All rights given to the author of the Divergent Trilogy, I do not own any thing from the books/movies, only my OCs.
Lunch ended, and combat practice began. Four showed us different techniques to use in combat and pair us off to practice. Athena and Shaw practiced with each other, both learning fast, and teaching each other. By the end of practice they were both breathing hard.
Free time came next, and after cleaning up Athena joined Jessie and the others going up to the tattoo parlor.
"What are you going to get Jessie?" Shaw asked her as we gathered around the walls that were decorated with tattoo designs.
"Hmm...not sure yet" She responded, deep in thought.
Athena looked over the walls, nothing jumping out to her screaming "Pick Me! Pick Me!".
"Need some help deciding?"
Athena turned around, and came face-to-face with an Asian woman with long black hair, and piercings decorating her face and ears.
"I'm just not seeing anything on here that I really like." Athena confessed
"I can do more than just what is on the walls," the woman smiled at me, "You're the Erudite transfer, right? Athena? The first jumper?"
"Yeah, how did you know?" Athena asked curiously
"Everyone always knows about the first jumper. Nice name by the way, the Greek goddess of war and intellect, very fitting. My name is Tori, by the way."
Athena looked surprised at her, so far no one had caught on to the significance of her chosen name until now; Athena concluded that Tori must have been a transfer from Erudite herself.
"I'm sure you've read some books on art before the war, maybe try to think back onto those." Tori suggested
Athena thought about it, and the Indian art of mandala, usually used when applying henna, always really appealed to her. She thought the melodious patterns and various designs that came together to create on picture were always so beautiful.
"Have you ever seen mandala before?" Athena asked Tori who was now by the closest bed, cleaning her tools.
Tori smiled over at her, "Of course, beautiful works of art, I've never had anyone come in here asking for it before, then again even the Erudite transfers usually never studied art before or after the war."
Athena laid down on the bed and described to Tori what she was envisioning: two bands of henna around her wrists, made to look like flames to signify the flames of Dauntless, and the same on her feet. Tori nodded and set off to work, Athena barely noticed the pain, her blood was pumping with excitement on the outcome.
It was only an hour later when Tori was done. Athena looked at her hands and feet, and a wide grin spread on her face, beautiful designs were drawn over her feet, and around her ankles and wrists. "It's beautiful Tori, thank you" Athena thanked Tori gratefully, she was one step closer to feeling more Dauntless.
"Now all you need is a piercing," Tori laughed, Athena thought about it, "A nose ring, just a small hoop through my right nostril." Tori nodded and returned with small silver hoop that was made to look like you actually had three piercings instead of just one. There was small pressure when Tori pressed the needle through my nose, but it was quickly gone and replaced by dull throbbing when she slid the ring through. Looking in the mirror, I smiled, I didn't look as much like an Erudite anymore.
"Off to the clothing store," Tori ushered me off the bed, "You're not done yet!" she laughed.
Athena met up with the rest of her friends outside the tattoo parlor and they all compared tattoos and piercings. Athena laughed as Jessie and Rox grabbed her arms and started dragging her off towards to the clothing store, with Sky bouncing along with a smile. When Athena looked over her shoulder at the two boys who laughed helplessly and followed, she caught sight of someone looming behind, by the entrance of the tattoo parlor, it was Eric. She looked up at his face that was covered by shadow. He stepped out into the light and she almost gasped at what she saw, there was a small smile on Eric's face, small, but there. An even bigger smile crossed Athena's when she watched as someone approached Eric and the smile was replaced instantly with frown and stern eyes.
The girls went crazy in the store, and by the time they were done going through every rack of clothing, Athena was in line to purchase two more pairs of pants, a couple tank tops, a long sleeve shirt, combat boots, and a leather jacket.
Stepping out of the clothing store, the girls saw that right next store was another sort of parlor, but it was for more cosmetic products; they all looked at each other grinning, then ran into the store quickly ready to get make overs done. Jessie and Rox both cut their long hair short; Jessie got a pixie cut while Rox got an A-line cut; Sky decided to dye her hair a dark blue, almost black, as a sort of joke after her name. Athena took time decided, and Erudite thing to do, before dying her own long brown hair a red ombre, a dark red fading into honey blonde. Once done the other girls commented on how it looked similar to flames, and liked it. After getting stocked up on makeup, and making a deal to share with each other, they headed out of the store and back towards their dormitory with the boys in tow. Once there they decided they had to look good for dinner, to prove to everyone that they weren't Candor, Abnegation, Amity, or Erudite anymore.
Dressed in a tight black racer back tank top that showed off just a bit of skin above her hips where her new pair of black pants began, they were as skinny as skinny could get with zipper pockets, they showed off how long her legs were on her 5'7" frame, they scrunched slightly around her ankles, where another zipper on each leg was to be able to zip the bottoms open. Her black combat boots fit perfectly, and the leather jacket she bought finished her look. She remembered how she found it in the very corner of the store, the shopkeeper commented on how she didn't even know that they had it, it was a jacket that was found after the war, a truly "vintage" piece, and because it didn't have a price on it, the shopkeeper let Athena have it for free, claiming that it "showed itself to her, and she was obviously meant to have it". Jessie and Athena helped Rox and Sky with their makeup; Athena had read books on fashion before the war, and Jessie was a Candor, they were the only other faction besides Dauntless that permitted the wear of makeup. The dark eyeliner and eye shadow Athena used on herself brought out her green eyes, and the mascara made them look even bigger; the bronzer she used made her high cheek bones even more defined, and the natural looking lip stain made her lips look more plump. When they were finally finished they looked at each other and grinned, they all looked completely different, and when Athena looked into the mirror, she finally looked Dauntless, not Erudite.
They walked into the dining hall where the boys were going to save them seats, commenting on how they were taking too long to get ready. Heads were turned as the four girls walked in, all walking a little bit straighter and heads held a little more higher. When they got to the table the boys looked speechless, noting on how different they looked. And just as Athena was about to sit down, she looked up to the leader table and saw Eric watching her with a look in his eye that Athena had never seen before; what was it? It wasn't coldness, she knew what that looked like, it wasn't a soft warmth, she had been lucky enough to have seen that in his eyes a select few times, no, this look more like wanting, a raw hunger. Athena struggled to keep a smirk off her face, she didn't know why that look pleased her as much as it did, it definitely shouldn't, he was a Dauntless leader after all, untouchable to initiates. She decided then, that if she really wanted Eric, that she would have to do whatever it took to be number one in the rankings. She looked determined as she glanced back up at him, he was still watching her, but now seeing the look in her own eye, he raised an eyebrow in curiosity.
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The transfer initiates walked into the training room to find an old green chalkboard with their names written on it, everyone had another name next to theirs except for Athena's.
Four walked in and announced, "Today we begin the matches. Everyone is paired up except for one; Athena you'll be training on your own today, we have odd numbers so there's no one to go against you, you'll go tomorrow. First up, Jessie and Patricia" Jessie walked into the middle of a white circle painted onto the floor, followed by the other Candor girl, a huge mean looking girl named Patricia, she was apart of the trio that had made it their mission here to make the other transfer initiates lives hell. Just last night they had all made fun of Sky's new blue hair, telling her to go home and back to picking in the fields.
Athena had just walked over to the nearest punching bag when the two girls had started fighting, Jessie was successfully dodging all of Patricia's brute punches, when Eric walked into the room. He stood next to Four and watched the two girls, Patricia had still not managed to land a punch on Jessie other than skimming her jaw.
Suddenly Eric called out to them, "Stop playing around," then he shocked everyone, "There are new rule this year, no one can concede; KO's only, that's how the match gets finished." Everyone stared at him shocked.
Athena, overhearing this walked close, "That's not fair! It takes a brave man to admit and recognize when he is beaten." She argued.
Eric looked at her with anger in his eyes, she was actually standing up against him, no one had ever done that, no one had ever had the guts to do so, especially not a girl, "And it takes a coward to give up." He said simply as though that statement won the argument for him.
She huffed, and was about to continue, when she looked at Jessie, who just shook her head, telling her to just let it go. Athena stomped back off to her punching bag. Imagining that it was Eric she hit it as hard as she could. She focused all her energy on the bag, she didn't want to see the matches, she knew they would be brutal, and what's more, bloody. She heard grunt after grunt from Patricia, and the thuds and gasps as her punches landed on Jessie. Finally as Athena gave her bag one more punch she heard the thud of Jessie's body as it hit the ground. Athena turned around for the first time, seeing Jessie's body crumpled on the ground with her face all bloody made Athena's blood boil, and even more when she saw the look of pure satisfaction on Patricia's face as she stared down at the smaller Candor girl who was black out. Athena wanted to run up and just lay a beating on not only Patricia, but her two other Candor buddies as they snickered at Jessie failure to lay a punch on the she-man that was Patricia.
Four turned to look at Athena, "Take Jessie to the infirmary, it's straight down the hall, the first double doors you see to the right."
Athena rushed to Jessie's side, "Jessie," she shook the girl, "Jessie, wake up." the girl made a moaning sound before finally opening her eyes, "What happened?" she asked Athena.
Athena laughed softly at Jessie, "Come on, let's get you up."
Jessie wasn't that heavy, so it didn't take much strength to get the girl to her feet, she swayed unsteadily, "Lean on me Jessie" the girl nodded and Athena wrapped one of the girl's arms around her neck and wrapped her own arm around Jessie's waist and together the walked slowly out of the training room, but not before Athena could give Eric the dirtiest look she could muster. He held his ground as stared back into her eyes.
Athena left Jessie to rest hours later. She knew training would be done for the day, as today was a lot more physical than the previous day's. Instead of heading back to the dormitory, Athena headed back to the training room, she needed to get in a couple more hours of training for herself, before she could go up against someone tomorrow and come out victorious.
When she got to the training room, it appeared to be empty at first glance, made sense considering dinner was done and over with, Athena skipped it when Rox was carried into the room by Bobbie. Apparently Alex (one of the terrible Candor trio) had decided not to go easy on the small Abnegation girl. Athena zipped off her sweatshirt, comfortable in the crop top she received on the first day when there was no one else around, and walked towards the row of punching bags.
She started stretching her arms and legs when she heard heavy breathing from the other side of the room, she slowly turned around, surprised she had not heard the person when she first came in. Along the wall, doing pull ups on a bar that was attached to the ceiling, was Eric. Athena knew that she could just turn away, and do her own thing without being distracted, well she could if the man had decided to work out with a shirt on. But no, staring right at her while continuing his pull ups, was a shirtless Eric. And to say that he was fit would be an understatement, the guy was ripped. The tattoos on his neck stopped just above his collarbone, the rest of his front side was clear of any tattoos other than his forearms that were decorated in a maze of black lines, the Dauntless symbol in the middle of it. Slowly she felt her face warm up. She had never seen a man so exposed outside the pages of health books. She did have to appreciate the definition of his abs as he tightened his abdomen, and the flexing of his biceps as they pulled his muscled body up.
She shook the thoughts out of her head and quickly turned back to the punching bags. She tried to remember what the very man, who's body she was just admiring, had enforced earlier today. The reason two of her friends were in the hospital was because of him. Or was it? She then realized that it could have just been the cruelness that was Alex and Patricia. If the KO rule had been in place would they have fought any different, Athena highly doubted it. They trio hated Jessie for being so out rightly defiant towards them, and they hated Rox just because she came from Abnegation, whom the Candor believe are deceiving everyone with their lies. Suddenly Athena wasn't so angry so much at Eric, but at Alex and Patricia, she found her punches faltering. She wanted so badly to be angry at Eric, because she was afraid of what she felt for him if she wasn't.
"You'll have to put more effort behind those punches if you plan to beat anyone."
Athena jumped at Eric's voice behind her.
"You have got to stop that!" She exclaimed about him surprising her
"You knew I was in here" He smirked
"Yes, but you were over there," she pointed to the opposite wall, "And now you're over here all of the sudden. How do you even do that?" She huffed and tried to look everywhere but at him.
"Years of practice" He smirked, "Now come one, turn around, I know you want to beat the crap out of Patricia and Alex, but you're not going to with those punches. You're smaller than them, so you will have to be fast." He grabbed her arms and spun her around to face the punching bags once more. He pressed his front to her back, her exposed lower back meeting the lower part of his abdomen, making shivers run through her. "Are you cold?" He asked, sounding almost concerned, "No" she said shortly trying to focus. He nudge her feet apart, "Remember, feet shoulder width apart, always. Now lift your fists to about your chin, that will allow you to protect your face, but not leave your stomach totally open." She tried again a couple of times, "Tighten your stomach," He placed a large, warm, calloused hand on her exposed skin, unconsciously pulling her even closer, "It'll help you put more force into your attacks."
After punching a few times, and a couple of tips from Eric, he stopped her. "You have long legs," he put a hand on her thigh, her pulse became faster, "Use them, kick your opponent. The stomach, legs, if you can reach their head, use your legs to your advantage," he then said a little more quietly, "their longer than most." Was that suppose to mean something? Athena wasn't aware of the meaning behind his words, that he meant he had been taking notice of her, even when she wasn't aware of it.
She continued practicing before Eric finally stepped away, "You should go head to bed now, you'll want your rest before you have to face someone tomorrow." Athena nodded in agreement and grabbed her jacket from off the ground. She was about to walk out of the training room when Eric grabbed her hand, gesturing to her jacket he said, "Put that on, you don't need that kind of attention." She looked at him questioningly before slipping the jacket on not zipping it up, when she turned to walk away, she smiled when he grabbed her hand again, "Are you trying to tease me?" He growled, zipping up the jacket all the way to her neck. Satisfied he let her go and walked out of the room before her. She couldn't help but laugh.
When she got back to the dormitory there was no one in, everyone must be out doing something during their free time. She went to the bathroom to take a shower, when she got out she slipped on the cotton shorts, sports bra, and loose tank top - which its open sides ended just below her rib cage - that she had received as PJ's. She was towel drying her hair as she walked out of the bathroom and came across everyone back in the dormitory. She could feel the tension in the room as she walked towards her bed. She noticed that Jessie and Rox were still not back from the infirmary yet. She sat on the bed when she noticed how Bobbie, Shaw, and Sky were staring at Cal, the sort of leader of the Condor trio. Athena realized then that he was reading something, a sort of article on the Abnegation, and how a larger number of the youth than ever before had transferred out of the faction, and that must prove that they aren't as selfless or reliable to lead the government like they claim. The article was no doubt written by Erudite, Jeanine Matthews probably hand typed it herself. Cal continued on saying things about Rox and her family that were more than likely not true, the last stray was when they started speculating about how her father probably made her do things.
Athena stood up, Cal looked right at her. "Hey Erudite, you agree with this don't you? I mean it was your faction that wrote this, but you're still friends with the Stiff. Why's that? Want to prove to everyone you're not an Erudite anymore. Well I think you'd do well to stick to that part of your old faction's mentality." He smirked as her fists clenched tightly.
Athena turned to him, "No one gives a damn about what you think Candor. You obviously don't belong here, slandering someone's family when they aren't even here to defend themselves. You're pathetic you coward."
He started toward her slowly, looking as menacing as possible, Athena just thought he looked like the snake he was. She stalked out of the dormitory, fuming, before a fight could start.
The next chapter will have a certain degree of fluffiness! So if you want to read that asap favorite/follow and especially review! Love you all!