Chapter 2
Four's pov
I bring the box downstairs and set it on the little table in the center of the room. I pull out the first book and try not to bristle when we read the title. "Divergent"
Everybody gasps when they look at the book then we hear Will "Divergent's I thought those were a myth." I can't help but think a little bitter. Yeah and your previous faction is on a killing hunt for them. I shake my head at the thought.
I look at Tris. Thankfully she keeps quiet. She can't draw attention to herself with that word. I will protect her the best I can but I know there are people in this room who don't like divergents. Shauna is terrified of them and Max is part of this killing hunt. Also the fact that there are technically at least 3 divergents in this room. But I also suspect Natalie is divergent.
I realize I have been staring at her way longer than I should be. So I quickly look away from her only for my eyes to meet Zeke"s. He gives me a look of knowing but I act like I don't notice and scan the room. "I guess we should get reading." Hopefully we can steer away from this topic for a bit.
We all move to find a seat. There are more than enough places to sit in here so I choose to sit on one side of a two seater. Away from Natalie and Andrew. I know Natalie knows who I am and I preferred that topic just didn't come up. I also can't help but inch away everytime i'm near abnegation. Thanks Marcus.
I'm also sitting across from Tris. Great, I'm going to end up staring at her like an idiot all day. I just hope my crush on her doesn't get out. But part of me wants it to. Maybe something can happen. I shake my head, nothing can happen.
Tris sits on a couch with Christina and Will. Zeke and Shauna sit on two of the bean bags, Natalie and Andrew take two of the chairs, and Tori and Max sit on opposite ends of the other couch. "Who wants to read first?" Natalie says she will and goes and grabs the book.
"Beatrice, the book is in your point of view" "Wait what? Why mine?" We all shrug. Part of me is genuinely curious about what goes on in her head.
THERE IS ONE mirror in my house. It is behind a sliding panel in the hallway upstairs. Our faction allows me to stand in front of it on the second day of every third month, the day my mother cuts my hair.
Christina shouts "You only have one Mirror. How do you live?" Tris is dying of laughter. "Not everyone needs to look in the mirror a thousand times a day Christina." Christina just shakes her head.
I sit on the stool and my mother stands behind me with the scissors, trimming. The strands fall on the floor in a dull, blond ring.
When she finishes, she pulls my hair away from my face and twists it into a knot. I note how calm she looks and how focused she is. She is well-practiced in the art of losing herself. I can't say the same of myself.
I sneak a look at my reflection when she isn't paying attention—not for the sake of vanity, but out of curiosity. A lot can happen to a person's appearance in three months. In my reflection, I see a narrow face, wide, round eyes, and a long, thin nose—I still look like a little girl, though sometime in the last few months I turned sixteen. The other factions celebrate birthdays, but we don't. It would be self-indulgent.
"Naughty naughty Tris" Zeke teases. Earning a glare from Tris and she chucks a pillow at him. "Thank you" he says, putting it behind his back to make himself more comfortable. I will never understand how he can always make a joke.
"There," she says when she pins the knot in place. Her eyes catch mine in the mirror. It is too late to look away, but instead of scolding me, she smiles at our reflection. I frown a little. Why doesn't she reprimand me for staring at myself?
Andrew looks over to Natalie "yeah why didn't she?" "She was already nervous. Reprimanding her wouldn't have made it any easier." He nods seemingly satisfied with her answer.
"So today is the day," she says.
"Yes," I reply.
"Are you nervous?"
I stare into my own eyes for a moment. Today is the day of the aptitude test that will show me which of the five factions I belong in. And tomorrow, at the Choosing Ceremony, I will decide on a faction; I will decide the rest of my life; I will decide to stay with my family or abandon them.
"No," I say. "The tests don't have to change our choices."
"Right." She smiles. "Let's go eat breakfast."
"Thank you. For cutting my hair."
She kisses my cheek and slides the panel over the mirror. I think my mother could be beautiful, in a different world. Her body is thin beneath the gray robe. She has high cheekbones and long eyelashes, and when she lets her hair down at night, it hangs in waves over her shoulders. But she must hide that beauty in Abnegation.
"Thanks, Beatrice."
We walk together to the kitchen. On these mornings when my brother makes breakfast, and my father's hand skims my hair as he reads the newspaper, and my mother hums as she clears the table— it is on these mornings that I feel guiltiest for wanting to leave them.
"So you knew you wanted to leave." Uriah asks. Tris just nods. "There is a page break." Natalie replies kind of quickly. It must be hard for her and Andrew to relive their children's choice.
The bus stinks of exhaust. Every time it hits a patch of uneven pavement, it jostles me from side to side, even though I'm gripping the seat to keep myself still.
I can't help but laugh. "It's because you had no muscle." Tris just laughs, seeming to get the joke only us two understand. I love the sound of her laugh. "So I would be fine now." I just smile at her.
Marlene looks confused along with all the others but says "Are we missing something here or did we just hear the mighty four make a joke and laugh?" I shake my head and glare at her and she backs off, which has Zeke and Shauna laughing. "Everyone is so scared of the mighty four." Shauna says half sarcastic half serious.
It's Andrew who asks "why and mighty Four?" It's Max who answers "Most people find him intimidating and people refer to him as mighty four because he's a dauntless prodigy." "Prodigy?" He asks.
"Yes Prodigy, he was the best in his class and has mastered every single skill the dauntless teaches." He replies proudly and kind of pridefully.
All of them turn to me and I suddenly feel very uncomfortable. Thankfully Natalie continues reading.
My older brother, Caleb, stands in the aisle, holding a railing above his head to keep himself steady. We don't look alike. He has my father's dark hair and hooked nose and my mother's green eyes and dimpled cheeks. When he was younger, that collection of features looked strange, but now it suits him. If he wasn't Abnegation, I'm sure the girls at school would stare at him. He also inherited my mother's talent for selflessness.
"They did anyway, Tris." Marlene giggles. "What?" "The girl's at lunch practically drooled over him. But they'd never admit it." She says through a fit of laughter. Her entire family seems to be shaking their heads while everyone else joins in her laughter. I want to laugh so bad but I don't my eyes just travel to Tris and my thoughts become consumed with her.
He also inherited my mother's talent for selflessness. He gave his seat to a surly Candor man on the bus without a second thought.
The Candor man wears a black suit with a white tie—Candor standard uniform. Their faction values honesty and sees the truth as black and white, so that is what they wear.
The gaps between the buildings narrow and the roads are smoother as we near the heart of the city. The building that was once called the Sears Tower—we call it the Hub—emerges from the fog, a black pillar in the skyline. The bus passes under the elevated tracks. I have never been on a train, though they never stop running and there are tracks everywhere. Only the Dauntless ride them.
"Not true anymore is it Tris." Will says with a smile. Tris laughs and I relax at the sound. Earning a look from Zeke.
Five years ago, volunteer construction workers from Abnegation repaved some of the roads. They started in the middle of the city and worked their way outward until they ran out of materials. The roads where I live are still cracked and patchy, and it's not safe to drive on them. We don't have a car anyway.
"Does anyone in abnegation have cars?" Will asks. "Some with government jobs but not many." Natalie answers for him.
Caleb's expression is placid as the bus sways and jolts on the road. The gray robe falls from his arm as he clutches a pole for balance. I can tell by the constant shift of his eyes that he is watching the people around us—striving to see only them and to forget himself. Candor values honesty, but our faction, Abnegation, values selflessness.
The bus stops in front of the school and I get up, scooting past the Candor man. I grab Caleb's arm as I stumble over the man's shoes. My slacks are too long, and I've never been that graceful.
Now It's Uriah's turn to make a joke I think to myself. "Good thing you got better at that or you'll surely have fallen off a train by now." Tris glares at him and chucks a pillow at him. Called it I think to myself.
The Upper Levels building is the oldest of the three schools in the city: Lower Levels, Mid-Levels, and Upper Levels. Like all the other buildings around it, it is made of glass and steel. In front of it is a large metal sculpture that the Dauntless climb after school, daring each other to go higher and higher. Last year I watched one of them fall and break her leg. I was the one who ran to get the nurse.
"Aptitude tests today," I say. Caleb is not quite a year older than I am, so we are in the same year at school.
He nods as we pass through the front doors. My muscles tighten the second we walk in. The atmosphere feels hungry, like every sixteen-year-old is trying to devour as much as he can get of this last day. It is likely that we will not walk these halls again after the Choosing Ceremony—once we choose, our new factions will be responsible for finishing our education.
Our classes are cut in half today, so we will attend all of them before the aptitude tests, which take place after lunch. My heart rate is already elevated.
"You aren't at all worried about what they'll tell you?" I ask Caleb.
We pause at the split in the hallway where he will go one way, toward Advanced Math, and I will go the other, toward Faction History. He raises an eyebrow at me. "Are you?"
I could tell him I've been worried for weeks about what the aptitude test will tell me—Abnegation, Candor, Erudite, Amity, or Dauntless?
"He's got to be the only person who's not an Erudite in that class." Will states. The entire room looks over at him. "What I was in that class. It's a really difficult class and there is hardly anybody in that class who isn't already Erudite." He shrugs.
We seem to drop that topic quickly if there isn't a good reason no dauntless wants to talk or think about school. So Christina says "You seem to be really nervous about the aptitude test." Yeah, let's just state the obvious I think rolling my eyes. "Why do you seem to be fine with the simulations but not the aptitude tests?" Tris shrugs with a faraway look in her eyes. I think she must realize her Divergence is likely to be exploited in a few chapters.
Instead I smile and say, "Not really."
He smiles back. "Well…have a good day." I walk toward Faction History, chewing on my lower lip. He never answered my question.
The hallways are cramped, though the light coming through the windows creates the illusion of space; they are one of the only places where the factions mix, at our age. Today the crowd has a new kind of energy, a last day mania.
A girl with long curly hair shouts "Hey!" next to my ear, waving at a distant friend. A jacket sleeve smacks me on the cheek. Then an Erudite boy in a blue sweater shoves me. I lose my balance and fall hard on the ground.
"Out of my way, Stiff," he snaps, and continues down the hallway.
My cheeks warm. I get up and dust myself off. A few people stopped when I fell, but none of them offered to help me. Their eyes follow me to the edge of the hallway. This sort of thing has been happening to others in my faction for months now—the Erudite have been releasing antagonistic reports about Abnegation, and it has begun to affect the way we relate at school. The gray clothes, the plain hairstyle, and the unassuming demeanor of my faction are supposed to make it easier for me to forget myself, and easier for everyone else to forget me too. But now they make me a target.
"I didn't realize it was getting this bad" Andrew states "We'll have to address it in the next council meeting he says. But really is directing it towards Natalie.
I pause by a window in the E Wing and wait for the Dauntless to arrive. I do this every morning. At exactly 7:25, the Dauntless prove their bravery by jumping from a moving train.
"Stalker" zeke teases.
My father calls the Dauntless "hellions." They are pierced, tattooed, and black-clothed. Their primary purpose is to guard the fence that surrounds our city. From what, I don't know.
Every dauntless person in the room shouts "hey" at him. I smile a little when he seems to inch away. It's kind of funny.
They should perplex me. I should wonder what courage—which is the virtue they most value—has to do with a metal ring through your nostril. Instead my eyes cling to them wherever they go.
The train whistle blares, the sound resonating in my chest. The light fixed to the front of the train clicks on and off as the train hurtles past the school, squealing on iron rails. And as the last few cars pass, a mass exodus of young men and women in dark clothing hurl themselves from the moving cars, some dropping and rolling, others stumbling a few steps before regaining their balance. One of the boys wraps his arm around a girl's shoulders, laughing.
Watching them is a foolish practice. I turn away from the window and press through the crowd to the Faction History classroom.
"Stalker" Uriah says joining in on the teasing. Making the entire room laugh.
"End of the chapter who wants to read next." Natalie says, setting the book on the table.