I walked into the Pit the next morning, ready for breakfast before school. I grabbed some pancakes and looked for my friends. I saw Zoey sat at a table with some cereal, Liam wasn't there yet. She was sat with a lot of other Dauntless teenagers; we tended to group together a lot. Four was on the table behind, with Zeke and Shauna.

"Theia, quick come here!" Zoey called. "Quickly!"

I went over, wondering why she sounded so excited. "Okay, I'm here."

Zoey ushered me to her side. "So, you know Caius, don't you?"

"Yes." Caius was a boy our age, he was in most of my classes at school. He was quite good looking with his black hair and green eyes. But I personally had never shown an interest. I had never really spoken to him properly, only a couple of times regarding a trigonometry formula, and things like that.

"Well, I overheard some of his friends saying that he likes you. I spoke to them and said they'd be glad to organise a date." Zoey blurted out.

I saw Four glance back out of the corner of my eye. He leaned back slightly, like he was trying to hear more of our conversation.

"Zoey, why would you do that? I don't even like him." I tried not to yell.

"You might soon."

"I doubt it."

"Will you still go on the date?"

"I'll never hear the end of it if I don't, will I?"

"Nope."

"Fine, I'll go then." I figured that Caius wasn't the worst person to go on a date with, there were far worse options.

But before Zoey could say another word, Four spoke from behind us.

"So, a date, huh?" he started to say, innocently. "And where would this be?"

Zoey said that she just planned for a walk by the chasm.

"How long?" Four started to grill me and Zoey.

"I don't know." I replied. "It depends."

"On what?"

"Whether they get talking or not, of course." Zoey rolled her eyes.

"Okay. Well, enjoy yourself, you need it." Four went back to his meal.

Zoey looked confused. "That was weirdly, well, normal of him. I was expecting him to get all protective, and maybe even stop you from going."

I thought the same, but I doubted he would've stopped me from going. Instead, he probably would stalk us via the control room, and lurk in the shadows after, watching for something to go wrong.

School passed quickly, and as soon as I got home, I went to my apartment, and found Zoey stood outside with her bag of make-up.

"Let me in, we should do your make up before you go on your date!" Zoey squealed.

I had never really put on make-up in my life, perhaps only lip gloss a couple of times, and I wasn't planning to start now.

"No, no make-up." I told Zoey.

"Come on!"

"No Zoey, seriously, if you end up caking my face with make up, I will end up not going on this date and will go straight to the training room and start punching some bags."

Zoey gave up trying to convince me to put on some make up, and instead agreed to help me pick out an outfit. I just wanted to maybe wear a black shirt or dress, with some jeans. Instead, Zoey found some jeans with sliver wires embedded in the side. It was quite strange, a unique design. She also grabbed a black dress, that went down to my knees, it was comfortable and loose fitting. I was planning on grabbing my regular boots too, but Zoey demanded I wear my one pair of patent leather boots. I didn't mind them myself, I just

preferred my standard combat boots.

I put them on and left to meet Caius. He would be in the Pit, that's what was agreed by our friends. I saw him sitting at a table, he smiled slightly and waved for me to come over. I really hoped that he didn't like me, I didn't reciprocate those feelings.

I noticed that there were now streaks of green in his hair, matching the colour of his eyes.

"Hey." I said to him.

"Hi. Nice boots." he replied.

"Thanks. Nice hair."

Caius laughed. "Thanks."

I decided I would get straight to the point. "Look, Caius, Zoey kind of made me go on this date. I think you're a nice person, but I don't like you in that way. I just don't want to get your hopes up. Sorry"

When I finished, he looked as though a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Yeah, I don't know who started the rumours that I liked you. I think you're a nice person too, but I also don't like you in that way too. Maybe we can be friends?"

"Friends is good. So, new friend, what do you want to do?" I grinned.

"Well, I heard that there's a huge pile of rubble outside the compound's main entrance, where one of the small buildings were demolished. It looks pretty fun to climb. So how about it, new friend?"

"Sounds cool," I said. "Race you there!"

I set off at the fastest sprint I could, with Caius almost overtaking me. We had just passed the chasm when I turned back to see how far behind Caius was. I was just about to face forward when I crashed into someone and almost fell. It was Four.

"Woah there. Where are you going in such a rush?" Four asked as he stopped me from falling and straightened me up.

"Caius suggested that we should climb the rubble outside the compound."

"Oh right, with your date."

"We're not on a date. We don't even like each other, so decided to be friends. Anyway, why are you here? Shouldn't you be with the initiates?"

"One of them was in a bad way after training, so I took them back to the dorms."

"Oh. Let me guess, was it Tris?"

"Yes. It was."

"Is she okay?"

"Yeah, just a bit shaken up."

"I take it you comforted her, being the lovely warm and fuzzy guy you are."

"Very funny. Now scram, I thought you were going to go climb something."

"Yeah, bye."

I carried on with my sprint, reaching the main entrance. I saw the pile of rubble. It wasn't too big, but didn't have lots of foot holds, and looked plenty difficult to climb. I leapt on to the first rock, then scrambled up a few more. I had now come across a steeper bit of rubble, with barely anywhere to put my feet or hands. I could jump to reach the top, but it looked risky.

Oh well.

I leapt, and made the jump, landing on one foot, right on the edge. I thought I was safe, but my balance was off, and I toppled back, landing on my back. That hurt. A lot.

Caius scrambled back down from the rubble and helped me up.

"Are you okay?" he asked in a panicked voice.

"Yeah, I'm good." I stumbled as soon as I said the last word, I felt lightheaded, but Caius stopped me from falling again.

"I don't think you're good. You're coming to the infirmary, just in case."

He walked alongside me, slowly, with his arm in mine, just in case my light-headedness got worse. We were crossing the chasm when we saw Four again. Training seemed to be over quickly, or maybe that was just my fall, messing up my sense of time.

He immediately came up to us. "What's wrong?"

"Theia fell from the rubble we were climbing; she lost her balance. We were heading to the hospital." Caius replied for me.

"I can take her now, you can go. Thanks for helping her."

"No problem. Bye Theia."

"You know, I don't need anyone to take me to the infirmary," I told Four. "Oh, did leadership put up some yellow lights? They look really cool."

"No. And you say you don't need help to get to the hospital."

We walked a bit more before he spoke again.

"I've decided to sign up as your legal guardian."

"What?"

"I'm responsible for you and your well-being."

"So, you literally adopted me?"

"I suppose so, yes."

"Why? Surely you have better things to do than being responsible for me?"

"Oh, come on Theia, you've practically been like my sister these past two years. Besides, you could do with someone to make sure you don't get into any trouble."

"I barely get into any trouble

"What do you call the state you're in now?"

"Please, I just lost my balance. It's pretty normal."

"Fair enough."

"Just one question… Do I have to live with you?"

"You say that like it's a horrible thing," Four joked. "And no, you don't, leadership were surprisingly flexible about that. If you want to, you can though."

"No, I'm fine with my own apartment. I'm 16 in two years. Anyway, I wouldn't want to be there when you finally charm Tris now, would I? I smirked.

Four rolled his eyes. "You're being surprisingly snide for someone who just fell and hit their head, don't you think?"

"Not at all."

We reached the hospital. A nurse told me that there was nothing serious with my head injury, I had just escaped a concussion. I was ordered to spend the rest of the day not to climb up any dangerous things.