Chapter 2

Beatrice stepped off of the plane with her luggage in tow. She looked around her as she walked towards the airport building, taking in the change of scenery. To her, Chicago was so bland and boring. She had lived there her whole life, so it got tedious having to look at the same thing every day.

She was very surprised when her parents agreed to allow her to attend Divergent Boarding School. It was all the way in Sacramento, California, and they weren't coming with her. Caleb actually told her she was insane when she confided in him about wanting to leave Chicago.

"Mom and Dad will never agree to that, you're 17! You don't know how to live away from home, and you're insane if you think you can," she remembered him saying. But look where she was now. In a new city, surrounded by thousands of new faces, and no one knew who she was or what she did. She was ready for a fresh start.

Once she passed airport security, she hailed a taxi, directing the driver to take her to the school. The ride was short, only taking about 10 minutes, before the car pulled up in front of a large black gate.

"This is as far as I can take you." The cab driver said from the front.

"Thank you, and don't worry, my legs could use some exercise after the plane ride."

Beatrice opened the door, after paying the driver, and grabbed her luggage from the trunk. The taxi drove off as she approached the gate, and she gingerly pushed it opened. It was heavy and rusted, and it creaked while moved. As she moved farther onto the campus, she was in awe. There were 5 large buildings, set up in a semi-circle, and in front of them all was a beautiful garden with a large willow tree standing tall in the centre.

Beatrice stopped when she saw the tree, the picture of Al's lifeless body on her mind. She slowly shook her head, telling herself that she couldn't think about that. But it was so hard. That image was the only thing she thought of the entire summer. She would wake up in the middle of the night, racked with guilt, crying because it was her fault.

She mustered up the courage to keep walking, and headed towards the centre building, seeing as it was marked 'Office'. She went inside, and saw a lady sitting at a desk. She didn't look like the typical secretary type, considering she had a long purple streak in her jet black hair and was wearing a leather jacket. She looked up from her computer as Beatrice made her way towards her, and Beatrice noticed some tattoos peeking out from under her shirt.

"Hi, can I help you?" The lady asked. Beatrice looked at the name plate on the desk which read 'Tori Wu'.

"Um, yes, Ms. Wu-" She was cut off.

"Please call me Tori, everyone does."

"Oh, uh, okay, Tori, hi. I'm Beatrice Prior, I'm a new student, and I was just wondering if I could get my schedule, locker, and dorm number?" Her voice was small, and Tori could tell that she was uncomfortable around new people.

"Of course sweetie, let me just print it out for you."

Tori typed furiously on her keyboard, and soon the printer was whirring as a sheet of paper was printed out. She grabbed the paper and handed it to Beatrice, explaining that everything I needed was on the page. Beatrice thanked her and turned to leave, but Tori called out for her to stop.

"Sorry, but do you have a preferred name that I can tell the teachers to call you? Many students here go by nicknames so I just had to ask."

Beatrice thought to herself for a moment. A nickname would be the perfect first step to creating a new life for herself here, so she answered.

"Yes actually. Tell them to call me Tris."

Tori smiled at her.

"Great, I will send out an email."

Beatrice, no Tris, thanked her again, and when she turned to leave, a blonde girl came running through the door,

"Sorry I'm late Tori! I ran into Uriah and you know how it is with him, I had to stop and catch up about our summers, and then we just lost track of time and I am so so sorry I can't believe I was late it will never happen again!" The girl talked so quickly that Tris barely understood what she was saying. Tori just laughed quietly.

"Marlene, it's okay, you were only a minute late and Tris is still here." Upon hearing her name, Tris lifted her head, confused.

"Wait what?" Tris asked, looking back and forth between the Marlene and Tori.

"Oh I'm so sorry I completely spaced. All new students get a tour of the campus when they arrive. Without it, they would be far too lost to ever get to where they need to be. This is Marlene, she's going to give you your tour, you know, show you to your classes, your dorm, your lockers, and just explain what all the buildings are and the basic rules of the school." Tori explained to Tris, who nodded.

"Okay, well let's get started! Can I see your schedule?" Marlene asked. Tris couldn't tell so far if she liked Marlene. She seemed a little preppy and Tris didn't know if she could be around someone who was so happy all the time. She handed Marlene the piece of paper that Tori had printed out for her, and Marlene got a huge smile on her face as she looked over it.

"We're in the same dorm! Oh this is so exciting! You're going to love it, it's me and my two other friends Christina and Shauna. We had another roommate last year named Lynn but she had to move back home. We were worried we would end up with someone we didn't like, but I can already tell that you'll fit right in with our friends." As Marlene talked excitedly about her friends, Tris changed her mind about her. If she was going to be living with her, she might as well play nice. Besides, some friends would be nice. Tris didn't want to repeat last year.

"Okay, so let's take you to your dorm, our dorm, so you can drop your bags off and change into something else, and I think Christina and Shauna are there right now so you can meet them too, and then we'll get started on the rest of the tour." Marlene led the way into the building farthest to the right, and she explained that each building had a different purpose.

The office building had the principal and vice principal's offices, along with the registration office and the guidance counsellors office. The first floor was basically all offices, and that was where you went if you got in trouble or needed something from the faculty. The other floors in the building were the teacher's dorm rooms. Each teacher got their own room, and Marlene explained that sometimes they got a little too wild on their nights off. The two buildings to the right were the student's dorms, the boys and then the girls. There was supposed to be no one of the opposite gender in the other building, but the students had found ways to get around that, figuring out where the best places outside of the dorms were to hook up, or just figuring out how to sneak a boy or girl up to their room.

The two buildings on the left were the academics building and the athletics building. The academics building was where all the classes were held, except for any classes pertaining to athletics, those were in the other building, which was farthest to the left. Inside there was a gym, a pool, tennis courts, volleyball courts, basketball courts, and an ice rink, along with rooms for exercise classes and private training rooms. Tris was very surprised when Marlene said that there was an entire floor dedicated to self defense, including knife throwing, gun training, and hand-to-hand combat.

"Isn't that a little unsafe for a school?" Tris had asked, concerned for her safety.

"Oh don't worry, anyone on the floor has to be monitored by trained instructors, and no weapons are allowed to leave that floor. The school makes it very safe for us," Marlene explained, however, Tris wasn't entirely convinced.

When they entered the girl's dorms, Marlene immediately went to the elevator on the left side of the room. When Tris entered, Marlene hit the button for floor 4. The elevator dinged and the pair stepped out on the carpet.

"So our dorm is room 406, just follow me."

Tris did as she was told, following Marlene to the door marked 406. Tris noticed that instead of a place for a key, there was a number pad. She asked Marlene about it.

"The school had too many people locking themselves out of their rooms so they redid all the dorms to have passcodes instead of keys. They change every month though, something about keeping it a little safer." Marlene rolled her eyes as she said this, and Tris could tell that she thought it was stupid.

"Anyways, our code should be on your schedule, so why don't you go ahead and give it a try."

Beatrice looked at the sheet of paper and saw the code typed at the top beside the room number. She pushed the numbers it and the door unlocked. She pushed the door all the way open and was met with the sight of a shirtless girl on top of a shirtless guy. Marlene walked in behind Tris and mumbled something under her breath that Tris couldn't understand.

"For fucks sake can you two not keep your hands off each other for 20 minutes?" Marlene asked the couple, who didn't seem to realize that there was an unfamiliar face in the room with them.

The girl replied to Marlene. "You said you were giving a tour so me and Zeke decided to take advantage of our time alone."

"You weren't actually alone Shauna! I was here the whole time!" A voice shouted from one of the bedrooms. The girl, Shauna, just laughed before getting off of the boy, Zeke. She looked around for her shirt and as she did, she noticed Tris standing by the door looking very uncomfortable.

"Marlene you didn't tell me we had company! Who's this?" Shauna asked, looking back at Marlene.

"This is the girl I'm giving the tour to, Tris, and she's our roommate." Marlene explained. At this point, the girl came out of her bedroom to see what was going on.

"Well, I apologize that you had to see that, but if you're going to room with us you should get used to it." Shauna winked at Tris when she said the last part, which Tris laughed at.

"Well I'm just going to go babe, I think the boys are waiting for me anyways." Zeke had found his shirt and kissed Shauna on the cheek on his way out. "Nice to meet you Tris!" He called as her closed the door.

"Nice to meet you too!" She called back before turning to look at the girls.

"Okay, so obviously this is Shauna. She is very open about her relationship with Zeke sometimes," As Marlene said this, she pretended to throw up, which cause all the girls to laugh, "but she is one of the most loyal and trustworthy people you'll meet. I think you two will really like each other." Tris smiled at Shauna and stuck her hand out for a handshake, but instead, Shauna pulled her in for a tight hug, which surprised Tris.

"Sorry," Shauna said as she pulled away, "I just love giving hugs, and I can already tell we're going to be great friends. I mean, you've already seen me half naked so I'd say we're pretty close." She winked at Tris, causing a smile to break out on her face.

"I think so too." Tris agreed.

"And this here is Christina. She loves shopping, she will literally drag you out at 9 in the morning to a mall and spend the entire day there. She's crazy, I swear, but she's also incredibly honest, which sometimes is a bad thing, not going to lie, but it comes in handy, especially when you're about to make a very stupid choice." Marlene explained, to which Christina laughed.

"I'm not that bad! I just know how to get really good deals on very expensive stuff." Christina said.

"Honey, promising to show the male workers your boobs if they give you their employee discount does not count as a great deal." Shauna said pointedly, looking back at Christina who smirked.

"Hey, it works! I've gotten some great stuff out of it, and it's not like no one's seen them before, I mean you guys remember when that picture got spread around two years ago."

Beatrice just stood, watching the three friends talk about what had happened, and she felt happy. She was finally in a place where she felt she fit in, and these girls were all extremely nice to her for just having met her that day. Maybe she could even trust them with her biggest secret, but not for a long time.

"So that room over there is yours, just put your stuff in and when we get back after the tour you can unpack. But get changed out of those clothes, Tori told me you were on a long flight earlier."

Beatrice smiled at Marlene and dragged her suitcases to the room she had pointed at. She opened the door and looked around. There was a bed in the middle, and a desk to the side. There was one dresser with a small TV on top and a closet.

She set her stuff on top of the bed and pulled out a pair of black ripped jeans, a white crop top, and her favourite oversized cardigan, changing out of the leggings and sweatshirt she had been wearing. Once she was dressed she went back out into the living area and looked around. There was a small kitchenette opposite the door with a few cupboards, a fridge, and a microwave. Along one wall was a couch, the one that Shauna and Zeke seemed to have a lot of fun on, and on the other wall was a large flat screen TV and many different game consoles and a DVD and Blu-Ray player. There were four doors, which Tris assumed led to each of their bedrooms.

"Ready to go?" Marlene asked, and Tris nodded. The two left after saying goodbye to Christina and Shauna, and Marlene started her tour with the academics building, showing Tris where all of her classes were. She explained how each floor was a different subject area, the first floor being English, the second math, the third science, the fourth arts, and the fifth was just random classes that didn't belong to one of the previous four floors.

She also explained how each floor's lockers were for a specific grade. The first floor was for the freshman, the second for the sophomores, the third for the juniors, and the fourth for the seniors. The fifth floor had lockers, but they were only used if there was no more space. The lockers were also alphabetical, so Tris' would be near other people with a last name that started with 'P', which turned out to be Zeke and his twin brother Uriah, whose last name was Pedrad.

Tris followed Marlene through the school, trying to remember everything she was saying. Marlene helped her find and open her locker, which already had all of the school supplies she needed for the year. She saw that a copy of her schedule was taped on the inside of the locker door, and she looked over it, mentally imagining where each class was.

8:30-9:15: Advanced Functions (210)
9:25-10:10: English (103)
10:20-11:05: Intro to Psychology (506)
11:15-12:00: Photography 101 (409)
12:00-1:00: Lunch Break
1:00-1:45: Chemistry (304)
1:55-2:40: Co-ed Gym (Athletics Building Floor 2)

She hoped that at least one of her roommates would be in each of her classes, otherwise she would be the weird new kid with no friends for 45 minutes. She reminded herself to compare schedules with them when they got back to the dorm.

Once Marlene was done with the academic building, she led Tris into the athletics building and explained how it was set up. The first floor had the pool and the ice rink. The second floor was the gymnasium, which was used during gym classes, and the workout centre, both of which students could use during their free time. The third floor had the volleyball and basketball courts, and the fourth floor was where workout classes were held and the private training rooms were located. Finally, on the roof were the tennis courts. Behind the building were the soccer and football fields, plus a 400m track and a baseball diamond.

After what felt like hours of walking, but in reality was more like 45 minutes, Marlene was leading Tris back to their dorm. They walked in and Tris let out a sigh of relief that Shauna and Zeke were not getting intimate on the couch, which left the piece of furniture open for Tris to fall on.

"I seriously think my feet are about to fall off," she complained to Marlene, who rolled her eyes.

"Dude, chill, we weren't even walking for an hour."

Tris just groaned from the couch, thankful that she didn't have to be on her feet.

"Go unpack your stuff, you wimp." Marlene said as she pulled Tris up. "Some of our friends are coming over in a bit so you can meet some people."

"More people? I think I've had enough of people for the day."

"Oh quit complaining and get ready."

Tris agreed and went into her to start unpacking. She put away all of her clothes into the dresser and closet and started to make her bed with the bedding and sheets she brought from Chicago. Even though she chose to leave, it felt nice having a piece of home with her.

She decided to have a shower, feeling gross after the long day she had. It was only about 5 o'clock, but she was dead tired. She didn't know if she'd be able to hang out with a bunch of people without falling asleep, but she would try. She hoped that she would fit in with the group. She never had to experience being the new kid before so she didn't know if they would like her or not, but she hoped they would. After all, they were her roommate's friends, so whether she liked it or not, they would be hanging around.

She made her way to the one bathroom in their dorm, grabbing her shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and razor on the way. She let herself relax in the shower, taking time to wash her hair and body and shaving her legs. She had probably spent a good 30 minutes in there before deciding she was done and turning off the water. She opened the curtain and was met with the cold air. She quickly dried off and put her wet hair up in a towel. She wrapped a second towel around her body, not wanting to get dressed just yet, and opened the bathroom door.

What she expected to see was an empty room, maybe the girls talking on the couch or watching TV, but she did not expect to enter a room containing three guys she didn't know, wearing nothing but a towel.

She could feel her cheeks heat up as the guys stared at her. She looked at them and noticed that she did know one of them, Zeke.

"Well, well, well, I know you've seen half naked but I didn't expect you to move so fast Tris," Zeke told her with a wink, obviously joking. Tris laughed.

"Well, this has been fun boys, really, let's do it again sometime, but if you'd excuse me, I really should be going." Tris joked as she made her way to her room. One of them shouted after her.

"If you don't feel the need to put clothes on, that's okay with me!" He proclaimed. Tris just shook her head as she closed her door.

She grabbed a pair of leggings and an oversized band tee from her dresser, deciding that she didn't need to wear something nice for these boys. After changing and putting her damp hair up into a bun, she exited the room, seeing that her roommates had joined the group of boys.

"So now that I'm dressed, who are you guys?" She asked. Zeke answered before the other two could.

"Well you obviously know me, but this," He pointed towards a blonde haired boy, "is Will, and this," he pointed towards the boy that told Tris she didn't have to put clothes on, "is my twin brother, Uriah. I am obviously the better looking brother, and I know that this will break your heart, but I am already dating the most amazing girl ever, and I am very happy, so you can have him." Tris laughed as Zeke talked about Uriah, and Shauna leaned over to kiss his cheek, signalling that he had said something right.

Tris waved to the two boys, and sat down on the ground next to Christina, who was making googly eyes at Will, who was making them back.

"Is he your boyfriend?" Tris asked Christina, who blushed.

"No, no, we're just friends, but I really like him."

"It looks like he likes you too, you should ask him out!" Tris encouraged Christina, who shook her head.

"No I couldn't do that, I'm too scared he'd say no." She admitted to Tris.

"Are you kidding? He obviously likes you back. I say go for it."

"Thanks Tris." Christine smiled at her.

"No problem." She answered, then turning back to the group, she asked them, "Isn't it a little weird that it's an uneven group? I mean, there are three guys, and four girls. I made things uneven." Tris looked around at everyone. Zeke decided to answer.

"No don't worry, we're actually not uneven, there's one more guy, but Four's running a little late."

"Four? What kind of a name is that?" Tris asked him, confused.

"It's his nickname, but don't ask him about it because he gets a little mad when people talk about it. He should be here anytime though," he answered. Tris nodded in understanding. As she was about to open her mouth to ask a question, someone knocked on the door.

"Coming!" Marlene shouted, getting up to let who Tris assumed to be Four inside. Tris stared at the door, wanting to know who this guy was, but Marlene blocked her view. He sat down on the arm rest of the couch after taking his shoes off, which finally gave Tris a chance to look at him, but she couldn't believe what she saw.

It took him a second to look up at her, but when he did, she knew. She saw his eyes, the various shades of blue, the way they drew her in, and she didn't know what to say.

Sitting across from her was the stranger she had poured her heart out to in a park two months ago. And judging by the look on his face, he recognized her too.