Shooting after lunch was a little tense. I hadn't spoken to anyone once I'd gotten back to the dining hall, and I know they're full of questions. I ignored them though, and just ate my salad in peace.
Four showed us how to properly fire a gun, and he hit the center of the target every time. A little pride welled up inside of me at how great my big brother has become.
The first few shots I had fired were outside the third ring of the target. I had tensed up when Eric had walked by and noticed, but Tobias came to my rescue and showed me how to improve. Within 15 minutes, all my shot were inside the first ring or the center.
After 2 hours of that, we were free to go and do whatever we wanted for the day. Exhausted, I decided to go back to the room and just go to bed. I wasn't planning on Christina, Will, Al and Tris following me.
"Alright, spill." Christina says once we are alone in the room. She sits on the end of my bed facing me, and crosses her legs.
I lean up against the frame and yawn. "'Bout what?"
"You know what. What's going on between you and Four?"
I pause. Ok, so they're getting curious. So far, only Tris knows he's my brother. And, I'm sure after that incident earlier with Peter, he's opened his big fat mouth and told people we're together. I wasn't sure what they've heard at this point.
"What do you mean?" I ask cautiously.
"Why are you two so close? Are you guys together?" Al asks, a hurt look on his face. Why, I don't know.
I gag in my mouth. They hear it, and confusion is now on their faces. "Ew, god no. I would never date him!"
"Why not? Four's hot. What's going on between you two?" Christina says, and I gag again.
"You think Four's hot?" Will asks her, and it sounds like he's hurt. Oh, he definitely likes her.
"Well, yeah. I mean, he's attractive, but he's kind of cold and closed off. I'd never date him." Christina says, and smiles at him. He relaxes a little bit.
"Then what makes you think we're dating?" I ask, and cross my arms.
"You guys are always together when possible. He wants to talk to you alone, a lot. He's concerned about you, that's obvious. And we saw you guys hugging." Al says, and crosses his own arms.
Oh. I don't want them to get the wrong idea, so I'll have to tell them. I look at Tris and she looks like she's about to burst out laughing.
I sigh, and close my eyes. "Four and I aren't together. He's my brother."
Silence.
"Oh." Will says.
"Yeah. He- listen, you can't tell anybody, ok? He came here four years ago, and this is the first I've seen him since then. We're trying to make up for lost time."
"We're sorry. We didn't mean to be so... mean." Al says, but he sounds relieved.
"No, you guys weren't mean, just... To the point. I can understand, you were curious. I'd be curious if I saw you suddenly really close with a leader, and I'd want to know why." I open my eyes and sit up.
"Why are you so quiet, Tris?" Christina asks.
She opens her mouth, unsure of what to say. "Well, I, uh, kind of already knew."
Christina is surprised. "You did?"
"Well, she saw me and Four together, and I didn't want her getting the wrong idea, so I told her. That was our first night here."
"Oh." She says, and looks down at the floor.
I feel bad. I think of Christina as a friend too, and she probably feels left out. I crawl over to her and take her hand. "No more secrets, I promise."
She looks at me. "Promise?"
I smile and nod at her. She hugs me.
"Geeze." I say into her hair.
"What?" She asks.
"I feel like all I've done the past couple of days is eat, sleep, train and hug."
She chuckles. "Well, I could kiss you."
"No, no, I'm fine with hugs." I tell her, giggling.
"That'd be hot." I hear Will whisper to Al.
I pull away and look at them. "Seriously?"
They looks surprised I heard them. I turn to Tris and Christina, nodding my head. "Get them." I say, and we launch ourselves at them, tackling them to the ground.
Christina gets on top of Will, and Tris and I get on top of Al. We tickle their sides, until they're begging for mercy and can't breathe. Then we stand up and high five.
"Good job ladies. I think they've had enough." Christina says, and we three burst out laughing while Will and Al still catch their breath.
I sleep good that night.
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"Alright initiates, today you will be doing something different. Instead of practicing attacks on stuffed dummies, you will be using them on each other. Two of you at a time will fight each other until one is unconscious or dead." Eric instructs, and I gulp deeply. That doesn't sound pleasant.
"Or until I say so." Four adds, and Eric glares at him.
"First up: Christina and Jackie!" Eric bellows, and gestures with his hand to step onto the mat in front of him and Four. There's a giant circle on it.
Christina walks onto one side of the mat, and Jackie, a candor, on the other. She's larger than Christina, but I know that she's also slower. That will work to Christina's advantage.
Eric looks at them for a second. "Go." He says it like they should've already been fighting.
The fight doesn't last long. Jackie gets a few good punches in, but I was right about Christina. She moves quickly and swipes underneath Jackie's feet, causing her to crash to the mat. Four calls the fight after that.
Will goes next against Trevor, a Erudite boy. Trevor wins. He has a tough right hook.
Tris goes against a girl from Erudite, whose name is Amy. Amy is tough. Amy wins the fight, and Tris lays on the mat for a few seconds after it's over.
"You okay?" Tobias asks her, his eyebrows furrowing.
She takes a breath. "I'm fine." She says, and then she wobbles to her feet. I hurry over to her, and help her walk over to Will and Christina.
"Crystal and Al." Eric calls.
I freeze, and stare at Tris. She doesn't know what to say. I don't want to fight Al, he's my friend.
I turn and swallow, walking over to the mat. I look at Tobias, and his face just screams 'I'm sorry'.
Al steps onto the mat, and he looks even sorrier than Tobias. Eric looks smug, knowing he put me against my friend.
Eric gestures for us to start, and Al rushes me, picking me up and throwing me on the ground. I groan, and then he's on top of me, his face close to mine.
"Punch me." He says quietly, so that only I can hear. I give him a confused face, and then realization sets in. He's going to fake it.
I reach my hand back and punch him in the jaw. I feel a little sick for doing it, but I had to. He flies off of me, and lands on his back, clutching his face.
He stays like that, clutching his face and rolling on the mat. I think I actually did kind of hurt him.
"Oh, c'mon. Get back up." Eric says, obviously annoyed.
Al groans in response, and that's when Tobias calls the end of the fight, declaring me the winner. I don't feel happy about it though.
"Thanks." I tell Al when we're out of earshot of everyone else.
"Thanks for the knife thing yesterday." He says back, smiling. His cheek is red, and it's clear it's going to bruise.
"I'm sorry about that, by the way. I wasn't planning on hitting you that hard."
He brushes it off. "It's ok. You got your face cut yesterday because of Eric, remember? This is nothing compared to that."
I put my hand up to my brow. Brushing my fingers over the stitches. I had completely forgotten about it.
The rest of the initiates fight. There's only 16 of us, so it doesn't take very long.
"Alright. Here's the update on your current placing. If you are below the red line, you should be worried. You will be scored with the dauntless born, so there will be some names you won't recognize." Eric says, and walks over to a large piece of wood standing on a stool. He yanks the sheet off of the wood.
1. Peter
2. Uriah
3. Will
4. Crystal
5. Tris
6. Jackie
7. Christine
8. Edward
9. Aimee
10. Jackson
I gulp. I was happy I was number 4, but I still hadn't seen Al's name.
17. Al
He was below the red line.
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We were in our room, on our own beds. We hadn't said anything for 5 minutes.
"Congratulations, Will." Tris says, breaking the silence.
"Yeah, I'm happy for you." Al says quietly.
I turn on my side and look at him. He's laying on the bed, hands clasped together on his stomach. He's staring at the ceiling, a far away look in his eyes.
"Al." I say, but he won't look at me. "Al." I say again, a little more insistent. He looks at me this time.
"I'm not going to make it, am I?" He asks quietly. I sit up, and sit beside him on his bed.
"Yes, you are. You're going to make it, Al, along with the rest of us. We are going to get through this together."
He looks at me, and smiles a little bit. "Thanks, Crystal."
I smile back, and lay down beside him, wrapping my arms around him. "You're welcome, Al."
He wraps his arms around me, and let's out a breath.
I look over and see Tris looking at me weirdly. I shake my head slightly, showing her that I was just comforting Al. I don't harbor any romantic feelings for him at all. He's more like a brother.
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"Alright everybody, up and at them!" Someone shouts. I think its Tobias at first, but when I crack my eyes open, I see it's actually Eric.
And he's staring right at me.
It's then I remember where I am. I must have fallen asleep on Al's bed last night, and he has his arms wrapped around me.
Eric looks between me and Al, and then he frowns before walking up the stairs and out the door.
That was weird. It also kind of looked like he was...hurt.
Wow, there's a lot of negativity here in Dauntless.
I pry myself out of Al's arms, and he grumbles something before rolling over. I stretch and get my clothes for the day. It's a pair of black stretchy pants that hug my legs, and a black tank top with thick straps. It's too hot to wear a lot of heavy things all the time.
The others finish getting ready and we all head to the dining hall. I grab a yogurt and banana, and take the usual spot between Tobias and Eric. The others sit in their seats across from us, and we start eating.
I don't know why, but I feel like its a little awkward. Eric caught me in Al's bed, and even though we didn't do anything, I'm sure it looked suspicious.
"So, uh, did you sleep ok last night? I-I didn't crush you or anything did-" Al begins to say, but Christina slaps his arm and he stops.
That was the wrong thing to say right now.
Eric tenses up beside me, and makes a disgusted noise before shoving himself away from the table and throwing his food away. He then stomps out of the room, obviously ticked off about something.
Tobias's reaction is kind of funny in a way. He had been taking a sip of water, and chokes on it when Al spoke. I pat his back, trying to help him swallow. He gets it under control and turns surprised eyes to me.
"Al, now is not the time." I say through gritted teeth, glaring at him.
"Oh man, I'm sorry. I forgot about Four being your brother and-"
"You told him? Well, obviously now the others know. What did you and Al do?" Tobias throws questions at me, one after the other.
"Yes I told him, and that happened to also be when I told the others. And for your information, Al and I did nothing last night. I was just being a friend for him and I guess I fell asleep in his bed. It's not big deal." I shrug it off.
Then I stop, and think about what he said. 'You told him?' I thought he told me he didn't care if I told people we were siblings... Unless...
I slam my hands down on the table. "You selfish bastard!" I seethe at him, causing surprise to once again show on his face.
"What?"
"You are ashamed of me being your sister! You acted all defensive when you found out Al knew, let alone my friends! I knew it!" I finish, and shove him hard off the table. He doesn't fall though, just stumbles a little on his feet. People at the surrounding tables are looking at us now, but I don't care.
I feel the tears coming down my face. I get up and rush out of the room, ignoring my brother's shouts.
I run to the bathroom, and sit down on the ground, covering my head with my hands. I stay like that for a couple of minutes, just silently crying.
Footsteps approach me, and I look up to see Tris nervously standing there, biting her lip.
"You ok?" She asks quietly.
"He doesn't want me as a sister." I sniffle.
"That's not true-"
"It's not? Then why was he so defensive about it? And even if he is fine with me being his sister, then why doesn't he want people to know?"
Tris says nothing, and then kneels in front of me. "Crystal, from what I had seen... You didn't have an easy childhood."
I freeze, but don't stop her.
"And if Four is your brother, then I'm guessing he experienced it as well. Maybe he just doesn't want people to know about his past. Imagine it. Pitiful looks wherever you go. From what I understand of Four, he's not one to tolerate that."
I look up, staring at her. She's only 16, when did she come so wise, and I so needy?
"Thank you, Tris. I needed to hear that."
She smiles, and then helps me stand up. I wipe the tears from my face and then we set off to the training room together.
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"Alright initiates, gather round." Eric yells, grabbing the attention of everyone. Tris and I walk in, the last ones to arrive. Eric looks at me briefly, and then focuses back on the others. Tobias looks at me, his face blank. But after looking at his eyes, I see sadness.
"Today will be the last day of fighting. In two days, you will have your final rankings. First up: Crystal and Peter!" Eric yells, causing me to jump.
Tobias looks at him, frowning. "Eric, that wasn't-"
Eric glares at him. "Crystal and Peter. Now."
I give Tris a worried look, before slowly walking towards the mat. Peter is already there, smiling evilly at me. "Are you ready to get your ass whooped, Stiff?"
I frown, and my eyes dart to Eric before going back to Peter.
"Go!" Eric yells, signaling the beginning of the fight.
Peter lifts his hands up, and I do the same. He dances around me a little bit, and I turn my body to follow him.
"Are you ready, Stiff? Or do you need your boyfriend to back you up?" Tobias glares at Peter, and Eric tenses up. I see Tobias make a motion to his throat out of the corner of my eye, before I catch on. Aim for the throat.
"You'll be screaming for your mommy when I'm through with you." I hiss back.
He pauses for a moment and narrows his eyes. Then, he attacks. He steps forward and launches his fist to my face, but I step to the side and bring my hand up to his throat. He starts choking and gasping for breath.
I take the chance to bring my fist around again and punch him in the jaw. His head flies to the side, and he stumbles. When he regains his balance, he turns and glares at me. He launches his entire body at me this time, and tackles me to the mat before punching me on the side of my face. My head swims a little bit before things come into focus.
I roll over so I'm on top of him, and punch him in the face. He pulls his feet up and kicks me off him, and I land on my back. I roll over onto my front and look up. Tobias and Eric are standing there, watching the entire thing.
Tobias gets a scared look on his face for a second when I bring my hand up to my mouth and it comes away bloody. Eric's eyebrows even furrow for a second, but then the cold mask is back up again.
And then Peter is pulling on my hair, making me stand up. That's a low move, and everybody knows it. I scream in frustration and bring my elbow up to connect with his nose, where I hear it crack. He lets out a yelp of pain, and then I turn around and bring my fist back to punch him, but he grabs my sides and throws me to the other side of the mat.
I groan, and roll over to stand up, but Peter is fast and applies a swift kick to my ribs. I groan louder, and clutch my midsection.
"Say goodnight, Stiff." He snarls, and then the last thing I see is his foot swinging towards my face. And then, darkness.