"Jay!" Jaylana continued walking, ignoring the yells of her brother coming from behind her. "Jaylana wait up!"

Once she reached their door, she put her pin code in and ripped the door open. She was exhausted, and her head was throbbing. Eric hadn't been kidding when he said she would be doing paperwork. He'd left her around six to do god knows what, with a huge pile of shit to organize, and told her not to leave a second before ten.

It was only nine. Jaylana didn't care. Fuck Eric and his pretentious-ass attitude.

"Hey," Jayson stormed in after her. "What did he make you do Jay?"

Jaylana walked to her room. She'd had hours to think of something since Eric had threatened her multiple times to "keep her pretty little mouth shut," but she had nothing. At least nothing that her best friend would buy. Jayson knew her better than anyone, he'd see through anything she came up with.

"Leave me along JJ, I'm too tired to talk," she said quietly and made her way to her room.

She slammed the door shut behind her and grabbed clothes, then took a shower long enough that would earn her a scolding from her father later on. After that she went to bed, glancing at her watch before passing out at 9:45.

..

..

..

"Dude," Vance said quietly as they walked down the crowded hall, toward the exit that led to where they took the train to school. "You and I should skip again," he suggested. Jaylana turned her head toward him and laughed.

"I'm serious Jay! Clearly, your punishment wasn't all that bad since you're still walking," Vance said enthusiastically.

Jaylana shot him a look of concern, was he really that dull? She had just gotten done telling him about how her father had woken her up at 11 last night just to yell at her for climbing the wall again, and for skipping class.

She couldn't afford any more screw-ups.

"No one would even know unless one of our class-mates tattle, and you and I both know that no one would dare cross you." he opened the door for her and winked. "We need alone time anyway. If just you and I sneak out, then we can-," she never got to find out what he was saying next, because as Vance was walking backward, he slammed into a hulking figure before she could stop him.

Vance turned around quickly with a look of annoyance, but his face cleared the moment he realized he'd ran into Eric Coulter, who was glaring down menacingly at him.

"Planning on skipping again, Monahan? Surely you and your little boyfriend aren't stupid enough to go against the leader's orders again?" His voice was poisonous, but his glare was worse.

"He's not my boyfriend," Jaylana snapped.

She had no idea why she felt the need to correct him that sense, but it was too late now.

A look of annoyance covered Vance's face, but she ignored it. Flirting with him was one thing, but he was her brother's best friend. There was no way in hell that she'd let someone spread a rumor that they were dating.

"And no, we aren't skipping. So, if you'll excuse us," Jaylana moved around him and started dragging Vance away, but Eric stopped her by stepping in front of them. He motioned for Vance to continue but held his hand up so that she couldn't.

"She'll meet you there," Eric said in a deathly-calm voice. "We need to discuss the fact that you completely disobeyed my orders last night that you stay, in the training room, until 10."

Vance stopped in his place and waited, but continued when Eric turned toward him and all but growled.

Jaylana folded her arms and watched Vance as he slammed the exit-door open and threw his hood over his head. She hadn't realized it was pouring rain.

"I don't think he liked that very much," a smirk had replaced the scowl that Eric had one his face only seconds before. "You saying that he isn't your boyfriend." He explained.

"I don't care, he isn't," she said quietly. "Not that it is any of your business."

Eric raised his eyebrows. "You're going to be my initiates next week, so it actually is my business."

Jaylana couldn't help but glare at him. He was assuming a hell of a lot considering he barely knew her. Again, she couldn't help but wonder what made him act so self-righteous and entitled all the time. "How can you tell I plan to stay here?" she pondered.

"I've seen you climb the wall of the pit many times," Eric kept his arms folded but moved around her, so he was leaning back against the wall.

Jaylana couldn't help but glance down to his arms, which were bulging out of his short-sleeved shirt. The tattoos covering his arms sent shivers down her spine; she wanted to take the time to look at each one of them individually, slowly; very slowly.

"I've watched you train with your brother for years. Watched you run for hours at a time on a treadmill, watched you fight others with no fear at all. I've even watched you intimidate a kid who was picking on someone just by looking at them. You're Dauntless, why pretend otherwise?"

Jaylana stared at him. She didn't remember that incident, but it could have been because his dark eyes were shining mischievously and he was smirking. It was hard to think about anything but him, and how it was so unfair that he was so damn attractive.

"So, you watch me a lot? That's sort of creepy, don't you think?" her voice wavered as she spoke, and she cursed herself inwardly for it.

That was a sign of weakness.

And Jaylana knew better to never let weakness show in front of anyone, particularly someone like Eric.

Eric's smirk grew even more, "just doing my job."

He tilted his head and looked up and down her body.

It made her feel both uncomfortable and extremely happy at the same time.

When she didn't answer him, he pushed off the wall and stepped forward.

He leaned down, so he was only inches from her face, "I went easy on you yesterday, and I never, go easy on anyone. Don't think that I'm going to let you get away with leaving early. You're to go straight to my office when you get back today. I'll let your father know."

He stepped back and nodded toward the exit. "Better hurry, the train will be here any second."

Jaylana watched him walk the other way with wide eyes.

His office? Again? Hadn't he punished her enough by leaving all of his paperwork for her to do?

Screw this; maybe Vance's idea of skipping, not the full day, but part of it, wasn't all that bad after all.