Christina is buzzing as she shows off her tattoo to Will and begs to see mine and Tris'. "Let's go get some clothes! You two desperately need a makeover."

"Hey!" I exclaim and she says a quick sorry before once again dragging us behind her. "I like my clothes."

"New head scarf perhaps?" Christina asks, throwing a piece of fabric around her head. I hadn't really thought of that. I only brought black ones save for one which is my most prized possession. A beautiful floral patterned hijab, a gift from my mother.

"Maybe," I said but that was enough for her, she led Tris off into another part of the boutique as I marveled at everything. I'd never been inside a clothing store before. So many options, I see colors of every variation. Mostly neon and black but I notice a stunning red piece of fabric.

It's the prettiest red I've ever seen. "Can you get that red fabric down for me?" I point at it, hoping the clerk would oblige.

"Sure." I half expected them to scale the shelf just because, but they use a large stick to free the red fabric from its hanger. I catch it as it flies down to me half of the way. "That's a half-point, might as well get another."

Huh, I decided to take their advice and get another scarf. I find a nice pink silky piece of fabric and get them both. Then I look for some pants and shirts to train in. They gave us short-sleeved shirts and I won't wear them, Eric gave me a dirty look today just for wearing a longer shirt under the training one.

When Christina and Tris return the latter looks way different. Her eyes are surrounded by dark eyeliner–kohl, perhaps? I also take in the dress. A little immodest for my style but she looks better than before.

"What do you think?" Christina spins Tris and the dress lifts several inches. Tris pushes it down with a blush. She turns red a lot.

"Striking."

That response seems to please Christina, "I told you so! Lemme see what you found." Christina examines the scarves with a pleased smile. "Wear these during training tomorrow, you can distract whoever you fight by looking dazzling."

I can't help but roll my eyes at her, "I'll wear this one, okay?" I hold the red one up and she nods with a bright smile.

"You have to let me do your makeup, Rita!"

"I've never worn it before," We're walking back to the dorms. "Non-essentials are nonexistent in the factionless grounds. Essentials were even hard to come by."

She falls silent but Tris nods, "My old faction's government would have us go and give clothing and food out all the time. It never seemed to help."

A nasty reply works its way up my throat but I just squeeze my new training clothes in my hands to stifle the urge. "Let's go get some sleep, yea?"

—

Compared to Baba's training, this feels like nothing. As I throw calculated punches at the bag, I overhear Eric call us to join him. I drop my arms and reach for my canister of water and walk toward the gathering group of initiates. "Now that you're all warmed up, it's time to put what you've learned to the test," Eric announces, I look at Christina in confusion.

"What we've learned? Everything I know my cousin taught me," I say aloud, (before I can stop myself) my voice isn't nearly as loud as Eric's, but I assume he heard me because of the way his face turned bright red. I know it's not from embarrassment but rather from anger. He's angry I opened my mouth.

"What was that, initiate?" Instead of Eric, it's Four who questions me. I don't know when he moved beside me, but his sudden closeness startles me. I can't find it in me to respond, the look in Four's eyes tells me to stay quiet, to shut my mouth as he said to Christina just two days ago even though it feels like months ago. "I said," Four speaks louder, the group of others farther away from me than I thought as he asks once more, "What was that?"

Something inside me makes me respond with bravado–fake or not, my voice doesn't waver. "I said, what have we learned? It's only the second day, we haven't learned anything." Four nods and I can't decide if he looks proud or annoyed that I answered proudly. All I know is my grip on my bottle is tight and my jaw hurts from clenching it.

Four looks toward Eric and Eric shrugs, why for, I'm unsure. "Maybe we should see what this factionless' cousin has taught her. I wasn't aware they knew how to fight." The sound of disgust in Eric's voice makes anger flash through me, I feel my jaw tighten more so than before. He has no idea what he's talking about.

"Are you sure?" Despite what I thought of Four when I dropped into this hell hole, hearing him practically agree to test me makes my anger grow immensely. Who are they to single me out? "Don't worry, I'll go easy on you," The slight smirk on Four's face makes my nostrils flare.

He wants me to fight? Fine, I think, he's going to get a fight. I take a deep breath before tossing my water bottle at Christina. Her–along with everyone else's eyes are wider than saucers as they watch me approach Four in the square. "Please don't," I say clearly and get in the position David taught me. Before either of us start moving I begin looking for any weaknesses in his form, his eyes hardly move but I can tell he's doing the same.

Four shrugs, "I'll try not to hurt you." I roll my eyes at him as I adjust my red hijab and tighten it. I have a cap beneath it to better hide my hair but Four might be a dick and pull it off just to distract me.

"Teach her some manners, will you, Four?" Eric orders and with the end of his sentence, Four punches at me.

Somehow, I manage to duck out of the way but not before he swings his leg toward me. I catch his calf and pull upward, throwing Four off balance. I use his moment of distraction to strike the side of his head with the bottom of my hand before reaching out to grab his head. I manage to grip his hair and I pull it downward.

Right before I can strike his face with my knee, Four's pulling my legs out from beneath me with his foot. I land on the mat loudly and cringe in pain for hardly a moment before Four is above me. He draws a hand back like he's going to punch me, but he stops. "Had enough?" I don't answer, I just roll my eyes at Four.

I throw all of my strength into my hips and thrust him off of me, he rolls to the side and is standing before I am. My body moves without much thought as I rush to the other side of the mat. I don't want him to be able to overpower me. He moves toward me as I try to figure out his weak spot. David made sure I would know enough to start off with an advantage but I still don't see any weakness in Four's stance.

All I know is that I'm jumping out of the way when his fist nearly meets my face. I block hit after hit and feel tired already despite the prior training. David's much bigger than Four and slower because of it. But Four's throwing punches faster than I can move but somehow I've managed to dodge or block each one.

His punches begin slowing down and so I use it to my advantage, I duck and lean close enough to use my elbow and hit Four in the neck. I know it hurts, but Four does a good job of covering it up. I take a deep breath and try to punch him but he catches my fist. I expect Four to twist my arm and end the fight but instead, he pushes me down.

This time I'm able to catch myself and I jump up before he can get on top of me again. My eyes are wide as I watch his movements carefully, I struggle to ignore my fellow initiates as they whisper among themselves. I hold my ground as Four rushes me and I use all of my strength to throw him to the side. He doesn't fall but it gives me a chance to knee him in the stomach.

He doubles over in pain and I reach out for his head again. Before I'm able to close in on the brown hair on his head, Four pushes me back and punches me right in the nose and I cry out in pain. It hurts like a bitch, but I'm exaggerating. Maybe he'll stop for a moment so I can properly kick his ass? "Oh my god, is she okay?" I hear the voices of my fellow initiates, as I feign pain. My hand cradles my nose as I force tears to gather in my eyes. I feel blood dripping down my nose so I know he's done some damage.

"You broke my nose!" I whine and for a second I see Four's stony exterior crumble. There's concern in the pretty brown depths of his eyes as he steps toward me, a hand extended. I wipe the blood off of my nose and when Four's close enough I move with a quickness I've never used before.

I grip his shirt like my life depends on it and squeeze his bicep, I bend my right elbow and despite the stretch, I shove it below the arm I'm holding. Now I turn around and with all of my strength in order to throw Four over my shoulder. I look down at him with my fist pulled back, copying his pose and I hold him in place on the ground as he looks up at me, clearly baffled. "What was that about hurting me?" My voice is quiet enough so only he hears my jab.

By the time I stand up straight, the entire warehouse is silent. All eyes are on me and it makes me feel awkward. Even Eric's face holds shock. My chest heaves up and down as I catch my breath. Instead of just standing above Four, I offer him my hand. "Take it or leave it," Surprisingly, he accepts it and I help him stand.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Christina and Tris slowly begin clapping. The other initiates follow suit and it makes me laugh despite the pain in my nose. It doesn't make sense but I can feel Four's eyes on me before I look over at him and when I do, he seems off. "Your nose okay?" He asks, I nod and sniff again.

The injury is still there, but I'll be fine. "Your ego okay?" I say while trying to wipe the excess blood from my nose.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

Is Rita basically OP? Yes :) And is she also kind of the most cliche main character ever? Also Yes :)<3 But she deserves to be only the best because SHE'S the best. Also, I changed the update schedule to 3 chapters a week since I've been writing a lot!!! Thank you for reading & as always, comments are encouraged <3 even the most incomprehensible of comments make me happy!

I also HAVE to admit that I wrote the fighting portion of this chapter last year when I first started writing Fractured and I spent a LONG time researching fight moves JGDBSJGBSDJ I also find it so incredibly badass that Rita managed to beat Four >.<