~Previously~
"Wait, Divergents are real?" Al asked. Tris is a bit stand offish and she interrupts the boys.
"Hey sorry guys I got to go I'll see you at dinner okay?" Tris says before walking speedy quick to her house to inform her brothers that Jeannie knows their parents and she's hunting Divergents here.
"Zeke! Uriah!" Tris yells to her brothers who are in the hallway near the Pit. Uriah, Zeke, Four and Tyler all turn around.
"What?" Uriah says irritability. Tris rolls her eyes before turning her attention to Four and Tyler.
"Do you guys mind giving my brothers and I like 5 minutes to talk?" Tris asks in a fake sweet tone. Tyler and Four stare at her for a couple of seconds in suspicion. Tris groans and fakes smiles. "Please guys..." Tris begs through her teeth. Tyler and Four both shrug before walking away. Tris takes a deep breath and turns to her brother.
"Alright, what's going on now Tris?" Zeke asked crossing his arms over his chest.
"Did Max tell you why Jeannie is here?" Tris asked with curiosity evident in her voice. Zeke is quite for a couple of seconds thinking before shaking his head "no".
"No he didn't say... Why? What did you find out now?" Zeke asked.
"Well because I just saw/met Jeannie about 20 minutes ago. But get this, Will used to be from Erudite and he told me that Jeannie might be here because shes "probably" searching for "Divergents"." Tris explains trying not to sound to worried. Uriah's eyes get big and he clears his throat a bit.
"Um so what are you saying?" Uriah asked before continuing to clear his throat. Tris bites her lip nervously and shrug.
"I honestly don't know but then I was thinking that maybe Max might be working with Jeannie to take them out.." Tris says causing her brothers and her to have an awkward silence. Tris sighs and breaks it. "But maybe I'm just thinking to deep into the situation?..." Tris states more to herself more than her brothers. Zeke nods his head agreeing, taking in what was said.
"I'll talk to Eric and Four about this and I'll see what they know before confronting Max once again." Zeke says sternly. Uriah and Tris nod in agreement. A couple of seconds later Tyler and Four make their way back to where Tris and her brothers are talking.
"Are you good now Tris?" Tyler asked Tris with a slight smirk. Tris rolls her eyes.
"Yep, they're all yours." Tris says before walking away. Tris takes a deep breath and thinks long and hard about what she's going to do. Tris decides that later tonight after Stage 1 results, she's going to sneak to Erudite again and confront Jeannie.
TIME SKIP (to Stage 1 Result ceremony)
Tris walks to the training room with all the initiates and walks over to where Christian, Al and Will are standing.
"Hey guys sorry it took so long for me to get back. What did I miss?" Tris asked smiling. Christina links arms with Tris and smirks.
"Nothing really, we mostly chilled and waited for the meeting to begin...Nothing special happened." Christina says laying her head on Tris's shoulder.
"So where did you go Tris?" Al asked suspiciously and curiously eyeing Tris. Tris gives him a weird look.
"Why does it matter?" Tris snapped defensively.
"Oh, sorry Tris I didn't mean to pry.." Al says putting his hands up in surrender. "I was just making sure you were okay." Al says genuinely concerned. Tris puts her guard down and relaxes. Right as she was about to apologize she's cut off by the sound of Max's voice.
"If you ranked above the red line, you'll move on to the second stage of training. If you're below the red line... Well let's just say we won't be wasting anymore time on you." Max says with a voice full of sternness and intimidation. Max pauses for a couple of seconds to let it sink in. "Alright here are your rankings."
Max reveals the ranks and there are some cheers from the initiates that have made it above the line, Others walk away in anger or in sadness. Tris moves closer to the board to get a closer view only to see that she was ranked 5th. Tris stares at the board in disbelief. Tris stands there in complete and utter shocked. Tris crosses her arms over her chest unhappy on how poorly she placed. Tris then searches the board again for Uriah's name. Tris looks and automatically feels envy, jealousy, anger and disappointment when she sees that Uriah was ranked 1st place. After minutes of staring at the board still in disbelief Tris finally looks away and walks over to her friends.
"You did amazing job Tris you totally deserve to be ranked in the top ten." Christina says smiling with genuine happiness in her voice. Tris gives her a small smile back and pulls her into a small hug.
"Awe, thanks! And I think you should've ranked higher too because you did just as an amazing job as me." Tris says pulling out of the hug. Christina smiles and says "thank you".
"Great Job Tris..." Al says softly giving Tris a small smile. Tris offers Al a half smile.
"Thanks, you did a good job as well." Tris says trying to keep her hidden anger for him hidden. Tris takes a deep because she knows that one of the reasons why she ranked so low is because she helped him. Tris bits her lip to keep her from saying something she'll regret. Tris puts on her fake smiles and shakes off her mean thoughts.
"How hard do you guys think stage 2 will be?" Will asked curiously.
"I don't know, because this stage was physically tough...How much harder could it get?" Christina says with a little bit of cockiness in her voice. Tris shakes her heads laughing at how naive Christina's being.
"Chris, my brother Zeke's done this and he says that stage 1 was a lot easier than stage 2." Tris says in a "matter a fact" tone. "I don't think going into stage 2 with that kinda of mindset is a great idea. There's a difference between having confidence and being arrogant..." Tris says to her friend. Christina gives a curt nod, taking what Tris said into consideration but shakes of Tris's comment.
"True, but maybe what your brother finds hard, I find it to be easier. Who knows?." Christina states. Tris can't help but to laugh a little. Tris, Will, Christina and Al all talk for a bit before going their separate ways.
"Yeah, it's getting late guys... I think I'm going to head to the bunks so I'll be ready for whatever Eric and Four throw at us tomorrow." Will says before yawning. Everyone nods their heads in agreement.
"Yeah I totally agree! If I don't get some sleep, I'll have bags under my eyes and that is not a pretty sight." Christina says before giving Tris a hug goodnight. Tris hugs backs and waves bye to her friends.
Tris looks at her watch to see that's probably to late to catch a train to Erudite. Tris groans and decides that she'll try again tomorrow. After thinking about that idea Tris decides that it's better to go tomorrow so no one gets suspicious. Tris walks a little bit further until she reaches her house and she walks into the house. Tris walks into the living room and sees Uriah and Zeke. Tris try's walking up the stairs to avoid making conversation with them.
"Tris..." Zeke says as Tris was about to take a step up the stairs. Tris silently curses and turns around slowly with a fake smile.
"Oh, hey Zeke! Wh-Whatcha" Tris says before coughing, trying to clear the guilt out of her throat. "Um...Need?" Tris finishes before bitting her lip in anticipation. Zeke raises an eyebrow.
"Nothing really... Is there anything you want to tell me?" Zeke asked casually. Tris snorts before rolling her eyes a bit.
Is there anything I want to tell you Zeke? Haha No! I'm not in the mood for "I told you so's".
"Oh yeah, so um I was ranked 5th overall and um I think I had a banana for breakfast... No wait I think it was an apple." Tris states before faking like she's thinking.
"Really Tris?! How could you let this happen?!" Zeke says with disappointment in voice. Tris nods her head agreeing.
"You are absolutely right. It's just it's really hard for me to remember because they're both health and great tasting fruits that Dauntless has blessed us with ." Tris says. Tris looks at Zeke and scowls a bit.
"Tris! This is serious...How could you let yourself fall to 5th place? You could've placed 1st." Zeke says with more disappointment evident in his voice. Tris was about to apologize and says she know but Uriah's laugh catches her off guard.
"You mean she could've placed 2nd right?" Uriah says laughing as if it's the funniest thing he's ever heard. "I was ranked 1st because I'm just that much better. Even if she didn't make as many mistakes, I'd still win." Uriah says arrogantly. Uriah smirks a bit.
"Wow arrogant much? Care to make a bet then?" Tris asked glaring at her twin. Uriah raises and eyebrow.
"What are your terms? You know I'm all in for kicking your ass again." Uriah says smirking. Tris shakes her head at her brother naive brother.
"If I rank 1st in stage 2, all I want is for you to admit that I'm the winner and that I'm better than you." Tris says simply. Uriah snorts and nods his head.
"Okay, and my terms are the same." Uriah says before sticking out his hand. Tris grabs his hand firmly before smirking.
"May the best twin win..." Tris says before releasing her grip on Uriah's hand and turning her attention back to Zeke who's rolling his eyes at the whole exchange. Tris sees Uriah get up and makes his way to the door be for turning to Tris with a smirk.
"Good luck this time. I mean you're really going to need it considering how you couldn't even rank in the top 3...Hopefully in stage 2 you'll actually be some sort of competition." Uriah says before walking out the door. Tris rolls her eyes in disgust. Tris finally turns to Zeke who looks pissed off.
"Are you done yet?" Zeke asked irritatedly. Automatically nods her head yes. Zeke sighs and shrugs.
"I'm trying to figure out how to say "I told you so"... Without actually saying it." Zeke states. Tris begins to feel guiltiness wash over her, leaving the anger and an other emotion to vanish completely.
"Yeah...I know I really messed up." Tris says without empathy. Zeke looks at her with slight shock. "I'm beginning to realize that I'm not acting "brave" or "mature" I've been careless, irresponsible, reckless and slightly disrespectful. And when I got 5th place it hit me. Ranking 1st was my dream for as long as I can remember and I missed my shot for stage 1 but I won't be able to rank 1st in stage 2." Tris explains.
"I can't keep blaming others for how I feel and I can't keep acting the way I do...I'm going to be on my own soon, and I can't keep relying on Uriah, Max, and you to always come and save the day. I know that I have to start owning up to my mistakes and or take responsibility for it." Tris says (finally). Zeke's quite for a moment before responding.
"Well...I can't really lecture you anymore...You've just about took care of everything except one thing." Zeke says looking at Tris. Tris looks at him in confusion.
"What's the one thing?" Tris asks not knowing what she missed.
"Yea sure you've been irresponsible and etc. that's clear but when you help your friend Al that day. That's when you lost 1st place." Zeke says staring Tris straight in her eyes. "I know you care and lookout for just about everybody but not everyone in this world Tris, is looking out for you." Zeke says. Tris nods her head slowly.
"Yea, I know that...What is your point?" Tris asks.
"Okay...Just for a second Tris, stop talking." Zeke says sternly. "I need you to open you ears a listen and I need you to use your brain. I need you to listen to hear, not to reply." Zeke says. Tris nods her understanding.
"Okay." Tris says.
"Initiation is a competition. It's survival of the fittest. Stage 2 is about YOU. How will YOU can handle things. Not how Uriah handles things, and not how Christina, Will, Al, Marlene and Lynn handle things." Zeke says. "Stage 2 is what it comes down to, this is your last shot. Stage 1 isn't important anymore because if you ranked 10th in stage one but rank below the red line at the end of stage 2 ... you're cut." Zeke says sternly. Tris let's everything Zeke said linger in her mind.
"I hear what you're saying and I understand." Tris says.
"I believe you. I also trust that you'll play this game to win. Just remember that allies are great in all until you've become useless or a threat...Which one do you think you are?" Zeke asks rhetorically. Zeke walks away and leave Tris to her thoughts.