The Girl Who Cried Dauntless

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Finished

I passed the initiates still waiting for testing, trying to look for Peter in the swarm and I unsurprisingly caught him with Molly and Drew.

"How did the stimulation go, princess?" He asked upon my arrival. "That's actually what I came here to talk to you about." Peter looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to tell him whatever I came here for. "Alone," I added, taking a casual side glance at his friends. Both Drew and Molly got my hint, but they didn't leave until Peter sent them a narrow-eyed glare.

I didn't let him get another word out before I told him everything that happened in today's stimulation.

Peter paused for a brief moment before he spoke again. "You would never have to worry about that." My eyes look into his, comforted by his comment and the genuine look on his face.

Peter cupped my chin and titled it up to look at him. I rolled my eyes jokingly at his display of affection but gave him a quick peck on the lips nonetheless. It was a sweet moment until Peter decided to ruin it with one, dumb remark. "Christina's not the girl I'd cheat on you with."

I jerked my head out of his grasp and glared up at him. Peter's expression remained the same as my steely stare met his.

"Are you an idiot?" I responded bluntly, genuinely wondering why he'd say something that incriminating out loud. With my insult, Peter's expression changed for the worse. His eyebrows furrowed in anger and the smirk he wore on his lips dropped into a neutral formation. "It was a joke. I know as former Erudite you might not understand those," he responded dryly.

My expression turned from stoic to pained, but only after I turned away from him. This is almost precisely what my stimulation was about. Peter strayed because I couldn't amuse him. And not only had he put our relationship in question but he insulted my faction too.

I tried to walk away before Peter could say another word. "Where are you going? You can't accuse me of cheating on you and then walk away," I heard him say. Luck did not appear to be on my side. I turned back around to face him again.
"I didn't accuse you of anything. I just mentioned that you cheated on me with Christina during the stimulation. That's all."
Peter scoffed. "You wouldn't have brought it up then if it didn't concern you."
"You're honestly going to argue with me about this. You're being infantile," I said, impatiently.
"Infantile? Looks like the walking dictionary is back. How exciting," he gave another dry response. "Don't blame me if you can't comprehend words at a second grader's level," I shot back.
"What kind of second grader knows what that means?"
"Any second grader that's smarter than you. And trust when I say that's not a hard bar to clear."

Before either of us could say another word, Four's voice radiated from the door. "We've just completed testing the final initiate so everyone needs to head to the dormitory for rankings."

While Peter was preoccupied with Four's announcement, I slipped away and headed for the dormitories alone.

When I arrive at my destination, I found a group of initiates gathered around Eric at the chalkboard, similar to the set up of ranking last time. Everyone appeared to be more at ease with this ranking which was most likely due to the fact no one was getting cut. They told us that there were no cuts after stage two, making this almost like a progress report.

Eric's stocky build was blocking the board so I couldn't see the rankings yet. I assumed it was because he wanted all initiates to be there so he didn't have to repeat himself.

With the arrival of the final initiate, Eric stepped out of the way and murmurs soon began.

Tris came in first with an average stimulation time of two minutes and forty-five. It caused nearly all the heads in the room to look at her in shock. I was shocked as well. It was highly unlikely that someone from Abnegation could score so well on something mentally based like this. Peter came in second with a time of eight minutes. I followed behind Peter with an average time of eight minutes and fifty-seven seconds. Christina and Will were placed in seventh and ninth, respectively.

I was so busy calculating the results of the rankings, it didn't occur to me how Peter would handle being in second place until I heard a hard thud. Peter had Tris against the wall. He was practically shaking with pure and unadulterated rage as he held her there, every limb trembling.

"I will NOT be outranked by a Stiff!" He leaned closer to her, almost as if he was trying to tell her a secret. "How'd you do it," he hissed. "How did you do it," his accusation now evolved into a snarl.

As I walked over to join to scene, Will grabbed him by the shirt as Peter pulled Tris forward only to slam her against the wall again. "Don't make us call your girlfriend to come kick your ass again."
Peter looked outraged by his threat. "She only won that fight because I let her!" Will scoffed at his defence. "And don't refer to her as my girlfriend cause she's not anymore. I don't have time to deal with that Nose for the rest of initiation."

Will, Tris and the rest looked at him with widened eyes, clearly shocked by his proclamation. All of them turned in my direction after Peter said those words. Peter, himself also looked, though unlike the rest, his expression didn't hold any sympathy.

He shook out of Will's grasp. "If you want to defend that Stiff, go ahead. But you're blind if you think she's not going to edge you out of the rankings and out of Dauntless. You're all going to end up factionless because she knows how to manipulate people and you don't. So when they're kicking you out of the faction, just remember who caused it."

Peter stormed out of the dormitory after his childish tantrum. Drew and Molly followed him faithfully, but not until they threw disgusted looks at everyone in the room.