-August 4th-
~Third Person~
Later that Sunday, Tobias and Natalie left Lauren and Liam's apartment, and Tobias tells Natalie he'd meet her at their apartment after he spoke with a certain someone. She asks who, "My bestfriend, Alexander. It's been awhile since I've seen or heard from him so, I'm gonna see what's up." He tells her, lying, in a sense. It's true that he hadn't seen him in about a month but, he wasn't going to see him to see how he was doing. He was going because he knew exactly how he was doing, with Tris. He was going so he could try and talk some sense into one of his very good friends.
"Can I come with you? I've never officially met your bestfriend, even though he's knocked me down once because of you." She asks him, he shakes his head. "No, and actually, to be completely honest, I don't want you to meet him. At least not yet. He looks like me but with blue eyes. He'll steal you away from me with just his looks," He says, obviously joking, and Natalie rolls her eyes, "And plus, I know his type, and you match every check box. Curly headed brunette with light eyes. And I'd rather not have my bestfriend fall in love with my future wife. I'll have to get rid of him, and I actually like the guy." Tobias adds, and his girlfriend pecks his lips. "First of all, no matter how much he looks like you, he could never be you. Which means, he could never steal me away. But fine, I'll let you go, don't take too long." She says to him, "I won't. Oh and tell my mother we got kicked out, and that she and my sister are gonna be sleeping at Lauren's and your brother's tonight." He asks of her, and she nods, and he leans in and places his lips passionately onto hers. Natalie kisses him back, and embraces him. He laughs, "Calm down I'll only be gone for a few minutes. Tops." He responds to her, hugging her tight.
"I know, it's just, I love you." She tells him, and he smiles during their embrace. "I love you too." Tobias returns, kissing her head, and from there the two parted ways. Natalie went back to their apartment, to be greeted by her soon to be in-laws, and Tobias walked to the other side of Dauntless, to his bestfriend's apartment. He knock's on the door, and the door opens, and Alexander lights up at the sight of Tobias. They do their long little special handshake.
They exchange small talk, but eventually, it was time to get down to the real point of his visit. "Tell me it isn't true though Alex. Are you seeing Beatrice?" He finally asks, and Alex steps out his apartment and closes the door as if someone was inside. "Oh. My. God. She's in there right now, isn't she? I told you the girl's obsessed with me." Tobias whisper-shouts, and Alex tries to shush him. "Calm down, I'm not seeing her. And what does her being obsessed with you have to do with her being in my bed?" Alex questions, "You're banging her?? And that? Has everything to do with her being in your bed, you look like me! She's trying to get to you, to get to me. And she almost did, since I was going to have you hold onto a ring for me." Tobias explains, and Alex nearly continues their argument until he heard the words ring. "A ring? You mean like an engagement ring?" He asks, and Tobias nods with a smile.
"You're gonna propose to Natalie?! Oh my god man, this is big!" Alex gets excited, and the two bestfriends hug. Alex releases, "I'm happy for you! I mean, she's pretty hot, I'd fuck around and marry her too." He jokes, earning him a playful jab to the chest from his bestfriend, "See? it's comments like those that make me not wanna ask you to be my best man. And you wonder why you're not gonna officially meet her until our wedding." Tobias replies, and Alex laughs. "Oh? So you don't trust me?" His bestfriend asks him, and he shakes his head. "No, I trust you. It's just, my woman is beautiful on the inside just as much as she is on the outside. And as I said to her, explaining why she can't meet you, I'd rather not have my best-mate fall in love with my future wife." Tobias explains, and Alex raises his eyebrows.
"She wants to meet me? Well, come on, I wanna meet herr, she wants to meet mee. Let's make it happen." - " Okay first of all, you're talking like I'm introducing you to a single friend of mine. This is my girlfriend man." Tobias interrupts, and Alex puts his hands up. "Alright alright, no more jokes. You're like the brother I never had, I'd never cross that line with you. Natalie is off limits, as she's always been. And in all seriousness, I'd love to meet her, as your girlfriend." Alex finally gets serious, and Tobias smiles. He agrees to bring him over for a Sunday to meet Natalie and most likely her brother's too. "Alex? Who's at the door?" Tobias hears from inside his bestfriend's apartment. "That's my cue. I'll see you then, and hopefully without you being associated with all of that in there." Tobias comments, fist bumping his friend before heading off out of sight.
Tobias heads back to him and his girlfriend's apartment, and he catches her and his mother heading out with his little sister. He tags along, and is sweetly greeted by his girlfriend. He takes his sister's bag from his mother, and carries it for her as they make their way to Lauren's apartment. They all make it there, and the couple stays for awhile before heading off back to their apartment to go to bed.
-August 5th, Monday-
The next morning, all five instructors get ready for the day, and meet up. Tobias heads off to go wake up the transfers, while the rest of them go over what's planned for today. Pre-test fights. Where they'll have doubles of the same numbers in a hat, for example, there'll be two ones, two two's, two three's and so on and so forth, all the way up to ten. And they'll have each and every initiates pick one number, and whichever initiates have the same number, are a pair for a fight.
They put the numbers in a black dad cap, and mixed them all around. Twenty young hands go in the hat, and twenty cards come out the hat. And after about five minutes, everybody finds their matching number partner. Natalie calls up the pair of ones for the first fight, and up steps initiates Bryson Campbell and Sage Martin. "What a coincidence. Can't wait to kick your ass Martin." Bryce taunts, and all Sage does is laugh as they both hand me the one cards back.
"Shoes and jackets off, and set on the middle arena." Natalie directs, and the two do as their told as everyone else gathers around said arena. "Rule number one," She says aloud, "both parties have to remain within the matted arena, the moment one of you steps out the circle, it's over." She adds, stepping up on the matt with them. "Second rule, if your opponent pins you to the mat for longer than seven seconds, it's over." Natalie continues with, as Sage and Bryce stretch on the mat. "And the third rule, either ends can concede at any point in the fight by slapping the mat three times. Other than that, do your absolute best. And that goes for all of you, these Pre-test fights prompt us instructors on who we should pair with who for future fights. So fight hard." Natalie explains, and commences the very first fight. Sage lands the first punch, knocking Bryce right off his feet.
All of Sage's friends cheer him on while Bryce's friend's snicker and tease him. Bryce get's up fast, and doesn't take another second to retaliate. Bryce took a fast swing into Sage's gut, making him fall to a kneel. Which inevitably gives Bryce the chance to pound his elbow down onto the back of Sage's head, and unfortunately for Sage, it was a chance he took. Sage falls to the mat face down, and Bryce quickly takes one of his arms and bends it up his back, pinning him.
Natalie starts counting, one, as she watches the fight intently, two, keeping track of who's doing what to who, three. Sage wriggles out of Bryce's grip and flips the script. He tackles Bryce to the mat and shoves the side of his face into it, bending his arm away from his back, in an uncomfortable position. Natalie starts counting again, but surprisingly, Bryce concedes way before she could make it to the number seven. Sage releases him, and Lauren writes down the winner for the first fight.
Bryce's friend's burst out into laughter while helping him up off the mat. Lauren also asks around and writes down whose paired up with who.
2nd fight: Dexter Morgan V.s Spencer Reid
3rd fight: Bellamy Blake V.s Travis Lamont
4th fight: Andrew Jenkins V.s Elijah Thompson
5th fight: Grace Harrison V.s Alexia Taylor
6th fight: Stephanie Matthews V.s Cassidy Wright
7th fight: Nehemiah Thompson V.s Alyssa Baker
8th fight: Hope Mikaelson V.s Olivia Perkins
9th fight: Anastasia King V.s Jordyn Monse
10th fight: Jacob Miller V.s Denise Bryant
The second fight commences and before the instructors knew it, the last fight had ended. Lauren also recorded the winners of each and every fight by underlining their names.
1st fight: Sage Martin V.s Bryson Campbell
2nd fight: Dexter Morgan V.s Spencer Reid
3rd fight: Bellamy Blake V.s Travis Lamont
4th fight: Andrew Jenkins V.s Elijah Thompson
5th fight: Grace Harrison V.s Alexia Taylor
6th fight: Stephanie Matthews V.s Cassidy Wright
7th fight: Nehemiah Thompson V.s Alyssa Baker
8th fight: Hope Mikaelson V.s Olivia Perkins
9th fight: Anastasia King V.s Jordyn Monse
10th fight: Jacob Miller V.s Denise Bryant
They dismiss the initiates for the day, and come together to assess the fair fights for tomorrow.
-August 6th, Tuesday-
Tomorrow arrives, and this time, Lauren and Natalie write the pairs for the evaluated fights on a roll-able chalk board, and flips it around for the initiates to see.
1st: Sage V.s Nehemiah
2nd: Bellamy V.s Dexter
3rd: Elijah V.s Olivia
4th: Jacob V.s Jordyn
5th: Grace V.s Cassidy
6th: Spencer V.s Hope
7th: Anastasia V.s Denise
8th: Andrew V.s Travis
9th: Bryson V.s Stephanie
10th: Alexia V.s Alyssa
The first fight begins, and it ends with Nehemiah knocking Sage clean out. My brother's lug the poor fella down to the infirmary to rest it off, as the next fight starts. After the last fight ended, Natalie comes over to Lauren to take a peek at all the winners.
1st: Sage V.s Nehemiah
2nd: Bellamy V.s Dexter
3rd: Elijah V.s Olivia
4th: Jacob V.s Jordyn
5th: Grace V.s Cassidy
6th: Spencer V.s Hope
7th: Anastasia V.s Denise
8th: Andrew V.s Travis
9th: Bryson V.s Stephanie
10th: Alexia V.s Alyssa
The five instructors once again dismiss their initiates, and came together to discuss the fights for today and to finally evaluate the very first set of rankings.
1. Nehemiah 11. Anastasia
2. Elijah 12. Bellamy
3. Sage 13. Jordyn
4. Jacob 14. Bryson
5. Dexter 15. Cassidy
6. Grace 16. Spencer
7. Hope 17. Denise
8. Stephanie 18. Andrew
9. Alexia 19. Olivia
10. Travis 20. Alyssa
It was still pretty earlier on in the training process but, these came out to be the current rankings so far.
-August 7th, Wednesday-
Weaponry Wednesday, where all the initiates are given a real gun, with real bullets, and targets. The instructors observe and guide the initiates as all let loose on their targets. Natalie notices that Andrew was struggling, just as she did the first time she held a gun and Tobias helped her. She positioned the gun in his hands properly and told him to use his breathing to guide him, and did just as her boyfriend did with her nearly a year ago. And to Andrew's surprise, he makes the bullets embed itself into the head of the target. He smiles up at Natalie, and she smiles back at him, admiring his cute dimples before moving onto the next initiate. After awhile, the instructors stop the initiates, take them back down stairs to the training room, to show them their current rankings as recorded before.
-August 8th, Thursday-
Thursday is really just a workout day, where the instructors push the initiates to their limits. They have them run laps around Dauntless Headquarters, and also have them to reps of any and every possible workout method you could possibly think of. Push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, crunches, squats, you name it and each initiate'll give you fifty of them. Natalie and Tobias lead a handful of initiates as they continue to run laps around Dauntless, while Lauren, Liam, and Miles motivate the rest of the initiates to finish all of their reps. And by the end of the day, everybody was sore and exhausted, even the instructors.
-August 9th, Friday-
Instructor V.s Initiate. Where the students learn from the teachers, hands on. Each initiate will be assigned an instructor, who of which they will have to either knock out or pin. Miles agrees to observe for the sake of an even spilt of five initiates to each instructor.
Natalie:Â Stephanie, Hope, Bellamy, Grace, Jacob
Tobias:Â Elijah, Dexter, Travis, Andrew, Sage
Liam:Â Nehemiah, Spencer, Bryson, Denise, Anastasia
Lauren:Â Jordyn, Alyssa, Olivia, Alexia, Cassidy
We'll start with the outcome of Natalie's fights. She ended up pinning Stephanie to the mat, yet, the girl was pretty strong when it came to trying to hold her down. Hope on the other hand was tricky, she was fast and flexible, so pinning her was out of the question. Natalie took a few blows but, she found herself heel kicking Hope in the nose, making her hit the mat and concede, earning a few 'ooo's' from the surrounded audience. Natalie helped Hope back up and sent her off to the infirmary for her now bloody nose.
See now, Bellamy though, refused to fight Natalie. The moment he stepped onto the mat, he crouched down and slapped it three times, conceding without either ends throwing a single punch. Natalie kinda expected of such, but she still tried to convince him to fight nonetheless. No luck though, and she proceeded on to fight her next initiate, Grace. The red head started out easy by toying with Natalie, seeing how she'd react to different attempts of attacks.
It was like she was getting a read on Natalie's fighting style before she actually begun attacking. And Natalie had to admit, she was impressed with her strategy. So impressed, she nearly let Grace pin her to the mat. Almost. And last but not least, Jacob, the gentleman who had decided to follow in Bellamy's footsteps, but for another reason.
"I refuse to hit a girl, especially a girl who's boyfriend looks like that." He had said, pointing over to Tobias. The comment made Natalie and Tobias laugh, "Smart man." Tobias says to Jacob, tapping his own right temple. They let the initiates know that they won't dock points if the opponent forfeits for either relationship, or gender reasons.
On to Tobias's fight's, which honestly, were repetitive. Every single male initiate that stepped up, ended up face first into the mat within a minute of the start. Well, almost every single male. All except Travis were pinned. He on the other hand, caught his karma for his continuous touching and flirting with Natalie.
Liam's fights were pretty professional. Him and Nehemiah could go on for days, seeming that their body types and fighting styles were nearly identical. Eventually though, Nehemiah bested Liam, and pinned him to the mat for more than seven seconds. But Liam redeemed himself in his fight against Spencer, since he had the young man pinned and conceding within seconds. Bryson though, put up a fight, a fist fight.
All the boy did was swing on Liam. Unfortunately for Bryce though, Liam could predict his moves due to his ability so, he dodged every single one and countered the very last with a harsh jab to the jaw. Which honestly just pissed Bryson off more. Liam chuckles a bit as the young man comes at him full force, going ballistic on him. Liam ducks, weaves, dodges, and bobs away from every possible connection Bryce could've made.
And to make matter's worse, Liam begun smacking him lightly, squeezing them in every chance he could while dodging. Teasing the absolute hell out of Bryce. Natalie notices how unfair her brother was being with Bryce and decided to help the initiate out a bit. Liam goes in for another smack but this time, she stops him completely, enabling Bryce to jab him right back. Liam looks at his sister crazy as he recovers from the punch.
She winks at him, which made him end the fight early, by pinning Bryce. After that, Liam looks to both Anastasia and Denise, "I'm all about equal treatment, I'll only fight a female if said female is fighting me back, so what's it gonna be ladies?" He asks stretching on the mat, and the two girls look my brother up and down, before shaking their heads and slapping the mat at the same time.
Lauren's fight's though, bounced back and forth. Jordyn pinned her, she pinned Alyssa, Olivia pinned her, she pinned Alexia and then Cassidy had finally pinned her.
~Three long, and hard weeks later~
-August 30th, Friday 6:09 p.m.-
~Jade's POV~
War games. Advanced War games. Is what my boyfriend, brother and friend are currently explaining to all twenty of the initiates as the train picks up speed. I look around me at the white vests and white pants around me, and it feels like I'm in a train full of candors, even though the suits are just for the sake of the game. "Alright team captains are me, Jade, Liam and Lauren. Miles will only be here to hide and stand guard to the one and only flag. You initiates will have to get pass him in order to get the flag." Tobias explains, as Miles holds up the same bright green flag I once held and waved before.
"Jade, you pick your team color and first initiate." My love tells me, and I look around the train, and my eyes set with a certain redhead. "Alright I pick red, and I'll take Grace." I say picking up two red filled paintball guns, handing one to Grace once she took her place beside me. All of us instructors though, have Nero-Stim dart guns hanging around our shoulders, to add to the challenge. My love goes next and chooses the color green, and Dexter as his first initiate. My younger brother lets Lauren pick next, and she chooses pink, and Jordyn as her first initiate. My brother takes the last color, which is neon orange, and chooses Elijah as his first initiate.
Natalie: Grace, Sage, Bellamy, Andrew, Olivia
Tobias: Dexter, Nehemiah, Jacob, Alyssa, Stephanie
Lauren: Jordyn, Spencer, Anastasia, Alexia, Cassidy
Liam: Elijah, Hope, Travis, Bryson, Denise,
The rest of the initiates grab a gun of their teams color, and break off into separate train cars as the train slows near the abandon amusement park. I spot the same Ferris Wheel I once climbed and nearly fell off of, and it makes me think of Tobias. Just then, I feel familiar lips on my right cheek. "Good luck out there today," My love says, "You're gonna need it." He adds playfully, squeezing my hand a bit before heading off to his team. His passive-aggressiveness lights a fire in my chest, a fire that itches for the win.
I laugh-scoff, and turn to my team. Grace, Sage, Bellamy, Andrew and Olivia. So far, throughout the first stage of training, these five have peaked my interest, and have surely impressed me at some point during. I jump out the train holding my gun tight, and my team follows. As does Miles, and the rest of the teams.
My older brother heads off into the park with the flag, and instead of a paint ball gun, he also has a Nero-Stim gun and a sash full of darts. He also had a air-horn, to sound off when he's in place and ready. Tobias explained it'd be a good challenge for the initiates, and I agreed. Miles has immaculate aim, especially with such a slim gun. I honestly just wonder where on earth he's gonna hide and guard that flag.
Us instructors take our teams in separate directions, in order to strategize while Miles ventures off. I keep running with my team until I feel like we're a good way's away, "Okay, lights on, gather around." I say, and they switch on their vest lights as the sun continues to set. "Before we start serving out strategy, there's something I wanna go over." I start, and they listen intently as I explain each every team captains greatest strength, and greatest weakness. My brother's weakness would be that he's overly-confident, so all he's gonna do is psych his team up, give a game plan, and forget to do what I'm doing, which is analyze. Lauren's weakness would be that she ended up with majority female initiates, and no, I'm not saying girls are weak.
I'm actually saying, Lauren work's better with male initiates. Throughout the weeks of initiation, I've noticed she can't stand girl's near my age. She still pushes through and continues to train them but, not without a little bit of blood, sweat and tears so, she's gonna have a rough time trying to strategize with her team. See now, Tobias though, I'm not too sure what exactly his weakness would be, and I tell my initiates that. They shake their heads at me, "What? Why are you shaking your heads?" I ask, and they laugh a bit.
"cuz, I'm pretty sure you're his only weakness. So if he ever comes at us with his Nero-Stim gun, that'll be your cue. He won't hurt you. Or at the very least, he'll hesitate, giving us the upper hand." Bellamy explains, and I roll my eyes with a smile. I remember what he said on the train though, "Good luck out there today, you're gonna need it." He taunted me, so that has to mean he's gonna bring his all. And so am I. "You know what? You're absolutely right. That's it! That's our game plan." I pause, "If we run into his team, or any team actually, I'll be your guy's shield. The rule is that your suits need to stay as white as possible, so in case we don't get the flag, you'll at least get some decent ranks." I explain, and they all start adding onto my idea. I observe and listen, and notice one of them stopped flapping their lips and started squinting at something behind me. "Holy shit." Grace says, and I look behind me, and up.
And to my mortification, I spot my older brother scaling the side of a thirty foot building, already half way to the top. I snap my fingers, getting my teams attention on Miles as well. "Why is he being so obvious? He knows we can all see him right?" Andrew questions, and I enhance my vision, zooming in to watch my brother climb the crumbling and abandoned building. I see that his footings off, and I watch my brother slip from the side of the building. My heart plummets as I subtly catch him with my ability and press him back against the side of the building.
My teams gasps as my brother nearly falls, and sigh as they see 'he' saved himself. There's no way in hell I'd let him fall so, I'm glad he's too far for them to notice anything suspicious. Miles climbs to safety, through a big hole in the building, and stands at the ledge before blowing his air-horn and yelling. "COME GET ME MOTHERFUCKER'S!" I try my best not to laugh, seeming I was the only one who heard what he said. Oddly though, I could spot the bright green flag lodged into his right pants pocket.
What is he up to? "Shouldn't we, I don't know, start running towards him now?" Olivia questions, getting her hair into a bun. I listen closely, as the sound of pounding footsteps gets closer and closer. I pull my team behind the counter of what looked to be once a game, where you squirt water into a tiny hole to make a balloon pop, for one of the many prizes hanging up I assume. I make them crouch and pipe down, as Lauren's team comes up about five-ten feet in front of the game stand.
" . . . But Lauren, we can't just blitz em', what if another team does the same and we run into them?" A girl on her teams questions, and Lauren grunts a bit, "Shoot at them! The whole point is to make sure your suits stay white, you get as much pink paint on all of the other teams and that we get that damn flag!" Lauren responds, and I hold up my pointer finger to my mouth at all of my team as we hide under the counter. I grab a small red bouncy ball from off the ground beside me and I peek over the counter, and see that all off their backs are turned to us. I chuck the ball in the opposite direction of us, and it hits a neat stack of glass bottles over at the stand across from us. The glass falls and shatters, and Lauren's team jumps and goes over to investigate. I stand my group up and make them file through the back of water balloon shack, and just as the last one was hidden out of gun fire, I walk from behind the counter and let loose with just my paintball gun.
"Suck it Lauren!" I yell, and I manage to nail her and three of her initiates just before I fell back with the rest of my team. They all run ahead of me towards the building Miles was in, and I look behind me at Lauren's team perusing us. I see one of her initiates aiming for Sage and I run behind him, taking the hit. We turn a sharp corner and I pull my team into a popcorn tent this time, and we shut our mouths as Lauren's team passes us by. When I hear her footsteps fade, I peek out the tent with my gun at the ready.
And I notice something, I watch as Tobias and Lauren's teams run into each other yet, instead of shots being fired, hands were shook. He formed an alliance with her?! Instead of me?! Oh, it's on now. My team peeks with me, and I happen to spot a wonderful sight.
I spot my younger brother and his team hiding, and also eyeing Lauren and Tobias as both of them and their teams run towards Miles's building together. Once it's clear I whistle, and I get my brother's attention. "You thinkin what I'm thinkin?" I shout, and he nods, unhesitant. "Sure fucking am!" He shouts cocking back his gun, and turning back to let his team know we're also making an alliance. I do the same and both teams come out of hiding, nice and slowly.
I see that him and his team had a run in with my boyfriend and his own team, seeming green paint was nearly plastered all over them. "Wow, you're teams clean." He pauses, "Now, I say we go show our significant other's who the fuck their dealing with." He says to me, while this time, aggressively cocking his Nero-Stim gun. I follow my brother's lead as both of our teams follow our lead, and I notice how they seem to stay separate and weary, even though a truce has been made. Smart of them. We hit another wide corner and we spot them, right next to the building yet, they don't notice us.
I tell them to wait for the bell and send all of my team around the back of the building, and Liam sends all of his through the various colorful stands across from the building. I take one look at my brother, and he smiles at me as he looks at the light poles that stood tall near Tobias's and Lauren's group, making them flicker as he hides behind a stand. I catch on and make wind thrash and the ground shake through and pass them, like a bad chill. And that's when they finally notice me walking up, they all get into stance and aim their guns straight at me. Tobias holds up a fist though, signaling for them to wait, even though he still held his paint ball gun at me.
"What? Did your brother take your whole team out or something?" He shouts, and I laugh. "Very funny babe, but uh, I guess you could say something like that." I shout back and I close my eyes, focusing on the bell tower just around the corner. 'Dong, dong, dong,' I make the bell swing, and the ring of it could be heard from miles away. And as expected, I watch as both my boyfriend and friend's teams are pelleted with red and orange paint ball's. I run to where my teams posted at, disregarding all of the paintballs that hit me.
I give Bellamy my paintball gun, and he dual wields them without a problem. I quickly jump in front of every possible paint ball that came towards any of my chosen initiates, no matter where I get hit or what color hits me. Some hit pretty painfully, yet other's just hit my white vest and white pants, coating me. I get near Grace, "Cover me!" She says, and her and I run through the messy gunfire. I make sure she makes it over to the building without a splatter of paint on her suit.
She goes in, and the amount of paintballs that started hitting me ticked me off so, I decided to get a tad lethal. I whip my Nero-Stim gun around from off my back, and one by one, both Tobias's and Lauren's chosen initiates fall to the ground by my hand. Once all of them are writhing on the floor, my team and Liam's team comes out the wood works and keeps their aim on the two fallen teams. While I keep my aim on Lauren, I fail to realize I don't have eyes on my boyfriend, until of course it was too late. He snuck up behind me and knocked my gun up and out of my hands, and wrapped an arm around neck as he held his gun to my waist. But only for a second.
"That was a cute attempt," He says, and puts a dart in every single one of my initiates, and Lauren does the same with Liam's. Just then though, Liam comes out of nowhere and put's Lauren in a headlock too, making her drop her gun. He aims his gun exactly where Tobias has his on me. "Oh come on! This is pointless, I know you're not gonna shoot me William." Lauren says confidently, "And I know, my boyfriend wouldn't hurt me either." I say, and turn my head to his ear, "Isn't that right, Tobias?" I whisper, quite seductively. He clenches his jaw, and I feel the pressure of his gun fade.
I look over at my brother and he gives a nod, and I hit Tobias's gun away from me and towards Lauren before making him press the trigger with my mind. It hits her in the leg and she falls to the ground as Liam shoots Tobias in the shoulder. My love falls to the ground and he pulls me down with him, I turn and take the dart out. Liam grabs one of his writhing initiates and rushes them into and up the buildings stairs, before running back to Lauren's aid momentarily. He's going for the flag, I have to get up and help Grace. "Luck," I start, lifting up off of him, "Has nothing to do with it." I add, kissing his cheek before stealing his gun as he writhes in pain on the floor.
I hear him chuckle a bit before I rush into the building myself. I quickly head up the stairs to find my older brother guarding what looked to be a box, away from Grace along with Elijah. My younger brother though, held his aim on our older brother behind an old bookshelf he obviously pushed over for protection. I aim right back at Miles, and see that there's something glowing in the box behind him. The flag.
"Out of all the places to hide it, why in a box Miles?" I question, and he shoots at me; I quickly dodge it though. "Don't question it, I panicked!" He yells at me, obviously trying his best not to laugh. "You're obviously having wayyyy too much fun with this." Liam says, and Miles finally bursts into laughter. "Sure fucking am!" Miles shouts while laughing, just before firing at Grace and Elijah. Grace dodges by hitting the floor, unfortunately though, Elijah takes a dart to the junk.
He falls to his knees in pain, and I notice the strangest thing. Something in my brother's left vest pocket, made my eye inch, that itch I get when my ability wants to come out. I enhance my vision and I can't believe my eyes. I grab a pillow that laid on this old raggedy couch, and rush towards my brother, making sure all of his darts don't hit me. I hear his gun click and I dive for the box and open it, I scoff at what's inside.
"It's a fucking glowstick!" I yell, and I look over at my brother. He watches my eyes dart from his to his vest pocket, and I watch his eyes bounce from mine to the hole he climb in the building through. He isn't about to do what I think he's about to do, is he? "He's has the flag! In his vest pocket Grace!" I yell, and both me and Grace fire at him as he runs for the opening. I realize what'll happen if one of us hits him as he's basically trying to jump off a building.
I stop both me and Grace's darts, and I realize what he's doing. There's a thick wire hanging from the roof, that slants down connecting to another roof of another building at just the right angle for a zipline. He jumps, and uses his gun to slide him down the wire. And without another thought Grace goes after him, while Liam tries to help Elijah up. I give a second and watch my brother make it to the roof, and I do the same as him and use my gun and upper body strength to glide down the wire.
I watch Grace make it to the next roof as well, and before Miles could even grasp the concept of running, she tackled him to the ground. I make it to the roof as well and I watch as Grace goes for the flag in his vest pocket. He stops her by sitting up and grabbing both of her wrists. She wriggles in his grip as she straddled his lap, and I hesitate to interfere with my gun. I want to see how she handles this.
He starts to push her off his lap, and she visibly panics, and does the absolutely unexpected. She . . . kisses him, and just like that, my brother melts instantly, releasing her wrists. And the next thing I see is Grace slipping the bright green flag out from his vest pocket with ease. Yes! Fuck yes!
Natalie's team for the win! I start fist pumping the air, "That's my girl! Thinking outside the box!" I praise, as she finishes locking lips with my brother. She smiles at him, and waves the flag in his face. He realizes the deal has been sealed and facepalms yet, with a smile behind his hand. She stands and helps him up, before coming over to the ledge of the building, and waving the flag, letting all teams know that my team, takes the cake.
She beckons for me to wave the flag with her, "Spotlights all yours girly, you definitely earned it." I say, and she laugh-scoffs. "Don't make me drag you over here." She says, and I roll my eyes and head over to the ledge. We wave the flag together, while Miles uses his air-horn to let any initiates out of view know that the flag had been captured. Me, Grace and Miles head back down the building, celebrating for the most part. We make it back out the other building and re-group with our team.
When I spot my clean suited team, I make sure we save the celebratory hug for after we get back to Dauntless, since I'm covered head to toe in paint. I high five each one of them though, just before Grace shows them the bright green flag. They all celebrate as my older brother approaches me, "She really just did that? Didn't she?" He asks me in disbelief, and I nod with a laugh. "She got you good big bro. Real good." I tell him, and he looks me up and down. "She may have got me, but it looks like you let everybody get you. Jesus Nat were you their shield or something? Your team is practically spotless." Miles notices, and I nod.
"I wanted to make sure they'd at least get good rankings if we didn't get the flag so, I made sure they stayed clean." I explain, triumphally. "We got the flag though so, I guess my team gets extra points." I add, dancing around. This feels so good. I spin around finishing off my dancing, and I notice Lauren and my boyfriend right behind me, trying to suppress their laughter. "No, go ahead," I start, "Laugh it up losers." I add, continuing my victory dance.
Grace comes over and joins in, matching my moves while holding up the flag and pointing at it. We all burst into laughter, and Miles comes over and snatches the flag from Grace. "Hey!" She says, and he holds it up above her, "Give it back, I got it from you fair and square!" She adds, "You kissed me, how is that fair?" My brother questions, raising it higher after she started to jump for it. "You say that and yet you kissed back instead of making sure I didn't get the flag." She responds, and my brother smiles down at her, "Okay fine, I'll make a deal with you," She starts, "I'll give the flag back if the answer to my next question is yes." He's says, and she squints her eyes at him.
"Be my girlfriend?" He asks looking into her eyes, and my heart warms at the smile on my brother's face. It's the same smile he had when he told me he was in love with Tris. But now, obviously, It's on his face for another reason. For another girl. A girl I highly approve of.
She answers his question by getting on her tippy-toe's and kissing him again. "I mean," She pauses, "I didn't kiss you just for the flag, now did I?" She answers, and he hands her back the flag. Me, Tobias, Lauren, Liam and all of our teams cheer and whistle the new couple on as they share another kiss. Us instructors lead the way back to the train to Dauntless, and by the time we got there it was already past curfew. So, we had our teams gather back together in the pit, and we quickly evaluate the losing teams rankings.
I sit back and watch my brother, boyfriend, and friend walk around their chosen five initiates, looking and taking down the different colored paints. I admire my clean team, and I shed off my very colorful vest, since I have a white long sleeve on underneath. Or well, had a white long sleeve on. Now the sleeves were plastered with pink, orange, and green paint, while the chest and torso part were still white. "It looks like you took one for your team." My love comes over saying, and I lift my long sleeve up off my body, leaving me in my little crop-top muscle shirt.
"More like, more than one." I say, and that's when I start to feel it. I look down at my body and I notice the welts that every paintball that hit me left. I was so filled with adrenaline that my body ignored the pain, until now of course. I touch one on my arm and it stings even more so. I hiss, and Tobias comes closer to me and takes my wrists, looking at my arms and body.
"Liam!" He calls, and I watch my brother jog over here. He sees my arms and torso, "Jesus Christ, you bruise easily. Here," He says, and my brother hugs me, and I hug him right back. And I smile as I feel every welt melt away as if they weren't even there to begin with. He releases, "Thank you, you and your ability comes in handy y'know." I say, and he smiles down at me but soon furrows his eyebrows at me. "Y'know, I wouldn't have to heal you if just figure out how to use your fourth ability. I gotta admit, It's pretty amazing in my vision's." He tells me, and I raise my eyebrows in realization.
I do have a whole other ability I've yet to use. And as surprising as it may sound, I really don't know how to make it uh, come out. Apparently, I'm invincible, and my baby brother was able to share one vision of it with me, without change. I can take a bullet. A real bullet to my bare skin, and it'll hit me without a scratch, and fall to the floor, bent.
And yet here I am, getting welted by paint balls. "You're right, I'm gonna start trying to bring it out of me. I'm so over being in pain." I say, and I notice my brother and Lauren had dismiss all of the teams, and before I knew it, my team comes running over, tackling me into a group hug. I laugh, "Which team took the win?" I ask them, "Red team!" They say, "I can't hear youuu, which team?" I ask loud and clear, trying to hype up the winning team. My winning team. "Red team!!" They shout louder, and the next thing I know I'm being picked up by Sage and Andrew, and I'm sat on their touching shoulders.
"Which team has the best instructor?" Andrew shouts, and of course, "Red team!" Is what the rest of my team shouts. I watch my brother, friend and boyfriend watching me and my team while we celebrate. They all start chanting my name, "Jade! Jade! Jade!" And it's then that I see the smiles on all of their faces. Including Tobias's. Matter of fact, his was the biggest.
They set me down, and I give individual hugs to each of them, starting with Andrew and Sage. After I do, I spot the time on Andrew's wrist, 10:50 p.m. I tell them the time, and send them off to the sleeping chambers before they run into the night patrol and they get written up for being up past 11:00. "Natalie!" I hear my love call me, and I turn around to see him walking over to me, away from my brother and Lauren, who of which were a bit busy eating each other's faces. I feel this great, and pleasant sense of Deja vu, like I've been in this exact moment before.
Me and Tobias meet halfway, "Congratualations," He says to me, and I smile. Remembering when he said the exact same thing to me, in this exact same spot in the pit over a year ago. After I captured the flag for his team. "Thank you," I simply say, as we stand inches apart, with me looking up at him, and him looking down at me. We touch foreheads, and he entwines his fingers with mine.
I look into his perfectly shaded light brown eyes with a smile on my face. And to think, a year ago, I stood here with him, feet apart, unable, but wanting to do this very thing. To just be close to him, to mean something to him. And now, I do. I listen closely, focusing on the sound of his heartbeat, as I did in the first few minutes of having my abilities.
And, in a sense, I'm listening to mine as well. Because if ever, for any reason, his heart stops beating, mine would too. I'd turn into a whole different person. "I love you." I breath, and his heart starts to beat faster. "I love you more." He says to me in return, and instead of kissing me, he wraps his arms around me, going underneath my arms.
He hugs me tight, and I hug him right back, wrapping my arms around his neck. I bury my face into his neck, and breath in deeply through my nose, just as he straightens up and lifts me up off the ground, and spins around with me. I laugh a bit, and kiss his cheek repeatedly, making him laugh. He sets me down, releases, and does his signature curl tuck before placing his lips onto mine, very sensually. I kiss him back the same way, even though he definitely dominanted me.
He pulls away, yet pecks my lips once more. "I'm really gonna miss you after this last month of training, I feel like this bet is gonna be the end of me. I'm gonna wake up every morning, for a month, without you next to me." I say, and he kisses my forehead, pulling me close again. "I know, but don't you worry, I'm gonna make sure you have a part of me with you, everyday."
***
-August 31st, Saturday-
~Third Person~
The next morning, all of the initiates gather in the training room near the scoreboard, awaiting their rankings for the first stage of training. The instructors arrive, and they then make the rankings appear on the board.
First Stage Rankings :
1. Grace
2. Bellamy
3. Sage
4. Andrew
5. Olivia
6. Elijah
7. Dexter
8. Jacob
9. Nehemiah
10. Bryson
11. Travis
12. Stephanie
13. Alexia
14. Hope
15. Denise
16. Cassidy
17. Jordyn
18. Spencer
19. Alyssa
20. Anastasia
Some initiates celebrated and others? Not so much. Alyssa and Anastasia spotted their names, rolled their eyes and left the training room. While Grace on the other hand though, could not have been happier. Along with the following four ranked.
And even then, initiates who ranked in the mid-range seemed satisfied with themselves. Last night, the instructors stayed up past twelve thoroughly discussing and recording the performances of each and every initiate throughout first stage of training, and war games. Which would explain why the initiates were in the training room before them. All five of them slept in, luckily though, Natalie woke up and quickly woke everyone up with her ability. Shoving Liam, Lauren, and Miles awake through the Dauntless walls while still in her and Tobias's apartment.
After showing the rankings though, the instructors answer any and all questions the initiates had. "When does second stage training begin?"
~Jade's POV~
Is what Andrew asked me, "It starts tomorrow actually. Consider this Saturday a break." I answer with a smile, and he smiled back. "Thank god, I could use a break." He says, widening his eyes. And it's then I notice something about them. One of his eyes were light blue and the other was a light green. I step closer to get a better look, "Oh my god, I love your eyes." I say, not realizing what I was saying and how I was saying it.
"Thank you, it's genetic. Heterochromia Iridium, is what it's called. And I could say the same thing back to you, I absolutely love Hazel eyes." He genuinely compliments back. "Thank you, but come on, you got two differently colored eyes." I respond, and he shakes his head. "I know but, I love hazel eyes so much, I wish one of these sons-a-bitches were hazel, but no." He says goofily, gesturing to either of his eyes. I laugh, and he starts laughing too. We stop laughing and he smiles at me, "Y'know, I really like you." He states, and I raise an eyebrow at him before veering my eyes over to my boyfriend, he was busy answering another initiates question with my older brother.
"And I what you're thinking, no, I don't mean that type of like. I'm able to acknowledge and respect a taken female, unlike Lamont over there." He jokes nudging me with his elbow a bit, making me laugh again. I go in and give Andrew a side hug, "Oh wow, thank you, for not being attracted to me. It's like two guys along with my brother's have been the only other males in my life that I can talk to, without having to worry if they're in love with me or not. Cuz obviously that would be weird." I say, and I make him laugh as we release. "Yes, that would be very weird. And you're welcome." He pauses, "Oh, and one more thing," He says, "Tell that boyfriend of yours to stop looking at me like he has laser vision or something. I'm no threat here, and I don't plan to be." Andrew adds, smiling at me before heading off, and out the training room. And I watched my boyfriend glare at Andrew as he left. I head over to him, and he gives me this look as I walk over to him, "So Jenkins huh?" He asks with his arms crossed and this half smile half grimace type of expression.
And I squint my eyes at him, "What? What about him?" I ask in return, and he steps closer to me. "Oh nothing, it's just, I'm starting to notice you've taken special interest. And I have this strange feeling you like what you see." He answers honestly, and I roll my eyes, "And so what if I do? I love you, not him." I respond bluntly, and he raises his eyebrows at me. "Oh so you admit that you do?" He asks, obviously a bit jealous, and I facepalm. "No dummy, I was just trying to make a point." I tell him, "Oh so, when in a relationship, you're a look, but don't touch type of girl? Alright then," He says, and looks away from me. And I scoff at the amount of audacity this man has.
He looked away from me just to end up looking straight at these two female Dauntless members walking by. They either smile or wink at him, he smiles and winks back. I face my palm up to the ceiling, and I look down at my man's junk. I begin to slowly curl my fingers, making sure my nails were pointed inward. He tenses up immediately, and I decide to squeeze his nuts like a couple of stress balls when he looked directly at their asses.
He hisses, and tries to take my curled up hand in his. I pull away just in time, and squeeze harder. He squeals a bit, "okay okay, I'm sorry, I won't do it again." He begs, and I release him. "You gotta a lot of nerve doing that dumb shit." I say, and he scoffs. "I could say the same thing to you. You were flirting with him the whole time, 'ohmergod, I love your eyes.'" He mocks me, in a high pitched girly tone. "So you had my brother read my mind while I was talking to Andrew? Real mature Mr. twenty-three-year-old." I say rolling my eyes.
"What the fuck did I tell you about rolling your eyes at me?" He questions, and the next thing I know, I'm being picked up and thrown over his shoulder. I yelp, and he makes sure I hang there by holding my legs by the back of my knees. He starts walking past the initiates with me, "Tobias put me down!" I shout, laughing a little while kicking my legs in the air. "I don't think so, Natalie." He says laughing. "Wait what?" One of our initiates says, getting our attention.
"So Jade and Four aren't your guys real names?" Olivia asks, and Tobias sets me down. "I mean, I pretty much assumed a number wasn't your name, but you," She looks to me, "I honestly thought your name was Jade." She adds. I shake my head, "Jade is actually my middle name. I decided to go by my middle name when I hopped off that net for the first time." I explain, "So yes, Jade and Four aren't are our real names." I add, praying nobody connects the dots with my love's name. Sage steps out in front of Olivia, "So your name is actually Tobias? As in Tobias Eaton maybe?" Sage questions, and I mentally facepalm. But out of all the initiates I expected either Sage or Andrew to say something, considering their faction of origin is Abnegation.
My love turns to Sage with a slight frown on his face, and I put my hand on his arm, shaking my head. "You don't have to say anything my love." I whisper in his ear, and he smiles down at me and takes the hand on his arm off, and kisses my knuckles. "It's okay, I want to." He tells me, and looks to Sage. "Yes, my name is in fact Tobias Eaton. And yes, my father happens to run the government, I know." He says, and all of the initiates listening in start gasping and whispering to one another.
"No wonder this dude is almost alpha, he's a natural-born leader like his father."
"Isn't there like, a rumor that he left because of his father?"
"Hey Steph, didn't you know about this guy already?"
"Yeah, my older sister is his ex-girlfriend. She told me they were together for like, four-five years until he broke it off for no real reason." I hear Stephanie explain, and I can't believe my own ears. "Maybe it was because of Jade. You said older sister right? So that would mean he's older too, maybe the dude realized he had thing for younger girls." Lamont responds back, and I'm forced to hold back a scoff. "You know what, you could be right. But now that I think about it, I don't even think my sister knows about her." Steph responds, and I can't help but be surprised. We all live in the same big building, how on earth could she not find out about her beta-leader ex-boyfriends new girlfriend? My love clears his throat, getting my attention along with all of the initiates.
"And just so we can put this to rest now," I watch him swallow hard, so I entwine my fingers with his. "Yes, the rumors are true, I left abnegation and choose Dauntless because of my father. My very abusive father. Everything you know about Marcus Eaton is a façade. The man is a lie, and the day I left abnegation, was thee best day of my life. Well," he looks over to me, lovingly. "Second best day of my life." He says, and I smile up at him right before he pulls me out the training room, and away from the initiates. We walk back to our apartments together, and seemed as if something was on Tobias's mind. And surprisingly, I could tell it wasn't his father, since I know when he's upset about him. "Something's up, I can tell," I pause, stepping in front of him, "Tell me." I add.
And he rubs the back of his neck. "How did you just know? That something was wrong?" He asks me, and I give him the 'really?' look. "You're my other half, I pay attention to every little thing you do. Now stop stalling and tell me." I playfully demand, and he laughs a little before clearing his throat. "Alright alright, so uh, last night, when you fell asleep before me, Max had actually knocked on the door." He starts explaining, and I raise my eyebrows attentively. "I stepped outside since he wanted to talk, and uh, he uh . . ." He struggles to find the words.
"He what?" I ask, stepping closer to him, taking his hands. "He told me he's stepping down from being alpha, today. I'm going to become alpha, today."