Courage (Divergent)

Cautions and Questions

That evening the food hall was buzzing with people. Taking and laughter echoed against the walls. Most of the tables were full and only a few seats were left. Sat on one of the tables on the far side of the room were a group of Initiates joking around on one end. At the other Four sat eating his food and looking like he'd rather be anywhere else. He was lost in his own thoughts until Myla's tray crashed against the table as she took the seat opposite him. He looked up unphased and she smiled at him. She had changed into a plain black t-shirt, but the rest of her outfit remained the same.

"How's the Initiate?" Four asked.

"He'll be fine. Might be a little sluggish for a few days but he'll live" Myla replied nonchalantly. She took a bite of the hamburger from her tray. "I saw Max on the way to the infirmary".

"What did he say?"

"He laughed. Said that he learnt his lesson".

"Has Eric said anything?"

"I haven't seen him since. I expect he'll lecture me once gets over watching me kick that boy's ass" she grinned with pride before taking another bite. Four looked at her unconvinced. She swallowed her food and grinned.

"He's not going to kill me. You don't need to be so protective all of the time" she mumbled.

"I know it's just-"

"You don't trust him? I know. You've told me so for almost a year".

At that moment, the two of them noticed that the talking beside them had died down and turned to see the small group of initiates watching them. When they made eye contact, they all happened to see something very interesting on the ceiling.

"If you need anything you know where I am" Four said as he rose from his seat. He walked around the table and behind Myla to leave. Before going past, her he leaned over her shoulder and took a piece of her chocolate cake and put it straight into his mouth.

"Hey!" she shouted after him, but he was already gone. When she turned back to her tray, she was the blonde Initiate girl looking at her again. "You want something Initiate?" she asked looking at her tray.

"Is Peter ok?" she asked. Myla looked up again to see the entire group looking at her with intrigue.

"He'll be back tomorrow" she replied.

"Damn" the smaller of the two boys sighed. Myla chuckled.

"I take it that he's not popular then"

"We're not his fans" he admitted.

"What are your names?" Myla asked picking up her tray and moving along the table to sit next to them.

"I'm Will" the smaller boy said. One by one they introduced themselves. Next to Will sat another boy called Al. On the opposite side of the table, next to Myla, was Tris and another girl called Christina.

"So you're the one who got dangled above the chasm" Myla teased. "I'm impressed. I doubt that I'd be able to do that". Christina looked uncomfortable to the reminder but perked up at the compliment.

"Anyway, welcome to Dauntless! Just so you know, I don't usually beat people up. It wasn't the best way to introduce myself but there we go. I might be coming by every now and again to check on your progress so if you have any questions shoot them my way".

"What do you do for fun around here? We have the evenings to do what we want and it's too early to head back to our dorm" Will asked.

"Didn't Four give you a tour?" she asked, and they all nodded. "I guess that he would have only showed you the essentials. I have nothing to do for the rest of the evening either. I can show are all around if you'd like?"