Loyal (Divergent - Eric Love Story)

The First Day

"Time to wake up everyone!" Four announces as be walks inside the bedroom. I can hear Alex mumbling on the bed next to mine and I stir and shield my eyes from the light.

"You've got 20 minutes"

I slowly get up and take a shower before getting dressed in Dauntless clothes. Black, tight jeans, tight short-sleeved shirt and black running shoes. I brush my hair into a high ponytail and wait for Alex.

"Well finally" I say when he approaches.

"Not my fault you are abnormally fast on mornings"

"Abnormally fast? More like you're a sleepy head" I winked at him.

"Shushh, let's go before we're late"

We arrived to a big, rectangular room which I assumed was the training room. Standing there waiting for us were Four and Eric who ordered us to sit down.

"Today you shall learn to fight" Eric said "Later you shall fight between you"

We learnt some moves from Four and then we were left to practice by ourselves with a punching bag. I was really bad at it. I punched and punched and punched, barely getting the bag to move. My knuckles were starting to hurt. Alex chuckled beside me.

"Care to give me a hand?" I said, narrowing my eyes at him.

"Sorry babe, Eric just almost used Noah as a punching bag for trying to help Emily"

"Did you just call me babe?" I laughed. He winked.

I kept trying to practice, punching the bag harder and harder but it wasn't working. I was starting to get frustrated.

"You're doing it all wrong" a voice said from behind me. I turned around and glanced at Eric who was looking at me. He got nearer.

"First off, it's not just all about your strength, it's about your technique too" he said as he kicked my legs open into the right position. Then, he placed his hand firmly on my abdomen and turned it abruptly to the right angle. My breath got caught and I stared at him. He stared right back at me for some seconds before I turned around and tried punching the bag again. It was actually better, I was able to move easily, throwing various strong punches at the bag. I glanced back to see if Eric was still behind me but he was gone to observe everyone else's work.

"I guess you don't need my help anymore" Alex said from behind me, his eyebrows raised. I just shrugged.

*****

After lunch we were fighting eachother. Four had written our names on a board and started matching who fighted who. We were odd so one of us wasn't fighting today, and that turned out to be me. I decided to watch on the competition.
Two boys fought first. Jeremy, a tall, thin boy from Erudite who was very fast and Matt, a big guy from Amity. Matt won.
Next were Kyle, a thin, built up from Candor who acted as he owned the world and his friend Carla, from Candor too who's muscular body was pretty intimidating. Kyle won.
Then we had Alex who kicked Noah's ass.
And finally Emily lost to a Candor girl named Alexia who had a normal body but was actually pretty tough while Emily still was an Amity softie.

Well, I really need to do better to beat this people.
Emily was probably the worst, she seemed to not be able to hurt people, which was bad since we were in Dauntless. Plus, Eric gave her hell.

"What are you waiting for, tree-hugger?! Do something!" he had yelled angrily at her. But Emily just stood there, dodging badly the punches and kicks which were thrown at her.

Emily took it pretty bad too. It was late at night when I heard soft sobbing coming from a bed near me. I sat up noiselessly and noticed it was her. I hesitated before going to her softly and placing my hand on top of hers.

"Shhh" I whispered "It's going to be okay"

"Oh, Raven, I'm losing, I'm losing badly, I can't do this, I shouldn't be here, I want to go" she cried softly.

"It's complicated at first but you'll do better, you just need practice" I reassured her.

"I can't, I can't, I really can't"

"You'll have to fight, but I'm sure you can make it, Em, I have faith in you, you should too"

"Okay, okay, I'll be fine, I'll be fine, won't I?"

"Yes, you'll be" I squeezed her hand before standing up again.

"Yes, i'll be" I heard Emily whisper as I walked back to my bed but, at her tone of voice, I knew she didn't believe anything she was saying.