"First jumper, Tris!"
The Barbaric cheer for me, momentarily forgetting that I am a Stiff and that they hate my guts. Four turns back to me and nods.
"Good thinking, Tris," he says, as he ushers me to the side of the room. "Members of Barbaric may only have four-letter names."
"Is that why your name is Four now?" I ask him. "Did you think that they literally meant you had to be named after the number four?"
"No." He looks down, his eyes darker now. "It goes back much further than that."
"Oh... Okay."
We hear a high-pitched scream, meaning that another girl is jumping into the net. I look and see a very muscular guy dressed in white falling into the net, still squealing. Another Asshole. Four rolls his eyes and pulls the net down so that he can get out. The Barbaric members behind me are laughing hysterically, as he looks around at us and clears his throat awkwardly.
"Name?" Four asks.
"Peter," he replies.
"No."
"Yes..." Peter gives him a funny look. "That's my name."
"Only four letters," Four growls. "Welcome to Barbaric, Pete."
"What? But my name is-"
Four shoves Peter- or Pete- backwards into the group of Barbaric members, as the next initiate jumps. Christina comes out of the net and smiles at me. I cringe when she tells Four that her name is Christina, and he glares at her intensely. She looks confused until he explains to her that her name can only be four letters, and he gives her the options of "Cris" or "Tina."
"Uhm... I'll take Cris, I guess," she says, still looking at him funny.
"Good." He nods. "Third jumper, Cris!"
"Wait," one of the Barbaric members yell. "Tris jumped again?"
"No! Cris! Cris!" Four groans. "Forget it, this is too confusing. Your name is Tina now."
"But I-"
"It's Tina now! Third jumper, Tina!"
Christina- or Tina- rolls her eyes as she joins me on the other side of the room. After her, Will jumps. Luckily, he gets to keep his name. Then, a boy named Uriah jumps and Four changes his name to Uria. Then, he changes Molly's name to Moly. He also changes Al's name to Alan. Once each initiate has jumped and received a four-letter name, Eric falls into the net silently and joins us.
"Hello, Eric," Four says, as Eric approaches the group of initiates. "How are you, my friend?"
"Shut up, Four," Eric groans "We're not friends."
"Always the joker, this one."
Eric rolls his eyes, as he turns to face the group. We all quiet down, as he stares at us.
"Initiates who are Barbaric-born will go with Laur," he says, pointing at a woman behind the group. "Transfers will stay with Four and I."
We stand, staring back at Four and Eric, as the Barbaric-born file out of the room after Laur. Once everybody is gone, Eric starts walking out of the room, and we follow him wordlessly. Four stays behind the group. I am curious as to why, but I'm too scared to ask after I saw Eric throw that Hippie off a building. Eric breaks the silence by explaining to us that we are going on a tour of the Barbaric compound so that we can get used to it. As we walk, it is so dark that I can barely see. But Eric explains that all of us will have night vision once we live here long enough, so at least I don't have to worry about that.
I notice that Four stops short, as we approach a small staircase. Eric seems to notice, as he stops walking and groans loudly.
"You're really not coming, Four?"
"I can't," Four says sadly.
"There's only six stairs!" Eric yells. "It's like five feet high!"
"I can't, Eric." Four looks away dramatically. "You know that."
"Okay, f*** it." Eric rolls his eyes. "I'll take them the rest of the way."
"Thank you, Eric. You're a real friend."
Eric groans again, as we walk up the stairs to the next section of the compound. When I look back, Four is still standing at the bottom of the stairs, watching us sadly. I wonder why he can't walk up stairs.
"This is the Chasm," Eric says, as we stop by a huge body of rushing water. "If you fall in, you will die. If you annoy me, I will push you in. And you will die. Any questions?"
"I have a question," Christina says. "I know Four said my name has to be Tina now, but I really just don't feel like a Tina. Can I at least be like Stina or something?"
"You're annoying me, Tina," Eric says, as he pushes Christina over the railing around the Chasm.
I grab her hand before she tumbles over, and she grabs onto me tightly, screaming bloody murder. As I help her back over the railing, I hear Four yell something from the bottom of the staircase.
"Everything's fine, Four," Eric yells. "One of the initiates wanted a five-letter name so I tried to push her into the Chasm."
"Oh, okay!" Four yells back. "Good job, Eric, my friend!"
"I'm not your... Forget it."
Eric rolls his eyes and starts walking again, all of us following closely behind him. Christina is still shaking and her eyes are still wide. I'm not sure what she was expecting, though. We are in Barbaric now. She can't keep acting like an Asshole.
"And this," Eric says loudly as we turn the corner. "Is where you will all be staying."
I notice Four standing beside the door that Eric goes to open, and I wonder how he caught up with us, but I decide not to ask. The two of them lead the group through the doorway and into a huge room with ten beds lined up against the wall.
There are at least 20 initiates. Since there are only ten beds in here, I reason that this room is only for one gender.
"All initiates will be sleeping here," Eric says, getting rid of my theory. "Male and female."
"But sir, there are only 10 beds," Will says, as he pulls out a calculator from his pocket. "And there are 20 of us, which means that only... half of us could sleep in here."
What a Nerd.
"No, all of you. This is the fun part," Eric grins evilly, as he grabs the calculator out of Will's hand and smashes it against the wall. "Every night, you will need to fight for a bed. And as initiation goes by, we will remove one bed from this room every 24 hours. Only the strongest will be able to obtain a bed. We will know who the strongest of you are when we see who is the most well-rested in the morning."
We all look around at each other in disbelief, but nobody says anything. That is, until Pete walks away from the group. We watch him, as he dramatically glides over to the first bed and slowly lays down on it. He then looks at the group.
"This one is mine," he announces.
"I like him," Eric says. "Anyway, dinner is in a few minutes. I would recommend you follow me, since Four has to go the long way to avoid the stairs."
We follow him out of the room, as Pete stays in the bed, watching us all leave with wide eyes. When we reach the cafeteria, I cringe at the amount of noise. People are yelling and laughing loudly and throwing their glasses at the walls. I guess this is what it's really like to be a Barbaric. Christina and I walk together, trying to find an empty table. As we walk, I notice that Four is already sitting at one of the tables. I wonder, again, how he beat us here when Eric said he took the long way. I point at the table where Four is sitting, and Christina shrugs. We sit down next to him and Will and Alan sit across from us, but Four does not acknowledge us.
As we sit down, Four looks over his shoulder and starts waving his hands frantically.
"Eric!" he yells. "Over here, friend!"
Eric grimaces and walks in the other direction. Four looks confused, as he returns his attention to his food.
"You know, you keep calling him your friend," Alan says suddenly. "But he's not very nice to you."
"Careful," Four mutters. "You sound like an Asshole."
Alan looks down nervously, and the rest of us look at each other before I decide to step in.
"Maybe you should make better friends," I suggest. "I mean, we could be your friends."
"I don't know about that," Christina mumbles.
"I already have four friends," he says, looking at me harshly.
"Okay..." I lean in a bit, waiting for him to say more. "So..."
"I already have four."
He looks at me as if he is offended that I do not understand what he is talking about. Before I can say anything, he stands up and storms out of the cafeteria.