For most kids, home is connoted with safety, with love, with protection.
Not me. Home is non-existent, not yet. The "home" I grew up knowing was with the Amity, who saw me as quite, isolated, and tense. I learned at a young age that they train us to think like them, with war not the answer. But that is not how I am, I am observant, easy to anger, thoughtful. I stay away from the bread, which is doped up to keep the population chilled out. I paint a smile on my face and into my bright eyes as I walk out of my room and go down the stairs. My family sits in a circle on the floor, playing cards as they wait for me.
"Test is today, Brooklyn." My mother says in a sing-song voice. She stands and smoothes my hair, looking at my brother from my view. We all look similar, I guess. My mother has long brown hair that hangs loose, the ends fraying at her elbows. Her hair has streaked itself with age, sliver strands mixing with the brown. She wears a sleeveless yellow shirt, it is thin and button-down with a folded down collar. Her pants are red with a high waist as they flare in a severe way at the ankles. Bell bottoms. She wears yellow sandals as her slender feet poke out from the pants.
"How I hope I stay." I smile convincingly as I lie. Not going to Candor, but sure getting the hell out of here. My mother nods as my father and brother stand to get ready to leave. My brother brushes his shaggy hair from his face, revealing the same blue eyes as my mother. My father's eyes are green, his hair a dirty blonde, like River, my brother named for his eyes. I'm different, that I have known my whole life. My hair is completely blonde, as if I have come from another family, because my eyes are different too. A ring of brown surrounds the pupils of both my eyes, and the rest of the colored area is a green-blue color, almost see-through looking…to me anyway.
River is ready to go as I adjust my yellow dress in the mirror and slip on shoes. We pile into the car to get to school and work. My mother is a nurse at the near-by hospital. My dad is the counselor at a near-by office. We pull up to the school as River and I pile out of the back seats.
"See you at home!" Mother yells out the window. My face turns as red as River's shirt, but I ignore it as I go inside.
The school is the mixing grounds of all the factions. Colors swirl around me, each one signifying a different faction, different lifestyle, different way of thinking. Blue, black, grey, black and white, and the bright yellow and red from my own district.
"Brookie!" I hear a squeal as Lana and Denise jump out from behind me.
"Hi guys." I say tiredly. They exchange a glance. The leave as I watch the Dauntless kids get off the train, most of them stumbling still.
The morning goes by quickly, and then it's time for the test. I wait nervously with my Amity classmates until my name is called. The room I am pulled into has mirrors for the walls with a chair in the middle. A middle aged Abnegation woman sits, smiling. She quietly injects my neck with a simulation serum when I am seated in the chair. She hooks up the wires and wishes me good luck as I plummet into a scene.
"Choose." a voice says. I look at the table and see that I can either choose a hunk of cheese or a knife.
"Why? What do I need to prepare for?"
"Choose." The voice says again, this time more forceful. Cheese? Or a knife?
"For what?"
"Choose."
"Nope that's okay." I say.
"Choose"
"I'm allergic to cheese." I lie. It was starting to smell. The scene shifts as I see a large, wild dog. His teeth are bared back as his yellow eyes glint at me. I smirk and look at the dog.
"Go ahead." The dog charges and as he leaps to come at me, I duck down and roll to the side, narrowly avoiding getting hurt. A girl appears, just a toddler, ahead of me. Panic sets in as I see the dog sniff the air, noticing her scent. She still held a pudge in her, green eyes surrounded by a feathering of dark eye lashes. I slowly walk towards her as the dog crouches, preparing for another attack. I pick up the girl, folding her into my arms, protecting her. The dog comes at me when I hear the little girl scream in my eye. I give the dog my back and save her. I'm crouching when I feel the scene shift, the girl's body torn from mine.
"Can't be too much longer, can it? Not Candor, proved that. Not Amity, proved that…Come to think of it, what did I prove?"
"Brooke, wake up." I look around. The Abnegation woman looks at me.
"Your test was inconclusive. When you challenged the dog, it proved you where not Amity, and lying about the cheese threw away Candor. I can only come to the conclusion…that you are divergent between Abnegation, Dauntless, and Erudite. Do not tell this to ANYONE, it is very dangerous information. They will kill you if it is found out. We will put in your results as Abnegation, but it's really up to you to decide." She nods at me as I get up to leave.
I knew I'm not from that hell-hole called Amity.
I knew I am dangerous. None of this is new.
So what do I chose? Dauntless, flat out, easy.
"How did it go?" River asks as we walk home. Mom and Dad work later than school lasts.
"As expected." I grin. "And your's?" I reply, more curious than anything.
"Same." I nod as we arrive home. I shut myself in my room and sleep, hoping for tomorrow to come.
But tomorrow came too slow for my enjoyment. My alarm clock blinks as I turn to look at it, 3:45AM.
Ugh. I sit up quietly and toss my legs over the side of my bed. I'm quite as I slip on pants and a tee shirt, holding my shoes in one hand with the other trailing the wall and make it outside. I slip my shoes on and creep past the houses before I turn on my flashlight. I see that I am by the train station.
Only the Dauntless ride the trains.
I climb quietly up to the old train station. This place is usually guarded with Dauntless soldiers, but why does it need to be guarded? What is there that needs to keep us in, or other stuff out? How often does some kind of complication along the fence actually take place? The thought sends shivers up my spine. I miss a step and stumble up the stairs. The old wooden steps are partially rotted, I'm surprised I didn't break through. A bright light shines in my face.
"What are you doing here." the deep voice demands.
"Morning walk, I always come by here to rest and watch as the train comes by, you must be new." I lie, hoping I'm lucky enough that he is new. I bite my lip as I wait for his reply, but off in the distance I see the bright headlights of the 4:15 train. It heads away from the city, switch in guards. This one will move farther from the city, and each guard will do the same, moving one shift over. The movement wakes up the guards, keeps them alert, but also gives the last guard the end of his shift.
"Do you know what time it is, Miss?" The guard asks. He answers as I reply. "It is 4:15 in the morning. Now I have been on this shift for the past 3 months, and have not seen you." I study him.
"Okay, you caught me…I couldn't sleep. Later is the choosing ceremony and I'm nervous. Is it suppose to be this easy to just get up and leave?" I realize what I say. "I mean is that what is expected from us?" The guard sitting with me raises his hand to tell the train to pass, that he would stay another hour.
"I wasn't Dauntless-born.
"You are staying here to talk to me?" I look up at the guard. "You lied, you are new, you're too young to be here 3 months." He was pale, with green eyes and shaggy blond hair. An eyebrow ring glitters in the moon light. He laughs, his voice clear in the night.
"I've been in dauntless for almost a year. A friend got sick so I told him to rest up, that I'd take his shift. I'm a tattoo artist. Will." He sticks his hand out. I'm taken aback, we hug. I awkwardly reach out to shake his hand. He takes a strong grip on my hand.
"Brooklyn." I frown at my name.
"Amity is obvious in your name…any nicknames?"
"Brook, Brookie" I make a face. Will laughs. "You are different than the Amity boys, you seem more real…probably because you aren't doped up 24/7." I frown. "It's in the bread." I say.
"Do you even eat? You're so skinny, it looks like you wouldn't know what food is if it shot you." I smile. A joke, a joke has finally reached my ears in a way that I can laugh.
"Yes, I eat…we don't get meat in Amity. I survive on various plants…" I trail off.
"Yuck…I can't imagine that." He dazes off for a moment then shivers. I laugh loudly, my little girl giggle still present in the bells of laughter that spill from my mouth.
"Why does Brooklyn giveaway Amity? It was-"
"A borough in the old City, I know…It's a unique name that's true…it's the Brook part. And you are definitely not a Lynn…Bryn?" he asks, his eyebrows raised.
"What's wrong with Brooklyn again?"
"Kind of a mouthful."
"Fine, Bryn it is." I smile up at him. I look across the way and see the beginning lights of the morning sun.
"You should be getting back, Bryn, you can't be late."
"Yeah…I guess. Well I'll see you later Will! Tell you're girlfriend "hello" for me!" He laughs and waves as I turn and walk back to the houses. As I get to the homes, I take off my shoes and quietly walk back to my house, gently opening the door as I walk to my room, exchanging shoes for clean clothes. I look at the time, 5:30. I left just as the next train came. I wonder how close we are to the last stop, how much longer Will has on guard.
"Morning Brooklyn." My mother's soft voice says as I step out of the shower. She yells it through the door as I wipe the steam off of the mirror.
"Morning Mother" I reply, hiding my smile. I love my family, I do, they are just…well…a bit much to handle. I dry off and slip on underwear and a bra with a red dress, one I had used for holidays. It's straps are thin, with a few buttons in the center. It cinches at the waist and then lets out again to my knees where it ends. I brush out my hair, the ends collect at my hips. Amity…for now.
"Oh Brooklyn you look lovely." My father says as we sit for a breakfast of apples and grapes on our oatmeal. I pick at the food, wondering what is dosed and what isn't. I don't eat anything, letting them think it's from anxiety. We finish and clean the dishes. I barely remember the ride to the ceremony.
The line is slow, and out the door as we are pulled to the side, lined up by alphabetical order. Marcus goes on and on about the ceremony and factions until he starts calling names. To choose, you are given a knife and you cut open your palm. With the blood from the cut, you choose. Put your blood in one of the five bowls. Water, coals, stones, glass, or earth. The names lead to mine.
"Brooklyn Harper." My name is called as I walk to the front. I take the knife, slit my hand, but then freeze.
Amity is my family, they have cared for me my entire life up until now, but I didn't even reach close to it on the test…did I? Abnegation…? No I couldn't even stand Amity. I'm not going into Erudite…Dauntless is my only hope. I hold my hand over the coals and watch the blood sizzle upon the coals. Whispers rush through the halls. I am the first Amity to choose Dauntless. I turn and finish the ceremony quietly. I'm led onto the train with the other initiates.
"Get on the trail. Lesson one." I murmur. The train comes and I start to run with the Dauntless-born. I hop on the train with them, and when I sit and watch everything go by, I think of River, who had chosen Amity. My parents must be happy, River was always the favorite.