Momma's Little Soldier

Chapter 17

Four went easy on us today, we mainly did more conditioning and a shit ton of running, which in all honesty I was okay with. I don't think I would've been ready to fight today anyway, so honestly, I am thanking Four for that, Bryce tried yelling at me about how since I am Jeanine's daughter that was the reason Eric didn't count the fight. Eric yelled at him majorly for cornering me just to yell at me, I've made the executive decision to not engage in anything anyone says about my mother or me in that matter. It's not that I don't want to tell him to shove his opinion where the sun doesn't shine and to stay out of my business, I just don't see a point in engaging in it.

After dinner, I slipped away from my friends and made my way back towards the training room so I could get started with night training. Hopefully, Eric won't be such a dick and we won't have to fight each other, maybe I can convince him to teach me something, like knife throwing. Four mentioned something about starting that and since I haven't thrown one in a very long time, it would be nice to work on that again. I pushed open the doors to the training room and walked inside, seeing Eric already setting up knives on a table, "Tomorrow you guys will be throwing knives and I want you to get a head start. Grab five knives and pick a target, Sunshine." I walked to the table, picked up five knives, and put all five of them in my pocket for easy access. "Now, I know that you know how to throw knives, but just let me tell you how to throw them anyway." I nodded my head. "I actually haven't practiced throwing knives in a while, so I will be a bit rusty."

Eric seemed shocked that he is actually going to teach me something and the fact that I will need help with it. He took off the jacket he normally wears and my eyes went directly to his inked muscular arms, to make things worse he was wearing a very form-fitting shirt, and oh my lord you could see his muscles perfectly. My knees felt weak, but I couldn't show that so I looked at his tattoos, "Those tattoos are so sick." I grabbed his forearms and examined them. I could feel the fact that he was shocked by my actions, but he didn't stop me from looking. It was a maze with the Dauntless symbol in the middle of them. "When did you get these?" I looked up at him, my heart and head realizing that I was extremely close to him. I watched as he swallowed thickly when his eyes met mine, "A few days after I transferred to Dauntless." He didn't stutter, but his voice was uneasy.

"I love my tattoos, but this is really cool. Very different." My eyes traveled down to the tattoo and I started tracing the lines with my thumbs, feeling my mind study every inch of it. "Maybe you should get something similar," Eric stated. I chuckled, "If I get another tattoo, I don't think I will be able to stop." I looked up at him again, locking in on his stone-grey eyes. He and I just stood there, staring at each other, for what felt like hours. I cleared my throat, let go of his arms, and stepped back, facing the targets, "Let's get to knife throwing." Part of me could've sworn I heard him mumble something under his breath, but I wasn't sure. I watched and listened as he went step by step on how to throw knives and I am so happy that we are going over this because I would've made a fool of myself. "Your turn." I stood next to Eric and faced my target. I grabbed one of the knives from my pocket, holding it the way he told me to, along with standing in the position he showed me just minutes ago.

I looked at my target, it had no knives in it, it was completely ready to be marked, unlike Eric's target. My eyes traveled to the knives sticking out of the various important parts sticking out of the fake human target; one in the throat, the stomach, the center of the face, the shoulder, and the heart. "Don't worry about what I've hit. Let me see what you can do." Right, show him what you can do... What can I do? I looked back at my target and stared at what I hope to be the easiest target to hit, the stomach. When I felt ready enough, I pulled my arm back, then threw the knife forward, feeling the cold steel leave my fingertips. The knife landed nowhere near my initial target, instead, it hit the board and fell straight to the floor, great... "Well, that was pathetic." I rolled my eyes and grabbed another knife. "I told you, I'm rusty."

He chuckled right behind me, probably folding his arms over his chest, "Rusty is an understatement. Again." That's what I did, I threw it again only this time the knife hit the wood and stayed there, it's better than being on the floor.

"Terrible. Again." This time it hit the leg.

"Again." Close to stomach, but not close enough.

"Again." Bang! Right where I wanted it the first time, center of the stomach. I turned around to get some kind of praise from Eric, but all he was doing was just staring at my target, before he looked at me, "Well?" I asked, wanting to know something that was going on in that crazy mind of his. "Well, you are way too in your head, you are throwing too much with your shoulder that you're causing your aim to be off, and you twist your body too much. Go get another set and try again." That's pretty much how the last hour has been, there was just something not clicking inside me because I just couldn't do what he wanted me to do, I could see that he was getting fed up. I threw the knife that was in my hand on the floor and groaned in frustration, "Why the hell is this so fucking difficult?!" Never have I once had this issue with Max, I always got what he told me to do on the first try so why is this difficult?! "I'm not like this, I have never been like this! I know how to throw a god damn knife, so tell me why am I screwing up so badly?!"

Instead of snapping back or yelling at me, all Eric did was walk over to where I threw down my knife, pick it up, place it in my hand, and stand behind me. I was about to ask him what he was doing, but I instantly shut up when his hand grabbed mine, "You are thinking about this more than you need to. Take a deep breath and relax." He said into my ear, in a hushed tone. He placed one of his big hands on my waist then secured his touch on my hand by holding it a bit tighter, "Look at your target." He pressed himself firmly behind me, making me feel every muscle his upper body had to offer. Slowly, I turned my head to face the target, not really sure what I was aiming for at this point, but I might as well just pick a body part. "Bring your arm back, still focusing on your target," I felt my hips move with my arm, but they were held firmly into place from his grip, "don't move your hips." My eyes finally locked with where I want the knife to go and gripped the knife tighter. "Throw it." That's what I did, I brought my arm forward and released the knife, watching it fly towards my desired target. Bang! I felt my excitement showing once I saw that the knife landed exactly where I wanted it to go, straight through the heart, "Now, do that tomorrow and you will one-up everyone."

Eric's grip loosened as he moved away from me, somehow making me feel upset and making me crave his touch, "We are done. You can leave." I did as I was told and walked out of the training room.