When the Choosing Ceremony concludes, everyone around me suddenly starts running. I follow them, sprinting down the flights of stairs and closer to the train tracks. I'm not that puffed – I used to play tag all the time with my friends.

The train appears around a bend. It slows down, but it doesn't stop. I see all the other Dauntless members run with the train, grab on to a railing and throw themselves in. How am I supposed to do this? I am not strong enough. Panicking, but with no other choice, I start to run as fast as I can with the train, and by the time I grab on to the railing, I am already in the last carriage. I try to pull myself in, but the wind is pushing too hard against me. I feel my grip slipping off the railing.

"HELP ME!" I cry. Immediately I feel strong hands clamp around my fingers and pull me in. It is a Dauntless born boy with gold hair and blue eyes.

"You right there?"

"Yeah, thanks a lot," I say gratefully.

I sit down next to him and besides a pretty girl with short black hair and dark skin.

"So," the girl says. "What are your names?"

"I'm Hector, but you can call me Hec," the boy says good-naturedly.

"I'm Elizabeth," I say. I will probably change this name later, but I can't be bothered for now.

"Pleased to meet you all. I'm Rose."

We have a pleasant chat. I am starting to wonder where Madeleine is. She isn't in this carriage. Did she make it onto the train? I hope so. A pit of worry forms in my stomach. Meanwhile, Hector and Rose are talking about siblings.

"I don't have any siblings," I tell them proudly. "I'm an only child."

"Spoilt," Hector says jokingly whilst punching me in the arm.

"Hey, I'm not!"

"Yes you are. See what a lovely yellow dress you're wearing."

"Dude, all Amity wear that. I can see why you're not Erudite."

"Yeah, and I can see why you're not Amity."

"Shut up."

"Definitely not Amity."

We continue to bicker, and a little while later we talk about siblings again.

"I have two sisters: Lynn and Shauna," Hector explains. "Lynn is twenty now and Shauna is twenty-two. They're both really annoying when it comes to telling me what to do."

"I feel your pain. I have a twenty-year-old sister as well, her name is Christina and she also transferred here. Do you think the two of them might have met before?"

"Yep," I say. I have read all about Dauntless initiation, and how only a few people get through. If they both got through, then they must know each other, because there really only are ten people that are their age.

I am about to explain all this when someone announces, "It's time to jump! Get ready!"

"Time to jump? What?" Rose says, perplexed.

"Guess what?" Hector grins. "You'll have to jump from this train onto a seven-story-high roof."

"Cause that's what you do every day, jump from a train to a roof!"

"Yeah, we actually do," Hector says seriously.

"Geezes. How is this supposed to work?"

When we reach the roof, I hold in my breath and run towards the edge of the train, taking the hugest leap I have ever taken and throw myself onto the roof.

"Oooomph!" Oops, I landed on a person. No wonder it was such a soft landing!

"Sorry," I say hurriedly. The person throws me a dirty glare, brushes herself off and walks off. I shrug.

I walk into the middle, and watch many other people jump off onto the roof. I watch in horror as an Erudite transfer jump a pathetic jump, hit the wall of the roof, and fall backwards. A few seconds later I heard a sickening crunch. Feeling the urge to vomit, I walk further away from the edge. I look around and see the person I have been waiting to see ever since I have arrived.

"Maddy!"

"Ellie!"

We embrace, so grateful neither of us have died on the way to here.

"Who's this?" Rose and Hector are standing right beside us.

"Oh, hey, glad you made it on the roof. Anyway, this is Madeleine. Madeleine, this is Rose and Hector."

Rose and Madeleine both grin, but Hector rolls his eyes. "So far I have made three friends, and all of them are girls. Will I make a friend that's at least the same gender as me some time?"

Madeleine, Rose, and I all pretend to look hurt. Hector laughs.

Suddenly a man's voice interrupts us.

"Initiates! Listen up! My name is Max. I am the Dauntless leader. Now, to get into the Dauntless headquarters, you must take another jump, this time off the roof right here. Now who will be our first jumper?"

Silence.

I look at Hector. He gives me an expression that says, "You can go first. I don't mind."

And a sound comes out of my mouth, surprising myself.

"Me."

A ripple of laughter erupts among everyone. I ignore it and walk confidently up to the edge of the roof. I peer down. There is a large hole there.

"What are you trying to prove, Amity? That you are so unhappy being the weakling you are that you want to die now?" An Erudite boy sneers.

"What are you trying to prove? That you are an idiotic coward who has nothing better to do than pick on a weakling?"

Madeleine, Rose, and Hector laugh. The Nose and another Nose girl who is clinging on to the boy scowl at me.

"Well, see you later guys," I say and dive off.

I feel the cool wind rushing past my face as I plummet down. This is thrilling, this is fun. I laugh as I soar down to… wait… what will catch my fall?

My back hits something hard, and I wince. A few seconds later I bounce back up into the air. A net. After a few more bounces, the net decides to stop, and I let a hand pull me towards the ground. I am greeted by a pair of fiery, greyish-blueish eyes.

"What's your name, initiate?" The voice was lower than most girls'.

I hesitate. I could say Elizabeth, but that sounds too… Amity. I want to get rid of my past entirely, and start a new life in Dauntless. And changing my name is just in the process.

"Liz," I say confidently. "My name is Liz."

The woman smiles, and shouts over her shoulder, "First jumper, Liz!"

Cheers erupt. I smile and walk away from the net to join the woman.

I hear a scream, and smile as I see Madeleine fall down to the net.

She gets helped out, this time, a dark-haired man with dark blue eyes.

"Name?" His voice sounds harsh, but Madeleine doesn't get scared by it.

"Maddy," she says just as confidently as I had.

"Second jumper, Maddy!" Everyone cheers for her, but not as loudly as they did for me.

Painstakingly slowly, the other 23 initiates came hurtling down into the net.

Their names were:

(Transfers)

Me, Elizabeth (Liz), from Amity

Madeleine (Maddy), from Amity

Sabina, from Erudite

Tyler, from Erudite (the one who teased me on the roof)

Ella, from Erudite (Tyler's sidekick/girlfriend)

Xavier, from Erudite

Rose, from Candor

Amelia, from Candor

Alyssa, from Candor

Maya, from Candor

Colin, from Candor

Ian, from Candor

And Ryan, from Abnegation

I am quite surprised that a Stiff would transfer to Dauntless. Only two Stiffs had ever done that, and by what I heard, they both ranked first in initiation. Interesting. Maybe that explains why the woman who got me out of the net smiled at him when he got out, even though he was the last jumper.

(Dauntless borns)

Scarlett

Anna

Valerie

Zoe

Victoria

Leah

Hector (Hec)

Gavin

Brayden

Adrian

Leo

Tristan (Tris)

When Tristan called out his name as Tris, the woman who helped me and him out of the net glared at him for some reason. Does she have some sort of a connection with him that isn't pleasant?

Once everybody had jumped, he man who helped Maddy out of the net starts speaking in a harsh, authorative voice.

"Most of the time I work in the control rooms, but this time I will be training the transfers in initiation. My name is Four, and this is Six."

Four motions to the woman from before.

"Four and Six, like the numbers?" Rose sneers.

"Yes," Four says in a deadly quiet tone. "Is there a problem?"

"Yep," says Rose confidently. I admire her bravery. "What happened to Five?"

Snickers run through the crowd.

Four slowly makes his way to Rose, and says dangerously, "What's your name?"

"Rose," Rose squeaks.

"That's my sister," I suddenly hear a tall woman who looks a lot like Rose whisper to Six.

"Guess it runs in the family, then," Six laughs.

"Well, then, Rose," Four says, ignoring Six and Rose's sister. "If I wanted to put up with Candor smart-mouths, I would have joined their faction. The first lesson you will learn from me is to keep your mouth shut. Got that?"

Rose nods.

"Doesn't sound like a very Dauntless lesson to me," Maddy whispers.

"Anyway," Six says, "This is where we divide. Transfers, come with Four and I. Dauntless borns go with Christina and Uriah here."

She points to Rose's sister and another handsome, dark man.

"Bye," I whisper to Hector.

"We will now take you on a tour of this place," Six says. She leads us to a huge, open and loud place.

"This is the Pit. The heart of Dauntless, which you will one day learn to love."

Wow. It is amazing. I find myself grinning as I take in all the screaming and fun.

"Now we shall proceed to the chasm," Four says. He leads us to a river, with its water crashing against the rocks. I can't breathe. I have a phobia of drowning. We walk across the narrow bridge across it, which has no railing. I hold my breath. One accidental push, and my life will end.

"The chasm reminds us that there is a fine line between bravery and idiocy!" Six shouts. "A daredevil jump off this ledge will end your life. It has happened before and it will happen again." She chokes on these words. I wonder whether one of her close friends have jumped the chasm.

We walk into the dining hall. At once, everyone stands up and cheers for us. I smile.

I sit with Maddy, Rose, and Hector, and another Erudite transfer named Xavier. We are also somehow sitting by Four, Six, and Christina.

"Hi. Finally I have a friend who's not a girl," grins Hector.

"You'd better be grateful I'm alive then. My name's Xavier," Xavier grins back, and shakes hands with all of us.

We begin chatting, and eating delicious hamburgers, which are so much better compared to the bread we eat at Amity.

Sooner or later, I begin zoning out of my friends' conversation and eavesdrop on Four and Six's conversation.

"… the Abnegation boy… Ryan…" Six was saying in a hushed voice.

"Do you think he will be just like us?" Four says softly.

"Maybe. Since he's from Abnegation, he has the potential," Six says and Four nods.

"We'd better look after him well. You know, give extra help to him and stuff cause he looks pretty weak. But he might be strong on the inside, just like you were. He could come first in the final rankings," Four says confidently.

Rankings?! But that doesn't matter for now. Six and Four and factionist (A/N I made that word up, you know how some people can be racist or sexist? Well, they are factionist, haha) , especially towards the Stiffs. How can they do that? Favouritism before initiation has even started! I narrow my eyes and glower at their backs, but they don't realise.