Chapter 26
Tris
I wake up to a messy bedroom and sunlight. A lot of sunlight. I sigh and try to gather my bearings. This is what I know. 1) Yesterday school started again. 2) I almost had to move away for some ungoddy reason. 3) We had to decide the schools new captains for next year. 4) Gabby is in the states. 5) My parents died in a car accident. 6) Tobias and I are now living together, because both of our lives are shit.
I almost choke when I came up with number 5 of my bearings. 'Died' is something that happened in the present, which seems like eons ago. 'Dead' is something that happened in the past, which is what I am rethinking. How could two words that mean the basically the same thing actually have totally different meanings? I shake the thought away, I need to stay busy and keep that out of my mind. I need a distraction.
I climb out of bed an pad my way over to the bathroom. It is still warm from the previous showers that were taken there. A note lies on the counter.
6
Elsie and I are going to school today. I didn't think you would want to go after last night. There should be food in the cabinets, I'll pick some more up after practice. Gabby needs to talk to you, so please call her soon.
I love you.
4
I read the note over and over again. Why? Because it helps relieve this suffocating feeling that I have all around me. I throw the note away and hop in the shower. The water is cold, I could take a warm shower, but what would be the point about it. I lost most of the warmth in my life.
I keep the shower short, because the quietness gives me time to think and that suffocating feeling is getting stronger and stronger until it feels like its going to devour me. So when I get out and finish getting dressed, I look around the bedroom that I came out of. The room is a total mess. This gives me the perfect opportunity to keep me distracted. Most of my day consist of me cleaning the loft until Elsie comes home.
Tobias
My mind flashes back to Tris as I walk to my first block class. Band. This is one of the only classes that I don't have with Tris, she has Adult Living this block. I left her a note saying that she didn't have to go to school. I really hope that she doesn't. I walk into the classroom.
"Four I need you to retune a bass drum later." My band director, Mr. Cantor, says.
"Fine, which one?"
"The one that you and Will secretly call 'ass child'." Ahh... that one, its our crappiest bass drum. It is the worst considering our nice bass drum would be considered a 'crappy' bass drum to other schools. "Oh and the quads could use some tuning too."
"Okay." I walk to the back of the classroom, where the percussion section is. Will, my fellow percussionist, sits on top of Little Shit. Our smallest bass drum. "I'll tune the nice quads if you tune the crappy ones." I say and he considers this.
"Fine but-"
"Hello people of the Faction Five High Band!" Zeke says as soon as he comes in. Cantor waves, and so does a flute player. Zeke skips over to the room that holds the instruments and grabs his trumpet. He may be the dumbest person that you will ever meet, but he is a beast when it comes to the trumpet.
Zeke, Will, Lynn, Uriah, and I are all in band. Zeke plays the trumpet. Will and I are obviously percussionist, but I can play a mean trumpet when asked. Lynn plays the piccolo (I would of never seen that coming), and Uriah is a trombone player. No one wants to sit in front of him because he 'accidentally' hits people in the head.
The bell rings, and people file to there spots. Cantor has us do a warm-up scale, where Will and I hit the same beats over and over again on random drums. I was feeling cow bell today, and Will was feeling the maracas. When we get done, Cantor starts searching for music for everyone, and Uriah turns around to talk to me.
"Dude where's Tris today?"
"At home."
"Oh, cause I was texting her a whole bunch of blonde jokes and she wouldn't text me back."
"Pedrad did you just say blonde jokes?" Cantor asks. Zeke says no while Uriah says yes.
"Well then everyone just put down your things I believe my favorite trombone has some blonde jokes for us." Lexi, our only female percussionist, sighs and takes off the good quads. She mumbles something about just getting them on.
"I'm your only trombone player."
"Exactly." The whole band laughs.
"Fine then, why is it okay for blondes to catch a cold?" Cantor shrugs. "They don't have to worry about blowing their brains out." It gets a few chuckles out of us. The Erudite are the only ones that are not laughing.
"Uriah I expected better from you, that sucked." Cantor says. "Here is a real blonde joke. What does a screen door and a blonde have in common?" I snort, because I already know the answer to this joke. Cantor eyes me. "The more you bang it the looser it gets." I chuckle again, and so does most of the band, except Lexi. She's a blonde, I don't think she really appreciates them. "Four you have to know a good blonde joke."
"Okay, why did the blonde tip-toe past the medicine cabinet?" Zeke starts laughing, I glare at him. "She didn't want to wake the sleeping pills." The whole room laughs. "I got another one." The room quiets down. "A blonde woman was speeding down the road in her little red sports car, and was pulled over by a police officer who was also blonde. The blonde cop asked to see the blonde driver's license. She couldn't find it and was getting progressively more agitated. 'What does it look like' The blonde driver asks. 'Its square and has your picture on it.' The driver found a square mirror in her purse, looks at it, and hands it to the police officer. The officer looks at it and says 'Okay you can go I didn't realize you were a cop..." Again with the laughing.
"Okay, okay, I got one." Zeke says, "What is the blonde doing when she tightly holds her hands over her ears?" I glare at him, this was my joke. He would've never knew about it until I told him. "Trying to hold on to a thought." Uriah snorts loudly.
"Why was the blonde so excited when she finished a jig saw puzzle in 6 months?" Will says from behind me. "The box said 2-4 years." Everyone laughs except Uriah.
"I don't get."
"Well your an idiot." Simon, the tuba player, says. Uriah blushes bright red.
"How do you sink a submarine full of blondes?" Simon says. "Just knock on the door."
"Why did the blonde get fired from the m'n'm factory?" I ask, everyone shrugs. "She kept throwing away all the 'w's." After I finish my joke, Cantor falls out of his chair from laughing so hard at all our jokes, which causes all of us to laugh even more. Even Lexi cracks a smile.
"Okay, okay class settle down we need to get started. Lets start with Get Ready." Everyone starts getting their music ready, I head towards the trap set, because this is the song I play set for.
"Get ready for what?" Zeke asks. That's the oldest joke in the book. I would know, I was the first one to ask that question.
At lunch, I get harassed by everyone at our table. "Where is Tris?" "Why is she gone?" "What's up with Prior?" and so on and so forth with the questions. But there is one question that I cannot answer.
"What's this about you and Elsie in the paper?" Lynn asks. I choke on the crappy chicken nugget that I'm eating.
"What?"
"It talks about you and Elsie in the paper, with government crap." She hands me the paper and I read the article.
Mayor Eaton is currently locking in his plans to run for mayor again. Our long time mayor, that everyone knows and trusts is getting serious backlash about a rumor that was started, by Jeanine Mathews.
The rumor states that Mayor Eaton beats his children, Tobias Eaton and Elsie Johnson. Tobias Eaton,18, is the all-star football, basketball, golf, and baseball star of Faction Five High. Elsie Johnson,9, goes to Faction Five Elementary, and is the top of her class. Both children seem to be doing pretty good as they excel through the school that their father, Marcus Eaton, endorses.
Mathews, the principal of Faction Five High, has been getting reports for years about Tobias. Some saying that whenever they would ask him about his past, he would get violent with his other peers. Would this violence have to do with the violence that his father shows him? Or does Tobias just have a short temper? There were also claims that Tobias has an elaborate tattoo on his back. Tattoos are forbidden in the school, and Jeanine claims that Marcus paid the school a lot of money to let Tobias in with his tattoos. Some students believe that these tattoos are hiding the scars that have occurred over the years from Marcus's abuse.
Then there's Marcus's wife, Evelyn, who supposedly 'died' nine years ago. But today, when Marcus was making his speech outside of the government building, Evelyn was right by his side. Jeanine believes that Evelyn left Marcus because of the beating that she received over the years. Marcus claims that never knew that she was alive, or that he had a daughter, and is very happy to find this out.
If these allegations are true, our loving mayor will face a lot of jail time, and a new mayor will have to take his place.
I stop reading the article, crumple up the paper and throw it away. All of it is true. All of it. And everyone has seen it. The whole cafeteria stares at me. My best friends have there mouths hanging down. My deepest, secret that only 5 people know is now out to the whole world. All the eyes are on me, wondering what my next move will be. I can't take it anymore, so I just walk out.
Tris
Elsie comes home in a fit of tears at 12. School doesn't get out until 3:30. "Elsie what's the matter?" I walk up to her.
"Kids keep making fun of me, teachers keep asking me questions, all about the stupid news paper article." I know exactly which article she's talking about, I read it this morning after I got done cleaning.
"Come here." I open my arms and engulf her in a hug. She keeps crying for a while then starts mumbling.
"Why does this all have to be true. Every single bit of it."
"I don't know." I rub her back.
"Why do I have to be born in this family, nothing but bad things have came out of it. I'm miserable, Tobias is miserable, the only people who don't seem to be miserable are Marcus and Evelyn. They seem to be happy about this."
"They're going to be happy about it, because of all the money that they're making. Elle, the only thing those people care about is power and money. If you don't want to be part of it then you don't have to be." Elsie sniffles and pulls back.
"Tris can I ask you a question?"
"Yeah sure anything, babe." I use my thumb to whisk away her tears.
"Will you be my mother?" She looks at me with those big blue eyes that are exactly like Tobias's. "You've been more of a mother to me that Evelyn has the last few years. You've been taking care of me ever since I was two."
I smile and hug her. "Yes Elsie, I will be your mother." She hugs me back. "Now will you please do me a favor?" She nods. "Will you please stop crying, and smile some more. The world is a happy when you are happy." She nods and smiles. She hugs me again.
"Um Tr-mom?"
"Mhmmm..."
"Do I have to go back to school?"
I laugh and shake my head. "No you do not have to go back to school, you can stay home with me." She cheers and hugs me again. Then she runs to the couch and turns on the T.V.
I get up from my squatting position and look up. Tobias is by the doorway. "How much did you hear?" I ask taking him in. His eyes are red and puffy, he looks like he has a new scar on his knuckles, and his hair is everywhere.
"All of it...I think."
"And your feelings are..."
He strides over to me and engulfs me in a hug. "Thank you." I hug him back, and that hug turns into a kiss.
"Ewwwww..." comes over from his couch.
"Oh your just jealous that you didn't get any." I tease. I open my arm for her to join. She runs over to us. We have a group hug moment. I think I hear Tobias mumble something. "What's that?" I pull back a little bit.
"I'll be your family now." He says again louder this time. I kiss him again. That's what the three of us are now. A family.
Ahh... sadness, humor, and FourTris all in one chapter. Our hearts can't take it. Though I believe this has to be our personal favorite chapter.