A Divergent Tale

Chapter Five

When I wake up in the morning I put my arm out, but don't feel Tobias next to me. Weird. I usually wake before him. I sit up groaning. I see a note on my bedside table. Grabbing it, I rub the sleep out of my eyes.

Tris,

You looked extremely peaceful sleeping.

I did not want to wake you.

You deserved to sleep.

I'll set up this morning.

Be in the training room by 8:30.

I love you,

Tobias

P.S. I grabbed you breakfast.

I smile at the note in my hands. I look at the alarm clock, noting it's only 8:00. Perfect. Thirty minutes to get ready. I take a shower and walk out in only a towel wrapped around my body. I brush the knots out of my hair and throw on black pants and a tight shirt that reveal my raven tattoos. I tie my hair up in a ponytail before heading down to the training room. As I walk in, everyone is just starting to show up.

"Good morning sleepy head," He says grinning.

"You could have woken me," I whisper, glaring at him.

"No it's fine," he says, ignoring my glare, "Here's a muffin."

I take the muffin and nod thankfully. I rip a piece off and swallow it before addressing the initiates, "Is everyone here?"

"Yes."

"Whose soar?" I ask, looking at their bruises. They all groan in response.

"Unfortunately that's the result of hard work. Either you'll get used... Or you'll learn to toughen up and win your fights," Four said, "Be lucky that you're this year's initiates, because last year's was much more violent."

"We aren't making you fight because we enjoy watching you beat eachother up, I assure you," I said, "We are making you fight to learn how to defend yourselves."

"We aren't making you guys fight today, but we will call you each individually over, so we can work and improve on things we noticed yesterday. Tris and I will help you." Tobias says, "Now split up and work on muscle building exercises."

"Jasmine!" I called.

"Morning," She says, flashing a smile.

"Good morning. Tris and I were watching your moves yesterday, and we wanted to say your fight was really good yesterday. It was a clean fight and you were very wise about your movement," Four said.

"I agree. It was a good fight, but you definitely have some room to improve," I say.

"I'm not gonna lie, I thought Four would have said what you said and he would have said what you said," Jasmine says.

I laugh and Four huffs, "I'm not going to sugarcoat anything for you. If you fight some of these boys currently; they will whip your ass. They have a lot more brute force, but you have good strategies. I can tell that you do have muscle, but muscle won't always win."

"Ok," she nods, "Let me know how I can improve."

I pull Jasmine onto the mat and show her some slow moves of what she can do. I showed where to throw her punches and how to best guard your face. I taught her how to analyze her opponent and what to do next in order to make a decision. Around forty five minutes later we called Ava over.

"You did okay in your fight. But okay will not help you once you come face to face with bigger and stronger opponents," I say.

You have a good right hook, but you hesitate too much and you let your guard down. It's critical to always keep your stance and not falter with your movements, or let your opponent know what you are about to do," Four says.

I nodded, remembering when he had told me to watch Peter's feet, because he steps before he punches. It definitely helped, even though it ended up angering Peter and making him knock me out. But at least I got some good punches in. I watched as Four worked with her and told her not to lower her hands and make quick punches and stay on her toes.

"Luke?" I called.

Luke jogged over to us. I instantly noticed the tattoo on his neck and how his hair is at least 3 inches shorter. Before, his hair looked more Amity, but now with the tattoo, he looks more Dauntless.

"I like the new look," I said with a smirk.

"Uh... Thanks," Luke says blushing.

"You did well in your first fight. You have very quick movements, and I know you are very fast. The only thing you're lacking is experience. I'm quite positive you didn't do any fighting in Amity. I'll show you how to strategize more when fighting a person like William; who uses nothing but brute force. Nice job kicking his ass. I would've done the same thing if he kicked me you know where... I hope your junk is ok," Four said laughing slightly.

I look away, blushing. I watched as they fought for a while, Four correcting his movements and trying again. He doesn't seem to be going easy on him. Which Luke should be proud of. Once they are done fighting I call William over.

"You can take this one too," I whisper to Tobias quickly, "I don't like him"

"What's up?" William asks, walking over, eyeing me. I'm sure he isn't fond of me, after I made him do two hundred pushups.

"Your fighting style is passable. You have a decent amount of muscle, which is good, but there's a lot you need to think about. I think when fighting, you think of nothing except causing your opponent the most amount of pain. In which we will not tolerate," Four states.

"Well obviously I am," he said snidely. "That's the smart way to do it. It's called fighting, I'm not giving my opponent a slap in the arm and then feel bad about it afterwards. After all, this is Dauntless."

I glare at him, "Yes and Dauntless isn't about being cruel to people. You'd better bet that straight. Hand to hand combat is about winning. Not enjoying the pain you cause others. Being Dauntless is about being brave, skilled and wise, not being a smart ass."

"Whatever, can we start now?"

"Yes. Follow me." Tobias says stiffly.

William starts walking but then turns around, "What? Tris isn't going to help? Do you always make Four do your dirty work? Either you're too scared to try and fight me... Or you must've been a Stiff before Dauntless," he scoffed.

Tobias's jaw dropped as he insulted me, and I stormed over to William. Practically seeing red as I grabbed his arm and shoved him onto the mat, "I'll try not to be too scared," I spat, "You seem to know everything about being Dauntless and fighting, so let's see. It's just such a shame I don't have balls for you to knee me in."

He laughs looking a little confused, "I'm not sure if Four will be ok with me beating up a girl," He says looking at Tobias.

"I'm sure she can hold her own," Four says calmly.

"If you say so," He says, lunging forwards.

I duck underneath him and he misses me. He spun around and narrowed his eyes at me. Then he lunged again. I avoid him by leaping to the side yet again. I sigh as if I was bored and pretend to check my nails, "Are we going to start yet?" I ask, in my best whiny toddler voice. I catch Four out of the corner of my eye, stifling a laugh.

He threw a heavy punch, and I blocked it with my forearm. I punched him in the nose with my other arm, then I knee him in the gut. I decided not to draw this out, like Eric would. So I draw his legs out from beneath him and pin him to the ground. Tobias puts a gentle hand on my shoulder.

"I think that's enough Tris."

I stand up brushing myself off, and walk off the mats. I try not to blush once I notice all the other initiates are watching.

"Get back to work," I say.

Tobias and I train the other initiates for the rest of the day. William, wisely, didn't say anything the rest of the day. Four and I showed them a bit of hand to hand combat, but we wrestled more than we punched. We still showed them some fighting skills and how to pin your opponents. But none of us actually had the heart to punch each other. Because punching your boyfriend in the face... Not something you really want to do.