After breakfast, Tobias found that his shoulders stayed relaxed as he carried the practice guns from the supply closet to the middle of the room. There were already a few out for public use, but there was a specific set for the initiates to use. That way there would still be some lying around if a random member wanted to practice at the same time as them. Bea stretched in the training room while they waited on the other initiates. The silence between them wasn't as awkward as before, which was a huge relief. Maybe he was just impatient. Maybe, things between them would just go back to feeling normal.

Soon enough the initiates started to trickle in. Tobias glanced at Bea as she stood up from her spot on the floor and went to join everyone by the entrance. She placed herself between the Candor girl and the Erudite boy.

Were they beginning to be friends?

He hoped so. Bea would need friends to make it through initiation. Even though she had the strength to blow everyone out of the water, it was good to have someone you trust watching your back.

The trio began to murmur amongst themselves and Tobias scanned the rest of the growing group. The one who came and found her last night, Al, was standing close to their group but wasn't quite a part of it. Tobias wasn't sure how he felt about Al yet, but he resolved to keep a close eye on him. It was better to be overly cautious and wrong than to risk anything happening to Bea.

As soon as the glowing red clock on the wall hit 7:00, Tobias yelled at the initiates to get their attention and start the lesson. Eric had come to stand by him, leaning against the wall to glare at the initiates. Entirely unhelpful as always.

Tobias started off with a brief explanation of how initiation was structured and then outlined their agenda for the day. After that, he instructed the initiates to each pick up a gun from the rack, careful to take note of how they reacted to holding a gun for the first time. Bea stared at her gun for a moment and weighed it carefully in her hands. Most initiates looked weighed down by theirs, which made sense. Each one weighed about 20 lbs when filled, which for most of the transfers was more weight than they had ever carried at once.

Tobias returned to his position at the front once initiates started to gather with their guns and he waited for them to settle down.

"What.." A boy interrupted himself with a yawn. "What does firing a gun have to do with…bravery?"

Tobias walked towards the boy, whose name maybe started with a 'P', and quickly flipped the gun the boy was fumbling with and held it to his forehead. Tobias clicked a bullet into place, freezing Peter mid-yawn.

"Wake. Up. You are holding a loaded gun. Act like it." Tobias lowered the gun and shoved it back into the boy's chest.

This was going to be a long couple of weeks.

He answered Peter's question, which wasn't a terrible one compared to some others his transfer group had asked, and then began to instruct them on how to shoot a gun. He fell into position in front of the target automatically—his muscles had memorized their place long ago. He closed an eye, aimed at the bullseye, then pulled the trigger. Perfect. He repeated the motions, slower, while he explained each one. There was no use having them shoot if they didn't know what they were doing.

Once done demonstrating, he walked back to lean against a wall and let the initiates start to shoot on their own. Eric stood next to him, observing the initiates just like Tobias was. Neither spoke a word, just like normal. It took a while for any of the initiates to hit the target, which was typical from what he could gather. It was their first day, after all, and this was just to give them something to inspire them and make them feel Dauntless. A way for them to understand where they had chosen, and what they were training for.

Bea was struggling more than most, which surprised Tobias. It didn't look intentional, either. He had thought she would pick up the guns easily since she was an expert at aiming with knives, but he hadn't taken into account her size. The rebound thrust her body back after every shot which meant she had to keep finding her balance. She would do much better with a pistol rather than the bulky guns meant for the fence guards. His legs itched to walk over and help her fix her stance, to give her tips and reassurance. But he couldn't show favoritism. Even watching her as long as he had was risky. Especially with Eric so close.

Tobias let himself zone out. He didn't need to know exactly how well everyone was doing anyway. He needed to make sure Eric did most of the rankings so that when he and Bea went public after initiation her rank wouldn't come into question. It also meant that he should put someone else in charge of her simulations, but if his assumptions were right it might be better for him to do her first couple. Just to stay on the safe side.

After two hours of shooting and periodic conditioning, Tobias called a lunch break. The initiates placed their guns back on the rack and walked to lunch as a group, shoulders sagging from exhaustion. Bea stayed back for a bit, pretending to shoot a bit longer. He heard her tell Candor girl she wanted to empty the round and would meet her in a moment, which seemed to be enough of an explanation.

Once everyone was gone, Tobias walked up to her and lightly put his hand on her shoulder. She jumped and spun around. Fear flashed in her eyes and disappeared quickly once she took in his features. Tobias warily chose to ignore it. She could just have not heard him or worried it was a fellow initiate. No need to make assumptions.

"How are you doing?" Tobias asked gently.

Tris shook her head, obviously frustrated. "My fingers are cramping, but that's all. I'm doing fine." Beads of sweat dripped down her forehead from her exertion. Tobias offered a small smile.

"You need to work on your stance. Stand with your feet farther apart, that way you won't stumble as much from the rebound." He guided her stance with his hands. Although unnecessary, it was a plausible excuse for him to be close to her. He felt Bea take a quick breath as he positioned her. She nodded once she settled into the new position, letting him know it was better. "Are you sure you are okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just taking it all in y'know? I've been dreaming of training here since I was what, ten? Plus it's a lot to adjust to all of this," she gestured to the room with her hand, "after being used to that small training room."

"I understand," Tobias said, wiping a bit of sweat from her forehead with his thumb. "It'll get easier. You should go eat. You must be starving, and your friends are probably wondering where you are."

"What are we going to be doing after lunch? More shooting?" Tobias shook his head.

"We're preparing for fights tomorrow. The rest of today should be easy for you, I'm going over everything we did in Abnegation so you'll already know it. I'd go easy at first, though. Don't want to show all your strength at once so you can show improvement."

Tobias bit his lip to keep himself from talking. She was overwhelmed, the last thing she needed was a lecture from him.

"I love it when you go all nerdy about training." She said, a small grin growing on her face. He smiled back and she stood on her toes and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before jogging to lunch. Tobias sighed, wondering how they were going to make it the next few weeks without getting caught by anyone.

That girl was going to be the death of me.

After an hour the initiates start to trickle back in. Their faces were harder than before, more determined.

"We will go over technique today, and you will start your fights tomorrow."

Bea's face paled at the mention of fights. Tobias couldn't blame her. Fighting was the only thing she had no experience in. At least with guns, she had practiced aiming before. Fighting was different; Tobias had failed to prepare her for it. No matter how much she had asked him, he refused to spar with her. He was too scared to hurt her. He didn't want to become like Marcus or give her any reason to fear him.

She would do fine, though. The other initiates had half the muscle and experience she did, but Bea didn't know that. The only one who had any sort of chance against her was Peter, whose name he now knew thanks to Eric's high praise of him during lunch, but he doubted she would be paired against him. At least for the first fight. That would be about as unfair as unfair could get.

Tobias began explaining how the fights would work and then set to demonstrate all of the basic moves. Everyone paired up to practice. He couldn't fail to notice that Bea immediately paired up with Candor girl. Good, she had someone she could trust. Each time he demonstrated a move he took note of who was listening and who were actually trying. Those were the initiates he would help first. The ones who were zoned out while he demonstrated weren't worth much of his time. Though he liked to know who they were in case he needed someone to give a wrong answer and get the group going.

Once all the moves were demonstrated, Tobias sent everyone to the punching bags to practice on their own. He walked along the row of initiates, critiquing stances here or there. For the most part, everyone was doing well. He was pleasantly surprised. Then he walked up to Tris, where he took a step back to fully take in her stance. It was nearly perfect, unsurprisingly, but she put all of her tension in her legs and shoulders. It wouldn't affect her much now, but she would definitely feel it in the morning.

Without thinking, Tobias wrapped his hand around her rib cage. His long fingers stretched over her stomach, which shrunk from his touch as she took in a sharp breath. He struggled to remember what he was going to say, what it was that led him to be so bold in the first place.

"Remember to keep tension here," he whispered. "You have muscle, so fighting with your fists and feet shouldn't be a problem. If they ever get tired or injured, your knees and elbows will be just as powerful."

Bea gave him a sharp nod, looking him in the eyes briefly. Her breath was shallow and uneven, but she held his gaze until he reluctantly let go and walked toward the next person in line. He ignored the fluttering in his chest as well as the concern that was beginning to bubble up in his stomach.

What wasn't she telling him?

A few hours later Tobias let the initiates go for the night to eat dinner. The room stank of sweat and it was becoming nauseating for him to smell, so he imagined it was almost intolerable for the initiates. Tobias walked out with them, debating if he felt like being social and eating in the pit or holing up in his apartment. While debating, he let the initiates walk ahead of him as he wandered the halls without a destination.

"Four! I need to talk to you." Tobias spun around, shoulders tense and prepared for a fight. Eric stood in front of him, glaring.

"What do you want Eric?" Why couldn't Eric just leave him alone? Was that too much to ask for?

Well, that solved his dilemma. It was definitely a holing up in his apartment kind of night. And he had that leftover lasagna...

"We need to talk about the initiates today." Tobias had to hold himself back from rolling his eyes.

"It's too early to tell any of their rankings, it's the first day." Tobias turned around, annoyed.

"It's about the Stiff." He spun around, suddenly worried. Whatever Eric wanted with Bea was not good.

"What?"

Eric laughed. "That sure got your attention, huh? I'm curious...She seems pretty strong for her size. It's not normal for a Stiff, or any transfer, to be so strong on the first day."

"Do you realize who you are talking to?" Had he already forgotten that Tobias had been the Stiff that sent a punching bag flying at the end of their first day? That he was the reason all of the punching bags were tethered to the ceiling and floor with chains to prevent it from happening again?

"I was wondering if you knew anything about her. You know, being Stiff buddies and all."

Tobias clenched his jaw. Eric couldn't suspect anything, or else Bea would be at risk. They both would.

"She probably prepared for transferring earlier than the other initiates did. It seems like she's wanted this for a while." Tobias shrugged, hoping his answer would come off casual.

"And how do you know that?"

Tobias glanced around the room, trying to avoid Eric's harsh stare. He tried to look tired of talking about this.

"I don't, it's just a guess. I wouldn't think too much of it."

"Do you think she may be...Divergent?" Eric's tone was filled with suspicion, causing goosebumps to cover Tobias's skin. If his suspicions were true, the answer was yes. But he would do anything to keep Eric from knowing that even if it cost his life.

"It's too early to tell. We'll just have to see during stage two."

"If she makes it that far," Eric said, his voice lowering. "I'm going to start watching her closely from now on. Don't forget what I could do to her, Tobias."

He hated how Eric used his real name as a weapon. Just like Marcus had. It caused a shiver to run down his spine. Eric scoffed before turning around and walking towards the pit for dinner. Tobias sighed, rubbing his tired eyes with calloused hands. Tris was already getting attention and it was her first day. All hope of her fitting in was gone.

Once training was over, Tris went shopping with Christina while Al and Will went to get tattoos. They were free to do what they wanted once training was over, which was both exciting and terrifying to Tris. Despite her aching muscles, a large smile was stuck to her face. This was the beginning of the freedom she had desperately wanted for so many years.

Christina was talking about how they needed to "look the part for Dauntless" which made Tris roll her eyes, even though it was endearing. She liked the idea of fitting in, though. And she needed clothes.

"I'm not getting a piercing or changing my hair." Christina sent her a look but Tris stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth. "I'll let you pick out my clothes though."

Christina's face lit up and she grabbed Tris's wrists to drag her to the closest clothing shop. Before she knew it her arms were filled with black shirts and pants of different fabrics and styles. Christina pointed her to the changing room which Tris entered and promptly dropped everything onto the floor. She sorted them into shirts and pants, hanging the occasional dress on a hook that was on the wall. With a deep sigh, Tris stripped from her loose black top and pants and began the process of trying everything on.

Surprisingly, Tris found that she liked most of the clothes Christina had picked out. There were a few crop tops and short skirts that she refused to try on, knowing there was no use because they would show off way too many scars. So they went immediately into the 'doesn't fit' pile. All of the clothes were tighter than she was used to, which was a bit uncomfortable but also reassuring in a sense. It felt grounding, and like she was a proper Dauntless. She'd get used to the fit of the shirts over time, plus they would stretch out as she wore them more. They just felt wrong because she was so used to Abnegation clothing. The new clothes made her feel stronger and more in control of her life. That was what mattered.

Tris stepped out of the dressing room and dropped the clothes she didn't want into the designated basket outside of the dressing room. A part of her itched to fold everything nicely and put it back where she found it, but she pushed the urge aside. That was someone's job, she didn't want to interfere with it. Plus, she was Dauntless now. That's how Abnegation would act.

Christina met her at the counter where they both paid for their shirts with their point cards, which had been given to them in their dorm bags. Tobias had explained that they were how Dauntless paid for things and that they would receive an allowance each week during training. After that, they would have to work to earn their points. As unlikely as it was, Tris couldn't help but worry she would never find a job in Dauntless and would end up starving and becoming Factionless. She doubted Toby would ever let that happen, but the fear still nagged at her whenever she spent points.

Once they left the clothing store, Christina took her to another one. "Here, it's time you get some makeup and then I can teach you how to apply it! Tell me what you like."

"Um," what did she like? She wasn't even sure what kinds of makeup existed. "Something natural but noticeable."

"Oooo, I like how you think Tris."

An hour or two later, Christina had finished with her makeup and her hair. Just like Tris had asked, she didn't cut anything but just twisted it into a braid. It felt nice having it held back in something other than a ponytail or a bun. The makeup felt foreign on her face, but one look in a mirror made it all worth it. Tris felt almost pretty. After she changed into her new clothes, Christina looked her up and nodded.

"You look striking."

Tris nodded. "I look Dauntless."

DFTBA,

thebooktrooper