TRIS POV
Matthew opens the door to see me leaning against the frame with a smirk on my face. The group who came from inside the fence in standing behind me looking slightly lost.
"Whats up?" He asks while raising his eyebrows at me.
"Lets go. We're going on an adventure." I say. Matthew throws his head back and groans.
"Tris, I will never go on an adventure with you again and thats final. Plus, I still have to finish work. I have an hour left to finish source coding the documents my supervisor gave me. I've been working on them all day and I'm no where near done." Matthew says while motioning to the computer behind him. I scoff and push past him. The other guys follow me into the room and Matthew shuts the door behind me.
I open the program and start typing away. I don't need to even glance down at my fingers because of how often I use computers. They are one of the only things I am good at besides fighting. ten minutes later I finish what I was working on and turn to Matthew with an eyebrow raised.
"Now was that so hard?" I say with my arms crossed.
"How the hell did you do that so quickly?" he says while staring at the screen with amazement written all over his face.
"I am kind of offended that you thought any less of me. And it was just some simple data compression. Nothing I couldn't do by the age of 10." I say with a smirk.
"Yeah, well all of us weren't born computer prodigies." Matthew says while shutting off the computer. "I guess we can go now." He says while shaking his head.
"I thought you refused to go on an adventure with me?" I say while standing up and pushing my chair in.
"Yeah, well someone needs to be there to make sure you don't kill one of them." Matthew says. We both laugh at the look on all of their faces.
"I think i'll pass on this one." Christina says while taking a step away from me. I roll my eyes as she does this.
"You don't get the option of whether you want to go or not. I am in charge of you therefore we will do whatever the hell I want to do." I say while walking to the door. I open it and walk out, not even looking back to see if they are following me. I walk through the halls and stop at the elevator. I push the button and usher them all in when the elevator opens. I walk in after all of them and press the button for the top floor. Once the doors open on the top floor I walk out and everyone follows. I walk through the halls until I get to the door leading onto the roof. I pull it open and stalk up the steps.
"What are we doing on the roof?" Zeke asks as we walk over to the middle.
"I come up here a lot. It something I like to do other than train." I say with a shrug.
"Exactly what is it you do up here?" Shauna asks as Zeke wraps his arm around her waist. I turn and smile at them.
"Parkour!" I say enthusiastically. Well, as enthusiastic as I can get which is probably about half the norm.
"What the hell is parkour?" Uriah asks while raising his eyebrows at me. I just laugh while Matthew groans and puts his face in his hands.
"Its the activity of moving rapidly through an area, typically in an urban environment, negotiating obstacles by running, jumping, and climbing. I've done a ton of research on it for the past three years and started teaching myself some stuff in my free time. I also taught myself some freerunning but I'm not as good at that." I say while walking towards the edge of the roof.
"I still don't get what it is." Uriah says while shaking his head. I smirk and pull myself up onto the ledge of the roof. I turn to face them, the smirk still on my face.
"I can show you better than I can tell you. If you guys are truly Dauntless, why don't you prove it." I say before flipping backwards off the roof. I only fall for a couple seconds before my feet connect with the roof of the building that was only two stories below the one I just jumped off of. I do a backwards somersault when I land so I can take some of the momentum away and prevent myself from getting hurt.
I look up to see everyone but Matthew looking down at me with their mouths wide open. Matthew walks over to the side and shakes his head at me. I just laugh at all of them.
"That was crazy! Are you trying to scare us to death!" Christina exclaims. This just makes me laugh harder.
"Are you guys coming or what?" I yell up to them. I see Uriah look down at the six foot gap between the two buildings and gulp. "Come on. Don't be a pansycake!"
This seems to prompt Uriah because he hauls himself onto the edge of them building. He looks from his friends to me before jumping down. He screams, making him sound like a strangled cat. He lands on the roof and rolls about four times before sprawling out on his back. I walk over to him and nudge him with my foot.
"Are you dead?" I say while cocking my head to the side. He grunts, letting me know he is still breathing.
"He's good!" I yell up to the others while giving them a thumbs up. I can see Matthew shaking his head at me from where I stand. I walk over to the edge and look up at them. "So, who's next?" I say while raising my eyebrows.
I see Matthew climb up onto the ledge, grumbling something to himself. He takes a deep breath, then jumps down. He only has to roll once before gaining his footing. I already have forced him to do this a couple times so he has had some practice. The rest of them jump after Matthew. All of them had about as much grace as Uriah did when he jumped. Caleb and Cara both walked off the roof, refusing to jump. I guess since they were both Erudite, they have nothing to prove.
"God, Tris. Is the word fear even in your vocabulary?" Zeke asks as he wipes some blood off of his knee.
"Everyone's afraid of something." I say with a shrug. "Didn't you learn that from those fear landscapes you did in Dauntless."
"What scares you then." Zeke asks. Damn, he is persistent.
"Just because I have fears, doesn't mean I am going to tell you those fears." I say while rolling my eyes. Zeke huffs and pulls himself off the ground. "Are you guys ready to follow me? Feel free to stop art any time." I say before running off.
I run to the other side of the roof, flipping over a vent in the middle. Once again, I hop up onto the ledge. I look back quickly to see the others moving around the vent instead of going over it. I scoff before turning back around and jumping onto the wall in front of me. My hands latch on to the small window sill. I pull myself up onto it and continue to climb the wall, using windows and kinks in the bricks. I only have to climb up three stories before pulling myself onto the roof. I look down and see a few of them making the climb. I smirk when I see Matthew and Christina walking off the roof using the exit in the corner.
In about an hour, the only people who are still able to keep up with me are Zeke, Lynn, and Four. I'm quite impressed considering I've been doing this for a year and they only just started today. I didn't expect any of them to make it past a half hour. We are now walking back to the main building, where we all are sleeping. I walk with them back to the hotel. When we get in, we see everyone (including Matthew) huddled around one of the beds, playing some card game. They all look up when we walk in.
"Wow, I can't believe you made it all the way through her training on the first try. I've tried a couple times but can never bring myself to scale that building." Matthew says while shaking his head. I chuckle and plop down next to him, exhausted. Zeke falls down onto his bed, huffing and puffing.
"That was literally the hardest thing I have ever done. I don't even know how I am not dead right now." Zeke says with a sigh. He doesn't even seem to have enough energy to keep his eyes open. I stand up again and stretch my arms a little.
"Well, I'm going to head home now. My dads probably worried considering it took longer than usual to finish the course. I had to keep waiting for you guys to catch up. It really held me back. Anyways, I will pick you guys up tomorrow morning for breakfast and then the meeting." I say before walking out. I let the doors slam behind me.
When I get to my apartment, my dad is sitting in the living room with papers strewn all around him. He barely even looks up when I walk in. HIs reading glasses hand loosely off his nose. I walk over to him and plop down on the papers that cover the couch.
"Hey, dad. Whats up?" I ask while leaning back.
"I have a lot of work with the new arrival of those kids." He says with a small groan. He runs his hands up and down his face. "Tris, do you think you could grab me my calculator from my office. It should be in one of the desk drawers."
I nod and walk into his office. I sit in his chair and start going through his desk drawers. As I am going through the bottom drawer on the left side, I notice a small hole in the bottom of the drawer. I stick my finger in it and notice the bottom seems to be really loose. I pull out everything in the drawer and place it on his desk.
I use the hole to yank the bottom out of the drawer. Under it is an extension of the drawer, full of letters. I pull out the letter on top and its addressed to me. Theres no return address on it. I place the letter on the desk and pick up the others. All of them are addressed to me. My eyebrows knit together as I shuffle through all of them. Who wrote these? Why did my dad keep them from me?
I quickly shove the letters up my shirt and replace the bottom of the drawer. It throw all the papers back into the drawer and quickly find the calculator. I run into the living room and throw the calculator in front of my dad before rushing into my bedroom. I slam my door shut behind me and jump onto my bed. I pull the letters pull of my shirt and lay them before me. I open the first one and read through it.
Dear Beatrice,
As I say in every letter, I am so sorry I have left you. I never meant for it to be this way. There isn't a day that goes bye without me thinking of you. If I could have brought you with me, I would have. But its not safe here. The system is corrupt and I would never forgive myself for putting you in any type of danger. I really hope you don't hate me for leaving you there. It really was for the best.
I Don't know how much your father told you, but I met someone. I never meant to fall in love but the world works in mysterious ways. Its not that I don't love your father, its that I found this new man brings out the best in me. He makes me happier than I ever thought I could be. Sometimes, everyone has to do a little for themselves and this is the little thing I have chosen for myself. I hope your dad has met someone by now and moved on. It would make me nothing but happy to see him happy. I would understand if you had found a new mother figure to look up to considering how you never knew me. I actually hope there is someone to guide you in my absence.
You have a half-brother. He may not know about you, but I wanted you to know about him. Maybe one day, you will get a chance to meet him. His name is Caleb Prior.
Remember, I love you. I love you so much, Beatrice. The first chance I get to come see you, I will.
Lost of Love,
Your Mother
My mom wrote to me? Why did my father keep these from me? I always thought she just forgot about me and thats why she stopped writing. And I have a brother? That guy with the nerdy glasses, his name is Caleb. I'll have to ask him his last name. he could be the brother I never knew I had. I can't believe my father would try and keep something like this from me. Its like he is trying to have me grow up without knowing anything about my mother.
I thoroughly read through the other letters but they don't say much other than updates on her life. It seems like she transferred to abnegation with the man she loved, who I have come to know as Andrew. They got married and had my brother. I'm a little over a year older than him. In the last letter, my mom told me that my brother transferred to Erudite. The more I read about my brother, the more I am starting to think that the Caleb here is indeed my brother. I need to talk to him and I can't wait any longer.
I quickly shove all of the letters under my mattress and scurry out of the run. I run through the living room without saying anything a word to my dad. I grab my keys and run out of the apartment. I sprint down to the hotel and burst through the room. I look around until I find Caleb. he is sitting on his bed reading a book. I grab his earlobe and drag him out of the room as he trails behind me muttering 'Ow!'. I push him into the hallway and close the door behind me.
"Whats your name?" I say harshly.
"Caleb." he says slowly, like he is talking to a five year old. I scoff and cross my arms.
"I meant your last name. Whats your last name?" I say in a somewhat softer tone.
"Prior. Caleb Prior." he says. My mind starts spinning. This is my brother. He is my flesh and blood and I didn't even realize it.
"Listen this may sound a little crazy but I need to tell you something. You're my-" he cuts me off before I can finish.
"Brother. I know." he says while waving his hand casually. My jaw drops and I stare at him with wide eyes.
"You knew? You knew and you didn't tell me?!" I say, my voice rising slightly.
"I wasn't positive. When I came I could see the uncanny resemblance to our mother but I thought it could be a coincidence. Then when your father said your name was Beatrice, I was almost 100% positive you were my sister. I didn't want to say anything in case you didn't know about me. I didn't want to scare you. I was waiting for the right time to drop the bomb." he says with a shrug. My head still feels like its spinning 100 miles an hour.
"How did you even know about me? Our mom said she wasn't telling you about me." I say.
"Right before we left for outside the fence she told me about you. She also said to tell you that she loves you and still thinks about you everyday." Caleb says.
"This is too much. I can't take this all right now." I say before turning and running. I take off into the elevator where I restlessly bounce on my heals. Once the door opens, I rush down the hallway and up the stairs. I emerge onto the roof and take in a breath of fresh air. It instantly calms me down.
I walk over to the edge and lean on the ledge. i close my eyes and let the wind whip through my hair for who knows how long. The new revelations of tonight reeling through my mind. At some point, I slide down to the ground and fall asleep.
Sorry for being so MIA lately. I've just been taking a little break from writing so I can savor my last couple days of summer. But, I am back to school tomorrow so I will misty likely be updating regularly again. No promises though. I'm currently working on an update for Becoming Dauntless so that will be out soon. Thanks so much for reading!
-Hockeycrazy7