Tris the trainer

Target practice

Tobias pov

Last night Before I went to sleep I was thinking why I chose four as my name- and why I chose to say it.

I was thinking about my name all during dinner and what it could be. I was not letting anyone know who I was, or who my father was. My favourite day of the year was April fourth or 4.4, because my father would be away staying at Erudite headquarters for a city council meeting, and my mother and I would have a day off from my horrible father. I Also thought that Dauntless is about Courage and Bravery, so I thought about my fears.

Closed spaces. I am claustrophobic, from sitting in my upstairs closet as a punishment.

Heights. Ever since I was young I was scarred of going to the hub or the Sears building. I feel like I will fall and die, or that I am being compressed.

Marcus. I am terrified of my father. It is kind of self explanatory why I am scared of my father.

I had trouble with anymore, I'm not scared of anything else- I'm not scared of spiders, or snakes, or anything like that. But one of the reasons why I was afraid of joining dauntless was because of the power I am going to have. I will be able to fight, I will be able to shoot a gun and I will be able to hurt people. I guess that is my last fear. The fact that I don't know my own strength. That is where Four came from.

I also could have chosen Toby. It is not an Abnegation name, so people who know the difference between faction names would know it is a nickname- but most people don't know the difference. The name might also trigger my name from the choosing ceremony. So I guess Toby was out.

I didn't have time to think of anything else before Eric and Six asked my name. So I picked Four.

After I was finished thinking about this I immediately passed out. I did not wake up until Will was shaking my shoulder and telling me to wake up. I get up and change in a matter of minutes. I am tying my shoe laces when everyone starts to leave.

"The first thing you will learn today is how to shoot a gun. The second thing is how to win a fight." Six says as she presses a gun into my hand and she does not even looks at me. "Thankfully, if you are here, you already know how to get on and off a moving train, so I don't need to teach you that."

I'm not surprised that the dauntless want us to hit the ground running, but I didn't know that we would have five hours of sleep before the running began.

"There is three stages of initiation," six says as she is walking along the row of initiates. She turns on her heal and starts again "stage one: physical, I already told you the main components of what we are doing. Stage two: emotional, you will be learning how to cope with fear. Stage three: you will be learning how to face fear."

After Sixes speech I start to comprehend the fact that I am holding a gun and I will be learning how to shoot it. I never thought I would be holding a weapon, because weapons are for self defence- and we should be helping others and not worrying about our selves.

Six starts again "we believe that preparation eradicates cowardice, which we define as the failure to act in the midst of fear, therefore each stage of initiation is intended to prepare you in a different way."

"But what..." Peter yawns threw his sentence "what does firing a gun have to do with... bravery?"

Six flips the gun in her hand, presses it to Peters temple, and clicks the bullet into place. Peter freezes mid yawn.

"Wake. Up." Six snaps "you are holding a loaded gun, you IDIOT, act like it."

She lowers the gun and walks away. Once the immediate threat is gone Peter's ayes harden and glare at the back of Sixes head. I feel a sudden urge to wrap my arm around Six and show Peter that if he Dares to try to hurt her I will be there to protect her. I know that she could break me in a second, and she doesn't need my protection- but I still fell that way.

"To answer your question... You are far less likely to piss your pants and cry for your mother if you are prepared to defend your self." Six states "you might also need to know that later in stage one. So watch me.

She faces a target, holds the gun in both hands, breaths in, when she breathes out, she fires. The bang is so loud it hurts my ears so i look away, when I look back there is a bullet whole right in the centre of the target. I gap in aw.

I turn to my own target and stare at the cold gun I am holding in my hand. I never thought that I would ever hold a weapon. My father wouldn't give a rats butt what I do. But my mother, she would not approve. I push away the thought of my mother out of my mind And hold the gun out as far as I can in front of me, it would have been heavy but I'm already carrying so much weight from my past, the gun feels like a toy. I copy exactly what Six did: feet shoulder length apart, breath in, pull the trigger and breath out. I cringe away from the gun. The sound hurts my ears and the recoil sends my arms flying back. I don't know where the bullet went but I know it wasn't near the target.

I keep firing but none of the bullets come close to the target.

"Statistically speaking," will says to me, grinning, "you should have hit the target at least once by now, even by accident."

"Is that so" I say smiling back

"Yeah" he says "I think you're actually defying nature."

I grit my teeth, even though Will is kidding, I want to prove him wrong.

I stand with my feet shoulder length apart. Breath in, shoot breath out. I hit the edge of the target but I still hit it.

"You see, I'm wright. The stats doesn't lie." He winks at me and I laugh.

It takes me five more round to hit the middle of the target. I smile a little.

Maybe I do belong here.

Thanks for everyone who reads, it means a lot! Please comment any ideas or feedback you have.