CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
TRIS POV
I walk into the dining hall and I find Lynn, Uriah and Marlene sitting at our usual table. I go and grab some food and sit down.
"How were fights today?" Lynn asks.
"I had to fight Peter," I say.
"You won though didn't you?" Marlene asks.
"Yeah she did," Tobias says. He sits down next to me and gives me a hug. "All your hard work paid off Lynn, she was amazing."
"That's great Tris," Lynn says.
"I couldn't have done it without you," I say.
"What do you mean?" Christina asks. Her, Will and Al have just reached our table.
"Tris and Lynn have been training together," Uriah says.
"For how long?" Will asks.
"Most of last year," Lynn says.
"Are you kidding me? How is that fair?" Christina asks.
"Well it isn't about fair Christina, it's about doing your best. Working hard because you know where you belong," Lynn says.
"No it's not," Christina starts to raise her voice. "If it was fair Lynn you would have helped all of us. But no it just happens to be the girl who is dating a Dauntless leader that you help. She always acts so helpless and every one falls all over her but she isn't weak, she is manipulating all of you. I wouldn't have had Eric pick on me if Tris hadn't faked being weak and pissed him off."
"That's not true Christina and you know it," I say. "You gave up all by yourself. We were told we couldn't concede and you did. How is that my fault? You have been nothing but nasty ever since we got here."
"Well what do you expect Tris. You are just little miss perfect. Everyone is just falling all over you, even him," Christina yells and points to Tobias.
I can't believe she is saying all this. Where did all this come from? I thought we were friends but the way Christina is speaking I think she hates me.
"You are so out of line Christina," Lynn says. She has stood up and I see she has her hands rolling into fists. "Every night Tris has asked you to train with us but noooo you are 'too busy' to actually join us. You have no idea of the relationships any of us have because you are never around. You are too busy trying to get laid by Will and if you're not doing that your off shopping. Are you yelling at Edward? He trained for years before he got here, why don't you go over and give him some shit? You want all the attention to be on you all the time. You are always interrupting people and breaking into others conversations. You are just jealous."
"I think everyone should just calm down a bit," says Uriah. "Have some cake and chill."
Uriah stands up and puts a hand on Lynn's shoulder and she starts to sit down. I think the rest of us are too shocked to say anything. I don't think Lynn has spoken that many words in a day before let alone all at once.
"Christina I think it might be better if you sit somewhere else," Marlene says. I didn't expect that from Marlene she loves everybody. But I do think it's a good idea. I can't believe all this is happening.
Christina looks around the table, I don't know why, maybe to see if anyone will ask her to sit but they don't. "Come on Will," Christina says. As they start to walk off she calls to Al, "aren't you coming?" Al looks at everyone at the table and then at Christina and Will. I can see he is torn but he hasn't ever been part of our group and it isn't a surprise when he follows Christina.
"So what did I miss?" Rita says as she sits down.
"You missed the bitch fight of the century," Uriah says. "It would have been better if fists had been used but for once Lynn used her words instead of her fists and it was scary."
We all laugh a little at this and then Marlene catches Rita up on what had happened.
"Are you okay?" Tobias asks me.
"I think so. I didn't realise that she was jealous of me. I don't really understand it," I say. "I don't like seeing her that upset."
"Don't you dare make up with her Tris," Lynn says. "She doesn't deserve you as a friend. You have worked hard for what you have. She wouldn't understand the word. She thinks Dauntless is all fun and games. Wait till she is a fence guard, then she will be begging to go back to Candor."
"She's right," Tobias says. "Ignore her, she isn't worth it."
"Are we training tonight?" Uriah asks.
"I think I'm going to take the night off," I say. "Can we spend some time together?" I ask Tobias.
"Yeah. Do you want to meet in our spot?" Tobias asks.
"That would be nice," I say.
Edward and Myra have just reached our table along with Zeke and Shauna. Everyone sits down and Zeke starts asking questions about what happened.
"How do you know there was an incident?" I ask.
"Well my little friend," Zeke starts. I just want to groan at his little comment. "I am the all seeing Zeke. Working in the control room has its privileges, I just couldn't hear what was being said because of all the background noise in here."
"Well to sum it up quickly," Lynn says. "Christina is jealous of Tris and so I gave her a piece of my mind and Marlene told her to go find a different place to eat. So now our meal times can be peaceful and we shall all live happily ever after while Christina blames the world for her all her problems."
"Wow Lynn. Who knew you could talk so much," Shauna says.
"That is nothing Shauna," Tobias says. "Lynn gave Christina an absolute beat down just with words before you got here."
"Alright this is just too weird. The two people who usually only talk if they have too are both really chatty tonight," Zeke says with a smile on his face.
"Bro you weren't here. Christina was way out of line. Even after Tris had words with her she just kept going. I thought Lynn was going to jump the table and beat her but instead she just said what we had all been thinking since she got here. She has been totally different to the person she was at school," Uriah says.
"That's not entirely true Uriah," Marlene says. "She still just wants to talk about shopping and boys. It's just that it isn't the most important thing we need to think about right now. Christina just hasn't worked that out yet."
"Well we are outta here," Tobias says. "See you all tomorrow."
Everyone says their goodbyes and Tobias and I walk out of the dining hall.
Tobias and I are sitting by our spot at the bottom of the chasm. The sound of the water is soothing after the day I have had.
"How are you really feeling Tris?" Tobias asks.
"Confused, angry upset," I say. "I can't believe Christina. I thought she would be happy for me; I didn't know she could be like that."
"Dauntless training can do weird things to people. Not everyone is cut out for it," Tobias says. "Maybe once initiation is over she will calm down. Then maybe you can be friends again."
"I don't know Tobias," I say. "Do I really want someone like that around me? If I can't trust her, I would find it really hard to be around her."
"Today didn't turn out the way I thought it would," I say.
"You should be proud of yourself Tris. You did really well in your fight. Should of heard Max talking about it, you would have thought you were his daughter the way he was carrying on," Tobias says.
"What about Eric?"
"What about him?"
"He is so angry with me right now. You told me to watch out for him and I don't know," I say. "Do you think he will try to retaliate?"
"I don't think so. Eric is a lot of things but when he calms down he will probably respect you more," Tobias says.
"Respect me?"
"I know it sounds strange. But when it comes down to it, Eric will respect that you were willing to put the hard work in to be the best you could be. That is why he is so hard on initiates, he actually wants them to succeed, to work harder. He isn't a very nice person most of the time but he knows how important it is that we train you to be able to defend yourself. He doesn't want members to get hurt because they weren't trained properly," Tobias says.
"I didn't think of it like that," I say.
"No I think we all forget that sometimes. I don't like him and I don't like his training methods but in the end he does get the job done. Although sometimes I want to throw knives at him myself," Tobias says.
"Feeling better?" he asks.
I nod my head yes. "I know something that could make me feel even better," I say.
"Really?" Tobias asks. "What would that be?"
I stand up and move onto Tobias's lap. "This," I say and I kiss him. I can feel him smiling into the kiss. I needed this. Not just the time with Tobias but the time out from everything else that has happened today.
Fights have continued. I don't know what is going on with Eric but both Edward and I got to sit out one round of the fights. I thought for sure that he would have me fighting as much as possible. I have beaten Drew, Molly and Will. I hated having to go up against Will, especially with all the drama that has unfolded with Christina. But I wasn't going to back down because of what happened. I still need a good ranking if I want to get into the top five and pick my own job.
Myra has improved so much. She actually beat both Al and Christina. But lost to Drew. The fight with Christina was epic. I think it was one of the longest fights I have seen. In the end Myra had worn Christina down and that was because she has been training so hard every night. The fight with Al was just pathetic, Al hasn't won a fight since the fight with Will. Al just doesn't fit in here and it is showing in everything he does.
It has been a week since the argument with Christina and she still won't talk to me or any one in our group. I feel disappointed that it has worked out this way. I feel sorry for Christina more than anything. She hasn't won a fight and I can see that her relationship with Will isn't as strong as we all thought. Will has spoken to me, he doesn't like what happened but he is Christina's boyfriend and although he doesn't agree with her he feels he has to support her. I think she is lucky she has someone like Will, I just hope her bitterness doesn't ruin that too.
Most of my time away from training is spent with our group and we are usually either in the dining hall or in the training room. Of course if I'm not with these guys I am with Tobias. I can't wait for initiation to be over and then we can spend more time together. Some nights we even have Zeke, Shauna and Tobias come in and train with us. These nights are usually a lot of fun. Just like last night was.
Uriah and Zeke have this bet going that Uriah won't outrank Zeke. Zeke came in sixth when he went through initiation and Uriah reckons he is going to beat that no problem. So the two of them decided to have a contest.
"Okay so you each get five knives," Tobias says.
"Can we join in?" Lynn says.
"Why not?" Tobias says. "Anyone else?"
"Yeah I will," I say.
"Zeke you are going to go down buddy," Tobias says laughing.
"You should have more faith in your best friend Four," Zeke says.
"There is no way you are going to beat all three of them," Tobias says.
"Thank you Four," Uriah says. "See Zeke you are just setting yourself up for the loss."
"I only need to beat you little brother," Zeke says.
"Yeah but you won't," Uriah says.
"Okay enough talk," Tobias says. "Let's start."
"Lucky Four isn't competing Zeke," Uriah says.
"Yeah but it wouldn't just be you that gets beat then would it," Zeke says.
"Lynn you go first, those two aren't going to shut up long enough to throw any knives," Tobias says.
So the rules were that you had to hit the target in the head, neck, heart, elbow and knee. Lynn, and I hit all five spots. Uriah missed the knee by two millimetres. The arguments started with Zeke and Uriah again because Uriah had been beaten by two girls. Lynn and I just sat back and laughed at them while Marlene consoled Uriah and Shauna did her best to pump up Zeke before he took his throws.
"Come on Zeke," Tobias said. "Let's get this over with."
"Okay, ready to come in last Uriah?" Zeke teases.
"Bring it on Zeke," Uriah calls back.
We have all gone deathly silent. You could almost hear Zeke's heard pumping out of his chest. You could see how nervous he was. He stood still as he was about to throw his first knife. You could already see sweat forming on his forehead.
The first four shots hit their mark. I turned to look at Uriah and I could see that he was starting to get nervous too.
Zeke lined up his shot but just as he was letting go of the knife he sneezed and the knife missed the target altogether.
"Ha ha, burn Zeke, burn," Uriah shouts.
"No way. I sneezed. I get to take the throw again," Zeke says.
We are all laughing at him and Zeke looks at Tobias who just shakes his head no.
"You are supposed to be my best friend," Zeke yells at Tobias. "You're supposed to have my back. You can't let me lose to Uriah."
"Sorry Zeke," Tobias says. "Better luck next time." Tobias is laughing with us.
"There will be a next time Uri," Zeke says and goes over and gives his brother a hug and he runs his knuckles over Uriah's hair.
"Get of me," Uriah says. We are all laughing at the two of them.
Zeke lets him go and we are still laughing at the two brothers.
"So Tris I think you and I have bragging rights," says Lynn.
"I think you are right. Next time maybe we should bet them a piece of dauntless cake," I say.
"Hell no," Uriah says. "I'm not betting cake against you two."
This just has us all laughing again. We have had a really fun night. The fights are finally over and next we just have to get through our assessments with knives, guns and our fitness. Then stage one will be finished and we will get to see where we are ranked. Only four more weeks and we can call ourselves Dauntless members. Only four more weeks until I can finally move in with Tobias.