Unfortunately, I don't own anything. *sigh*
Tris's POV (Chapter Two)
The tests begin after lunch. We sit at the long tables in the cafeteria, and the test administrators call ten names at a time. I sit next to Caleb and a short girl named Elizabeth. We sit across from my next door neighbor Susan.
Susan's father travels throughout the city for his job, so he has a car and drives her to and from school every day. He offered to drive us, too, but as Caleb says, we prefer to leave later and would not want to inconvenience him.
Of course not.
Elizabeth walks to school with us, but she is off balance. The other kids make fun if her because she's clumsy. Every day she comes to school with bruises. She is around the same height as me, and, when given the chance, talks a lot.
The test administrators are mostly Abnegation volunteers, although there is an Erudite in one of the testing rooms and a Dauntless in another to test those of us from Abnegation, because the rules state that we can't be tested by someone from our own faction. The rules also say that we can't prepare for the test in any way, so I don't know what to expect.
My gaze drifts from Elizabeth to the Dauntless tables across the room. They are laughing and shouting and playing cards. At another set of tables, the Erudite chatter over books and newspapers, in constant pursuit of knowledge. Elizabeth puts her head on the table and closes her eyes. She does that a lot. Most of the time it's because Marcus Eaton is her father, so she stays up late helping him, according to our father. She always try's to sleep when possible, I have almost every hour with her.
Everyone at the Abnegation table is silent. Faction customs dictate even idle behavior and supersede individual preference. I doubt all the Erudite want to study all the time, or that every Candor enjoys a lively debate, but they can't defy the norms of their faction anymore than I can.
Caleb's name is called in the next group. He moves confidently toward the exit. Elizabeth watches him and plays with a stray lock of hair from her bun. She calms down once he has left the room. She taps her foot quietly. So quietly that only I can hear it. I see Susan place a hand on Elizabeth's arm. Elizabeth seems to relax.
Minutes later Caleb comes back into the cafeteria. An Abnegation volunteer speaks the next round of names. Two from Dauntless, two from Erudite, two Amity, two from Candor, and then: "From Abnegation: Elizabeth Eaton and Beatrice Prior."
I get up because I'm supposed to, but if it were up to me, I would stay seated for the rest of the time. I feel like there is a bubble in my chest that expands more by the second, threatening to break me apart from the inside. I follow Elizabeth to the exit. The people I pass probably can't tell us apart. Besides from her dark brown hair, we wear the same clothes and we wear out hair the same way. The only difference is that Elizabeth might not feel like she's going to throw up, and from what I can tell, her hands aren't shaking so hard she has to clutch the hem of her shirt to steady them.
Waiting for us outside the cafeteria is a row of ten rooms. Thy are used only for the aptitude tests, so I have new been in one before. Unlike the other rooms in the school, they are separated, not by glass, but by mirrors. I watch myself, pale and terrified, walking toward one of the doors. Elizabeth turns to me and grabs my arm.
"Beatrice. Be careful. You don't know what those things do to you."
I thought it was odd that she was showing so much concern for me, so I just nodded and entered the room 6. She entered room 5.
Tobias/Four's POV (Chapter Two)
It is around lunch time when I am released from the control room. My eyes are sore from staring at the flashing numbers scroll down the screen. I walk into a cavernous room called the Pit an sit down next to Zeke and Lauren. A hamburger sits in front of Lauren and she reaches across me for a bowl of ketchup.
"Ready for initiation Four?" Lauren asks.
"Yup. Your training the Dauntless-born, right?"
"Yeah. Good luck with them Four. Max wants to talk to you, he said to grab him when you have the chance," Lauren says with her mouth full.
"Chew Lauren," Zeke elbows her.
She finishes her bite an swallows, "Who do you think will be the first to jump?"
"Marlene or Uriah," Zeke says.
"20 says a transfers' first," Lauren says with a sly smile.
"Deal."
They shook on it, then turned to me.
"No thanks. I don't want to risk it. Sorry guys."
"You are such a downer Four," Lauren huffs.
"Well, you guys have fun, because I'm outta here." I say and walk out of the Pit slowly.
I walk down a hall and into my room. I sit on the edge of my bed and think about what Lauren had said. Am I really a downer? I won't let myself think that way. I stair aimlessly at the wall. Fear God Alone is painted on the wall in big bold black letters. I had painted it there so I can remember that I have no one to fear but god. I smile to myself and think carefully how good that saying would do for me if I actually believed it.