Cassie woke up and grinned at the world. She grinned at the black-and-white walls with the black-and-white carpet and the black-and-white furniture. Everything was black and white. Including the truth. Cassie knew she was destined to stay in the faction she grew up in; Candor. All the other factions sucked. Erudite was so cold, Dauntless so cruel, Abnegation so stiff, Amity so dishonest! Of course, if she said that to anyone else other than Candor, they'd be angry at her. But here, politeness was deception. Kindness was obsolete. Lies were gone, everyone was truthful.
Why would she ever leave?
Her aptitude test, given yesterday, said Candor, like she knew it would. Her whole life was Candor. She. Was. Candor.
Unlike her friends, who were stressing over what to pick, she knew that she'd stay here in her black-and-white truthful world.
Cassie sighed. Why was she lying? Lying was awful. She was nervous. Terrified. In fact, she was in the middle of an anxiety attack. I need to take some kind of medicine for this. I can't flip out in the middle of the Choosing Ceremony...
Cassie sat patiently, waiting for her name to be called at the Choosing Ceremony. Marcus Eaton, king of the Stiffs, was delivering some speech, but she wasn't really listening. She was busy scanning the faces of the people around her. Finally, she heard a familiar name.
"Shelly Mazumaki?"
That was her best friend! Cassie watched eagerly as Shelly stood to the bowls and gripped the knife. Shelly said she would stay in Candor by Cassie's side forever, just like it should be.
Her hand went to the flames.
It took a second to register.
Shelly had lied.
Shelly was Dauntless.
Cassie gasped as Shelly's blood sizzled on the coals.
Cassie stared in shock, when the side effects of the medicine she had taken earlier kicked in. One side effect was muscle spasms; and right now, her leg was jerking. Actually, she wasn't sure if it was the medicine or hurt, betrayal, and nervousness causing the sudden movement.
Marcus continued calling names until she heard it.
"Cassandra Dashman?"
Cassie stood up and wobbled to the bowls. She took the knife and jerked it over her palm. She held her arm over the glass. Candor. I am Candor. That is the truth; and truth is the most important thing in the world.
Her arm suddenly was seized by a wild spasm and she gasped when her hand flew over the Dauntless coals. The sudden movement threw the blood from her hand into the fire.
No! No! No…what have I done?!
Cassie looked over at her faction. Candor was open-eyed, stunned. That made two initiates that had lied. Shelly and Cassie. They had told everyone they were Candor until the end. But now they would go down in history as dirty, no-good liars, of all things.
Marcus pushed her to the Dauntless and Cassie was surprised at how hard he shoved. Cassie stumbled over to the black-cloaked group.
"Wow! I didn't know you were planning to join Dauntless, too!" Shelly said cheerfully.
Thats because I wasn't! I wanted to scream, but my throat had gone dry. Dauntless! Of all the factions! I'd rather be a Stiff! Hell, I'd rather be Amity! Amity was full of polite liars, sure, but at least they didn't beat each other up as initiation.
I'm going to be factionless…what have I done…WHAT HAVE I DONE?!
The train squealed to a halt.
"They're jumping off!" an Erudite yelled. Cassie looked up, confused. Jump off? But there's no…oh, god…
They were going to jump off a moving train, over a gap, onto a roof. Did I mention I have a fear of heights? Cassie would rather die. Which, was probably going to happen. She opened her mouth to say no way, but remembered she was no longer in Candor. She couldn't say anything she wanted to. She couldn't fail initiation. She couldn't...
She couldn't falter now.
She forced herself to the door, making sure she was last in line. Then she regretted it. Nobody was left to give her encouragement. Cassie squeezed her eyes shut and leaped.
Impact.
Cassie gasped as she slammed into the roof. She looked up and Shelly's eyes were glowing.
"That was AWESOME!" Shelly yelled.
You're insane! Cassie wailed inwardly. How am I going to survive as Dauntless?!
Wow, this is something new…something other than an Animal Crossing fic! This probably wont be updated much, if at all…I just wanted to write a Divergent thing (not calling it a fic because it'll probably stop at three chapters, unless you guys like the idea!)
