J's eyes widened as the knife hurtled at her face. She moved her head to the right as her hand shot to the place where her head just was. Then, she did something that shocked everyone.

She.

Caught.

The.

Knife.

She was frozen, holding the knife in her right hand, just inches off the board. A trickle of blood ran down her hand, dripping onto the floor. J had caught the blade of the knife and it had sliced her palm and fingers.

'What did I do?' Eric thought.

"Alright initiates, everyone out. We will begin training in an hour." He shouted, then lowered his voice, so only J could hear," You stay here"

J nodded, she was standing, holding her hand, with the knife still clutched in it. She looked fine, except for the spec of shock in her eyes. Eric watched as Four hesitantly closed the door behind himself. With everyone out of the room, Eric's face turned from one of no emotion to one filled with concern.

"I didn't mean to do that, J, honestly. I swea-"

"It's ok" she interrupted.

He looked at her like she had two heads, 'I almost killed her and all she says is it's ok' he thought. Eric gently held out his hand, "let me take a look at that."

She hesitantly held out her injured hand to him. Eric gently peeled back her fingers, and took the embedded knife out of her palm.

"Sorry" he whispered.

'I can't believe I was stupid enough to do that' he mentally hit himself. He led her over to one of the walls of the area, which had a sink. Along the way he grabbed three things; gauze, a roll of medical tape, and a bottle of alcohol. He gently held her hand over the sink and looked into her eyes, "this is gonna sting" he said.

He gently held her hand over the sink and poured the alcohol onto the cuts on her fingers and palm. When he didn't hear anything, he looked up at her. She didn't seem to be any pain; her jaw was just clenched a bit tighter. He continued to support her hand over the sink while the drink was cleaning her wound.

"J?" he asked.

She looked up from her hand to his face and smiled, "hey, you used my name."

His hard expression softened a bit then hardened again, "yeah, I- I just wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have reacted like that earlier, I-"

"It's alright," she cut him off "I get why you did it," he raised an eyebrow.

"Yea, I know it's my fault for tackling you, and I shouldn't have mouthed off in front of everyone, you had to punish me somehow. You're a leader, and you can't let initiates do something they're not supposed to and get away with it. I wasn't thinking in the cafeteria and got carried away. You were just doing your job," she said it like it was one of the simplest things in the world.
'So she isn't angry at me for almost killing her?' Eric thought surprised.

"But I could have killed you just now," he reasoned while he gently dried off her hand with a paper towel.

She shrugged nonchalantly, "I'm not afraid to die."

Eric looked up at her, surprised by her comment; this initiate was full of surprises. He put gauze over her cut and started to wrap it.

"So where did you learn moves like that?"

"Like what?" J asked confused as to what he was referring to.

"Like when you tackled me in the cafeteria and just then when you caught the knife. You had to learn somewhere," Eric stated.

"Um," she looked down, "not really, I wasn't thinking, I just kinda' did it, like a reflex or instinct."

Eric skeptically, "There is no way you caught a knife from instinct alone. Who taught you, someone in Candor?"

"No, no one taught me" she said flatly.

Eric looked like he was getting annoyed, but his voice stayed level, "seriously, who was it?"

The initiate was getting angry that he didn't believe her, "I told you, no one taught me, they hardly took time to look at me, much less teach me anything important" she cut herself off even though it sounded like she was going to continue.

Eric looked taken aback, "what do you mean?" He asked, all of his annoyance was gone.

She looked down again, "well," she spoke softly, nothing like the confident tone she had used before, "almost everyone in Candor ignored me. They didn't get along with me 'cause I never did anything the *air quotes* Candor way. I was quiet, didn't tell what I was thinking, and I lied. The parents made their kids stay away from me, but that was ok, I liked to be alone. There were only two people who ever took an interest in me, and they are either gone or have changed. I knew I wasn't going to be staying there anyway. Today, I couldn't wait till they called my name, so I could get out of that smart-mouth faction."

Eric looked skeptical, but stayed silent thinking, 'well she won't be ignored here, that's for sure, especially if she keeps acting up like this.'

He had finished wrapping her hand a while ago, "thanks" she said.
He nodded and then, realizing that he was still holding her hand, he quickly released it. When his back was turned, a small smile crossed her face at his reaction.

(A/N: Hey-o! I hope you guys liked the cliffhanger from last chapter and this one here. OK, so just to let you guys know I write my stories in notebooks and then type it from that. Also, I am an extremely slow typer. This is why it takes me a while to get in new chapters and also because I don't think about it sometimes. I hope you all enjoy my writing and will take a little extra time to review. If you want to read anything in particular for this story, please let me know I would love to use your ideas if you have some. Have a great day/night! J

-DarkFlameJ)