I would say I woke up to the sound of the rooster –that has a death wish- but I would be lying. In truth I didn't wake up, I just couldn't sleep. I have no reason to be worried but I still am. I have known my test result would be Dauntless for years but I only just realised how hard it would be to leave my family. I know Tammy got Dauntless as well but it doesn't mean she will definitely leave, for all I know she might stay, or she could transfer to Candor, Abnegation or Erudite. I may never tell her this but I don't think I could stand to be parted with her. For 16 years of my life she has been my twin, my sister, my best friend and my only friend. If it wasn't for Tammy I would have spent the first 16 years of my life alone, I can't lose her now. Wherever she goes I go.
With my decision made I get out of my bed and head to the bathroom. Through the mirror I can see my reflection; it's not a pretty sight. My long blonde hair looks like it has been through a tornado, my blue/grey eyes are surrounded by dark circles (showing my lack of sleep) and my usually lightly tanned skin looks pale. Using make-up, a hair brush and a toothbrush I finally make myself look presentable: I walk back to my shared bedroom to find Tammy already changed in a red button up, yellow knee-length shorts and red high top canvas shoes. She leaves the room looking the same as I did half an hour ago: I get changed into the same clothes and finish just as she walks back into the room. It's like looking in the mirror; we just stand there for a few minutes before heading downstairs to the kitchen.
As usual, father is sitting at the table with his breakfast already in front of him and mother is singing while washing the dishes. We both sit down and begin to eat our breakfast: the room is silent. Once we have all finished our breakfast we leave the house and walk towards the Hub, none of us speak but as we entered the city mother and father take one of our hands each.
We enter the hub and take the lift with fellow Amity members; no one speaks which gives me the feeling that I'm not the only one who is nervous. We finally reach the top floor and the lift doors open, we are one of the last to arrive and we take our seats in our faction's allocated area. Its Candors turn to host this year and Jack Kang makes his speech but I'm not really listening. He finishes his speech and starts to call out names in reverse alphabetical order. After a while I hear one of the only names that is of interest to me.
"Tammathia Griffen." I look up and see that my sister is already standing; she kisses mother and father on the cheek and gives me a soft smile. She walks down the aisle and up on to the platform, Jack hands her the knife and she takes without hesitating. She slides the blade along the palm of her hand and waits for the blood to pool in her hand. I'm ready to choose whatever she does, I tell myself.
Tammy looks at each of the bowls before thrusting her hand out in front of the one on the far left. I watch as the blood falls from her hand, it feels like everything is going in slow motion but eventually the drops of blood lands in the bowl.
"Dauntless." Jack says which makes me release the breath I didn't realise I had been holding.
Tammy walks over to the cheering mass of black clothing: smiling madly.
"Dylania Griffen." My eyes snap away from Tammy and I stand up slowly. I kiss my mother and father on the cheek.
"No matter what you choose, we will both still love you." My mother whispers in my ear before I pull away and walk down the aisle. I step up on to the platform and take the knife from Jack and he gives me a small smile only noticeable to me. I cut open my palm and take one last look at my parent before thrusting my hand over the hot coals and let the blood fall from my hand. The blood lands and the coals sizzle.
"Dauntless." I turn towards my new faction and can't help myself from smiling. I walk over and Tammy pulls me into a hug. The Dauntless around us are cheering and whistling and I feel at home.
"And there was me thinking I might finally be able to get rid of you." Tammy whispers in my ear and I can almost hear the smirk in her voice.
"Well, I realised that we can cause so much more trouble together than apart and we both know I would get kicked out of the Amity Initiation the minute I got back." I say laughing.
"Same here anyway come sit; there are still some more kids to go." I nod still smiling and take the seat next to her.
The rest of the ceremony passes quickly and before I know it the rest of my new faction are getting up and racing out of the room and down the stairs. Once we reach the lobby we rush out of the doors and race towards the train tracks, following the rest of the Dauntless members.
"Bet I can get on to the train first." Tammy says as we run.
"Oh, you're on." I reply and speed up so I am flat out sprinting. Tammy is close behind me but I focus on climbing up the pillar that holds up the train tracks. I look to my left as I reach the top and notice that Tammy is also at the top of the tracks and is looking back along the train line for the approaching train. We have watched the Dauntless so often that we know we have to jump on the train while it is still moving. The other transfers haven't realised this and are standing looking confused as the train shows no sign of stopping. Tammy and I start running and I can't help but smile with excitement. The train glides past me and I reach out for the handle on the side and swing myself inside the compartment. I look around the compartment and notice that everyone is staring at me but I don't care, I'm searching for one person and I finally see her. I walk over to her and she meets me half way. Everyone is still staring and I still don't care and by the looks of it neither does Tammy.
"I win." I say grinning.
"Haha, keep dreaming. I won." Tammy says with a smile as big as my own.
"You must be blind, I won… again." Tammy snorts but smiles.
"I won but for the sake of your clearly confused mind I'll call it a draw." She says to me.
"Aww you're kind of nice when you're wrong but for this one and only time I'll call it a draw." We both laugh and finally look around our train compartment: everyone is staring at us.
"Uh… Hi?" Tammy says to the Dauntless members that are surrounding us and all are staring at us like we have both grown another head.
"What my sister means to say is, what the fuck are you looking at?" I say to the crowd, earning a glare from Tammy.
"You're both in the first compartment." One of the girls says. She has blonde hair pulled up into a ponytail, grey/blue eyes and 3 bird-like tattoos on her collarbone.
"Is that a problem?" Tammy asks in her bored voice.
"No, it's just different." The girl replies.
"What do you mean by different?" I ask mildly interested.
"Not even Dauntless born make it on this quickly. It's a little impressive, especially seeing as you're both from Amity." Another woman says from behind her. She has short black hair and is smaller than the girl who spoke first.
"What are your names?" The first girl asks while the rest of the compartment stop paying attention and continue with the conversations they were having before we interrupted them.
"Dylan."
"Tammy."
"Well my name's Six and this is Christina and her boyfriend Will." The first girl replies and points to the other girl who spoke and the tall boy standing next to her.
"Get ready!" Someone shouts from the other side of the compartment. Tammy looks at me with a confused expression on her face which I mirror. We look out the door and see that there is a roof that the train is approaching.
"You need to jump on to the roof as we pass by." Six says to both of us. We both take a few steps back and the rest of the Dauntless step back from the doorway giving us room to jump. Once again they are staring at us with interested expression on their faces. I turn to Tammy:
"I bet I can jump further than you." I say with a smug grin. Tammy's eyes light up.
"You're on. On the count of three?" She replies and I nod.
"One."
"Two."
"Three!" We say at the same time. We run forward and at the last second, we jump.
I feel weightless as we fly through the air and onto the roof. We both land at the same time, at the same distance away from the train track and I stumble slightly but regain my balance preventing myself face planting the rough gravel on the roof. I look to my right and see that Tammy has done the same; we grin and decide to call it a draw. We look back at the train and watch as the rest of the initiates jump, along with the members.
"Initiates!" A man on the ledge behind us says. I look at Tammy and she looks back at me, it's the Dauntless guy from the other day. Tammy groans and I smile. "My name is Eric. I'm one of the five leaders of Dauntless. If you want to enter the Dauntless compound you're going to have to jump. So who's first?"
"Me." Tammy and I say at the same time. I look at her and scowl and she does the same to me. Eric looks as us and rolls his eyes.
We both make our way to ledge and climb up. Tammy looks at me with a competitive look in her eyes.
"Bet I can make my jump look cooler than yours." She says.
"Game on." I reply retuning the grin.
"Today initiates." Eric says with an irritated tone of voice.
"Oh really, I was thinking of doing it tomorrow." Tammy says, her voice dripping with sarcasm. The Dauntless on the roof snort but don't let a laugh escape their lips.
"Yeah, no need to get your knickers in a twist." I say, which causes everyone on the roof, except Eric, to laugh.
Before he can reply (or threaten) us, we both backflip off the roof. Neither of us screams and we land on a net, it wraps around our bodies before making us bounce a few times. When the net finally settles we start laughing. The net suddenly dips and we role to the edge, two sets of hands appear and we grab them. The owners of the hands help us off the net and settle us on the ground.
"Two of you?" A man with dark hair and blue eyes asks.
"Yep." We reply in unison. The man looks at us for a minute before asking us our names.
"Dylan.
"Tammy."
"First jumpers- Dylan and Tammy." He shouts holding up our arms. There is loud cheering all around us and then Four tells where to go stand and wait for the rest of the initiates to jump.
Once everyone has jumped we are split into two groups. The Dauntless born are to go with Christina and a guy called Uriah and us transfers are to stay with Six and the guy who helped us of the net. The Dauntless born leave and we are left with Six and this other guy.
"My name's Four and this is Six-" The guy says.
"Like the numbers?" Tammy asks sniggering.
"Exactly like the numbers, is that a problem?" Four asks with an intimidating glare which neither Tammy or I notice.
"It depends." I reply, which earns me a few gasps.
"Depends on what?" Four says walking up in front of us.
"On whether you're adding, subtracting, dividing or multiplying them." We both say at the same time (sometimes I wonder if we are psychic) we get a few sniggers but then both Six and Four send everyone a glare. Four stands in our personal space trying to intimidate us.
"I would keep your mouth shut, initiates. Or you'll find yourselves Factionless before you even start training." He says then turns and walks back over to Six.
"Yes sir." We reply with salutes. Almost all the transfers are laughing now but immediately stop when Four shoots them another glare. He doesn't say anything but continues talking.
"Six and I will be your instructors for the next few weeks. Now follow us while we take you on a tour of the compound." The two instructors walk away leaving us to follow them. Four and Six take us to 'the Pit', the Chasm and then to the dorms, which they pause at and turn to face us at the door.
"This is where you will be sleeping for the next few weeks and before you ask its boys and girls. Training begins at 8am and finishes at 6pm with a break for lunch. If you don't want to be factionless then you will be in the training room on time. Now get changed then bring your old factions clothes and we will take you to the mess hall.
As soon as they leave the door way we all rush in and try to grab a good bed. Tammy and I take beds at the back of the room and quickly put on the new black clothes. We get a few wolf whistles from the boys as we are a bit curvier than the other girls in the room but we ignore them and pull on the Dauntless clothes quickly. We finish getting changed into the tight black tank top, skinny jeans and combat boots and grab our old clothes. We walk outside the dorm room to see Four and Six snogging with Eric standing away in the background paying no attention to the instructors. They haven't noticed us so we smirk and decide to make our presence known.
"So it's an addition problem." I say which cause Four and Six to break apart both looking embarrassed that they got caught and Eric smirking behind them. "Although I suppose it could be the other three." I say looking thoughtful. The others look at me with confused expressions. I look at Tammy and lean in to whisper in her ear. "They probably usually add a bed, subtract the clothes, divide the legs and start the multiply process." I whisper loudly. Tammy bursts out laughing and the others must have heard as Four and Six are glaring at me and Eric's small smirk has grown into a full smile (which just makes him look even hotter).
"Neither of you are allowed to tell the other transfers, understood?" Four say trying to look intimidating which fails as his lips are still red and swollen from his make out session with Six.
"Yes sir." We say, causing him to glare at us again. He looks like he is about to say something but we are saved by the rest of the transfers walking through door.
"Follow me." Four says gruffly and we follow.
He tells us to throw our old clothes into the furnace before we can have dinner and Tammy and I are happy to do so. We still hate bright colours. Four and Six lead us to the mess hall and Tammy and I stay at the back of the group. I can feel Eric's presence behind me but I don't mind, I just continue to walk next to Tammy as we follow our instructors. We walk in to the mess hall which is filled with people making lots of noise and Tammy and I feel at home. We search for and table and find the only one with seats left is the one with Four and Six. Sighing we make our way over and Tammy forces me to sit next to Four while she sits, across from me, next to Six. I am sure I hear him groan but he covers it up by stuffing half a hamburger in his mouth. I look up at Six and she looks just as pleased to see us as Four. I look to Tammy and we both grin. We are half way through our dinner when I feel a tingling sensation up my back; I turn and see Eric making his way over to our table. I turn back to my food and try to look interested in it when he sits down next to Four.
"Four, Six." He says.
"What do you want Eric?" Four says.
"Max has just notified me that I will be overseeing you and Six this year seeing as it's her first year as an instructor." Both Tammy and I look up along with the rest of the transfers at the table. Great Eric is going to be watching us train. Say goodbye to my concentration.
"Why is he only just telling you now?" Six asks.
"No idea. I just thought you might want to know so you both don't have heart attack in the morning when I walk through the doors." Eric replies with a small smirk. Tammy and I snigger at this which causes the three Dauntless members to look at us. "Well is one of you two instructors going to introduce me?" Eric says not looking at them but at me. I hold his stare which Tammy notices and kicks me under the table but I barely feel it.
"This is Tammy and Dylan, the first jumpers." Four says in a bored voice.
"I remember you two. You're the two Amity's who have built up and immunity to the peace serum." His eyes lighting up when he remembered who we were. Four and Tris look at us with a mixture of shock and confusion but we ignore them.
"Yep, that's us. We must have left an impression if you remember us." I say and Tammy once again kicks me under the table but like the last time I barely feel it, my eyes still holding Eric's stare.
"That you did." He says before he gets up and walks away. I turn back to my food ignoring the eyes staring at me. I only look up when Tammy slaps the side of my head.
"What did I do this time?" I say rubbing the side of my head.
"You were wrong dear sister." She says to me. I look at her confused.
"You've lost me." I say hoping she will tell me what she's thinking.
"You get in enough trouble without my help." She says grinning. I laugh and grin as well.
"Yeah but it's much more fun when you're there."
What do you think of the new chapter? I enjoyed writing it but I was getting a bit carried away and wrote more than I expected to.
Please leave a review as it helps me a lot and thanks for reading. I will try to update soon if I get some positive feedback through follows, favourite and reviews.
If you have any suggestions or ideas let me know.
Thanks again.
Wholocker x