Chapter 11

Tris

My heart rate is increasing. I feel like all of my blond hair is going to fall off my head. My fingers feel like they're going to twist together because of the shakiness of them. Everything in my body is shaking, even my organs!

I bite my lip when Tobias takes my shaky hand. His hand is almost double the size of mine. But that makes sense because I'm a tiny person. I'm a tiny person compared to a lot of people, especially Tobias. He's double the size of my whole body. He's thicker and stronger, and much braver.

"It's going to be okay, Tris," he says, "I promise."

Maybe he's right. Maybe everything will be alright. But I can see the look in his eyes that he's lying. I can see the lie right through his dark blue eyes. After looking at his eyes for a moment, I look back down and finish tying my shoes. Edith said we all to wear our Faction clothing, even though we already do that. But she knows that some people disobey the rules and don't follow them. So if anyone is out of their required clothing, they'll be sent off somewhere I don't know. But I'm Dauntless and I wear black all the time so it isn't much of a problem for me.

I just want to get this over with. Reaping Day. I can't believe the Capitol makes us get reaped in order to get transported into an arena where you fight to the death. I have no strength or power to do that. I may be selfish and brave, but I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to do that. What I'm doing is proving complete cowardice among me. But I don't care. I just don't care anymore.

"It'll be fine," Tobias adds before I feel his soft lips touching mine. I don't like kissing him in front of others but I don't care if Uriah is around. Uriah and I are just friends, so I'm sure he won't mind at all. I hope.

We walk with the rest of our fellow Dauntless members to the front of the Hub. We're the first ones there because we're the only ones who ran. The Dauntless compound isn't too far away from the Hub either, so we have an advantage.

The front of the Hub is decorated the same as it was yesterday. The podium is in the middle of two chairs on the right and three chairs on the left. The two chairs on the right belong to the leader of the Erudite, and the leader of the Dauntless. The other three remain to the leaders of Abnegation, Candor, and Amity. The leaders are already sitting there, including Tori but the Erudite is the only one that's absent. But not for too long because I gasp when I see the teenage boy walk out of the Hub and take his seat on the chair. The sunlight reflects his dark brown hair, making it look dirty blonde. But maybe I'm just hallucinating due to that fact that I'm shocked and puzzled. He's a traitor. I think to myself. He betrayed us. He's the one that gave Jeanine Matthews information about my aptitude test. He's the reason Jeanine knew that I was Divergent. How can he?

My own brother.

He makes brief eye contact with me but I look away. When I look back, he's looking at the Erudite, Candor, and Amity who are entrancing themselves to the event. The Abnegation are the last to enter and I know why. Before we entered, we had to release blood from our index finger and have it verified by three young women. They were wearing grey dresses and I assumed that they are Abnegation but I could've been wrong. I don't know what they did to the people whose blood wasn't verified positive. They were taken somewhere else and I don't see them in this large crowd.

I see a bunch of cameras pointed at us and at the leaders. We don't have any of the types of cameras that are here in the Dauntless compound. The only types of cameras we have are the security ones. These cameras are large and move. I don't see the point of them snapping a shot of us or filming us. The people behind the cameras are smiling and smile even more when they turn to the podium and see Edith stand behind it.

"Welcome!" she says.

I swear I'm really getting sick of these stupid events.

"Happy Hunger Games!" she smiles a little. "And may the odds be ever in your favor."

May the odds be ever in your favor. I look around the Dauntless crowd and only see a few of us. Uriah is behind me while Tobias is next to me. He turns to look at me and I can't help but smile. His face seems to delight me every time I see it for some reason. But I don't see how mine can delight him.

"Well," says Edith, "All of you are roughly calm and quiet today."

What are we supposed to do? Smile and laugh? I wish.

Edith looks beside her and whispers something to Caleb. Tori looks at them and turns to look at Tobias and me. She's giving me an odd look that I don't like. Her small dark eyes look even smaller than they already are. Her hair is surprisingly curly today and I can see the grey streaks on her hair even more. I wonder what she's thinking.

"Excuse me, sorry about that," Edith says after she turns to look at us again.

I bite my lip because I don't have a good feeling about this. It's too quiet, like Edith said. The only thing I can hear is the wind blowing my short hair. I love the way the breeze feels against me. It's a beautiful day created by Mother Nature. If only Mother Nature could remove this "Reaping Day" event. That would make this day much more pleasant.

"Well now," Edith says as a pair of men walk out of the Hub, each holding a big glass bowl filled with tiny wrapped slips of paper. The first bowl has the name Abnegation on it. The man who's holding it is dark skinned and is wearing a grey suit and pants. His tie is red and his shoes are black. I catch a closer glimpse of him and notice that his eyes are blue. He's like a mixture of our Factions.

"I will draw a slip of paper out of Abnegation first, remember, ladies are always first."

Edith dips her skinny hand inside the bowl and spins it slowly before she clutches a slip of paper, unfolds it, and reads, "Sandra Mae!"

Everyone turns to the Abnegation section and I catch glimpse of an averaged-sized girl with light brown hair walk towards Edith. I stare at Sandra's grey dress and shoes because she somehow reminds me of myself when I was a Stiff.

"Hello Sandra," Edith smiles and shakes Sandra's stiff hand. Sandra looks like she can't move. She doesn't look very tall, but she looks like she's a little taller than me. Everyone's taller than me.

"Well, now the boys."

Another man walks forward with an identical bowl, and Edith quickly reaches inside to grab another slip of paper and read, "Jordan Holmes!"

I see a tall, dark-skinned guy with muscular arms walk over and stand next to Sandra. I feel like his grey clothing is too small on him. But it'd be too selfish if he asked for a bigger size, meaning he's trying to satisfy himself, proving selfishness.

"Greetings, Jordan."

Both Sandra and Jordan are too stiff to say anything.

"It's time for Amity," Edith continues as a pair of two light skinned men walk out of the Hub with two glass bowls with the name Amity carved on them. Surprisingly, I notice that the glass bowls don't have symbols, neither did the Abnegation ones. Maybe they're trying something new for a change.

Edith dives her hand on the female's bowl and takes out the slip of paper that has the name, "Jade Hopkins." on it. The dark-haired girl looks to be about seventeen or eighteen. Her appearance does not look peaceful at all as she stares down at us with her vicious icy blue eyes.

"Felix Long!" Edith reads the next slip of paper and waits for the small boy, who only looks to stand four feet, and one inch, walk over to the podium and greet her.

"Candor time!"

Another pair of men walk over to Edith with the glass bowls and let Edith take out a slip of paper from each at one time to read, "Tanya Lancaster!" and "Brayde Knight!"

Tanya's hair only goes down to her neck but is a bit longer than mine. Her hair appears to be dark brown though while Brayde's short and golden bronze hair camouflages with his bronze skin. He's well-built and is almost double the size of Tanya.

"Erudite!"

Another pair of men walk with another two glass bowls to help Edith reach her hand inside the female's bowl and say, "Daryn Anderson!"

Daryn looks exactly like Jade—same eyes, same hair, same skin. A train hits my head when I realize that they are both identical twins that chose different lifestyles. What a coincidence.

"Axton Calvert!" Edith shouts and I see a muscular guy with dark hair walk over to the podium to stand next to Daryn. Their eyes reflect each other, except Axton's eyes are a little darker. His eyebrows are perfectly shaped and he looks like he can kill somebody at any moment.

I bite my lip.

"And last, but not least," Edith says, "Dauntless!"

The last two men, holding the two glass bowls each, saunter towards Edith as she rubs her hands and smiles. Her thin hand shakes a little when it meets the inside of the bowl. Her thumb and index finger clutch a slip of paper and Edith smiles even more. She wasn't smiling this much when she was taking out the other slips. She takes a quick glance at my direction before she slowly unfolds the paper and reads the name.

The name she read sounds familiar. It's the same name everyone knew that one person of. That one person was once a stiff. That one person changed her name when she transferred to another Faction. But that doesn't change things. That doesn't matter. That person is Beatrice Prior.

Beatrice. Tris. Me.

My whole body shakes and I can't even move a finger. I can see now why they referred to me as Stiff. I am stiff, so stiff that I can't move. Tobias's hand meets mine and squeezes it, and I hope that he doesn't let go. I hope he doesn't let me go; he can't! I can't leave him! But a thought strikes my mind before I release his hand. I'm Dauntless. I'm Divergent. I'm brave. I'm brave enough to go into an arena full of kids and teenagers killing each other. If I get executed, which I know I most likely will, I'll die out of courage and braveness.

I traipse towards Edith and for the first time, I notice that she looks a lot like me. She has the same greyish to blue eyes as me, and has almost the same blond hair as me. Her blond hair fades to tint of white though and that's due to her age.

"Hi Beatrice," she shakes my hand and that's when I realize that I'm standing next to Caleb. I look at him and he smiles at me. I can't look at him, because when I do, pure hate hits me. I can't stand him. I hate him!

"And now, the boys!" Edith says, sounding relieved.

She digs her hand deep in the slips of paper and takes one out, showing it off to the crowd. I still can't believe I was picked out of hundreds of papers that were there. How? Just how? The odds are definitely not in my favor, they never were.

But for some reason, I kind of knew it was going to be me. And I have a feeling that I know who is next as I watch Edith's fingers unfold the slip of paper. I close my eyes so I won't have to see his reaction, so I won't have to see the fear in his eyes. Maybe now he has five fears, because I definitely don't have six anymore. My eyes are shut tight when Edith reads the name, and that's when I rapidly open my eyes. I was wrong. It's not him.

I see the guy with brown hair and bronze skin, approach me and Edith. I don't see the fear in his dark eyes because he's brave enough to go into an arena and fight to the death. Even though the odds weren't in his favor for this reaping, his odds of winning are great. After all, he is a Dauntless-born and has been training since he was a toddler. He makes me look pale as he stands tall next to me.

"Here are our tributes!" Edith shouts, "And again, Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor."

She pushes us inside the Hub and I'm still standing next to handsome guy who has been my friend since I transferred to Dauntless. He takes my hand and I suddenly feel a stronger connection to him, probably almost the same as Tobias's. But I guess I've gained more trust on him due to the fact that he's been with me for the past two events that have occurred, for the past few days. And also, he's Divergent, like Tobias and me. However, I don't know what to say or do, or what to tell him. All I can think is that I can't believe it. I can't believe he's been reaped.

Uriah.

NOTES: Okay, before you say anything, I thought including all of the tributes from Amity, Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, and Dauntless would be necessary, so you can see who exactly got reaped. Sorry I took long to update but I didn't start this until this morning and it took me about an hour or so. But other than that, I really enjoyed writing this chapter! This actually the longest chapter I've written! Over 2,000 words! But I've seen other stories whose chapters are longer than mine. But anyway, I know it was SUPER OBVIOUS that Tris was going to be reaped and I knew that most of you would think that Tobias was going to be reaped next, so I chose not to have him reaped. Did y'all expect Uriah getting reaped?;) if not, who else did y'all expect to get reaped besides Tris and Tobias? Review it:D and also, I decided not to include Edith saying Uriah's name because his last name is never mentioned in the novel and I didn't want to come up with a random one, so I'll let y'all choose y'all's last name that best fits Uriah. I also LOVED introducing the other eight tributes:) I'm really excited and looking forward to writing about them! So yeah... Kind of a long note but I want to say: thank you all! And please review!:D

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Don't be shy:)

Juliet's Shadow: I'm super glad that you're liking this story:D I hope you're enjoying it even more, and I hope you liked these characters I've introduced. Don't worry, your Finnick will be here soon:)

Amy (Guest): I'm really glad you're loving my story! Sorry I took long to update, I didn't start this chapter 'til today... so yeah. But Thank you so much! And don't be timid to review again:D