Chapter 9
Jax POV
The chasm sprays water against the railing, I glance around waiting for Six. I've decided that I need to work on being authoritative, less Amity and more Dauntless. I'm Divergent, I can fit in here. I just need to focus, maybe pick up on whatever habits that Four has which make him so intimidating. "Jax?"
I turn, Six waves me over with a small baby boy on her hip. I try to conceal my aching muscles moving towards her, "Four worked you hard today, huh?"
"Somewhat."
Six laughs,"I was always sore during Initiation. You all have it easier too, when I was an initiate we had to rank in the top 10 in order to even stay here. Fall anywhere below the tenth ranking and you were in the Factionless. Four worked us hard so we could pass Initiation."
"What did you rank? Four was your instructor?"
"I ranked first. And yes, it was a bit of a... forbidden romance." The little boy on her hip reaches towards me, "this is Noah, Nicola's little brother."
I wave hello, "thank you for inviting me to dinner."
"You're welcome, you have fantastic manners, Jax. I like that, so please tell me about yourself."
"Not much to say, Six." I keep my statements, short, clipped similar to the boys I have met here.
Six smiles at me, "open up. You are dating my daughter, I think I should know something about you, don't you think?"
"What do you want to know?"
"Let's start small, what is your full name?"
"Jax Robert Fera."
"See we are finally getting somewhere, come on, we don't want to keep everyone else waiting for dinner. The family is just dying to meet you."
"Is your family big?"
Six laughs, "not particularly, but they tend to keep things loud and lively."
"That seems normal in Dauntless, Six." The loud noise from the large opening in the Pit distracts me along with the smell of food. It hasn't taken long to get used to the enormous variety of foods here in Dauntless.
"You get used to it and then it becomes a comfort, I know things are light and lively in Amity."
"In a different way, the Amity are loud in a 'grab your banjo and sing your life' kind of way."
Six steers me to a table filled with people. For such a small woman she is surprisingly strong, guess that's why she ranked first. She pushes me down into a seat and slides in across from me. I turn to see I'm next to a tall woman with blonde hair, "I'm Marlene. You must be Jax."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Marlene, call me Marlene. I'm Nikki's aunt."
"Nice to meet you, Marlene."
I see a small group of older men approach us, they come into focus, Four sets his tray down and glances across the table, "what's the Amity doing here?"
Six faces him, "leave Jax alone. I invited him to have dinner with us, maybe you should be more approachable, Four." Her voice is stern, chastising, she must be quite a powerful woman to speak to Four in such a tone. My mother spoke to my father in that way too, maybe it's just a voice wives use with their husbands. A tanned older man laughs, "there is a 'banjo strummin' softy here'!"
Marlene laughs and glances at me, "no one says that anymore, Uriah."
The man extends his hand across the table, "names Uriah, and you must be the Amity."
"Jax." I offer a small nod and shake his hand. Six stands and motions to everyone at our table, "everyone I would like you to meet, Jax. Jax this is Shauna," she motions to a woman, "Zeke, Uriah's older and shorter brother," she points to a man who clearly looks related to Uriah. "Lynn," I almost gape at Lynn who has half her head shaved completely bald. Six smiles at me and motions to a blue eyed man who smiles at me, "I'm Will and this is my lovely wife, Christina." Christina smiles and shakes my hand also. "Jax this is everyone. I think, it's possible I missed a few. But for right now this is everyone you need to know."
"It is nice to meet all of you." I give them a smirk and after a moment decide to get some food. I look at everything in front of me, whatever happened to fruits and vegetables? I finally choose on my dinner and slip back into my seat. I wonder what Nicola is doing right now? Is she sore? Tired? Thinking about me?
A pair of hands cover my eyes, "miss me?" Soft lips tickle my ear, "I'm going to take that smile as a yes."
"Nicola." I feel myself relax at the sound of her voice,
She removes her hands and squeezes onto the edge of the seat next to me, "how has your day been?"
"Tiring."
"Mine too, you met the family, I see."
"Yes, I did. How was your day?"
"Tiring, too." Nicola picks up one of my fries, "you don't mind, if I steal this from you?"
"You already stole my heart." I state, being romantic is not a trait I normally possess. Nicola gives me a smile. She is not the first girl to capture my attention, but she is the first one who has me wrapped around her finger, she keeps me hanging onto every word she says. She brings out this softer and romantic side to me I had no idea existed until she came into my life.
Nicola stands abruptly, "come on, I want you to meet my friends." She turns to Four and gives him a hug, Four stares at me with a glare. That must be his warning not to hurt her while we are gone with her friends. I wouldn't hurt Nicola, ever. I take her hand and she leads me to a couple stores in the pit, "I think you should get a tattoo."
"I don't know, Nicola."
"Would you like to see mine? Maybe that will help you make a decision." She darts into a hallway, with a series of blue lights casting an eerie shadow onto her face. "I can only let you see two of them."
"Oh?"
She blushes and flits her eyes from me, "would you like to see the two?"
"Sure."
Nicola moves her hair off her shoulder and points to four ravens along her collar bone, "they lead to my heart. One for each member of my family."
"Why are there four?"
She gets this grin across her face that makes me want to pull her into my arms and kiss her, "well, one is for my Dad, the other for my Mom, this one is for Noah. And the one closest to my heart, is you." Nicola looks up at me, "I hope you like it."
"I love it," I set my hands on her waist and pull her to me, "I think I might even love you." I don't know where that came from.
"You think?" Nicola looks up into my eyes.
"Maybe I don't want to scare you." I smile and lean forward, my lips brushing against hers when I speak.
"Stop teasing me." She smiles, I can feel her arms around my neck now, "you can't scare me. I'm Dauntless."
"Fine, I love you." Nicola pulls her lips to mine. In this brief moment I wonder how Nicola Eaton has somehow snaked her way into my heart. A few oncoming voices breaks us apart, "does that mean you love me back, Nicola?"
She kisses my cheek, "yes, it means I love you."
Nicola POV
I walk Jax to his dorm and slip him a quick kiss, "goodnight. I will see you tomorrow, okay." I turn and run towards my dorm with my heart pounding in my ears, Jax is amazing. He makes me feel like I'm dreaming and awake all at once, like I am about to burst into flames, or crumble into a million pieces. He has this hold on me that no one has ever had before. I climb onto the top bunk, humming a song my mother used to sing to me before I would go to bed every night. "your so happy, Nikki."
I look down at Willow, "do you have a problem with that?"
"No of course not," she giggles, "you are just so...sunny is all."
"What does that mean?"
"That's open to interpretation. So how is your prince Charming, Nikki?"
"He is perfect, Mom invited him to dinner. I think everyone liked him."
"Except Uncle Four."
"Daddy just needs time to see how special Jax is. Maybe when Visiting Day comes, if his parents come, Daddy can meet them. I think if he knew that Jax came from a good family he would be more at ease. It's not like he is from Candor or anything, he is form Amity. They seem to raise good kids."
"I wouldn't know, I try to make a point of avoiding Amity. They tend to be fake with their smiles and forced with their help. It makes me feel like I'm talking to someone with a mask on. Jax isn't like that, though, so thats one less thing you have to worry about. did you ask your dad how Jax is doing in Initiation?"
"I can't do that, you know that rankings remain a secret until they are announced at the end of the stages or Eric wants to terrify Transfers by showing how badly they rank in the first few days."
Willow leans against the bed, "did anything happen today?"
"Jax told me he loved me."
"And you wait until now to mention this!" Willow tosses her hair and scowls at me, "I talk to you about being sunny and bubbly and you choose to forget that he said he LOVED you. It took Cam almost a year to say the words, I love you, and you got them after the first day of Initiation."
"We had been together for a while before this, Willow. He just said he loved me today. I mean I knew he loved me, he switched to Dauntless to be with me. He wouldn't have done that if he kind of cared about me."
"True, but still this is an exciting development!"
I crawl into bed, "we will talk about this later Willow, we have to get our sleep."
"I know, thanks by the way for rudely waking me up." I can hear the irritation in her voice.
"My pleasure. Want me to wake you up nicely tomorrow?"
"Nope, this mornings routine worked faster. You always know how to handle me, I swear you read my mind."
I smile, "can I get a thank you for reading your mind, Willow?"
"No, I choose to take our friendship and it's mind reading benefits for granted."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"I would rather not show my appreciation for such an awesome best friend mainly so I don't have to say thank you very often."
Laughing I turn and stare at the wall, "well I consider that a thank you."
"We don't need to say thank you."
I ponder the thought for a while. "You're right, we don't need to say thank you... I already know that I would be lost with my best friend."
"Dido," Willow murmurs. I hear her shift underneath me and I find myself lulled to sleep by the sleeping breaths of my fellow Initiates.
