After that slightly embarrassing discovery, Andrew and Tobias returned to the dorms to give Mai and I some 'couple time', much to our amusement. Mai and I had kissed once , and hadn't even discussed what had happened.
"So..." I started, leaving the sentence open.
"So what?" Mai asked, picking at a bread roll.
"Umm... what exactly are we?" I blurted out. "Because honestly, I have no idea."
"Well..." she thought about it. "It could be labelled as friends with benefits." I felt my heart droop with heavy disappointment... friends with benefits... is that all? "But," she continued. "I have no idea about you, but I want more." She avoided my gaze. "I want to... go out with you." I breathed a sigh of relief and she looked at me, confused.
"Great, we are on the same page." I smiled at her. "Now I'm going to have to organise a date, right?" I asked.
"Aww look, you are reading my mind already," Mai patted my shoulder with a bright smile on her face. "Don't worry, we are in Dauntless, I don't expect much." I rolled my eyes at that.
"Of course you don't expect much... Now bring over my plate for me while I think woman."
. . .
The next day, we had a break from beating each other up, and got to go on a fieldtrip instead. We got up at the same time though, unfortunately. I made my way to the train station with Andrew.
"So, you and Mai are like a couple now?" He asked.
"Umm... yeah," I answered. "But apparently she's not going to make it official unless I take her out on a date. I have no idea where I can take her though..." Andrew nodded.
"You'll find something," he said. "There has to be somewhere." He paused. "Don't hurt her Eric, or I'll hurt you twice as hard back." I looked at him.
"Don't worry, I'm pretty sure Mai would have me dead before you even knew."
We stand in the crowd, and I see Amar at the front of the crowd, telling people to get on. When we have all climbed in, Amar hoists himself up. He sits in front of us all, as the train starts to move, and closes his eyes, resting against the wall of the car. He doesn't move again until the train stops.
We all jump out of the train car, and we are met with a barbed wire fence, that is guarded by Dauntless soldiers with guns. Nobody can go outside the fence, it is protected, but nobody knows what is outside the fence, nobody knows what we are being protected from.
"This way," Amar says, and for once he is serious. He has no smile on his face. "If you don't get into the top five places in the initiation, then you'll probably end up here." Amar tells us, heading towards the gate. I think about the limited job options. I'd like to become a tattoo artist or something, but I would love to get a government job. I'd have to come first to get that.
Soon it was time to go - not that I was that disappointed. It wasn't really that interesting, and I didn't intend on working here if I could help it.
I wanted the power. A government job.
. . .
The next day we have more fights, it was Tobias against Andrew, which obviously Tobias won, and I was against Xavier while Mai was against Ella. We both won our matches thankfully.
It was then announced that we were going out to do a little 'exercise' with the Dauntless born. We have to run to the train tracks and are greeted by Amar, who is smiling again, and George, who is rolling his eyes at whatever Amar had just said.
"Okay, everyone grab a gun - quickly!" George shouts, turning around and continuing to talk to Amar, ignoring the hustle bustle there is to grab the guns. There are boxes upon boxes of paintballs stacked beside the guns.
"We are going to shoot something!" Mai cried happily.
"With paintballs," I told her.
"We are going to shoot something... with paintballs!" She repeated, laughing. "Wait... paintballs?"
"Yes, please tell me you know what they are." I sighed at her, my Erudite ways coming back a little.
"Of course I do - it's self explanatory, but I presume that we are going to shoot each other, and paint is the worst thing to try and get out of your hair." She complained.
"How do you-" I began.
"Do not ask, you do not want to know," she answered solemnly.
"Yes I-" she cut me off again.
"Ah-ah-ah! Trust me on this one, you do not want to know."
. . .
Amar and George start to explain after we are all on the train.
"We are going to be playing capture-the-flag. There will be two teams of both Dauntless-born and transfers. One team will get off first and hide their flag, then the second team will follow suit further up the line." Amar explain.
"This is a Dauntless tradition, so have fun but also take it seriously. The winning team gets a little boost on their ranks if they play hard enough." George says. "Amar and I will be team captains." He grins at Amar. "Ladies first."
Amar scoffs and rolls his eyes. "Fine George, but it is rude to suggest that yourself goes first." George glares at him playfully.
Tobias and I are on Amar's team, and Andrew and Mai are on George's team. Amar gets landed with a sassy Zeke, while George picks Shauna separating the two, who will undoubtedly make this a competition between each other. Our team gets off first, and George's stay on the train to get off second.
We hide the flag by the Navy Pier, at the Carousel, after much debating. I spot the Ferris Wheel in the distance and look at it in awe. I think that it would be amazing to go up on it, and look at the stars from the top. It doesn't look as if it works though... maybe if you climbed it. It would be amazing if you knew that if you fell, it would lead to your immediate death.
Amar tells us how this exercise was to promote the importance of teamwork, and I struggle to agree with him as I have never been part of a team in my life. I guess it is never too late to try being part of a team though... We vote on what strategy that we should take, and decide on the offensive. We hide the flag and attack.
Tobias decides to stay behind and guard the flag, but I want to go out and find the flag. And so I run.