BULLETS ⚊ divergent

TWELVE

"What are you doing?" a voice hissed near her ear, and Lilith almost jumped before recognizing Eric's frustrated tone.

"Just now, I was looking at the clock," she replied, pursing her lips as she aimed one of her knives at the target. Her hands were shaking, and she closed her eyes for a few seconds, before attempting to focus on the task once more. The blade flew out of her hand and hit the outer circle of the target, before falling on the ground once again. The girl clenched her jaw, "And now, I've just failed at knife throwing for the millionth time this morning."

"You're distracted."

It hadn't been a question, and Lilith found herself meeting Eric's steely gaze over her shoulder, one of her eyebrows raised as she slowly nodded her head, "I hadn't thought of that," she muttered, watching as his eyes narrowed at her response. Deciding that pushing her luck with Eric wouldn't help, she looked away, shrugging her shoulders, "I'm trying, okay? It's not like I'm doing it on purpose."

"I know you're not," Eric agreed, watching as she prepared her next throw, "But this is going to impact your place in the ranks, Lilith."

The girl couldn't find it in herself to reply to his words, instead exhaling through her nose and pinning her eyes to the middle of the target. Once he realized that she was done talking, at least for the time being, Eric began making his way down the line of iniciates, his eyes immediately moving to Peter, who seemed to be vaguely amused by Lilith's failure. She, however, was unware of the former Candor's looks in her direction as the leader's words echoed in her head. It still hadn't fully registered that her failure in the last two days would matter that much, even if it was obvious that it would, mainly now that they were reaching the end of the first phase of training.

Her second knife barely stuck to the target, and the corner of her lips twisted up for a few moments, before Eric's voice echoed throughout the room, and Lilith's eyebrows were furrowed once more as she looked at where the leader now stood, three targets down the line from her, with a very nervous looking Al in front of him. The boy seemed to be having the same issues as her, though his blades flew away from the target more often than hers did, and Eric seemed to have decided to pick on him for it. Her grip around her last knife tightened as Al missed yet another throw.

"What was that, iniciate?" Eric's tone was flat, as he folded his arms over his chest.

Al spluttered, "It-it slipped."

"Well, I think you should go get it," Eric shrugged his shoulders, before he noticed that the rest of the transfers had stopped what they were doing to look at them. Instantly, his features twisted in annoyance, "Did I tell you to stop?"

Christina turned to Lilith with raised eyebrows, her dark eyes showcasing pity for the taller boy, before she faced her own target once more, doing an almost perfect throw. Lilith's eyes remained on the duo for a few seconds longer, watching as they quietly argued, before she turned back to what she was supposed to be doing. She took a deep breath before aiming, her eyes finding the middle of the target. Her chin wobbled before she bit her lower lip, forcing all thoughts out of her mind. Her hand stopped shaking and she took full advantage of that, throwing the blade at the inner circle. It clashed against the middle circle, before clattering to the ground.

Lilith wiped her sweaty palms on her pants as she released a sigh, preparing to once more walk all the way to her target and pick up the blades. She had taken two steps forwards when Eric's voice was heard once more, this time as he adressed all the transfers.

"Everyone stop!" those two words were enough to make everyone freeze in place, one last sound echoing in the room as the last blade that had been throw hit its mark. Lilith watched as the blade rooted itself deep into the target, before her eyes moved to the leader, who still had his gaze fixated on Al, "Clear out of the ring. All except you," the transfers were quick in obeying, and Lilith found herself standing in the middle of the group, her arm grazing Nate's as she inched closer to him. Eric's posture was immaculate as he gestured towards the target with his chin, "Stand in front of the target."