I continue sipping on my cup of coffee. The acrid fumes are filling my nose with this bitter sensation. Coffee hurts my throat, and tastes gross, but all other Dauntless people drink it so I'm giving it a try. My brain is waking up very rapidly and I am incredibly jittery.

This isn't normal. This is what coffee does to you. That's why Four, Uriah, and Eric are always tapping their feet everywhere, or rocking back and forth. They're always moving because they drink coffee. I'm aching all over from the last fight, but the automated healing from the infirmary helped a lot. Even though the infirmary is a torture zone where nobody likes to be.

We look at the fight list:

1. Brad and Matt
2. Nathan and Dave
3. Daniel and Sage
4. Andrew and Kat
5. David and Abel
6. Tom and Adam

Nathan's against Dave. Jesus, he was my fighting parter yesterday. Nathan and Dave are equal though, I understand why they are paired together. Nathan's an inch taller, and they're both buff guys with a lot of muscle. Nathan is just really clever. And Dave's very strong. Stronger in the arms. Nathan has more leg power. Dave has a few advantages and Nathan has a few himself. So, I would call this a fair fight.

Andrew's short for a guy, but tall compared to me with his strawberry blonde hair and pale white skin. His muscles are popping out of his skin. He looks like a body builder. His jawline is prominent, and his large bone structure.

Uriah runs into the training room with bottles of coffee. "Complimentary coffee service!"

He starts handing out bottles to everyone.

"Uriah," Four announces, "What in the world are you doing?"

"I just told you," he replies, "I just got back from a leader's meeting and on my way back here I got all the extra coffee. Poor Tris and Christina. They don't have any coffee. We are the thieves."

Four swipes a bottle of coffee from Uriah, smirking and pressing his finger to his lips. Us initiates smirk while Uriah hands out all the bottles of coffee.

"One for me?" Eric asks while walking into the room.

"Well then Kat doesn't have one," Uriah replies.

I play along and take the last bottle of coffee while Eric looks extremely annoyed. All of the advanced initiated drink the bottle of coffee and I hide my second bottle of coffee in my jacket.

"Aren't you supposed to say thank you?" Eric asks.

"You just turned the sweet into sour," I reply with a smirk.

Eric pushes me into the wall. I climb out from under his legs.

"Watch out, dude," I mutter.

Four takes Eric into the hallway.

Uriah says, "Well, initiates, we cannot stop fights today. Yesterday, Four and I got into huge trouble despite the number of severe injuries Nathan and Brad had. Well, Nathan, Brad, Four's just going to clear things up, after he's finished, I'll go. I'm sorry, Nathan, Brad and all the others watching this. I'm surprised that Brad could fight; I'm also surprised that Nathan could walk. But they proved us wrong. Well, that concludes my speech and this goes to Matt and Brad!"

Matt and Brad walk up to the fighting rink. Nathan takes a big inhale. Sage takes another sip of his coffee.

Brad punches Matt in the face while Matt tries to twist his neck. Matt practically attacks Brad, then Brad backfires by pinning Matt down to the ground. Matt jumps up to his feet.

"I can barely watch this," I mutter.

Nathan nods.

"Me three," Sage replies.

"All this coffee is making me sick," Nathan murmurs, but I have to drink it. To be normal."

"What's so important about being normal?" I whisper/ask.

Nathan chuckles slightly, "Being normal is being Dauntless in a way. They don't look at you if you're not normal. That's what I learned yesterday."

"What happened yesterday?" I whisper with curiosity, my eyes widening.

"Calm down, Kat, it was nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yea."

"You creep."

"Kat, stop it."

"You stop."

"Well, is the creepy man coming to his senses?" Sage interrupts.

"Am I really that creepy?" Nathan asks.

"Oh my god yes," Sage and I both say at the same time.

"I always knew I was a bit creepy, just not worse than Four," Nathan says.

"You're a little worse than Four," Sage says.

"WAY WORSE," I interrupt.

"You're like Peter or Eric," Sage says.

BANG!

Matt collides into Brad, making Brad fall down to the ground. Brad instantly jumps up and kicks Matt in the crotch five times. Matt pushes against Brad, then Brad plummets to the ground. Brad gets his head and heads Matt in the stomach and then Matt falls to the ground, completely unresponsive. Four and Eric walk back into the room.

Four announces, "Andrew, take Matt to the infirmary."

I'm sympathetic for Matt, but his injuries weren't nearly as bad as Nathan's. Matt has bruises up and down his arms and a cut in his upper lip. Nathan takes a deep breath and starts to scratch himself with his long nails.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

"Just that unscratch-able itch you always get," Nathan replies.

I nod understandingly.

"Good luck," I tease.

"You need it too," he replies to both me and Sage at the same time.

Sage nods. "Good luck, Nate."

Nathan rolls his eyes at the pet name.

Uriah walks over towards us. As soon as Sage starts to talk to Abel, Uriah looks at us with a puzzled look on his face. "Now, Creepy and Stiff, I'm not saying that this fight was pleasant to watch, because it truly wasn't. But there was no swinging on poles. We don't want you to get hurt so just don't swing on poles it'll only hurt you and your opponent some more. Alright, pole dancers?"

Nathan rolls his eyes at the slang and the pet names, but I laugh it off. Uriah shakes Nathan by the shoulders and Nathan laughs it off.

Uriah said, "Creepy, are you trying to stop acting like a freak before you get arrested? Good move."

Nathan rolls his eyes and laughs it off.

"Nathan and Dave," Uriah announces.

Nathan walks up to the fighting rink, along with Dave. Before Nathan reaches the fighting rink, Dave jumps on Nathan. Nathan uses his shoulder and elbow in order to flip him by his neck. Dave collapses on the ground and then he grabs Nathan and pulls him to the ground. This wasn't even on the fighting rink. Nathan gets up in an instant and sprints over towards the actual fighting rink.

Four claps his hands together.

"Finally," he says to Uriah.

"Well, well," Sage says like an evil villain.

"You sound like an evil villain," I reply.

"No, I sound like Erudite," he retorts.

I just laugh it off.

BANG!

Nathan is repeatedly elbowing Dave in the ribs while Dave is repeatedly punching Nathan in the face. Dave knocks Nathan down and Nathan coughs his blood all over the floor. Nathan throws himself on top of Dave and he goes face-first into the pool of blood. Dave doesn't get back up when Nathan knees him in the leg.

"STOP!" Uriah roars.

Nathan struggles to walk off the fighting rink. He walks up to me. "I won, Kat. I won."

"You're lucky," I mutter truthfully under my breath, "I'm sure I'll lose."

Being 100% honest might kill me, but I'm being honest just now.

"If you lose, it's okay," Nathan says.

"I don't want to become factionless," I reply.

"They'll put me in your place. They do that when they don't like you. They don't like me."

"They hate me too."

"Well they hate me more."

"If someone gives you a pet name it means they like you."

"Uriah calls me 'Creepy'. He thinks I should be imprisoned, killed, or even beheaded."

"True. Uriah hates your guts." I mutter.

"Four likes you." Nathan replies.

"No. Four's just Four," I snap back, "His little game gets tiring after a while."

"Hey, Sage?" I ask.

"Yea?" he replies.

"On your fight, aim for the crotch," I mutter, "And, also let him make the first move."

"Drink that last bit of coffee, Sage," Nathan mumbles, patting his shoulder in a sign of good luck.

"Sage and Daniel," Uriah announces.