Hello everyone! This is my first Divergent fanfiction. While I do have most of it planned out and some of it prewritten I love suggestions, plot ideas, and constructive criticism. I do write faster when I hear from you guys in the review section so don't be afraid to review and/or PM me. So without further ado, let the story begin!

I can't claim anything except my plot and OCs

The distance is what's killing me
Time and space have become the enemy
And what I need is so far away
And so it goes
The distance makes it hard to breathe
My heart won't let go easily
I don't want to be this far away

Hot Chelle Rae – The Distance

Prologue

I sit at my desk finishing the report my father assigned me last night so that I can finally go down and eat breakfast before we have to leave. Most parents don't assign homework, but my family isn't like most. My father is one of Erudite's head scientists and expects his children to live up to his legacy.

Today is my older brother's Choosing Day. Andrew is fourteen months older than I am, just enough of a gap that we don't share a choosing day as I will not be sixteen for another three months. While most families are up on this day solemnly eating what could be their final breakfast together, mine are going about life as if it is just an ordinary morning. Andrew has never been anything but Erudite; when I was five and he was six he set fire to our kitchen because one of the experimental lasers he had been working on behind our parent's back malfunctioned. Andrew will choose Erudite, my parent's will beam with pride, and then life will go on as it always has. My normal, boring, Erudite life.

A soft knock at my door distracts me from my thoughts and I gladly abandon my homework to see who it is. I open the door to see my brother's best friend Eric nervously standing in the hallway, ringing his hands together and staring at his shoes.

"Gabriella," He says softly when he hears the door open before looking up and past me into my room to avoid making eye contact, "May I come in?"

I nod and quickly take a step to the side to let him in before softly shutting the door. "What is going on Eric?"

Eric, Andrew, and I had been the best of friends when we were young; in fact until about a year ago we still were, but then he started avoiding me and acting weird whenever we were around one another. If the fact that he is suddenly standing nervously at my bedroom door wasn't weird enough, despite Erudite's feelings toward nicknames, Eric hasn't called me Gabriella since we were five.

"I'm sorry for interrupting," He starts, glancing at the books and papers covering my desk, "I just needed to talk to you before…"

It hadn't occurred to me until just now that today would also be Eric's choosing day too; I had been so focused on Andrew. Eric is between Andrew and I in age, but since he turned sixteen a couple months ago he shares his choosing day with Andrew instead of me. I opened my mouth to ask the first question that came to my mind, but Eric seams to read my mind and answers before I can ask it.

"I'm leaving, Gidget," He blurts out, using the nickname that he had called me since we were small, "But I needed to see you before I go."

"Wh... Where are you going? You've always been so intelligent and inquisitive, everything a good Erudite should be," I pause, trying to scour my memories of him for a time when he seemed like he belonged in anything but blue.

"I can't explain it to you now, and that isn't what matters," He takes two long strides forward and he is standing right in front of me, our faces inches apart. I had forgotten how tall he is, but now it's hard to ignore as I have to look up to meet his eyes again.

"Then what does matter?" I ask, barely above a whisper. The thirteen year old me, who sat up at night thinking about what our children's names would be, is suddenly hopeful but the rational me tells her to forget it. That is, until he answers me by crashing his lips into mine, his right hand sliding up the side of my face and into my chestnut curls.

He pulls back much too soon in my opinion, "I'm sorry if that makes things weird, but in a few hours I'll be gone. If something happened to me or I didn't make it through initiation I would have regretted not telling you how I felt before I left."

With that he is gone, down the stairs before I can even call his name. I faintly hear him politely refuse my mother's offer of breakfast before the door shuts loudly behind him. I reach up and softly touch my lips before pinching my cheek as hard as possible. No, this isn't an oddly vivid dream, so that leaves only one option.

A few hours later I am sitting in the hub next to my mother, watching as the line of sixteen year olds makes the most important choice of their lives. Then it is his turn, he takes the knife and walks to the bowls, his eyes briefly finding mine before the sizzling sound fills the quiet room as his blood hits the Dauntless coals.