Chapter 3 - Crappy Mashed Potato
Dauntless felt cold.
I didn't know if this was the normal temperature of the place or if it was just because of the cold weather draping itself over Chicago. I hoped for the latter, wanting it to be warm if I was still here in the earlier months of next year.
The training room was freezing as I made my way into it, shoving my hands into the pockets of the jacket I'd shoved on as I made my way out of the door of my apartment. I'd surprisingly slept really well last night and figured it was just because of the warmth of my apartment. It had it's own heating system and as soon as I'd figured out how to work it, I'd turned it on and let it warm me up all night.
I was surprised to find out that the training room wasn't empty and that there was a large group of people crowded around the area to the left of the room near a door that I suspected led to the outside. Four stood with them and waved me over as soon as he saw me.
It didn't take me long to reach him and I stopped in front of him, looking at him in confusion as to why he'd called me over. Seeing the people closer, I realised they were younger and more likely to be initiates rather than full fledged members of Dauntless.
Four smiled at me and stood in front of me before motioning to the initiates. "Morning, Violet," he greeted. I smiled at him and he turned back around to face the initiates in front of us. "This is Violet Windsor, she's from Candor and she's the Leader of the Interfactional Dialogue Committee. She's going to be working here alongside a us leaders and trainers, plus a few of you, for a few more months."
They all nodded and greeted me before Four told them to wait a moment as he spoke to me. "We're doing something simple this morning. Eric and I decided last night that we're going to work you on a modified version of the initiates training program. Since you didn't enter Dauntless the way everybody else did, that's what we're focusing on this morning."
"And what does that entail?" I asked him, furrowing my eyebrows.
He chuckled at me and shook his head. "We're not telling you any of that, you just have to trust us. Come on, follow us up. This door leads to the roof."
I frowned at him but followed him and the rest of the initiates up a large staircase, leading to the roof. I could see a train track running beside it and figured that was how the initiates entered Dauntless, but I knew there would have been a more complex way to actually enter the complex. It would be one thing to jump from a train, and another to enter the faction of the brave.
A few of the initiates grinned at me as Four led me toward a ledge. The sun was still rising in the sky and it was quiet, the train not having come by yet. "I figured having the initiates here would make you more comfortable." He spoke as he stepped up onto the ledge of the roof.
I raised my eyebrows at him. "I'm not sure if they will make me feel better, considering I'm unsure what you're planning on doing. But I'll try my best."
The rest of the initiates grouped around me and stood as if they'd just jumped off the train and were waiting to enter. Four smirked at me and began to speak. "Alright, listen up. I'm Four and I'm one of your leaders. If you want to enter Dauntless, this is the way in. If you don't have the guts to jump, you don't belong here in Dauntless and you may as well consider this part of your training an instant fail, which I'm sure won't be appreciated by Mr. Jack Kang back at Candor."
"I'm jumping off the roof? Wait, what's at the bottom?"
"Well, I suppose you're just going to have to find out, aren't you?" Four jumped off the wall, landing in front of the initiates with a thump on the hard ground. I frowned and moved forward, leaning over the edge a little to try and see what was down there. All I could see was a large hole in the ground.
"You don't really make initiates do this, do you? Four, I don't think that this is a good idea. This can't be safe, at all."
A boy from the back spoke. "Oh, they do. Believe us. Just jump."
I frowned at him, but knelt forward onto the wall, pulling myself up into a standing position. I looked straight ahead of me to the building across before speaking to Four again.
"Last chance to back down from this, Four. I'm begging you to not let me do this," I sighed. He didn't reply. "This isn't okay, not one bit."
I spoke my mind. It was what I'd been expected to do, and jumping off a roof high above Dauntless wasn't going to stop me.
I moved my feet forward a little, before pulling my hands from my pockets and shaking them in front of me. Without another thought, I moved my eyes back down to the hole in the ground and kicked my legs out from underneath me, instantly feeling myself falling.
With the feeling of the fall, I couldn't manage to push myself to scream and instead felt myself falling further and further, not hitting the ground. I knew I would soon enough, and that would probably be the end of me. Eric had probably conned Four, last night, into pretending this was initiation and killing me instead.
Instantly, I felt my back hit a net, pushing me back up and around with the force. I let myself breathe again, staring back up at the ledge where I'd just jumped and grabbing the net around me to steady myself. My heart was beating faster in my chest at the fact that I'd thought I was going to die.
Suddenly, the net was being pulled, and I let go, finding myself rolling toward the edge. I steadied myself again to see Eric standing there, holding the net down with two hands. He looked tired, but still tough with his piercings and tattoos.
"I'm surprised you jumped, Candor," he spoke roughly. "Thinking of how many Candors I know, you would have chickened out."
I rolled my eyes at him. "Four is aware of how bad I thought the idea was, but I've done it now so nobody can hold it against me."
Eric chuckled, stepping forward again and placing his hands on my waist to pull me out of the net. I thought, for a moment, at how daft I'd been upon thinking he was different when I was at Henry's choosing ceremony.
"That's all you're doing with Four today anyway, Candor. He's not going to care if you hated the idea of jumping or not. You're working with me today, so catch your breath and meet me in the training room again in five minutes."
"Why is that all I'm doing with Four?" I stepped toward him, raising my eyebrows.
"Four has the initiates to work with, and in his opinion, they're more important than you are. He'll work with you on occasion, but for the most part, I'm training you. And remember what I told you last night, Candor. I don't tolerate smart-mouths, so watch yourself around me or you'll regret it."
An hour later, the training room still felt as cold as it was before and I frowned as I walked in, seeing Eric standing near the punching bags with two bottles of water in his hands. He frowned at me as I walked towards him. "You're late."
"I had to go to the bathroom after jumping off a building. I'm sorry I was late but I think you'd rather I actually use the toilet rather than holding it all in, right?"
Eric narrowed his eyes at me and stepped towards me, sitting the bottles of water down on the ground. He was close in my face, closer than most people had ever been to me before.
"I've seen you before, Candor, and I'm not taking any of your crap."
I sighed at him and looked him straight in the eyes. "I know you've seen me before, Eric. I've seen you too. But just because you've seen me before doesn't mean you have the ability to control me, okay?"
He didn't take a step back as I was expecting him to.
"Watch yourself, Candor. I'm not going to take any of your crap, and you need to understand that. I'm here to teach you what you need to learn, so take that in your stride and listen or you're going to fail here. You may not be an actual initiate, but you're as good as to me. If you fail, you're going to have to go back to old pal Jack and tell him you're not cut out for the job."
"I'm not going to fail, Eric," I shuffled closer. "I'm going to make Jack proud and I'm going to fulfill my job without a doubt. And you need to accept that. You may be older than me by a couple of years, you may be a complete Dauntless, but I'm not. I'm Candor, and I always will be Candor. So get off my back, okay? Let me do what I want to do here, let me train as I want to train and deal with it." I stepped back from him. "Now show me some punches."
Dauntless was bringing out a new side to me, I realised, as I sat down at one of the tables in the dining hall for lunch. Usually, I was never so upfront and rude to people. Candor wasn't like that. It allowed for me to be truthful without being rude about it. I wished it was like that here.
I sighed as I moved the spoonful of mashed potato to my mouth, eating it slowly. Eric had shown me some punches, as I'd asked him to, and I was now becoming a natural at hitting a punching bag. I was yet to fight an actual person and didn't plan on it yet. Eric had offhandedly mentioned that I'd be able to fight with one of the initiates later in my training, but I doubted he'd carry it out.
The potato was bland as I continued to eat it and I suddenly wished they served hamburgers at lunch as well as at dinner. I found myself wanting more than awful mashed potato and chicken for lunch and after a few more bites, I stood up and threw it in the bin on my way out, making my way back to the training room.
Technically, I wasn't supposed to be back there until 1pm like Eric had asked me to, but it was only 12:30pm now and I was sick and tired of waiting around and eating bad food. I slowly made my way back over to the punching bags and worked on punching again.
Jab, cross, right uppercut, left uppercut, right hook, left hook.
Jab, cross, right uppercut, left uppercut, right hook, left hook.
By 1pm, my hands and arms were sore, and I was wishing that I hadn't decided to end lunch early and visit here instead, hoping Eric wouldn't make me work on my punches again when he came back to the training room.
I spotted him across the room as I grabbed my water bottle and took a small drink from it, propping myself up on the large brick pillar beside the row of punching bags.
"I'm early, surprise, surprise." I smiled as he got closer to me. I saw a ghost of a smile on his features as he stopped in front of me.
"How long have you been in here?" He frowned. I let my smile drop.
"Half an hour. The mashed potato and chicken here really isn't that great. So, I figured I may as well spend my time here doing something more important than eating the crappy food."
He chuckled. "You seemed to enjoy that hamburger last night, though."
I rolled my eyes at him. "You see, that was what I'd like to call decent food here. I mean, Candor has much better stuff, but here? No. If we could import the good stuff from Candor - I mean, the chicken and lettuce wraps - I'd be much happier with staying in the dining room for the whole of lunch."
Eric smirked at me, shaking his head. "So you've been working on the bags all lunch?" I nodded. "Fine, we won't do that now. Put your water down, we're going for a run. Five laps around the compound, let's go, Candor. If you do it, we'll see if you can get some of your chicken and lettuce wraps imported here, just for you."
My legs were burning by the time I walked back to my apartment after dinner that night. My hamburger was the best part of my whole day and I found myself excited to collapse down on the lounge in the living room and simply relax for a while, considering I hadn't had a proper chance to do it earlier.
I slipped the key card into the door and closed it behind me before walking straight into my bedroom, grabbing my pajamas and a new set of undergarments and walking straight to the bathroom.
The shower was warm against my skin as I let it warm up my muscles that had been so overworked earlier in the day. I stepped out after a few minutes, drying myself and changing into my pajamas.
They were the one thing I'd brought from home that let me feel completely in Candor rather than Dauntless. I didn't know what the Dauntless pajamas looked like, but I imagined they were completely black as most of the clothing here was. Yet, the only aspect of mine that was was the leggings. The shirt was long sleeved and white.
I stepped back out into the living room and poured myself a glass of water before pulling my damp hair back into a bun on the top of my head and getting comfortable on the lounge. It was better than anything I'd sat on all day, considering most of it had been the hard wood of the dining hall seats.
As soon as I'd made myself comfortable, a loud knock sounded on my door. I groaned and pulled myself up again, slowly making my way to the door. I pulled it open and leant against the door frame, looking up at whoever was standing there and trying my hardest to look enthused to see whoever they were.
My smile dropped as soon as I saw who it was.
He pushed past me into my apartment and I frowned, closing my door behind me and turning to face him. "Why are you in my apartment?"
I stepped towards him and he continued walking to the dining table where he sat down the large amount of papers, books and boxes in his hands.
"I'm delivering a few things, on orders of Max." He frowned, turning back to face me. "If it was my choice, there's no way in hell I'd be here, Candor. Sit down."
I moved to the table and took a seat at the dining table, looking up at him with raised eyebrows. He took the seat across from me and moved the large box to the side of the pile.
"These are some of the training books and history books describing the history of Dauntless. Max wants you to read them so you can report upon the faction to the best of your ability."
I nodded at him. "That's very nice of him, tell him I said thank you. These will be really useful." I pulled one toward me, turning it over and flicking through it before setting them all on a pile beside me.
"These," he said, motioning to the papers. "Are the files of yourself and of the rest of the leaders. Max wants you to give detailed reports of all the leaders in Dauntless to Jack when your first meeting is next month. So, I suppose you better do it."
Nodding at him again, I took the papers from him and sat them beside each of the books. "And what's in the box? More books? More files?"
Eric rolled his eyes and stood up, moving the box to me. He leant on the table before looking at me directly. "These, Candor, are the lovely chicken and lettuce rolls you asked for from Candor. I had Harrison grab some this afternoon."
I grinned at him, pulling the box toward me. "You're kidding, right? Damn, you're kinder than I thought, Eric."
He stood up and made his way toward the door, though, for a moment, looked at me and smirked. "You're right, by the way, Candor. They do taste better than our crappy mashed potato. You don't mind if I come by and steal some from time to time, do you?" time to time, do you?"
