Disclaimer: This story is loosely based on Veronica Roth's Divergent series, specifically the events explained in Divergent and her short story, Free Four.
Chapter One
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Eight clouds in the sky. Two of them collide in a soft but deadly collision, morphing them into one behemoth of white cotton. The others laze about without concern.
My neck is starting to go numb, but if I move someone will see me, and I'll be forced to back to work. I would rather not do that. I don't like working in the fields. It's too hot, and dirt gets under my nails and I have to clean them for hours or I go crazy, like I can feel every speck of dirt that gets under them. I'd rather just stick to harvesting from the fruit trees in the orchard, the place I'm currently hiding from my fellow Amity members in. So far it's been an hour, and no one has come looking for me. I can thank my friend Henry for that, since I'd promised him my dessert for a month if he covered for me. He must have been successful, since no one has found me so far.
I bite into an apple that had been dangling near my face, the juice dribbling out of the corner of my mouth and leaving a sticky trail towards my ear. It leaves an annoying itch behind that I attempt to scratch with as minimal movement as possible. The attempt nearly has me falling off the branch I'm resting on.
I hear laughter not too far away, and I freeze. A girl wearing red overalls and a boy with a sack slung over his shoulder pass below me. I gulp silently, recognizing the boy as Mateo, the one in charge of those working in the fields today. I stay completely still as they walk by, so far completely unaware that I'm here. Their pace slows as he tells a joke to the girl next to him, and she laughs full heartedly. Please don't look up. Please don't look up. Oh, just move on already will you? Flirt somewhere else!
Thankfully my mental prodding does the trick and they move on without a fuss, but not before Mateo steals a kiss from the girl's lips. They get two rows of trees ahead of me before I relax again. That was close. If Mateo had seen me skipping field duty again I would have been sent to the kitchen with Mauve. The only fate worse than having dirt under my fingernails is having half-eaten food under them instead.
"Cora, we need you!" someone shouts, and I look down to see Henry running towards me. I jump down from my branch with little difficulty to meet him. He's breathing heavily, his hands on his knees as he tries to catch his breath. He grabs hold of my hand and starts dragging me back in the direction he came, his words not making sense as they tumble breathlessly from his mouth.
"Henry, slow down!" I complain, feeling a stitch start to form in my side. He looks back at me, and only one word he answers me with makes sense.
"Clara!" he says. My heart clenches, and I let go of his hand to go at a full sprint. I ignore the stitch. Clara. Something has happened to my sister.
When we reach the other side of the orchard I see a small group huddled around her. I cry out her name as we get closer, and a few people move out of the way for me to reach her. She's doubled over in what looks to be extreme pain, tears streaming down her face as she convulses with her forehead in the dirt. I fall to her side and clutch her shoulder, urging her to look at me.
"Where does it hurt?" I ask. She whimpers back at me, not even trying to form words. I look back at one of the boys crowded around me. "Can someone carry her to the infirmary? She needs her medicine, now!" Immediately an older boy, Colin, steps forward. He takes Clara into his leathery hands, beaten brown from the sun's hot rays, and cradles her to his barrel-like chest. His strides are longer than mine, but adrenaline pushes me to keep up.
My mother, the Head nurse, is already at the infirmary when we burst in. She glides over to meet us, folding me into her arms before motioning for Colin to place Clara in an empty bed. He does as she instructs, and I don't waste any time.
"We'll need to hold her down." I tell Colin, who looks nervous but complies. He goes to restrain her feet as she convulses again, her whimpering transforming into tormented screams. I bite the inside of my cheek as I hold down her shoulders, mom approaching with a syringe filled with lavender liquid. She hasn't had an episode this bad in a long time. I've never heard such a tortured scream in my whole life.
"Hold her steady, sweetheart." Mom murmurs in her usual gentle voice. "I need to inject it in her neck." I nod and put more pressure on her shoulders. I force Clara to look at me.
"Clara, I know it hurts, but you need to hold still so we can help." I tell her sternly. "Just look at me, and it'll be over soon."
"It hurts!" she sobs, chocking on her words as if she can't breathe, but she looks at me all the same. Her chest rises and falls at such a rapid pace it disturbs me. I try my best to ignore it as I focus on her face, just like my own. Mom inserts the needle, but Clara hardly seems to notice, her blotchy face scrunched in suppressed screams as she convulses again. We continue to hold her down, Colin and me, until it subsides again. It doesn't take long for the medicine to kick in, and she's calm again. She collapses, her whole body relaxed and finally still. Mom smoothes down her sweat-drenched hair and kisses her ear.
"You did well, honey." She says, but her voice shakes. I look up at her. This really was as bad as I thought it was, if it has shaken up our mother.
No one knows what Clara's condition is, only that it decided to show itself one summer afternoon, on the hottest day of the year. She first complained about a small pain in her lower back, but as the day progressed the pain had moved up her back before spreading out to the rest of her. By the time the noon sun was overhead she had collapsed into a fit of convulsions, in unexplainable pain. Ever since then she has randomly collapsed from phantom pains no one can understand. The Erudite have used her in experiments, trying to figure out exactly what she has, but so far no answers have been found. It wasn't long after that mom was promoted to Head nurse, so she can take care of her whenever she collapses, like today.
Once Clara is calm and sedated Mom takes Colin's face into her hands in a warm and loving gesture, thankfulness in her smoky gray eyes.
"Thank you for carrying her here, Colin." She says, kissing him on the cheek. "I'll be sure to send Cora over your house soon to give you some fresh jam and some biscuits as a proper thank you." Colin blushes under her lips but smiles away, looking over at me. He rubs the back of his head bashfully.
"Don't think anything of it." He tells us, though he looks rather happy. "I just wanted to help." Mom smiles up at him innocently, but I can see a small glimmer in her eyes. I turn towards Clara who is already half asleep, but she hasn't missed our mother's intentions. She rolls her eyes at me, and I stifle a grin that twitches in the corner of my mouth. Mom has a habit of trying to play matchmaker with us, and this is no exception. But since Clara is currently bedridden it seems I'm to be the victim this time. I almost feel jealous of Clara for being sick. Almost.
When Colin leaves with another promise of jam and biscuits made by our mother, she turns to me and opens her arms. "My sweet girl." She says as she hugs me tightly. "You always take such good care of your sister. I know this must not be easy, but thank you for being here to help me." I flush under her praise, awkwardly looking over at Clara, but she's already drifted away from us. It isn't easy, but I don't want Clara to get the wrong impression. It's not like I consider it a burden or anything. I pull away from Mom and smile.
"What are sisters for?" I say, and she smiles back. Her hands go from hugging to shooing in three seconds.
"Okay, back to what work you were doing or not doing." She says knowingly, ushering me out of the infirmary. "Clara needs to rest now. I'll keep her here for awhile and let her sleep off the medicine's effects." I take one last look at my sister, fully unconscious from the medicine now. She looks small and fragile as she lays there.
"Do you think she'll be okay for tomorrow?" I ask, suddenly concerned. Tomorrow we are to take our Aptitude tests with the rest of the sixteen-year-olds, to see in which faction we belong, and the day after is the Choosing Ceremony, when we decide for ourselves where we would like to go. If Clara isn't healthy enough to go, she won't be able to make up for it. She might be labeled as Factionless. The thought makes my stomach churn.
Mom looks at me with pursed lips and a forced smile. She pats my arm, simultaneously pushing me gently into the hall.
"She'll be alright." She tells me softly. "Clara is a strong girl, she'll recover from this quickly. She always does." She tucks my bangs behind my ear, her smile back to normal. "Now go back to your friends. Let your mother worry about your sister for awhile. Go take the afternoon off." With that she closes the door, and I'm left staring though a small glass window as she returns to Clara's bedside. I sigh and wring my hands together. Poor Clara.
Or maybe it's poor me. Mom had told me to stop worrying about Clara for the afternoon, but that's nearly impossible for me. Ever since her first attack, which I had been there to witness, I've felt this responsibility to watch over her, to protect her. I had felt so useless during her first convulsion that I had started to blame myself for not seeing the signs beforehand. Sometimes I wonder, if I had just taken her to see mom back when she had first complained about her back, maybe this whole thing could have been prevented in the first place. It's stupid to think about what-ifs and could-have-beens, but sometimes I can't help but think that her current condition is my fault in some ways. That, as her twin sister, I should have noticed that something was wrong.
I move sluggishly back towards the orchard, my mind stuck on Clara's sobbing face. Only When Henry and Monique approach do I start focusing on what's around me. Monique greets me with a hug, the usual greeting for the Amity, and gives me a look of concern.
"Heard about Clara's collapse." She says. "You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." I say. Henry clasps my back a we all walk together.
"Ange and a few others wanna go to the swimming hole for the rest of the afternoon, do you wanna come with?" he asks, slinging his arm over my shoulder and offering a huge grin. "I mean, it's not like you were doing anything anyway, might was well do nothing with the rest of us." I smile back and nod, but Clara is still in the back of my mind. When was the last time she was allowed to go swimming without fear of having a convulsion underwater? As if reading my thoughts, Henry's smile fades. "Hey, don't worry, your mom is looking after her, right?" he says, tugging at my bun. "Try to relax okay? She's gonna be fine."
"Yeah girl, lighten up." Monique adds, her hand clasping mine in reassurance. "Clara's got the Head nurse looking after her, she's fine."
"Yeah." I agree. I know I should just relax already like mom said and just go have fun with my friends. I'm sure Clara would just be annoyed by my worrying anyhow, but I still feel a small twinge of guilt leaving her in the infirmary. I hadn't even known she was working today. If I had, I wouldn't have skipped, or made her skip with me.
At the swimming hole we meet the others. Angelica, my best friend in the compound, shrieks my name and runs up to hug me. I laugh as we almost tip over, and she drags me over to the rest of the group with Monique and Henry in tow. Colin is there too, and he meets my eyes with a small blush. He's probably still thinking about my mom, or he's thinking about Clara and how he helped us hold her down. A flush of my own creeps up my neck, and I look away from him. I feel ashamed, but not for me. I'm sure Clara would have rather not had someone outside of the family see her like that. I know I wouldn't.
Angelica sits on a quilted blanket, and I plop down next to her to take off my shoes. Henry is already armed with his banjo, and he strums a few chords as Monique passes around a small basket of blackberries. On her other side is a small jug of seasoned wine, probably "borrowed" from the kitchen. I can guess that it's already more than halfway gone. We like to borrow the wine a lot.
Colin and Andy waste no time in taking possession for the rope swing, taking turns to see who can fling themselves further and further out into the lake's placid water. The water is a clear blue that reflects the sky above us, the sun winking at us from under the depths. The swimming hole is man-made and created strictly for recreational use, complete with a dock in the middle of the lake and a natural slide on the other side. Edible plants grow everywhere for those who get hungry, and a natural repellent keeps the bugs at bay. I lean back on my elbows as I watch the boys in their contest, taking a handful of berries from Ange as she passes them over my head. The berries stain my fingers purple and I lick them clean with a grin as Monique sings along to Henry's banjo. Andy splashes her with water to make her stop, and we all shriek when the cool water sprinkles our bare skin.
When Angelica gets up to go into the water, Colin settles down in her abandoned spot. He turns to look at me with a small grin, and I smile sheepishly back.
"Thanks for, um, today." I say, the flush returning as I focus on the lake's surface. I feel him inch closer to me, and I instantly feel the difference in the space between us.
"Does that happen often? I mean, is Clara… okay?" I look up at him, a flush rushing to my cheeks when I see he's a lot closer than I had thought. I lean away from him to get some distance between us.
"It does." I reply, but my voice feels caught in my throat. He bobs his head in a familiar nod, and he places a large hand on my elbow. His hand encompasses my arm easily, his calluses rough on my skin. It raises the hairs on the back of my neck.
"That's a rotten shame." He murmurs, trying, it seems, to be sympathetic. I swallow hard, because it really is a shame, but he just doesn't know how much. Clara his become so limited by this strange condition of hers, and there's a lot of things she can't do, probably will never be able to do ever again. I look away from him and try to pull my arm back, but his grip won't let me. He leans in close again, so close that his collarbone brushes against my shoulder.
"Um, I'm here if you, you know, always need someone to talk to about it." He says, stroking my arm lightly with the back of his hand. He's trying to be comforting, I know that, but I get nervous all the same. I can't stop thinking about my mother now, and her stupid antics. I don't want to look into Colin's face, afraid I might see him caught in her trap like other boys before him. But I have to look, because if I don't look I'll lose my balance trying to scoot away from him. As I thought, his face is unexpectedly close, his warm brown eyes looking expectantly to me. I purse my lips together and nod tightly.
"Thanks, Colin." I tell him, tasting the fake sweetness in my own words and making me sick. "But, I'm okay." I get up and leave him there, then, and meet Angelica by the water. I can feel how red my face is, and I don't dare look back to see what kind of expression Colin might be wearing. I feel bad for rejecting him, but I don't have time for things like that. Not while Clara is the way that she is.
Author's Note;
Hello everyone! It's been awhile since I've been here, ha! This is my newest story on this website, and my first written in the first person. Please leave any constructive criticisms you may have, because I doubt that my writing is perfect. Please do keep in mind, though, that I'm writing this story with a lot of liberties and very little information (where Free Four and Tobias's past is concerned, I mean). I hope you will enjoy my story anyway, and take it as is: a fan fiction. Thanks for reading!
-Mq
