Chapter two

WARNINGS: *Divergent AU modern days* *A bit of a slow burn* *Characters may be OOC*

DISCLAIMER: I do not own The Divergent Trilogy

"Chris are you telling me where you're taking me? With my car? Or you're just gonna drive and drive for the next few days in silence?" Tris asked her best friend after about 15 minutes of driving, partly because she had no idea where they were going but mostly because the fact she had barely talked since she had hopped on the car was suspicious and Tris didn't like it, she didn't know what to think since Christina had never been able to keep her mouth shut for more than a few minutes, she had always been everything but a silent and quiet person! So the fact that she had been driving Tris' car giving her no details apart from "I'm taking you to a special place. You're gonna love it, I'm sure" had Tris a little worried.

She hadn't even had the time to stop the car in front of Chris' workplace because she had already been there waiting and had ran - she had actually ran with high heel on - towards her just to open Tris' car door and kick her out "I'm driving" she had said in her authoritative voice adding nothing else… Really suspicious!

"Well?" Tris insisted not really in the mood for a joke or a shopping afternoon.

Shopping… Tris had always hated it but guess what? Chris had always been a shopping addicted, since she was like four years old and whenever she was depressed, a little down or happy, excited or in any other mood… shopping shopping shopping and shopping: her answer to every single problem! And Tris was not in the mood for shopping, not at all!

Even if they had been best friend almost since their birth since they first met at the park when they were three and had be inseparable since then they had always been like two faces of the same coin, the opposites with nothing in common, like the day and the night, the Sun and the Moon. No one had ever understood how they could get along so well, it had always been a mystery to everybody but they had always been like that and they both wouldn't changed a thing in their relationship: friends, best friends, sisters. Tris loved her but she wouldn't stood shopping, not that afternoon.

"So, since you're a little down, I can't read it all over your face but you shouldn't be since they were obviously blind idiots we need something to cheer you up and that's what I'm going to do" she says in a serious tone but with her proud smile still playing on her lips.

"Please tell me-" Tris started but was brutally interrupted.

"I know what you're going ask. Don't worry: no shopping, no saloon or anything like that" Chris assured her before adding beneath her breath "I can't really get why you don't like about it, shopping is life girl"

Tris just shaked her head waiting for Chris to reveal something more "So? What are we doing?"

"No, no. Not telling you that, you need to be patient for a little longer" she answered not sharing any other detail for the rest of the ride, just some popular hits playing and filling that atmosphere full of mystery. Tris, giving up, rested her heavy head on the cold car window, absent-mindedly looking at the cars and building speeding while Chris kept on traveling along unknown streets towards an unknown destination placed somewhere far from the city centre since it seemed like they were heading to the opposite direction.

The unexpected and sudden arrest of Tris' car caused her head to bump a little against the slightly blurred glass and the small drops of condensation to roll down the window.

"Ouch"Tris murmured under her breath giving Chris an furrowed glance.

"Sorry, didn't mean. But here we are, to the place that will put a smile back on your lips" she said.

"Someone is looking confident today" she commented chuckling, finding funny her best friend's positivity and sureness.

"I am confident and sure" she said before hopping off the car and waiting for Tris to follow her, in the meantime she hadn't even looked out to try and find out where they were so she had no idea what was going to welcome her once out of the car.

Shutting the car door a shiver ran down Tris' back and goosebumps appeared on her bare arms, it was quite chilly that day, the time had changed suddenly the previous night and Tris' t-shirt couldn't do much to warm her up but, after a few seconds, her attention was completely caught by the cute and colorful building in front of her.

It looked like a nineteenth-century two level noble house, a large wrought iron gate opened into a small garden with a gravel path connection the street with the front wood door, this one opened too. The two small balconies on the first floor were like two spectacular spots of colour since they were filled up with plants and flowers of every shape and colour,they looked amazing. Big windows adorning the facade along with a cute peculiar sign that read "The precious book".

Books? Did someone say books?

Tris loved books, she had always loved reading like every single things with written pages and a cover. Novels, biographies, papers, cooking books, school books, tales, science and astronomy books… books books books, she loved books! So you can imagine the intake of breath at the sight of the building in front of her: not only it was breathtaking but it was a book shop!

Excitement started running through Tris' veins and she immediately turned around, a squeal trapped in her throat, to face Chris and her proud expression. An excited grin threatening to deform Tris' face forever. Still too speechless to speak - Chris, Chris, had taken her to a bookshop and suddenly she couldn't care less about the failed job interview - started bouncing along the path, toward the entrance. She couldn't wait to be in and lose herself in the magic world of books, world made of shelves, covers, titles, silence, plots, chapters, quotes and paper fragrance, a world she was familiar to.

Once entered Chris couldn't make her leave or drag her out before a whole three hours of books and only books apart from the conversation - about books - that Tris had had with the owner of the bookshop - an old woman who had decided to transform the ground floor of her house into a shop selling books a couple of years before and, since the business was developing and more and more people had started going there, she now had also a couple of young assistants to help her. Tris could easily understand why people had started to go there, it was a paradise, an old style bookshop with armchairs in a corner of the huge room to let people sit and read or discuss, exchange opinions; relaxed atmosphere and kind people, not like the busy and frantic bookstore you could find in the city centre. There was nothing too bad about then but that… that was heaven and Tris only let Chris drag her out at 7,30 p.m. but just because the old lady had to close the shop. Chris thanked her for closing, earning a sticking out tongue from her best friend that resulted in a general laughter. Tris only gave up and agreed to leave once having assured Katie she would come back and having brought five books.

It had been a long afternoon for Chris, you can imagine, but the huge smile that hadn't left Tris' face since she had realized where she had been taken was worth it and Chris was glad Tris seemed to be back to her carefree and joyful attitude and that was confirmed when, back in the car, she asked her "So, fuck them?" thinking back at her lost job opportunity and Tris after just a second-lasting hesitation nodded her head, not really convinced at first but then with more and more resolution.

"You know what? It was also quite ironic, it would have been even funny if had been a different situation"Tris said out of the blue after a few minutes taking Chris by surprise.

"How come? I wanna know this one girl"

"They thought I was German" Tris said with a light chuckle.

"What?" Chris screamed with a shocked yet fun and interested facial expression threatening to slam on the brakes. Before starting to explain what had happened a bunch of hours before Tris made a me take note never to let her best friend drive her car ever again because every ride had been a potential fatal one. Yeah, they had mistaken her for a girl coming from Germany - central Europe - and that just because of a photo they had asked her to send them before the job interview… Blonde hair, pale and eyes an indefinite colour between grey-ish and blue-ish… they had wrongly assumed she was from Germany and able to speak German and of course Tris was not, she didn't even know where to start with Germany, not even able to say 'Hi' in that language. Let's just say that, once discovered she was from the States and she could only speak English and a little French and so she wouldn't been able to practice German with their 7-year-old son, they hadn't been really polite and kind to her, quite rude actually, the peak of their impertinence contained in their last words "You're not what we were looking for", spoken in an slightly harsh and impolite voice.

"Screw them" was Chris' final goodbye in front of Tris' front door that evening, when the sun had already set and the moon raised.

--

Two uneventful days had passed when Tris received a phone call from her best friend and that was unusual since she was usually the text-type so Tris picked it up soon and was welcomed by Chris urgent voice "Turn your computer on. Now. I'm sending you an email"

Her loud and high pitched voice sending a shot of vitality through her, her exuberant tone telling her there was no room to object, the only thing she couldn't figure out was the reason of her urgency - not that she patient or anything, she had never been but that was an unusual request, that's all but Chris had always been quite unpredictable so Tris sighed and got up for the kitchen table to go to her room and power her laptop, putting Chris on speaker.

"One sec" she told her before asking the reason why she was sending her an email.

"Will was reading a newspaper or something online, I haven't really understood but that it irrelevant… I've found you a job! Am I or am I not the best best friend in the world?" at her words - not the part where she vainly classified herself as the 'best best friend in the world but at the mention of a potential job opportunity - Tris speeded up, eager to see what Chris was talking about and she even mumbled a silent "C'mon" to her computer before it finally responded to her commands and opened the blue link on Chris' email.

Tris started reading the announcement under her breath:

"Looking for a part-time nanny to pick up my 2 children (5 and 7 y/o) from Elementary School and then watch and help them doing homework at my house until 6.30. Services needed Monday through Friday but may have some flexibility on days and time-table. Although dinner prep isn't required it would be great if you could prepare after school snacks. No qualifications needed. Start date: September 11th"

Tris arrived at the end of it breathless since she had read it all at once, never stopping until the last two lines with the conclusive address, the phone number to arrange a job interview and the signature: Lauren Eaton.

Tris' heart almost skipped a beat when she realised Lauren Eaton's house was actually not far from her own - 10 minutes driving maximum - and that that was the best and most rosy job advertisement she had found. She had to get it.

Comments and reviews would be much appreciated, thank you. Hope you enjoyed.

OceanicGirl