Three years earlier...
I hear loud stomping. What the heck is that? Wake up, Catherine. Wake up. My eyes finally flutter open, only to see Tobias, panting loudly, as he paces around his room.
"What will I choose, what will I choose? Will I run, or will I stay?" Tobias mumbles with confusion.
"Tobias?" I ask as I hear the stomping of his feet.
"Hi Catherine. I thought you were asleep." He mumbles, cheeks turning bright red with embarrassment.
"I was." I reply kind of harshly.
"Don't talk like that in public. Erudite rumors about Marcus are going on. He beat me after I started it, he will now beat you. More than he might have. More than he will after I go into initiation. Actually, he won't hurt you. If he hurts you, you have
the right to punch me square in the face and beat me up like a Dauntless." Tobias mumbles.
"How did you start it? Which rumor?" I ask.
"Don't be too curious for Abnegation. Marcus won't like that. I will answer your question, Catherine." Tobias replies with his classic Abnegation facial expression that we both know I should naturally have.
I push my delicate dark brown hair out of my face with my hand. I stare into Tobias's dark brown, almost black, eyes as he looks into mine, with a load of sympathy, that all Abnegation have in their everyday facial expression.
"What's the answer, Tobias?" I ask with my thirteen-year old not quite developed curiosity.
"It's the old accusation of Marcus beating his son, which is me." Tobias replies.
"Did you tell Erudite?!" I ask, panting, my adrenaline level pushing beyond limits.
Tobias nods.
"When I was ten, a year after Mom died." Tobias mumbles in regret.
"Okay, Tobias. I promise not to talk harshly anymore." I reply.
"Go back to sleep now, Marcus will kill me, if he finds out we were awake." Tobias mumbles to me.
I look at Tobias with sympathy for the first time in forever. I close my eyes and drift off in a nice, deep sleep.
My eyes flutter open only to see my boring Abnegation bedroom.
"Where the heck is Tobias?" I mumble.
I lounge around in bed for a few minutes, staring at the grey ceilings and thinking about which faction to choose.
"Get up, you rascal!" Marcus yelled from down the hall.
I instantly hop out of bed and rush to the bathroom. I see Marcus, waiting with the scissors. Today is the third of June, the choosing ceremony. I push the scissors away from me.
"Let me." Marcus mumbles.
I wince as his scissors touch my hair. I watch Marcus cut my hair more and more as it falls to the floor around me. As soon as he's finished, he pins my delicate hair into a bun. He opens the mirror. I look at it for a minute, studying how I look different
from Tobias. Marcus closes the mirror as I look away. Marcus runs downstairs to find his speech. He doesn't know what I did to it. Hahahahaha. I rush back to my bedroom. I look at the locket, that lies under my pillow, now exposed to the world. I
put it on my neck. Mom gave it to me, the day before she left.
"Remember, Catherine, to rebel." I hear Mom say over and again.
I rush downstairs taking massive steps, as I put on my Abnegation sweater, on my cold, weak shoulders. Marcus reached to hug me.
"Don't act all lovey-dovey now. You don't really mean it, Marcus." I said.
Marcus scowls at me, looking me up and down with a stern expression spread out across his face.
"Don't wear that locket." Marcus ordered.
"I can do what I want, Marcus Eaton." I declared.
Marcus looked at me in shock.
"Choose Abnegation." Marcus mumbles, "Despite your results."
I nod in reply, knowing I would never do that. Marcus leads me out the door of our house, forgetting breakfast for the both of us. He puts his arm around me as he takes to the ceremonial building, taking baby steps and making sure to take forever. Marcus
walked up to the stage as I took my place in one of the chairs. I watch Isabelle Black and her family, Susan, her mother and her father, take a seat next to me.
Marcus said, "Hello, Chickpeas."
I snicker, a slight laugh in my voice. What the heck is that? Huh? Oh. I switched up Marcus's speech so that many words were mixed up. I switched it a year ago, right after Beatrice's choosing ceremony. I heard laughs among the crowds.
"Shh." Isabelle whispers in my ear.
Marcus resumed, "All of the new faction borns, will become transfers inside the Land of Stories. I bet your bottom dollar that tomorrow, half of the transfers will be factionless. You will soon become numbers of a faction, like a vegetable flying in the
sky..."
After the speech, I looked around me.
"Heather Yu." I hear.
Heather wears her Dauntless clothes and walks to the table. She presses the knife onto her hand and her blood drips on the grey stones.
"Abnegation." I hear again.
"Donald Swiss." I hear.
He walks up in his Erudite clothes. He picks up the knife and drops his blood in the water.
"Erudite." I hear again.
Cheers suddenly dominate against the Dauntless and Amity.
"Jonathan Michaels." I hear.
He walks up in his Candor clothing and let's his blood drip on the dirt.
"Amity." I hear.
A Candor woman cries and her husband holds her, tears dripping out of his eyes. They're Jonathan Michaels's parents. After a good five hours, I heard my name.
"Catherine Eaton." Marcus announced.
I walk up to the podium, with my grey sweater, dragging on the ground, I take baby steps, Lila a lady, fix my posture. I finally reach the podium. I looked at the bowls. Will I choose Erudite? Dauntless? Amity? Candor?
"Even though Tobias is dead... He's not dead. I just know it. I will find Tobias." I think to myself.
I cut my palm with the sharp side of the knife and let my blood fall on the Dauntless coals.
"Dauntless." Marcus calls in shock.
Everybody has their eyes fixated on me as I walk towards the Dauntless people, taking massive steps this time, who were cheering very loudly. A massively tall Dauntless boy, with dark brown hair and a muscular figure, shakes the life out of me.
"Our third Abnegation ever, second Abnegation in a row." He says with excitement.
I take a moment to study the Dauntless people. They all have perfect posture, their breastbone high, shoulders back. The Dauntless boy who scared the life out of me when he shook me, got up out of his seat. I sat in it, being selfish. I instantly regret
it.
"Selflessness, Catherine." I hear Tobias mumble.
He seems nice. We ran out of the ceremonial building and sprinted to the train, taking massive steps and laughing as we went. I watched everyone climb up the bars. I watch their technique of climbing the poles and I eventually follow them.
"The train's coming!" A random girl yelled from the front of the line.
The train passes by briskly, car by car.
"What do I do?!" I yell.
"Jump, girl!" The muscular tall Dauntless boy yelled.
I followed his instructions. I ran to the train and jumped onto it. There was a girl from Candor who I accidentally bumped into.
"Hi. I'm Natalia. You?" The Candor girl says.
"I cannot say my name." I replied.
"Suspicious." Natalia mumbled.
I shrug.
"What is it?" Natalia asked.
"Catherine." I whispered in her ear.
"Don't worry. There are plenty in Abnegation. I don't know which Catherine you are." Natalia said.
Thank God.
"Get ready!" A random girl yells.
"Ready for what?" I ask Natalia.
"I don't know. Why do you think I know?" She asks me.
"Candor." I mouth.
"I don't know, you idiot!" She yells.
"You have to be self confident in order to be friends with a Candor." The Dauntless boy says.
"Why?" I ask.
"They have no filter." The Dauntless boy replies.
"Jump off the train." The Dauntless boy continues.
Everyone was jumping off the train.
The Dauntless boy walked up to me.
"Jump. Together." He said.
"One, two, three." I counted before we took a leap of faith.
We both landed on our feet.
"You're very brave, girl." The Dauntless boy said.
I looked at his body. He was a muscular boy maybe about a foot taller than me. I am very petite. I am 5'3". He looks about 6'3". He looks strong. A Dauntless leader cleared his throat. We run to the Dauntless leader, taking huge steps with a Dauntless
posture.
"Hi, I'm Eric." The Dauntless leader said, "You have to jump to get into Dauntless. Who want to jump first?"
"Why isn't his name Erica?" I ask the Dauntless boy.
"He should be. That's the name he deserves. He's a coward." He replies.
There was a moment of silence.
"Hello, initiates. I'll start choosing in a minute." Eric announces like he's on top of the world.
"Me." I said.
Everyone's eyes were on me.
"I'm not retarded, you know." I announced.
I threw off my Abnegation jacket and climbed into the ledge. I have to take a leap of faith. I have to be here. For Tobias. For me. For Mom.
"Today, initiate." Eric mumbles.
I fall off the ledge. I gasp in fear. Soon enough, I landed on a net. Another muscular man walked towards me, shorter than the other Dauntless boy by about three inches, but still very tall. He extended out his arms to help me off the net. I accepted.
"Did Eric choose you?" He asks.
I shake my head.
"What's your name?" He asked.
"Umm..." I started.
"Is it a hard one? You can change it if you want, but you only get to pick once." He said.
"Kat." I replied
"First jumper, Kat!" The man yelled.
Thank God I didn't say Catherine. I'm so relieved. Another boy walked towards me and lead me to a corner. The next jumper was the Dauntless boy who jumped off the train with me, then Natalia...
The man who pulled me off the net announced, "We're taking another test to see if you're beginner or advanced. I'm Four, this is Tris, Uriah, and Christina."
He gestured to everyone in order.
Tris said, "We will take the test tonight. Tomorrow, you will find out your results. You will have sleeping arrangements accordingly."
We ran to change in the bathroom. I made sure to keep the pictures in my locket and in my shoe. I did not take off my locket. I took the bun out of my hair and made a ponytail. I changed into my Dauntless clothes.
"Lunchtime!" Uriah yelled.
The Dauntless boy who jumped out of the train with me walked up to me.
"Hi." He said, "What's your name?"
"Kat," I replied, "What's yours?"
He took a deep breath.
"Nathan." He whispered.
He looked up at Uriah, who didn't notice at all. Nathan looked relieved. Why? What's wrong with Uriah. We ran to the cafeteria, taking massive steps, worried that I might split my pants. I saw something like a brown play-doh shape.
"What's that?" I asked Nathan.
"It's a hamburger." Nathan replied.
"Have you seen one?" Natalia interrupted as she plopped down next to me.
"I've seen one, I've just never eaten one before." I replied.
Natalia throws a fit of laughter.
"What's so funny?" I ask.
"You've never eaten a hamburger, stiff?" Natalia
"Okay. Why did you transfer to Dauntless?" Nathan asked.
"Test results." I lied.
"Okay." Nathan said.
A strange dude walked towards me.
"You coward, Nathan." He mumbled, "You too, stiff. Nobody will see you get a home. Meet your new family."
He shows me a picture of the factionless people. I look at it, a tear starting to drop down my face. My eyes turn to Peter. I punched him square in the face.
Nathan lifted me up.
"She stood up to Peter!" Nathan roared.
Everyone else was standing and clapping. Nathan threw me to Natalia, who threw me to Four, who threw me to Uriah.
"Why all this?" Eric asked.
"Kat stood up to Peter, you idiot." Tris said.
"Silence!" Eric yelled.
"Hope you do well on the test?" Nathan asked as we walked out.
"Hope to get advanced." I said.
"Me too." Nathan replied.
We walked around Dauntless for a while.
