Knife throwing, that was always fun. Some of the other initiates seemed to pick up on it pretty quickly, Jake was able to hit inside of the target circle a few times. Andrea on the other hand, not so much. She was able to hit the wall but wasn't able to make the knives stick to the target, so they kept clanging on the floor.

"Hey," Andrea turned to look at me, knife ready to be thrown. "Try holding it like this."

"Oh, and put your feet like this," Jake stepped in.

Andrea started to adjust her stance, then Eric stomped over. "Both of you, worry about yourselves and get back to minding your own business."

Someone was in a bad mood today.

I stepped away from Andrea and went back to throwing my knife. From the corner of my eye, I could see Eric standing behind her, watching her. She went to throw her knife, once again bouncing off the target and onto the floor.

Andrea looked down in defeat. "That was pathetic," he told her. Eric turned to walk away.

"What a dick," Andrea muttered.

Oh shit, that was too loud.

"What was that initiate?" Eric had a look of fury on his face. He knew exactly what she said.

"W-what? I didn't say anything."

"Go pick up your knives," he told her.

"What?"

"Go.Pick.Them.Up."

"But I could get hit."

Eric shrugs, a dangerous smirk on his face.

"Everyone stop!"

"Stand in front of the target," he told her.

Andrea looked like she wanted to respond but she held her tongue, choosing to walk in front of the target.

"This'll be fun," he muttered. "Let it be known that your orders are not optionable, back talk is not tolerated." Eric gives Andrea a pointed glare.

Andrea's face pales as she realizes what he's going to do.

Eric picks up a few knives from the table.

"If you flinch, you're out."

"What? Four he can't-" Jake immediately stops speaking when Four gives him a glare, warning him to stay shut.

Anyone would flinch at this, including Andrea. Hell, she was already shaking in front of target! I couldn't let this happen to my friend.

"Stop." Everyone's eyes were on me.

"Standing in front of the target won't prove anything."

Eric's mouth twitched. "Then it should be easy for you to take her place."

I walk towards the target and Andrea gives me a sad look, telling me that she's sorry. I give her a discreet nod, letting her know I got this.

I go against the wall with my hands in a knot behind my back, squeezing them together.

Eric immediately starts throwing the knives at me, not sparing a second. The first knife lands on the outside of my thigh.

Then my arm.

My neck.

The top of my head.

Then too close, I hear the next knife land beside my stomach.

That's when I feel the pain.

I look down and press my hand against my side. When I pull it away, I realize that the knife grazed the side of stomach.

I looked up at him in disbelief.

He had a wide, wicked smirk on his face.

"Points for bravery, Stiff, but not as many as you just lost."

I look back at him, fuming. His back is already turned to me and he's walking away, and I can hear him say, "Stupid, Stiff."

Who the hell does he think he is?

Before I realize, I grab a knife up from the target and go to aim it at him. Before I can release it, someone is in front of me, grabbing my wrist and holding me back.

"Jo, stop."

Four.

"He's not worth being factionless over."

His words remind me of my place and not to further compromise my initiation. Stabbing a leader wouldn't be the wisest thing to do.

I breathe in and out to calm my anger. I swear, no one has ever gotten under my skin like Eric Coulter does.

"Get yourself to the infirmary. Jo, look at me."

I look up at him, willing my angry tears not to fall.

"Go, now."

"Did I miss something?" Eric asks, the fake amusement evident in his voice.

Four is still looking down at me, a stern look on his face is telling me to shut my mouth and leave."

"Just telling the initiate to get herself to medical."

I can feel the blood has already seeped through my shirt.

Four releases me and I walk to medical, ignoring Eric on my way out.

Once I'm there a girl a few years older than me is there, it's a different girl then before.

She sees me clutching my side and tells me to have a seat on the cot.

"Let me take a look." I pull my hand away and she rolls my shirt up and sees the laceration.

"Damn, knife practice, huh? Looks like somebody missed."

"Oh, they did not miss."

"What?"

"Eric," I say, knowing she would know what I meant.

She makes an 'oh' face.

"Why'd he do that?"

I then go on and explain the details of what lead up to me coming here.

"Well, he sounds particularly pissed off today."

"Isn't he always?"

She snickers as she puts healing cream on my side.

"I understand where he's coming from by making an example out of you, but he definitely didn't have to go this far."

"Not the first time I pissed him off."

"And it probably won't be the last."

She stands up and removes her gloves. "If you need any more cream, just come back.

"Thanks, I'm sorry what was your name?"

She gives me a warm smile. "It's Lexie, now try and stay wound free for a while, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll try. Thanks again."

I make my way over to the dining hall where the rest of the initiates are for dinner and Andrea runs up to me as soon as I walk in.

"I am so sorry! Seriously, you didn't have to do that for me, but I'm so grateful and so sorry! Are you okay? Does it hurt? Is it gonna scar?"

"Andrea," I grab ahold of her shoulders. "I'm fine, it's all fine. I would do it all over for you. I'm okay." Andrea lets out a breath and I see the tears well up in her eyes, so I bring her in for a hug. "I'm okay, don't worry."

Andrea hugs me back tightly. "You know I love you right?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love you too."

Andrea chuckles and wipes the tears from her eyes.

"Come on, everyone's waiting for you."

"Huh?"

We walk towards the table with the initiates, and they all start clapping.

"Nice job."

"That was bad ass."

Jake motions for us to come over and sit. "Jo, that was literally the best thing I've ever seen."

"Yeah," a Dauntless born interjects. "No one ever stands up to Eric, it was awesome!"

"Didn't feel awesome," I saw with a small laugh.

"Oh shit, that's right are you okay?" Jake asks.

"I'll live to fight another day."

Other initiates are talking with us as we all eat together, but a quick silence quickly comes over everyone. I look over to see what's going on and see Eric standing not too far from our table, looking right at me.

The rage starts to build up in me again. I didn't even want to be in the same room as him right now.

"I think that's my queue," I stand up. "I'm gonna head to the training room, I'll be back by curfew."

Andrea and Jake nod in understanding.

I make my way over to the training room, ready to take my anger out on a punching bag.

Once there I wrap my hands up and stretch my arms out, readying myself to give this punching bag a beating.

I decide to picture Eric's face on the punching bag, letting out my anger and frustration with him onto the bag. I'm not pacing myself, just letting myself go for a while until I feel tired.

I was so lost in the moment I didn't even hear the door open.

"Someone looks pissed." I immediately search for the voice, and my eyes land on Eric.

Of course.

"What do you want?"

"You looked a little upset at the dining hall, figured I check in my initiate."

"First of all, I'm not yours. Second of all, I think I have a right to be a little upset. So, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to get back to hitting this punching bag which I'm happily pretending is your face."

Eric looks like he almost wanted to laugh.

"Then let's go."

"What?"

"You're pretending to hit me, why don't you actually try to?"

"You wanna fight me?" I asked in disbelief.

"Why not?"

"First you stab me, now you're trying to kill me?"

This time he smiles, a real smile and chuckles.

"You've got a lot of rage, Stiff. Come on and do something about it."

"I don't think that's wise," I turn back to my punching bag.

"Why? Afraid?"

"Of death? Yes."

"Now initiate, that's an order."

I let out a long sigh. This wasn't exactly how I'd imagined I would be spending my night.

I walk over to the ring and Eric is standing across from me.

"Don't worry," he gets into fighting position. "I'll take it easy on you." There's a wicked gleam in his eye, and I know damn well that he's gonna do everything he can to teach me a lesson about earlier.     

Here goes nothing.

I make a running start at him, Eric went to punch me, but I dropped down to my knees and kick out my leg against his. He didn't fall, but he did lose his balance slightly. I quickly got back up and went to punch Eric, but he was too fast and blocked my hit while simultaneously hitting the side of my stomach. I let out a yelp in surprise and got nearly taken out when his other fist came towards my face, but I successfully ducked and went to tackle him.

Not my best idea.

I grabbed his sides to take him down, using my bodyweight, but he was bigger and faster, and he easily maneuvered me around and ended up lifting me off the ground and bouncing me onto the ring straight onto my back. From there I hooked my leg around his and wrapped my arm around his arm, grabbing his elbow in my hand, then used my other arm and placed my elbow on the side of his neck and managed to turn it around.

From there on we both wrestled one another, both of us fighting for the control. We were punching and kicking at one another, both of were bound to have bruises after this was over. Eric had managed to make me fall onto the ring again and before I had the chance to get up, he threw himself onto me, grabbing ahold of my wrists so I was no longer able to fight back with my fists and sat down on the lower half of my body, prohibiting anymore defensive moves.

I was pinned and couldn't do anything about it. 

"You win," I told him, forfeiting.

"I always do."

Eric was leaning over me; his hands pinned my wrists above my head, staring down at me. Chest nearly pressing against me, breathing heavily.

I was suddenly very aware of how close we were.

"I need to head back." Why was my voice so low?

Eric kept his eyes on me for a beat longer then released me. He got off of me and I quickly got up and I grabbed my things.

"Initiate," I sighed and turned around. "You try and throw a knife at me again and you're out. Got it?"

"Got it."