AN I have to say a huge thank you to the reviewers! But a lot of you are reviewing as guests, so I can't name you :( But thanks to MonkeyGirl1245 who has reviewed all of the four chapters so far, and also Artemis and Insolitasum who have also reviewed, along with any of you guests! You encourage me to post more often (and add more to it, since this story has gained an extra bit :D)
Tris POV
The beeping of my alarm once again wakes me. Every day for the past year it's woken me up, minus one or two days which I've managed to grab off. I throw the sheets off me and move quickly into the bathroom to shower. I meant to last night, but got distracted after Grace came to see Tobias and me. I quickly change into the clothes I wear for training when there's a knock at the door and I sigh, never seeming to get a moment to myself, but smile when Tobias is at the door.
"Hey," he smiles down at me, immediately pressing his lips to mine. I pull away before long though.
"Hey," I reply running off to change, "We need to go and see Becca," I said, though I knew he'd remember anyway.
"That's why I came in early; I knew you'd want to go." He said, waiting for me to come out of my room. He smiled at me when he saw me again, and then handed over a muffin, "figured you'd appreciate some food," he laughed when I took a bite into it, moaning at how good it tasted. He held out his hand for me, and I took it. We quickly walked off, heading towards the hospital.
Marlene smiled at us when we got there, "For Becca, yeah?" we nod, and she shows us through. "She woke around 4, quite dazed. Be wary of her in training today." We followed her into the room, and she left us, saying, "take her with you to training, and don't let her do anything too dangerous."
"How're you feeling?" Tobias asked when we were left. She stared at us like we were mad.
"He's serious, you're well enough to continue training," I explain, "But you need to tell us how you're feeling. If you want to come to training, we'll help you and watch Alex; I've already planned my punishment for him." I don't say that if she doesn't go, she'll end up Factionless, it's almost like a piece of unsaid knowledge.
"I'll go with you," Becca said, she sat up and I went to her side.
"What happened?" Tobias asked as she limped out, trying to force herself to walk properly.
"He wanted my bed, and I said no. If I gave in then they would've called me a coward, so he fought me instead." I heard Tobias mumble something about Peter, and felt like I knew what that was going to be saying even if I didn't hear clearly.
"Let's go set up. If you need extra help today, let us know," I say, Becca nods, but stays silent, and we walk in silence to the training room.
I leave Becca on a table as I go and get the knives and make sure they're sharp enough, setting them out in threes on a spare table. Tobias checks the targets before walking off, I don't know where he was going, but couldn't leave Becca alone in here.
The initiates slowly pile in, I notice, to some amusement, that Alex has a rather nice looking bruise on the side of his face.
"What's wrong with Four today then?" he asked as he stood in front of me with the other initiates.
"He'll be back shortly; we're going to wait for him to start." I replied. "Becca, could you come and join us now, please," I ask, giving her a quick smile. She returns it, but flinches when she walks over. She has a black eye, and bruised right cheek. Grace, Nadia, Athena and Daniel all stand around her.
A few minutes later, Tobias runs in with a muffin, and hands it to Becca, "Here, I know the hospital food isn't that good here," he laughs. She blushes a little and takes it from him, muttering a small thank you. He smiled at her, and then stood behind me, picking up three knives.
"Today, we're going to be doing knife throwing." I said, watching Tobias twist the knives around in his hands. "But before I explain how," I paused, glancing around for Alex's blond hair. When I noticed it, I pointed at him, "Alex, if you could stand in front of a target for me please." I said, glancing at Tobias. "Four, if you can give me a hand," I can't help saying, remember the same thing from last year. Tobias nods, understanding exactly what he has to do. I walk away from the target, and whisper to Tobias as I go past, "get as close as you can, three hits would be perfect," he laughs, and I stand behind him.
"This is what we do to cowards. Cowards who don't learn even after being told once. There are several punishments we can have, this is one of them. The next time something like this happens, we'll give you a different one." I said, turning my focus to Alex, "If you flinch, you lose extra points. If you don't do it, you lose even more," I said.
"So what? You expect me to stand here while you throw knives at me?" He exclaimed loudly, Tobias and I both just nodded our heads.
"Yep," we said simply, like it was no big deal.
"No, I'm not doing that. I don't care if I'm Factionless; I'm not going to let my instructors kill me first." He retorts, stepping away from the target and back to the group.
"Points deducted it is then." I roll my eyes, walking to the target, "In Dauntless, you have to learn to trust those around you; your lives my rest in their hands at some point. Four taught me that lesson last year." I turned, holding my hands behind my back, and watched Tobias. He tilted his head at me and shrugged. "Now Four's going to aim those knives in random places, and I have to trust him not to kill me." I shrugged, relaxing against the target.
"You sure you're ready for this, Six?" He asked, laughing. I nod, holding back the laugh; I know he's more likely to hurt me if I'm shaking.
"You're actually going to let him throw knives at you?" A voice, Jay asked, confused.
"Yes." We both said again simply. "Now, if you're quiet, I can get on with it," Tobias finished. Everyone fell silent as he focused on the target.
I watched him breath in and out, and heard a thud next to me as the first knife hit the board to the right of my right arm. "Is that all you can do, Four?" I teased, he grinned at me, before composing himself. The next knife went about an inch above my head. I felt the wind on my forehead as it went past, and heard the initiates gasp.
"Bet you don't know where this is going, Six," he grinned; I allowed myself a quick laugh, before relaxing.
"I'd never be able to guess, Four," he rolls his eyes at me, and takes in a breath, aims, breaths out, throws. There's a dull pain on the top of my left ear, and I step forwards to show the initiates he got me. "As you can see," I said to them once they'd calmed down, "Trust is all it takes."
"Trust? He caught you, and you trust him?" It was Jay's voice again. I wonder what his problem is with it.
"You don't learn anything without a little pain." I shrugged, gently dabbing my ear, there wasn't much blood, so I didn't need to do much with it. "Now, if you all pay attention to four, he'll explain how to throw knives. You'll be ranked on this today; we won't be doing another day on it." I said. They all turn and face Tobias, and I sit on a table, watching.
He explains in a brief way how to throw, and then lets them grab their knives, I zone out as he explains and they start, only returning to the 'now' when Jay gets my attention.
"Hey Six, can you come and give me a hand a moment?" I look over and see Tobias with Emily. She's a little too close for comfort, but I can't tell him to step away, so ignore the fact for now, though he does look uncomfortable too. We stop in front of his target, where nothing has hit yet, and he looks at me.
"Well throw one then," I say, and he stands with his feet both forward and throws while holding the handle, I roll my eyes.
"Firstly, your stance is wrong." I explain, putting my hands on his shoulder, I turn him so he's sideways. He smiles at me, it almost looks flirty, but I shrug it aside. I take his knives from him, and hand him the blade first instead, "when you grip the knife, it needs to be from the blade, so that it'll be the blade that hits the target," I say, making sure he doesn't change it, "Throw now."
He throws the knife, but it only gets half way. "When you throw, bring your arm right back." I glare at him for a minute, before taking the knife from him, "Like this," I pull my arm back, breath in, and out, and throw, so that it hits the target. "Now try again," I said, walking away from him. I glance back a minute later and see the knife in the centre ring of his target. I roll my eyes at him, returning to my seat.
"Okay, Lunch! All knives left in the boards." Tobias shouts to them, breaking me out of my daydream. He laughs as he walks over to me, "enjoying yourself?" I just shrug in response. "We have to grade them after lunch, and once that's done, we'll let them finish for the day. Similar to tomorrow." He explains to me, and I nod. "Lunch?" he asked.
"Yeah," I stand and give Tobias a hug before heading towards the door with a yawn. He walks alongside me, and I reach out for his hand, before thinking better, "you know, pretending not to be together is the hardest thing."
He laughs, "I know," he says, as we walk into the cafeteria. I go and get Tobias and I some food this time, while he sits with Will and Christina.
"Here," I say, handing Tobias some cake and a burger before sitting next to Christina. "No Uriah?" I asked.
"He's with Marlene," Christina laughed, I heard a snigger from Tobias and Will too, and shook my head.
"Ahh, young love," I grin, glancing at Will and Christina, who smacks my arm.
"You can talk!" I glare jokingly at her, "Ah well, it's good if it lasts though, right?"
"Definitely," I agree, before sighing, "Did you hear what happened between Becca and Alex yesterday?" I asked through a mouthful of cake.
"No?" Christina replied.
"Huge fight between them in the dorms, Becca was in hospital overnight, but came to train in the morning. Alex wouldn't stand in front of knives when Four was throwing them either." Christina sniggers.
"I assume that's what the blood on your ear's from then?" she asks, I nod with a laugh.
"He couldn't resist," Tobias grins at me, and I hit his arm. "Good job I knew that you would or the others would've seen me flinch!" He laughs again.
"Then I would've had an excuse to hug you though," I shook my head at him.
"You're awful," I muttered before standing, "I'll meet you in the training room." He nods at me, and I walk out, breaking into a jog after a few minutes to get to my apartment quicker. I spent a few minutes cleaning the blood off my ear and inspecting the cut in a mirror. It wasn't very deep, and would probably be pretty much healed by tomorrow, which was the point. I let my hair down, so it fell around my shoulders, before running out and to the training room. I knew Tobias would be there already.
I got there at the same time as the initiates, and let them in before me, then slid into the room myself, walking round to where Tobias was.
"Right, this afternoon, Six and I will be scoring you on your technique and accuracy. We'll score separately, and have the results on the board tomorrow morning. After tomorrow, we will be losing one of our number," he looks around at everyone, mouth pulled into a tight line. He didn't like throwing people out either. "I suggest that, if you're not too good at shooting, you get good at knife throwing, quickly. We will mark you on your stance, grip on the knife, the ease of your throwing and accuracy. The marks will be out of five."
I slip off to the side to grab some paper and two pencil as Tobias gets them all to start throwing again. We agree to go opposite ways round, so that we can't see what scores we've given each of them.
I walk off to the other side to start, with Jace as my first person. He throws five knives while I'm stood there. I watch how he stands, his ease at throwing, his grip of the knife, and his accuracy, and mark him out of five. He got a 4, having hit the target but not the centre on three out of the five knives. Tobias does the same, and we move down the line, crossing at Becca and Nadia, who were stood next to each other in the middle of the group.
"Right, we've graded all of you. Knives down, and off you go." Tobias voice calls out as we meet in the middle, he smiles at me, and I smile back, waiting for them all to leave. "What've you got then?" he asked, once the room was empty. I shrugged and handed him my sheet, he nodded and added the scores together on his sheet, then handed it to me to write up on the board for tomorrow.
"Can we dock Alex of two points for not standing there while you threw the knives?" I ask, seeing him with ten points annoyed me.
"Don't tell him," Tobias nods, and I grin before turning to the board.
Daniel: 10
Nadia: 10
Athena: 9
Jay: 9
Logan: 9
Alex: 8
Emily: 8
Grace: 8
Jace: 8
Lucas: 8
Becca: 7
I sighed, noticing Becca was lowest. It wouldn't be right to throw her out, but I had nothing else I could do, I just had to hope that her fighting and shooting skills were better than her knife throwing.