts me on my back, and she's standing over me, waiting for me to get up.
"Okay. Should've seen that coming. Let's not do that anymore, that hurt."
"I wouldn't know, I won that one."
"This is practice. The point isn't to win, it's to learn, alright?"
She offers me her hand to help me up. I don't take it, pushing myself off the ground.
"One thing I'd like to point out, is that you're too confident. That can get you hurt just as bad as not knowing what you're doing. You were so confident in that move, that you didn't guard anything. Let's go again."
This time, she gets me on the ground, but only because I let her. I have a plan. She's on my chest, holding me down, and punches me once, but I put my hands on her waist and launch her to the other side of the mat. I get up, and watch her get off the ground. She definitely looks surprised.
"Sometimes, your opponent won't always stay down. You have to be ready to get back up and keep fighting. Keep going."
Now I see a glimmer in her eye, and I'm not sure if she's mad that I threw her, or excited that she's learning, but it's kind of cool. She comes at me, and aims for the stomach, but I block. I have to give her credit, I just barely caught it at the last second. She doesn't give it away by looking, she keeps eye contact. I am pretty proud of that.
She keeps coming, and I keep blocking, throwing a punch in here and there, but mostly letting her get some time of actual sparring, instead of just laying out her opponent and walking off. She keeps getting quicker, and I get hit a couple of times, not being able to block in time.
"Good, you're getting faster. Keep going."
As soon as I say that, I can almost see her mind start working, and she stops moving around me, and stands still on the mat, so I stop as well. I don't know what she's going to do, but I can tell she has a plan. While we're standing still, I have the perfect opportunity to throw a couple of punches, so this time I throw them at her face. I don't want to hurt her, but this is what training is, you have to be prepared for every hit. I expect my fist to hit the side of her head, but she ducks quickly, and when she's back up, I see her start thinking again. I throw another one at her head, and she ducks, then swings her leg out and knocks me off my feet. Then she's on top of me again, trying to knock me out, and I reach up to throw her, but she catches it this time. She puts a knee on each one of my arms. I am strong enough to move her again, but I don't because I know the others in her class aren't that strong, so this would be the point where she would be able to end the match.
"Okay, get off. Good match."
"I held you down, but you're still strong enough to get me off. You didn't this time. Why?"
"Well, I was going to, but first of all, the rest of the initiates aren't that strong, so you would've won that one. Second, I didn't want to hurt you anymore than was necessary, because you still have fights to do the rest of this week, and we have something special planned at the end of the week."
"Something special? Like what?"
"You'll see."
Being from Erudite, I know what makes an Erudite tick, and not knowing something will drive her nuts.
"Don't go around trying to figure that out either, because if somebody tells you, I'm gonna have to kill them."
She just rolls her eyes at me.
"Hey, you did good today. You'll definitely make it past initiation."
"Thanks."
I hold my hand out for her to shake, but she's wary at first. I think she's still just a little nervous around me. Eventually, she takes my hand… and I flip her over on her back.
"And that's for putting me on my back before we even got started good."
I offer her a hand up, but she does like me, and refuses it, pushing herself off the ground.
"Yeah, I'm not falling for that again."
"Smart. You pick up quick."
After practicing, she heads off to her quarters, and I head back to my apartment, but I can't help but replay our practice in my mind. Partly because I'm trying to figure out what else I need to do to help her, but also because I actually enjoyed myself. She's… different. I don't really have any other way to put it, but she's different than anyone else down here. She's the only person I actually like. I think maybe tonight helped her get past being so nervous too. The only thing is, she's kind of scaring me. She almost cracked through the shell without either one of us realizing it, and I can't let that happen. That shell is there for a reason.
Despite getting used to her, and actually liking being around her, something still bothers me: she could easily go into three factions. What if she really is Divergent? I've had to kill them before. I didn't enjoy it, but it had to be done. I've seen how they kill them, I know what they'll do to her. What if I'm the one that has to do it? But that won't happen if she isn't Divergent and she's not. She can't be. Right?
