Sorry I didn't post last Sunday. It was difficult to find time with the holidays going on.

Also, I have a question down at the bottom. If you would please read it, that'll be great.

Hope you enjoy chapter 3!

~Factionless Shadowhunter

Chapter 3: The Choosing Ceremony

I opened my eyes to the new day. The sun was just beginning to rise. The sun would be beautiful if my stomach didn't feel like someone repeatedly hit it with a hammer. I can't believe today's the day, I thought. Today is the Choosing Ceremony, the day I decide my fate. I still had no plan of what I'm going to do. I got off my bed and started to pace my bedroom. After a couple of minutes, I crawled in my bed sheets and went back to sleep.

What must've been hours, Jeanine walked in and asked, "Are you alright Jessica?"

I honestly didn't want to tell how I feel her but she can always read me like a book. "No," I confessed.

She crossed my room and sat on my bed. She gestured for me to sit next to her and said, "Come tell me what's wrong."

I sat next to her and said, "I'm just nervous, I mean like, it's today that kids my age choose to be with their families or choose their own path in life by choosing a different faction."

My mother stares at me, studying me for a reason of why I said that. She reaches out her hand and grabs my small hands and says, "You don't need to worry, sweetie, everyone is scared for their Choosing Ceremony." I didn't know what to say after that. I was just continuously nodding my head.

Jeanine gets up and says, "How about I take you out for lunch today. Just you and me, and we can just talk."

As if on cue, my stomach growled loudly enough for Jeanine to hear. We both grin as she says, "I'll let you get dressed. I'll be downstairs waiting for you."

"Okay," I say as she gets up to leave the room. When she closes the door, I get up and get ready.

A couple minutes later, I walked down the stairs and heard Jeanine talking to someone. I quickly hide behind the wall to listen to what they say.

"Jeanine, you know you can't do this," the voice, a man, said

"You know why I have to do what I have to do."

"You just can't kill off a faction though."

"That's why I have another faction to do my dirty work."

"Wait, wha-"

"Shhhhh," Jeanine said, raising her hand. "Jessica I know you're eavesdropping again. Come out now."

I turned to face my mother and a boy, possibly in his twenties, wearing all black, a Dauntless. Jeanine motioned for me to come to her side.

"Jessica, this is Max, a Dauntless leader."

I hold out my hand and say, "Hello."

Max ignores my hand and says, "I believe I'm going to go now." He then smiles at me and says, "Nice meeting you, Jessica."

I mumbled goodbye as he left, Jeanine closed the door quietly behind him and looked at me. "What did you hear?"

I had to lie, "Only that you have a faction doing something."

She looks at me suspiciously, "Okay, let's go eat."

The Erudite are known for their consumption of soda. When Jeanine and I arrive at the Erudite cafeteria, I went to find a table while went to Jeanine order us soda and sandwiches. The cafeteria is quite large, in a warehouse-type building, with its white-tile ceramic floor and its blue Erudite walls, it's just like any other building in the Erudite compound. With everyone's blue clothing, real or fake glasses, and tied back hair for the women, it's just like everyday life here. Except one thing, there's tension in the air, I've never experienced it before but now that today's my Choosing Ceremony, I feel it. I find an empty oak-wood style table in the back of the cafeteria. A couple minutes later, Jeanine came with our food and sat down, handing me a glass cup of soda and a covered sandwich.

"So, what do you want to talk about?" Jeanine says, unraveling her sandwich.

"Anything as long as it's not about the Choosing Ceremony."

She swallows her sandwich, and takes a sip from her soda she says, "Okay, let's talk about the general subject of life. How's your life going Jessica?"

"I guess, normal, like any other Erudite."

She studies me, again, like any other Erudite. We're both silent for some time. Just eating our food and drinking our soda. I notice that the tables around us are empty, and people staring at us with fear. It must not be everyday thing for the Erudite faction leader to be eating at the Erudite cafeteria, talking with her daughter. We finish our lunches and start to head home, where I will start to get ready for the Choosing Ceremony.

A couple of hours before sunset, Jeanine and I get to the Choosing Ceremony building. Because my mom has to say a speech, we get there early. "I want you sit here and don't move," Jeanine said a couple of minutes ago. With having to stay at one spot when I could be exploring, I got really anxious for tonight. I still had no clue of what faction I was going to choose. The real question is to choose Erudite, and have my life planned out already, or choose a different faction and start over. When more and more people started to come, I decided to find my place in the Choosing line.

When everyone is here, behind me is an Abnegation boy, and in front of me there is a Dauntless girl. Jeanine gives her speech and leaves the stage. The line moves slow, but not turtle slow. As the line gets shorter and shorter, and more and more blood is put in the bowls, I get really nervous. When the Dauntless girl cuts her wrist and decides to become an Amity, a person gives me a knife and I walk up the stairs to the stage, still not sure of what Faction to choose. I look over at the Erudite section and see my mother. She gives me a nod and her voice goes through my head, 'Remember Jessica, the future belongs to those who know where they belong'. With that I knew exactly what to do. I looked at all five bowls with knife in hand. Glass for Candor, gray stones for Abnegation, earth for Amity, burning coals for Dauntless, and finally, water, now red, for Erudite. My wrist hovers over Erudite as I cut my wrist, wincing from the pain, a quickly move my wrist from Erudite to Dauntless, allowing one drop of blood to sizzle on the coals. I look back at the Erudite and see a shocked Jeanine.

And with this, I proceeded to the Dauntless section, away from Jeanine and my forced destiny...

Thanks for reading this chapter!

Okay, so my question is: Would anybody be interested in being an admin for my forum? If so, then please PM me. Thanks!