I watch as Christina, my best friend, and her boyfriend, Will tosses their food at each other playfully. Christina throws a breadcrumb, which hit Uriah in the cheek. He groaned, "Guys, stop it. It's supposed to be a peaceful and calm dinner."

Christina stops and drifts her attention to Uriah, "This is the Dauntless. Are you seriously expecting a 'peaceful and calm dinner?'" She airquotes. In Abnegation, no one airquotes. It's not like, it's frowned upon or anything; it just makes people stare at you curiously.

"Yeah, Uriah. You're just pissed because you're not getting any." Will pipes in, and throws a grape at Uriah to piss him off even more.

Uriah opens his mouth, but closes it again. He sulks and Marlene chuckles at him.

"Hey, you gonna eat that?" A not-so-familiar voice broke my trance, and I look up to see Zeke—Uriah's brother—standing over me, pointing at the chicken served in my plate.

"Ah, um, yeah." I nodded and he raised his eyebrow at Uriah. "You?"

"No, but I'm not giving it to you." Uriah sticks his tongue out. I glance swiftly at Zeke who said nothing, but rolled his eyes. In a sudden, Zeke snatches Uriah's chicken and took a big bite at it. "Yum. Thanks, bro." And with that, he left to sit in his table.

Uriah scowls, "Why did my parents ever decided to make me, if I end up being his brother!?"

"Sorry to hear that dude," Will rubbed Uriah's shoulder. "Isn't it cool, though? Having a brother as an instructor?"

"'Cool'?" Uriah snorts, "Fuck no. It's horrible. I'm pretty sure he'd rank me in the bottom three." He shudders, "I mean, when I was a baby and my mom was telling him to take care of me, he dropped me."

"Great, at least we all know why you're brain is a little off."

We all laugh.

Until I hear a 'whoosh' sound and-you know that sound when you chop an apple in two? Something like that.

We all turn our heads to the source of the mysterious knife, even though we already know who was it. It was either Eric, or—

"Yeah. I threw it." Ah, there it is. Four. The dick-sorry, duke-of the douche kingdom. God, I hate that guy so much. If we only have one mortal enemy in this world, he'd be mine. I mean, he hated my guts ever since I first-jumped. He's supposed to ask my name and shouts "First jumper, Tris!" and congratulate me, not just say "First jumper, the Stiff." in a monotone voice, never even trying to look me in the eyes. Ever since that day, he spent all the attention he can afford on me to taunt me. What did I even do? Nothing. He's supposed to be an instructor, not some immature kid.

"You were being loud." Four says, "I had to do something, so everyone can have a nice dinner."

He leans back onto his seat, smiling smugly. Beside him, Zeke—Don't ask me why the hell would Zeke befriend that asswipe, as Christina would say. It's an unsolved mystery. I mean, Zeke is a good guy, and Four is just.. Ugh—shot him a warning look.

"Yeah, we figured before we even turned our heads at you. Probably because you have no.. Wait what's this thing every normal person should have.. Oh right, a sense of humor." I retort.

Zeke covers his mouth to stifle his laugh, and our table went 'OOOOH'. Four gives me this intense, fiery look, which makes my insides cower. But I didn't show it—today's not the day I'm giving him the pleasure to see me lose.

I feel like everything stops, even though everyone did not pay attention to us.

"Oh, I didn't realize stiffs could reply back. I thought all they do is open doors for other people and feed the factionless."

"Better than a guy who can't stand to see people other than himself having fun."

"Blah, blah. Better than a girl who left her faction because of.. 'abusive parents'?" A second after he said this, I see something falter in his eyes, but he keeps himself composed.

Shit. That was a shit-Ugh. Lately, a rumor washed over the news, in which it speculates on why Caleb-my brother, who chose Erudite-and I left Abnegation. And of course, to make it 'juicier', they chose abusive parents as the cause.

"That was a low blow, Four." Christina hisses.

Four waves his hand dismissively, "Yeah, sure. Whatever. At least it's still a blow."

Christina flips him off and turns her back at him, "Tris, you okay?"

"Of course I am, Christina," I smile, but the irritation was still there. I am not some Abnegation baby who gets hurt from every insults thrown at me.

She returns my smile tightly and in a second, our table is full of cheery chatter again.

We are all gathered around Marlene's bed. We were telling silly stories and experiences. It was something we'd do a couple times a week—at least, until the initiation's over. I overheard Amar talking the other instructor-what was his name.. George?-that it's gonna end in 3 days, along with the test.

"Hey, Uriah, how many fears do you have?" Will asks, right when we were discussing on how to overcome the fear landscape.

"Um," He hesitates, "I have 11."

And all of a sudden, everyone starts chirping in the number of their fears. Christina had 10. Will had 12, and Marlene had 13. "What about you, Tris?" Christina inquires, with a curious look twinkling in her eyes.

"Um. Seven." I shrug.

"Wow. Really?" Marlene gapes.

"What are they?" Christina inquires further. I frown.

"Hey! This is called an invasion of privacy!" I smack her in the arm.

"Alright, alright," She holds her arm up, as if she's surrendering, "Name one."

"You Candors never stop, don't you?" Uriah rolls his eyes playfully. Christina ignores him.

"Well," I think about it. I'm sure as hell is never going to tell them about my fear of intimacy, "I'm afraid of crows."

Christina just raises her eyebrows and makes a face, "Eh. It's not that weird. I mean, I'd fear that too."

I hear a scoff. Right in the bed across me. Four. I glance at him, and he's staring at us. With a mocking look in his face and knives on his hands—I think he's sharpening it. I nudge Christina, who's already watching him like a hawk.

"What?" Christina says to Four, loud enough to be heard across the room.

"What? I just scoffed," Four shrugs, "If you don't like me scoffing, you can hang over the chasm."

"Wait, why are you even here? It's almost bedtime." Uriah interjects.

"Because I can do anything I want. I'm your instructor, remember?" Four retorts, "And you're just an initiate. Not an official part of Dauntless yet."

"Are you seriously using your instructor card on him?" Christina frowns. She looks pissed.

"Yes, and I can use it on any of you. Same goes to you, Stiff." He gives me a sideway glance.

"Why are you even dragging her on this one?" Christina rolls her eyes.

"Because—"

"Shut up, Four." I snap, "Save it. I don't want my name—even as a 'Stiff'—being associated with you. At all."

Four fixates his gaze on me. I wince. Shit. Me and my big mouth, I swear. I don't like being stared at—especially by males. I can't stand it.

He looks like he's about to say something, but he shuts his mouth tightly, and continues what he was doing.

"Alright, you all, it's time for you to sleep. You know the drill, we see you walking down the hall past 11, you're going to get some of your points taken. Lights out in 5. You better sleep, considering you're going to have your final training tomorrow." Zeke, talking as the lead instructor commands. Four, Tori, and Amar stands beside him.

I quickly jog to my bed—trying to catch the 5 minutes before the lights goes out—and I pull down my hair tie, letting my hair cascades freely. Besides my bed, Christina is setting up her bed. I comb through my hair with my hand aimlessly, listening to Christina express her fears of the test ("It's going to be hell. I know it. I just do.", "Do they really have to see us screaming in fear? What's the point?"). When I glance at the instructors again, they're all gone.

I prop up my feet to my bed, and I give a reassuring smile at Christina. "I know you'll be fine. Good night, Chris."

She mumbles a response—I think it was 'g'night'—as she pulls her blanket over her head. Right on cue, the lights went out. I try to make myself comfortable, shifting here and there to get the perfect position. When I finally did, I close my eyes and let myself drift off.