Soli Deo gloria
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Divergent. This popped into my head and wouldn't flee until it was written.
Lynn never should've given Marlene a key to her parents' apartment.
Then again, if she hadn't, Marlene would have broken the door's knob or called her name so loudly that her mother and father and Hector would all wake up and get annoyed at four in the morning. So she suffered by moaning into her pillow and covering her head up with it as Marlene shook her shoulders.
"Leave me alone. Tell Uriah to stop snooping in the fridge," Lynn moped, her pillow muffling her ears. Yet she knew the boy's habits too well.
"Uri, stop and help me!" Marlene said.
Uriah entered Lynn's dark bedroom. He was a shadow against the white light he had left on in the kitchen. "Where's Zeke?" Marlene asked.
"Getting Shauna." Her room was just across from Lynn's.
Lynn tugged her blanket over her head. "I will murder all three of you. Shauna will gladly help me."
"She's kinda kissing Zeke right now," Uriah said, shrugging.
Lynn growled.
"Lynn! Please! This could be our last real day of Dauntless!" Marlene said.
"It's past midnight, so today's the day of the test," Uriah said seriously. "Afterwards we have to hang out in the cafeteria and get made fun of by my brothers' friends before the Choosing Ceremony tomorrow. This could be our last day."
"Yeah," Lynn scoffed. "One of us is going to die jumping off a train during Initiation. It's not like we haven't done that our entire lives."
Something clinked in the messenger bag by Uriah's hip. Lynn heard it and sat up, her eyes instantly clicking to the bag.
"Lynn!" Uriah said loudly.
"Ssh! You will wake her parents!" Marlene said quickly, her voice soft.
"What's in there? Don't make a gross joke," Lynn said, pointing to the bag.
"Your hair," Uriah said, still staring at her head.
"What?" Lynn said. She touched a hand to her head out of a habit she had all day and then slapped it away. It felt no soft hair. It was all gone. Buzzed. "Shauna and I cut each other's hair today."
"I'm scared of what Shauna looks like now," Uriah said.
Lynn rolled her eyes. "Fine and prettier than me. The usual Shauna." She sat up in her tank and shorts and held out a hand, beckoning for the bag.
Uriah handed it to her. The burlap settled in her lap and she pulled out an aerosol can. The faint light coming from the kitchen lit up the words. Lynn hardly had anything more than a frown cross her lips, but she actually looked up with a slight smile and said, "Spray paint?"
"Yeah. Zeke got it cheap from his work." Uriah shrugged, leaning against the wall. He looked proud of his older brother.
"Where are we painting?" Lynn asked, getting out of bed and tugging on a leather jacket and a pair of jeans over her clothes.
Marlene's legs extended from her bed and swung around in patient complacence. "The old abandoned train cars. You know, where the junkyard is."
Lynn put on gloves. Smiled a little. "Excellent."
After pulling Zeke and Shauna out of the dark and discovering that they were significantly less wrinkled than they thought they would find them, they turned off the light and snuck out the door into the halls that lined the walls of the Dauntless compound. The door creaked shut and they raced down the hallway, cursing as they almost slipped over the edge and toppled over each other.
The daily night guard tipped a hat to them, as he recognized them from seeing them race around the compound their entire lives. He, as everyone always was, felt more leniency considering the fact that three of them were young enough for their test that day. They grinned and kept a healthy pace as they came up to the surface; it was a beautiful night, though none of them commented on its beauty. They all thought privately that the stars were bright and the moon was growing steadily bigger and the lights over by the Erudite were a beeping red. But they said nothing. They just smack-talked and shoved each other and told jokes.
"What do you think you're going to get on your aptitude test, Uriah?" Zeke said, his arm slug over Shauna's shoulders. The two of them kept pace with each other quite easily while Uriah, Marlene, and Lynn were half ahead, half behind them at one time.
"Dauntless. Duh. Everyone in our family gets Dauntless," Uriah said.
"I would be so ashamed if you didn't. I would never speak to you again. Ma would probably disown you. You were never my brother," Zeke said, sticking his head away from Uriah and making Shauna laugh.
"I could never leave Dauntless. How do any of the other factions have fun?" Marlene shook an aerosol can and grinned, her smile mischievous against her red hair and humorous spirit. She was walking backwards and directing her words to Uriah, who couldn't stop looking at her.
"The others don't appeal to me at all. I don't care if I'm supposed to read instead of jump off trains and take dares by the Chasm," Lynn said, her arms folded, her tone certainly lacking that light factor that said she was going to have a night about town with her friends and sister. She sounded so depressed and emo instead.
Uriah wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pressed a hand to her stomach. "Lighten up, Lynn. It's your last free night as a born-Dauntless."
"Soon we'll be Dauntless-borns," Marlene said, laughing.
Uriah pressed a hand to his chest. "I've been waiting my whole life for this."
Lynn shoved him off as they laughed.
"Aren't you a little excited, Lynn?" Uriah asked.
"Yeah. I'm just not as loud as you. Believe me, I'm screaming on the inside," Lynn said.
"Maybe we should've let you stay in bed," Uriah said, sounding like he actually meant his words.
"Yeah. Maybe. How much longer to the junkyard, Zeke? This is getting exhausting," Lynn said, her voice lacking the enthusiasm Uriah and Marlene were radiating from their bodies. The two lovebirds were now chasing each other, shrieking and laughing at each other.
"Just a minute or so," Zeke said. Zeke sounded perfectly comfortable at the moment, there with Shauna. Lynn felt like a third wheel to two couples. Frankly, it sucked. So she moved forward with a determination to get this over with so she sleep until school started.
Their leather-booted feet crunched on the grey pebbled ground. They were moving off the usual roads and were passing through factionless territory. The junkyard was obviously taken care of by the factionless, and was where many factionless were: in the dirtiest part of town. Lynn wished the cars were nearer, but what could you do? Like she wanted this junk pile near the Dauntless compound. She was fast and so she came up to the first car first. It was bathed in starlight and was the cleanest of the pile. By cleanest, it by no means didn't have excessive rust and crusty dirt covering the entire car. It was just so bare compared to the other cars, which were all covered in Dauntless paint. Lynn, as she approached, caught sight of the bright red, of the dark blue, suave green, flaking yellow, against the cars. She stopped and heard Uriah teasing Marlene about a flashlight and the dark.
"Generations of Dauntless defacing public property. Beautiful," Zeke said beside her.
"Dad did this on his testing day. One of Dauntless's great traditions," Uriah said cheerfully.
"Time to put our fingerprints on it, then," Marlene said, cracking her fingers.
The five of them were armed with their cans; they shook them and covered their faces with their free hands. Each taking a spot on the blank train car, they applied their artistic talent onto the tarnished steel. Not all were exceptional at art; Zeke and Marlene were the two who had the talent and so took the real time to apply the paint in careful, swift strokes. But Lynn and Uriah stood side by side and hurried through their art, fast and adrenaline-filled. Their heads turned and they inhaled deeply of clean air before turning back to face the fumes.
Uriah had dark red and white and black. The tall paths he created formed the letter 'P', for Pedrad. A flashlight might've been a good idea, but the Dauntless worked swiftly under the cover of night. Lights were for wimps. So he printed by the light of the sky. A few times he stood back just to get a good look at it and then he checked out everyone else's work.
He came around to Zeke's side to see a large serpent being painted against the train. Dark, spiraling, with elegant swirls rolling off it, Uriah wondered, "You copying my tattoo?"
"Nah. Don't be so flattered," Zeke said. He added another spray before taking a step back and uncovering his mouth again. "It's something I came up with. Something powerful."
"You could have just painted Jeanine Matthews if you wanted something powerful," Uriah smirked. Then he went to see Lynn's. She was being fast, almost not looking, not wanting to inhale fumes. It was the Dauntless symbol she was making: Flames.
"This is Dauntless property. I'm just making a no-trespassing sign," Lynn said, grinning grimly to herself.
Uriah went around with another aerosol can for Shauna and Marlene. He watched Shauna darting back and forth across the naked surface, the spray fast and quick. Abstract. The Chasm. Then he turned to Marlene and he was speechless.
Marlene caught his eye and removed her hand from her mouth. "Uriah, tell me what you think."
Uriah went to stand next to her, his eyes flickering from the art to her eyes. Marlene grinned; her art was of the five choosing bowls. Each were filled with their particular element, and all but the smoldering ashes were crossed with an X. Dauntless over every other faction.
"That is the best I've ever seen," Uriah said.
"Nah. It can't be. Have you seen the simulation room?" Of course he had. Hadn't he and her and Lynn snuck around and gone in when no one was watching? The walls of it were covered in graffiti, each fascinating and telling stories of initiates of long ago. "That place is better than this."
Marlene couldn't see what was in front of her own nose. She couldn't see the skillful execution or the details that Uriah could barely see but discern in the slipping darkness. How couldn't she?
"No. This is literally the best. Hands down," Uriah said.
Marlene laughed a little. Her eyes went from his eyes to his lips and back again.
"How much longer until they discover we're gone?" she asked. The sun was rising, pink, in the sky.
"Who cares?" Uriah said. He kissed her and she smiled.
Shauna laughed and stood back from her Chasm. "Time to head back, guys," she said.
Uriah and Marlene held hands as they came around to Lynn and Zeke with their load of aerosol cans to add to the messenger bag. Zeke stood back and Lynn said, indicating their art, "They could be worse."
They stood back and went around the car; each piece stood out in the warming sun, some drops falling gently like water that escaped from the Chasm, down the train.
"It's officially a Dauntless car," Zeke said, once the sun was creeping up. The day had dawned. The Dauntless were waking up, as was the rest of the city, to anxiety and choices.
The five of them, including the grim Lynn, were satisfied that they had represented their faction well. They turned and left, Marlene and Uriah each with an arm around Lynn's thin shoulders, going back to their faction and to their daunting test.
It's just like the Dauntless to go around doing crazy delinquent things, right? I mean, shooting a muffin off the top of someone's head isn't exactly risk-free. Overall, it fits them, their rebellion in their boxed system.
Thanks for reading! God bless!