Hello, my fellow divergents.
Yes. I am aware that I have been neglecting this story for over two years. Yes, tis true, I became what I hated: a fanfiction author who suddenly drops a story without even alerting the readers in an author's note. I'm ashamed. All I can say is that I've had a lot going on in my life in the last two years.
Over the next couple of months I will rewrite this story (And give it a better name and plot. I mean, I like truth or dare and drinking games(no, I don't regularly participate inthem, I just like writing about them), and this story will most certainly contain regular games. I've come to the conclusion, however, that a story that's merely about just that, games, is a story that's nothing more but filler). One by one I'll replace the chapter by improved versions. I truly hope these chapters will please the old readers, and attract new ones.
One thing I can promise will be better is the grammar and overall English. I'm proud to say I passed my CAE-exams with an A-grade, meaning I have proof of the highest level of English a non-native speaker can achieve. That will be a relief for the grammar-nazi's out there (please don't feel offended, I'm one of them myself, I hate bad grammar) and myself, should I read this story in the future. When I read it a few days ago, I was shocked by some of the mistakes I made, because they were of the kind that I would be ashamed of nowadays.
Of course, you haven't opened this site to read endless rambling of self-appointed authors. (Don't worry, I'm not conceited enough to actually believe I have the right to call myself an author, but by lack of a better word I find myself having no choice but to use it.) I'll leave it at this: I hope you'll enjoy this story this renewed 'Truth or Dare'. Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the world this story is set in, the characters this story revolves around and original scenes from the Divergent series. Those belong to Veronica Roth.
As the list of names appears on the screen, I let out an airy gasp. I hadn't even known I had been holding my breath. I turn around to Christina, still holding on to my disbelief, not daring to celebrate yet. Only when I'm suddenly choking on the blonde curls of my friend I dare to believe what I'm seeing. I passed.
The first round of initiation, anyway. Sure, there was no guarantee yet that I would actually make i tinto Dauntless in the end, but right in front of me was the proof that I'd survived the stage I'd thought would kill me.
When Christina finally pulls back, I see her eyes shimmering with the joy that's undoubtedly mirroring my own.
"Can you believe it?" We smother each other in a tight embrace once again. I let go of Christina when Will joins us. He slaps me over the shoulder and then wraps his arms around Christina for a second. I have just enough time to congratulate Will before the air is squeezed out of me.
"I knew you could do it, Tris!" He turns me around and pressed a tight kiss on my cheek. Before I have time to be taken aback by it, I hear Uriah calling out to us.
"Well done, girls, boys." We mutter something of the same nature to him and Marlene, whom he'd been dragging along when he came over. "Thanks. Anyway, Tris, we're heading to Zeke's place. My brother." he clarifies for Chris, Will and Al. "We're celebrating. Do you want to tag along? And your friends?" After a short, nonverbal conversation with the three of them I nod.
"Sounds good. Are we leaving right now?"
"Heck, yeah, we are!" He grabs Marlene by the hand and takes of, never looking back to check if we are actually following him. As he leads us through the maze of halls and corridors I'm getting more and more certain we're lost, and he's running around randomly, until at last he halts by a door that might as well have been any of the previous ones.
"Welcome," he says in a dramatic voice, "at casa di mi hermaño." He knocks on the door three times, and a few seonds later the door swings open. Zeke steps out, casting a curious glance at my friends and me.
"You brought visitors." Zeke raises an eyebrow.
"Yeah, maybe you should take some acting classes before you try to convince me you mind." Uriah stomps Zeke in the shoulder. The latter shrugs, and gestures for us to follow him.
"Come in." We follow him into a small living room. Shauna is sitting carelessly on the armrest of an old, worn armchair, situated in the far left corner of the room – as far as there is room for a 'far' left corner in the cramped apartment. Against the wall to my is a couch, looking as though is outdates even the armchair by far, but no less comfortable despite it.
I feel a tiny flutter of nerves in my stomach at the sight of the person sitting on the aforementioned couch. Four. He looks up for a second, and then continues talking to Shauna about people I don't know doing things I can't do in places I've never been.
Zeke sits down on the left side of the couch, and though there'd probably be enought space for me to sit between him and Four, I decide not to take any chances, and follow Will and Christina to the pile of pillows to my left. Al looks around a little forlorn, until he decides to come sit next to me, despite the lack of place for him on the pillows. He drops down on the floor, and drops his gaze to that same place, presumably trying not to stand out.
After a few minutes the conversation between Shauna and Four dies down, and seconds later Zeke clears his throat.
"Of course I'd like to congratulate you all on your great results and all that, but you've probably heard that way too often today already." True. While we'd been following Uriah we hadn't had a single minute in which we didn't pass someone who'd offer us a – sometimes halfhearted – congratulations. "How about we play a little game?" A murmur of approval passes through our group.
"Alright then, let's play truth or dare. No going back once you've made your choice, not completing a dare or not answering a questions means stripping. Plenty simple. My place, I get to start. Uriah?" And just like that, my first ever game of truth or dare, or maybe even my first game ever that isn't Abnegation-approved, begins.
"Dare, I'm not a pansycake." He looks around, as if to dare anyone in the room to contradict him. When no one does, he focuses back on Zeke.
"Well, then, pansypancake, I dare you to eat a mentos whole, and then chug a small bottle of coke." I see the horror on Uriah's face, though I can't really place it. I've tried both since I came to live in the compound, and neither tasted bad. I can't really imagine why he'd be so opposed to it.
Apparantly his horror is the horror of a guy knowing he's got to face an unpleasant challenge, not the horror that make him toss away an article of clothing, because however reluctant he looks, he gets up.
"Can I at least do it in the bathroom?" Zeke nods.
"Saves me the cleaning up afterwards, so be my guest." He grins evilly. After some rummaging in Zeke's cupboards the two of them disappear in the bathroom. After a second or so I hear a gurgling noise, shortly followed by what appears tob e uncontrollable laughter by Zeke, because he's still folded over, gripping his stomach, when the pair reënters the living room. Zeke slaps Uriah over the shoulder amically, while the latter merely grumps, whiping away the last foam residues from his lips with his sleeve.
Okay, so maybe now I do understand why Uriah wasn't quite excited about that one. If that was an acceptable dare, not worthy of stripping over, I start to get slightly nervous for my oncoming turns.
"Dis-effing-gusting." Marlene nudges Uriah with a sarcastic 'nawww', and then the game continues. "My turn. Lets traumatize one of the newbies, won't we?" He scans the room, and his eyes stop at Christina – thank God. "Truth or dare."
"Dare." My eyes grow as big as saucers at her answer. As far as I know, she's never played this game before, and to my mind, she's putting herself in quite risk, letting Uri come up with a dare for her.
"I dare you to kiss any guy here. But it has to be on his lips." I'm glad everyone is looking at my best friend, because I can feel my cheeks grow hot. I know people are a lot less… modest to the extreme in here, but still. The idea of having to kiss someone, not because you love them, but because you were dared to… Christina simply snorts and gives Will a quick peck on his lips.
"No biggie. Is that the worst you've got?" Uriah mutter something about going easy on her this first time, in doing so contradicting his statement from not a minute earlier. "Tris, your turn, what will it be?"
As stated before, I've never played this game in my life. A part of me wants to yell 'Dare!' and show I can be just as impulsive as anyone in this room, but the bigger part of me pleads to play it safe, even if Uriah will call me a pansycake for it.
"When did you decide to join his faction?" For the second time today I let go of a breath I didn't know I was holding, and start arranging my thoughts in my head.
"I… I don't even know if I actually decided. I mean, obviously I chose Dauntless, and I'm glad I did. But I only made up my mind after I'd dropped some blood on the coals. I suppose it took me being…" I try desperately to find a better word, not to make my old faction sound bad, but can't come up with one fast enough. "Took me being free from my old faction to realise how badly I wanted tob e in another faction. This faction." I add hastily. The others seem tob e content with my exlanation, so I quickly move on with the game.
"Shauna, what do you choose?" She picks dare. I open my mouth, only to realize that I should have thought of some questions before it was time for me to ask someone. "Err…" The Abnegation in me tells me to go easy on her. I was raised to put the needs of others in front of mine, and that also means not embarrassing other people. I force the Dauntless part in me to take control, however, because if I'm not gonna act Dauntless, what am I doing in the Dauntless compound?
"You have to kiss the guy you like the most in here." I smirk at my own slyness. With this question, she not only has to kiss someone, she also has to make a sort of confession. Trut hand dare in one.
Shauna doesn't even look slightly fazed, though she does take her time looking at every single one of us. She can't contain her laughter as soon as her eyes land on Zeke, though, so she strides over, pulls him forward by his shirt, and kisses him. And not just a quick peck. It takes at least five seconds. I feel strongly like I should look away, but the dominant part of my mind is oddly fascinated, and won't let my eyes be peeled away from the two of them.
When they finally pull back, Zeke spins Shauna around and pull her into his lap. I hadn't realised my cheeks were burning, but now I'm painfully aware of it, and hastily look away.
"My turn." Shauna looks around for a good victim, the right corner of her mouth almost unnoticably drawn up. "Marlene, dear."
"Dare." No surprise there.
"I dare you to punch Uriah in the crotch every time he says the word pansycake." Marlene sniggers.
"Damn, girl, how you could possibly do that to Zeke's poor little baby brother is beyond me." Uriah nods enthusiastically. "But since I'm sitting right next to him it would be hardly any effort to me, and I'm definitely not gonna be the first to strip. So I accept." She turns to a noticably less enthusiastic Uriah and gives him a bright smile. "So watch your mouth. Anyway, I'll ask Tris." Shit. Again.
"I kind of trust you, I think, so dare, I suppose?"
"Are you asking me or telling me?"
"Telling you?" Marlene snorts.
"Incorrible. Anyway, I gave you a second chance, but now it's dare." Regret washes over me as she adopts the same devious smirk as Shauna. "I want you to rate all the guys in here on attractiveness. On a scale from one to ten." The… I'm so embarrassed even my mind won't get any further than that single word. I'm really not comfortable with that one.
I'm even less comfortable with taking of a piece of clothing, so I mentally prepare myself for whatever's to come. "Will and Al, I think a five… Like, I really like you and all, but you're just good friends. No, not 'just' good friends. Good friends." I notice everyone staring, probably just wanting me to go on to the next guy. Except for Al. He just stares at me with a set jaw.
"Uri, err, a six, I guess? Like not such good friends yet that it would be weird to… I mean it would be weird, but not as weird as with Will or Al, so… yes a six. And Zeke, I know you even less, so i t would be even less weird, and I suppose you're quite handsome or something like that, so yeah…seven."
The last remaining guy is, of course, Four. I mentally knock myself over the head with a dictionary or some other heavy book. I should have gotten him over with first, so not all the focus would be on him. Stupid.
Now I have two choices. I do feel that tiny nervous flutter every time I step into the same room as him, so that's probably attraction, right? Right? So I can be honest and risk the others ridiculing me. I could also grade him with a six or seven too, just to play it safe.
Just as I decide to play it safe, I realise the Dauntless in me has already taken over. In fact, I can hear myself talking, and to my utmost horror I'm already halfway not playing it safe at all.
"I suppose I'm gonna have tob e honest here, and who am I to deny what everyone can see?" I've come so far, I guess there is really no going back from here. "Four, a ten."
Though everyone tries to keep ahold of themselves, they fail miserably at holding in their quiet grins. Everyone but him.
If my eyes are not deceiving me though, the left corner of his mouth twitches up for a fraction of a second, before he looks like stern instructor Four again, leaving me wondering if it happened at all, or if it was just a figment of my imagination.
Yes. Yes, I'm much more content about this than about how it was before. It may not yet be perfect, but over the past few years I've gotten quite out of practice, so all things considered, I hope you all agree with me that the end result (of this first chapter) is decent enough. Let me know, if you want to. I always like to know what the readers think.
To those of you who read this chapter before I replaced it and can still remember it fairly well, what do you think of my writing style in comparison to how it was before?
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this story. I hope to provide you with new reading material soon, and it should be possible next weekend.
See you next time!