Divergent UNIVERSITY ✅

chapter 20

The next week continues as normal. Tris and Four meet Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for an early morning run and training with Brian. They return to their houses and then meet up again to walk to classes together at Georgetown Hall on the days that they have class. On Thursday morning she meets him outside of the training facility to wish him luck in his game on Saturday and to tell him goodbye. They haven't really shared the passionate kiss that they had shared last Sunday since then. They have become slightly more affectionate, but nothing like the way some of their friends were."I'll try to call you on Saturday morning," he tells her."Focus on your game. I'll be watching, I promise.""I'm still going to try to call. I'll want to hear your voice before I go play.""Well, I'll keep my phone with me all day."He kisses her and wraps her in a hug. "As soon as both of our seasons are over, we're going to take a whole day and do nothing but lie on the couch and watch movies all day.""Sounds like the perfect date," she says."I should be back in time for your game on Sunday. But if not, I'll call and let you know. Stick close to Brian. I don't trust that my father's associates are done with their antics."He kisses her again, and then pulls away. He takes his bags and walks with his teammates to the busses. She stands outside with Marlene, Christina, Shauna, and a bunch of other girls that have come to see their boyfriends off. One of the girls comes up behind Tris and starts talking, "I'm shocked he's lasted as long as he has with you. Usually he uses girls and throws them away for something better. I'm speaking from personal experience."Tris and her friends turn around and look at this girl. She's tall with black hair and green eyes. She's very pretty."Speaking from personal experience, Karen? Are you kidding?" Shauna scoffs. "He didn't go anywhere near you when you were throwing yourself at him."Shauna turns to Tris, "Don't listen to her, this girl found out which room was his at a party and went into his room, undressed and got into his bed completely naked. When Four went up to bed, he opened the door to find this girl lying naked in his bed. I was there with Zeke, so I heard and saw the whole thing. Four flipped out and called for one of the guys to get her out. He refused to even step foot into his room until she was thrown out of the house.""That is not what happened," Karen says. "He used me first, and then had me thrown out.""Well he must have been really fast then," Shauna mocks. "Because he was only gone from Zeke and me for a matter of thirty seconds at the most before he started flipping out about some psycho bitch in his bed.""Look, just get away from me. You pathetic girls need to get over the fact that he's with me now.""What could he possibly see in you? You are covered in tattoos and are small and pathetic."Tris glares at the girl, but doesn't respond. This is where her insecurities lie. The fact that these girls who are curvy and voluptuous are willing to throw themselves at him and do whatever he wants them to do but he chooses to be with her. This doesn't make any sense to her. She wasn't anything special, she has barely kissed him in the past almost two months of them spending time together, and she definitely wasn't going to throw herself at him."What could he see in her?" Marlene asks. "Are you kidding? Do you understand that this girl will be the first person ever to go to the Olympics from this college? What do you have going for you other than taking some classes and throwing yourself at anything with two legs and a penis?"Tris looks at Marlene and Shauna and smile a thank you. Then without warning someone comes up behind Tris and wraps his arms around her. He glares at Karen with contempt. He's sick and tired of these girls making comments like this to Tris. As soon as he saw the confrontation from the bus he asked to get off for a moment.Tris smiles at the sight of Four's arms wrapping around her. He turns Tris toward him and he leans down and kisses her. "I'll miss you. See you on Sunday at your championship game.""Good luck," she says again. "I'll be watching you on TV."He kisses her cheek and runs back onto the bus in time for it to pull out of the parking lot. Tris turns to Karen, "You need to spread the word. All of you pathetic girls need to stay away from my man. If you can't tell, he's with me, so back off."~oOo~The rest of the week flies by. Every day Tris has training with Brian. Along with training he's decided that it would be best to start to teach Tris some self defense. So all day Thursday and Friday after her classes Tris and Brian were either practicing softball or he was teaching her how to defend herself. On Saturday before Four's game Brian decided to bring someone in to help with the fighting portion of their training."Tris, you've been doing well with the self defense training so I brought someone in to help us," Brian tells her.He gestures for a woman to come into the room. She's wearing gloves, a padded head guard, and padded feet guards. She's also carrying extras that Tris is sure are for her."Tris this is Tori, she's one of the agents that has been helping to guard you. I want you two to spar. The only way to really learn how to fight someone else is to fight. So Tori agreed to come and help teach you. She's going to talk to you while you are fighting to instruct you on where your weaknesses might be and how you can improve your hits with more strength."Tris and Tori shake hands, "It's good to meet you Tris. I've enjoyed watching you play softball, you are a great talent.""Nice to meet you too Tori, and thanks for everything.""Alright, go to the center of the room and start fighting," Brian tells them.Tris and Tori go to the center of the room and begin to circle each other. Tris does everything that Brian has told her to do with her arms and her body. She watches Tori and tries to mimic what she is doing also."Okay Tris, your arms are too high. You're protecting your face, but you aren't protecting your midsection. I could easily do this..."She moves in quickly, faster than Tris anticipated, and throws a punch into Tris' stomach knocking the wind out of her and making her double over."You can't stay like that because I could come up to you and kick you in the head and knock you out. Stand up and ready yourself. We are going to start fighting. You need to think of everything that Brian has taught you over the past couple days," Tori tells her.Tris stands straight, careful to protect both her face and midsection. Tori comes in for another hit and Tris blocks it and throws a punch into Tori's face. Tori smiles and kicks Tris in the back of her knees knocking her to the ground. Tris falls to the floor. She turns quickly and sweeps Tori's legs out from under her. Tris scrambles up and on top of Tori. She throws another blow to Tori's face. Tori shoves Tris from her and they both scramble to stand quickly.They fight for another ten minutes. In that time Tori teaches Tris how to use her elbows and knees to inflict more damage to her opponent. Then she shows Tris the best methods for taking down someone bigger than you when Tori and Brian give Tris a demonstration.Once the demonstration is over, Brian and Tris take the ring. Tori gives Tris some tips for taking down someone bigger.After about an hour and a half of training, Tori and Brian feel confident that Tris could defend herself."Do you want to come to the house to watch the football game with us?" Tris asks Tori and Brian."Sure," they both say.~oOo~Sunday morning Tris wakes to her phone ringing next to her bed."Hello?""Hey there, did you watch the game?" the voice on the other end says."Of course I did. It was an awesome win! You guys are easily going to a bowl game.""Well, I should be home in time for your game, but probably not before you are already on the field. What have you been doing for the past couple days?""Training with Brian, of course. He's been occupying all of my free time for the past three days. When we aren't training for softball, he's been teaching me to fight. Yesterday he even brought in a female agent for me to fight so I could learn better. They even taught me how to defend myself against someone bigger than me.""So you could kick my ass now, right?" Four says. She can hear the smile in his voice."I don't know about that, but I could certainly try.""Guess we will have to see when I get home," he says.~oOo~Later that day Tris and her team are on the field warming up, getting ready for the game. She looks up in to the stands and sees her mom and Bud sitting there with her friends. It makes her sad that her father isn't here, but she's grown accustomed to him not being around for the things that she finds important in her life. Then out of the corner of her eye she sees a large group of big burly men running up to the field.Four has brought the entire football team to come to this game. The coaches had the bus drop them off at the softball field. All seventy football players find places in the stands near where Four, Zeke, Uriah, and Will go to sit with their friends. For the first time ever, Tris and the other girls have a completely full stadium to play to."We better not suck today!" Kenzie yells as she throws the ball around the infield for warm-up.The other the girls laugh. But they are all thinking the same thing. With the entire football team here to cheer them on, they better find a way to win this game.Tris walks to the pitcher's mound and calls all of the girls in."This is nothing we haven't done before. We have been here before, this is our house. We are national champions.""That's right ladies, we have this. We have always had this. Now let's get out there and kick some Cardinal asses!" Kenzie says."Alright ladies," Marlene says. "On three. One... Two... Three..."The girls all scream "Tigers!"They all run back to their positions ready for the start of the game.The girls go out there and play the best game they ever have. Shauna managed to hit three homeruns, Marlene didn't miss a single pitch and she got tackled to the ground three times by base runners but held on to the ball every time. Faith pitched a great game, while Kenzie stretched and caught everything that came to her at first base. Tris played the best game she has ever played. She was everywhere on the field. Nothing could get by her.The Tigers won the game seven to one, winning the fall championship.When the girls returned to the locker room following the game they were elated. The people in the stands were still cheering and yelling.Four, Will, Zeke, and Uriah stand with their football team outside of the stadium by the bus."Dude, your girlfriend is freaking awesome," one of the guys tells Four. "I wasn't sure what you saw in her, especially considering the girls that throw themselves at you, but now I understand. She's one of the best athletes that I've ever seen.""I was thinking we should have a party," Will says changing the subject. "Have a cookout, get some drinks." He grabs one of the guys with a car. "Let's go to the store and get what we need to grill. You guys get the softball team and bring them to the house. We will meet you there."Will kisses Christina and he goes off with a couple of the football players to go to the store.When the girls come out the first person Tris sees is her mother and Bud. She rushes up to them and pulls them both into a hug. "I didn't know you were coming!""Like we would miss your championship game?" Bud says."I'm so proud of you!" Natalie tells her daughter."Thanks Mom!" she says hugging her mother tightly."We've got to get going. We have some work to do at the shop. I'll see you soon," Natalie says. They turn and walk away. Bud shakes Four's hand as he walks over to Tris.She sees him and smiles. He pulls her into a hug. "Damn, I've never seen you play so well before. If you play like that in Florida in January, you are definitely going to the Olympics."She wraps her arms around his neck and pulls him down to her. She places a kiss firmly on his lips. He pulls her close to him and deepens the kiss. When they pull away he just smiles at her, "Come on, we're all going back to Phi Delta. A bunch of the guys went to get food, we're going to have a victory party."