The Other Prior: Candice Prior || Divergent Fanfiction

Chapter 8: Losing

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I lost another fight. To Jake, or Mr. Willowy-Figure. I have a black eye, a puffed-up jawline, and various bruises along my ribs. I'm running purely on fumes now, and I'm completely terrified, because I fight Andrew, the most ruthless initiate besides maybe Eric, at the end of the week. That gives me three days to get better at something I have no chance at.

It's night time, and I'm not supposed to be awake, but I have decided I need to do something about my situation. I can't just give up. So, I'm sneaking through the Dauntless tunnel to get to the training room to practice. I push open the door slowly, praying that it doesn't creak. Inside, it's pitch black other than the small light that shines from my flashlight.But it has a sweat-smell that tells me I'm in the right room. But the room that should be empty is filled with grunts and yells. I know who it is before I see him. Four. I saw his bed empty when I left the dorm, I just assumed he'd gone to meet someone. I was obviously wrong.

"Four?" I call.

The punching stops and he approaches the sound of my voice.

"What are you doing here?" He asks, coming into the light of my small flashlight.

"I could ask you the same thing, you know." I say.

I see him smirk. "I'm practicing."

"Well, that was what I was planning to do." My voice suddenly breaking. Shit. I can't cry in front of him. I can't cry. I try to suck in my tears and speak again, which leads my voice to sound high and squeaky. "I'll leave. I didn't want to disturb you."

He senses the tension in my voice. "What's wrong?" He asks. Boys really can be clueless sometimes.

"I just. I have a fight with Austin which I'm totally going to lose, my ranking is already the worst, and I-" I trail off, my voice going high and squeaky at the end of my sentence. He looks at me, obviously assessing the situation.

"You're not going to lose your fight, because I'm going to help you." He says, eyeing me up and down. I feel tears running down my face as my cheeks grow hot. Without thinking, I lunge at him and embrace him in a hug. He's going to help him. I'm crying into his shoulder as he stiffly pats me on the back trying to comfort me and pry me off him at the same time. When I finally calm down enough to regain control of my voice box, I squeak: "You don't have to."

He pulls me away from him and holds me at arms length. I'm unsure of what he can see seeing as I've dropped my flashlight and it has rolled halfway across the room, but it's appreciated nonetheless.

"I know." He says softly. "That's what friends do right? They help each other!"

We are friends!

+++

And we start. He has me do a few punches and kicks to the bag on the wall, saying that he needs to observe my stance. I oblige, not really in the position of arguing with anyone who agrees to help me. I punch and kick at the punching bag for what seems like ages. Stamina isn't the problem for me, my past week at dauntless has fixed that, especially with Amar giving me laps every two hours.

Four kicks into an instructor mode I didn't know he had, correcting my posture, my hits, my punches, my kicks. I notice that despite his willingness to help me, he tenses when correcting my hip movement

"You don't have a lot of body weight, so try hitting with joints. Elbows, knees, that sort of thing. Keep your guard up all the time, a hit to your jaw can be the end of the match. Another thing – Observe him. Most people give some sort of indication before they punch. If you learn the indication your opponent gives, you can block and counterattack before they have a chance to follow through with their punch."

We practice on each other, I try to get him to punch me, but he won't, and I don't push it. We practice a few positions, and I can't take in how good he is at teaching.

He finishes teaching me some basic moves, and says he needs to practice for his and Eric's match tommorow. I let him, silently taking up a punching bag in the corner.even though I'm sweating beyond measure, and my knuckles are splitting from repeatedly hitting the punching bag, it's calming. I can feel every part of my body, from the sting in my knuckles every time I hit the bag to the blood that's coursing through my veins. Satisfied by almost an hour of punching, I stop, and head toward the fountain for a sip of water.

"I feel like you're about to snap..." I hear Amar's voice from where Four is standing and move closer towards them out of curiosity.

"And you're here too." Amar says, noticing me. "Well come on, both of you. We're going to play a Dauntless game."

I look at Four, and he looks at me, I laugh, and then take off, running behind Amar towards the train tracks.I'm not sure what kind of Dauntless game Amar has in mind, agreeing to something with a bunch of Dauntless without knowing what you're getting into is probably foolish, but I think I've proved I don't think enough before doing. And I'm still alive, so it can't be all bad can it?

I see a Dauntless girl, Lauren, hanging out of the train, laughing when she almost falls off, and getting back in again. There is a silver flask in her hand, which, if it contains what I suspect it does, makes this game a whole lot more dangerous.

I grab onto the rail like I did during initiation and haul myself into the cart. This time, it comes more naturally, muscles I didn't know I had helping me in my jump onto the train car. I'm greeted by a hug from Zeke. I instinctively retract from his hug, and he laughs at my discomfort.

"Once a stiff always a stiff." The girl behind Zeke says. Shauna.

"So, you're Shauna?" I ask, and she nods. "Mia told me about you. She said that we might get along."

"I think we will" she says smiling.

Lauren explains the rules, probably for the benefit of Four and I, because everyone else doesn't seem too interested as she explains. She tells us that the game is called Dare. Apparently, the first person asks someone to do a dare. The person that has been dared, he or she drinks, does the dare, and tells another person to do something. The game goes on and on until everyone has done a dare, or in Lauren's words: "Died trying" Then we get drunk and stumble back to sleeping quarters. Fun.

"Okay. Since I hold the drinks, I start. Amar:"

I don't really hear what dare she gave Amar because the entire train car started cheering loudly. I look around at the wild crowd in front of me. These are my people now. But it still feels odd. It still feels like I don't belong.

"Hey, you're a transfer, right?" Zeke calls over to Four, reaching his hand across me to wave it in Four's face, who is spacing out.

"Yeah. Nice Jump." Four replies, smirking. He's a little lighter than he was, which is impressive. His shoulders are no longer knotted together, but loosened. He's a bit less 'stiff' and a bit more Dauntless around these people. Your surroundings change you.

"Not one of my finest moments." Zeke replies, looking down at his shoes.

"What happened?" I ask, curious about what they are talking about.

"Zeke walked up to the ledge after you jumped and tried to look super heroic, but he ended up slipping and falling, but at least he jumped second and not last, like some people." She remarks, a silent jab at Four, last jumper. "I'm Shauna, by the way. Is it true you have four fears?" She asks, then directing her attention to Four.

"Hence the name"he replies, gesturing to himself proudly.

"Wow. Guess you were born Dauntless." Shauna says, apparently forgetting her jab at Four only two seconds previously and looking impressed. I see Four sit up a little straighter because of her comment and smile. It must be nice to know you truly belong. To know you're not just an imposter.

"How's your fighting going?" Zeke asks.

The conversation continues as we laugh and talk. Bonding over initiation, Amar, and being almost new Dauntless members. Zeke and Shauna are Dauntless-born, they've lived in Dauntless their whole lives. They truly belong. But for this night, maybe I do too.

I am part of something.