The Leader

9

The loud clanking of pots and pans colliding together sounds around the room a few minutes after my head touches the pillow, or at least that's what it seems like.

"Rise and shine," Four's voice calls out. "You need to be dressed and on the train in fifteen minutes."

He turns and exits the room.

I groan and sit up, groggily rubbing the sleep from my eyes. After I returned from the roof earlier, Tera found me and dragged me to the Pit, where they were having a karaoke contest. That wasn't too bad, because most of the people singing had decent voices.

After the karaoke contest, which we did not win by the way, was a cake eating contest. Don't get me wrong, the cake was delicious, but too much of a good thing can be a bad thing. It was definitely a bad thing. Needless to say, I regurgitated most of the cake I had inhaled less than thirty minutes later. All the singing and cake eating really did a number on me.

I grouchily get up and change out of my night clothes into a black tee shirt and jeans. I slip on some socks and lace up my boots, ready for whatever it is that Four has planned.

"Ready?" Tera says, coming up to stand next to me. I nod.

We leave the training room side by side and make our way outside to wait for the train. As soon as we step outside the summer night breeze nips at my bare arms and I shiver.

A figure stands near the railroad tracks with their hands shoved in the pockets of their pants. The moonlight gives off enough light for me to see that the figure is Eric.

The scene from the roof flashes in my mind and makes my cheeks heat up despite the cool air. What happened on the roof earlier has had me flustered ever since we departed. The way he gently held my chin and leaned in close made the butterflies in my stomach go wild.

"Man, it is chilly out here," Tera says, rubbing her arms.

Eric turns his head slightly and I avert my gaze to my boots to keep from making eye contact. Thankfully, it is dark enough that there is no way Eric and Tera can see the color that has painted my cheeks.

"Yeah, it is." I rub my arms to keep warm and listen for the sound of the train.

I hear footsteps coming up behind us and I turn to see some Dauntless born initiates walking this way, Raiden being one of them. He catches my eye and makes his way over to us.

"Hey, buddies," he says with a cheerful grin on his face. He ruffles our hair, making our bed head look even worse.

"Hey." I swat at his hand and he retracts it, feigning a hurt look. "How and why are you so peppy?"

"What's there to not be peppy about?" he says, a lopsided grin on his face. "I am about to go on an adventure with a couple of my pals. And it's a nice night to be outside. The stars are twinkling, the moon is out, and the air is so fresh. Gotta love it."

I look up at the sky and take a deep breath. "You're right. It is a nice and lovely night to be out, but I'm still tired."

"What did you do to make you so tired, huh?" Raiden nudges me in the side, a playful grin still present on his face.

"Somebody forced me to enter a karaoke contest with her," I say, pointing at Tera. "Ugh, it was super embarrassing. My ego is going to need some time to recover after that beating. And then she entered us into a cake eating contest, which did not end well. I will save you the gory details."

"Sounds like you two had an awesome day," Raiden says with a wink.

"Oh, it was a blast," Tera says, "except for when Sally Sunshine over here puked her cake-filled guts up."