"This is my room." Susan murmurs as she extended a slender finger towards a plain all gray room that was otherwise unfurnished, if not for the bunk bed that sat in the middle of the floor.

I pursed my lips as I gazed about the small room. The walls were completely pristine. The floor was some cheap plaster material. Cursing under my breath, I placed my luggage on the floor.

"You'll be bunking with me." Susan continued. Seeing my reaction, she added a hasty, "Its not much, but its home." I shook my head and looked her in the eyes incredulously. "How could.. Could you consider this place your home?" I beckoned around the room, a low laugh bubbling through my lips. Susan knit her lips together as she caught my eyes.

"Everything, our houses, our clothing, our hairstyles; they're all meant to help us forget our ourselves and protect us from vanity, greed, and envy, which are just forms of selfishness. If we have little and want for little, and we are equal, we envy no one." she says the words in rhythmatic fashion, as if its somethings she's memorized.

I nod, accepting her words, for now. A small smile pulled up her small lips. "You'll learn to love it here. We all have."

I want nothing more then to go to sleep that night.

I'm shutting my eyes when Susan taps me on the shoulder lightly. "You can't sleep yet, its time for The Sharing."

"The Sharing? Sounds like something out of a barney episode." I comment cuttingly. I'm surprised when Susan merely laughs and pulls me out of the bed. I curl into a fetal position. "Leave me alone." I whine.

But she drags me down the steps.

Its about 7-8 of teenagers, all around my age. Their seated on the ground in a circle, not talking.

I've never seen such a quiet group of boys and girls in my whole life.

"What's wrong with them?" I whisper the words, but they still hear and look up at me.

Susan lets out a low sigh as she steps into the middle of their muted circle.

"Everyone, its time for The Sharing." she says softly.

She motions for me to come join the circle.

I reluctantly compile, feeling out of place in my bright blue pj's surrounded by those in a uniform grey outfit of shorts and a shirt.

"Llyod. You first." Susan says.

A boy beside me nods and stands up. "Today," he starts in a low voice. "I helped out in the garden. I felt good when I took the weeds out, and helped the flowers grow."

My mouth falls open at this unusual deceleration.

What kind of weirdos are these people?

Their's a polite applause for his strange statement before the next girl stands up.

"Today," she says, "I washed every-bodies laundry. I felt good when I washed the stains out of the underwear." she says it so seriously, I have to keep from laughing.

There's another polite applause before the next person goes, and then the next, and soon, its my turn.

I rise to my feet and start. "Today," I mime in the same monotone voice the others used. "I went to sleep. I felt good when I snored to wake everybody up."

I sit down to silence.

I don't even have to look to know that Susan is frowning at me.

Its quiet as everyone retires to their room. Susan stand last as she guides me back to the room.

"What was that, Tris?" she asks after shutting the door.

I widen my eyes. "What? I told about my day." I say.

Susan shakes her head once.

"Tris, do you want to belong here?"

"Not really."

"Yes you do Tris." she sounds frustrated. "everyone wants to belong. So I suggest you clean up your act."

She gets into bed, leaving me reeling from the strange impact her words are having on me.

She sounds like a mother, scolding, overbearing.

A pang of homesickness hits me, along with the unfamiliar pain of not having a mother.

I climb up the bunk bed ladder and lay in bed, stifling sobs.