chapter two:
a/n: What's up you guys? It's your girl Bianca! I'm back with the next chapter. Okay, so a few quick things. Omg! You guys are the best! We got to four reviews less than two days after I posted the first chapter. I am also up to five follows and one favorite. So, thank you guys so so much! Secondly, Emmabeth's stories will appear here as soon as I'm done with this one, so it will probably be a long time. Plus, Natalie posted a new song fic. She read it to me one day this week, and it was amazing! So, if you wouldn't mind showing that some love as well, although I will warn you that it is very depressing. Next, this story is based off Emmabeth's Dauntless High, Aubreylovesthegames' Learning To Let Them In, and a book called Blindsided by Precilla Cummings. And lastly, I want to apologize for the spelling errors in the last chapter. My computer is extremely stupid, so yeah. Okay, so here's chapter two.
Chapter two: New Beginnings
I awaken to my cell phone telling me to get out of bed and start the day. I open my eyes, grab my cell, and switch off the alarm. I find my way to the bathroom, and turn on the lights. I put in my first round of eye drops, and tell my phone to remind me when to take the next round. Then, I brush my teeth and hair, and go back into my bedroom to pack for the Chicago School the the Blind. I don't want to be going here. It's like, it's finally sunk in that I actually do need help. And I hate needing help. To me, that's a sign of weakness. And I hate being weak.
After puting in my second round of eye drops, I put in my contacts, and put on my glasses. I use my small circle of vision to see where I'm applying the scar concealer. The scar in question is from when George lost it, and threw the coaster at my face. It curves over my forehead, so I have to cover it if I don't want to be looked at like I'm an alien from the planet Freak.
I then check out my reflection in the mirror. Long, stick straight blond hair, and bluish-gray eyes. I'm very small for my age, and am very thin. My ears aren't pierced, but I do wear clip-on earrings, so I have a pair of small hoops in today. I look, well, a lot more confident than I feel.
I leave the bathroom, grab my cell phone, then go back to my room to finish packing. When that's done, I carry my suitcase downstairs, to the front door. I deposit it without looking at my parents, or Caleb, who are currently eating breakfast at the kitchen table. Instead of joining them, I open the front door, and step outside for some fresh air. I lean against the railing, and stare out into the blurry silhouettes of trees, and the swing set that Mom and Dad put together for me and Caleb a long time ago. Dad had insisted on testing it, and the thing damm near broke.
I can't keep the small smile off my face, but I definitely give it my best shot. I lose the battle, however; the sight of Dad's face as the swing set almost toppled over was priceless. I'd give anything to see that happen just one more time with my good vision. But that's not how life works, and I know it.
Mom comes out with my suitcase a few minutes later, and we get into her car, and get ready to make the long drive to the school. Sometimes, people say that time flies when you're having fun, but I say it flies when you're really dreading something. That's how the drive my my home in Springfield to Chicago is. It's usually about three hours, but it seems to take three minutes or less.
When Mom pulls up to the school, she parks her car, and we climb out. I walk up to one of the many building behind my mother. It's labeled MAIN OFFICE. Mom pushes it open to reveal a cozy looking room with lots of little couches and chairs. There's a long counter, and sitting behind it, is a pretty young women, maybe mid thirties, with long black hair that falls to her mid-back. She's writing or drawing something on a piece of paper—I'm not close enough to tell. When she sees us walking over, she quickly looks up, and smiles at Mom and me.
"Hello. My name is Tori Wu. Although, people just call me Miss Tori. I'm the art and music teacher here." Mom smiles at Miss Tori.
"Hello. My name is Natalie Prior, and this is my daughter, Beatrice Prior." Miss Tori immediately jumps up, and grabs a file folder from the shelves behind the desk. She passes the folder across the counter, and I reach for it.
"Okay. Before you do anything else, I need you to fill out this quiz. This will determine which of the factions you belong in."
"Factions?" I ask, probably looking the picture of confusion. Miss Tori nods. "Factions are our learning groups. You will sleep in your faction's dormitory, take classes with your faction, and eat meals with your faction. They're essentially your family, away from your family. Cool idea, right?"
I nod, and accept the quiz. It looks really weird, however. For one thing, there are five answers for everything. And for another, it tells me that this will decide my future at the school, and probably the rest of my future as well. And then, there are the questions. For example, this one:
8. When you feel mad about something, y...
a. put that energy into helping others.
b. writing poetry about it.
c. having a lively debate with your friends.
d. working out.
e. finding a book on the psychology behind anger.
Or, this one:
15. You describe your ideal boyfriend/girlfriend z...
a. selfless, and kind.
b. peaceful, and fun.
c. truthful, and loyal.
d. brave and strong.
e. smart and serious.
I picked C and D. I mean, I liked all of them, but I couldn't very well say that. When Tori collects my quiz, her brow furrows, as she looks over it. "Beatrice..." "Tris." I correct instinctively.
"Tris. Sorry. Your results were inconclusive. You have three results. Dauntless, the brave, Abnegation, the selfless, and Erudite, the intelligent. We call these types of people Divergent, and they're very rare. There isn't a faction for them, so you need to pick one of the three results you got. Please select one now." "Dauntless." I reply. I'm going to need bravery for what's coming.
Tori nods briskly, and pulls out a black envelope from the folder, passing it across the counter towards me. "It's in large print. Alright, well, you better go get settled in your room. Your roommate is already there."
Roommate? What roommate? I hadn't heard anything about a roommate. Mom was asking Tori something about girls and boys dormitories. "No, there's not one. Boys and girls have separate floors." answers Tori. Mom nods, I'll be it, somewhat nervously, but nevertheless, leads me out of the building.
My roommate turns out to be named Christina Abbot. She seems nice, from what I've observed about her. Although, she does have a tendancy to call you out on a lie. That means, I'm going to struggle here, since lying is my MO.
Lying that I don't need help, when in all actuality, I do. Lying that I'm over what happened with my biological parents, when i still have frequent nightmares about it. Lying about not being scared to death at the thought of being here. Lying about the fact that I pretty bad vision, insisting that it's perfect. You-people, this can only go one way—badly. Not that I'm not going to try to befriend her.
I tell her about my glaucoma, and she tells me that she has something called diabetic retinopathy. That's where her retina, the part of the eye responsible for turning light into nerve impulses, keeps hemorrhaging. In other words, blood vessels keep breaking in her retinas, effecting her ability to see.
Mom left about an hour ago, and I'm sprawled across my bed, on my cell phone, playing Trivia Crack. Christina tries to talk to me, but I quietly ask if we could talk later, making up an excuse about a really bad headache. Of course, she calls me out on it right away, but thank gosh, doesn't press me further.
I feel guilty for lying to her. But it was the only way to shut her out. I hate shutting people out, but I need to be left alone for awhile, and that does not mean talking to people. That means exactly the opposite.
I decide to go to bed early, and immediately I get sucked into a nightmare. I have them a lot. It's a result of all the shitty foster homes I was shoved into after George and Imagine. It's easier to pretend that it never happened during the day, but at night, well anything is fair game. And I mean anything.
In this one, I'm reliving what Imagine and George did to me. George had just thrown the coaster, and my parents was staring me down. George looked so scary when he had said the words that broke me. "I will find you again. No matter where you go. And when I do, you're going to wish you were never born. I hate you. I wish we'd never had you. You are ugly, and pathetic. You're stupid, a coward, selfish, sarcastic, disobedient, and violent. You don't deserve to be our daughter, or even to be alive! Get out of our faces, you ugly piece of shit!"
I wake up gasping, and crying, and feeling greatful that Christina has her earbuds in, and I can hear her music blasting. But then she says, "Tris?"
"Yes?" "I want you to know that even though I now know about your nightmares, I will never question you about them. But if you ever feel like talking, I'm here."
"Thanks Christina." I say, and I truly mean it. For once. Susan never wanted to discuss my past, even if I'd wanted to. I'd tried a few times, back when I was still depressed about it, but she'd said, "The past is the past, Tris. We move on from this day forward, and we don't look back." She didn't realize how much that had hurt me. If she had, she would've let me open up to her. But she was just too gentle to hear about violence, or anything sad. Still is.
I let my mind wonder, as it so often does, and I find my thoughts back to where I don't want them to be. On my parents. On what they did to me, and said to me, and how broken I was because of that. I still am, but it's nowhere near as 1ad. It used to be so bad, I was on antidepressants. I'm not on those anymore. As a matter of fact, I haven't taken one in over three years.
Although there was a panic one time, when I was down, and stayed that way for almost three months. I had a sister, Melissa, but she is probably in another home, enjoying her new family right now. She was only two when the incident occured. I also had a newborn sister, Julia, but again, we are, and will be, forever separated. It's been eight years since the incident. I want to know my siblings so bad, it's like a constant ache in my gut.
I sigh and sit up, and take my sleeping pills out of my suitcase. I take them, and am soon off in a world where dreams don't exist. And I go gladly, happy for the break from the nightmare of reality.
I wake up again to my cell phone's alarm clock ringing. I sit up, and sigh, before crawling to the ladder that leads down from my bed. They lift these things so they can shove dressers under them. Our desks, one is on the wall between the closet, and bathroom, and the other one is between the beds, have lamps on them, as well as a cup with black felt-tipped pins, and a sheeph of notebook paper, with wide dark lines on them, so we can see where they are, in order to write inside the lines. We have two rugs on the floor of our room, and I've given Christina the entirety of the small closes, while I took one of the shoe racks for myself. Christina needed the entire thing with how much clothing she's brought with her'-more than ten times the amount I'd brought.
Our bathroom is tiny. The sink is crammed right up against the to%let, and the shower is less than five inches from it. There is almost no room to maneuver.
I manage to get ready despite that, and am soon ready to leave the dorm. However, I decide at last minute to wait for Christina. She has to do her makeup, which takes forever. At long last, we're both ready to leave. I shut and lock the door behind us, and we start to walk down the stairs to the lobby.
We come into the lobby together, and the dorm councilor, a women by the name of Hanna, smiles at us. "Welcome Tr%s and Christina. I'm going to have Tris do sighted guide with Lynn today."
Lynn comes over to me, yawning. "I'm not awake. So, you may have to fend for yourself a little bit right now."
"I'm not blind." I blurt out, without thinking. "No, I'm not either." Lynn says, shrugging. "They just don't want you walking off campus. We had a kid do that once, and so now we have gates."
I laugh, and then sigh. Letting my pride crumbling, I allow Lynn to lead me across campus to the dining hall. She leads me to the table where some other kids sit, and tells me where to sit. I dart a quick glance around at the other kids at the table. A girl in a wheelchair, a boy with blue eyes and glasses, two boys who look to be related, Christina, a boy with shaggy blonde hair, and a girl with mousy brown hair. Lynn beckons for me to come towards her, and drops her voice to whisper.
"The other kids. The girl in the wheelchair is my older sister, Shauna. She's a year older than Still am. We came here because our little brother, Hector, has Cerebral Palsy. Shauna has it too, but it's nowhere near as severe as Hec's. He can't talk, walk, or do anything for himself. Mom and Dad didn't know what to do with us. Uriah and Zeke, the two over there, they have macular degeneration. The guy on your right, Four, I hear he was involved in a serious car accident. The girl with the brown hair, yeah, next to me, is Marlene. Her retinas detached for no apparent reason. Will, yes, the guy on Christina's left, well, I hear that he has cataracts, and there's no hope for him. Me? Well, I lost an eye due to eye cancer."
I nod, struggling with the heavy load of information that had just been dumped on me. After breakfast is over, the Dauntless head off to class, me again doing sighted guide with Lynn. I don't like doing that, but I guess I need to let my pride crumble, and let myself accept some help from time to time. And little do I know it now, but that lesson will become very important to me in the future.
a/n: whew! I am pleased to say that this chapter is almost three thousand words long! Now that's what I call progress, especially since I wanted to end it after she took the sleeping pill. Glad I didn't huh? Okay, so none of you who reviewed have ever broken a toe. And to that, I would like to say, that's awesome! You aren't experiencing the pain I am, and so yeah. Consider yourself lucky. Okay, so today's, if you've ever been in a car accident, review. Oh, and guys, I hope I'm not being too pushy by seeing if we can get to ten. It's only six more. So, I think we can make it. Alrighty, audios amigos!
Bianca.
