Divergent—The First Meet—Tobias's POV (Chapter 6)
I cross my ankles over each other and wait for the first jumper to swallow their fear and jump.
"What faction do you think they'll come from this time?" Lauren babbles behind me. "I hope not another Erudite know it all."
Overhead, I hear a catcall, and then I see a gray blur falling down, towards us.
"Lauren."
She looks up and blinks. "Is that gray?"
I watch the gray person land in the net, her whole body being pushed into a ball from the force of the net. She says oof and begins uncurling herself.
I reach out a hand to help the skinny Abnegation girl to her feet. Her fingers are cold as they wrapped around mine tightly. I pull her up and think about how our hands look like the Abnegation symbol, only with retired members of the faction.
"Thank you," she mumbles under her breath, her light eyes flashing up to my face. She is pretty, the tiny little thing. She is so petite that I think for a moment that she'd wound up here accidentally, or that they changed the choosing age. But after studying her for a moment, I note that her eyes held all the weight that can only come from years of sacrifice.
"Can't believe it," Lauren babbles some more, putting a stop to the bizarre way the transfer and I were gazing at each other, "A Stiff, the first to jump? Unheard of," She scuffs.
"There's a reason why she left them, Lauren," I say, sick of her nonstop chatter. I stare down at the girl. Her eyes are wide, young, but somehow aged, as though she carries endless years of secrets with her. "What's your name?"
"Um," she stammers, flustered, her eyes burning into mine.
"Think about it," I tell her, meeting her intensity with my own eyes. Who are you? The question bubbles to my lips. I bite it back, and instead say, "You don't get to pick again."
I watch the confusion drain from her expression, taking five stressful years with it, "Tris."
Tris.
"Tris," I repeat, smiling a little at her, Tris the Dauntless.
"Tris," Lauren copies, interrupting yet another moment. "Make the announcement, Four."
Tris's eyes stay on me as I look at Lauren, "First jumper—Tris!" I call the name out proudly, as if she represents me in some way. Dauntless materialize from the darkness behind me, I can tell by the way Tris's eyes widen slightly. I hear the scream that symbolizes the next person has jumped. Tris looks over and smiles at the girl who lands. Lauren helps her out of the net, because I'm too distracted by Tris to make myself move away from her, towards the other initiate. Unthinkingly, I touch her back. Her eyes widen at my touch, but she doesn't flinch away like I'd expect and Abnegation girl to. My hand tingles. "Welcome to Dauntless."