In my city, when a child turns sixteen years old, the parents are no longer responsible for their child's wellbeing. It's up to the child to start taking care of themselves. And because of that, we're sent to a school of sorts. It's like college, but without all of that real school nonsense. My brother Caleb, he left the house a few months ago so it has just been me and my parents. They've been antsy around the house given the fact that I'm going to be leaving them soon as well. I just turned sixteen a few days ago and the train I have to take doesn't leave the city until tomorrow morning. They're good people, my parents. Nice and selfless, and obviously I love them, but I'm just glad to be getting away. I never really felt like I got along with my family. They're far more selfless that I could ever be. I miss my brother, and I'm looking forward to seeing him again, but I've heard rumors and stories from people who have come back from the school that it changes people. You might know who they are before they leave, but once you arrive at the school, everything about you changes.

There's always an opportunity to stay at the school, for future students to teach them and train them. None of my friends have stayed. They've all come back to the city to find jobs and spouses. The idea of marriage at this point…it's weird to me. It's kind of embarrassing, but I've never even been kissed. Sixteen and barely even spoken to a boy. It's not that I don't like them, I do. A lot. It's just that my family, and the area of town that we live in, we're not really associated with much. People classify us as weird and dull and stiff. Classifications that I no longer want to fall under. You can't choose your parents. But you can change who you are after you leave them. At sixteen, their rules no longer apply. Freedom…freedom is what I've been yearning for. The ability to run free and not let who I was raised as affect who I want to be. That's part of the reason I can't wait to leave. I hate the classification, because it's not really who I am. I don't know who I am actually. But I can't wait to find out.

I wake early the next morning with the smell of maple syrup filling the house. I am surprised because my family almost never uses anything with that much flavor. The last time we had syrup in the house was when Caleb left the house. I pull myself out of bed to get dressed and I take my time because I know that when I see the look on my parents' faces, I'll more than likely cry. I wish becoming my own person didn't mean saying goodbye to my parents, but that's just how this society works. And it's worked for hundreds of years, so there's never any reason to do things differently. Once I'm dressed, I grab my duffel bag and carry it downstairs with me. I set it on the floor next to the front door before heading into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Beatrice," my mother says to me as I sit down at the table. "How did you sleep?"

"I slept well," I answer with a smile. "Thank you for making breakfast. It smells amazing."

"Thank you," my mother replies as she sits across from me, next to my father who is looking at me.

"Are you ready?" he asks me.

I shrug my shoulders. "Is it even possible to be ready for something like this?" I ask.

He smiles. "I meant, are you ready to become your own person?"

Own person. It's like he's been reading my mind. My father and I haven't spoken as much as I have with my mother. In our family, it is best to listen to your parents instead of speaking. I have never been an outspoken teenager, but being raised by people who rarely, if never, let you speak your mind; it makes you want certain things. And although I'm quiet, I want to be heard. I have listened to my father speak over the last few years about his job with the government about how certain things should be handled and how certain people should be dealt with. All those years of listening, they wear on you, but you do learn. I know I did.

I take a bite of the pancakes in front of me to keep myself from answering right away. I don't want them to think that I've been considering this for a long time. Even though that is the truth. I don't want to feel like I'm letting them down because it's not easy for me to let myself go. I care about what other people think of me. I care about what I think of myself. And my parents…they rarely think of themselves. Which is why leaving is going to be hard. Because I know that when I'm gone they'll have no one else to look after except themselves. After being parents for so long, what do you do when your child leaves?

"I'm looking forward to the new experience," I answer diplomatically.

He smiles. I am my father's daughter. "It will be good for you," he says. "To learn new things."

I nod and we continue to eat in silence. The hands on the clock pass slowly and I know that it's because I can't wait to leave. I feel guilty for leaving my family. But in cases like this, I don't have a choice. And I'm glad for that. I keep those thoughts to myself because even if neither of us have a choice in the matter, I don't want them to know that I'm looking forward to it.

After breakfast we leave the house and the closer we get to the train station, the more my stomach tenses. I don't feel sick, it's just nerves and I hope that my first impression with my potential new friends isn't of me throwing up. We park outside of the train station and I grab my duffel, which conveniently has a change of clothes that I was able to buy with the last few months of my allowance. Actually I had been able to get a few different outfits, which will help in the changing of the stereotype that I have lived under the last sixteen years. I hug my mother and father goodbye because this is the last time I will be seeing them…as their daughter. Once we finish out goodbyes, they get back into the car. I watch them as they leave and when I can no longer see the license plate on their car, the sensation in my gut leaves me. I walk into the train station which is busy as ever with families saying goodbye to their children. We had discussed that our family is not one for epic goodbyes. We say goodbye and that is it. There is no reason to drag it out.

I find the first bathroom available and rush inside tossing my duffel onto the sink and start digging through it to find the black tank top and jeans to replace the grey clothes on my back. Grey is nice…it's simple; it just was never my favorite color. As I am pulling my jeans on, the door opens and a girl walks in raising her eyebrows in approval. "You wanted to change too?" she asks lifting her bag.

I nod. "New life, new clothes," I say with a smile.

She grins. "I'm Christina."

"Beatrice," I answer.

I pull on my tank top and wait for her to dress before we leave the bathroom together.

"What do you think it'll be like?" she asks me.

I shrug. "I have no idea."

She grins at me. "Anything will be exiting after leaving our parent's protection. I'm excited to live."

I nod. "Living sounds nice."

"Hell yeah it does!"

I laugh with her and we talk until the train comes and then all of us, I am able to count fifty of us, but am unable to count any higher as we all start piling onto the train. There are dozens of people packed into the car I am in and I am lucky that I'm small enough to squeeze in so that I can put mine and Christina's bags on the overhead rack. I sit down next to her and a boy named Will as the monitors on the side of the car turn on. There is picture of a building, a magnificent building that looks almost like a castle, and then a woman's voice comes through.

"Welcome! Today is the start of your new lives as independents of the city. You should now be leaving the train station. As the train picks up speed, please notice the picture on the monitors in front of you," the voice says. "This is the Hub. This is where all of your classes and training will start. When you arrive you will split into your dorms and you will meet the people who will become your family for the next few years."

I look at Christina and she grins at me grabbing my hand and squeezing it. This is what I've wanted for a while now. To have a friend who gets me…without all of the bullshit that was the neighborhood I grew up in. I don't know what will happen when we get to the Hub. I don't know if we will even stay friends once we get there. But this is the first time I have made a friend because of who I am. Not on what clothes I wear.

"We welcome you to the Hub," the voice says. "We trust you to make the right choice."

We arrive at the Hub a few hours later and Christina and I are one of the last ones off of the train. She grabs my bag and hands it to me and I sling it over my shoulder before we step onto the train platform which lets off right in front of the main building. I was wrong. It wasn't a castle. It is a collection of buildings that are built out of stone. There are five buildings behind the main building, which we are being ushered into. It's all starting to feel a bit like Harry Potter and I wonder if we're going to be led into the great hall to eat some magical food.

"I wonder where Dumbledore is," Christina whispers to me as we walk up the steps.

I laugh. "I was just thinking the same thing," I say with a grin.

"I knew I liked you!"

We enter the main building and the hush falls over the crowd as there's a relay from the microphone on the stage. We turn toward the noise and a blonde woman comes out and offers of a smile…but even from here I can tell that the smile doesn't go all the way up to her eyes. She looks intimidating.

"Welcome to the Hub." Her voice is the same voice that we heard on the train ride up. So she must be one of the leaders here. "Today is the first day of the rest of your lives." Wow. She looks smart, but she just quoted one of the most cliché things I have ever heard. I cough to cover up my laugh and then I bring my lips together to keep myself from obviously smiling. Christina looks at me and I see the grin on her face. Yeah, we're definitely friends. "We're going to be lining up and you'll find out your dorm assignments when you reach the table. After that it's up to your trainers and your leaders to dictate how you spend the first few months of life here."

The nerves in my stomach are back again. But this time it's become I'm really excited to get started. I wonder what dorm my brother got sorted into. I'm looking forward to seeing him again. The woman leaves the stage and the cacophony of the room starts up again. We start moving toward the front of the line and the closer with get the quieter the room gets. People file out asking questions about "which dorm is this" and so on and so forth. No one knows what to expect when they get here. Being sorted into a dorm is like finding out who you really are…who you are meant to be and who you are meant to become. Then it's me in line and I step up.

"Name, please?" the man asks me in a dull voice.

"Beatrice Prior," I say. The second it leaves my lips it gets me thinking that new me…new name. "Tris, actually."

"Prior…" he says looking down at the papers in front of him. "You're in Dauntless."

He hands me a strip of paper and I take it. "Thanks."

"Next!"

I step aside waiting for Christina and I smile when I hear the man say that she's in Dauntless too. When she joins me, we hug.

"I'm glad we're not being separated," I tell her. "It's good to have a friend."

She grins. "Yes, it is."

We leave the main building and follow the stream of people heading to the Dauntless building. As we walk closer to it, the bigger it gets. "Shit," I say. "That's pretty intimidating."

"Hey!"

We turn to see Will coming toward us with another boy who I don't recognize. Granted, I don't recognize a lot of people from my own life. I didn't exactly have many friends.

"Hey!" Christina exclaims. "Where are you guys going?"

"Dauntless," Will says. "This is Al, he's Dauntless too."

"Hey," I say to Al. "I'm Tris and this is Christina."

Christina lifts her hand in a half wave to match the half smirk on her lips.

"You guys ready?" Will nods toward the front of the building where there's two men standing outside of the building. One of them has piercings all over his face and the other one looks…well normal compared to him.

"Listen up!" the one with the piercings shouts. "I'm Eric. I'm one of your leaders here at Dauntless. This is Four," he gestures to the other guy. There's something about the look on his face that is sexy and scary at the same time. He looks deadly serious. "The first rule you need to know about Dauntless is that we don't take cowardice lightly. In Dauntless you need to be brave."

Eric doesn't stay long. He walks back into the building almost like he's completely fed up with things. I don't mind actually. I'm glad to see him go; something tells me he's going to be one of the bad parts of this whole thing.

Four stares at us. There are about twenty-five of us who are waiting for him to speak. He lifts a brow. "Now that he's got that introduction out of the way," he says. "Welcome to Dauntless.

A/N:Okay. I was just in the mood for a modern type version of Divergent. I don't know where I'm going with this story. I'm just...writing for the sake of writing. This is a test chapter. Let me know if I should keep going! Thanks for all of your support.