"Listen up!" Eric yelled, his voice booming throughout the training room.
All of the initiates, including the Dauntless-born, gravitated towards him. As he spoke about usual training procedures, I felt Four's breath hit my ear.
"I heard you made Eric squeamish last night."
I rolled my eyes, "No. I just caught him off guard."
I could see Four's grin within my peripheral sight.
"No can do that to Eric."
"Why would you say-"
"Listen," Four interrupted, "you have experienced a side that no one has seen: his ability to open up. There is something about you that is-"
"Is there a problem?" Eric questioned in a rough voice.
Four shook his head stiffly, "No."
Eric switched to eye me, "How about you?"
I looked straight at him, "Just asking him a question, sir."
Just as the word 'sir' rolled off my tongue, the smile that appeared on Eric's face the first day I said that appeared again.
"As I was saying," Eric started, turning back to the initiates. "Today, we will be doing a station day, where you will get to learn a variety of skills from the leaders assigned. All of you have been separated into three groups, which ultimately leads to eleven per group. There are two leaders that will guide each group, in which include: Lucas and Adelaide, Four and Lauren, and Max and I. You will spend three hours with each of us, meaning this will take the entire day. The leaders can give you breaks when they feel like. As of right now, I would like the leaders to pick a side of the room.
"Now that everyone is in position, I will read off the groups. When your name is called, stand over by your first leaders. Initiates going to Four: Albert, Christina, Molly, Clara, Rob, Lukas, Danny, Kimmy, Jimmy, Noah, and Meg. Initiates going to Adelaide: Edward, Myra, Sarah, Ethan, Nick, April, Marlene, Elaine, Mat, Drew, and Nikki. Initiates coming to me: Peter, Andrew, Will, Uriah, Mike, Tris, Lynn, Erin, Jack, Alison, and Paulina. In three hours, the groups will switch to their second leaders: Four's group will go to Adelaide, Adelaide's group will come to me, and my group will go to Four. Start!"
With that, all of the leaders became attached to their own group. I had my first trainees sit down for a little bit, just for introductions.
"Hey guys. So some of you may know us, others not so much. My name is Adelaide, and over here is Lucas, and we are both partners in the Special Ops. To start off, we are going to run five laps around the Dauntless perimeter, and we'll figure out what we wanna' do from there! Let's go!"
Overall, the first third of the station day went really by well. We started off by running, moved to the punching bags, and lastly threw knives at the targets. A lot of them made simple mistakes, such as wrong stance or not enough power. I could tell that the initiates were enjoying this idea. However, we kept a strict attitude throughout the process, and it paid off.
"Switch!" Eric called out, the cueing to say goodbye to our first round of initiates.
After thank yous were in order, our group left to go to Eric while we inherited Four's group.
"Hi guys, how are we?" Lucas asked seeing their red faces.
"Pumped," Christina said, bumping Al's shoulder.
I nodded, "Good. So, first, we are going to go shoot, then go to the punching bags, and hopefully be able to practice sparring. Maybe if you are all good, Lucas and I can fight for the purpose of all of you teaching."
Faces lit up at the idea of a possible fight. Mine did too. I know I'm going to kick his scrawny ass.
For an hour, we went to the shooting ring and practiced while moving. Although it went well, some of them were shaky, including the Dauntless-born. This overall made me worried because they should already know how to do this sort of thing.
Minutes later, we let Eric's group have the shooting ring and switched gears to the punching bags. Everyone lined up in front of a target and started hitting away to show us what they got. Lucas and I walked around, pointing out anything major that needed to be fixed.
However, one person caught my attention once again: Albert.
"What's wrong, Al?"
Albert turned around, a shocked look overcoming his face.
"I'm fine."
"No you're not?"
Alber sighed.
"Why?"
He then turned toward me hesitantly before speaking, "Well, my first fight I fought Will and knocked him out. And, I felt really bad. So, I thought I could keep losing and somehow manage to slip into the second stage."
I sighed, "Well, that's not working for you right now, since you are on the low side of the rankings. The first fight is always going to be the worst only because it's the first time you have done it. If you are going to quit now because of this, than you might as well leave. And I'm sure you don't want that."
I walked away, not really sure if I fully got through to him.
"Hey Adelaide!"
I look over to Molly, who seemed to have an idea of her own.
"Yes?"
"You owe us a fight."
Other initiates looked between Lucas and I with amusement and excitement.
I looked over to Lucas, "Are you ready?"
Lucas smiled, "Always will be."
I nodded, "Initiates! Gather around the ring."
In one quick sweep, the eager initiates circled around us, waiting for us to start.
Lucas and I entered the ring while taking our jackets off.
"Ready?" Lucas questioned, getting into stance.
I smile, "When you are!"
We started off by circling each other, sizing up one another. We stared at each other with a look that was meant to kill whoever store at us. That was the thing about the both of us: even though we were gracious about our opportunities and early successes, our egos got in the way of each other constantly. Consider it friendly competition.
Lucas was the first to advanced first, attempting a right hook aimed for my jaw. Typical. I dodged easily and jabbed my pointer and middle finger right into the center of his throat, in which caused him to instantly choke and gasp for air. I took the opportunity to "sweep him off his feet" by swiftly kicking the back of his knees, in which made a thud.
As I was about to go for a kick in the stomach, he had recovered and grabbed my leg and jolted me forward, my body landing on the ground flat. My stunned state caused Lucas to quickly straddle my hips and pin my arms down beside my head. I huffed loudly, frustrated by not being able to dodge something so elementary.
"Give up?" He taunted.
I smirked, "Do you?"
Since I am taller than him, I was able to use my flexibility to kick him in the spinal column area between the base of his neck and top of his back. He gritted his teeth, but did not budge.
I finally kicked hard enough and was able to get him to release his hold. It gave me enough time to slide my right leg out from under him and kick him on the right side of his waist and push it into his side to knock him down. I used the momentum to flip over. My right hand went to take out a knife from my holster that I held it to his throat while my left pulled on his luxurious locks harshly.
"Give up?" I mockingly questioned.
Before he could say anything, I heard a voice echo throughout the training area.
"Winner: Adelaide!"
I turned around to see Eric's group looking over at us; their faces showed a mix of amusement and fear.
The room erupted in cheers in efforts to congratulate me on winning the fight. I didn't necessarily think anything of it. If we were truly fighting, one of us would be on the ground covered in blood. This was nothing.
I put my knife in my holster before getting up to help Lucas to his feet. He raked his hands through his hair, pouting because I tugged on it pretty hard. I punched him in the shoulder before straightening out my clothing and turning towards our group.
"So," Lucas started, "Learn anything?"
All of them marveled over us as they voiced their opinions. Most of them just said to study your opponent quickly before attacking, and to not attack right away. Some others became a little stupid and said not to underestimate a woman. I rolled my eyes at that comment.
"What about you?" Lucas asked, motioning towards a girl who I learned to be Clara.
"Use your flexibility to your advantage," Clara said in a half confident and half meek voice.
I smiled, "That's good. However, it doesn't just have to be your flexibility. It can also be your weight, strength, height, charm, etc... Use your body to help you in certain situations. It will create a swifter fight and may result in an advantage for you."
Before I could go on, Eric's voice sounded out of nowhere.
"Listen up!"
Everyone in the training room turned around to look at Eric, who was standing in the first ring.
"It is now lunch hour. You are to report back here no later than one o' clock. From there we will complete the last three hours with your last leaders. Leaders, I would like you to sit by Max and I for a discussion. You're dismissed."
To be honest, it was awkward sitting with all of the leaders that took part in our station day. I only work with Four and Eric training wise, so to have the other leaders here was a little weird. Once everyone was acquainted and ready to eat, Eric cleared his throat loudly.
"How is the station day working out? Four?"
Four looked up from his plate, "Fairly well. Lauren and I worked on basic team-building skills with them, and they were successful."
As Four spoke, Eric looked like he didn't have a goddam care in the world. what was the point of asking if he wasn't going to bother listening to him in the first place?
He nodded as if he did listen, "Alright, how about Adelaide?"
I looked at him in the eyes to keep his attention.
"The students thoroughly progressed throughout the three-hour period. However, I feel that this should, next time, be a separate activity. What I mean is that the Dauntless-borns will do it with their leaders, while the Dauntless initiates work with us. That way we are able to get up close and personal with them. Plus, they'll be working with people with the same skillset."
"Then why didn't you do that in the first place, since you were the one that made the list?" Lauren questioned in a snide tone.
"Well, if I had done this activity sometime earlier in my career, I probably would have. But, I obviously haven't because when I was here it was always either one on one or in a large group. So, how would I know if it was never done?"
The common sense shut her up.
"That's enough," Eric said in an annoyed fashion.
"How about you guys? How did it go?" Lucas asked Max.
"It seemed to go well for the most part. All of the initiates we've had so far enjoyed it."
Everyone toned down and ate quietly after he spoke, sometimes eyeing one another to see what was up. It wasn't until Lauren cleared her throat when everyone turned to look at her.
"So, Adelaide, what it is like to be in Special Ops?"
I looked at her with a blank expression, "It's hard. Being higher up the totem pole, you have to do a lot of upscale, personal missions that can go wrong at any second."
"Sounds tough. How were you promoted to that position?"
"When I was training, we had a day where the Dauntless Special Ops council visited and hand picked who they thought were the best. It was similar to the initiation process you guys gave here. However, they haven't done that ever since after Lucas's initiation since they stopped recruiting new members."
"But, didn't you have an advantage over the others?"
I put down my hamburger, knowing exactly where this was going.
"What are you accusing me of? That I was able to slide in because of my father?"
"Well, he is in the process of becoming head leader-"
I banged my fist on the table to get her to shut up. I leaned forward slightly, anger fuming from me.
Lucas's hand rubbed my shoulder, "Adelaide, calm down."
I ignored him, "Just because my adopted father is in the process of becoming head leader doesn't mean shit. Yes, he looked over the process at times, but he only had the final decision. He didn't give me any advantage over the others. I did what I had to do to get through it on my own. I haven't ever asked my father to do anything for the most part. My relationship with him and how I got in my position is none of your goddam business, so I suggest you get off the topic before I report you for harassing an authority figure."
Lauren sat there in shock. Serves her right.
"I'm gonna go back to my apartment for a little bit. Excuse me," Lauren meekly spoke, leaving the table quickly.
I put my head in my hands and rubbed my eyes, "Damn."
"Relax, you can apologize later," Lucas suggested.
"What makes you think I'm going to apologize to her? You expect me to just let her accuse me of being guaranteed in when I worked my ass off to get to this point on my own?"
"Okay, okay." Lucas said, not pushing the subject further.
"You're adopted?" Max asked.
I nodded, "Yes I am."
"How old were you?"
"Six months."
"Why were you given up?" Eric interjected.
I sighed and took a sip of my water before speaking.
"I wasn't given up. My parents were murdered."
"By who?" Four asked.
I sighed, "By the lead rogue Dauntless team in the Amity massacre."