"Max gave me the assignment." she said. "I heard him upset, and he even wants to talk to you, I don't know, I think you might be in trouble."

Her damn falsehood disgusted me, her stupid innocent look didn't suit her, and the poorly disguised smile was the last straw. For the others, she was the perfect Dauntless they wanted to protect, but it was a façade, and little by little, she let me see her true face. I hated her, not even Jane was so fake. Our hatred was transmitted on more than one occasion, and we never showed otherwise, but the difference was evident. Jane never cared about Eric.

Jina was at the entrance of the training room, waiting for me, and she told me that Max had taken away my position as trainer and assigned it to her. She had a smirk with eyes of concern and fake empathy.

"If you want, I can accompany you." she said. "He asked me to wait for you today to tell you. I'm sure we can fix it."

"Damn it." I muttered angrily, bumping my shoulder with rage, ignoring Four's gaze in the background. I stormed out, ready to yell at Max.

I no longer had the benefits I once had. The last time, I enjoyed seeing Max squirm with fury when I talked to Jeanine. It was clear that it was his way of getting back at me. But I didn't understand why. He also didn't want me on the project, and it wasn't because he wanted to protect me. Both he and Eric had something going on, some communication and deals under the table. They had been accomplices for over four years.

The only possibility that fit was what Eric had told me days ago. They didn't want me to end up like Freya. They refused to let anyone try to destroy their plan against Abnegation, but Max was starting to hate me, and Eric was protecting me from Max by keeping me away from it.

But it didn't matter at this moment if I had decided to listen to Hill and get directly involved with Jeanine. I could stop insisting with Jeanine in exchange for getting my initiates back. They were my escape from the daily confusions I faced.

It was like a bucket of cold water running down my body. I got scared and worried about my initiates. A fool like Jina, who didn't even make it to the second place, was going to train my initiates. Who did she think she was? Ugh, she's going to ruin them.

I knocked impatiently on Max's office door several times, this time not being violent. He should be grateful I didn't kick the door down.

I heard him say "come in." I entered after the sound of a lock opening. His security system had increased, probably since the last time I kicked his door down.

As I walked in, Max was leaning back in his chair, sighing as he saw me. He grimaced. Jina was behind me, I had barely noticed she was still there after she had accompanied me.

"What do you need, Grace?" he asked bitterly, forcing himself to be polite.

"Can you explain to me why you removed me from my position?" I raised an interrogative eyebrow, looking him directly in the eyes.

"For your incompetence, your negligence, and your lack of professionalism." he said, rising from his seat to circle the desk and approach me.

"What are you talking about? Incompetence? Have you taken a look at their progress?" I exclaimed, my eyes wider than usual.

"Yes, I went yesterday to find out why Mike wasn't at his assigned post in the bay. I was unpleasantly surprised by your absence." he said, never raising his voice, seeming quite calm about the situation, his voice husky with bitterness.

"There was an explosion in a building. I had to go. Mike never gave me the report for his post. He's my soldier, he works on my team, and his name is in the second coach slot."

"Are you listening to yourself? It's more than clear that you can't handle the job alone. Four has no problem because he doesn't have the workload I have. As for Mike, be a bit more reasonable, there aren't enough positions. I assigned Mike to work with me."

"There were two corpses, Max. Four doesn't have problems because he doesn't have the workload I have."

"Corpses of mere factionless, I know. Don't think I'm unaware of the problems in my faction." he shrugged, showing complete indifference to the corpses.

"Just as I know you have a team that was already at the explosion site ready to give you a report. Mike made sure to let me know." He said, while I looked away to contain my frustration.

"They don't have my vision. I prefer to go and assess the situation."

"Then you don't trust them? Fire them, it's just wasted wages."

"No!" I exclaimed desperately. "I trust them."

"Or better yet, I shouldn't trust you. Despite having gone, I still haven't received a report from you." he continued. "Final warning, Grace. Jina will do a better job with the initiates than you, and you... can showcase the excellent skills you boast to Jeanine." he spoke sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

I hardened my jaw, giving him a look of discontent, crossing my arms, feeling the impotence running down my spine. I noticed Jina approaching and standing beside Max, matching his smile.

"I'm sorry, Grace. I promise I'll do a good job."she smiled at me.

I glared at her, feeling my hands trembling and itching with evident anger. I took a step forward towards her, causing her to retreat with a scared look on her face. I wouldn't stop, especially knowing that Max was protecting her.

"Grace." Max warned with a disapproving hiss at my behavior.

He glared at me, demanding that I step back. I frowned, giving one last look to Jina. Her blue eyes, looking at me indecisively, not knowing what I would do, made me feel sick. I promised myself to erase her face with punches, to kick her until she spat out her teeth and deform her face so much that she wouldn't even recognize herself.

I turned on my heel, storming out of the office with long strides filled with fury. My hands were trembling, I ran them through my scalp to make a fist, trying to avoid shedding tears, but I failed.

**************************

I didn't have any care and slammed the door without caring about Horus's meow from the couch or the look Eric gave me in total confusion as he sat with a book on the sofa. With big strides, I walked with the intention of reaching my bed.

"What happened? Shouldn't you be in the training room?" he asked, confused.

I stopped abruptly, turned around, and saw him squinting as if his gaze had given him a revelation.

He threatened me not long ago about taking away my position, called me incompetent, and now Max definitively took it away from me. I don't want to think badly of him, his look of confusion makes me think he's unaware of the situation, but my anger is even greater, to the point where I don't even trust my own shadow.

I shifted my posture towards him.

"Did you say anything to Max?" I asked sharply, my piercing gaze making him lower the book and get up from the sofa, walking towards me.

"What are you talking about?" he asked, not understanding.

"Max just took away my job as a trainer. Tell me, did you say something about our argument?" I noticed his frown, exhaled deeply, closed my eyes with my hands raised, trying to keep calm. "You know what? Forget it."

Max said it, this is because of Mike, that idiot who should be at the bay and not helping me train the initiates.

"Sorry." I continued, turning around to walk to the kitchen to get a glass and fill it with water. "It's not your fault. I'm just angry at that idiot and at Jina's fakeness." I sighed as I watched the glass fill with tap water.

I heard his steps approaching me as I took a sip of my glass of water, wanting to throw it, to have the glass shatter on Max's face and take another one to stab Jina with. I miss when my problems were about Genesis, Jane, and Eric's strange behavior in showing interest in an initiate like me.

His hand rested on my hair, caressing it. I left the glass on the side of the sink to turn and face him.

"What happened?" he asked in a whisper.

I turned slightly to look at him, feeling his hand move to my neck to caress it and gently massage it.

"Yesterday a building exploded, with two Abnegation, did you know?" I began, and he nodded. "Well, I left Mike in charge of the initiates and went with my group. Apparently, Max needed Mike at the bay. When he noticed my absence, he labeled me as incompetent and didn't accept my justification." I sighed. "But it's nonsense, he's just looking for an excuse to get back at me."

I rolled my eyes.

"Get back at you?" he furrowed his brow.

"Because I made fun of Jina in front of Jeanine and Max." I scoffed. "More or less, I enjoyed seeing Max upset and Jina sad."I shrugged, pouting slightly.

He raised his eyebrows, understanding the situation as he nodded, then looked away and sighed.

"Do you remember when you were promoted to leader? You were the favorite, their most prized acquisition, you met every single one of their expectations. But you stopped being that when you threatened him that afternoon they accused Freya. Now Jina is his favorite, and you made the golden child feel bad." he shrugged, showing indifference towards both her and Max, which made me feel good and smirk.

His hands took hold of my shoulder, his thumbs caressing my neck as he lifted my face and kissed my lips gently.

"I'll talk to him." he assured, giving me another kiss. "He'll give you back your job, I promise. Just ignore Jina, that's all."

"I hate her." I admitted, furrowing my brow. "It's just, ugh. She'll train them, you know what that means? She'll ruin them." I growled, making him laugh at my comment.

He chuckled, shook his head with amusement, and leaned down to kiss my forehead.

"Come with me." he removed his hands from my neck and took my hand to lead me out of the kitchen.

"Where to?" I asked.

"To get rid of your anger, Grace." he replied simply, giving me a quick glance and continuing to walk to the bedroom. "This time with a condom." he murmured, opening the door.

I smiled, eager and delighted with his invitation, closed the door behind me, and walked towards him, making sure to jump to wrap my legs around his waist. He held me, and with a smile, we immersed ourselves in an intense kiss where only the sheets were witnesses to what would happen next.

           ********************************

Eric will talk to Max, but I don't need him to fix my problems. He left the room promising to talk to the leader, but I stopped him and told him it wasn't necessary. I would handle this alone, and if Max doesn't want to see his initiates become useless soldiers, he'll come back to me. I just have to endure.

As if that were possible.

The anger passed, Eric knew how to take it away and make me forget, but it sucks when you leave the room and remember that you won't see them every day anymore.

Zeke is sitting on a wooden crate a few meters away from me, looking surprised. I chose to train, channeling my anger into a rubber dummy. And because my pride was greater than anything else, I'm on the other side, with the transfers, while Four takes care of making them suffer. I'm with Zeke in the corner.

Every now and then, Four comes over and chats, trying to keep the conversation pleasant with me. I put aside my resentment, especially since Zeke doesn't know about my displeasure.

"It's definite."I grumbled with annoyance, sighing tiredly. "Now she'll be in charge of training them. I wish I could strangle her."I growled.

I lunged at the dummy, delivering a double jab, then stepped back, hopping several times, knocking down the rubber opponent with a kick. It wasn't enough to bring it down completely, but I managed to make it move from side to side.

Zeke whistled. "Impressive. Seems like you really hate her." he chuckled.

"I bet she's imagining Jina's face on the dummy." Four chimed in, arms crossed, a smile on his face, making Zeke laugh.

I rolled my eyes, walking over to the water bottle and taking a sip. "You don't know Jina well enough. She's a harpy, a snake on two legs." I explained, pointing at him with the bottle.

"Better admit you're jealous. Where Eric is, she is." Four scoffed with a grin.

I narrowed my eyes at him, throwing the water bottle at him with the intent to hurt him, but he just caught it with one hand, still smiling.

"Let's stop talking about her. She's trying to do what I do, and she won't succeed." I sighed, walking back to the dummy. "I just have to wait for them to see how useless she is."

"You could use your time training these initiates." Zeke suggested.

In a brutal spinning kick, I released my anger, channeling the built-up strength in my legs to knock down the rubber dummy, sending it crashing to the ground with a loud thud. I let out a long breath, proud of myself, then turned back to the two Dauntless who were watching me with a smile, understanding my anger and the way I unleashed it on the dummy.

"No, Four is doing fine."I grimaced, glancing at the initiates who were training on the punching bag.

"It doesn't bother me." Four shrugged. "As long as you don't make them suffer like Eric does, you can come and teach them a few things. And when it's combat time, you leave. I doubt you want to see the new trainer for the born faction." he chuckled.

I focused on each of them, recognizing only a few faces. I couldn't shake off the memory of Peter, whom I planned to call Pedro, Cristina vaguely, and Tris, who gave me information about the article regarding Four and seemed to have an interest in him. I grimaced, debating what to do, teaching them would only give them weapons to defeat my former initiates.

"They need you, Grace." Zeke urged.

I rolled my eyes. Tris was terrible in combat, weak, and she really needed my help.

"Fine, I'll do it." I said, turning back to the initiates who had poorly concealed smiles. "And only because you've boosted my ego."I pointed at them, squinting. "And I'll start with that stiff one over there. See you, guys."I smiled, walking past them toward the initiates.

Approaching the stiff brunette who insisted on keeping herself rigid while throwing weak jabs, I focused on detailing the clumsy movement of her feet when punching. She was trying hard, and she didn't care that her knuckles were bleeding, she kept on hitting.

I circled her, noticing her new tattoo on her collarbone and her poorly done ponytail. She occasionally glanced at me, intimidated by my gaze.

"You're weak." I assured her, raising my eyebrows and nodding.

Between groans, she spoke, keeping herself firm despite the effort of her punches.

"I'm told that a lot." she murmured as she continued to punch.

"You should believe them."I shrugged, nodding. "How are you with kicks? Do a side kick." I crossed my arms, patiently waiting for her.

She stopped punching, looking at me confusedly. She glanced behind us at Four, who was with Zeke. He met her gaze and nodded, as if they communicated through their eyes.

She turned back to me, nodded, and looked at the punching bag, ready to execute it. She took a few steps and awkwardly kicked the bag, off balance.

"Now do a zigzag jab with the same kick." I instructed, watching her expressionlessly, analyzing her clumsiness.

With a grimace, she nodded and attempted the zigzag jab, but her strength wasn't enough, and her jump wasn't right.

I sighed, rolling my eyes in frustration.

"Understood." I nodded. "Now I understand why Four trains the transfers, he's got more patience."I lowered my arms with a scoff.

"But you were transferred too."she pointed out, then blinked, looking away, seemingly realizing she had spoken without thinking. "I mean, they also had the same patience with you." she whispered.

I smiled. "Yes, they did, but by the second week, I didn't have those flaws. That's the basic, the essential, and if you want to make the cut, you have to learn it or at least have balance." I walked toward her. "Trust yourself, your feet, and your strength."

Without asking, I took one of her hands, examining her knuckles with cuts, redness, and swelling, bleeding yet not tired of hitting the punching bag.

"Forget about the punches, at least for today, and heal your knuckles. We're not leaving until you do at least one kick correctly." I let go of her hand. "We assume you did the zigzag jab perfectly."

I stood in front of the punching bag, Tris stepped back, becoming a spectator. I did the jabs with the jump. "We'll work on this tomorrow. Once you've done it, you turn 180°, jump, and from the corner of your eye, visualize the opponent. But you can't afford to wait, you have to do it quickly because you jump and make the hit."

Carefully, I made the jump, then faced the punching bag again, doing it quickly this time.

"Now you, don't be afraid to jump, jump as far as you can, and remember the balance." I stepped aside. "Do it slowly, but do it right, start with something simple without pressuring yourself, and remember; trust yourself."

With timidity, she approached the punching bag. I could tell my words had given her courage. She ignored me, her surroundings, the looks of the other initiates wondering why I chose her out of all of them. I didn't even know why, it was my way of bringing out the best version of herself.

I wanted her to be brave, bold, confident, and lethal.

I wanted everyone to know that a stiff and a kind could stand against everyone. That they could see that Four wasn't the only stiff one who got lucky.

And she did it. Step by step, slow and steady, but at no point did her legs tremble or waver.

"Again." I nodded.

She did it again, this time with a bit of speed. And there was no need to ask her again, she continued until on the seventh try, she did it very well. Although it wasn't perfect, I'd give it a 7 or 8.

She looked up, waiting for approval, and I nodded, giving her a half-smile.

"It wasn't the best, but it was good. Keep practicing, and tomorrow, I don't want to see any mistakes. Then we'll work on combinations." I shrugged.

"Thank you." she murmured.

I nodded and walked toward another initiate who was having trouble, tall, even taller than Eric, with a disappointed expression. Why doesn't Four go to them?

"Grace!"

However, Eric's shout interrupted my plans. With his arms crossed over his back, he nodded his head, signaling me to come closer.

"What are you doing?" he asked, raising an eyebrow with a half-smile.

"They need me." I responded, shrugging.

He chuckled, nodding. "Can the trainer take a day off? I'd like to take her out for lunch."

My day as a trainer was over. I have priorities.