Becoming Determinant - Tobias' Story

Divergent Chapter 16 - Rank and Eye

A/N: Thank you so much for all the reviews you've left so far! Your support really means a lot and always cheers me up if I'm having a rotten day. Thank you also to my wonderful beta reader, Rosalie!

"Divergent" Chapter 16 – Rank and Eye

I spend the rest of the afternoon shooting, hiding from Visiting Day the way I usually do. My aim has gotten so good at this point that I have to come up with new ways to challenge myself, so I use some of the ideas that Amar shared with me before his death.

Dragging dummies and boards around the room, I set up an obstacle course, and then I race through it, rolling on the floor and firing around whatever is in my way as I rise. When I evaluate the targets afterwards, I can't help grinning. I hit the bulls-eye with every shot.

I wish Amar were alive to see it.

Zeke wanders in after a while, bored now that he's finished his family get-together. We rearrange the course and go through it as a two-person team, and then as opposite sides in a mock battle. He makes a face at me when I beat him by a wide margin.

"You know I'll get you back, right?" he declares, but it's hard to take him seriously when he's still grinning from all the excitement and adrenaline. Not that it's ever easy to take Zeke seriously.

"You wish," I answer levelly. "I'm wise to your ceiling feather ways."

He laughs. "That's going to be the best prank ever. It's all set up for our next free day, and the best thing is Shauna has absolutely no idea."

I don't comment on that. He could be right, since I haven't told her, but it's also possible that word filtered through Uriah to Lynn to Shauna, and she's got some counter-move planned. Either way, it promises to be far more entertaining if I don't warn either of them….

"I'm looking forward to it," I say with a smirk as I start putting the room back in its normal condition. "But right now, I'd rather eat."

"Yeah," Zeke responds, grabbing one of the dummies and shoving it carelessly back in the corner, "I could definitely use some food."

By the time the room has been taken care of, we're late for dinner, and Shauna looks somewhat annoyed when we join her.

"Sorry," Zeke murmurs, giving her an affectionate kiss on the cheek. For a moment, I envy him the ability to do that, particularly since the person I'd like to greet that way happens to be sitting behind me. But I push the feelings away. Even if Tris wanted me like that, which I know she doesn't, it's a moot point during initiation. I'm still her instructor.

Despite that, her proximity makes my skin tingle, and I have to resist leaning back to be closer to her. I don't think she even knows I'm sitting there, but her presence certainly distracts me, particularly when snatches of her conversation with her friends mix in with what Shauna and Zeke are saying.

"You weren't allowed to have pets?" Christina asks someone as Shauna complains, "A convoy of twelve Amity trucks came through today. It took us forever to process them."

There are responses in both conversations, but I don't really catch either. I'm too busy thinking about what the Amity were delivering in that quantity, and to whom.

The encrypted war messages didn't give a date for the attack, but I had the impression it's planned for sometime after initiation is done. And that makes sense – Dauntless would want this year's new members to be in place before they start a war. But if that's true, it's a little early for Erudite to be stocking up on food.