One year ago…
Last night had been the last day of Initiation where it was announced that Tris Prior had come in first place. This morning, she found herself walking onto the Leadership floor to meet with Ryder, the leader responsible with meeting with all new members of Dauntless to assign them with new living quarters and jobs. In Dauntless, the job they chose determine their living quarters and as top of her class, she had first pick.
"You must be Tris" a man with blue hair greeted her, he sat behind a desk right in front of the elevator.
She glanced around briefly to see that there were four doors on one side of the corridor with a person sitting behind a desk in front of three of the doors, the last door had a desk as well, but no one sat behind it. She smirked knowing fully well that the empty one must be Eric's door. On the other side of the corridor stood a glass wall which showed a conference room with a large table and several seats and at the end of the hallway, there was another door which she quickly assumed that was the Head Leader's office. He, too, had someone sitting behind a desk in front of his door.
"Yes" she answered.
"I'm Kane, the secretary" he introduced himself as he stood up and held his hand out for her with a smirk.
She nodded and shook his hand. There was no point for her to introduce herself as he had greeted her with her name.
"Nice to meet you" she smiled kindly, "I'm here to meet with Ryder?"
"Likewise" he replied, "second door on your left, the one with the pretty blond" he stated.
"Thanks" she said as he let go of her hand.
She walked towards the blond man, "Tris Prior for Ryder" she said.
He nodded before standing up and knocking on the door behind him. There was a soft "yes?" heard from the other side which led to the blond man to open the door.
"Tris Prior is here for you, sir" he announced.
"Let her in" the voice inside ordered.
The blond man nodded and turned back to Tris, he gestured for her to go in and closed the door behind her once she was inside.
The dark-haired man behind the desk stood up, "Hello, I'm Ryder" he greeted her as he held his hand out for her.
"Tris" she stated, shaking his hand.
"Yes, you are top of your class. Therefore, you get first pick" he gestured for her to sit which she did. "Usually, top of the class also gets offered a position in Leadership" he stated as he sat back in his seat.
"Aren't all the position filled right now?" she stated.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean you can not go through the Leader-in-training program. I know Rebekah is close to retirement though that may take a few months to a couple years before she actually steps down" he answered, "but it would prevent having to train you in a rush in the eventuality that she does step down."
"Which means?" she asked.
"Once you go through the Leader-in-training program, you will be able to take up an assistant position which if you haven't notice, we have a spot available" he stated.
"Eric" she stated, "I don't think he likes me very much."
"Eric doesn't like anyone" he replied.
"True" she chuckled. She leaned back into the chair and crossed her arms over her chest, "Is there any other jobs available?" she asked.
"Well, like I said, you have first pick" he said as he turned on his tablet that sat in front of him. "There are available spots in the shops, the kitchen, the control room, at the Fence…"
"What about Ambassador?" she interrupted him.
"Ambassador?" he questioned, surprised.
"Yes, I'm sure my background as an Abnegation transfer will be helpful in that domain" she stated.
"Let me check…" he said as he typed something in his tablet. "All positions are filled at the moment, but I can put your name on the waiting list and as soon as a position opens up, we can put you through training and assign you a faction" he continued after a moment. "If you go through the Leader-in-training program for the time being, it will help you establish a contact with each faction and will help you in the eventuality of your position as Ambassador" he explained.
"And if I do, I will have a job right away" she stated.
He nodded.
"But if I simply wait for an opening as Ambassador, I will be jobless until there is one?" she asked.
"Exactly" he answered. He sighed, "If you take the job as Eric's assistant, that also means that you will be assigned living quarters on the Leadership floors. In the eventuality that there is an opening in the Ambassador positions, you will be moved to the Ambassador floor."
"That's fine by me" she said.
He nodded.
She took a deep breath in, "I will go through the Leader-in-training program and work as Eric's assistant until there is an opening as Ambassador" she stated. "I will work as Ambassador until there is an opening in Leadership if it so happens that the position in Leadership opens up before the one in the Embassy then I will take the Leadership over the other."
"Duly noted" he simply replied.
He typed something in his tablet and she waited patiently as he seemed to handle the paperwork that came with her decision.
"How many people are giving the opportunity to do the Leader-in-training program?" she asked, curious.
"Only the top three of each Initiation class" he answered, absentmindedly. "Both you and Uriah Pedrad will be asked to join the program, but only one of you will be become leader."
She nodded.
"Alright, everything is set up. You are to report here on Monday morning. For now, report to Residence, they will give you the code to your new apartment. Then, report to HR who will give you your tablet and phone" he said. He stood up and shook her hand once more, "You are an official member of Dauntless. Congratulations."
"Thank you" she replied as she shook his hand again.
With that said and done, she made her way out of his office and headed down for lunch in the cafeteria.
Present Day…
"Good morning, sir" Tris greeted the Head Leader as he passed by her desk on his way to his office at the end of the corridor.
"Good morning, Tris" Max greeted back with a small nod in her direction. "How are you today, darling?" he asked, stopping briefly in front of her desk.
As usual, Tris was the first one her which was unsurprising to him. At least, not anymore…
Though she seemed to have made friends throughout her initiation and seemed to stay in contact with them, he barely has seen her at any of the numerous parties held in the Pit while he had seen her friends attend many of them. He had seen her eat with them once in a while, but she seemed to prefer either eating in her own apartment or at her desk. The only time he had seen her in the cafeteria since she finished the Leader-in-training program and became Eric's assistant was either when Eric of all people forced her to go in the cafeteria for lunch or dinner. She usually either sat with the rest of Leadership or sat with her friends, but when she did, she did not stay long.
Somehow, he suspected the fact that Four had fallen hard for her yet she did not reciprocate to be the cause of her avoiding eating with her friends as much as she could.
"Very well, and you?" she replied back.
"Very well" he answered.
He gave her a smile before continuing his way towards his office as he reached his door and fished his keys out of his pockets, he turned back to the young woman.
"Tris?" He waited for her to look up at him, "I have a favour to ask you" he stated.
Though he could simply ask his own assistant who has yet showed his face that morning, he simply gave the task to her which had become uncommon of him to do. He had realized a long time ago that he would have much preferred Tris as an assistant than the one he already had who had no future in Leadership unlike the other assistants. Or, maybe it was because she was always the first one to show up every morning and quickly finished her tasks of the day to the point that she was always the first one to leave out of all the assistants.
"I need you to send out a summon to all members of Leadership for a meeting about the upcoming Aptitude Test day, Choosing Ceremony and Initiation" he said, "this also means that you must send a separate email to members who tend to take up jobs throughout this time of the year" he added.
She looked up at him, "Which are?" she asked.
"Off the top of my head… Tori, Jessica and Nellie usually volunteer for the Aptitude Tests and Four and Lauren handle Initiation. Of course, if I remember correctly your friends Lynn and Uriah have volunteered for Initiation as well" he answered.
"Anything else, sir?" She asked as she finished writing down the names.
"No, that will be all" he smiled.
She nodded and went back to her work. He finally unlocked his door and stepped inside. Though it was not really any of his business, he worried about her.
Tris quickly finished her previous task before powering up her computer and drafting an email which she sent to Max for approval which she quickly received which meant that he was probably just starting on checking on his emails. She quickly sent out the email to the people on the list, putting all the assistants in CC.
She sat back in her chair for a brief moment, relaxing before finding another task to do.
"Why are you the one sending out the summons and not Terrence?" Eric greeted her, nearly an hour after her encounter with the Head Leader.
"Max gave me the task so I did it" she simply replied, barely looking up from the document she was reading.
Eric smirked, "I swear he is trying to steal my assistant" he joked as he leaned her desk, earning a snort from her.
He watched her as she completely ignored him, too concentrated on her task at hand.
"Can I help you with something?" she asked.
"Promise me you are not going to take his offer" he said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"He hasn't offered me anything" she replied absentmindedly, her eyes still on the document.
"Not yet" he replied back with a smirk.
She finally looked up at him, "why would you care if I moved at the end of the hallway?" she asked with narrowed eyes.
"Because until I find someone else that I can stand, you are stuck with me" he answered.
"Then I'll be stuck here forever" she replied.
"Exactly" he stated which earned him an eye roll from her, "I'll only accept your resignation if there is an opening in Leadership" he continued.
"What if there's an opening in the Embassy first?" She asked, entertaining him.
"Nope only in Leadership" he answered.
She simply rolled her eyes at him again before turning back to her document. There was four other assistants besides her, all of them had seniority over her, therefore, they would be picked for the job way before she would ever be picked. Or, at least that is what she thought as the Leaders had only her go through the Leader-in-training program meaning that she was already ready for a position in Leadership and they were not. She did not know that because she barely interacted with them outside of work.
Eric sigh brought her back to reality, she looked up at him again.
"I will be most likely tasked with overseeing Initiation again this year" he said, "this means that you will have more responsibilities because you will be replacing me in office whenever I am with the initiates" he continued, "I need you to take this seriously because this is a test screaming Rebekah" he added.
"Why would Rebekah want to test me?" She asked.
"She wants to make sure that you are fit to replace her in office" he answered.
"Are the other assistants getting the same test?" She questioned.
"No" he simply answered before pulling himself away from her desk and walking to his door, "Max already nominated you as a candidate, it was backed up by both me and Ryder. Both Rebekah and Fallon have yet to nominate candidates for the job so it is basically yours once Rebekah steps down" he explained.
She looked at him, shocked.
For once since she has taken this job, she was speechless.
"Do us proud" he added before closing his door behind him.
Three days later…
The Head Leader sat at the head of the conference table, Rebekah and Fallon to his right side, Ryder and Eric on the other, and Tori in front of him. She had Four and Nellie sitting next to the girls and Jessica and Lauren next to the boys. All five assistants were in the room, sitting behind the Leader they worked for, silently taking notes on their tablets.
"So we are agreed that the roles have not changed from last year?" Max asked.
Everyone around the table gave a simple nod of approval.
"Then we move to the next subject, Eric?"
Everyone watched as Tris silently stood up and placed her tablet in Eric's opened hand.
"According to the statistics Tris has found, we are now entering the generation of the baby boomers" he stated, "for the next five to ten years, we are to experience a larger amount of dependants going through the Aptitude Test, the Choosing Ceremony and Initiation" he explained.
"Which means?" Rebekah demanded.
"Well, Tris can explained that better than I can" he simply said, handing the tablet back to his assistant.
Tris looked at him with wide eyes, assistants never speak during meetings. They are only there as shadows to the Leaders they served.
"Tris?" Max called, he gestured for her to take the floor.
She cleared her throat before speaking, "Last year, there were around fifteen Dauntless-born to go through the whole process of choosing their faction. Ten of them chose Dauntless. Five of them defected. This year, we have twenty-five dependants going through the same process and since we are not there yet, we have no idea who will stay and who will defect" she explained.
"Have you checked the other factions?" Fallon asked. "About how many dependents are of age for the choosing?"
She nodded, "Erudite has twenty dependants as opposed to twelve last year. Candor has twenty-three as opposed to seventeen. Amity has nineteen as opposed to eleven and finally, Abnegation has twenty-three as opposed to eleven last year" she answered. "That's forty-four more dependants than last year" she concluded.
"The Dauntless-born dormitory can accommodate twenty-five if needed" Lauren pitched in.
Max nodded. "It's the transfers we need to predict" he stated as he scratched his chin as he always did whenever he was thinking.
"I'm sure we can easily predict transfers from Amity, Candor and Erudite, however, we have had only three transfers from Abnegation in the last decade so it will be hard to predict if we will have any this year" Ryder stated.
All eyes fell towards the Abnegation transfers in the room.
"Don't look at me, the choosing dependents would have been around five or six years old when I defected so I don't think I paid too much attention to them at the time" Jessica immediately argued.
"I know a few, but I know most if not all will stay in Abnegation or defect to Amity" Tris added.
Practically everyone turned to Four who had barely spoke throughout the meeting unless he was expected to answer a question. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
"I know one" he simply stated, he took a deep breath in before continuing, "I know she will defect, I don't know to which faction though" he added.
Out of curiosity, Tris quickly typed "Eaton" into the search bar of the city's database, four names quickly popped up; one was sitting in this room, the other was marked as deceased, the third had already chosen his faction and was the current leader of said faction and the final one… was of age.
"Natalia Eaton, age 16. Faction of birth: Abnegation. Faction of choosing: Undecided. Status: alive" Tris read out loud, earning herself a glare from Four.
"Even then" Eric said, crossing his arms over his chest, "that proves nothing" he added.
Four's glare switched over to him before going back to crossing his arms over his chest, a position he had held throughout the entirety of this particular meeting. Truth be told, Tris had been avoiding Four for a while as he grew persistent in his love her though she told him time and time again that she was not ready for such relationship as she wanted to concentrate more on her career than a relationship. The way he looked at her proved that he was not over her rejection that happened nearly a year ago. Sure, they had moment during the Capture the Flag game on the top of the Ferris Wheel. Another when he helped her hiding her divergence by taking her through his fear landscape. They had kissed after it was announced that she had achieved first place on her Initiation Day, but even with all these somewhat romantic in their own way moments, she did not feel much when they had kissed.
For some reason, she had always thought that her first kiss was suppose to be special and yet, it didn't feel as such when it happened.
Not that she had the opportunity to kiss anyone else to compare it to anything else, but still…
"So, this concludes this meeting" Max's voice brought her out of her thoughts.
Tris did not notice that she had zoned out and mentally kicked herself, however, quickly changed her mind when she looked down at her tablet to notice that she had absentmindedly taken notes about the rest of the meeting.
She stood up at the same time as Eric and follow him to the door.
Eric was growing worried about his assistant though he would never tell a soul. She had been easily distracted in the past couple days. He could not help to wonder what was going on in that pretty head of hers…