Hello my lovely readers!

You guys know the drill: R&R! If you see mistakes or anything too, because I'm not English (Dutch), so there might be some. Oh, and I could use suggestions! You know: possibly-lethal sports they can do and such...

And a shout-out to Wiwo40514 for trying to guess the quote I gave you at the end of chapter one! You didn't get it right but you gave it a thought and that's worth something... something like a shout-out! Thanks :D

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! ;)

Now, I'll quit rambling and just let you guys enjoy the chapter (hopefully)!


"Mornin', Tris!" Zeke says happily as I walk into the cafeteria. I notice that he and Shauna are holding hands. That means their date has gone well, which explains the happiness.

"Now all we have to do is get Chris and Uriah to hook up, and we'll all be one big happy family," Tobias comments. He receives a variety of reactions to his teasing; I chuckle, as does Zeke. Shauna throws herhead back and laughs out loud (she's been rooting for them ever since she met Christina and now she's found a fellow thinker). On the other hand, Christina yells 'No way that that's gonna happen, like, ever!' while Uriah (who isn't ill anymore) blushes and stammers a couple of incoherent syllables. People turn their heads to see what's going on at our table and we quiet down a bit. A little bit.

"So, Tris, it's your turn today, isn't it?" Uriah asks, in a very obvious attempt to change the subject.

"Yeah, it is. I heard about this old sport called skydiving…" Tobias's breath hitches in his throat. It's not audible to any of our friends, though, and I don't react to it, but continue. "It was practiced back
when there still were planes. People would jump from the train when it was about two miles up in the air and when they were about halfway down, they'd open this giant sheet of fabric called a parachute. That slowed them down enough to land softly on the ground."

"Sounds Dauntless enough for my liking!" Shauna says, but I'm not finished yet.

"We don't have planes anymore though. But people made this variation called base jumping. It's exactly the same as skydiving, except you don't jump out of a plane. You jump off a building, or a cliff, or something. You need special gear though, so I asked Caleb…"

"Wait," Tobias interrupts, sounding slightly panicked now. "That's what we're going to do? Jump off a building, with nothing that stops us from falling to our demise but a sheet of fabric? "

"Not a sheet of fabric. Wings."

"Um… did you just say wings?" Christina questions, sounding confused. She, Shauna, Zeke and Uriah all look at me rather incredulously. Tobias looks at his food as if he's planning to smash it to a pulp.

"That's not their official name, but I asked Caleb to develop something like it. He came up with a wetsuit of sorts with flaps between the two legs, the left leg and –arm, and the right leg and
–arm. Basically wings."

"Tris… are you sure that that will work? I'm Dauntless, not suicidal." Zeke mutters.

"I'm sure. In fact… I tested it." Tobias looks up.

"When?"
"Oh… a couple days ago… you were busy and I was sure that it would work. Plus, you would have stopped me if i told you and I wanted my plan to be a surprise." He swallows and looks the other way.

"We will have a word about this but not now." He tells me under his breath. "If you all really want to do this, sure. But I'm not coming."

"Why?" Shauna and Uriah ask, then glare at each other.

"Because… I've never told anyone this, but... I'm afraid of heights. Don't tell anyone, Christina." Everyone looks at him, completely stunned. That was probably the most intimate thing he's ever told them... Well, not everyone is stunned.

"Hey! Why me?" Christina has to speak her mind again.

"Candor-born," we all say and she scowls at us.

"I can keep my mouth shut better than you pansycakes. But back to the main point: if Four isn't coming with us, will we still go base jumping?"

"Yes, you will," he says, and looks at us with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "And no protesting. You all go, and when you return, I'll have a word with you, Tris. And a surprise." He says I wonder what he's talking about. But I can't worry about it now.

"Fine. Let's go, then! First stop, Erudite!" I say, and we go to the train tracks. Base jumping it is!

We're standing on the roof of the Hancock building, at the same place I stood when we went ziplining. Uriah nudges me with his shoulder.

"Remember?" He asks.

"Of course!" I tell him. "You were screaming your ass off; I still haven't recovered my hearing." He scowls at me while Zeke and Shauna are laughing at his face. Chris just stands there and looks confused.

"What are you talking about?"

"Oh, nothing important. Never mind. Anyway, this is really easy, but super-scary." Understatement of the year. It takes a whole lot of stupidity to jump off the roof a hundred stories up.

"So, Tris," Zeke summarizes, "We just... jump of this roof and spread our arms and legs?"

Almost," I tell him, and then I speak louder so everyone can hear me. "We're going to jump in a minute! First you have to know what to do to float and such. That's necessary to avoid becoming nothing but a stain on the pavement!" Well, now I have their attention.

"When you jump, you let yourself fall for a while, then spread your arms and legs. Straighten yourself out horizontally to start floating instead of free-falling and after that lean right or left to start circling. We'll see each other at... um... the foot of the Hub. We can make it that far without too much trouble." In my peripheral vision, I see Zeke squint to see the tall building off in the distance.

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"If we survive this, I'll subtract ten of your penalty points." Christina tells me.

"So will I," Shauna chimes in.

"I'll settle for five." Zeke teases, and I shoot him a mock glare.

"I'll go with Shauna and Chris – Zeke, you're a scrooge." We all laugh, and then we start to feel nervous. Who will jump first?

"Tris should go." Christina says. "She's done it before, and this all was her idea to begin with." I swallow. Yes, I did it before. No, it's not less scary now. But if I don't agree, they'll consider it chickening out and I'll hear about it my entire life.

"Sure." I mutter. I hear Uriah curse and look back, just in time to see a bit of cash transfer from Uriah's hands to Zeke's.

"We made a bet on our way here. If you dared to go first, he'd give me ten, if you didn't, I owed him." Zeke explains, earning a scowl from me. I'm about to tell him to shove the money up his behind when we hear an ear-piercing scream. Shauna! Apparently, she thought that our talking was taking too much time, and jumped.

"Damn," Zeke mutters, and hands Uriah the cash again, who smiles triumphantly. I barely hear them, because I have walked to the edge of the building. I have a flashback – me in grey clothes, with Peter taunting me, standing on another edge, about to throw myself into a hole in the ground – and I jump.

The air is whipping around my face, making it near impossible to breathe in. My face feels as if it might be blown off my bones and my eyes start to water from the speed. And I love it. Tobias warned me not to become an adrenaline junkie, but this rush, the kick, is simply amazing. I see people point, wave, run and scream at the sight of five persons jumping of the highest roof in town. Below me, Shauna straightens out and spreads her arms and legs. I faintly hear her scream changing to a 'Whoo-hoooooooo!' and I laugh a bit. Not a good idea, though, laughing while base jumping: I can't close my mouth anymore and struggle to breath. At last, I can't stand it anymore. I spread my arms and legs and level out. I slow down, but I still go so fast that I can barely see the crowd beneath us. I wave at them (harder that it sound, with wings that are under high tension).

I circle for a bit, before I decide that I'm dangerously low; I can skim the tops of the higher buildings with my toes. If I don't start to the Hub now, I'll have to walk. And I hate walking with these suits – they're way too heavy once you're on the ground.

When I touch down safely at the foot of the Hub, the others are already there.

"Well you took your sweet time." Chris says, and I look at her. Her cheeks are red, there's a glint in her eyes and her hair is dishevelled. I suppress a grin.

"Yes I did. So, how did you guys like it? I guess I'm 35 points lighter, huh?"

"Yeah and you deserve it." Shauna pats me on the shoulder. "That. Was. Freaking. Amazing! When can we go again?"

"Whenever you want to. The suits were made for us, so we're the only ones that'll wear them – unless we invite someone else. Then I'll have to ask the Erudite to craft another one."

"Okay, Zeke," Uriah taunts. "Let's see if you can surpass this level of awesomeness tomorrow." Yeah, I'd love to see him try – if I survive Tobias's talk and his 'surprise'...


Thanks for reading! What would Four's surprise be? Any guesses?

Oh, and DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME ;) (that is, if anyone has a suit like that, and a hundred-stories-high house...)

Oh, and I don't own anything. Remember to press the pretty blue button... every time I get a review, I'm squealing, clapping and jumping up and down - plus, they motivate me and I write more when I'm motivated! And I need suggestions! I'm always open to them, and I ALWAYS reply!

Xx Ilse