A/N: if anyone is still around, thank you so much. I'll run my mouth more at the end.

I start to sweat a little. I have to step up my game.

Eric's POV:

The next throw, Alexa gets another bulls-eye. I'm panicking slightly at her throwing accuracy by this point. Even Peter and his brainless followers are rooting for Alexa now. I can't get shown up by a Stiff — even if she had years of training on me. Being an Erudite, I had much more experience with chemicals and books than fighting and train-jumping and throwing knives.

But Alexa had the skill to become a leader. A killer. She was dangerous, even if I knew the girl within wouldn't hurt anyone if not necessary.

Even I was slightly scared of her.

I focus on the target and throw. I wince as the knife bounces off the edge. My nerves are getting the better of me at this point.

"Two, Alexa; three, Eric," announces Max. I'm sweating now. I can't afford to lose. I can't afford to have Alexa be recruited by Erudite or something.

Alexa tosses her next knife from hand to hand. She smirks over her shoulder at me, then confidently takes aim and whips her wrist out so fast I barely catch the movement. The knife takes flight and lands squarely in the center.

I breathe deeply. In. Out. In. Out.

Throw.

The knife hits the ring just outside the bulls-eye. Max looks very unhappy, but he says loudly, "Three, Alexa. Three, Eric."

There is a crowd forming outside the training circle — transfers, members, and Dauntless born alike. This is bad. The toughest leader Dauntless has, the youngest, best, and most brutal, is getting his ass kicked by a girl. An Abnegation transfer, no less.

I throw again. Shit. Panic always makes my aim worse, and this time is no different. The knife just bounced off the target and clattered to the floor. Face burning with anger and embarrassment, I go to retrieve it.

"Three, Alexa; three, Eric." Max is frowning fiercely.

Alexa throws, body relaxed. She makes it look so easy.

"Four, Alexa; three, Eric."

"Four, Alexa; four, Eric."

"Five, Alexa; four, Eric."

I lost. To a girl.

Alexa beat me ten to seven.

How embarrassing. How will I ever show my face again?

I sit on the bench, head down, face in my hands, and let out a loud groan. Everyone has dispersed already — gone to gossip how big, bad Eric got whipped by a female Abnegation transfer in knife throwing.

"Hey."

A soft voice startles me out of my reverie, and I look up.

"Come to gloat?" I ask bitterly of the very girl I'd been thinking of. She shakes her head and sits down beside me.

"Eric, it wasn't that bad," she says, stretching an arm out in an attempt to touch my arm.

"Don't fucking touch me!" I snap — unfairly, I think as her face crumples and I immediately feel bad. I sigh. "Look. Alexa. I get that you're better than me now. I was mad and not thinking clearly. Of course a girl — even an Abnegation — who studied as much as you did is better than me."

She reaches out again, and this time I let her. Her fingers are delicate and warm and soft, and I marvel again at the fact that she seems so normal and petite, but is really a firecracker constantly ready to be set off. "Come on," she says, standing up. "I want some cake. Do you know how to get some? The cafeteria's closed already and it won't open again until dinner time."

I laugh a little. "I know a guy."

A/N: once again, I apologise for the horribly late (and short) chapter. I've been losing interest in this fandom, and find that writing it is not nearly as much fun as it was when I joined this website.

And since we're on that topic, I'd like any readers who see this to know that I am going on hiatus for a few months. I'll be gone no less than six months, but the estimated return date is currently nonexistent. I will not be updating any of my stories or posting new ones after June first — not until I come back — but I will definitely be back. I just don't know when.

If you lose all interest in this story over the time I'm away, I completely understand.

Goodbye for now.