Chapter 1: An Invitation to a Party

The dining hall buzzed with activity as students hurried to energize their overworked brains with either sugary snacks and caffeine if they didn't have much time before their next class or a hearty meal if they did. Tris relaxed in a corner booth, away from the main traffic with a stack of books she had borrowed from the University's library. She sat content, focused on her reading with the white noise from the other students allowing her to become a part of the school while also separated in her own sanctuary at the same time. It was exactly where she wanted to be.

She was taking a sip from her cup of hot afternoon tea when there was a thump from across her table. She looked up and a wide smile with freckles lightly dusted across the nose above it greeted her. "Hey Kerenza, still reading I see." Tris frowned. "Hello Kaden."

She had met Kaden about a month ago during her dormitory's mandatory floor meeting where their dorm mother explained the quiet hours, rules and regulations within the dorms, and the facilities provided to them. He was the last one to come in and had unabashedly taken the seat at the front of the meeting beside her, speaking to her as soon as they were forced to introduce themselves. He had taken every opportunity he could to speak to her as soon as he found out that she had been to his homeland of Namorn not so long ago.

Tris wasn't exactly frowning because she didn't like Kaden, he wasn't annoying per se, but she was just getting entranced by the author's descriptions of the typhoons of the Yanjiing provinces. After hearing stories from Briar of his travels there – minus the war and being chased out of the country part – she had been fascinated by the east and planned to go there herself in the future.

"What are your plans this weekend ryzvolsy?" he had used the Namornese word for redhead, a word that Tris did not particularly dislike but didn't exactly like either. He lounged in his seat, examining his fingernails as if he didn't particularly care about her answer, but when she replied that she planned to get ahead on her studies, he quickly jumped at the opportunity.

"Kerenza! Come out tonight! I hear some of the students from the healing department are having a get together. Only those in the know even have the information on the location," he said while winking at her. "And I got the information from the younger sister of the best friend of the person in charge, so it's got to be reliable."

Tris rolled her eyes. He had said something similar the first time he had managed to drag her out, and that was only due to the urges of her foster siblings as they were curious as to what a party with a group of University students looked like. They had walked around the campus for about an hour before Tris decided to leave the embarrassed boy alone in the middle of the quad. "Kamden, you haven't been to a single party this entire time and you continue to tell me that you are 'in the know' every weekend. Now if you please, I need to get back to studying." Tris ducked down behind her book again, her signal to tell him to leave her alone. She heard a shuffling of books and papers from the other side and out of curiosity glanced up in that direction. "What are you doing?"

"Working on my homework, what does it look like I'm doing?" Kamden replied.

"Why?" Tris asked confused.

He looked at her as if she were speaking to a particularly slow person and recited his response in the same manner, "Because I am a student. I have homework and so must complete it."

"I meant," Tris said, frustrated. "Why here? Go somewhere else."

"I don't want to," he said, stubborn. "I plan to ask you again when you are done with that book and want to be here when you do. So in the meantime, I am going to finish my homework."

Her pale eyebrows arched in surprise and then scrunched downwards in a mixture of confusion and a bit of frustration, trying to decide what to do with him. But he was already looking down, focused on his paper that he was writing for a class so she sighed, took a sip of her tea and continued reading.

"You know rysvolsy," Kamden said, not looking up. "If people weren't so distracted by those eyes and nose of yours, they would realize that your expressions have a wider range than stern and scary."

"Shut up and do your homework," said Tris who blushed slightly.

Kamden smirked and continued to do as he was told.