Chapter 1

Today's the day, I'm coming home. I've been away for roughly 8 months, and I guess it's time to face my life. After all, you can't run from your fears, because they will just follow you. Real bravery comes from facing your fears, which was something my mum used to tell me. It was something they used to say in her old 'faction', whatever that meant. The reason why I left was my parents, kind of. After their tragic death in a car accident I couldn't stand living in Florida anymore, everywhere I went something reminded me of them, the park, the beach camp we used to go to for summer vacation, even the supermarket. That's why I had to leave; I guess you could call it my coping strategy, to run. I left immediately after the funeral and the will readings. I only told one person that I was leaving, but even then I didn't tell him where to - it was really a last minute decision. I had nothing keeping me in Florida apart from my brother. Caleb is 2 years older than me, and is the most cliché 'overly-protective' brother ever. It's really thanks to him that I'm coming home though. The first time we spoke again was 2 months ago, and since then he's been slowly persuading me to come home. Once I left I changed everything, my phone number, appearance, I even started going by a different name, so it took him a while to find me. I guess I just didn't want to be reminded anymore, it was too painful. The only thing I had reminding me of my past was a tattoo of three ravens, across my collarbone. They represent my mum, dad and Caleb as they fly towards my heart.

I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare. It's a long flight from LA to Florida and thankfully Uri booked me on a night flight to pass the time easily. That's another thing I missed from Florida, Uri. Uriah and I have been best friends since I can remember, our parents grew up together (in the whole faction thing) and then his older brother Zeke is good friends with Caleb so it was inevitable that me and Uri would be great friends. I've missed him so much, well the whole Pedrad family in general. They are the closest thing we have to family now apart from each other. I text him to say I'm at the airport and would be with him in approximately 5 hours. Even though I moved, and changed my name and number, the one thing I didn't do was lose Uri. We called/texted almost every other day, although he didn't tell anyone where I was. Even when my brother went as far as getting the police looking for me, Uri didn't betray my trust; he stood by me every step of the way. He understood what I had to do, and allowed me to do it, even though I knew I was hurting him in the process.

Finally after a few hours of pointless wandering, the lady at the desk announced that my gate was open and asked passengers to start boarding. As we all filed in I had trouble finding my seat, then I realised I was looking in completely the wrong section. Ahhh, Uriah, of course he would book me in first class. I chuckle lightly to myself and flop down into my seat. Uriah may have put me in first, but at least he got me a window seat. As we take off I put in my headphones and take out my sketch book. It's full of all sorts of designs and drawings - each one with a different meaning. On the first page is my design for the flying birds, that was the first time I'd ever designed a tattoo, and now I do it nonstop. I guess I fell asleep because the next thing I knew I was waking up to the captain's voice over the intercom: "could all passengers please prepare for landing" he says with the happiest voice I've ever heard in someone at 6:00 AM.

As soon as I walk through to baggage claim I see them, Uri and Caleb standing underneath a huge sign saying something about airport safety. At first I don't think Caleb recognises me, I wouldn't blame him. Since moving away I have changed quite substantially. I am no longer a weak little girl who needs her brother to protect her; I am a strong independent 19 year old woman. I pierced my ears, and now wear tighter, darker clothes that have a way of showing off my tattoo. However the only thing I never change is my hair, this was the way my mother used to always cut it with long layers feathered into my dirty blonde locks. I want to at least keep that part of her with me. I keep walking towards them and when they realise it's me they start running. I drop my bag as Caleb scoops me up into one big hug, after retrieving my abandoned luggage Uri joins our embrace. I faintly hear Caleb whispering in my ear "I missed you Bea"
"Awr, I missed you too" I reply, finally accepting that this is where I am meant to be. With family, at home.

In the car ride to the house Uri kept talking nonstop, telling me all about the huge house that we will soon be sharing. He goes on to explain how there are 6 bedrooms 4 bathrooms and a whole 3 floors of rooms for us to occupy ourselves with. Wait, what? "Uriah. Why are there 6 bedrooms?" I ask him, alarm bells ringing in my head. I'm not exactly the best at making friends. "Surprise!" He mock-shouts at me, his expression only portraying that of please-don't-kill-me-for-not-telling-you-sooner look. I just glare at him demanding an explanation. "Bea, chill" Caleb cuts in, easy for him to say. "There's me and my girlfriend, Uriah and his girlfriend, Zeke - you remember Zeke, right? - and his girlfriend, then a friend of mine and Zeke's from college and the last two are a surprise" I narrow my eyes at him sceptically, but he just smirks at me and turns back around focussing on the road.

Once we arrive at the house I gaze in awe "I know, right" Uri says to me while chuckling lightly to himself. I can't believe Caleb did this. After our parents died we discovered that they actually had quite a bit of money stored up for us, seriously you have no idea. Our parents weren't famous or anything, my father was a doctor and my mother a psychiatrist two very innocent yet well payed professions. Despite their wealthy wages, we never lived luxuriously. They believed that indulging ourselves in big houses and nice cars and food was selfish; again it was to do with when they grew up and the faction system thing. They never liked to really talk about it, but they still lived by it, for their whole lives. So we lived a very simple life of plain clothes and non-exotic foods and went about life as minimalist as possible. It's obvious that Caleb scrapped all of that when buying the house. As I left right after the funeral sure, I knew about the money, and that half was left for me but I didn't do anything with it. It's still in my bank now, untouched. However Caleb clearly 'indulged' himself in the words of my parents.

I was standing in front of basically a mini mansion. The outside was perfect, not exactly old fashioned but not sci-fi futuristic. It was the perfect balance of modern and old. Just on the outside it looked huge, there was one really long garage door which obviously hid a big garage, presumably full of everyone's cars, hidden behind it. I looked up and counted three levels of windows, and windows in the roof. This place is huge. "Quit staring Bea" Caleb called to me from the boot of the car, which thanks to a handheld clicker on Caleb's key ring was now safely within the huge garage. I know that it's gonna take a while to get him to call me Tris, and in all honesty I like it when he calls me Bea. It reminds me of who I am. As I step out of the car my shoes click against the garage floor, causing an echo in the open space. "How many cars are usually in here?" I ask to no one in particular, as I keep looking around I notice that the back wall of the garage, opposite to the door, is one big glass tinted window, when I squint through it I can't believe what I'm seeing, "Is that a-"

I'm cut off by Uriah, "pool? Yes, and through those doors to the side are our home gym and sauna!" Wow, I can't believe this is where I live, an indoor pool! As we move through the garage to the actual house I'm amazed even more. The whole ground floor is completely open plan, with a huge kitchen on the back wall of the house with an island in the middle. Along the left wall away from the kitchen is the dining table I guess, with 4 seats along each side and one at each head. Along the right side of the wall is a massive flat screen TV, with a few sofas and chairs placed around with a see through coffee table in the middle. As I look around I notice a glass stair case going both up and down. Come on I'll show you around" Caleb says to me, while putting an arm around my shoulder. "So, here is where we cook and eat our fine cuisine, and sometimes we will chill up here, but mostly we do that downstairs" he explains to me while pointing to each designated area. He then leads me downstairs, to the basement. I take it in slowly, not wanting to miss any details. Here there is another flat screen and more sofas strategically placed around the big TV. Although this is still open plan, it's not as big as upstairs I notice a door at the very end of the room. Caleb sees me looking at it and explains that it's a studio for the photographer who lives in the house. I laugh, it's like he doesn't want me to know anything about them. He hasn't let a single thing slip, not even the name of his girlfriend! We head back upstairs and up to the second floor. "This floor is all bedrooms and bathrooms, and so is the third" Caleb explains to me quickly going through who stays in which, again he doesn't allow any new names slip. "Zeke, Uriah and me are on this floor, with our girlfriends, obviously" When he says the word girlfriend his eyes sparkle, I can't wait to meet them all. As we are ascending the next set of stairs I suddenly realise something and turn to face Caleb "All these people you say live here, yet I don't see anyone?" I question him, pure curiosity "Oh, yeah. They are all working and will be in later tonight" he replies, as if it was obvious "But what about you and Uri?" I ask, "Well I obviously had to pick you up and help settle in, and Uriah here convinced me that he had to be here for that as well, seen as you chose to tell him about your absence and not me" as he says this I notice a slight irritation slip into his voice and expression. Is he mad that I told Uri I was leaving and not him? I try to let the feeling slide, as Caleb leads me up to the next floor. "Up here is where all the singles live, basically" he explains to me, I notice a smile tugging at his lips despite his best efforts to hide it. There are 5 doors on this floor, 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Wait, if all the singles live up here, someone is sharing a room..."Caaalllebbbbb..." I don't get a chance to finish my sentence as the door on the far end of the hall way swings open and out comes my most favourite person in the world. "Christina! Whha-why-how? How are you here!?" I scream all this at her while she embraces me like we haven't seen each other in years, well we haven't. Back in middle school Uriah, Chris and I were all best friends. Of course I've always had Uri, but he's not quite the same when you're trying to talk to him about boys. Chris had to move away at the start of high school because of her parent's jobs, they got transferred to Chicago, and we haven't seen each other since. She's changed, but definitely for the better. She's taller, cut her hair shorter and boy did puberty work well for her! She's stunning. "Look at you!" I scream at her, stepping back from or hug to get a better look. "Nu uh, check you out! Where's the little girl who only wore grey!" She screams right back at me. Of course my style has changed a lot since middle school, and so have I. New hobbies, new interests, new name. "I'll take her from here" Chris says to Caleb, while pulling me back into the room which we now share.

"Woaaahhhhh!" I say in awe, this room is amazing! "I know right" Chris says to me while dragging my bags into our room. There's two single matching beds and a door on either side of then. "Mmm, left is ensuite and right is closet. I've already cleared half of it for your stuff, annnndddd I went shopping for you!" Oh no, we may not have spoken in years but she's still obsessed with shopping. "I'll leave you to freshen up and unpack a bit" she says, and then leaves the room leaving me to marvel in my new environment.

I head into the bathroom and am taken aback even more. This has got to be the biggest bathroom I've seen. There's corner Jacuzzi and a pane of glass just randomly set from floor to ceiling, I then realise that it's a walk in shower. After retrieving my wash bag from my one and only bag I had with me, I splash my face with water, relishing in the cool feeling. I didn't realise how tired I still felt after the aim ride, but the water wakes me up perfectly. I decide to wash my arms as well; the water just feels so good. Eventually I give in and just take a full shower. Washing my whole body and my hair. Once I get out I notice Chris has set me out an outfit, still not disappointing me on the whole clothes front. I pull on the black high wasted shorts and choose a white off-the-shoulder jumper, which shows off my tattoo. I can't find my hair dryer so I just towel dry my hair and leave it down to air dry. I replace my anklet, as I took it off for the shower and admire the old fashioned symbols on it, there are five each representing a different 'faction'. It used to be my mothers, one of the only pieces of jewellery she owned. From what I've gathered each symbol is a quality to live by, kindness, knowledge, truth, selflessness and bravery. I've tried to research it but that was all I could get

After finally deciding I'm ready, I head downstairs and find Uri, Caleb and Chris all sitting waiting for me. I notice a grand piano just in the middle of the room, near the dining table and two tall French doors off to the side leading out to a conservatory. I shake my head in disbelief, this is my home now. "So Tris, what do you want to do today?" Uriah asks me, I see he's trying out my new name. What I really want to do is find The Pitt. When I was in LA I came across this very unique 'club', I guess you could call it that. Its official name was Dauntless Secret Society, DSS for short. Anyway, when I left I had no idea what I was doing; I was a mess with no home, or food or any money that was until I came across The Cave. I was out walking the streets trying to find a dry place on the street to stay for the night, and I saw this group of people, around my age, all shouting and running like they had no care in the world. I overheard one of them shout "To The Cave!" and I followed them. I had no idea what The Cave was, but I guessed it was some kind of night club. Boy was I wrong; it was one half of the DSS.

Long story short I kept going back to The Cave, night after night. I was fascinated by the atmosphere, everyone drinking, laughing, the fights, everything! One night I noticed a tattoo parlour. I had already started drawing, and I immediately knew that I wanted a tattoo. When I showed George (the owner of the parlour) my designs he was amazed, and right there offered me the job. However he said that I would have to adapt my 'image' because I was too innocent looking; I knew exactly what to do. After getting my tattoo he started to train me up and I was a tattoo artist! This was the first time I felt that my life was finally getting back on track. The Cave was my home, and I loved it. After a few months of working at the parlour I became increasingly curious about the fights. Every night there would be a new guy trying to take down the champion. When I watched I got this feeling that if you could do that you were powerful, and I had to do it. I spoke to George about it and he offered to teach me how to fight. He soon became my best friend, I told him everything about my past life and how I wanted to forget it, and he understood. We became great friends, however when I told him I had to leave I couldn't stand the thought of leaving The Cave. Then George told me about The Pitt. The DSS had two halves, The Cave in LA and The Pitt in Florida. Turns out that his sister owns the parlour in The Pitt, and after telling her everything about me she agreed to hire me! Well that solved one problem for me. I'm brought back to reality when I realise they were all staring at me, waiting for me to answer. What did they ask me? "Uhhh, oh, yeah, I think I want to start looking for a job, y'know, so I can contribute to the rent and such" I say to them, hiding the fact that I already have a job. I'm not sure I want to tell them about my 'alter ego' just yet, my new appearance and name is enough for Caleb to handle for one day. "Okay, here take my car" Caleb says to me while handing me his keys. Sadly I had to leave my car in LA, it was being shipped over in a few weeks though. As I leave the house I faintly here Chris shouting at me to be back for 6:00 as the others were due home at 6:30. This is it; I think to myself, this is the start of something new.

AN: Hi, I'm new at this so read, review, message me, whatever I don't mind. I'd love to hear what you guys think of my story.

-Gem