The leaders had declared early morning training to be cancelled, allowing the initiates to recollect themselves after the previous night's festivities, but it would resume after breakfast at 9 A.M. It was a good thing too, seeing that most of the initiates were dealing with their first hangover, groaning as they took their seats in the dining hall for breakfast. Coffee was the choice of drink that morning as those affected by last night's celebration were trying to rid of migraines and other symptoms they were dreadfully dealing with.

Kathryn was the worst of Isabelle's crew, not even bothering coming to breakfast, hoping that she could sleep off the hangover. Robbie wasn't as bad as Is had thought he'd be, but he needed a few cups of coffee to regain his personality in order to do so. Warsan and Nikki were doing alright, although every once in a while they complained of a surge of pain in their head. Isabelle just needed a cup herself to feel a bit better; Mattie, on the other hand, was as perky as normal since she didn't have a sip of alcohol the other night.

Isabelle's head swam with the images with her rendezvous with Eric the night before, but she was unsure what to make of it. Isabelle was overwhelmed by her own boldness, the brashness she had gained since coming to Dauntless. She thought she was an annoyance to the leader, often the subject to his snarky remarks and his continuous leering. Thinking back on everything, she must've mistook their banters and disdain for each other for some kind of sexual tension, but both were at fault. Isabelle couldn't lie to herself and say she didn't feel the same towards Eric, it was always there, those feelings, but she tried to hide them—burying them deep down inside. Just the mere thought of it made Isabelle's cheeks burn slightly as she tried to conceal the smile that threatened to appear on her lips.

But what was it that they had—Isabelle and Eric? Was is a one-time kind of deal, or would it blossom into something else—something Isabelle had never experienced before? She shook off the thought. The end of the first stage was almost over and she couldn't risk losing her place on the scoreboard because she was now feeling butterflies in her stomach over Eric. If anything was to come out of whatever they had, it wasn't nearly as important as her training. Initiation was over in four weeks time. It could wait until then.

"How was hanging out with Virgil last night, Mattie?" Isabelle asked, taking a sip of coffee. She needed to get her mind off of Eric.

The girl couldn't help but smile brightly, her green eyes glistening with joy. "I know I haven't known him long, but I really, really like him."

"What did you guys talk about?"

"A lot of things... our old lives, our friends, how training is going… just little things. He's really sweet though, he really is."

Nikki turned to Warsan, nudging him a bit, "You two are friends, so you can vouch for him. Is Virgil worthy enough for Mattie?"

"If anyone is interested in Mattie, I'm glad it's Virgil." And that's all Warsan had to say about the matter, stuffing his face with muffins to absorb any remaining traces alcohol in his system.

Kathryn had finally made her appearance, slumping over to the table as she laid her head on her arms, resting on the table.

"You look good," Warsan jested, causing the rest of the gang to laugh.

"Shut up," she was barely able to mumble as she tried to ignore the laughing and giggling from her friends.

"Maybe next time you shouldn't drink so much," Robbie scolded playfully but was met with a harsh smack on the arm from his sister.

"I said shut up," she repeated groggily.

The group fell silent as a figure approached their table, but Isabelle hardly took notice since she was focusing on eating her meal. It wasn't until Robbie had nudged the girl with his elbow, causing her to look up at the blond. He nodded over to her other side. Isabelle turned her head to see the boy with short brown dreads standing at her side of the table. He stood quietly, his brown eyes watching Isabelle patiently, filled with sorrow and regret. She noticed that the skin around Durro's nose had turned a dark purplish-blue from Eric's self-defense.

She turned away from the boy and took another sip of her coffee. "What do you want, Durro?" Her tone was anything but pleasant as she refused to look at him. Isabelle didn't plan on giving him the power in this situation.

He looked down at his feet and licked his lips, trying to find the right words. "I just wanted to apologize for last night."

"I'm listening," she spat, still refusing to look at the boy.

Durro paused, a little taken back that she wouldn't even glance his way, feeling the extent of her distaste towards him, "I had a lot to drink last night, as most of us did, but that doesn't excuse the way I talked to you—or grabbed you. I want us to be friends, I really do. I'm sorry, Is. I'll do whatever it takes to make things right, I promise."

Isabelle thought for a moment, letting his words register in her mind. They boy did seem sincere in his apology as his voice was low, shaking a bit as if he were to start crying at any moment, and he kept his eyes on the girl. After a moment, Isabelle nodded. "I accept your apology, Durro." A small smile spread on his lips, but fell as the girl turned to look at him, her eyes dark with austere, "Just make sure it never fucking happens again."

The boy's eyes widened at Isabelle's stern response, but he nodded fervently before slowly walking away back to his table to sit with Artemis and Nicole. Isabelle turned back to her own table, all eyes on her. She ignored them though; she didn't need to feel guilt about being cruel to the Dauntless born, not after he was so aggressive with her the night before.

But her friends weren't looking at her, but instead slightly past her as the blond leader stood behind her quietly, catching Isabelle's last remark towards the brown-haired boy.

"You handled that pretty well," he said causing the girl to jump slightly, unaware of his presence.

"Sir," Isabelle responded as she stood and turned to face the leader, her eyes on him intently.

Eric stood stoically, but kept his eyes on the initiate."Four and I had just returned from reviewing yesterday's footage of your activity."

The brunette furrowed her brows, confused by his words, "Sir?"

"We have CCTV cameras set up in all the hallways and public areas of the compound to ensure security," he said as he pointed up in the corner of the room. Isabelle looked in that direction to see a small black orb that hung from the ceiling. She had always wondered what those were, but it didn't peak her curiosity enough for her to ask about it. "We checked the video feed from the other day to see what you initiates did while we were gone. Needless to say, Four and I were impressed that you all decided to train instead of sleep in or fool around like we thought you would, being initiates and all."

"Well, a few Dauntless born and I thought it would be a waste of a day if we didn't do anything, so we arranged to train together, sir."

He nodded, "Your leadership skills has been noticed." Eric paused for a moment before he smirked, but it gave Isabelle dysphoria instead of enticing positive feelings from the girl, "Although, we also happen to notice that one of your friends was absent from training."

The girl nearly cringed at his choice of words as he referred to Avicus, closing her eyes momentarily at his mentioning, "He wasn't feeling very well, so I thought since we weren't being evaluated on our training that it'd be okay for him to stay in."

"Well, you thought wrong. We will evaluate the video and either dock or add points to your scores. In the meantime, you will lose points for abusing your power…and for lying to me," Isabelle looked away from the leader, feeling a small pinch of guilt, "but not as many as you earned for obeying orders and keeping everyone in line while we were away," Eric gave a curt nod as he started to back away, "good job."

Isabelle nodded back in response, a small smile gracing her lips as she turned back to her table. When she sat down, she was greeted with wide eyes and slack-jawed friends. Nikki looked at her friend in amazement, "I thought for sure he'd rip you to shreds, but instead you get rewarded with points. Unbelievable."

"I don't think I've ever seen him so pleased," Warsan added with an arched brow.

"Enjoy the moment," Isabelle said, popping a piece of muffin into her mouth with a playfully snarky grin "because I highly doubt he'll ever be this pleased again."

1. Robbie 2. Alexandria 3. Kathryn 4. Virgil 5. Nicole 6. Mattie

7. Isabelle 8. Durro 9. Nikki 10. Warsan 11. Artemis 12. JD 13. Vikki

14. Flot 15. Aldo 16. Mark 17. Morgan 18. Maxine 19. Sido

20. Aliyah 21. Axel 22. Jay 23. Jordan 24. Avicus 25. Danielle

26. Abigail 27. Shelby 28. Anne 29. Conner 30. Levy 31. Bruce 32. Mia

Isabelle stood in front of the scoreboard, letting her eyes roam over the large, electronic screen that had the updated ranks of the initiates; Durro had been docked a serious amount of points for his behavior at the Pit. Avicus had been docked points for not participating in the yesterday's training, even though that was entirely Isabelle's fault, but she didn't feel nearly as bad as she made herself out to be, especially in front of Eric.

As her eyes fell upon her own name, in the seventh spot on the list, the brunette couldn't help but smile in pride. Just six in-a-half weeks ago she was so much lower on the board, nearly flunking out of the faction. But now, now she was so close to the top of the list—almost in the top five. She couldn't be prouder of herself because she though she deserved it. She had gone through hell, dealing with all kinds of abuse from the intructors—mostly Eric—and initiates, as well as continuously being underestimated, and enduring rigorous workout sessions that usually ended in gaining at least three bruises. Nodding to herself, Isabelle continued to smile; yes, she deserved to be recognized for her achievements.

"We're going to do something a little different today," Four's voice boomed, causing Isabelle to snap out of her train of thought. She turned to see both he and Eric standing in the ring, so the group of transfers made their way over towards the instructors, eager to learn what they had to say.

Eric took a step forward with his hands behind his back, his cold blue eyes scanning the crowd of initiates that stood before him. "Four and I have decided to test you on your leadership skills, along with your ability to work together amongst yourselves. Being a soldier here at Dauntless isn't necessarily a one-man team, but instead a majority of the time you will have to depend on another person with your life. It doesn't matter if you are sworn enemies or have best friends since childhood, when you're out there on a mission the person standing next to you is your brother in arms and you are held responsible for every single person in your team—leader or not."

Four agreed. "Earlier this morning we have chosen four captains who will pick another three initiates to be in their team. We will then have four teams of four, two teams competing against each other in a demonstration of how well the team communicates and collaborates under their appointed leader. In the back room of the warehouse we have assembled a labyrinth that two teams will enter at opposite ends. One member from each team will be taken 'hostage' and the objective of the test is to see which team successfully relocates their missing teammate and brings them back to base. A team can automatically lose if the entire team is killed off or their missing teammate is killed by a member of the opposing team. You will be issued specialized guns for this exercise; they don't have real bullets, but the ammunition in them stimulates the pain of a bullet wound, so be cautious." Four glanced over at Eric to announce the captains of the game.

"Isabelle, Mattie, Warsan, and Nikki—step forward" the four initiates did as they were told while Eric and Four exchanged satisfied looks at each other; the four friends didn't look as pleased as their instructors did, "you are the team captains."

Isabelle closed her eyes to prevent herself from rolling her eyes at Eric and Four's choices for team captains. She knew sooner or later that the leaders would pit the four friends against each other, but to be honest Isabelle thought they'd make them fight each other in the ring, so this was an amusing surprise.

"Before I let you four choose, there's one more rule: you cannot pick all higher-ranking initiates as there has to be diversity amongst each team—no objections. So Isabelle, choose another two initiates for your team."

The girl tilted her head slightly as she shifted her narrowed her eyes suspiciously between the duo, "I thought each team consisted of four members, mine will only have three if I pick two more."

"That's because Avicus is automatically on your team," Eric retorted as a devilish expression adorned his face, "so pick two more people or I'll pick them for you."

Isabelle scoffed, looking around at the remaining initiates, evaluating them quickly in her head. "I choose Virgil and Aliyah."

"Mattie, choose."

"I want JD, Shelby, and Jay."

"Warsan."

"I'll pick Sido, Morgan, and Anne."

"So that leaves Nikki with Levy, Conner, and Mia," Eric took a moment to snicker under his breath, glancing over at Four as he tried to hide his mirth, "that's too bad."

Four was much better had hiding his amusement for the situation, not nearly as expressive as his partner. "Leaders come over and we'll see who goes against who; teams group-up and wait for further instructions."

Isabelle and her friends ambled over to the instructors and jumped into the ring where Eric and Four were mumbling amongst themselves while Four seemed to be fidgeting with something in his hands. After a moment, he turned to the initiates with his fist out. Grasped in his palm were four matches with the top-side sticking out. "Each of you will pick one. The ends of each match will either be blue or red, so the two people with the blue end will go against each other as will the two with the red matches."

Nikki was the first to take a match. It was red. Mattie stepped forward and picked out a blue-ended match. Warsan was next and pulled out a red match, leaving Isabelle to face off with Mattie in the labyrinth.

"Mattie and Warsan," Four continued looking at the two, "when I flip this coin, one of you call it. Whoever calls it right will choose which teams go first. Ready?"

The two initiates nodded, their eyes glued on the coin in Four's hand. In the blink of an eye, the coin was twirling in the air above their heads and Mattie was the first to call out, "heads!"

Four caught the coin effortless and flipped it onto the back of his hand, covering it with the other. Slowly, he removed his hand and peered down as did the initiates. Eric didn't care to know, standing quietly at Four's side. "It's tails," the instructor said, glancing over to the dark-skinned boy. "Alright Warsan, who goes in?"

The boy smirked, leering over at Mattie and Isabelle, "Ladies first."