So I have turned into one of those Divergent nerds... And I love it! FOURever (see what I did there) Anyway this is supposed to be a one shot as a birthday present to swordsandstories, but I think I might keep going with it! I never had this much fun writing a fic before... Warning- I kinda just let myself go and type for a few hours and came up with this. Basically I just used the characters names :) Anyway they are in high school and its kinda just a story about how Four turns Tris a city girl into being a hard core hillbilly. I love it lol
Disclaimer- I do not own Divergent, nor do I own the characters stolen from Divergent. But if I owned Four, I would be a much happier girl ;)
"And those are just a few reasons why you should vote me, Tris, and next years Student Body President!" It was the last week of school my sophomore year, and we were finally holding elections for next years Student Government. I was the only person running for president, so there was no doubt that next year was going to be the greatest year ever! That is, of course, if I can get Four to notice me.
Four is a really cute senior, who quite frankly, is probably gay because he is way too adorable to not have millions of girls all over him every second of the day. I'm pretty sure I'm the only girl who even looks at him when he walks down the hall. It has been my goal, since I first watched him play football the beginning of my freshman year, to get him to like me, and obviously get him to marry me one day.
Once all the other speeches were done, we were excused to lunch. As I was walking out the gym doors, I saw Four walking to his locker. "What the hell" I thought.
"Hey, Four, I was wondering if maybe you wanted-"
"Wanted to what, Tris" HE. KNEW. MY. NAME!
"Well I just thought we could maybe hang out some time."
"Yea, lets do that, some time." he said. I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic, but by the look on his face, "some time" wasn't coming any time soon.
"Uh- Okay cool. I'll see you some time." I could feel my face turn bright red, and I wanted to melt into the floor right there.
"Well if you wanted to walk away now, you could." He said obviously seeing the awkwardness radiating off of me, "But I'm going to go get lunch if you wanted to come along." What? This had to be a dream. Four just asked me to go to lunch with him… And I didn't even have to threaten to kill him.
"Only if you insist." I said, failing at not sounding excited.
"Come on then." He said, and I'm pretty sure after he muttered something about sophomore girls.
His truck was a beat up Chevy with a horrible blue paint job. I guess everyone has to have a flaw somewhere. We drove just out of town to a small Mexican restaurant.
"Um- I don't want to be a buzz kill or anything, but there is no way we are going to be able to get back before sixth period starts." I was truly worried. I had my perfect attendance since kindergarten to uphold!
"You really care about getting to class on time." He said picking up his Dr. Pepper.
"Duh. I have not-"
"Get over it. You are eating lunch with a senior right now. You should be treasuring this moment."
"You know what you smart-"
"What can I get you two today." The waitress was short and blonde and clearly very nosey. We ordered our food and once we were alone again Four started talking again.
"So why are you so bummed about ditching one class?" He asked actually seeming curious.
"It's kind of a long story…"
"So let me guess. Perfect attendance, straight A's blah, blah, blah. Have you ever been to a party before?"
"No…" When you stalk one guy your entire high school career it's kind of hard to make friends.
"Wow. Almost a junior and you haven't even been to a party."
"Nope, never in my life."
"Why?"
"I guess I've never really been invited." That wasn't entirely true. A boy named Ethan asked me to go to a party with him, but I got scared and backed out at the last minute.
"Well guess what, Miss Perfect, you get to hang out with seniors this weekend. I'm taking you to a party." So, not only does he take me to lunch, but he is going to take me to a party with him?
"I- I can't. I have homework to do on the weekends. I have like all AP classes."
"That's great Princess Tris, but you're going and you will enjoy it." Once he got done saying that, our food came. We didn't talk much after that, and if we did it would've been pretty gross considering he ate just like most teenage boys do. I was at lunch with a senior boy, who totally liked me right back, and he was going to take me to a party with him. And seniors!
Once we got done eating, I tried to pay for my own food, but he refused.
"No, I made you ditch class, so I pay." We got back into his truck and drove in the exact opposite direction as the school.
"Hey, Four, you realize the school is that way," I said pointing at the road that would eventually lead back to school.
"Yea. And?"
"And I need to go to class, Four!" He may be cute, but his little "I don't care, I'm a senior" side got a little annoying after awhile.
"Tris, by the time we get back to school, there will be twenty minutes left in seventh period. Seventh period is math. I'm doing you a favor." We did have math class together, but he never did show up so I guess we technically didn't. Our math teacher was pretty much a creepy pedophile, so I guess he really is doing me a favor.
"I think this is kid-napping. You're taking a sophomore you barely know, away from school, and said sophomore has no idea where she is going."
"Don't act like you don't like it 'sophomore,'" he said adding sarcasm to the 'sophomore'
part. "Admit it, you've been waiting for this day for years now." Oh yea, I definitely wanted Four to take me somewhere. But not to a crappy restaurant and a drive to the middle of nowhere.
"Where are we going?" Hopefully somewhere nice and air-conditioned like the mall. But I doubt it because the houses are fading away to massive fields of sagebrush. I already lived in the middle of nowhere where cows roamed freely, which is disgusting. I was moved here my freshmen year when my parents got divorced to live with my grandma. The high school had a grand total of 73 students and 16 teachers.
"I'm showing you something."
"Such as?"
"You'll see, Tris, soon enough. So, are the roomers right? Are you a city girl, who hates it here?"
"Yea, pretty much. I don't think a place there is no gas station is a place for a girl who grew up in the mall." No gas stations, restaurants, stores. Anything. Talk about paradise. Not.
"We'll see about that, 'city girl'" He said turning off on a dirt road. Four just got a lot less appealing. I was kind of hoping that he was just another city kid who got shipped off to a crap pile place. But to me it looked like he was a pure bred hillbilly. The dirt road had to have a jillion bumps on it, and every one we hit I felt like my whole body was going to fly through the ceiling.
"H-ow d-do you find th-his fun a-at all?" I asked my voice shaking with every freaking boulder we hit.
"This is what you do when there isn't 47 malls and bowling allies, get used to it." Typical Four, no sympathy. I would only know because I stalked him for a year and a half. We drove for ten minutes, which felt more like ten hours. We finally stopped at a small stone house with a blue pond the same color as Four's eyes. Surrounding the pond were tall grasses and flowers, making it seem like it was a fairy tale. I have to admit it was one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my life. I walked into the stone house, which was surprisingly in good shape. Inside was a small bed, a table, and a fire place that needed real wood. There was cupboards with some jars of peanut butter and as few boxes of crackers.
"What is this place?" I asked Four, unable to hide the wonder in my voice.
"Ah, just a place I come when I have to think. Being a football star is kind of stressful and it makes you kind of hungry, ya know?" He said sitting on the bed looking up at me with his gorgeous blue eyes and almost perfect smile.
"Why did you bring a nerdy sophomore girl here? A girl who hates this small town, and would rather be in a crowded city, with different types of people all around?" It made no sense. Did he expect me to think this place was wonderful? I guess I kind of did. But not in the "home sweet home" type of way.
"That exact reason. I wanted you to see why it is so great living here. When was the last time you saw the stars before you came here? When was the last time you were able to breath fresh air, Tris, I know you don't believe it, but you love it here. It might not be now, but one day, soon hopefully, you will see that it is better to be surrounded by grass and fields than it is to be surrounded by people." Wow. I never expected Four to come out this deep. He always seemed like a tough person, with a hard head, and no emotions. I was not expecting this.
"But why do you care?"
"Duh Tris, because I like you. You're beautiful, and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to have this one day with you before I graduated."
"Normally when a guy likes a girl, he just asks her to prom… Then after prom, he gets her into the back of his truck." I still wasn't completely sure if him bringing me to "his place" was sweet or stalkerish.
"That would be in the city. In small towns, a guy takes the girl of his dreams to a cheep Mexican restaurant, then to the middle of nowhere where he occasionally runs away to." Damn. He was just adorable.
I looked at my phone and realized almost an hour has passed since we left the restaurant.
"So, Four I guess you made me a little bit of a rebel today, so since I already missed two classes, show me something else. Please." I was curious about the other places Four went. I figured since I literally followed him almost everywhere he went, that he was not this mysterious of a person.
"Well, we could go to a bar just a few miles that way" he said pointing back towards where the main road was. A bar. There's the tough Four I was expecting.
"I'm sixteen, and you're still underage also."
"Rules like that are for the city Tris, and I never said we were going to drink." What else do people go to the bar for? Maybe for strippers, but other than that I don't see any reason to be anywhere near a bar.
We got back into his truck and drove back down the dirt road to the main road.
"Do you want to drive?" Drive? Really? I was supposed to get my license, but my grandma got sick and never took me to my appointment, so I wasn't even close to being legal.
"I don't have my license." And I didn't know how to drive a stick shift either. But I wasn't going to admit that.
"Good thing there's nobody holding you back, huh?" He said stopping his truck in the middle of the dirt road. He got out and walked around to my side. Opening my door he said, "Come on city girl, were in the country now, you're gonna have to learn some time." Hesitantly, I got out of the truck and walked to the other side. Getting up into the drivers seat was a whole different story. I was a grand total of 5 foot 3 and, unlike the passenger side, this side did not have a step on the side to help vertically challenged people. Seeing my struggle, Four leaned over and pulled me up by my arm. I settled myself into the seat, and realized that I would have to sit all the way at the front of the seat to reach the petals, and if I did that, I couldn't see over the steering wheel.
"Oh, it looks like I can't drive this, Four, I can't reach, or see for that matter." I said, opening the door to get out.
"No!" Four said reaching over and slamming the door. "You are going to drive, Tris. Let that city girl go and be free from her whineyness." Well that hurt. Now to Four I'm nothing more than a little bitch. He got out and reached into the back, pulling out a box that said Remington on the outside. "You're going to learn to drive like I did. Look here, shotgun shell cases are the best for this." I was going to sit on bullets so I was tall enough to see over the steering wheel. This was the most hillbilly thing I have ever done in my life time.
"I don't really want to say this, but I have never drove a truck before, or a stick shift." It hurt to admit it, but I really didn't want us to die.
"You really don't want to drive?" Oh thank God. He understood and was going to not make me. "That's too bad. I'll teach you ." Well shoot. I was going to kill us both before I even got a chance to hold his hand. "Okay, make sure it in in neutral." I reached for the shifter thingy and before I could touch it, Four slapped my hand. "Brake first, unless you want to drive off a cliff." So I pressed in the break, and jiggled the stick for a couple seconds wondering what I was even doing. "Wow. You really have no idea at all! Okay, so the gear stick is built like an H shape." He said, shifting it into all the other gears to show me. "If it is in the middle of the H, it in in neutral." He said, putting it in neutral for me. "Okay, now go ahead and start it."
Just the roar of the engine brought on its own adrenaline rush. "Now you have to push in the clutch- the one on the far left- and now, put it into first," he said waiting for me to put it into gear. "Okay, now you have to slowly let off the clutch, while you slowly push on the gas." It took a couple tries to get it down, but after getting fed up of the truck jumping out then gurgling and stopping, I nailed it, and we were moving.
"Okay, since were on the dirt road, you can pretty stay in first, unless of course, you want to let that inner country girl out and drive as fast as you please." Well, that felt like a challenge to me, and I didn't want him to look at me like a city girl for the rest of my life. So I proceeded to push the gas pedal all the way to the floor, the truck giving off a loud winging sound. "Hold on kid, you're going to blow up my transmission! You have to shift at some point. Take your foot off the gas." I listened to him. "Good, now push in the clutch in all the way and shift it to second." I did. "Now let off the clutch and drive again. And if you don't want to tear up my truck, keep doing that until you get to the point where there is no winding sound." I kept shifting, and feeling like a bad ass until I went up to fourth gear, and was flying down the road throwing up rocks and making a giant dust cloud behind me. "Okay, this isn't the Indy 500," he said with the slightest chuckle in his voice, "and there is a stop sign ahead, so you are going to have to down shift a couple times so you can stop and then get going again." I did what he said, and stopped at the stop sign. "Do you want to keep driving?" He asked, and when I nodded my head, he said, "Unfortunately, there's a speed limit here, so you can't show off your NASCAR skills here."
"Well it's a good thing there is nobody holding me back!" I said mocking him. This was the best day of my life, even under the circumstances and that I was in the middle of nowhere. But it really wasn't all that bad, and I was truly enjoying myself. I pulled out on the road, and turned the opposite direction of the bar he told me to drive to.
"Hey, Tris, the bar is that way," he said, mocking me right back. I knew were I was going. One time, last year, before my grandmas adopted son graduated, he took me out on this road where most of the high school students went racing on. It was a straight road, with no other people or roads in sight for miles. Now that I finally had the whole shifting thing, I allowed myself to go into fifth gear. I was going 120, and Four just watched me. After a few minutes, I let myself slow down, and dropped it into third gear, then eventually pulled off on the side of the road.
"You have to take me racing some day," I said stepping out of the truck. I got around to the passenger side, and he was still looking at me. "Hey?" I said awkwardly.
"Holy shit. Where did that come from?" I think I showed him who was the little bitch now.
"I don't know. But it felt good." It definitely felt good. My heart was still racing, and my cheeks hurt from smiling.
"You tore up that road like you have been driving all your life! I could kiss you right now, Tris!" That made me smile even more.
"Come on, let's go to that bar now." I said. I was so glad I ditched class, this was way better than listening to a monotone math teacher who can't teach. He got in and drove, not as bad ass as me, toward the bar. I turned on the radio, and it was set on the country station. And not the modern pop-country, it was old country. And I hated country music. But I didn't want to look like that city girl all over again, so I turned it up and listened.
The song was vaguely familiar, I remembered singing it with my friends in elementary school when it first came out. Once the song ended the DJ said the name: Beer for my Horses by Toby Keith. Me and my old friend Kellie sang that song on a daily basis, and the thought made me smile.
"Why are you so smiley all of a sudden, city girl?" Did he not realize that I was sitting next to the guy I have had a crush on for over a year now?
"Oh, it's just that song, it used to be my favorite."
"So, the city girl likes country music!" he said turning it up even more, and singing along with the new song, one I didn't know. I couldn't watch him, and not smile like a creep. But he was so cute, and nobody has ever been open enough with me to sing like an idiot in front of me. He put down his window and turned up the radio even louder. My hair whipped me in my face, and got stuck in my mouth, but I didn't even care. I didn't stop smiling, even when we pulled into the bar.
It was almost as beautiful as the little rock cabin. And almost as small. It was like every city kid imagines a log cabin. It looked like the little buildings my brother used to build with his Lincoln Logs.
"Wow, Four. You really know where to go." When we walked up to the door, I noticed a small planter with bright orange lilies in the middle, surrounded by a few yellow daffodils and finally purple petunias along the bottom. I guess Four noticed me admiring them, and he picked out the biggest., yellowest daffodil and handed it to me.
"The most beautiful flower for the most beautiful girl." Sometimes I wish his blue eyes weren't so blue, because rather than taking the flower, I just looked into his eyes, mesmerized by their beauty. He finally shifted his eyes up, making me wake up from my day dream.
"Thanks." I said, not even bothering to hide my smile. He held the door open for me, and we walked in together. Inside, the bar was painted a tannish yellow color, with a dark brown wooden trim. It looked very country. Other than a single bar tender, there was a couple mid aged men, and a young kid, most likely the bar tenders. Other than that though, there was a pool table, some slot machines, a dart board, a couple couches and an ancient looking TV playing NASCAR.
"You having the usual, Four?" The bartender yelled across the bar. So he must come here pretty often.
"Not today, Annie. I'll just have some water."
"How 'bout your girl there?" She asked
"Um- I'll just have some water too please." Four walked up and sat right at the bar. No matter how illegal I knew it was, I joined him. When we got our waters, Four walked me outside through the back door. Out back, there was a wood patio with a few chairs and a table over looking a cliff. He walked me to the edge of the cliff and pointed down to the beautiful view. There was a small house, on what looked like millions of miles of fields and a long snaking river running right through the middle of it all. Here and there, random black cows gathered in small groups, and in a fenced off area near the house were two pure white horses.
"See that down there," he said still pointing, "That is my house." No wonder he was at this bar so often. "The bartender in there is my older sister, she lives a few miles behind my house." After he said that, I was able to pick out a slightly larger house closer to the river. "The kid in there is my niece. Her name is Tina."
"Wow." was all I was able to say.
"Yea, its pretty great huh?" He said, as he laced his fingers into mine. Instantly, a surge of electricity went from the tips of my fingers to the rest of my body, and it took everything in me to not flinch with surprise. "You wanna play some pool?" He asked, and when I nodded my head, he pulled me inside.
He put the money in, and set up all the balls. "How about you break?" he said, the end sounding like he was asking a question.
"I've never played pool before." I noticed my voice was shaking. Like he would hate me for never playing pool before.
"Tris, you realize that you just drove a stick for the first time, and you drove like a natural. Hun you can do anything." That made me smile, and giggle like a little girl, which made him smile. I noticed that when he smiled, the corners of his eyes wrinkled up, making him look older than he really was. "I'll help you." He said, reaching his arms around my body and showing me how to hold the stick. He then guided my hand to where it was supposed to go on the stick, and helped me hit the ball. It took a few times because I kept lifting my hand off the table and missing to the top of the ball by miles. Once I finally got it, and sent the triangle of colorful balls scattered throughout the table, I almost screamed. I threw both my arms in the air and laughed like a nerd. "I don't think a city girl could break like that!" That was probably the best thing he has ever said to me.
When we were almost done with our game, I checked my phone to see what time it was, and realized that my grandma has been calling me for almost an hour now. I called her back, only to get yelled at for not coming home. I tried to tell her I was hanging out with friends, but she freaked out and told me if I wasn't home in the next twenty minutes I was going to be grounded. I walked back into the bar and tried to explain that to Four.
"Four, I have to go home… My grandma is freaking out on me.
"Can we finish our game?" he asked sounding almost annoyed.
"She said I had to be home in twenty minutes." I said. The only thing going through my head was 'please understand.'
"Whatever happened to my little rebel girl?" he asked, lucky for me he was clearly joking, otherwise I might've cried.
"Well, my grandma is a scary old woman, and if I'm late, she'll probably kick my ass." I saw the surprise on his face when I said 'ass.' What did he expect? I wasn't even close to being perfect.
"Okay, so I'll get you home." he said, waving to his sister, and leading me out the door. When he opened the door for me, and I saw the planter, I realized that I forgot my flower inside.
"Hold on, I forgot something." I said rushing back inside. I grabbed my flower off the table and said bye to Annie and Tina.
"You have everything right?" He said, his eyes wrinkling even more with the size of his smile. "How about you drive? With a future NASCAR driver behind the wheel, we can get there in five minutes." I honestly did want to drive again. The amount of adrenaline I felt when I was flying down the road at unimaginable speeds was the best feeling in the world. But if my grandma ever saw me driving like that, I definitely wouldn't live any longer.
"Nah, my butt is kind of sore from that box, and I want to see your skills!" I said climbing into the passenger seat. This day was the first day I really enjoyed in this small town. Hopefully my grandma will see that and will forgive me for not telling her where I was.
"You're going to have to tell me where you live, because I don't usually stalk people." Holy crap. What if he knows that I stalked him for that long! That would make for an awkward conversation.
"It's just past the school." I usually walked to school, but after today, I had to get my license.
"Okay." he said, and I noticed he was driving with his left hand and had his other hand resting on the seat next to him. I have seen enough movies to know that I'm supposed to very seductively hold his hand right now, but I didn't really know what I was doing.
"Just do it," my mind kept saying. What did I have to lose? He already held my hand, and I'm almost positive that spark was way to big to be felt by only me. So I went for it, and intertwined my fingers into his, the same feeling coming as before. I saw his lips turn up the tiniest bit, and couldn't help but smile a little bit myself. This felt right, and I never wanted to forget this day.
Please review! I might keep going and turn this one-shot into a BA fic that nobody will ever forget :) :P :D
Happy *late* birthday Swordsandstories xoxo Tridentsandtales 3