CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT
TRIS POV
I walk into the dormitory to see what the results for stage two are. Tobias wouldn't even give me a hint of what they were. I was in the Dauntless born dormitory watching them get their results. Uriah is first, Lynn second and Marlene third. Rita had come in fifth which was great for her.
It doesn't seem like there is anyone in here. I look up to the board and see my name in first. Peter is in second place with Edward behind him. I am scanning down the list when I feel my arms being grabbed and held by someone. Peter is now standing in front of me.
"How did you do it?" Peter spits at me. "How can you be so good at this? I'm not going to put up with coming second to a Stiff," Peter is yelling.
Peter then punches me in the stomach knocking the wind out of me. I slump over slightly and before I can recover he has punched me in the jaw. I lean into the person who is holding my arms and I kick at Peter hitting him in the stomach.
This seems to enrage him. "You bitch," he screams at me. I know the only way to stop him from attacking me again is to keep trying to kick him. He lunges forward but before he can get me Uriah and Marlene are dragging him away from him. Lynn has punched the person who is holding my arms and they have let me go. I turn to see that it is Drew.
I rush at Drew and start swinging my fists at him. Lynn is helping. I look across to see that Uriah and Marlene are attacking Peter and he is now on the floor. Once both Drew and Peter are unconscious we walk out of the dormitory.
"Oh my god what happened? Christina shrieks as we all stand breathing heavily outside the dormitory.
"Peter didn't like being ranked below me. So he and Drew decided to attack me," I say.
"Tris I am so sorry. I am sorry for everything," Christina tells me. "I should never have said those things that I said."
"You finally worked that out did you?" says Lynn.
"I'm trying to say I'm sorry," Christina says.
"Bit late for that, don't you think?" Lynn says.
I can't stand to hear them yelling at each other anymore. They aren't stopping.
"Stop!" I shout. "Just stop both of you. I can't stand this anymore. We all used to be friends. We shouldn't be treating each other like this."
I don't know what else to say to them all. I know we can't go back to where we were but I don't want us all hating on each other either. I need some air, some space. I walk away from all of them. If they want to fight, then I don't want to witness it.
I walk up to Tobias's office and hope that I can find him there. He is going to be beyond angry when he sees the bruise I can feel forming on my chin.
I knock on the door and walk in. Max, Scott and Tobias are all there.
"What happened?" Tobias asks as he comes from around his desk to look at me.
"Peter didn't like coming in second to me. So he had Drew hold my arms and he attacked me," I say.
"Cowards," Max says.
"Are you okay?" Scott asks.
"Yeah. Uriah, Marlene and Lynn walked in on the attack and we beat them unconscious," I say.
"Good," Tobias says as he hugs me.
"How do we punish them for this?" Tobias asks.
"I have an idea," Max says. "Tris I need you to trust me now. I am not going to tell you what is going to happen but for now I want them to stay in the dormitories and think that they got away with it."
"You have go to be joking? You want her to stay in the dorms with them?" Tobias says with a raised voice.
"Four calm down. She can stay with you until initiation is over," Max says. "We do need to talk to you about something Tris."
I must have a surprised look on my face because he says with a smile, "it is nothing to worry about."
"We want to know if you would consider a leadership position when job choosing comes up?" Max says.
I look at Tobias and he just nods his head.
"I didn't really think I would like a leadership position," I say. "I was actually looking at faction ambassador."
"I would be happy for you to take either position Tris," Max says. "Faction ambassador would be a perfect fit for you I think."
"Think about it a bit more Tris," Scott says. "I will get you a copy of the job descriptions for both positions so that you can way up your options."
"Thanks," I say.
"You sure you are okay?" Tobias asks.
"Yeah. I'm mostly surprised by what Peter did. I didn't think he would have the guts to do something like that out in the open," I say. "I think I am going to just go to your place for a while. See Caleb."
"I'll be home soon," he says. He gives me a quick kiss and I leave.
TOBIAS POV
"What do you want to do with Peter and Drew?" I ask Max.
"Shaming them at the final rankings will be the first thing I am going to do. As for what else will be involved, well I need to check our laws to what I can do. Initiates can be a bit of a grey area," Max says. "But I will make sure they don't go unpunished. Although getting a beat down from Uriah, Lynn and Tris wouldn't be something I would want to have happen to me."
"If Tris doesn't want the leadership position who do you think we should offer it too?" Scott asks.
"Well we are going to need two aren't we?" I ask.
"Yeah we are," Max says.
"Well Uriah would be my next choice from the initiates. I don't think I would ask any other initiate, maybe Edward. But I think we should give one of the positions to Josh," I say.
"Do you think Josh is ready?" Max asks.
"Without a doubt. He doesn't just coordinate our schedules Max. He is always helping with writing reports. He knows everything that is going on in the faction. He gets along with everyone and he has never let his own views dictate the way he works," I say.
"I agree," says Scott. "Vera and Graham had him doing a lot of their work. They pushed whatever they could onto the poor boy. And he always got it done and didn't complain"
"Okay well now we are going to need a new coordinator," Max says. "I don't really want an initiate in the role, especially if we are going to let one of them become our personal assistant."
"Should we advertise the position?" I ask. "Because I know someone who would be perfect for the position."
"Who?" Max asks.
"Shauna," I say. "I know what you are thinking. How could she be good for the role with Zeke as her partner? But that is one of the reasons I think she would be good. She is good at coordinating him, I'm sure we won't be half as hard and there are three of us. I have been trying to find her a new job for a while. She is excelling in the patrol programme and I know she wants a job inside the compound."
"Scott what do you think?" Max asks.
"Ask her, if she wants the position give it to her. I don't have anyone in mind for the job so this will make it simpler," Scott says.
I can't wait to be able to offer her the position, I know she is going to be totally excited.
"Are we still happy to offer Lynn the position we talked about?" I ask.
"Yes," Max and Scott say at the same time.
"Good, I'll talk to her tomorrow," I say
"What is going to be happening with the trials?" Scott asks.
"Well Candor should be finished with the lower level members in a few days. Do you think we should ask them to wait until after the job choosing ceremony to start Graham and Vera's trials? Or do you want them before hand?" Max asks.
"After," I say. "Let's get our new members settled in first. Then we can concentrate on the others. No matter what happens, both Graham and Vera will not be able to stay on as leaders. No one will trust them," I say.
"I agree with Four. We need to have people we can trust and I know I won't be trusting them so I can't expect our members to," Scott says.
"When is Eric being questioned?" I ask.
"I asked Jack to have him questioned the same day as Graham and Vera. I knew we would all want to hear what he has to say," Max says.
"So we are all going to go?" Scott asks.
"Yes. I know we like to always have someone in Dauntless but I think we need to show a united front," Max says. "Four have you heard from Evelyn lately?"
"No I haven't," I say.
"We are going to have to watch the factionless carefully. If they think that any of the factions are vulnerable I feel they may try to strike," Max says.
"Do you think we should beef up patrols?" Scott asks. "Especially around the compound."
"I will make sure we have more guards patrolling the compound while we are at Candor," I say. "I will get additional resources until we know what she is up too."
"Good," Max says. "Do you think she will want to talk to you?"
"No. I think it is time we talked to the other factions about breaking the factionless up," I say.
"Let's get this mess fixed first then we can look at that," Max says. "Just one more thing. Caleb Prior. Do we send him back to Erudite?"
"What are the rules?" Scott asks
"We don't have any. This has never happened before. I know Amity has let the occasional person move to Amity but it has only happened on a handful of occasions in two hundred years," Max says.
"So if he wanted to stay we could grant him membership to Dauntless?" I ask.
"Talk to him Four. See what he wants to do. He has shown he is brave. We would need him to go through some sort of training. Just like every other member. As long as he showed he was competent then I can't see any problem with him staying. We would all need to agree and we would probably need to get approval from the other factions. Abnegation and Amity won't be a problem, I'm sure. Candor well who knows what they will think. Erudite would probably be upset but I think they have enough problems on their hands that they would be glad to have one less."
"Do either of you two have a problem with him staying?" I ask.
"No," Scott says. "He saved our faction from committing genocide. As far as I'm concerned he can stay."
"I agree with Scott," Max says.
"I'll talk to him," I say. After our discussion the other night maybe he would be happy to stay. I know I would be happy to have him around. So will Tris. He knows a lot of our friends so he would be welcomed I'm sure.
"Tris, Scott asked me to give you these," I say as I pass her the job descriptions.
"What are they?" Caleb asks.
"Just some job descriptions for Tris to consider," I say.
I can see Caleb looking over Tris's shoulder. "Leader?" Caleb says.
"Yeah, she is our first choice," I say.
'Or ambassador. Wow sis you have some great opportunities," Caleb says.
"I do," Tris says. "I still think I would be better as an ambassador," she says.
"It's up to you," I say. "You need to do what you think will make you happiest."
"Caleb I need to talk to you about something," I say.
"What is it?" he asks.
"Come and sit down. Tris you too. It sort of involves all of us," I say.
"What's going on?" Tris asks.
"Well we just had a meeting and well, we have agreed that if Caleb wants to stay in Dauntless he can. Of course he will have to do some training but if you want Caleb you can stay?"
"Oh my god, that is amazing," Tris says.
"Do you think you might want to?" I ask.
'Um, yeah, well. . . I don't know. I mean part of me wants to stay. A big part of me wants to stay. What are my options?"
"Well first you needed Dauntless leadership to agree to it. Which we have. After that we need to talk to the leaders of the other factions. I know dad would agree, so that ticks off Abnegation. Amity would never say no to such an idea. We don't know about Candor and well Erudite are in a bit of a mess. I would think that Erudite would agree just to have one less problem over there," I say. "Erudite would need to retrain you because you hadn't finished initiation when you came here. I don't even know if you would be allowed back there."
"It looks like Tris and I have a lot to think about," Caleb says.
"Yes we do," Tris says. "How long until Caleb can leave this place?"
"I'm not sure. I suppose if he decides to stay here than once we got approval from the other factions," I say.
"What if I didn't get approval?"
"Well I'm sure we could make it a majority rules vote. But I think if we are willing to accept you then we shouldn't have any trouble with the other factions. It's not really any of their business with who we allow to become members. I think Max is just trying to keep the waters calm after everything that has happened," I say. "You don't have to decide right now. Do you want to talk to mum and dad about it?"
"I'll sleep on it," Caleb says.