CHAPTER 1
A RUSH OF ADRENALINE courses through my body as I jump off the train with the rest of my friends, a flurry of limbs and hair lying tangled on the patches of mud and grass just outside my school. That was probably my 500th time doing that same routine, but I still got so pumped when we'd lurch ourselves off, not knowing if we'd get new scrapes and bruises. It sounded masochistic, but it was true.
My friends Aya and Kaitan lie next to me, breathing heavily. They hold hands and share a long, sweet kiss. I blush and turn away from them. I feel like an intruder in their intimate moment. They've been dating for one year now, and I've also been the third wheel for one year.
I stand up and brush the dirt from my pants, sighing.
As I enter school, everyone was already seated according to faction, nervously getting ready for their aptitude test.
I sit near the other sixteen year olds in my faction, hoping they won't notice me at all. Unluckily, one does.
"Hey Neria, where are Aya and Kaitan?" Sydney asks. She has a blonde Mohawk with blue and purple streaks. She's obviously staying in Dauntless.
"Oh. They were just behind me a second ago. I just went ahead of them." It wasn't a lie, it was just not the whole truth. Sydney nods. My brother holds my hand. "You scared?" he asked. Fear was alight in his eyes. I clear my throat.
"No. The tests don't change anything." I reply calmly, trying to persuade my brother. His hands are shivering, even if it's really warm.
Then I hear my name.
"James and Neria Bennett, Genevieve Colton…" The list went on.
I enter the room, and I am suddenly surrounded by mirrors. There is a chair in the middle; like the one I saw in the clinic in Dauntless. Billions of wires were on the floor, and there is an Erudite man by the computer.
"Please, take your seat." He says; not like a command, but kinder. "My name is Ezra, and I will be administering your test." I take a seat. "You are…..Neria Bennett, right?"
I nod my head and he hands me a clear vial with a blue liquid inside. "Drink." So I do, without question. I close my eyes, and when I open them, the wires are gone, Ezra is gone, and I am in a white room.
There are two plates in front of me; one holds a wedge of cheese, and the other holds a knife. I reach for the knife.
Suddenly, the two plates are gone, and I am holding the knife. I hear a growl behind me, and as I turn around, I see a dog. He snaps at me and prepares to attack. My eyes blink rapidly. Come on, Neria. You read this in a book before….I close my eyes and bend down, to show that I'm surrendering. I feel the dog's breath on my cheek, and when I open my eyes, the dog licks my face. I laugh, petting it on the head.
"Puppy!" a little girl behind me exclaims. The dog starts to growl again, and starts running after the girl. I scowl and launch myself on the dog, and wake up in a bus.
The man beside me is holding a newspaper. He looks at me and shows me a picture of a man who seems really familiar. "Do you know this man?" he asks me. I look at him and nod.
Then I wake up from the simulation.
Ezra is beside me, rapidly typing things in the computer. "What are my results?" I ask him. He stares at me, dead serious.
"Dauntless." He says. I sigh, relieved, closing my eyes.
"And Erudite." I open them in shock.
"And Candor." My mother has told me about people who get an aptitude for more than one faction. They were called-
"You are Divergent." He says, not quite looking at me anymore. He ushers me out of the chair and toward the back door. "I am deleting your result and I'm putting in Dauntless, okay?" he says, and I am too shocked to speak.
Divergent.
Me?
It isn't necessarily a bad thing, it was just…..shocking.
And if people find out that I am Divergent, they would give me a harder time with Initiation tests. And they'd treat me differently.
So I thank Ezra, and run home.
As I enter the apartment, my older sister and older brother tackle me.
"Hey! Get off!" I shout. They let go of me and I scowl.
"Well someone's in a bad mood." My brother says.
"Shut up, Abel." I say, and he raises his hands as a sign of defeat.
"God, someone's PMSing." My sister says.
"Talia, leave her alone." My mother says as she enters the room. My siblings roll their eyes and crash on the couch. My mother looks at me, a bright gleam in her eyes. "So." She says.
"So, what?" I ask, a bit too harsh.
"So, how did it go, of course!" she exclaims.
"Fine." I reply, getting a slice of cake from the counter. My mother, Corine, was a transfer from Erudite. My father, Cristopher, was Dauntless-born. My two older siblings are Dauntless, and James and I will be choosing our factions tomorrow.
I know where I belong.
Does James?
We get aboard the train and jump off at the place where the Choosing Ceremony takes place. I run in tandem with my family and I don't stop.
James, as usual, falls behind. He trips, and everyone laughs at him as tears form at the corners of his eyes. "Suck it up, Bennett!" They yell cruelly and I scream in reply, "Leave him alone, you jerks!"
They shut up immediately and I smile.
We enter the small place and my faction screams and hollers and whistles. I scream along with them, feeling even more alive.
This is where I belong.
The Amity representative, Jasmine Lucas stands in front of the crowd. "Everybody, quiet please!" she says kindly through the mic without yelling.
I stop listening to what she says afterwards, and I only start to listen as she calls out the names.
"Zacharia, Kaitan." She says, and Kaitan steps up to the 5 bowls. He cuts his palm and the blood drops in the clear water, turning it red. I hear Aya crying beside me, and I can't bear to listen to her.
"Erudite!" I look away as the Erudite representative, Carla Ackerman, welcomes him with open arms.
Time passes by.
"Jones, Aya!" She steps up with bloodshot eyes and for a moment I thought she was going to transfer to Erudite so she could be with Kaitan.
But then she cuts her palm and her blood sizzles on the coals.
"Dauntless!"
Even more time passes by, and then I hear my brother's name gets called out.
"Bennett, James!" He steps up to the platform and cuts his palm. He puts it over the sizzling coals, then he quickly moves his hand towards the bowl of soil.
"Amity!" Jasmine smiles, but I don't. I always knew James wasn't cut out for Dauntless. I search the crowd for my family, and they sit side by side. Abel and Talia were whispering to each other, and my mother and father held hands, frowning.
Then it was my turn.
"Bennett, Neria!" I step up to the platform, and I reach for the knife. I cut my palm and drag it over the sizzling coals.
"Dauntless!"
I was here since birth, and I am never going to leave. I know where I belong. I always have.
Dauntless.