Hi, y'all. Thank you all for the follows – it means a lot to me and to my self-confidence, haha!
TRIS POV
Christina and I unpack. She's talking nonstop, explaining the point of segregating all of us based on what group we are in.
"It's so stupid, because if you have a sibling in a different group, you can't even see them unless you have the same class together or on Visiting Day or assemblies. I have a younger sister and she's in Candor – the group that is brutally honest with everything. They take a lot of psychology classes in order to tell if someone else is lying, too, which is so annoying because she can see right through everything I say and she'll tell Mom, the little traitor." She laughs. "But that was when she was a lot younger; she knows now to keep her trap shut and filters around me."
I cannot help but laugh, causing her to turn towards me. "Are you laughing at me?" she asks in mock horror.
"No, I'm laughing at the way you say things. I've never really hung out with anyone who speaks so casually about their life. I was raised to forget about myself and listen to others, but no one in my family really talked about themselves either. It's a nice change, you know?"
We both place our suitcases underneath our beds and she looks at me. "Hey, can I see your schedule? I wanna see how many classes we have together," she says excitedly. I smile and slide it over. She looks at it and her brown eyes nearly pop out of her head. "Half your classes are senior studies?" she yells, causing me to jump.
"Yeah?" I answer tentatively. "I was homeschooled, so my brother and I took classes over the summer, too. And it's just math, science, and Spanish. The easy classes."
"And English." I look at her, a questioning look evident on my face. "English is coed between juniors and seniors, for some reason. And those are not easy classes, Tris, no matter what you tell me."
I smirk. "School is just super easy for me, you know?"
She opens her mouth to say something else when someone bangs on the door. "Chris! Open up! Uri says he's sorry, but you don't need to be cooped up in your room all freaking day!" a girl hollers.
Chris sighs and gets up, opening the door. On the other side stands a girl, about average-height, with bright blonde hair. She's wearing all black and is leaning against the doorway with casual innocence, despite her smudged eyeliner. She rolls her eyes when Chris opens the door.
"Look, I know Uriah can be a handful, but he was just messing with you. You didn't need to lock yourself in your room to avoid him, you know." Then she notices me. "Oh, shoot. You weren't avoiding us. You were bonding with your new roomie." She smiles. "Now, I feel like an ass. I'm Marlene."
"Tris," I say, getting up to shake her hand.
She raises her eyebrows. "Nickname?" she guesses. I nod. "Nice. So, we going to go back outside and enjoy the sunshine or what?"
Chris smiles at me a little and I say, "Sure. Let's go."
XxX
The three of us walk over to a large group next to the lake, and, like Marlene, they are all wearing all black. There are four boys; two look very similar, like brothers; one has blond hair, not unlike Marlene's; the other has dark brown hair and a tattoo peeking out of his shirt. There is another girl sitting on one of the brother's lap. Marlene sits down next to the other brother. Chris takes a seat next to the blonde and I sit between her and the brown-haired boy. He ignores me.
"Guys, this is Tris. Tris, you know Marlene," Chris starts. Marlene waves. "Then you have Uriah." The boy next to her waves next. "His older brother, Zeke." The other brother jerks his head in greeting. "His girlfriend, Shauna." The girl in Zeke's lap smiles big at me. I smile back. "This handsome man next to me is Will." The blond leans forward and waves. "And the guy next to you is Four," she finishes. The boy – Four – still hasn't acknowledged my existence.
"Four? Is that some kind of nickname?" I ask, trying to get a reaction from him. Everyone in the group goes silent, watching us. He shrugs.
At first, I think that's all I'm going to get out of him, but then he curtly says, "Yeah, you have a problem with it?"
I physically recoil, shocked by his harshness. "N-no. I just have never met someone who goes by a number," I retaliate, trying to mimic his tone.
He turns to me and narrows his eyes at me. They are a peculiar shade of dark blue, they almost appear black, except he has a tiny patch of lighter blue right next to his pupil. He has a square upper lip. Even though his features are harsh, he's quite handsome. "What I go by," he snarls, "is none of your concern. Why do you even care?"
I raise one eyebrow, and shrug. "What makes you think you can even talk to me, new kid?" he presses.
I narrow my eyes back at him when he turns away. I turned my voice to mimic innocence. "Because you're so approachable." His head snaps back to me, his eyes a little wider. "You know, like a bed of nails," I finish, turning away.
I can still feel his mesmerizing eyes boring into me when he says, "Careful, Tris." He then gets up. "I'm going to finish unpacking. See you later guys."
Zeke nods and calls, "Later, bro."
Without another word, Four turns and leaves. Christina scoots closer to me. "You, my friend, have a death wish."
I look at her quizzically. "How do you figure?"
"Challenging Four like that? Oh, girlie. That takes some balls."
"Oh please!" I scoff. "You should see my brother if you even try to tell him that he's wrong on something. 'Challenging' Four – which I so wasn't doing – was nothing in comparison."
"Whatever," she says.
"Nah, she'll be okay. Four won't hurt her," Zeke says. "If anything, you've earned some respect from him."
I smile and nod shortly, looking over at my shoulder. I watch Four's retreating figure until he goes into the Dauntless dormitory before turning back to the group's conversation.
Hey, thanks you guys for reading. Feel free to comment any opinions about the story so far, even CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Hope y'all are enjoying!
To Rhii xx, thank you so much for the review. It really made me smile.
