++ Okay I don't do this much but please at least skim my authors note at the bottom!++

Chapter 33 - Monumental Towel

— Tobias

I have to say, I enjoy no longer being an initiation instructor. It was fun while it lasted, and I do not miss it.

There is so many requirements to meet, things required to teach, and it's stressful when mixing all the factions together to learn.

Those requirements use to ignite me: make me love my job.

Now they make me not miss it for a second.

I usually stop by once or twice during initiation, just to be nosy, and because I'm required to as a leader.

It's a requirement to have two instructors, one of each sex, with each group, both transfers and dauntless born. Also, siblings cannot teach siblings. These are rules that probably should have been set in place ages ago, but Dauntless is modernizing for the better.

At least unfair advantages weren't payed attention to a few years ago.

Zeke took my place with the transfers when I stepped down to become full time leader instead, and he is living his life to the fullest loving the job. Christina usually teaches the transfers alongside him, but this seasons she had to switch with Lauren, who is still doing initiation after all these years, to take the dauntless born because her sister, Rose is among the transfers.

Walking around the initiates punching the bags, I take note of how laid back initiation is now compared to how brutal things became when Tris went through it.

Sparring is called off as soon as one member hits the floor or concedes.

Knife throwing is minimally taught because of its lack of use in the field.

The only thing that really has not changed is the fear serum final.

It's finally an initiation I approve of.

I bid my goodbye to Zeke from across the room and head through the Pire to the Main building.

Tris is always on my mind.
It's like I'm addicted to thinking about her, worrying about her, wondering how she is.
I'm addicted to her.

As I walk I think back to how frustrated and worried she was a month ago from her appointment in Erudite where she was diagnosed with tendonitis and told to not use her boot. She has been getting around perfectly fine since even without her crutches and her pain has been minimizing.

I just find myself in awe of how far she has come, how much she has accomplished.
I wish I was half of who she is.
I wish I had a third of the strength that she has.

I walk into the main building and hear shouting from the Ambassador sector.
It's a normal trait from that area, so I'm not surprised.

"I tagged you with the ball! You're out!" A male voice argues.

"The door isn't the base, dumbass! We said the wall next to it was!"

"No, it was the door!"

I walk to the entrance of the large hallway and see that they're playing a game of baseball. Tris is casually leaning against third base outside of Ian's office while Uriah and another ambassador, Ben and his girlfriend Rachel argue over where first base was placed.

"Does this really matter?" Tris rolls her eyes crossing her arms.

"Not everyone isn't competitive like you, Tris." Rachel jokes.

She's not wrong. The Tris I once knew would compete and fight to win. She once was very competitive and skeptical of rules, but she has seemed to mellow out these past few years. She still does have a competitive side, but she's proven to care more about the big picture than about little things of competition.
It's not a bad change.

"Alright, I'm calling it," Tris moves from her doorpost third base and walks over to the bickering bunch. "First base is on the wall next to my office here," she places her hand on the wall. "Now Ben you're out, let's get back to the damn game."

"But..." Uriah pipes.

"Nope," Tris says neglecting to turn around and answer while walking back to her place at third base.

"You're bossy," Ian comments looking at her while stepping up to bat.

"I'm productive," she remarks. "I understand, easy to confuse the two."

Ian mocks her while preparing to bat with a broken chair leg, it's wheel still attached, at the base and I can see Tris roll her eyes from way across the room where I'm standing.

Rachel pitches the ball of Indy's that they're playing with and Ian hits it.

When they play, they know the rule of not breaking anything. There's been a few cases of lightbulbs that they have gotten in trouble for, but not to many baseball games happen anymore. They've turned to playing more door soccer, kicking the ball from office to office with some kind of rules. Tris always complains about it because she is not well coordinated with her feet since her surgeries and therefore does not participate and gets frustrated by the amount of noise they make playing.

Indy barrels after the ball when it's hit and Uriah runs to tackle him for the ball. I laugh, forgetting how entertaining it is to watch these games the ambassadors play. Few leaders and non-participating ambassadors have brought over their office chairs to watch the commotion and have filed towards the entrance to watch but not be in the way.

I stand and continue to watch for a little while before deciding to head home and finish some more work before starting dinner.

— Tris

The game lasts just under an hour before Indy is bored with catching the ball and fighting Uriah for it and everyone playing is pissed at each other.

"Well, we've played worse games," Ian comments laughing.

"You're not wrong," I reply.

I clip Indy's leash onto his harness and begin to walk to Christina's. She had texted me asking me to stop by later, probably wanting to talk about all the stuff going on with initiation. Knowing her, she's already told Will about it all a few dozen times, and she needs a new person to tell the gossip.

I reach her and Will's apartment and don't knock, I try the doorknob and see it's unlocked and let myself in.

"I brought company! Hopefully your food isn't on the floor!" I yell as I walk in with Indy.

"Darn! Guess that I'm sharing my dinner with the big fluffy beast!" Will jokes walking into the room to greet me. He gets on his knees and coos over Indy while I go to find Chris in the kitchen.

"Hey," she smiles hugging me.

"What's up?"

"I don't know. I miss you because I never see you anymore and I'm tired."

"How's Rose doing?" I ask.

"Ok well I'll just dive right in then."

I furrow my eyebrows, wondering why she's so sour at the topic of her sister.

"She never told me she was transferring. Like, we had talked about just doing the paperwork because of me already being a member and having her avoid the whole initiation thing, and then suddenly she's just jumping off the building into the net like surprise, I transferred! Like, I would have been fine with her doing initiation, but I wish she would have told me! Like I mean, she could've not have been transferring until she was twenty or something with this whole new system, but she just decided that seventeen was her year and not to tell her only sister what she was doing!"

Will sits down at the kitchen table to join the conversation. It's funny how it would seem awkward that my friend's boyfriend joins in on her venting sessions to me, but it's not. It reminds me of back when we were in initiation and we all are just good friends trying to survive in the world we are thrown in.

"Wait, you didn't know she was coming?" I clarify.

"No!"

I sigh, wondering how to respond.

"Have you talked to her?"

"I'm not suppose to, so I'm just not. I could bend the rule if I really wanted, but I'm not going out of my way to."

"Just keep your distance for a while. I'm sure she has a reason... where's Indy?" I suddenly panic wondering what he has gotten into.

I hear him in the other room and move quickly to find him.

The thing is, I don't realize I'm running for the first time in four years.

A monumental moment in my life, just to find him chewing on a towel.

..

Hey!

Alright, buckle up, I've got an -might I emphasize extremely- tight schedule planned for AFY. with chapters every TUESDAY and FRIDAY from now until the end of December, maybe even longer!

Proof that it is very scheduled: this random Saturday update!

There's gonna be some major plot changes, romance, drama, and some things will be happening around Christmas that you guys will have to stick through to wait for...!

I'm really excited about this rush I'm getting of ideas for this, and I hope the few (love you couple few! Not complaining! I love the 3 to 4 comments on each chapter, and you dozen constant voters!) of you reading will stick around.

Things will be moving fast, and you guys know I move slow from my other works. I'm pushing myself to change, the sadness has been going on and dragging.

Things are gonna get worse, then they're gonna get good, I promise.

Alright, I better stop blabbing before I spoil something...

All the love,
Kat ❤️