Venus Eaton is desperate to escape the abuse of her previous faction although she is unaware and unprepared of the ordeals of Dauntless initiation. She is a stranger to her own brother until he accuses her of murdering their mother, and finds out th...
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VENUS
THE FIRST day, and I wake up late. Tris, Christina and Emily are already in the cafeteria by the looks of it, and it seems I'm the last one in the dormitaries. Just as I lean down to tie my shoes, a shadow casts over my face. I look up.
A girl with a thick blonde braid down the front of her head, accessorized with a white bow, stands in front of me. Her electric blue eyes mae her face seem brighter, and her smile reveals her pearly white teeth.
"Hi!" She mews, and I sit back.
"Oh, hi-"
"I'm Harmonie, spelt with an i!" She says merrily, bouncing on the balls of her feet. I rest my hands on my thighs and watch her for a moment. How the actual fuck can someone be so awake at this time in the morning?
"So... who are you?" She continues.
"Venus." I reply, standing up. She steps back and starts walking to the door, beckoning me along.
"Well, Venus. You aren't the only one to wake up a little late!" She purrs, opening the door and letting me walk out first. I stretch before following her and we start walking to the cafeteria. She tells me how she used to be an Erudite and notices my hesitation when she asks me about my past.
By the time we reach the cafeteria, there aren't many seats left. We find a completely empty table that seems to be abandoned due to its messy condition, so we sit down carefully and avoid touching the surface.
"You know those popular girls," She suddenly says, and I glance up at her from eating my muffin. She nods her head past me, and when I turn around I see a group of three girls talking and laughing and curling their hair around their fingers. "I hate how they think they're pretty." She snorts. "They're not."
I study them for a moment. The first girl is slightly voluptuous with curly auburn hair and leafy green eyes. Her smile stretches across her face and her eyes glow, as she tells something to the other girl next to her.
The other girl is almost a duplicate, although a bit shorter in height and hair length. They share the same wide smile and shining eyes, whilst the third girl stands beside them, laughing at whatever they're saying. Her hair is straight and black, running to her lower back. Her eyes are just as dark as her hair and she has a freckled face.
When they glance across at us, I quickly look bac at Harmonie. She's still staring at them until I wave my hand until I wave my hand in front of her face.
"That girl with the curly hair," She says, and I nod.
"Which one?"
"The taller one." She confirms, scrunching the muffin wrapper into her fist. "Her name's Rebecca, and she thinks she owns the world now she's going out with Eric."
My eyes widen at her words. "She goes out with Eric?"
"I know, right?" She giggles, nearly falling off her seat. She wipes tears of laughter from her eyes, shaking her head. "Who does that? He's scary as fuck!"
Harmonie's voice drains out just as Eric walks into the room. He wraps his arm around Rebecca's shoulders and fits of anger spread throughout my body, right to my fingertips. I clench my hands into fists, my fingernails digging into my palms, leaving crescent-like marks behind.
Am I jealous? I hope not. I shouldn't be.
***
"The first thing you will learn today is how to shoot a gun. The second thing you will learn is how to fight." Four shoves a gun into my palm as he walks past, and I shift uncomfortably at the weight of it. "Thankfully, you are here, so you don't have to learn how to get on and off the moving trains."
It doesn't shock me that Four expects us to land perfectly on our feet every train ride, but he is Dauntless. My eyes are still heavy from sleeping last night - listening to about 13 people sleeping, snoring and even crying. At least, Al was crying.
When I snap out of my daze, Four is chastising a boy for being half asleep. The boy, whose name is Peter, hardened his green eyes after Four's warning. I let out a chuckle at his reddened cheeks.
"Once you've learned to defend yourself, you're less likely to run to your mother in the face of danger." Four continues, and I purse my lips. "Now, watch me."
Four turns to the wall with the targets lined up on it and holds the gun. It doesn't look like he's holding the gun tightly as he fires, and the bullet flies through the middle circle. I want to cover my ears but I don't.
When it's time for me to shoot, I'm bad at it. The bullets bounce off the concrete wall behind the targets and I only manage to hit the target once or twice, and it's nowhere near the middle.
Maybe I'll get better.
***
After the break, we use punching bags. Four demonstrates how to punch them, demonstrating a couple fighting moves on them. He also told us that we'd be fighting tomorrow, so we have to learn quickly in order to win the upcoming fights. Since there is an uneven number of us, I hope I'm the one that doesn't have to fight.
Eric walks in just as I start punching. I wondered where he went: I haven't seen him all day up until now. Maybe it's because he's a Dauntless leader. It still baffles me, how someone so young could become a leader.
As I'm punching, I notice the bag hardly moves. I press my fingertips to my head to ease the dull throb, before observing my knuckles. They're already red, and the purple tint of bruises are appearing across the skin.
"Standing there all day won't help you improve." A voice says, and I jump, turning around to face him. He holds a placid expression, taking a step closer to me. I narrow my eyes. Eric.
"Well, I'm trying. Nothing's working."
Eric walks around me, so he's standing beside me rather than in front of me although he's just as close. His fingers dig into my hips as he angles me correctly, kicking my legs apart. I inhale sharply at how tight he's holding me, placing my hands on his. I don't bother moving them, just hold them there.
Then I realize how creepy I'm being, so I drop my hands to my sides and glance at him through the corner of my eye. My cheeks grow red with nervousness as I see the small smirk on his lips. I drop my head. I fucked up.
"You're weak." He says lowly, and disappointment floods me. "If you want to win the fight tomorrow- wait, you won't. There's no point telling you-"
"What?" I fiercely wriggle out of his grasp, glaring into his eyes. "You're saying I won't win the fight tomorrow?" A challenging smirk turns my lips upward slightly. I raise an eyebrow at him. "You wanna bet?"
