Ambivalence [p.h.] - EDITING

chapter 10 || i am not spending the rest of my life watching a fence all day

"It's interesting. I've never been to the fence before. I'm Jax, by the way."

"Nice to meet ya, Jax! I'd shake your hand but..." She gestured to the fence. "You know. I'm Rena. Born Candor, if it means anything to you. Where are you from?"

"Erudite," I answered. "But I like it much better here. I actually came over to ask you about jobs. Four isn't very approachable and frankly I'm still a little terrified of Eric."

Rena tipped her head back and laughed. "Rightfully so. He's kind of cute though, don't you think?"

"I— uh—"

"I'm just joking. He scares the crap out of me too. But, I mean... okay, yeah, sorry, what was your question?"

I liked her already. "How high do you need to rank to get a leadership position?"

"Generally top two. But sometime people from three to five can get leadership offers. It depends on how you do in all three stages. If you rank high throughout all of initiation, you'll probably get an offer." I started to thank her when someone called her name.

"Coming," she hollered back. "Gotta go. Good luck with training, Jax!" Rena smiled one last time before she ran off, her gun clattering with each step. As Four took us back to the compound, I could just see a head of bright red hair waving goodbye.

Though the field trip took up the first half of the day, we made it back to Dauntless HQ in time to have lunch (spicy noodles and chicken) before embarking on a fitness test. Four ordered us to do laps all throughout the compound — running up and down stairs, leaping from a platform eight feet off the ground, and, just to annoy Eric, stomping as loud as we could over his office.  The laps weren't as bad as the in between medley of burpees and pushups and sit-ups and planks and everything else that made me want to stop existing. As a finisher, Four tasked us with jumping jacks — with ten pound weights in each hand — for a half hour.

He said whoever made it to the end without getting sloppy would get a ton of points. Though Eddie and I lasted the longest, limbs of jelly made it difficult to do anything after lap eight. By the end of it, everyone had collapsed on the floor in a pile of overworked muscles and sweat.

"Good work, everyone," Four chuckled. "Go get some food and then straight to bed. Trust me on this one."

• • •

"Wow. In all my 16-and-a-bit-years of living, I have never actually witnessed anybody fall asleep in their food."

All of us were tired, no doubt, but nothing could have beaten Drew, whose face made a nice splat into a plate of veggies and dip. At that point, his ginger hair was indistinguishable from a glop of cheesy macaroni. Peter prodded Drew's arm a few times without a reaction. After shaking his arm and torso, Peter sighed, more melancholic than a nineteenth century commoner dying of consumption, before levelling his mouth with Drew's ear. Silence.

And then, not-silence.

"DREW!"

In a tornado of red hair and glops of food, Drew was resurrected from his deep, deep sleep. He reminds me of a rat — and I mean this in the nicest way — with his eyes frantic and almost beady, flitting around as cheese avalanched down his forehead and nestled in his eyebrows.

"Hey there, sleeping beauty." Molly tossed a handful of napkins at him. "Enjoy your nap?"

Drew scrunched up his nose. "Yes, actually, I did. Macaroni makes for a surprisingly good pillow."

Using one of the napkins, he dabbed at the endless waterfall of food but, to everyone else's amusement, only made more of a mess than before.

Somewhere around half-past-six, Drew excused himself to properly clean himself up and hit the hay. Half an hour later Peter left to check on him and hadn't returned (I assumed because he probably fell asleep as well). Molly and I finished out food and decided to take a stroll down the blue-tinted tunnels at a snail's pace as we talk about anything, so long as we were free of the boys. 

It was relaxing. A distraction from my aching muscles; a break from my daily torture as an initiate. But as fate would have it, we rounded a corner and I, dazed and confused, ran straight into something. 

Scratch that, someone.  Someone with familiar black hair and piercings. 

Never mind, it was definitely some thing.

"Sorry! I'm so sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going and—"

"Stop rambling." Eric stared me down, almost compromising his stoney exterior to laugh at the hand I clamped over my mouth. I was grateful that he didn't, even if he wouldn't have meant any harm. "It's fine. I suggest you head back to the dorms. Call it an early night, perhaps."

"But it's only 7:30," Molly pointed out.

"I know," he snapped.  "I have a watch, if you haven't noticed." 

Molly retracted herself, wordlessly begging me to fill the silence.

"Okay." 

Eric stood as still as a statue for a few ticks of a clock until finally, he nodded his head and stepped out of our way.

"Get some sleep!"

A/N
Hello friends!
I'm on my last week of summer vacation at the moment so I'm sorry if the update took a while.  So here it is!
Question: do you think Jax would get more tattoos, piercings, or dye her hair?  If you have a suggestion comment here, and specify what it is you're thinking of (i.e. colour or design).
Thanks for reading, voting and commenting, and I promise I'll update soon!