Sorry for the wait for this chapter, I had to write Hugo's outtake so I could write Eric's outtake so I could write this chapter before I posted this. Also it seems I've fallen into a imaginary hole. Writing initiation is safe, everyone knows basically what will happen but I've found that writing Dauntless after initiation a little bit harder so updates will take longer until I've actually got my head around it.
As soon as Eric stood up loudly to intervene as heated dance between Issy and Luke she spun away from them both, waving a hand at the table and her friends and walked out of the Pit, ecstatic that she had gotten to Eric.
Once she had gotten back to the dorms Issy stripped off her boots and her tight jeans, replacing them with a pair of leggings and thick red socks. She washed what little makeup she had on off before washing her face and brushing her teeth. Walking back into the dorms, Issy takes her top off and puts on a red tank top with one of her more flimsy hoodies over the top.
Issy hums to herself as she puts her phone on charge and turns her music on a low volume. She jumps onto her bunk and pulls out her sketch pad. She finds that she likes drawing on black paper rather than white. Her drawings, especially tribal drawings, seem to pop from the page. One of the shops near the tattoo parlor is filled with stationary and Issy swears her heart skipped a beat. On the shelves were different types of sketch books either portrait or landscape with white, black or brownish paper (sort of like aged paper or cardboard) and in different thicknesses. There was a wide range of paints from watercolour to acrylic to power paints to spray paints and several different brush sizes. In the racks at the other side of the room were canvases of different sizes and one whole wall was filled with rack upon rack of pens, pencils, pastels and crayons of all different colours, types and sizes. Personally, Issy could spend all of her points in that shop, she said as much to the shop assistant. That day she bought some more white pencils and a few white chalk pens in various thicknesses with promises to return. Paint & Shit, it is called and she grins, quivering in anticipation. She has a list. A very long list of items she will be buying from that wondrous shop. Spray paints, canvases, brown landscape sketch book, pastels, power paints… The list goes on and on.
She starts to doodle in the corner of a page while she waits. At least a quarter of the page is covered in all kinds of shapes when Kayden carries a giggling Flare into the dorms followed by Cody, Lilah and Alec. All of whom seem pretty buzzed. Issy smiles at her brother who grabs onto the bars on her bunk and heaves himself up, planting a sloppy kiss on her forehead before releasing the bars, jumping down to the ground and joining Lilah on his bunk.
"Oh my god, Issy!" Flare yells happily from the bunk that used to be Zara's opposite to Issy's. "You should have seen the look on Eric'sface when you left!" Flare hiccups slightly and Issy grins at Kayden as he sits on his bunk, his eyes fixed on Flare. She turns her gaze to Cody and playfully rolls her eyes. He grins back and winks. "He looked so confused, like he didn't know whether to rip Luke to shreds or go after you." Flare pouts and she hiccups again. "He just sorta sat back down and glared at the table."
"He wasn't actually glaring though." Cody spoke up as he got changed into something comfier. "He looked somewhat lost."
"Right…." Issy smirks as she looks down before glancing back up to three pairs of eyes looking at her knowingly and her cheeks glow red. She clears her throat. "So, where are the others?"
Alec opened his mouth to answer when the door slammed open and the rest of their friends poured in dazed and giggling with an annoyed Four behind them.
"Those of you that are sober," He starts with a sigh, looking mainly to Issy. "Make sure these idiots don't do anything stupid."
"Do we even wanna know?"
Four just raises both of his hands, shaking his head and left the room without another word. Sharing a sigh with those that were sober enough to understand what was happening before she shut her sketch pad and put it back into her locker along with her pens. After she had jumped down from her bunk Issy walked over to a giggling Bree and gently guided her to her bunk. Somehow Issy managed to bribe Bree into her bunk, agreeing to fuck knows what as she did so, and tucked her in while the others were guided to a lower bunk by their more sober friends. When Issy finally managed to get back into her own bunk, there were some quiet giggling echoing around the room and she fell asleep with a smile on her face.
When Issy opened her bleary eyes a few hours later the dorms were silent other than the collective sound of people breathing. Her hand search blindly on the top of her locker until she found a slim cool object. Issy picked up her phone, squinting at the harsh light as she turned it on. 09:07, it read and Issy groaned as she quietly jumped from her bunk. It wouldn't have mattered if she had made a racket Issy noticed, looking around at her friends that slept like the dead. Issy smirked down at the sight of her brother wrapped around Lilah on his bunk. One of Alec's arms supported Lilah's head and the other was wrapped around her waist. It made Issy grin so hard her cheeks began to hurt as she took a photo of the pair before quickly chunking on a pair of black jeans and the big leather jacket she had gotten from Dec. She braided her hair to her left side revealing her neck tattoo and she slipped her boots on before grabbing her phone and leaving the dorms in search of food and coffee.
As she strides into the cafeteria Issy realises the lack of people up and awake although, she has seen many passed out in the corridors still clutching a bottle of whatever they were drinking. There's only five members in the whole room, Max being one of them stirring the contents in his mug around next to another who has their head on the table. The others are dotted around the room, some are breathing into their mugs while others are simply napping. Issy collects a croissant, a small pot of chocolate spread and an apple before sitting in front of Max, eyeing the heap of limbs to his side. She receives a grunt of greeting as he pushes a flask across the table with an empty mug. Issy hums contently when a waft of coffee reaches her nose when she opens the top and pours the heavenly liquid into the mug before adding sugar and taking a sip. They sit in silence as Max sips from his mug and Issy tears at the croissant, spreading chocolate onto it before taking a bite with occasional snores from Sleep head. When Sleepy head's snores became too loud Max rammed his elbow into their side and they jerked up, wide awake. Issy snorted when she realised the heap of limbs was Blake. Blake's hair was sticking up at every angle and he had sleep marks on his face from the folds in his sleeves. His bleary eyes take in his surroundings before he focuses on Issy.
"Oh, hey Issy." Blake yawns as he stretches his arms. "When did you get here?"
This time Max snorts. "She got here around half an hour after you took a nap."
"Half a – Half an hour?" Blake lifts his right sleeve only to notice his watch isn't on that wrist and he lifted his other sleeve. "Huh." Suddenly he gets up and heads to the array of foods left out by the kitchen staff and starts to pile his plate high. With her cup half way to her mouth Issy turns her gaze to Max raising an eyebrow questioningly.
"Night shift in the control room – seven pm 'til seven am." Max shrugs his shoulders as Issy winces. "I didn't make the shift hours up."
When Blake comes back with an apple in his mouth as he carries his plate with his cutlery in his back pocket he seems in better spirits then a few minutes ago. He puts his knife and fork on the table and takes the apple from his mouth, grinning at Issy. "So, Golden Eyes." He checks his watch. "It is now 10:15 and you have forty five minutes until you choose your career but the thing I'm wondering is, where the rest of your class?"
Issy grins mischievously as she stands up with her apple in hand. "Asleep but not for long." Blake laughs, waving as he digs into his food and Max shakes his head, mumbling something into his mug as she walks from the room and into the Pit. Some of the stores have started to open when she walks through the Pit, most of the stores are some that Issy has never been in before. In the midst of her thoughts Issy sees something in a shop window and halts. Grinning, Issy walks into the shop. Around her the store is split into different sections. One has different models of phones like the one in her pocket, another has tablets of different sizes. But the one Issy heads straight to has headphones and earphones ranging in colour and cord length. She eyes a black and red pair when she feels someone join her.
"Like 'em?" Issy turns to see a petite woman with rose gold hair tied up in braid with baby pink contact lenses. The woman smirks at Issy, staring into her golden orbs. "One of two that goes by Golden Eyes, right?"
"Yeah." Issy grins as she looks around the store. "Is this your shop?"
"Mine and my cousin's. He handles the TVs, phones, tablets etc., and I handle the smaller stuff like headphones." The women gazes at the shelves. "What you're looking at is some of the first, and most popular, designs that I've made."
"You've made these?"
"Hell yeah! Dauntless and its people inspires me a lot to create unique designs. For instance," The women backs up to the desk in the corner and shuffles through the boxes. She picks up one and motions for Issy to come closer as she opens the box. When Issy stands on the opposite side of the desk, the women picks up a pair of black headphones with tribal patterns outlined in gold and shadowed with light grey. Scattered on the top of the frame are stars which are also outlined in gold but without the grey shading. "These have been inspired by you." The women pulls another box onto the table. "And these have been inspired by your brother, Alec isn't it?" The second pair of headphones are dark navy blue, so dark the blue looks like black in some light. Geometric triangles climb up the sides in shades of light grey, highlighted with dots of gold.
"Wow. I – uh, um. . ."
"No need to say a word." She pushes the boxes forward. "Free of charge."
Issy looks up, gold meeting pink, with her jaw nearly on the ground. "Really?"
"Yup." The women's eyes widen and she holds out her hand. "Becka by the way."
Issy takes the outstretched hand. "Issy but you already knew that." Issy laughs as she looks down. "Can we pick these up later? Its nearly half ten and I have a dorm to wake."
"Sure thing chick." Becka waves as Issy leaves the store. "Later first ranker!"
Ten minutes later Issy stands by the showers as the ninth bucket is being filled up with icy water. The other eight sit at the ends of the bunks with two at the end of Cody and Bree's bunk and another two at the end of Kayden and Flare's bunk as they're the only ones that are in both the top and bottom bunk. She turns off the water and picks the bucket up and heads back into the dorms. Issy grins at her instructors – 'Are they still her instructors? Can I still call them that? Probably not.' – and her brothers as she quietly puts the bucket down in front of Noah's bunk. She doesn't look at Eric as he stares at her, instead she focuses her gaze on Four and Lauren as their eyebrows furrow almost when he looks from the buckets to her. The brothers grin and snicker, pointing where Alec is still wrapped around Lilah.
"Oh, hush. You'll wake them up." Issy hisses playfully at them.
"Isn't that what the buckets of water are for?" Lynn smirks as she tests the water with her fingers. "It's a little cold Iss."
"Yeah." Issy rolls her eyes. "Its supposed to be cold." She grins as Four raises an eyebrow at her.
"You're such a bitch."
Her grin widens as her eyes blaze brighter. "You say that as if its something new. I know I'm a bitch. Now are you gonna help me or not?" Issy puts on her best puppy eyes and pouts at them. She tries not to smile when Dec shoves Hugo out of the way and stands in front of Alec's bunk. Hugo huffs as he stands in front of Kayden's bunk behind Dec and Lynn claps her hands with glee as she moves to the end of her little brother's bunk. "Come on," Issy looks from Four to Lauren to Eric. "Surely at one point one of these arseholes have pissed you off." Issy smirks as Eric suddenly grins before he stands at the end of Sam's bunk. Lauren and Four share an amused look before standing at the end of the remaining bunks – Four smirks down at Luke's unconscious form and Lauren picks one of the buckets up as her gaze switches from Cody to Bree.
"Ready when you're ready sis."
"Okay." They pick up the buckets. "When you're ready." Water crashes against rock, cloth and skin as the buckets are emptied. Her friends gasp and groan as the shoot up in shock and there's a loud thud as Alec falls from his bed. Her older brothers cackle at him gleefully while the others get up from their bunks glaring at those who are dry.
"Not again!" Alec growls, glaring at Issy.
"What do you mean 'not again'?" Four asks warily.
Alec runs a hand through his wet hair. "It was the morning after Capture and somebody," Alec glared at Cody and Issy. "Decided it would be a great idea to chuck two buckets on me."
"Don't look at us like that!" Cody cried out as the room laughed. "You wouldn't get up."
Eric grins as he looks around the room. "Alright!" He calls out and everyone's attention turns to him as he checks his watch. "It is twenty to eleven. Now that you have passed initiation –" Cheers break out for a moment before the initiates – 'No,' Issy thinks with a grin. 'The new members.' – quieten down. "– You'll pick your jobs. You all have at least fifteen minutes to get changed and eat something before you all need to be in the conference room on the same floor as the Leader's offices, one of us will be standing in the doorway. More will be explained then." Eric smirks as he looks over the new members and Issy notices it's not a cold smirk but sort of a welcoming smirk. "See you all soon." And with that Eric, the rest of the instructors and her older brother walk out of the room.
xXx
At five to eleven, the new members sit around a large table in the conference room. Eric stands with his spine straight at the front of the table with Four lounging leisurely in a chair to his right.
"If you didn't know by now," Eric starts. "Your ranking effects what jobs will be available to you. It is unlikely that you'll be able to change your job once its been chosen, unless you get a promotion, so choose wisely. You'll have the weekend off and new jobs will start on Monday unless told you're otherwise. Your ranking will also effect what sized apartment will be available to you. The higher your rank, the bigger your apartment will be. If you want you can choose to share an apartment with another, the apartments will also be furnished simply, nothing to grand as you'll all probably be changing it anyway. Interviews will be held with Max in his office down the hall and these will be done in the order of rankings." Eric's eyes settle on Issy before he checks the clock on the wall behind him. As soon as the longest hand moves to twelve, his eyes go back to Issy. "Come on first ranker." Eric smiles lightly while Issy gets up from her chair, sharing a glance with Alec and Hec, and walks over to him. He holds the door open, gesturing for her to go first. Issy steps into the hallway and waits for Eric to show her the way. He grins at her as he places a hand on her lower back, guiding her forwards. The silence between them is comfortable as they walk down the hallway until they stand in front of a dark grey door at the end. "Ready?" Issy stares at the door for a second too long before she nods her head, turning to look up at him. Eric's hand moves higher until it rests on her shoulder, squeezing reassuringly as he knocks and opens the door.
"Ah! Eric, thank you." Max's office is slightly tidier since last time she notices. Max nods at Eric and gestures for Issy to sit down. Eric slowly removes his hand and gently pushes her into the room before shutting the door behind him. Issy sits down, biting her lip as she stares at Max. "So, have you decided on your career?"
Issy takes a deep breath. "Yes, but I have a feeling you're not gonna like it." If Issy listened carefully she could probably hear every vertebra click into place as Max sits up straight. "I want to be in a patrolling squad." She raises a hand to silence him when he opens his mouth to interrupt. "I know it would be ideal as the first ranker to take Leadership but as a transfer and new to the faction I feel as if I don't know the faction well enough to lead it. So I've decided to have a job that has a possibility of working my way up to Leadership but before that I'll spend a few years getting to know the faction and the people in it." Issy looks down to her lap, a sad smile coming onto her face. She looks back up and a single tear runs down her face. "Declan told me that you were part of the patrol squad that found Reece," Issy swallows the harsh lump in her throat. "And part of the squad that found me and I want to thank you for that. Because of that I want to help if I can like you did for myself and my family."
Max smiles softly, reaching over his desk to squeeze her hands. "I see the way you've thought this through and within that decision alone I know you'll be good in Leadership but you've made your views clear." Max shuffles through some papers and picks up a pen as he begins to fill the boxes in. "On Monday be in the Pit at 06:30 am for your first day of patrol training. The squad number is 226 and the training should last for a month or so. Are you sharing an apartment with anyone?"
"Nah, just me but can I request to have a spare room so if Cara joins Dauntless and makes it she can stay with me?
"Did Eric explain how your ranking effects your apartment?" Issy nods her head. "Well 'cause you're first ranker you'll get a big apartment anyway and they have a spare room. Its only if you decide sometime in the future that if you want to start a family that you'll be moved into an apartment with more than two bedrooms." He takes more notes before he hands her a key and the sheet he was writing on. "Apartment N922. North side, ninth floor, number twenty two. Dismissed Issy and good luck."
Issy smiles as she leaves his office. For a moment she stands still in the hallway when a big grin breaks onto her face as she folds the paper into quarters and shoves it into her back pocket and she attaches her key to a belt loop on her jeans. Issy strolls back to the conference room and opens the door. Cheers great her as she grins and sits back down, winking at Alec as he follows Eric from the room.
"So first ranker, why aren't you checking out your flat?" Bree asked.
"I'll wait for everyone else to finish." Issy grins at Bree, eyeing Eric as he walks back into the room and sits down next to Four. They chatter between themselves until Alec comes back in grinning and Eric motions for Hector.
"We sorted bro?" Cody calls out to Alec as Eric slips back into the room.
"Yeah! Just you and me bud!" Alec laughs back.
From the other side of the room Kayden turns to Cody with mock disgust on his face. "Are you really gonna share a flat with that?" Kayden jabs a finger in Alec's direction.
"Oi!" Issy butts in defensively. "Only I'm allowed to talk to him like that!" Issy sneers playfully at Alec. "Disgusting creature." The table laughs as Alec picks up a coaster and flings it in her direction only to have it hit Four in the face. Issy laughs into her hands as Alec shrugs indifferently.
"Sorry 'bout that number boy." Alec ducks as Four flings it back at him when Hec comes back into the room to witness it.
"What the fuck is happening?" Hector smirks, and fist bumps Lilah as she walks past him to follow Eric out of the room.
"Nothing out of the ordinary!" Flare laughs from next to Kayden.
Hector laughs as he sits near the twins. The three of them smirk at each other. "How do you think she's gonna react?" He questions.
"Surprised, shocked, overwhelmed –" Alec counts on his fingers.
"Not to mention disappointed that we chucked it away but at the same time pleased." Issy lounges back in her chair with a conspiring smirk.
"What are you on about?" Issy turns to Eric, smiling at the confusion clear on his face. She can practically hear the gears turning in his head as his eyes narrow at her.
"You'll see."
Minutes later Lilah comes into the room with tears running down her face. Flare jumps up in surprise, asking her best friend if she's alright but Lilah ignores her, her gaze pinned on Hector, Alec and Issy as she stalks forward. "You fools! You utter morons!" Lilah angrily brushes away her tears as most of the room looks to her in shock. "Why did you do that? Why would you chuck away that chance?"
"Lilah!" Four calls out calmly. "Lilah, calm down. What happened?"
Issy's eyes catches Eric as his eyes widen suddenly, gazing at her in shock, and in response Issy winks at him as Lilah points to the trio almost furiously. "These fucktards gave up Leadership so I could have it!" Issy slowly gets up from her seat as Lilah insults them halfheartedly with everything she has until Issy wraps her arms around Lilah. Issy smiles when Lilah sinks into her arms and sobs into Issy's shoulder. Still shocked, Eric leads Luke from the room while Alec and Hector get up to wrap their arms round the girls.
Nearly an hour later, the new members pile out of the conference room. Lilah is back to her joyful self, laughing from where she walks with Alec's arm thrown across her shoulders. The group take out their sheets of paper to compare their living arrangements. Several of them had decided to share like Alec and Cody. Bree and Noah were the obvious ones along with Flare and Lilah also sharing. The rest have their own apartments to themselves.
"Alright." Luke calls out. " 'Cause we're on the West side of the compound, we'll go to Sam's flat and then mine seeing as they're in the same block. Then we'll go to South Block, then East and finally North."
"As Dauntless borns we have a slight advantage to finding our way around but as long as you remember that the Pit is in the center of Dauntless with the Chasm towards North Block, the dorms are in between North and East while the training rooms are near South Block then you should be fine." Flare adds in.
The transfers follow the Dauntless borns until they come to a wall with a massive W painted onto the wall. Issy realises she's seen letters marked on walls around the compound before but had never thought much of it. They climb the stairs until Sam stops at the first landing with five doors going in different directions with grouped numbers on them. Sam opens a door with the numbers 80 – 99 written on and in the corridor are several numbered doors. At 91, Sam stops and pulls out his key, unlocking the door. Sam enters first with a grin and his friends pile in after him. The apartment is very open, Issy notices, with the bed in one corner parallel with a large square window. The view from the window is nothing spectacular, just the side of a ruined building but by the look on Sam's face he couldn't care. The kitchen is on the opposite side from the bed and at the back of the flat is a small bathroom. Sam nods his head in approval and looks at Luke with a grin, nodding his head once more.
After Sam had locked his new door, they went back to the stairs and climbed seven more sets of stairs to a landing that was very similar to the first. This time the filed through a door with the numbers 20 – 39 until they stopped in front of the door with 31 on it. Luke's apartment was bigger than Sam's but not by a lot. It was separated in half by a wall with a door in the middle that leads to the bedroom and bathroom. The kitchen was to one side while on the other side is room for a couch and a few chairs.
Luke locked up and when they came back to the ground floor, Cody huffed and puffed. "Fuck going to the gyms, I'll just walk up and down those stairs! No wonder Dauntless are so fit!" Those that transferred huffs their agreement as the Dauntless borns laugh and Hec leads them in the direction of S Block. Cody groans, having only just regained his breath when they come to another set of stairs and he begins to lazily plod up them.
On the first floor and through the door that says 20 – 39, Kayden unlocks the door with 29 on to reveal a flat very similar to Sam's just in a different order. At the very back of the flat is a wall of tinted windows that stretch from floor to ceiling which over looks the Pit. The kitchen is behind the door with a bed to the right of the door and a large space in the middle of the room.
Back at the landing they climb three more floors and into a corridor before the walk into Hector's new place. This apartment is the biggest they've seen so far and Hector is only third ranker. Two medium sized rooms are placed towards the back while the living room and kitchen are nearly of equal size. After the checked out his flat they stumbled down to the cafeteria with their stomachs rumbling.
Lunch went on without much fanfare. They discussed the careers they had chosen and Issy was pleasantly surprised to find Hector chose patrolling too and was on the same squad as she was. Alec, inspired by what Hugo did chose Weapons Development, meaning he'll work under Hugo. Cody, not having fully let go of his Erudite traits, chose to work in the Control Room. Cody was happy that he'd know a few people there with Four, Blake and Zeke all working there. Flare chose hair dressing along with an Instructor when the new batch of Initiates comes. Bree got what she wanted and will be working in Dauntless day care. Bree laughs as she retells how surprised Max was when she said she willingly wanted to work with children. Noah shocked a few of them when he said he would be joining the cooks. Some of the boys sniggered but stopped when Bree pointed out that Noah could poison their food and most likely get away with it. Due to their low rankings, both Sam and Kayden got hobs on the fence, Kayden seemed a little bit more positive of his position there. Luke had decided to go with Ambassadorship, but to what faction he doesn't know yet.
While they were trudging up the stairs to Cody's and Alec's apartment, Issy notified Alec about the headphones she found this morning. The twins agreed to go after they've explored where they all live. The boys' apartment was a bigger version of Kayden's with the floor to ceiling windows that overlook the Pit. The only difference was the bedrooms were walled off to the side. A few floors above Alec's was Noah's and Bree's, which was nearly a replica of Luke's just smaller.
The Dauntless borns were finally huffing and puffing from the amount of stairs they've climbed; all the way down E block, across the Pit and then several floors up N block. Flare clutches at her ribs as they stand in front of her and Lilah's door.
"I'm investing in a phone." She gasps out. "There's no way in hell I'm climbing all those stairs just to talk to y'all." They laugh as Flare holds out the key to unlock her door but then her arms flop back to her sides. She groans, looking to Issy as Lilah takes the key. "I don't care if your flat is fully furnished or not, I'm staying at yours tonight." Flare staggers into the room when Lilah opens the door, face planting into the sofa closest to the door. They wander around for a bit, Flare and Lilah muttering changes they could do to each other before they lave the flat, locking the door. "Alright. One more to go!"
A few more floors up, and they collapse into the walls around Issy's door. A brass 22 sits proudly at the top of the door. With a grin, Issy unlocks the door and opens it. Being first ranker means a big flat but Issy didn't realise how big it would have been. To her right is a large open kitchen with a long dark grey counter running against the wall all the way to the corridor opposite the door. Cupboards sit above the counters and there's a large island in the middle of kitchen with enough room for two people to walk side by side all the way around. To the left of the door and parallel to the island is a sofa flanked by a comfy chair that Alec happily flops down onto and another, smaller sofa. In the middle of the seats is a low coffee table, which Issy will be changing at some point. Around the seats is enough room for bookcases if she pushes the sofas in a bit, and she thinks she'll have a TV on the wall parallel with the sofas. As her friends collapse onto the sofas and then onto each other when there's no more room she explores further into the apartment. The first door in the corridor is the bathroom with a shower in one corner and a bath in the other with the toilet and sink on the other wall. The next door she opens is a large bedroom. The bed is directly opposite the door and to the left side of the bed is a large window. Curious, Issy walks over to the window and opens it. She is surprised to find a metal fire exit level with the floor of her room. She loves how the view it offers contrasts itself. Its like someone has drawn a line on the ground and on one side is their decaying city and on the other is overgrown land with trees and flowers. She sits on her window sill gazing where the city meets nature. 'I like this room.' She thinks to herself as she looks around again. Without even looking at the other room she knows this is hers, purely because of the fire exit. Her hands ghost over her bedroom door as she closes it and heads to the final door that might become Cara's one day. This room is smaller than hers, the bed on the back wall with room for closets on the walls around it but no windows. Issy noticed throughout the whole flat the colour scheme is dark grey and black. She doesn't have anything wrong with those colours but she'll buy some of those spray paints from Paint & Shit to brighten it up a bit.
When Issy goes back into the main room Alec still sits in the chair but this time Lilah sits in his lap, lounging back into him. On the big sofa is Kayden with Flare in a similar position to Alec and Lilah next to Hector, Cody and Sam squished together and on the final sofa is Noah with Bree cuddled into his side and Luke in the corner. Issy winks at her brother and she laughs at the slight blush on his cheeks. Something catches her eye and leant against the wall behind the smaller sofa is a corkboard. Picking it up, an idea bursts into her mind and her eyes brighten when she finds a pin already in the wall. Issy balances the board on the hook, subconsciously she can feel her friends, her new family shuffling and getting up behind her as she takes the drawing out of her back pocket and unfolds it. A small throwing knife appears in the corner of her eye and she looks up to meet Sam's eyes smiling down at her. She takes it with her own smile and Kayden takes the drawing from her, spreading it out straight in the centre of the board as Issy pins it there with Sam's knife. They take a step back and arms lace around her back and shoulders as they stare at the photo where all of them, including those that were the last to be cut, are laughing.
"We'll fill that board up with memories that are yet to come. Hell, we'll fill up the whole wall!" Alec says with determination, their eyes never leaving the picture. "For them. We'll live our lives for them."
Sorry if the chapter drags a bit but I wanted to get this gone as today is the last day of college and that means three week with no WiFi and no updates so I'll post this as an early Christmas present! ;)
Have a good Christmas and a happy new year!