“SINCE THERE ARE an odd number of you, one of you won’t be fighting today,” says Four, stepping away from the board in the training room. He gives us his typical look. The space next to Tris name is blank.
Well someone is lucky today.
“This isn’t good,” says Christina, nudging us with her elbows.
“Ow.” expressed Tris
“Sorry,” she says. “But look. I’m up against the Tank.”
Jin-Soo nudges me too with her pointy elbow.
"I'm fighting against Peeking Pete." she points at the board.
The thing with Peeking Pete was that he was always trying to look at girl changing. And while Jin-Soo looked out of all the girls as the most breakable of them, she was one of the best in these fights. There was no fight she ever lost.
My eyes travelled to my name.
Keigo- Brutus
And I thought damn. First things first, who is Brutus? And second thing, who is Brutus?
Which brings me back to this morning. Jin-Soo showed me her tattoo, which was made of tiny stick people. With words : Family. There were two of them. And she told me the first one was supposed to represent me. Well that was first.
I guess I haven’t really had a friend, period. It’s impossible to have real friendship when no one feels like they can accept help or even talk about themselves. That won’t happen here. I only meet Jin-Soo recently, but I feel she knows me more than Tris ever did.
“The Tank?” I look at Christina’s name on the board. Written next to it is “Molly.”
“Yeah, Peter’s slightly more feminine-looking minion,” she says, nodding toward the cluster of people on the other side of the room. Molly is tall like Christina, but that’s where the similarities end. She has broad shoulders, bronze skin, and a bulbous nose.
“Those three”—Christina points at Peter, Drew, and Molly in turn—“have been inseparable since they crawled out of the womb, practically. I hate them.”
Ohh, Candor rivals.
Will and Al stand across from each other in the arena. They put their hands up by their faces to protect themselves, as Four taught us, and shuffle in a circle around each other. Al is half a foot taller than Will, and twice as broad. This fight won’t last long. Everyone can see, that Al has big advantage.
I glance at Peter and his friends. Drew is shorter than both Peter and Molly, but he’s built like a boulder, and his shoulders are always hunched. His hair is orange-red, the color of an old carrot.
“What’s wrong with them?” Tris says.
“Peter is pure evil. When we were kids, he would pick fights with people from other factions and then, when an adult came to break it up, he’d cry and make up some story about how the other kid started it. And of course, they believed him, because we were Candor and we couldn’t lie. Ha ha.”
Guess I should have go for Candor too.
Christina wrinkles her nose and adds, “Drew is just his sidekick. I doubt he has an independent thought in his brain. And Molly…she’s the kind of person who fries ants with a magnifying glass just to watch them flail around.”
In the arena, Al punches Will hard in the jaw. I wince. Across the room, Eric smirks at Al, and turns one of the rings in his eyebrow.
Will stumbles to the side, one hand pressed to his face, and blocks Al’s next punch with his free hand. Judging by his grimace, blocking the punch is as painful as a blow would have been. Al is slow, but powerful.
Peter, Drew, and Molly cast furtive looks in our direction and then pull their heads together, whispering.
“I think they know we’re talking about them,” Jin-Soo says.
“So? They already know I hate them.”
"Well I prefer if they didn't know I do too." I silently whisper to Jin-Soo.
“They do? How?” Interrupts us Tris while looking at the three ex-candors.
Christina fakes a smile at them and waves. Tris look down, her cheeks warm. I shouldn’t be gossiping - is the thing that suddenly pops in my head. She knows it too, it's one of the few things you learn as a little kid. Gossiping is self-indulgent.
Will hooks a foot around one of Al’s legs and yanks back, knocking Al to the ground. Al scrambles to his feet.
“Because I’ve told them,” she says, through the gritted teeth of her smile. Her teeth are straight on top and crooked on the bottom. She looks at me. “We try to be pretty honest about our feelings in Candor. Plenty of people have told me that they don’t like me. And plenty of people haven’t. Who cares?”
“We just…weren’t supposed to hurt people,” Tris says.
“I like to think I’m helping them by hating them,” she says. “I’m reminding them that they aren’t God’s gift to humankind.”
I laugh a little at that and focus on the arena again. Will and Al face each other for a few more seconds, more hesitant than they were before. Will flicks his pale hair from his eyes. They glance at Four like they’re waiting for him to call the fight off, but he stands with his arms folded, giving no response. A few feet away from him, Eric checks his watch.
After a few seconds of circling, Eric shouts, “Do you think this is a leisure activity? Should we break for nap-time? Fight each other!”
“But…” Al straightens, letting his hands down, and says, “Is it scored or something? When does the fight end?”
“It ends when one of you is unable to continue,” says Eric.
“According to Dauntless rules,” Four says, “one of you could also concede.”
Eric narrows his eyes at Four. “According to the old rules,” he says. “In the new rules, no one concedes.”
“A brave man acknowledges the strength of others,” Four replies.
I look at the board. After them and few others will be my fight. I'll prove them that this unwanted bastard can prove them wrong.
I won't fail. I won't fail no more.
YOU ARE READING
Cold Hearts | Tobias Eaton
Fanfiction"I'll break your heart." "I'll break your nose." That's how true love starts - with few threats and two Cold Hearts ----------------------- When we walk in, the Dauntless inside stand. They applaud. They stamp their feet. They shout. The noise surr...
