Okay, so the parts that are from the book almost exactly are surrounded by *. Credit:
Veronica Roth
Pelin's eyes widen, till the white is bigger than a golfball. "Really," I hear the doubt in her voice. "Really." I confirm. I roll off her bed and onto the floor. "I'm going to Erudite, though." "Me too."
Pelin's dog, Floop, paws at the door and we let him in. We sit petting him until he growls and runs back downstairs.
"Weird, but it's time to go. Did you ride your bike here?" I nod, suddenly incapable of normal speech.
Pelin and I ride to the ceremony. I'm suddenly aware of everything around me. The leaves swirling from the trees, the grass I'm flattening beneath my tires, the pavement I should be riding on. Pelin's steady pumping beside me. I, surprisingly, choke back tears at the fact that I'm leaving Candor.
I've always hated Candor. My thirst for knowledge was always looked down upon,and the way I was asking questions got me whippings. If I meet you, I'll show you the scars.
I pedal, pedal, pedal, faster and faster until the pain is a lion in my heart, and I've left Pelin far behind. I hear her calling, but I don't stop. I pedal through the lion. The Choosing Ceremony site abruptly appears in front of me. I see some families and the bowls. I check my watch. We'll be starting in minutes.
I look behind me for Pelin. She's a speck, and she turns into a dot. Dot-Pelin turns into a sweaty, hot girl with hair plastered to her head.
"We're almost starting." I whisper, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the line of anxious 16 year olds.
We just reach the line when a man steps up to the podium and starts to speak. He smiles at the line of shaking teens, but when his eyes reach Pelin and I, he frowns before turning back to the paper in front of him.
*"Welcome to the Choosing Ceremony. Welcome to the day we honor the democratic philosophy of our ancestors, which tells us that every man-" "And woman!" I yell. He stares at me. "-has the right to choose his own way in this world. Decades ago our ancestors realized that it is not political ideology, religious belief, race, or nationalism that is to blame for a warring world. Rather, they determined that it was the fault of human personality—of humankind's inclination toward evil, in whatever form that is. They divided into factions that sought to eradicate those qualities they believed responsible for the world's who blamed aggression formed Amity… Those who blamed ignorance became the Erudite… Those who blamed duplicity created Candor… Those who blamed selfishness made Abnegation… And those who blamed cowardice were the Dauntless. Our factions define who we are." He clears his throat before going into the Candor Manifesto.
"Dishonesty Is Rampant.
Dishonesty Is Temporary.
Dishonesty Makes Evil Possible.
As it stands now, lies pervade society, families, and even the internal life of the individual. One group lies to another group, parents lie to children, children lie to parents, individuals lie to themselves. Dishonesty has become so integral to the way we relate to one another that we rarely find ourselves in authentic relationships with others. Our dark secrets remain our own. Yet it is our secrets that cause conflict. When we are dishonest with the people around us, we begin to hate ourselves for lying; when we are dishonest with ourselves, we can never attempt to correct the flaws we find within us, the flaws we are so desperate to hide from our loved ones, the flaws that make us lie. What has become clear is that lies are just a temporary solution to a permanent problem. Lying to spare a person's feelings, even when the truth would help them to improve, damages them in the long run. Lying to protect yourself lasts for so long before the truth emerges. Like a wild animal, the truth is too powerful to remain caged. These are examples we clearly see in our own lives, yet we fail to understand that they do not just apply to the dynamic between ourselves and our neighbors, or ourselves and our friends. What is society, but an we-but a web of individual-to-individual relationships? And what is conflict except one person's dark secret crashing into another person's dark secret? Dishonesty is a veil that shields one person from another. Dishonesty allows evil to persist, hidden from eyes of those who would fight it. Dishonesty Leads to Suspicion. Suspicion Leads to Conflict. Honesty Leads to Peace. We have a vision of an honest world. In this world, parents do not lie to their children, and children do not lie to their parents do not lie to their parents; friends do not lie to one another; spouses do not lie to each other." *I fall asleep around here.
I wake up when Pelin stands nervously beside me. It must be her turn.
She walks quickly up the stage, takes the knife, and holds it over her wrist. "Come on, Pel!" I hear her father say. He must have showed up.
Pelin holds her hand over the Candor bowl for a second before moving her hand slightly to the Erudite one. She cuts.
Her father screams. Her blood falls, sizzling, into the Erudite bowl.
