This chapter is sort of a filler until the very end with Rhys and Eric. I'm trying to work through relationships without rushing them while also adding a main plot. Their romance is only going to be a subplot, if you catch my drift.

Is anyone actually reading this? I'm getting followers but no reviews. Do you guys think you could give me some feedback because I feel like it's sort of slow and not building really.

No one asked about my disappearance during lunch time and I was grateful. Then we all made our way back to the training room and went back to knife throwing. No matter how hard I worked at it, I never seemed to get any better and it was so frustrating. I was the smallest initiate and knew that that was going to be a problem. At some point we would be doing hand-to-hand combat and I would be toast. If I thought I was bad at throwing knives, I was going to be even worse at fighting.

"You've got too much tension in your shoulders," T told me, making me jump in surprise. "And you call me the stiff."

"I'm sorry, T. I was upset and vulnerable and it happened to be you that caught me," I explained to him. "I hate when people see me that way, I don't want to look any weaker than I already do."

"I accept your apology," he said without looking away from the target. Then he launched a knife at it and hit the center perfectly. "But I'm still better at throwing knives than you are."

I listened to his advice and relaxed my shoulders, letting the tension leave. I gripped the knife in my hand and stepped forward before throwing it. I let out an excited shriek when it hit closer to the target than I'd gotten before. It was about two inches deep, but it was near the target and staying put so I considered that a victory.

"You hit the target, not the center! Keep going, red!" Lance said from somewhere behind me. "Good enough isn't good enough."

By the end of training that day, T had the most punctures at his target's center with a Candor boy close behind him. I was right in the middle with Kadence and that was good enough for me, despite what Lance shouted at me earlier. I didn't have to be first rank, I just had to be in the top ten to stay.

"You're all dismissed, but I advise that a great deal of you work on your throwing," Lance said. "Even if you're Factionless, this is a good skill to have. Fights happen no matter where you are, including every Faction."

I struggled to imagine a fight happening in Abnegation. I just saw two people standing close together, complimenting each other really harshly. The thought made me snort with laughter, but Lance didn't hear it and I was glad. The last thing I wanted was for him to chew my ass again today. I wasn't sure if I could handle that twice in one day.

T and I were walking in the Pit together when I felt someone wrap their arms around me from behind. Kadence slipped to the other side of me, keeping her arm in place around my shoulders, and fell into step with T and me. I was happy to have a group of friends that seemed to genuinely care about me, it was a giant leap above my life in Amity.

"I'm going to go get a tattoo of the Dauntless symbol over my heart," Kadence told us. "Do you want to go with me for moral support?"

"I was thinking about checking getting something like that on my back," T told her and I nodded in agreement.

I knew he was trying to shake the 'stiff' reputation that he had here. He wanted everyone to realize that he was Dauntless now. That made another pang of guilt course through me, I'm sure my comment hadn't made it any better.

We walked into the tattoo shop and it was a lot darker than I expected it to be. There was a steady smoke around our feet that confused me more. Wouldn't they need light to make sure that the tattoos looked good? I realized I was wrong when I saw the tattoo that was being placed on Kadence's chest looked really good.

While T and Kadence were getting their tattoos, I made a decision. I knew that I wanted to alter my body in some kind of way, I just didn't want to get a tattoo just yet. I didn't think I was at that level quite yet. Then I saw that the tattoo shop doubled as a piercing place and realized what I was going to do.

I gravitated over to that side of the shop and looked over all the piercing options. I wasn't courageous enough for any facial piercings quite yet, I still had some Amity left in me. I was going to pierce my ears in some fashion, I just had to figure out which one.

I looked through the ear piercing options and found the one that I wanted. It was a silver ball with balls on both ends that went through the top part of your ear. The label beside it said 'industrial.'

I went up to the lady leafing through a magazine sitting behind the counter. She had an eyebrow full of metallic hoops and three of them on one side of her nose. She was the embodiment of what I thought Dauntless would look like. Her hair was even bright pink with silver tips, but it really fit her and didn't look like she was trying too hard to be one.

"I want to get an industrial piercing," I told her, trying my best to sound like I wasn't scared of the idea.

"Sit in that chair and clear the hair away from the ear you want the piercing in," she instructed before getting up and disappearing into a back room.

My hair was still securely piled on top of my head, but some of my baby hairs had escaped during my training and the meltdown I had earlier. I tore the elastic out of my hair and shook it out behind me before I piled it back on top of my head, sans escaped baby hairs.

I sat down in the chair she pointed out and relaxed back against the leather. I heard someone whistle from another one of the chairs and opened my eyes back up. I followed the sound and saw that Eric was sitting in a chair with a black stud in each of his ears.

"I thought you were practicing with the stiff after training was over," he said, getting up and making his way over to me.

"Practice is for those who aren't good at something," I replied to him. "I figured I should do something about how Amity I still look."

I tried my best to keep my heartbeat down and keep myself from having a repeat of earlier. I held tightly to the hope that my meltdown hadn't been as public as I feared it was. The last thing I needed was for Eric to have seen it. I wanted him to think I was strong and that I could handle myself in any situation, not that that I was terrified for him.

"I'm sure it'll look sexy, just like the rest of you," he winked before strutting out of the shop with my eyes following him.

I'd never been called 'sexy' in my entire life. Sure, I've been called cute or pretty and obviously I'd been called beautiful by Lance. Eric calling me sexy made my entire body tingle and I felt my cheeks turning red. It was a confusing feeling that I've never felt before in my life.

Maybe I wasn't terrified of him, I just didn't know how to take him. He was arrogant, that much was still very true, but something told me he was trying to get me to like him. I mean, he had been pissed when I said I was hanging out with T instead of him. So I wasn't scared of him, I was scared of how I might feel about him. That wasn't something I thought I would feel for a long time…

"Are you ready?" the woman asked, making me jump. "You want the left side, correct?"

I had been so focused on figuring out what was happening in my head that I forgot where I was. The lady had reappeared with a think silver rod in her hands and a baggie with the bar and balls sitting on the table beside me. Wow, I was not good at being observant lately.

"Yes to both," I said, shaking my head in hopes that it would make Eric and the tingly feeling going away –it didn't.

There was a pinch and a burn and then it was done. She handed me a small mirror so I could see the piercing that was now gracing my ear. It looked just as badass as I thought it would and I had the intense desire to go show it to Eric to see what he would do, to see if he thought it was sexy.

"Thank you," I told the lady before getting up and going over to Kadence and T. "Let me see you tattoo, Kade!"

Kadence pulled down the top part of her shirt and showed me the black ink on her skin. It was a thick black circle with flames shooting up inside of it. I'd seen it drawn on the walls down here in shaky lines, but the tattoo was different somehow. It seemed to be alight on her skin, shining bright even though it was done in total black ink.

"Oo, it looks like I'm not the only one who got a body-mod!" she exclaimed, gesturing to the new addition to my ear. "It looks so cool!"

"It's very becoming, Rhys," T agreed, making me laugh and bump him with my shoulder. "What? I may not be Candor, but I'm not a liar!"

I rolled my eyes and walked out of the shop with them on either side of me, making our way to the dining hall for dinner. Kadence and T sat on one side of the table while I sat on the other across from them, shoveling down the burger and fries that were sitting in the center of the table.

"It looks like I was right," Eric said, sliding into the empty seat on my left side. Then he whispered just for me to hear, "It looks very sexy on you, blaze."

My entire body exploded in the tingles and my face heated up immensely. Kadence must've noticed the interaction because I felt her foot hit mine under the table. I was thankful that she didn't ask about it out loud, that would've been too embarrassing for words.

"You all improved a lot from this morning," Lance told us, sitting down on my other side and drawing my attention away from Eric. "Especially you, red, I thought you were going to be bottom rung by the end of it, but you surprised me."

"So you're saying that I impressed you enough to not be the last rank?" I asked. "I'm not going to be Factionless because you think I'm beautiful?"

"No, you're going to be Factionless because you get too cocky and can't back it up," he replied, stealing a fry off of my plate. "The tattoo looks good on you by the way, Candor."

Kadence's face lit up and she smiled. "Thank you! I wanted to look more hardcore, well, as hardcore as I can look with blonde hair and blue eyes."

We all ate together and laughed about stupid things, even Eric cracked a smile a few times. Suddenly everyone started banging their cups and hands against the table and stomping their feet against the floor. It was loud and deafening, but it was so Dauntless that all of us joined in on it with smiles on our faces.

"Our initiates completed their first day of training!" Max announced from the balcony up above the dining tables. "I've consulted with both trainers and they've informed me that all the initiates have great promise! This may be our most talented group yet!"

That made the noise become even more deafening than it was before. I felt hands touching me from every direction as I rose above the tables. I saw that Kadence, T, and Eric were all up above with all the other initiates. We were being passed through all the Dauntless as they cheered for us.

It was such an amazing feeling, almost like I was flying. I couldn't hold in my laughter anymore, I let it bubble out of me in loud laughs. I couldn't pinpoint mine in the mixture of everyone else's, but that was okay.

I felt someone's fingers squeeze my hand and looked over to see that I was passing by Kadence in the air. Her smile was blinding and I'm sure mine was just as bright. She let go as we parted ways, but her touch was still burning on my hand. I belonged here more than I've ever belonged anywhere else in the entire world. I belonged with this group of people and this Faction, this was where I needed to be and this is where I was going to stay. I was going to get as high up in ranking as I could.

Eventually we were set back down onto our feet, but the joyous feeling stayed in my stomach. It was getting late and we had training early in the morning so I headed back to my bed. I was walking down the tunnel by myself when I heard someone jogging to catch up with me.

"Hey, I wanted to apologize for what happened between us earlier," Eric told me, making his pace match mine so we were walking together. "I'm not really sure what it was, but I'm sorry about it."

I contemplated telling him about what made me run away, and that was absolutely crazy. I'd never wanted to speak about it after it happened. I couldn't get a read on him, and it made me lose my mind! I brushed that feeling off and shrugged my shoulders indifferently, figuring he had to be a level four friend to unlock my tragic backstory.

"It was nothing, I just got a little overwhelmed by everything," I told him. "Everyone else seemed to be able to throw the knives but me. I was scared that I wouldn't rank, then I got better and that fear vanished. Sorry to disappoint you with my lack of problems."

"You're lying," he said, forcing me to stop walking my placing himself in front of me. "Why?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I told him, my face instantly hardening. "Why would I tell you anything about me? You're my competition; you'll use anything you to have the upper hand when it comes to rankings."

"I bet you've told the stiff all about it, haven't you? I saw him follow you out of the dining hall earlier and then neither of you came back," he said, his voice clipped and vicious.

"Yeah, he's my friend and he was worried about me," I told him, placing my hands on my hips and staring at him defiantly. "I'm allowed to talk to my friends about what's going on in my life. The only interactions the two of us have had involve you teasing and taunting me! Excuse the hell out of me if I don't count that as friendship!"

"Oh I'm sorry! I wasn't aware that it counted for Lance, but not for me! He hung you out to dry this morning and you were practically humping his leg at dinner!" he flung his words at me like the knives from earlier.

"Look, I don't know what you're mad about, but I do know that I don't have to deal with it. If you don't like me, don't put yourself into situations that I'm involved in," I told him, crossing my arms over my chest. "I like the way I live my life, and I'm going to continue to live it that way."

I pushed past him, slamming into him with my shoulder. I felt my lips pull up into a satisfied smile when I saw him almost lose his balance. He had to reach out and catch himself on the tunnel wall beside his body. The victory was short lived because he easily caught up with me and grabbed my arm, wrenching my body around to face him. There was less than an inch of space between our heaving chests.

"You're going to get yourself hurt if you keep being this reckless with your life," he forced out. "Be careful what you're doing, you don't know the full story on everyone. This isn't Amity, everyone is doing what's best for everyone else."

He flung my arm down and stalked out of the tunnel, back towards the Pit. Confusion flooded me as I stood there with my jaw hanging open. What the hell was he talking about? Who wasn't telling me the full story about everything? He was also sadly mistaken if he thought that everyone in Amity watched out for everyone else. Wyatt was living proof of that.

It was safe to say that I wouldn't sleep too soundly tonight. I would be awake rolling his words around in my head trying to make sense out of them. The stupid bastard.

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