Chapter One

I can hear the Dauntless arriving, fresh from the Choosing Ceremony, shouting and cheering as they leap from the train to the rooftop. Among them will be the new initiates. For many of them, it will be their first time jumping off of a train. I wonder how they'll fare, how many we'll lose.

But if they don't have the courage to jump, they don't belong here. Simple as that.

The distant clamor dies down until it becomes inaudible.

"Any minute now," Lauren mutters at my side. I don't respond, my eyes trained on the hole in the ceiling...waiting.

A few minutes pass under I see what I've been looking for, the blur of a falling initiate. However, the sight sends a ripple of shock through me: the initiate is wearing gray.

A Stiff jumped first? And she isn't even screaming?

When she hits the net, I can see that she's a small blonde girl, laughing and gasping for air. I step up to the net and stretch my hands across, and she grabs onto me. Her hand is small and warm.

I pull her across the net and she rolls off, nearly falling on her face. As I grab her arms to steady her, our eyes meet.

Hers are a grayish blue, though wide and bright and charged with adrenaline. The stern insistence in them holds my gaze.

Who is she?

"Thank you," she says, her voice clear and low, for a girl's. She's short and thin, altogether diminutive, and doesn't seem very strong - not very promising characteristics for a Dauntless initiate.

"Can't believe it," I hear Lauren exclaim behind me. "A Stiff, the first to jump? Unheard of."

"There's a reason why she left them, Lauren," I reply, looking over my shoulder to catch her smirk. I turn back to the girl and ask, "What's your name?"

She stares at me blankly. "Um…"

I understand what she's doing, why she's hesitating. New faction, new identity.

"Think about it," I tell her, unable to stop myself from smiling. "You don't get to pick again."

She deliberates for one more moment before announcing, "Tris."

"Tris," Lauren repeats, grinning. "Make the announcement, Four."

I look over my shoulder, into the waiting crowd. "First jumper - Tris!"

They cheer loudly, celebrating the beginning of another year of initiation. I turn back to look at her, and she is staring into the wild crowd, breathless and overwhelmed, but grinning from ear to ear. The second jumper - a Candor - hits the net, screaming the whole way, and I let a laugh escape me. However, my eyes flit back to Tris. I place a hand on her back.

"Welcome to Dauntless."

After all the initiates have jumped, Lauren and I take them through the hallway outside the Pit. She takes the Dauntless-borns, and I am left to manage the transfers. Mostly Erudite and Candor, as usual, except for the one Stiff.

"Most of the time I work in the control room, but for the next few weeks, I am your instructor." I make my voice loud and clear, letting it echo off of the walls. "My name is Four."

"Four? Like the number?" snickers a tall, dark girl from Candor.

Here we go. The Candor transfers are always the worst. They can never keep their mouths shut, especially in the beginning.

"Yes," I reply. "Is there a problem?"

"No." She hardly looks contrite for speaking out of turn, which is understandable, since she's been taught her entire life that such a thing is okay.

"Good," I say, leveling my eyes are her in a look of warning. "We are about to go into the Pit, which you will someday learn to love. It - "

"The Pit?" It's the same girl. Of course it is. "Clever name."

She may have been raised to speak her mind at all times, but that won't do here. She has to learn respect.

Slowly, I approach her, leaning in close to her face. She is tall. I think I recognize her as the second jumper, the one that followed Tris.

"What's your name?"

"Christina," she squeaks out, breathless. Her eyes are wide.

"Well, Christina, if I wanted to put up with Candor smart-mouths, I would have joined their faction," I hiss, never breaking my stare. I'm careful to say "their" faction instead of "your" faction - she needs to remember that she is not one of them anymore. "The first lesson you will learn from me is to keep your mouth shut. Got that?"

She nods, color rushing into her face.

Without another word, I turn around and start toward the Pit. The transfers shuffle behind me in silence.

I lead them across the Pit, pointing out several sights along the way. I make sure to show them the chasm, making sure to note its danger. Hopefully there won't be any suicides this year, but you can never tell.

I show them the dining hall next, and stick close to them to make sure they know where to go and what to do. I usually wouldn't bother, but something about the way some of them are looking around, the Stiff especially, makes me think they might need a guide. I sit at a table with several of the transfers and watch as they examine the food.

The Candor and the Erudite dig right in, but the Stiff, Tris, examines the hamburger meat warily. I remember my first day at the compound. I didn't know what half the food was, either.

"It's beef," I murmur to her, nudging her with my elbow. I pass her the ketchup. "Here. Put this on it."

"You've never had a hamburger before?" asks Christina, incredulous.

"No," Tris replies. "Is that what it's called?"

"Stiffs eat plain food," I say for Christina's benefit. No need to mention that I was one. The less they know about me, the better.

"Why?"

"Extravagance is considered self-indulgent and unnecessary," Tris replies, sounding a little bit like she's reading out of a textbook.

Christina smirks. "No wonder you left."

"Yeah," Tris answers, her tone heavy with sarcasm. "It was just because of the food."

I'm surprised at her sarcastic tone - sarcasm is discouraged in Abnegation. She must be adjusting quickly...or maybe she was always this way. I fight to suppress a smile.

At that moment, a hush falls over the room. I don't even have to look up to know that it's probably Eric.

"Who's that?" Christina hisses. I look up. My intuition was correct.

"His name is Eric," I murmur, "he's a Dauntless leader."

"Seriously? But he's so young."

I turn my head and throw her a grave look. "Age doesn't matter here."

I see Eric approaching in my peripheral vision and feel my muscles tense in response. What does he want?

He flops into the seat next to me and turns to examine the girls. "Well, aren't you going to introduce me?" he asks me, smirking.

I introduce each of them, and his cold eyes zero in on Tris's gray clothes.

"Ooh, a Stiff. We'll see how long you last."

She winces, and seems too flustered to respond. I wish I could tell her that she should get used to that kind of thing, since she'll undoubtedly be faced with it throughout initiation, but I keep my mouth shut.

He taps his fingers against the table; the sound irritates me. "What have you been doing lately, Four?"

I stare at him impassively, wishing he'd skip the small talk. "Nothing, really."

"Max tells me he keeps trying to meet with you, and you don't show up. He requested I find out what's going on with you." I hear the undercurrent of malice in his voice. He doesn't know what Max wants me for, of course, but I'm sure he suspects it. Max has been trying to get me to become a leader ever since I completed initiation.

I lift my eyes to meet Eric's unfriendly stare. "Tell him I am satisfied with the position I currently hold."

Eric lifts an eyebrow. "So he wants to give you a job."

"So it would seem."

"And you aren't interested."

I suppress a sigh. I wish he would just drop it. "I haven't been interested for two years."

"Well," Eric says, "let's hope he gets the point, then." He stands, claps me on the shoulder, and leaves without another word. I can tell he's angry, but he should know by now that I'm not going to take his job. I wonder how he would react if he knew I was planning on leaving Dauntless altogether. He'd probably want to celebrate.

"Are you two...friends?" I would have expected the question to have come from the Candor, but it's Tris who asks it, her eyes decidedly puzzled.

I meet her stare coolly, hoping to discourage this topic of conversation. "We were in the same initiate class. He transferred from Erudite."

"Were you a transfer, too?"

This is not a subject I want to get into, especially with her. "I thought I would only have trouble with the Candor asking too many questions. Now I've got Stiffs, too?"

I expect the tone of my voice to cause her to shut up, or be embarrassed. Instead, she purses her lips and stares me down.

"It must be because you're so approachable," she remarks. "You know. Like a bed of nails."

I stare at her and she stares right back. That was not something I would have ever expected to hear from a girl who is wearing an Abnegation uniform. What initiate here, Dauntless-borns included, would have just insulted a superior that way? Her audacity isn't necessarily a bad thing - maybe it'll help her survive the coming weeks - but she needs to learn when to rein it in.

"Careful, Tris," I warn her.

At that moment, I hear a voice behind me yell my name, and I automatically turn; however, I'm still thinking of Tris, how she jumped first, how she stood up to me, how she is from Abnegation, yet too bold and too stubborn to be one of them. It gives me reason to believe that maybe, she will make it through initiation. I think of her eyes after she jumped; so stern, so insistent. No, I doubt that she will not give up easily.

This initiation might turn out to be more interesting than I'd expected.