Chapter 6

I shake my head "I have an appointment with a tattoo gun and probably Bud for some piercings. Fights are over and that was the only thing holding me up on that. And I have been wanting to finally get that one tattoo finished. So please by all means take my Sister out and have fun."

He grins and I see Astrid smiling as he makes his way back over to her. I shake my head but still smile. "Idiots."

Lauren calls Eric over and he puts on his scowl but not before one more brief touch of his hand to my elbow. I go around to my friends and Astrid pulls me aside and hugs me. We stand together and talk about what she might be able to wear.

"Shauna has most of our clothes that would be good for going out. And I am sure she would love to help you get ready, it is her brother after all." I wink at her and she blushes. "Astrid you look beautiful in anything and by the way he was looking at you anything you wear is going to look beautiful on you too. Wear something that makes you feel like you."

She kisses my cheek. "I love you Raven."

I smile and allow my dimples to show. "Love you too. You could have told me you know. I don't want you anywhere near Peter."

She nods with a frown. "Maybe we were just worried about it making things uncomfortable between the three of us."

I sigh "No you just didn't want to make me feel like a third wheel, but you shouldn't have had to think that. I should have seen it. I have been so wrapped up in myself and training I lost sight of you guys. I will try to do both Astrid but you know how I can be. I get so laser focused on something and I miss things."

We hang out together and pretty soon I am getting restless. Since initiation began my body, when not forced into sleep, is always doing something. Especially this last month since I have been doing training from the time my eyes open until Tris and Four make me go close them.

One of the fights is taking a ridiculous amount of time and I roll my eyes and drift off after throwing my hands up in exasperation.

"Where you going?" Scott asks worriedly.

"I am not leaving. I just can't fucking stand still anymore. I can't train because Four has forbidden it but I just have to move. I will come back over when it is your time. I am going to count footsteps to the end of the room or some shit like that." Scott laughs way too loud as do our other friends and others that hang out with us on occasion.

I roll my eyes and shake my head and drift down the room to get further away. I contemplate running suicides but Four would get upset. As I walk to a darker part of the room I stand staring at the wall. A thought strikes me. I smile and giggle a bit.

I back up a bit and face the wall. I throw a glance to see if anyone is near or looking and Tris throws a glance but isn't really paying attention. I grin again "Perfect."

I decide to try something out I had seen someone do once in the Pit. I back up a good distance and run towards the wall full out and then do a run up the wall as high as I can. I then push off into a backwards flip. I make the flip and land but lose my balance and end up on my ass.

I give a loud whoop then "Fuck!" I yell in surprise and a bit of pain. I can't help it, I then break out into laughter as I stand up rubbing my ass. Damn that was a rush and was fun, so I have to do it again and see if I can get higher.

I back up to repeat the process forgetting to look and see if anyone is watching or near. This time I backed up more and assumed a runners stance so I can push off and give myself more power. When I hit the wall and run up it I do get higher and push off harder on my backflip but still fall onto my ass after I have landed. This time I use it and do a backwards roll and pop up. I am breathing harder and grinning.

"Fuck that was fun, why didn't I try that sooner? I saw that guy it do it ages ago in The Pit!" I don't realize I am yelling. "Got up higher that time but something is off." I start to pace still grinning and trying to analyze my attempts. "Maybe too much power? But I need the power for the wall to get up it." I stop and look at the wall again. "Screw I won't know if it will work until I do it.

"Can it wait? Because I would like to see you do it again but I think you want to watch your friend fight." Eric spoke up from beside me obviously amused.

I don't jump exactly but he does startle me a bit. I am still grinning and can feel my adrenaline levels are high and my mind is working. "Oh shit…yeah sorry." I turn to start to walk back over to watch the matches and I look at him as he follows me. "I couldn't keep my body still anymore and they were just pussy footing around so I had to do something that wasn't considered training or Four would go all Fourzilla on me." I finish and Eric chokes he is surprised by my nickname.

"Good God where have you been Raven? Fourzilla really?" He looks at me smiling and I giggle.

"Yeah when he goes on his rants or becomes all overprotective I call him that. Doesn't make the situation any better but Tris and I usually laugh our asses off." I smirk and then bite my lip in thought.

"Ok I need a sounding board. I was pushing off from the wall too hard I think. The force might be too much for my landing to maintain being upright. The rolling from the landing on my ass helps get me up, but it doesn't exactly feel great to land on concrete on my butt no less. So I think I might need to adjust my footing for when I land; maybe one foot in front of the other for better stability? What do you think?" I ask as I use my hands to gesture like I do when I am talking out a problem.

"Both are good theories but it would make sense to widen your stance on landing. You might not want to pull back too much on the power of the push off though." He looks over at me and I see his mind working. I could tell he was running the visuals in his head and I smiled because for once I got what Eric was thinking. Fucking finally.

I nod in agreement. "Excellent I will try that on the next time." I sigh when I see Four pointedly looking at me. "I see I am being summoned by Fourzilla." I say softly to Eric as I smile at him playfully.

His lips twitch and he shakes his head and puts his hand on the small of my back and guides me over there. "I assume you will be going into that same state to watch Scott and Arnie?"

I nod "Yeah I am not as worried about this one but Arnie was Erudite. We are born to be sneaky little shits so I know we haven't seen everything he has. Scott has him in raw power as far as muscles but that can be negated easily."

We came up to stand by Four, Tris, and Lauren and Four glared at Eric and his hand on my back. "Thought I said…"

I held up a hand to stop him "I wasn't training I can promise you that. I was just having a bit of fun. You know that thing you know nothing about." I say cheekily to him and he almost literally pulls me away from Eric.

Tris hisses at him. "Let her go Four and remember where we are. Go make sure James is taken to the infirmary."

He hesitates for a moment then gives my arm a squeeze in apology and I sigh. "You told me to have fun so it's your own fault." I give him a small smile and he nods then stiffly walks away.

Tris lets out a breath and frowns at his back as he walks away. Then she nudges me "Scott is coming up. After that I am going to head out and do some paperwork. But I can drop you off at the dorm to shower and change and then we can head to the parlor."

I turn away from the rest of the initiates and face her, Lauren and Eric but direct my smile at her letting it show how happy I am. "That sounds like the best news in the world. I am surprised Fourzilla isn't demanding to post sentries at the doors to make sure I don't try and escape."

Tris giggles "He so fucking hates that name. Which is why I love using it. You are a terrible influence Raven." She sighs "He is making Zeke stay there until I get back from doing paperwork but only because we don't know if the infirmary will be releasing him or not. Mar doesn't want to let him leave but at the same time she thinks if she has to listen to him anymore she might kill him."

I turn back to the ring "He demanding to see me?"

She gives a bit of a growl as her answer. "Not being very nice about it either."

I nod and frown. I see Scott doing his warm up so I close my eyes and enter my detached state and open my eyes and focus on the ring.

Four walks back in and is fuming. Eric tenses when he sees him return "Looks like you guys have control here. I have something…to take care of." Eric says coldly but then catches my eye and like before touches my back briefly before walking out.

Four frowns when he gets next to us. "Where is he going?"

Tris shrugs but I can see in her face that she has some idea. Four looks at the ring but I quirk an eyebrow at her and she shakes her head to me. I look back to the ring.

"Eric wants to see the obstacle course before we reset it." Four bites out to me and I nod.

"It makes sense, he needs to know what his initiates have been up to and I have been doing outside of curriculum activities. He also might have something he could add to it. Just like Zeke added the bit about the wall that you have to go across with a finger sized ledge to hang on to. Lauren did the part with the parallel walls that I have to leap up into and catch myself and move my way up by only using those two walls." I smile a little when I am already predicting what Four is going to say.

"Exactly, imagine what HE will come up with." He grinds out.

"Exactly, imagine what HE will come up with." I say in my detached tone at the exact same time.

Tris and Lauren burst into laughter and Four looks at me with his eyebrow raised. "Don't do that Raven that shit is creepy when you do it. Scott and Arnie gets your asses in the ring now." He bellows and I smile a bit more at him before nodding to Scott encouragingly.

I focus in on just the two in the ring and right away I see Arnie is slightly surprised by Scott's new stance. "Arnie isn't expecting the new stance, they are both in a stance for more martial. He studied Scott well if I am not mistaken."

Four grunts in agreement "He won't know what Scott knows."

Tris calls the fight command and Scott immediately launches into his attack but doesn't go for high kicks to start out with and Arnie isn't expecting that. In the end that was all it took, just that first surprise attack and Scott easily won. Arnie still managed to get up but he hadn't protected his legs from assault at all and he never recovered enough to go into his own offensive of kicks. He still got in a few jabs and punches but nothing serious as Scott had worked on his ability to move in and out of range quickly.

Four steadied me when I came out by wrapping an arm around my waist when he knew I would be leaving my void. He leaned close to me "I am sorry that I might have hurt you earlier but I don't want Eric getting close to you. I still don't trust him."

I shrug and internally sigh. "He was just making sure I got over here quickly because he knew I was concerned. And since none of you will ever tell me what he did to not make you distrust him to begin with I don't know what that means. Besides you know better that I make form my own opinions about people."

He sighs and squeezes me and lets go. "Just be careful please."

Tris takes my arm and we meet Scott and I give him a hug. "Good job Scott! Tris is going to take me for the rest of the time but I will see you guys later."

He kisses my cheek and nods "Keep your promise though Ray"