Once the last scholar selected her faction, Jeanine walked up to the middle of the room once more. Her icy blue gaze swept over all of us as she scanned the room intently.
"You all have chosen what I hope is the correct faction for you," she paused and her eyes locked on me, "because you do not get to choose again. Nevertheless, welcome to Raybourne Academy, and I wish you all the best of luck in your musical careers."
The room erupted into the sound of noisy chatter as everyone began to talk to the people around them. I turned towards Christina who had a large smile plastered on her face and was deep into conversation with a pale boy sitting next to her. I felt a small tap on my shoulder and whirled around to see the tan boy with the interesting hair smirking at me.
"You must be Beatrice," he said while extending his arm. "I'm Uriah."
"Tris, actually," I corrected him and awkwardly grabbed his hand and shook it. Back in my old neighborhood, any sort of physical contact was considered unnecessary, so handshakes were fairly new to me.
"Well, nice to meet you, Tris. This is Marlene," he introduced, gesturing towards a girl with pretty green eyes and thick, curly brown hair. "And this is Lynn," he nodded towards another girl who had golden eyes and long golden brown hair.
I opened my mouth to say something, but then Lynn asked, "Did you chose Dauntless?"
"Yeah," I answered while nodding.
Marlene flashed me a large smile and happily declared, "So did we. Although, Uriah's, Lynn's, and my parents are all agents at the Dauntless section of Raybourne Records, so we're kind of legacies."
Uriah's eyes twinkled with amusement as he opened his mouth to probably tell a joke but was cut off when Eric called out, "Dauntless initiates, follow me!"
Christina grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me out of the auditorium with her. As Eric led us past the dormitories and into a small, abandoned building with a tinted glass roof, she began to grip my arm even harder, her nails digging into my skin.
"Ouch," I muttered and Christina immediately lets go of me and sent me an apologetic look.
"Sorry," she whispered, avoiding my gaze, "I'm just a bit nervous because Will told me that we had to pass some test to make it into the Dauntless section of campus. And I'm not that great at tests."
I nodded understanding her fear of examinations, it was a common fear among students. But performing to my full capability had always come effortlessly for me when it came to the specific area of tests, so I wasn't very concerned with what my results would be.
"Will was the boy I was talking to today," Christina clarified, and I smiled at her. Judging by the slight coloring in her cheeks, she definitely found him attractive.
Suddenly, we reached one of the four corners of the building, and Eric stopped walking and turned around to face us. There was a small hole in the ground beside him, which was barely big enough to fit one full grown man.
Eric cleared his throat and then said, "Here, in Dauntless, we believe in bravery. Our faction of music is generally the one that receives the most attention and it is very crucial to appear strong since the public's eye will always be on you," he points to the hole, "This is the entrance to the Dauntless section of campus. Who wants to go first?"
"How deep is the whole?" A man in the crowd asked.
"I can assure you that you won't be able to touch the ground," Eric replied smugly, clearly enjoying the fact that we all were ignorant as to what the test was, or rather had no clue as to how we were supposed to enter Dauntless.
"You want us to jump?" Marlene asked, partially dazed and partially incredulous.
"Not exactly."
Dauntless wouldn't just let their initiates die or get injured, so there had to be something in the hole or at the end of the hole. Like a net or a giant pool. However, they weren't telling us because they wanted to see who was brave and who wasn't. Just like Will had said was going to happen, they were testing us.
"I'll go," I announced and made my way towards the front of the group.
Twisting one of the rings on his face, Eric moved out of the way. I sat down right at the edge of the entrance and dangled my feet over. I breathed in deeply and then exhaled.
"Any day now, initiate," Eric said, sounding annoyed.
Hesitantly, I pushed myself off the ledge and for a brief second I was falling, but then my body slammed into a piece of metal which cradled my body, and I began to slide down. I pressed my hands into my face and began laughing. The entrance into Dauntless was a slide.
At the end of the slide, stood another crowd, but it was significantly smaller than the crowd at the top of the slide. A few people held out their hands to help me up, so I grabbed the one closest to me, and he pulled me up.
I murmured a small thank you and then looked up at him. "Him" being the person attached to the hand who pulled me up. He had short, dark hair and his eyes were a dreamy Neptune blue, a strange color, but vaguely familiar.
"What's your name?" he asked, his voice deep and husky.
"Tris," I whispered hesitantly and then repeated it in a louder and clearer voice. "My name's Tris."
A middle-aged man grinned at me, and then looked over at the blue eyed boy and instructed, "Make the announcement, Four."
The name sounded familiar, and then suddenly everything clicked into place. Four, the most popular male singer who had won the Grammy for Record of the Year with his song 'Other side', cupped his mouth with his hands and then called out, "First one out- Tris!"
The group of Dauntless pounded their fists in the air and cheered, chanting my name over and over again as if I was some sort of goddess.
Four placed his palm on my back as another person made their way down the slide. Her screams followed her all the way to the bottom until she finally exited. Christina. The Dauntless laughed when her cheeks flushed red from embarrassment and then they all stuck out their hands to help her up, just as they had done to me.
"Welcome to Dauntless," Four whispered and then walked off towards Christina. I stood where I was slightly breathless, slightly starstruck, and slightly stunned because I could still feel the pressure of where his palm had been even a few minutes after he left.
When all the initiates had completed the daunting test of bravery, a young woman and Four led us down a narrow hallway. The walls were made of limestone, so that even though the room itself was dark the walls seemed to reflect the very little light that was present, illuminating the room in an eerie sense.
Without any warning, the person in front of me came to an abrupt stop, causing me to bump into him. I placed my hand on my hip and blinked a few times, trying to regain my senses as I realized the whole group had come to a stop, the woman and Four standing in the front with their arms folded.
"I'm Lauren," the girl introduced and then pointed to Four, "and this is Four. We're going to be your instructors throughout your initiation, so I recommend treating us with respect. Training-"
"Four? Like the singer who sang Other Side and Maps?" a girl with mousy hair asked excitedly.
Four curtly nodded his head. "Yes, that would be me."
Lauren cleared her throat and then continued, "As I was saying, Training is divided into two stages, with a final examination at the end of stage two. Stage one consists of primarily Sing Offs. The second stage consists of one on one training with either Four or myself, and the success of your A cappella group also filters into your overall ranking at the end of stage two.
"Wait, why A cappella?" Christina questioned, her smile suddenly disappearing.
"Yeah, don't sign me up for A cappella," the same mousy haired girl stated.
Four walked up to the girl and leaned his face close to hers. His eyes narrowed, and for a second he just stared at her.
"What's your name?" he asked quietly.
"Molly," she squeaked.
"Well, Molly, if I had wanted to deal with smart mouths, like yourself, I would have chosen Candor two years ago," he whispered quietly and then added more loudly, "All of you could easily become professional singers by just using auto tune. In order to be in an A cappella group, you need to have actual talent, and the more talented you are, the higher rank you'll get."
Furrowing my eyebrows, I repeated what Four just said and realized that he said rank, which meant that our initiation process was being graded. That meant-
"Rank?" Will asked, reading my mind.
"Yes," Lauren spoke, "rank. At the end of each stage, everyone will be ranked based on their individual success and the success of their A Cappella group. However, those who fail to make the top ten after the end of stage two will be cut from the program."
The room fell into a heavy silence at the shocking revelation and Four chose this moment to begin walking again. He led us into an underground cavern so huge I couldn't see the other end of it from where I stood, at the bottom. Uneven rock walls rose several stories above my head. Built into the stone walls were places for food, clothing, supplies, leisure activities. Narrow paths and steps carved from rock connected them. There were no barriers to keep people from falling over the side.
"This is what we call the Pit. On the other side of those double doors is a smaller version of the auditorium where most of your training will take place. That's where I expect all of you to be tomorrow morning at precisely 9:30. However, auditions for the A Cappella groups will be held today right after lunch in that room," Lauren announced and once again pointed at the double doors on the far left-hand side of the Pit. "Once again, I expect all of you to show up there on time."
Christina nudged me and glanced over at Four. "I didn't know mister Grammy award winner was such a hard ass," she declared, sounding disappointed.
I shrugged in response. "I wouldn't call him a hard ass, just..." I paused, struggling to find the right word. I sighed, "I think he doesn't like being asked questions, that's all."
This seemed to remind Christina of something, so she laughed and dove into a story about arguing with a teacher in High School. I tried paying attention to her, but my eyes wandered across the room until they landed on Four, who was looking at me.
Trying to fight the color from entering my cheeks, I quickly averted my eyes and dropped my gaze to the floor. I wasn't sure why I was embarrassed, but I felt the same way as I had when my father would scold me for humming popular songs while participating in a family getaway; ashamed but at the same time not apologetic. I didn't have much time to ponder on the moment, however, as the group began to move across the Pit and into the Cafeteria. Several long tables were set up in a unique pattern throughout the large room, and the tables were filled with hungry agents, managers, and musicians who worked with Dauntless at Raybourne Records.
Christina and I sat down at the closest table where Will and another boy named Al were sitting. On a tray in front of us were several circular shaped pieces of bread, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and what looked like a circle of meat. Using my fork, I grabbed the meat and set it on my plate.
"Do you not know what a hamburger is?" Four asked and sat down next to me, the corners of his mouth twitching upwards.
"Is that what it's called?" I breathed and watched as Christina put the meat, lettuce, and tomatoes on top of a piece of bread and then finished off the "hamburger" with another piece of bread on the top.
Will laughed while Al gave me a funny look and asked, "What planet have you been living on? How have you not had a hamburger before?"
"Oh, my home planet isn't in this galaxy. But maybe if my spaceship gets fixed, I can take you there one day," I joked, remembering a line from an old cartoon that my brother and I used to watch when our parents were fast asleep. Christina playfully rolled her eyes.
I turned towards Four and inquired, "Are you writing any new songs?"
His eyes narrowed and dryly retorted, "What makes you think you can talk to me?"
"It must be because you're so approachable," I replied flatly. "Like a bed of nails."
Across the table, Will whispered, "Do you need some ice for that burn?" But I didn't look at him, my eyes were locked on Four's. We both glared at each other for some time until heat started to rise in my cheeks and I looked down at my hands.
He didn't reprimand me like I thought he would, like my father would, instead warned, "Careful, Tris."
Someone called his name, so Four got up and left our table, taking his food with him. Christina smirked at me and picked up her hamburger. She took a bite.
"What?" I questioned.
"I'm developing a theory."
"And that is?"
She took another bite out of her hamburger and said, "That you, my friend, have a death wish."
