HEY! YOU LUCKY PEOPLE! I'm making up for lost time. I am posting another chapter tonight. Thank you for reading.

This one is written by me and edited by... me!

REVIEW GUYS! I'm serious. I wanna know what you think even if you hate it. Write down your hate! I hope you like it though... just sayin'.

-Jewels 3


Chapter 3: Julia's POV Choosing ceremony

Choosing ceremony day feels like tension in the form of a day. My brother stomps down the stairs as normal. We have scrambled eggs with toast like every other day. But this day, my mother does not hum. My brother is silent. I do not sing as I shower. I think of my results and feel like screaming. I cannot choose lightly. Even after a night of thinking and thinking, and barely sleeping, I am no closer to an answer.

We take the bus to the ceremony. I am silent, contemplating.

Twelve floors up the Hub is the Choosing Ceremony room. We take the stairs because the elevator is full. I end up walking next to my read-headed best friend, Eve. Eve is afraid of everything, but she is a great friend. She will stay Abnegation, I am sure of it.

As we enter the room, we are lined up in the front of the room in alphabetical order. There are five, huge bowls in front of us, one for each faction. Erudite has a bowl of water; Candor's bowl houses a large pane of glass; Amity has a bowl full of dirt, symbolizing their farming industry; Abnegation has grey stones- grey like everything else in Abnegation; the Dauntless have live coals in their bowl- dangerous as hell, and as hot as it, too.

I stand between Andrew and a girl named Dannikka from Candor. Eve's last name is Poltergeist, so she is going to choose before I am. I listen to the speech about how the factions were formed, why they were formed. This comes from a soft-voiced Amity named Cora.

The beginning of the ceremony is a blur of nervousness and panic. I still do not know what I am going to choose. Abnegation, Candor, Dauntless. I cannot be Erudite. I cannot be Amity.

Then Eve slits her wrist, holding it over the Dauntless bowl, making my panic turn to shock for a split second. Then I'm back to worrying until my brother is called up.

Drew cuts his arm, blood dripping down his wrist into the Amity bowl. I find no surprise to give. I am too panicky to even think coherently as I step forward. I stumble toward the bowls with the knife. I slit my wrist, feeling the drag of pain. My blood drips on the floor.

What happens in the end is an act of pure insanity as my arm slips over the Dauntless coals. I hear the sizzle of my blood. It is done. I am Dauntless. I hear them cheer. My new faction. I glance at my mother. She has a quiet smile on her face.

I knew it, she mouths, and I smile at her, a wide grin that is nothing like the Abnegation. I shed them so easily. I stand next to Eve. I hold out my hand and she grasps it. The rest of the ceremony is a blur as I process my split-second choice.

Then we're running. Running down the stairs, yelling and shouting and screaming. I am yelling too, a shout of pure joy rising from my throat. I can free myself here. Free the clash of factions in my house. Loudness and happiness and honesty and bravery.

"What the hell is going on?" yells a Candor boy to my right.

"Are we supposed to jump on that?" yells Eve, watching the train come around the bend.

"Yes!" I yell, breathless with excitement and adrenaline. I've watched the Dauntless jump on and off the train at school, so the action is almost natural as I tilt slightly and jump. And now I am Dauntless. Dauntless and free.