Chapter 1-Together
Robert pov
Beatrice Prior
I hear the name being called and look closely to the girl walking up to the center of the room. But she's not just some girl; she's the one girl I look forward to seeing every day, she's the one girl who brightens up the dreary grey of Abnegation and she is the one girl I've been in love with for as long as I can remember. Because of our overly conservative upbringing, I have to wait to be able to have her and I'm not letting the choosing ceremony get in the way me having a chance with Beatrice.
She makes her way over to Marcus Eaton and relieves him of the large knife in his hand. I wince slightly as the blade leaves its mark on her but, it's the way it's done so there isn't much I can do. Beatrice hesitates for a moment, looking between the different bowls but, who can blame her? Her brother-my closest thing to a friend- just transferred to Erudite when we all thought he'd stay in Abnegation; of course she's questioning her decision. Finally, she chooses and opens her hand over the sizzling coals.
Oh goodness, she's going to Dauntless.
Beatrice is going Dauntless.
And so am I.
Robert Black
Without hesitation, I quickly stride up to Marcus and take the knife, slitting my hand and immediately thrusting it over the coals. Behind me I hear a gasp from where the Abnegation and Dauntless stand. Looking behind me, I can see a lone year streaking down Susan's cheek. A sharp pain runs through me at seeing her cry because I hurt her but, I don't let it show and walk up to where Beatrice -my Beatrice- is standing. She looks shocked but I can see a small smile breaking across her sharp features.
We sprint down the stairs, surrounded by a sea of black. I don't let Beatrice leave my sight until we are standing by the train tracks. The horn blares in our ears and I turn to see the train quickly approaching.
"Oh no, are we supposed to get on that thing?" asks the Erudite boy to my left.
Beatrice gives him a sidelong look, "Yes." she says between pants.
When the train gets close enough, Beatrice reaches out and taps my arm. "Run." she tells me, breaking into a sprint herself. My legs are much longer that hers so I jump into the train first. Spinning around, I see a tall, slim Candor girl reaching out and helping Beatrice into the train car. I walk over to them, not wanting to leave Beatrice's side again.
"I'm Christina." the girl says, extending a hand to the girl beside me.
"Beatrice." she says, shaking her hand and surely feeling she's doing it wrong.
Christina then offers me her hand, which I shake softly. "I'm Robert." I say with an easy smile.
"Are you two going out or something?" she asks bluntly.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Beatrice turn red. "No, no, no; we're just friends." she says. My heart breaks slightly at her statement but, I realize that since we grew up in Abnegation we could never be open with our feelings. Beatrice must just not want me to feel uncomfortable with the situation, I tell myself, it's not a rejection.
Christina shrugs in response before looking out the wide open door, "Do you know where we're going?" she shouts as a large gust of wind blows through the car, causing Beatrice to lose her balance slightly. I pull her down to the floor, not wanting her to fall out. Christina gives me a puzzled look.
"The train's going so fast that the wind might blow you out. You might want to get down."
"I guess we're going to Dauntless headquarters," Beatrice says, "but I don't know where that is."
"I don't think anyone does." I say with a slight chuckle.
Christina laughs lightly, "It's like they just popped out of a hole in the ground or something."
A strong gust of wind rips through the car and the faction transfers fall all over each other.
"See." I say, nudging Christina with the toe of my shoe and pointing at the others.
She's still laughing at the misfortune of the others when I turn back to Beatrice. She's looking pensively at the city scape, focusing on the row of grey houses where we used to live. I bump her slightly with my shoulder.
What's wrong? I silently ask by giving her a look.
Caleb, she mouths back.
I simply nod back, not being able to tell her anything because of the roar of the wind. I pat her knee in comfort and she gives me a slight smile before turning back to the scenery.
"They're jumping off!"
We stand and see the other initiates a few cars a head of us jumping off.
"We have to jump off too, then." points out a large Candor girl with dark, stringy hair. Well obviously, I think.
"Great, because that makes perfect sense, Molly. Leap off a train onto a roof." Snaps a Candor boy who looks very similar to the girl, Molly. Actually, I think, that makes perfect sense; you did sign up for this.
"This is kind of what we signed up for, Peter." Molly shoots back, voicing my thoughts.
"Well, I'm not doing it." pipes up an Amity boy behind us. It looks like he's been crying and-getting Amity myself-I think I know how he feels.
"You've got to or you fail." Christina says. "Come on, it'll be all right."
"No, it won't! I'd rather be factionless than dead!" he looks like he's about to have a panic attack.
"You can't force him." Tris says to a very annoyed looking Christina. The girls walk over to the edge and they jump together. Giving the Amity boy a sympathetic look, I then turn and sprint right off the train.
Oh no. I'm going to die, I'm going to die! I hit the pavement and feel the shock go all through my body. Getting up off the gravel rooftop, I brush off my grey pants and see large red stains start to form on the knees of my pants. I would check, just to see the damage but, that wouldn't benefit anyone.
I spot Tris near the edge of the roof and go help her up. She gives me a grateful smile and dusts herself off.
"That was fun." Christina says with a slight laugh.
That's when we hear and ear piercing scream. We whip around to see a sobbing Dauntless girl standing on the edge with a boy holding her tightly by the waist; most likely scared she'll jump herself.
"Rita," he says. "Rita, calm down. Rita please, come away from the edge." Tris walks over to the edge and looks down at the girl below. The Dauntless girl-Rita- falls to her knees sobbing. "She's gone." I hear her choke out.
The Dauntless boy still has a death grip around her waist and is looking around frantically. His gaze lands on me and he gives me a pleading look. Of course he asks the only other Abnegation for help. I may not want to still be Abnegation but, I'm not cruel so I walk over to the pair.
"Hey, why don't you come away from the edge?" I say, setting a hand on her back.
The girl turns to me with eyes full of tears. She hesitates for a minute before throwing her arms around my neck. "She was my best friend." She sobs into my shoulder.
From behind her, Rita's friend makes a motion for me to hug her back. I-somewhat awkwardly- pat her back and start to stand, bringing her with me. "Let's go and start initiation." I say with a slight smile.
We walk over to where the others are and get there in time to hear the end of what the man on the ledge is saying.
"...Our initiates have the privilege of going first."
"You want us to jump off a ledge?" Asks an Erudite girl, taking a step closer to a well built Erudite boy who is about three inches taller than me.
"Yes." The man says with a smirk.
"Is there water at the bottom or something?" asks the same girl.
"Who knows?" He says, giving her a quizzical look.
No one makes a move towards the edge. We're all waiting for someone else to go first when Beatrice steps forward. I want to stop her but, that would just make things harder on her. Holding myself back, I watch as she makes her way to the edge of the roof.
The large Candor boy, Peter, snickers and whispers something to his 'friends'. Beatrice starts to unhook her shapeless Abnegation tunic while peering over the edge. When it's completely off and she stands there in just a simple t-shirt, she looks over her shoulder and throws it hard at Peters chest. A few people make cat calls which make my lips turn into a scowl and then Beatrice jumps off the edge.
We all wait in silence until we hear a faint 'First jumper-Tris!' , shouted from below. She changed her name I guess, not that I can blame her, Beatrice isn't a very Dauntless name. I think Tris suits her.
Without a word, Christina sprints off the edge screaming in either fear or excitement. "Second jumper- Christina!" We hear shouted after a moment.
Not wanting to be separated from Bea- Tris any longer, I walk up to the edge and step right off into a new life.
After free falling for a few moments, I hit something that might as well be a brick wall. Gasping for air, a small hand with a few scars and black fingernails reaches out to me. I take it and am swiftly guided off the net.
"What's your name?" Asks the owner of the hand; a girl with dark hair and three eyebrow rings (A/N that's how they described Lauren in the book). She's only an inch or so shorter than I am which makes her quite tall for a girl.
"Rob." I say, remembering her question. 'Robert' is fine and everything, but the shortened version that I was occasionally called by sounds better.
"Four; announce him." She says to a tall young man (A/N I didn't want to say boy and didn't want to say man so I went with what they said in the book) -Four- who is standing awfully close to Tris. I quickly walk over to Tris and take her hand, leading her over to where Christina is standing. Glancing over my shoulder, I can see Four staring at me. Some would say he's 'just looking at us' but, I can see the anger and slight disappointment behind his eyes; I find myself glaring right back at him.
It's on.
A/N so here's the first chapter. I thought about this the other day and since I haven't seen a lot of fics with Rob I thought, what the heck, why not? PM or review and tell me if I should keep going. By the way, I'm so excited; I figured out how to do the magical lines on the page. :)
-Divergentwhovian46 (DW46)