A big thank you to Eunice339 for her beta work on this chapter.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

TRIS' POV

"Tris," Zeke yells across the Pit. I look up to see Uriah and Lynn with him.

"Zeke," I yell back. It wouldn't be right to not yell it back to him. We're Dauntless for a reason.

"Come on," he says as he links our arms and starts to drag me from the Pit.

"What are you doing?"

"Well, I only have a few days of freedom and I want to go explore one last time before I have to choose."

"But you will be able to explore more once you are a member," I say. I then stop dead in my tracks. "Zeke!" He stops and looks at me.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

"You are choosing Dauntless, aren't you?"

"What? Of course I am. Now come on. The train is going to be here in two minutes."

"Where are we going?"

"Navy Pier," Uri replies.

"What for?"

"It's a secret," Lynn says rolling her eyes. "They won't tell us until we are on the train."

"Ergh," is all I can say. Something tells me that whatever we are about to do is going to get us in a lot of trouble. I just shrug and run to catch up. What would my life be like without trouble? I really never want to find out.

We run out of the Pit and only just get onto the train. We are all hunched over trying to catch our breaths when Zeke says, "Remember how we got all that stuff out of the shops at Navy Pier?"

We are all still a little breathless and just nod at him. "Well, there were all those restaurants there as well," Zeke says.

"I don't think you can eat the food from there, Zeke," Lynn says.

"Just thinking of that is gross, Lynn." Zeke shakes his head in disgust. "I wasn't thinking of the food. What about all the alcohol that was there?"

"What about it?" Uriah asks.

"I think we should bring some of it back to Dauntless and have a bit of a taste test," Zeke says with his eyes wide with mischief.

"You want us to carry the alcohol back so you can hope that it will get you drunk?" Lynn whinges.

"I was thinking that we could sell it," Zeke says. "It couldn't taste any worse than the crap they sell in Dauntless and it's been lying around for hundreds of years. Who knows, it might get us drunk quicker."

"Are you sure about this? We already earn a heap of points from the shop. Why do we need more points?" I ask.

"You are a genius, Tris," Uriah says. I just look back at him confused. Then he elaborates, "We could keep the alcohol just for our own parties."

I look at Lynn who just shrugs. I shrug back. No use trying to argue with the boys; it will get us nowhere.

I half groan, half sigh as I flop onto the lounge next to Lynn in our shop. Lynn and I are half holding each other up, totally exhausted from today's events.

"What has you two looking like that?" Shauna asks as she points between the two of us.

"Never, am I going with Zeke, anywhere again," I exclaim.

Shauna and Marlene start to laugh at me. I am sure Lynn would be laughing to if she weren't so tired.

"Yeah, right," Shauna scoffs. "You would follow your cousin to hell and back if you had to."

"Not today I wouldn't. I'm too tired," I retort. Although if Zeke walked in here now, I would probably, no scratch that. I would definitely go wherever he asked me to. Damn my cousin.

"What have you been doing?" Marlene asks.

"Zeke had this bright idea that he could sell the alcohol that was left over at Navy Pier in Dauntless. But then Uriah thought it would be better to keep it for them. So, and I quote, 'we can have the coolest parties known to man,' unquote," Lynn replies.

"Is that even safe to drink?" Marlene asks, concern in her voice.

"I don't care today," I say. "We can worry about that tomorrow. Do you know how heavy all those bottles were?"

"You helped them?" Shauna asks, shocked.

"How can you sound shocked? You just told me that I would follow Zeke anywhere. Well throw in my twin-cousin and I was doomed."

"What about you, Lynn? How did they get you to do it?"

"I just wanted a day out of the compound. Although, I think I'm regretting it now. My whole body is aching."

"How was it here today?" I ask.

"Busy. We must be one of the most popular shops in The Pit," Shauna looks excited as she starts explaining her and Marlene's day in the shop.

"Hey, Tris," Shauna says tentatively.

"Shauna."

"Do you know much about job choosing?"

"Not really. Mum is the one to ask about that. Why?"

"I was thinking that, maybe, if it is okay with everyone else, that I could work here full-time. You know, after initiation."

"Does that mean I don't have to work here anymore?" Lynn pipes up.

"You don't like working here?" Marlene asks.

"It's not really my thing, Marlene."

"No, I guess it isn't. What about you, Tris? Do you feel the same way?" Marlene asks.

I shrug. "I would rather be doing other stuff, but I don't mind a couple of hours here and there. Why do you ask, Marlene?"

"Well, I wouldn't mind working here with Shauna more. We were thinking that we could start to make our own jewellery. You know, like the stuff that we got from Amity. When the shop is quiet, we could be here making things. Maybe even try making some of those candles."

"Lynn should talk to her Amity friend. What was her name? Sunshine Cloudy Day or something?" Shauna says, half teasing her sister.

"Whatever," Lynn grumbles.

"Well, it would be a great way to talk to her again, Lynn," Shauna responds.

"Maybe," Lynn says, lost in her own thoughts.

"I could come with you, Lynn," Marlene offers. "You know, if you are nervous to talk to her."

"That sounds like a great plan," I say. Trying to take the spotlight off Lynn and her feelings for Sunshine-whatever-her-name-is. "I will ask mum about you working here full-time, Shauna. I don't know if we have to offer the job to all initiates or not. But if that were the case, then we won't be able to do it."

"Why not?" Shauna exclaims.

"I don't want anyone else working here. This is our shop and I don't trust having someone else working here. How would we know that they weren't ripping us off?"

"Do you really think someone would do that?" Marlene asks.

"Probably not. But they aren't going to care about what we have built up. They won't take the time with the customers like Shauna would. So, how would we work this? Would we pay you to work here, like, if it were just a normal employee? Then after that you still get your usual cut of the profits. Plus, if you and Marlene are making stuff for the shop, then should we pay you for that, as well?"

"If they are making them in their normal work hours," Lynn says, "then why would she get paid more for that?"

"Gee thanks, Lynn," Shauna says, sounding hurt by what her sister has said. "We can work that out later. We haven't started to try and make anything yet. We might just suck at it and find it easier to buy it all from Amity."

I walk into the leadership wing, everyone is looking pretty busy today. With initiation only a few days away, everyone is trying to make sure that everything is in place for the new initiates. Not that we will get many transfers; numbers have been falling the last few years. I was teasing Zeke that he better come in first if there are less initiates than previous years. He didn't like that very much.

"Tris," dad calls out as I am passing his office. I stick my head in the door and he motions for me to enter.

"Shut the door."

I shut the door and take a seat across from dad. I don't come around here too often. I look at the photos that dad has on his desk. There is a new one of Uriah, Zeke and I after we won a paintball fight a few weeks ago; I didn't even know they had taken a picture of us. We are laughing and hugging as our team won. We have paint all over us. I might have to try and get a copy of that; Aunt Hana would love it. I could have it blown up and she could hang it on her wall. I also might just have to get a copy for me.

"Why did you want me to shut the door?"

"It is crazy around here. If I close the door, no one will bother me."

"Why don't you just leave the door closed all the time?"

"If I did that, then they wouldn't take me seriously; they would all just start barging in like they do in your grandfather's office."

"What brings you up here today? You aren't in trouble are you?"

"No. Why do you think I have to be in trouble to be here?"

Dad looks at me like I have two heads. "Okay, fair enough. I have a question about job choosing."

"You don't have to worry about job choosing for another two years, Tris."

"Not for me," I say, sounding agitated. This is why I was going to talk to mum about this. Dad just doesn't take me seriously sometimes.

Dad chuckles. "I know, sweetheart. I just like messing with you sometimes. What do you need to know?"

"Shauna wants to work full-time in the shop after initiation. Do we have to advertise the job with the others, or can we just give her the job?"

"You can employ whoever you want as long as they are a member."

"So, we don't have to advertise it? Shauna can automatically get the job? What about her rank? Could that stop her from being able to take the position? Like, what if she were supposed to guard the fence?"

"Do you think she might have to guard the fence? I can't imagine one of your friends being in that position."

"You haven't seen Shauna fight. Shauna doesn't work out with us when we train with Amar."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. It's not her thing."

" 'Not her thing?' She is supposed to be Dauntless, God damn it!"

"Calm down, dad."

"Tris, do you not understand how important it is that our members are the best they can be? Shauna is jeopardizing her future here in Dauntless."

"What is all the noise in here?" mum asks as she comes striding into the room.

"Did you know that Shauna hasn't been training with Amar?" dad asks mum.

"Yes. We can't make them train, Max; it has to be their choice," mum says, trying to calm dad down.

"I don't like this. I think it's time to implement the changes that we were talking about," dad tells mum. I have no idea what he is talking about.

"They are projecting record low transfers this year; we may not have enough to do that," mum replies.

"Well, I think we need to have a standard that each initiate needs to reach to be competent in order to pass initiation."

"I think that is a good idea, Max. But if you want this to happen then you better call a meeting with the other leaders to have it agreed upon. I think that we should also have Amar at the meeting, find out what he thinks of the idea. You will also need to sit down and work out a scoring system with Amar."

"I just gave myself a shitload more work to do, didn't I?"

I can't help but giggle; dad doesn't swear that often in front of us. It always sounds funny when he does.

"And you, young lady, try to stay out of the transfers' dorms this year," dad calls out to me as I start to leave his office.

"Yes, dad," I say, sounding bored. As if that is going to happen. Uriah and I already have a plan and we are bringing Tarni with us this year; she's old enough now not to open her mouth to dad. "Bye, mum."

"Bye, Tris."