"The audition process is simple," Four said and walked into the room, the doors slamming shut behind him. "You will be asked to sing sixteen bars from Kelly Clarkson's Since you've Been Gone, and the next person in line will pick up from where the person before them left off, and once we've been through the whole line, the order will switch. We will announce who made it into what group at the end of auditions."
Lauren added, "There are four groups in Dauntless: the Dauntless Devils, which is Four and Eric's group, the High Notes, Echo, and the Divergent Rebels, which is my group.
Christina and I exchanged a glance, understanding that only two of those groups would be successful in the ICCA's competition, meaning that only two of those groups would help us get a higher rank. The Dauntless Devils and the Divergent Rebels.
Four pressed a microphone into my palm without looking at me and kept walking, handing the next person in line a microphone. When he finished, he sat down in the first row of the auditorium next to Eric and a boy who looked almost identical to Uriah.
"Peter, you're first in line, so you'll start. Once you've sang your part it goes to Edward, and then Myra, and then Molly and so on," Eric announced, and his menacing grey eyes narrowed.
The boy, Peter, cleared his throat and then turned on his microphone and began singing.
{Peter}
Here's the thing we started out as friends
{Edward}
It was cool but it was all pretend
{Myra)
Yeah yeah
Since you've been gone
{Molly}
Dedicated
You took the time
{Al}
Wasn't long until I called you mine
{Marlene}
Yeah yeah
Since you've been gone
{Christina}
And all you'd ever hear me say
Is how I pictured me with you
{Uriah}
That's all you'd ever hear me say
{Me}
But since you've been gone
{Me, Uriah, and Marlene}
I can't breathe for the first time
{Lynn}
I'm so moving on
{Lynn and Peter}
Yeah yeah
{Me and Drew}
Thanks to you
Now I get
What I want
{Will}
How can I put it? You poured me on
{Uriah}
I even fell for your stupid love song
{Christina}
yeah yeah
Since you've been gone
{Me}
How come I'd never hear you say
I just wanna be with you
{Al}
I guess you never felt that way
{Will}
But since you've been gone
{Myra, Al, and Will}
I can breathe for the first time
I'm so moving on
Yeah yeah
{Molly}
Thanks to you
Now I get
What I want
{Edward}
You had you're chance you blew it
Out of sight, out of mind
{Marlene}
Shut your mouth I just can't take it
Again and again and again and again
{Drew}
Since you've been gone
{Me}
I can't breathe for the first time
I'm so moving on
Yeah yeah
{Christina, Lynn, and Uriah}
Thanks to you
Now I get
What I want
{All}
You should know
That I get, I get what I want
Again and again and again and again
Since you've been gone
Since you've been gone
Since you've been gone
Once the song ended, every person in the audience clapped, including Eric. His eyes scanned the room before him and Lauren both stood up at the same time.
"Sorry, Lauren. But we won last years ICCA's remember? So, we get first pick," Eric sneered smugly, his lips turned up into a cruel smirk.
Looking defeated, Lauren sat down and folded her arms across her chest, her eyes downcast and her cheeks slightly colored. I remembered hearing about Raybourne's two teams from Dauntless who had gotten first and second at the finals last year in New York; Eric's and Four's team was first, Lauren's team was second.
Eric's cold eyes scanned the room before he barked out the order, "Four, announce who our first pick is."
"Edward," Four grumbled, his face expressionless. He sounded bored.
Eric sat back down and leaned back in his chair while Lauren stood up once more. Her eyes found mine and she gave me a small, comforting smile. "Our first pick is Tris."
Heads turned in my direction. Lynn slapped me on the back and Uriah gave me a goofy grin, but I was too surprised to even acknowledge their way of saying congratulations. I knew I had a good voice, but to be the first pick for an A cappella group that ranked second overall in a National competition was something I never thought would be possible. Especially, since many of the people in the room were better singers than me.
Using her hands, Lauren beckoned me towards her and I slowly stepped down from the stage and made my way over to her. She squeezed my shoulder and praised, "You have the voice of an angel."
I felt heat rise into my cheeks. I wasn't used to being complimented in such a public manner.
All of the members of the High Notes were sleeping, so Eric decided to skip their turn. Unsurprisingly, quite a few comments were made regarding the name of their group and their current state of mind. It was the sort of vulgar conversation that I wasn't accustomed to at home, and ignorantly, expected one of the leaders to reprimand them. But nobody did, in fact, almost everyone laughed at a comment that Will made, except for me, and, to my shock, Four.
I glanced up at him to find that he was looking at me with a 'deep in thought' expression on his face. It's almost as if he wasn't really looking at me at all, rather he was pondering or remembering something but just happened to be looking in my direction. I felt heat rise into my cheeks; I was staring.
The audition process continued. Echo was only allowed to choose one person because they only had one open spot. They choose Myra.
"We'll take Peter next," Eric announced and Peter smirked while walking over to Eric and Four. However, he purposefully hit his shoulder into Edward's while walking past him. It was staged to look like an accident and Peter quickly apologized, but his face showed no remorse. Instead, he looked quite displeased and angry. I made a mental note to stay clear of him.
"Uriah," Lauren quickly said, causing Eric to scowl at her. Uriah was probably going to be his next pick.
"Molly."
"Christina."
"Drew."
For the first time, Lauren hesitated before she said, "Marlene."
"We don't have room for anyone else," Four declared before Eric could choose another person.
Lauren nodded. "So Al, Will, and Lynn," she paused to take a breath before saying, "welcome to the Divergent Rebels. Let's all go to the training room next door, so that we can start preparing for the first round of competition."
"Did you see Peter's expression when Eric chose Edward instead of him?" Christina asked, as we walked out the room. "He looked like he was constipated."
Al and Marlene both laughed at this, but I felt uneasy. So did Will.
He shook his head in disagreement. "He didn't look constipated. He looked bloodthirsty, like the way a predator looks at his prey."
I opened my mouth to say something in agreement with Will, but the group abruptly stopped in front of the doors to the training room and Lauren spoke before anyone could say anything else, "Go ahead. Keep talking about pointless stuff when we could be assigning positions."
Silence.
"Good," Lauren nodded. "You guys at least understand sarcasm."
"Oh, Lauren, you know me. Sarcasm is my forte," Uriah joked but managed to get a smile out of Lauren.
"Your sense of humor won't win us the ICCA's, which could really help you guys get a higher rank," she sighed, her smile fading. "Look, I could have easily assigned your positions in the auditorium but I didn't want Eric's group to hear what I'm about to say. Do not associate with them. Like at all. They will use your relationship with them, whether it be a normal friendship or a more romantic relationship, against you."
I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and asked, "But Four is one of our instructors, how are we supposed to avoid talking to him?"
"I don't think she means ignore him," Will explained. "She means don't trust him, or any of them for that matter."
"Right," Lauren agreed while nodding. "Now back to positions. Marlene and Christina, you two will be our sopranos. Tris, Lynn, and I will be the altos. Uriah you will be the only tenor, and Will and Al will be the basses."
"Yay! I don't have to share a part with one of you losers!" Uriah chirped sarcastically, causing Lauren to glare at him.
"Sorry," he mumbled quietly, although the look on his face showed that he wasn't sincere. Still, he looked happy, contrasting Peter's fake apology.
By the time we broke for dinner, my throat was extremely sore from several different vocal exercises and my hands hurt from tightly gripping a microphone for four hours. I massaged my palms on the way to the dining hall.
Christina invited Marlene and Lynn to sit with us, since Uriah ran off to go and talk to his older brother, Zeke, who also happened to be a junior student at Dauntless. If I ranked in the top ten at the end of stage two, then I will be a freshman at Dauntless.
"I really want some Starbucks coffee right now," Christina sighed dreamily, as we walked into the cafeteria, which had turned into something entirely different. A significantly large crowd of people stood where the tables were only a few hours ago, and a miniature stage was set up on the far north end.
"Woah," I breathed in wonder.
Al asked, "What's going on?"
Nodding towards the stage, Will said, "I guess we're about to find out."
