So this is pretty much Divergent told in Natalie Prior's point of view...Enjoy! P.S, there will be some Divergent spoilers in here, so watch out!
I wake to the sound of my husband Andrew's breathing. Today is aptitude testing day.
Snip snip snip
Out of the corner of my eye, I watch my daughter, Beatrice, trying to sneak a look at herself. Our Faction, Abnegation, doesn't allow mirrors because we are supposed to try to forget ourselves. I never really fit in here, then again, I'll never fit in anywhere because I'm Divergent.
(Flash back to 20 years ago when Natalie was 16 and took her aptitude test)
"Natalie Erickson"
My turn. I'm going to get Dauntless and stay there for the rest of my life. I hope.
I walk into the mirrored room and see a pretty Amity woman sitting in a chair. Next to that is a long metal chair, like at the doctor's office.
"Hello, I'm Angelina and I'll administer your aptitude test, please sit down."
I sat down a little nervously. Who knows what happens in these stimulations?
Angelina starts sticking wires to my head and arms.
"The stimulation will go into effect in about 50 seconds, good luck."
As she is saying that, I can feel the world fading away. About 30 seconds later, it comes back into focus and I'm standing in the school cafeteria. What the...?
"Choose." I hear a stern voice and turn around to see a table with an apple and knife. The apple may be the better bet because (Alliteration...sorry, I'm lame) it could be thrown or eaten is necessary. The knife is good to because you never know when you need to cut something, but my knife throwing isn't great. I grab the apple and step back.
The scenery changes and I'm confronted with two men wearing all black, holding guns. Shit.
"Tell us who you are and why your here, or else we'll kill you." the man on the right spits at me.
"Yeah, why the hell should I tell you guys anything." That was a stupid move, but I'm not know for my wisdom. Now's the perfect time to attack. I throw the apple with such great force the thing explodes when it hits the guys' head. That should knock him out for a while. The other guy jumps at me, but I dive to the right at the last second and he hits the floor. While he's still down, I start kicking and punching him for all it's worth. Just then the world around me blurs and I'm headed somewhere else.
The room comes back into focus and I see I'm sitting in the metal chair once again.
Angelina stares at me in shock. What did I do?
"Ummm...I'll be right back." she says as she almost runs out of the room.
What the hell?
About 5 minutes later, Angelina returns with someone. My mother.
"Mom, what's wrong?" I ask
"Natalie, listen closely: your results where inconclusive," Inconclusive..how? " You have equal aptitude for 2 Factions, Dauntless and Erudite. You are Divergent"
"Diverge-"
"shhhh! Don't say it out loud!"
" So, now what?"
"You shouldn't stay in Dauntless, and Erudite isn't a great idea either. People get killed because of this, you must be very careful."
woah, that was a lot to take in.
"what Faction will I be in?"
"That's up to you, I guess. You could stay in Dauntless if you really want to, but I don't recommend it. Abnegation or Amity is the best choice."
"So I have to be a stiff?!"
"or you could go to Amity"
"no. No way in hell am I going to spend the rest of my days with a bunch of peace loving, drugged, idiots."
" Everything will be ok, honey. Just remember this: Divergent means you can stay awake during stimulations, control them. That's why you shouldn't be in Dauntless, because of the second stage. Erudite is the Faction that kills off the Divergent because they are a threat to society."
"how?"
"Equal aptitude to more than one Faction means you have something to fight for. Think about it like this, a kid is raised in Candor and has the aptitude for Candor. He is living the life he believes is moral and right so he can't argue with anything. If he had aptitude for Candor and Abnegation, he could make a point that the Abnegation aren't honest enough or the Candor are selfish, there we have a problem."
This was finally starting to sink in. I am Divergent.
"Whatever you choose, I'll still love you. Now you should go, we've manually logged your results in as Dauntless."
With that I get up and walk back to my lunch table. I was the last to go.
Today is the Choosing Ceremony, the day I'll decide my fate.
My mother, Father and I walk to the train silently. They know I'll be switching Factions. We get on the train and the rest is a blur.
"Today our children will choose between Erudite, Dauntless, Abnegation, Amity, and Candor, and decide their fate. We will go in alphabetical order starting with Amelia Abin from Candor."
She chooses to stay. 25 people in front of me.
24
23
22
21
20
Ok, get a grip I tell myself and try to tune out everything until it's my turn.
2
Marcus Eaton goes up. He's this twisted Candor kid who picks fights with the Dauntless, and somehow always manages to win. He transfers to Abnegation. That makes two of us.
1
Zoey Eble stays in her faction, Amity.
O
"Natalie Erickson of Dauntless."
I slowly walk up to the podium and take the knife from the abnegation leader's hand. I slice it over my hand and stand over the Dauntless and Abnegation bowls. Slowly, I unclench my fist and with a shaky breath, I let my blood drizzle over the Abnegation stones.
I can barely hear the outraged cries as I walk over to stand behind the Abnegation initiates. I stare into space until the ceremony is over
"Hello, I'm Andrew" A handsome Erudite with Dark hair and blue eyes tells me. He extends his hand for a handshake.
"Natalie" I say and shake his hand.
I am now part of Abnegation. I will shed my black clothes in favor of grey ones and forget myself.
"Done." I say as I twist Beatrice's hair into a bun.
"thank you, for cutting my hair." She replies.
As she walks out of the room, I sweep the floor and slide the mirror back behind the wall. I look at my watch and see I'm running late.
On the train ride home from work, I try to figure out what results my children got. Caleb is definitely not Candor or Amity, he is too good of a liar for that. I doubt he's Dauntless. That leaves Erudite and Abnegation. I've seen the books in his room, the way is eyes light up when he learns something new. Beatrice is harder. She's definitely selfless, but doesn't try to totally forget herself. I can see she does lie quite a bit, although she tries to cover it up. She's smart, but not quite Erudite. That leaves Dauntless. Her compassion and selflessness combined is an amazing quality I can only see in true Dauntless. You can't be completely honest or selfless without bravery, and you can't become intelligent without first admitting to yourself you hardly know anything. Either way, I just hope both of them transfer and neither of them are divergent.
"Welcome home, Mom" Caleb says as I enter the door.
"hello, Caleb, Beatrice." I say.
We all sit around the dinner table and say a prayer to God, thanking him for the meal and pass the food around.
"so, how was work today?" I ask Andrew.
"Frustrating. Not for me, but Marcus. The Erudite released another article about him abusing his son."
Those articles were anything but false. I've seen the damage Marcus did to Tobias myself.
"That poor man." I say anyway. There's no need to start an argument, especially with a former Erudite.
We finish the dinner with little more conversation.
After a long hour of knitting scarves, the kids head up to bed. At the top of the stairs, I hear Caleb say to Beatrice, "Beatrice, we should think of our family. But. But we must also think of ourselves." I smile a little at that. I think he's going to transfer. Hopefully.
The next morning we go to the Abnegation meeting room because we're holding the ceremony this year. Marcus starts off by reading all the Faction manifestoes and finally starts saying the names. I see Caleb is going before Beatrice, because they're going in reverse alphabetical. By the time they reach Caleb, the Erudite water is stained red and the Abnegation stones are covered in blood.
He slowly walks up to the podium and I flinch as he slices his hand. Holding it to his chest, he takes a deep breath and opens his hand to let the blood drip into the Erudite water, dyeing it a darker red.
The Abnegation, usually so quite, mutter amongst themselves and the Erudite wear smug smiles. There are hardly ever any transfers from Abnegation, especially to Erudite. Once the crowd calms down, Beatrice walks up to the podium and takes the knife. She stands over the Dauntless and Abnegation bowls, looking back and forth between them just like I did when I chose. I hear her blood sizzle on the lit coals, and people gasping. The last Abnegation transfer to Dauntless was Tobias Eaton.
After the back to back transfers, it takes a while for the crowd to calm down. Once it does, the ceremony quickly wraps up.
I see Caleb shot a glance in my direction and I give him a small smile. I can see Andrew is angry. He has always hated the Erudite. He's also not that fond of the Dauntless. I see Beatrice in the sea of black heading towards the door. I smile at her to when she looks at me. Good, my children will be safe.
Except,
Both of my children transferred to different Factions. I might see Beatrice, but there's no chance with Caleb.
Except,
Beatrice is most likely Divergent, not a good thing to be in Dauntless.
With those thoughts in mind, Andrew and I silently walk home and I prepare dinner.
What did you think? That was actually a lot harder than it seemed, since there's no back story on Natalie. Review!
-Diana