I Was Amity...

13

After my mom leaves I go back to the dorm. I walk in not expecting anyone else to be there. I thought everyone would be out with their own families or families of their new friends. But there Liam is sitting on his bed, staring at the space on the wall where the chalkboard usually is. Four took it down yesterday so he could calculate our stage one rankings.

"Hey, what are you doing in here?" I ask and his head snaps towards me. "Your parents are out in the pit looking for you. Did you ever find them?"

He shakes his head. I sit down next to him on the bed. I'm dwarfed by Liam's large size, my leg is half the width of his. He has on a pair of black shorts, letting me see his knee with a purple-blue bruise with a scar running through the middle of it.

"You didn't want to see them?" I ask him.

"Didn't want them to ask how I was doing," Liam says. "I'd have to tell them, and they would know if I was lying."

"Well... you could just tell them you are doing much better now then when you first transferred. That wouldn't be a total lie." He laughs at my poor excuse."What's wrong with how you're doing?" I ask because I'm genuinely confused. He hasn't lost a single fight.

Liam laughs again, but answers this time. "Sure I've won every fight but I don't feel like myself. I feel like a different person when I step out onto the mat. I would even go as far as to compare myself to Eric. The way he enjoys watching us beat the tar out of each other. I feel the same way when I win. "

"Yeah but we're no longer going to have to fight. After this you won't have to feel this way. You won't have to fight anyone unless they deserve to get beaten up," I remind him.

He smiles at me a little, I can tell he's thinking through what I just said. He shakes his head. "I still don't want to see my parents. I don't want to lose everything you've helped me work towards. If I go out there and see them it's like I'm back at square one, like I'm back to the first day of initiation."

I nod at him. We sit side-by-side for a while. It's better to be here, in silence, then in the Pit, watching everyone laugh with their families. My father used to say that sometimes, the best way to cheer someone up is just to be near them. I feel good when I do something I know he would be proud of, it makes me feel close to him.

"I feel braver when I'm around you, you know," Liam says. "Like I could actually fit in here, the same way you do."

I'm about to respond when he slides his arm across my shoulders. "As long as you stick with me you will always have a place in Dauntless." I laugh.

Liam laughs along with me. "You really are my best friend here," Liam confides in me.

"And you are mine," I tell him truthfully.

Liam and I sit and talk about our old faction, but I don't mention my brother or father. We talk until it's dinner time. At dinner our final rankings for stage one is all anyone will talk about. I'm curious as to who'll be first. I think I should be in the top three along with Liam and Charlie. We all won our fights, and are all comparable when it comes to knife throwing and shooting guns. Honestly I'm worried about Olivia; she only won a single fight. She has good technique but when it comes time to use it in an actual fight she can't do it. Her aim is good but not the best. I think she'll make the cut. I just hope that if she does she can jump up a few spots in the second stage.

At dinner I sit with Olivia, Calum, and Liam at a table in the corner.

"You weren't allowed to have pets?" Olivia demands, smacking the table with her palm, "Why not?"

"Because they're illogical," Calum says matter-of-factly. "What is the point in providing food and shelter for an animal that just soils your furniture, makes your home smell bad, and ultimately dies?"