"Amanda. Amanda." Her mother squeezes her hand, comforting her and looking at her expectedly. Amanda gulps, standing awkwardly and walking to the front of the silent hall. The Choosing Ceremony, what she's been working up to her whole life, yet right now she has never felt so unprepared. Where she decides her future, her new faction. She wastes no time, knowing any amount could make her change her mind, and picks up the small knife from the table. She holds it close, glancing between each faction. Amity. Her home, where she was raised, where she doesn't belong. She cuts her hand, probably deeper than she should have – and let her blood drop on the dark, sizzling coal. For an eerily long second there is silence over the ceremony, and she knows what they are thinking. Transfers from Amity are practically unheard of. She shakes it off and moves towards her new Faction, that cheers while some of the Dauntless born initiates whistle, patting her on the back. As she takes a seat swiftly in between two Dauntless-born boys, the one on her right standing as his name is called, "Cook Cooper". She fiddles with her hands nervously whilst names are called, not daring to turn around to see her parents devastated faces. She has made her choice, and a hard one it was, there is no going back now. Despite her slight uneasiness, Amanda is determined to make her new faction one she belongs in. As a Candor name is called, her vision blurs, one person materialising in front of her in a memory.
"You excited for the choosing ceremony?" Chris throws a grape at Amanda, hitting target right on the tip of her nose. Amanda throws one back and hits Chris on the forehead.
"I'm bloody nervous. What about you? Are you going to transfer no matter what the test says?" She looks at Chris anxiously. Everyone knows that families usually disown transfers, never visit on visiting days, and she knew Chris couldn't handle that, he is too home bound.
"Well either way, it is my decision, no one else's. Not my parents', not Erudite's, not anyones. Mine." He speaks with such certainty that it makes her smile.
"See there's the Chris from Dauntless I know!" She jumps up and puts her hands in the air.
"Born and raised!" He yells, laughing as he gets up as well, putting his hands in the air to grab hers. Amanda giggles, studying his face. The small areas of dirt on his face, probably from his last jump of a train, the flecks of green in his brown eyes, his reassuring lope sided smile that makes her heart patter.
"You know what? I think you should transfer with me. We can go to Candor, or even be factionless, together." She laughs at his words and looks into his eyes, which are already searching hers, with such seriousness in them.
"We could do it." Chris whispers. See, he was perfect, Amanda realised. But even if he was perfect, he was still flawed. There was always one thing that destroyed people on the inside. Chris's flaw was his overwhelming fear. Fear of what, that she was yet to determine. As Amanda looks into his eyes, everything blurs out, and she's barely able to save the last image she's had in a while of Chris. All she sees until her eyes adjust to their surroundings again are flames.
Maddy's eyes glaze over as she spots her parents staring, horrified, in a sea of black and white; the colours of her old home Candor. Dauntless yell out cheers and whistles, clapping as she moves towards them, however all she can hear is the sizzling coal in the Dauntless bowl as her blood touches it.
"Just sit back and relax." The lady running her Aptitude test pushes her softly so she's lying comfortably on the leather seat. She moves her hand along the beige leather as she puts down the small empty glass that once contained the Aptitude serum. Maddy's vision blurs momentarily, before focusing again on the woman. Her black clothes and tattoos were clearly Dauntless, her dark hair pulled up into a messy ponytail.
"Why did you get so many tattoos?" The woman turns to look at Maddy as if she'd never thought about it before.
"They all represent something, something significant." She smiles at Maddy as she glances at one in particular on her arm.
"What's that one?" Maddy points to it and the woman shakes her head, smiling.
"You ask a lot of questions." She pauses for a minute, thinking as she straps Maddy into wires. "My son; he died 6 months ago, um, in a fire." She chokes on her words.
"What was his name?" Maddy whispers, feeling nothing but overwhelming grief for the woman. Maybe it was the effect of the serum.
"Chr-" she clears her throat, "Chris." Maddy mumbles an apology as her words slur.
"Doesn't it hurt?" Maddy blurts out, her consciousness fading.
"What? Getting tattoos?" Maddy nods as best as she can in the confines of the chair.
"The pain is somewhat blissful." As the woman speaks, her voice seems to vibrate the room, before everything fades out entirely.
Maddy sits in the front row, earning her pats on the back and whistles from other Dauntless-borns and transfers. To her left is a girl, staring into space. Maddy clears her throat and the girl is brought back to reality, turning to look at Maddy before smiling from ear to ear.
"I'm Maddy." She says with a half-hearted grin, holding her hand out to the girl. She shakes it back.
"I'm Amanda, nice to meet you." Maddy looks at her colourful, Earth looking clothes, raising her eyebrows.
"Amity, cool man." Maddy says in a hippie voice, attempting to put a smile on Amanda's seemingly distressed face. It works, as Amanda chuckles she looks at Maddy with an expression that says it all, but she speaks anyways, "Please, never do that again." The two girls laugh together as more names are called out, they make quiet conversation between the two of them -considering they are both too small to see past the Dauntless in front of them- sharing their ideas of what Dauntless life will be like. Will it be as intimidating as they have been led to believe? Later, without sharing it with each other, they wonder if they will belong. The ceremony ends with another Amity girl, except she chooses to remain with her family, which strikes Amanda with yet another pang of guilt. She keeps her head down, knowing that her betrayal will be felt by her parents.
The crowd of Dauntless lead them towards the stairs and break into a run. The two girls hear whoops and shouts and laughter all around them, and dozens of thundering feet moving to different rhythms. Amanda smiles and joins in, taking Maddy by the arm when she doesn't move forward.
"What the hell are they doing?" Maddy yells over the commotion.
"Being Dauntless, what do you expect?" Amanda counters, running faster while dragging Maddy beside her until she hears the girl laugh. Once they reach the first floor they are both breathless, but they still have a persistent smile on their faces as they exit the Hub. The air is crisp and the sky is tinted a bright orange from the setting sun. The two girls sprint to stay in the middle of the crowd. They keep running, with their lungs on fire and their muscles aching, adrenalin filling every fibre in their beings. They follow them down the street and around a corner and hear a familiar sound: a train horn.
"Oh no." Maddy says, knowing what they had to do.
"Ohh yes." Amanda drawls out slightly, determination written across her face. She knew she had to do this, for both herself and Chris. She turns to the girl beside her, "You ready?"
Maddy gulps but holds her head high defiantly, "As I'll ever be."
"Then what are we waiting for?" she says. The two girls run with the Dauntless borns, leaving the transfers behind. They all form a single long line next to the steel rails as the train nears with its lights flashing.
"How are we gonna do this?" Maddy shouted to Amanda over the deafening horn. She knows that although the Dauntless members have done this plenty of times, they had not.
"Follow my lead." Amanda thinks back to all those times she had seen Chris jump back onto the train when it was time for him to leave. She shakes her head clear of its thoughts and throws herself sideways. That wasn't so bad, She thought to herself, she had landed almost fully into the car, but her lower legs dangled off the side. She pulled herself the rest of the way in and stood up, ready to help Maddy if she needed any. The other girl ran next to the train, than as she had seen, jumped in. She landed as Amanda did, only having to pull herself in a little bit.
She stood up and dusted the dirt off her pants, "That wasn't so bad." Amanda smiled, they thought the same. They heard someone scoff behind them.
"Looks like we've got ourselves a pair of try hards." Someone jeers. Instead of retaliating the girls roll their eyes and move towards the other side of the car. Maddy hears a high pitched giggle and turns towards it. She sees three Dauntless borns huddled in the corner, one boy standing off to the side slightly, with short brown hair and light olive skin. It seems as though he is uncomfortable. Soon she discovers why. Another boy leans towards a picture perfect girl, blond hair, tight fitting clothes and long, thin legs. Maddy can't help but feel sickening jealousy rise within her as she stares at the boy; his dark brown hair, piercing blue eyes, devilishly handsome smile that extends to his cheeks and reveals his dimples. His exactly proportioned face and body almost made Maddy jealous. He looks athletic, quite muscular, which really isn't surprising for a Dauntless. He makes eye contact with her and his jaw tenses slightly, but Maddy doesn't look away until he does.
To their dislike, the taunting continues, "What's wrong girls? Aren't Dauntless enough to fight?"
Maddy turns towards them and narrows her eyes, "Why bother fighting when winning isn't really a prize." She turns around, thinking they could finally be left alone, apparently not.
"That sounds really Erudite of you." A different boy says, raising his eyebrows. It didn't escape Maddy that the two boys in the corner looked up at her quickly before returning to what they were doing. Crossing her arms she says to the group, "The ability to think isn't limited to Erudite."
Someone in the crowd mutters, "Ohh, get wrecked."
She turns around to Amanda and inwardly groans when she hears them once more, "Can't believe the Amity hides behind her friend. Oh wait, I can." With his greasy black hair and crooked nose, Maddy feels the urge to break it even more.
Amanda's cheeks flare with anger and she looks at Maddy, saying in a hushed voice, "I'll be right back." With a sickly sweet smile on her face, she walks towards the group of snickering Dauntless-born.
"I'm sorry, and you are?" Amanda speaks softly to the greasy haired boy, looking him up and down.
"Derek. And you?" He says in a disturbingly seductive way.
"I'm Amanda." Derek snorts.
"Your parents must have hated you to call you Amanda." She grinds her teeth but tries not to let it show.
"Naw, that's mean, why not be nice?" She says sweetly, the Dauntless-born looking at her incredulously. She twirls her tied up hair a little in between her fingers as the group begin to snicker.
"Just stop being mean, okay?"
Derek steps forward, arms crossed. "What happens if I don't sweetheart?"
"This." Her smiling face darkens within seconds as she brings down her fidgeting arms with force and thrusts her knee in in upwards motion, directly kneeing him in the groin. Derek falls to his knees, speaking a string of profanities, as Amanda skips dramatically back to Maddy. She hears someone chuckle behind her, turning to see two very attractive boys in Dauntless black, the one laughing looking at her with a smile on his face. She takes in his startling green eyes, his brown black hair as he sweeps his hand through it, his olive skin and extremely fit body. Her heart beats a little fast just looking at him, but she quickly turns away as he makes eye contact with her.
When she makes her way over to her new friend, Maddy's eyes are wide and jaw slack. "What the hell was that?"
"Something a friend taught me." She stares off into space, as if contemplating life. In reality she's thinking about Chris. She suddenly had a hollow, sinking feeling in her gut that she was now all too familiar with.
"It was pretty badass." Maddy says in admiration. Amanda grins and feels the train beginning to slow down. She knows this is where the Dauntless get off, she's heard a little about initiation before.
"Time to jump." Maddy says, looking out in the near distance as Dauntless-born and transfers pile onto the roof. She looks at Amanda, nervous about jumping. Unwilling to let herself be scared away from becoming a part of the Dauntless faction, Maddy prepared to jump.
"Yeah, I guess so." Amanda says, some fear evident in her voice. Maddy grips her hand and squeezes it quickly, "I'll go first if you want." she offers, smiling. With one glance back at the brooding hotties behind them, Maddy jumps from the train car and onto the roof, barely making it but glad to come out with only a few scratches.
"Hey sweetheart, last time an Amity transfer was jumping off for initiation he didn't get across. I wonder if history repeats itself." Derek smirks beside her. Amanda's blood boils and despite her fears of jumping, she makes an attempt just to spite Derek and get away from him. She misses the roof, panicking filling her as she grabs hold of the edge with two hands.
"Shit, Amanda!" Maddy yells, but Amanda can already feel herself slipping. Her breathing is heavy as she refuses to look down below her. Maybe Derek was right, maybe it was some sort of curse that Amity transfer have? As her hands lose their grip and Amanda begins to let out a small yelp, she hears a pair of running footsteps before two hands grip her arms as she dangles in the air. With a sigh of relief, she looks up at her saviour. It's the green eyed boy from the train. He lifts her up to the top of the roof as if she's weightless and rests her on the gravel, which crunches beneath her shoes. She looks at him, taking in his devilishly handsome face, as he stares back at her, making her blush. He searches her face, as if looking for something, as he takes a small step back and trips on a rock, sending them both falling to the ground. Amanda lands on top of the boy, before quickly rolling off him, getting up and offering a hand to him. He looks at her extended hand in disregard and gets up himself, dusting off.
"Well I guess we're both clumsy." Amanda says, trying to ease the tension.
"Hey Matt!" Amanda turns around to see the other boy from the train in the distance calling out to her handsome saviour. Matt takes one more look at her and walks away. Amanda watches him from behind as he reaches his friend. Amanda regrets not thanking the boy - Matt - while he walked away from her. Before she knows it, Maddy is by her side grabs her arm is if she was afraid Amanda would topple over the edge once more.
"I'msorryididn'tsaveyouintimebutohmylordjesuschristoursaviourwhowasthathunkylookin'bae?" Maddy gushes. Any conversation between the two is interrupted as Derek walks past and whispers in Amanda's ear, "Almost, sweetheart." He grins and runs across the roof to the other initiates huddled around.
"Come on, we'd better head over there." Amanda says as someone begins talking.
"Listen up my name is Zeke. I am one of the leaders of your new faction." He is slight and short, with caramel coloured skin and spikey brown hair. "Several stories below us is the members entrance to our compound. If you can't muster the will to jump off, then you don't belong here. Our initiates have the privilege of going first." A few mutters go through the crowd of people but no one volunteers to go first. Amanda and Maddy look at each other, fear evident on both of their faces as they glance back at the ledge.
"Do you want to go together?" Amanda suggests. Maddy doesn't say anything, but nods. She has no real fear of heights, but jumping off a building, that's suicide; and completely unnecessary. Together, they walk out of the large crowd and they hear Derek say, "Too scared to go by yourselves? Well either way, you can't go together, it's one at a time." The girls scowl. "I thought you'd know that since the ability to think isn't limited to Erudite" he mocks a sly smile forming on his face.
Maddy chuckles sarcastically, "And here I was thinking that in Dauntless there were no cowards." She glares at Derek and grabs Amanda's hand and they walk to ledge.
"Hey, the pansycake was right; you can't both go down at the same time." Zeke says, but they can see he is holding back a grin. If possible, Derek stands taller and says "Admit defeat" with a smile on his face. The girls look down the ledge into the dark abyss.
"Are you two listening to me? I said you can't go down together." Zeke repeats condescendingly
"Watch us." Maddy says. Amanda pulls on Maddy's hand and they jump off the ledge.
The wind howls in their ears as the ground surges towards them, growing and expanding, or they surge toward the ground, their hearts pounding so fast it hurts, every muscle in their bodies tensing as the falling sensation drags at their stomachs. The hole surrounds them, and they drop into darkness. They hit something hard. It gives way beneath them and cradles their bodies. The impact knocks the wind out of them and they wheeze, struggling to breathe again. Their arms and legs sting. They grip at the net beneath them, their hands no longer joined. Amanda and Maddy both sighing in relief.
"It's a net. It's a net at the bottom of the hole." Amanda says as if it is the most obvious thing in the world. Half relieved, half hysterical, Amanda laughs, looking up to the buildings and sky. All of a sudden she gets the hiccups, sending Maddy into her own fit of laughter.
"What the hell? Your officially crazy for making me do that." Maddy says.
"Why? You said - you were going - to anyway." Amanda replies in between laughs.
"We just jumped off a bloody building!"
"Yes, yes we did." They are thrown into another fit of laughter once more. Some people surrounding the rope offer an extended hand as the girls get off the net before the next initiates jump. The man that helped Maddy down asked for the girls' names, pushing his black dreadlocks out of his eyes, looking a little confused.
"Maddy."
"And I'm Amanda." A tall, tanned woman makes her way over to the girls, her arms covered in tattoos.
"Why have we got two first jumpers? We can't have two first jumpers. We have one first jumper. One. Jumper, singular, not jumpers, not plural." Maddy and Amanda share a look before rolling their eyes. An excited shout echoing through the spacious area is tailed by Derek landing in the middle of the net, getting up immediately, wild eyed. He is quickly followed by Matt and later his friend from the train.
"We decided to jump together." Amanda speaks up as two more people land in the net together – a Dauntless-born couple by the looks of it. The guy with the dreadlocks raises his eyes.
"Nita, I think if you're going to have a go at these girls, you should have a talk to those two as well." He nods to the couple in the net and Nita just sighs, throwing her hands in the air and walking off.
"Make the announcement Lachy." A woman with a pierced eyebrow says.
"First Jumpers- Maddy and Amanda."