None of these characters belong to me 😉
Chapter One:
Here I was again. New school, new house, new family. I was used to it now, since I'd been thrown around in the foster system since I was twelve years old. The large house I looked up at now, gave me a sign of hope. I'd known the Eaton family all of my life, and they were known to be kind people. Marcus had always been very kind to my family, and his wife was too, but she passed on with my parents, 3 years ago.
Flashback: It was a blisteringly cold night, and Natalie, Andrew, and Lillian had all gone to town, to visit an old friend. I sat at home alone, watching TV and trying to finish my homework halfheartedly. The phone rang, and I ran to answer it. Little did I know, that phone call would change my life forever. "Is this the Prior residence?" a voice asked on the other line. "Yes," I answered warily. "There's been an accident involving Natalie, Andrew, and Lillian," The voice said. I dropped the phone in shock. "CALEB, FOUR," I screamed. They rushed downstairs. Caleb grabbed my shoulders, "What happened?" he asked with a tinge of urgency to his voice. "The phone, answer it," I said, shrugging away from his touch. Four picked up the phone and answered it. "Actually, this is Lillian's son, Tobias, may I ask why we're speaking?" he asked. "Thanks for calling, we'll be waiting," he said, and hung up the phone. "Four, what the hell? What's happening?" Caleb asked. "They're dead," I yelled and run up to my bedroom, slamming the door behind me. I threw myself onto my bed, and I cried. I cried for the death of my parents, I cried out of fear for myself and my friends, I cried for the last time that night.
Caleb went to live on his own about six months ago, and when that happened, my foster mom said that she couldn't do it anymore. She was a drunk, and was extremely hostile towards me, though she'd never laid her hands on me, like some of the others have. I hadn't seen Four since the day I left, but he and Caleb had kept touch. Caleb and Four are two years older than me. I was now sixteen.
My social worker, Tori, and I walked up to the Eaton mansion. She rang the doorbell, and I shifted my gaze to the house next door. That was the house that I'd spent most of my life in, Made all of the happiest experiences, all of the memories. Now, here I was, unsure that I'd ever be happy again. Marcus answered the door. "Why hello there, dear, you've grown so much!" he exclaimed. "Beatrice, welcome home," he said, grabbing my wrist rather harshly. The fresh cuts on my arm from last night, stung from his touch. He led me inside, and instructed Tori to bring my suitcase upstairs to my new bedroom. He then pulled Tori outside. Watching through the window, I saw that they were having a rather heated discussion. Tori walked away, and Marcus came back inside, closing and locking the door behind him. "Tobias isn't home at the moment, but he'll be back shortly. From here on out, you will not bother me. Everything that you need, is taken care of. There's a credit card in your bedroom, along with the keys to your car. Eliza picked out all of your wardrobe, also. I did this for the good publicity, not for your well being. Disturb me, and there will be great consequences," he said. 'Great. Now what?' I mentally asked. I walked up to my new bedroom and inspected the array of books on the large book shelf. "So you like it, I see," a deep voice said. I jumped in surprise and turned around. There stood Four. "Yeah, it's great. How'd you know I loved James Patterson?" I asked. "Caleb. How've you been, Tris?" he asked in a concerned tone. "I've seen better days," I answer honestly. He frowns slightly. "Caleb says you've been worse with..that," he says. "Caleb moved out six months ago, he has no idea," I say. "Foouur, why is that scrawny little bitch here?" heard a nasally voice ask. "I'm Tris, and old friend. I'll just be a minute with Four, but I do have one thing to say. If you EVER insult me like that again, I swear that I'll make you regret it." I say. "Sure you will," she says. "Whore," I hear her add on. "THAT'S IT," I yell and grab her by the hair. Before Four can stop me, I bring my fist back, and connect it with her right eye. I let go of her hair and she stumbles backwards. "Molly, I think it'd be best if you left. I'm not feeling well today, and frankly, I'm not in the mood to socialize," I hear Four say, and he escorts her out of my bedroom. He comes back upstairs with a smirk. "She's a real charmer. Where'd ya find that one? Perhaps the strip club?" I ask. "Molly's a friend of mine," he says. "Yeah, I bet you're both just great friends. If she happens to wander across my path again, there will be no more Molly," I say. "Whatever, Beatrice. You just might have to share a dorm with her," he says. "Yeah, sure. And when that happens, I'm going to be arrested for murder on the second day," I say. "and don't call me that. You have no place to call me by my real name," I say. Oh, how I wish school didn't start tomorrow. Maybe I shouldn't even unpack. We aren't going to be coming back until Christmas break, so.. "By the way, what faction are you trying to get into?" he asks. "What do you think?" I ask. "Of course. I guess I'll see you there, then. We leave at 7 am in the morning, so make sure you're packed," he says, and walks out of my room. I'm scared. I have to live with all of my new friends. That is, if I make any. I pray silently that Molly isn't my roommate.
I inspect my new wardrobe, and decide that I like it. I unpack half of my older clothes and pack half of the new ones, to add some diversity to my closet. I hang up the half of the clothes that I unpacked in the wardrobe in my bedroom. When finished, drowsiness overcomes me, so I go to bed, falling asleep in hope that tomorrow goes well.
Four POV:
She's actually back. I thought I'd never see her again, but here she was. She beat the shit out of Molly. I smile at the thought. Roth can be a rough experience, and I'm worried for her. As tough as Tris is, she's not going to be able to keep people like Molly from getting to her, and that's going to be a problem. When we were kids, Caleb always talked about how worried he was about Tris. Tris started cutting after her eleventh birthday. It was how she released her frustration for herself and others. As she got older, it progressively got worse, and we all started to worry for her. Now that she's here, it terrifies me.
I fall asleep, deep in thought about Tris.
Beepbeepbeeepbeep.
Stupid alarm clock. I get up, get dressed, and walk in to the hall. I kick Tris's door, and open it, to see her sound asleep. She looks less sad when she's asleep. "Tris, wake up, we've got to go in thirty minutes. Eliza fixed breakfast, if you're hungry," I say. Her eyes open slowly and she gets up and heads to the bathroom. When we were kids, Morning Tris scared me. I walked downstairs to see my dad sitting at the dining room table. He wants something. "What are you doing downstairs?" I ask. "I thought I'd see you off to school, my dear son," he says. "Sure you did, dad. Stay away from her," I say, and walk into the hall to retrieve my suitcase and my car keys. I put my stuff in my car, and run upstairs to check on Tris. I knock on her bedroom door and open it, to see Tris, her suitcase, and car keys in hand. "So you're driving your car?" I ask, hoping that she'd say no. "Yeah. I want to be able to leave campus when I want. Not meaning that I'm going to run off or anything, but I really don't want to relapse, and driving takes my mind off of things," she says. "Plus, if you drove me, I think that your friend, Molly, might plot my murder," she says with a smile. I fake a smile and say, "Okay, um, I'm gonna go, then. Let me put that in your car for you," I say, pointing at her suit case. She backs away and says, "Sure, I'll go and open the trunk, thanks," she says. I pick it up, and I think I'm going to fall over. What did she pack; bricks? I carry it downstairs, to her car and carefully out it in her trunk. After slamming the trunk door shut, I pull her into a hug. "Good luck, today. Don't let anyone get to you, okay?" I ask. "Yeah, okay," she says against my chest, but I still hear uncertainty in her voice. I release her, and watch her get into her car, and drive down the block before I get into mine and do the same.
Tris POV:
When I arrive on campus, I feel the butterflies rising in my stomach. I get out of my car slowly, and grab my suitcase. Then, a girl who appears to be close to my age, approaches me. "Hi, I'm Christina. Four's like a brother to me, and he told us all about you. Our group of friends, I mean. I'm under strict orders to watch over you, and make sure you make it out of here alive, basically," she says and laughs. I laugh along. "Well then… I guess that means we're friends," I say with a smile. "Yeah, I guess it does," she says, and smiles back. We walk to the front office together and get our room keys. "Hi, this is Tris, she's the student that's been signed up by the Eaton Family. She needs her schedule and her room keys," Christina says. She hands me a huge packet and a set of keys. As Christina and I make our way up to our roomed, she talks aimlessly about everything under the sun. She talks about her car, her cat, the girl across the hall, and anything in general that comes to her mind. I don't mind, though. It's been a while since anyone really wanted to talk to me like that. "If our room is in the dauntless wing, does that mean that I made it into dauntless?" I ask. "Yeah, I guess Mrs. Mathews forgot to tell you in the front office. They pulled your test results from your old school," Christina says. Joy courses through my body. I made it to Dauntless. When I open the door to our room, I'm speechless. It's beautifully decorated. There are two full sized beds, and on the side of each there are white bedside tables with black lamps with white lamp shades. Taking a look at the beds again, I notice that there are black comforters on the beds, and white sheets. There are white wardrobes in each corner of the room and a flatscreen TV that hangs on the wall opposite of the beds. As I walk in, I say, "Wow. This is awesome. There's a lot of black though, why?" I ask. "It's the dauntless signature color. I thought about buying some Zebra printed curtains to make it feel like home, but I didn't know whether you wanted colored stripes, or black," she says. "Dude, don't worry about it, this is awesome," I say, and put my suitcase down. You can have the left side since a little birdie told me that you like having your bed next to a window," she says, and I blush. "I don't know how he even remembered that. I told him that when we were kids," I say. "Four likes you, but he doesn't want to admit it. Since he found out that you were coming back to Chicago, he's been a whole different guy," she says. "I don't know Chris. Does he always hang around girls like Molly?" I ask. "You know Molly?" she asks. "She and I had a bit of an altercation last night," I say. "Tris, Four's a complicated guy," she says, as she joined me sitting on my new bed. "At times, yeah, he can be a bit of a player, and others, he'll just swear girls off completely. I really don't know what he's going to do, now that you're here. Like I said, he likes you, but I don't know how he's going to handle it," She says. "Great," I say, and sigh. "Tris, don't worry. I'm sure he'll come around. Wait, if you're upset about it, it must mean that you like him back," she says giggling. "Yeah, I guess so," I say and take off my sweatshirt, getting up to start unpacking. Chris catches my wrist. "Does he know about these?" she asks, pointing at my left wrist. I see the cuts and I say, "I don't know. He acts like he knows something's up, so I just let him, and forget about it," I say. I pull away and proceed to unpack my suitcase.
Four POV:
I walk upstairs to my dorm room, and open the door to see Zeke and Shauna making out on my bed. "Dude, really? My bed? Is three feet, really too hard for you to travel?" I whine. They pull apart and look at me. "Sorry, dude. You can have my bed if you want," he says. I groan. I'm glad to be back home though, and Tris is here, too. Now, I can keep an eye on her and make sure that she's okay. I drag in my suitcase, and Christina shouts from behind me. "Four, we need to talk," she says. I walk out of the room, and close the door behind me. "Tris is great by the way, I just need to ask you about something," she says. "I think she relapsed. Maybe the night before she arrived at your place? I don't know. They look fresh though, and she's worrying me," she says. My heart clenches in pain because she's in pain and I can't do anything about it. "Yeah, I had my suspicions. Caleb had said that she was getting worse," I say. "Yeah. Listen, I know you really like her. You need to know that she likes you too, and you need to hurry up about making her yours, because the way that Peter was looking at her, scares me," she says. If Peter lays a hand on her, I'll kill him. "I know. I was thinking about talking to her about it at the dance tomorrow night," I say. "Not gonna happen. You're talking to her tonight. She needs you, Four. She's not going to go much longer before she relapses again," she says. "Whatever, Christina. I'll go talk to her," I say and I walk down the hall. I knock on Tris's door. She opens it and looks up at me with her beautiful brown eyes. "Hey Tris, we need to talk," I say. "Okay, come on in," she says, and takes a seat on the black sofa. After closing the door behind me, I join her. "Tris, I really, really care about you. I always have. Chris told me about your relapse," I say. "Oh, that..," she says. I feel the sadness wash over me. "Let me see your wrist," I say, trying to keep my voice from cracking. "You don't want to see that," she says quietly. "Yes I do," I say. "Why?" she asks. "So I can see how many times I wasn't there when you needed me," I say, failing to keep my voice from cracking. I see the tears form in her eyes and she says, "It's not your fault," she says. "Yes it is. I promised your brother a long time ago, that I'd take care of you. You were and still are my best friend, and I failed you, for disappearing for three years, and doing the things that I did," I say. "It's still not your fault," she whispers, a tear running down her cheek. I stand up and she stands with me. I pull her into my arms, and hold her tightly. I loosen up my grip, scared to hurt her. She looks up at me, and before she can say anything, I gently bring my lips to hers. She's not as sloppy and rough about it like any of the other girls that I've kissed. She's rather gentle and she kisses me with a need. We break apart and I look down at her, holding her closer to me. Here she is, the girl that I love, and she's falling apart in my arms.
Tris POV:
I can't believe that he kissed me. What does that make us, though? Sure he cares about me, I have no doubt about that, but what about girls like Molly? "Why would you care so much about someone like me, when you could have anyone you wanted?" I ask him. "Did you really just ask me that? Tris, I care about you because you're beautiful, smart, brave, strong, and you're you. You have no idea, just how perfect you are," he says. My heart starts to race, and butterflies fill my stomach. "So what does this make us?" I ask quietly. "This makes you my girlfriend and it makes me your boyfriend," he says. "But aren't you working with initiates, this year?" I ask. "Yeah, but it doesn't mean anything because I don't make any of the final decisions. They could care less about our relationship," he says. I smile. I finally have someone and it's someone that I've always wanted. It feels amazing to know that he wants me back.