Momma's Little Soldier

Chapter 12

"Not going to lie, but those were some nice punches." Eric came up to me while I was placing the last punching bag on the hook. He held an ice pack to his lip while we were talking, "Well at least my nice punches didn't obliterate your face." There was no emotion on his face, none that I could physically see. "Well you're free to go, but don't expect the same outcome tomorrow." I nodded my head then made my way towards the door. Walking towards the dormitory, I could hear my fellow initiates walking and talking, "There you are! I was wondering where you were, I was looking for you." Sonja came up to me in her all-black outfit.

She looks good in all black actually, the form-fitting clothes looked better than those loose Amity clothes. "I couldn't really sleep so I went for a walk, guess I lost track of time." Sonja grabbed my arm and we walked to the dining hall. "I am starving, let's eat before we train our asses off!" When we walked into the dining hall, all you could see were people, and the majority of them were both transfer and Dauntless-born initiates. The one thing I could tell the difference between this place and any other place here in Dauntless is that it is really hot here. It could be because of all the people and everyone's body heat radiating off of each other, but everywhere else here was just cold and damp. I sat down on the bench that Sonja sat on and grabbed a blueberry muffin to munch on, "There are my favorite girls!" I heard the sound of Tom's voice next to me.

I turned my head to the right to see the blue-haired boy sit next to me and sling his arm over my shoulders, "And how are those tattoos holding up my," he got close to my ear, "number one favorite girl." He pulled away from my ear and he smiled. "What was that last part, Tom?" Sonja threw out from over my shoulder. "Oh, nothing Foxy!"

"My tattoos are good, they don't hurt as much as I thought they would." I went to take a bite of my muffin until it got taken away from my hand. "What the hell?" I craned my head up at the mysterious muffin stealer and I was shocked to see who it was. "Jordan? Did you really have to take my muffin? I was eating that!" He took a huge bite out of the delicious-looking blueberry muffin. Just looking at him eat it made my stomach growl, "I was hungry and I wanted a muffin." I wiped my face that got muffin crumbs on it. "There are plenty of other muffins you could've picked from."

He looked at the table, looking at the long tray filled with every muffin you could think of, he grabbed another one and bit into the top of it, "Thank you, Ash, I am really hungry." I wanted to throw myself at him, but Tom wrapped his arms around my waist so I wouldn't strangle him. "I think we should head on over to the training room, wouldn't want to piss any trainers off now would we?" Tom literally got up with me still in his arms and awkwardly carried me out of the dining hall. "Tom, you can put me down now," I mumbled as we were about to stand face to face with our instructors. "As long as you promise not to attack anyone, then I will put you down." My eyes connected with Eric and I could see his shoulders move a bit, the smirk on his face also gave away that he was laughing at this sight of me. "Alright, I promise. Just put me down." He let go of me and I moved away from him, trying to look like nothing happened, even I knew I wasn't doing a great job.

"Alright initiates, listen up. There are two stages of training. The first is physical, push your bodies to the breaking point, and master the methods of combat. The second is mental, again breaking point, you'll face your worst fears and conquer them unless they get you first. You will be training with the Dauntless born and will be ranked together. After initiations rankings will determine what jobs you move into. Leadership, guarding the fence, or keeping the factions from killing each other. Any questions?" Four's eyes scanned all of us to see if we had any questions, luckily no one did so we could get to training a lot quicker. "Good. Today we will be practicing shooting; handguns, rifles, pretty much anything with a trigger. Follow us." It's nice knowing I get to train with the Dauntless born and not just the transfer initiates, it will give me something to actually look forward to for when we start fighting. It will be a bit more of a challenge going against them than people who don't know how to fight. We all made it up to the roof and we were split into two groups, dauntless born on one side of the shooting range, transfers on the other side. "Put on a vest and grab a gun, let's get started."

We did as we were told, we got suited in the vests, and grabbed the first set of guns which were the rifles, then Four started going over how to shoot a gun properly, how to hold it, when to put the safety on, blah blah blah. I knew what to do thanks to Max, but since I hadn't shot a gun in a while, I will say that getting a refresher wasn't so bad. "Alright, now pick a target and start shooting." This was the first time Eric had said something and just like before, his voice made me stumble as I walked to the target of my choosing.

"I just don't understand how it's possible! How can you consistently hit the bullseye without batting an eyelash?" We are now currently in the Dining Hall having lunch. Tucker was ranting about how I kept hitting the center of the target, he is just a bit mad because he could only hit around the center. "I didn't always hit it, when I first started shooting I hit other places. You just need to get used to it that's all." I took a bite of my burger after explaining. "Tucker I don't know why you are complaining, I was lucky if I hit the target once." Sonja's voice got quiet rethinking about it. "Being an Erudite has its perks, let's just say we are smarter than the gun," Jordan spoke up and I nodded my head. "Yeah Tucker, you should've been an Erudite," I smirked while my friends chuckled. "Well not all of us are Jeanine Matthews's daughter, no one likes a show-off Ash." That was Bryce, a Dauntless born and a total dick. The only reason why I know that is because during gun training, he was showing off his "skills", saying that he was better than everyone at shooting, and he kept saying that since I'm Erudite it's "easier" or something like that. I didn't really pay attention to him, but what did catch my attention was when Eric stuck up for me (well his version of sticking up for me) he just threatened him with kicking him out of Dauntless if he didn't get his act together. I don't know why that got me quiet, but it did, Tom noticed this sudden change in me and placed his hand on my shoulder. "Bryce just let it go and leave her alone." I looked at Tom and smiled small as a thank you while Bryce walked away, glaring at me. For the rest of lunch, things continued to be fun, we laughed, made jokes, watched Tom make a bigger fool out of himself. Then we went to the training room to do some fight training, which was kind of fun because we got to pick partners for practicing and of course I was with Sonja. I will admit, the first day of training wasn't that bad, I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would, but I know that this is only going to happen once.