Hey y'all!
New story time...
Again...
It's another Eric story.
I hope you like it.
-Kat
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Divergent Characters. I only own my OCs.
How do you tell when you are in love? I sure as hell don't know. I'm pretty sure I'm in love with my best friend, Damien Stevens, but he's never shown any romantic interest in me.
My name is Krista Lee Heart. I'm from Amity but I know that I don't belong here. Neither does Damien. Hell, basically the whole Amity compound is talking about if we'll transfer to another faction tomorrow at the ceremony and if so, which one? I know that Damien is a Dauntless, anyone with eyes and the least bit of common sense can see that. He's funny, outgoing, and stands up for others, even the Abnegation.
When we took the aptitude test today, I got a result that changed my life forever. One word, Divergent. It sounds harmless enough when you think it through but apparently it's the most dangerous thing there is. It means that I have an aptitude for more than one faction. In this case, Candor and Dauntless. No, I'm not some peaceful, tree hugging farmer-to-be. Some would say that I'm a heartbreaker. I won't argue with that. The only reason I do what I do is because I don't have the heart that I want.
The morning of the choosing ceremony arrives and I have made my decision. I'm going to Dauntless. I believe that was the better choice because I can follow Damien there and my family might actually come and see me on visiting day as opposed to if I went to Candor.
I get dressed in my best yellow tee shirt and red jeans. I may not be Erudite but I'm not stupid. I know that the dauntless are going to have us do some crazy initiation ritual before we get to Dauntless. I'm not wearing a skirt if they are going to have us running or jumping or climbing, etc… I pull my long wavy blonde hair back into my usual low ponytail and stare at my reflection through my small mirror. I love that the red in the Amity wardrobe highlights the red specks in my brown eyes.
"Krista! Your father and I need to talk to you!" Mom has the loudest voice in Amity. I guess it's her candor upbringing coming through.
"I wanna talk to her too." That's my little brother Kyle. He is like my shadow. The only reason I feel a twinge guilty about leaving amity behind is because I'll have Kyle watching me as I choose my new faction over him.
"Coming mom!" I finish prepping myself in the mirror and calmly walk down the stairs even though every inch of me is itching to get out of here. I find my three family members at the bottom of the stairs practically blocking me in.
"Krista, your father and I would like to say something very important."
Dad clears his throat and starts talking. "Yes dear, we all understand that you will not be staying in Amity today. It is not what makes you happy. We just want you to know that we will love you no matter where you go." I am in shock. I didn't expect them to be so direct about this. Must be mom's doing.
"I don't want you to leave Krista. The other kids don't play with me like you do." Kyle has always been special. He has social issues and needs more attention than all the other kids otherwise he doesn't feel noticed at all.
I take a deep breath and start. "Dad, you are right. I will not be staying in Amity. I will be transferring to Dauntless." I may be seeing things but I thought I saw dad almost smile for a second. "I love you and mother greatly. And Kyle, you are my ray of sunshine. I think I will miss you the most. But kiddo, you need other friends than me. Go out there and show the world how bright you shine." I ruffle his hair just to prove a point.
We share our truck ride to the Hub with Damien's family. On the way Damien and I confirm with each other that we are indeed choosing Dauntless. He tells me that his family had "the talk" about faction changing with him too. His didn't go as pleasant as mine did even though both of his parents are Amity born and raised.
Once we get to the Hub we go to the ceremony room and sit in the Amity section. I sit with my parents and Damien's family sits right next to us.
I zone out until the representative from Candor, Jack Kang, starts calling names. Once he gets to a girl named Maria Hayes I pay attention. She looks shy and her long straight brown hair hides her eyes. I'm guessing she'll transfer, probably to abnegation or even amity. As she cuts her hand she lets the blood pool up a bit in her hand and shakes the hair out of her face. She has these gorgeous green eyes and they have a fire to them. She juts her hand over the bowl with the coals. Dauntless? She's going to dauntless?
"Dauntless." Jack Kang looks at Maria with disappointment laced all over his face.
"Krista Heart." My turn.
I get up and ruffle Kyles hair once and nod to him (he smiles back). I hug my mom. I lastly hug my father and he pulls me tight and whispers something into my ear. "Always jump first." I look at him with what I can only hope is confusion and he nods.
I make my way down to Jack Kang and the podium. I take the knife and cut my hand letting the blood collect in my hand. It didn't hurt near as much as I thought it would. I hold my hand over the Dauntless bowl and smile as I hear the blood sizzle on the coals.
"Dauntless."
Damien chooses soon after and of course he chooses Dauntless (was there ever really a doubt).
Soon the ceremony ends and Dauntless leaves the building running down the stairs and over to the train tracks. Damien and I run ahead of the rest of the transfers. Being from amity we get more physical activity then the rest of the non-dauntless factions. We start climbing up to the tracks and thank goodness that I chose to wear pants today. I make it up the tracks in plenty of time and line up with the rest of the dauntless. I had a pretty good idea of what we were gonna do next but when the train came barreling around the corner I knew I was right. The dauntless started running alongside of the train and I ran in line with them. When it is my turn I jump and try to swing myself in to the cabin of the train. With a lot of pulling (let me tell you, wind sucks when jumping onto trains) I finally get into the cabin.
I sit down with Damien next to me. But for some reason I can't think about anything other than my dad's last words to me.
"Always jump first."
After a little while, a woman appears and says "Get ready." For what? I look out the side of the train and see the dauntless jumping out of the previous cabins.
"Ready Damien, were jumping…" He looks at me like I was speaking some ancient language like French or something.
"Excuse me, did you say jumping?" This time it was the Maria girl. And to be honest I barely even heard her. "I can't do that." She has a look of panic on her face and I feel the urge to help her.
"Want to jump together?" She nods. "Ready, set, Go!" We run and jump out of the cabin and onto the roof of a building and Damien follows right behind us. None of us land on our feet and we all end up laughing our butts off.
She smiles and says, "I'm Maria Hayes. It's very nice to meet you."
I smile back. "I'm Krista Heart and this bozo is Damien Stevens." I look at Damien and see that he is staring at her with a goofy smile on his face and that makes me extremely jealous. This makes Maria public enemy number 1 in my book. Too bad, we could have been great friends.
I get up and brush myself off. I see everyone starting to go to the other side of the building and decide to follow them.
Suddenly a voice booms from the front of a crowd of people. I push my way through and see a very intimidating looking man that I recognize as Max, a leader of Dauntless.
"I'm Max. The only way into the compound is right behind me. If you don't have the guts to jump, you don't belong here. Who wants to go first?
Suddenly dad's advice makes sense. I raise my hand and volunteer. "I'll do it."
Max gets down from the ledge he was previously standing on. "Ok, let's see it."
I go over to the ledge and look down to see where I have to jump. At least it looks like a big target. I go up on the ledge and don't take the time to think about the consequences. I just jump.
As I'm falling I feel like I'm flying. I squeal in delight and hit what feels like a net. To be honest I kind of miss the feeling of jumping. A bunch of hands reach over the top of the net and I take the one that's closest to me. It belongs to a very attractive, very muscular, very tall man with many piercings who couldn't be more than a year older than me.
"What's your name?" He looks at me through grey eyes.
"Krista Heart."
He turns to the darkness and screams "FIRST JUMPER! KRISTA!" Suddenly a crowd of people emerge from the darkness all cheering and hollering for me. The guy who asked me my name turns back to me and says "I'm Eric. I hope to see more of you soon." I get big smile on my face when he says that. I don't know why but I hope to see more of him soon too.