I bought the rights to Divergent! April Fools' Day! Ha no I don't have that much $$. I don't own anything.
Did you all find my pretend termination funny? I don't plan on doing that, don't worry. Hope you enjoy this chapter.
When we get to my house, Booth gets out and starts puking in the bushes. Four hauls him up into my house and hands him some mouthwash. I walk into my room and curl up on the bed, not crying, not sleeping, just sitting there. Sometime later, Four comes in, drops Seeley on the bed, and picks me up. He carries me to his room, where he curls up around me and starts to hum. I soon recognize it as a lullaby, and slowly drift off to sleep.
When my dad shakes me and Four awake, my eyes are puffy. I know I've cried through the night.
"Time to get up, Beatrice," he says, voice broken. "Booth is going to stay home with me."
I nod and stand. Tobias stands, too. "Is it okay for her to go to school?" I hear him asking as I walk to my bathroom.
"Yes," my dad responds. "She's strong, Tobias. Very strong."
I don't hear anything more. I just shower and put on a The Amity Affliction tee shirt of Four's, Booth's hoodie, and black leggings. I pull on a black beanie, too, and then walk downstairs.
I look at the clock. It's about six thirty. Four and I should leave by seven. I pour us bowls of cereal and then go to find my father.
"Dad," I say. "Four and I need notes. We never got a chance to do any homework this weekend, for obvious reasons."
"Sure, honey bun. I'll write them up now," he replies. A few seconds later, he hands me two quickly scrawled notes. I tuck them in my pocket and go back downstairs. Tobias is sitting at the table with our backpacks, scarfing his cereal. I do the same, and then we both brush our teeth. I grab a pack of gum, and we get on the red line.
Four guides his arm around me. "This was a sucky weekend," he whispers.
I scoff. "'Sucky' doesn't even start to describe it." I lean my head on his shoulder. "How're you doing with it?"
Tobias looks down at me. "I'm...dealing. Honestly, though, I'm kind of happy. To be away from Marcus and all, I mean."
"That's good," I reply hesitantly, not quite believing him. "Oh, um, Tobias? I kind of scheduled a meeting with the head to try and get you a scholarship during our frees today."
He nods. "Cool."
"And my dad gave us notes to get out of having done our homework," I add.
"It's our stop," is his only reply.
We get off and walk into CP. We're immediately engulfed by our friends asking questions. Tobias waves them off, scowling, and we go to first period, handing Harrison our notes. He reads over them and gives the class an assignment, and then pulls Tobias and I into an empty classroom.
"Take off your shirt, Four," he orders roughly.
Tobias and I exchange glances. "Why, sir?"
"Because I need to see your scars," Harrison replies brusquely.
Tobias hands me his sweatshirt and then carefully pulls his shirt over his head. Harrison looks at his back for a few minutes.
"What?" Four finally asks.
"They're pretty bad." Harrison frowns.
"I never knew you cared," Tobias snaps.
"And I never knew that asshole father of yours beat you," Harrison growls. "How're they healing?"
"It hurts," Four admits. "But Tris helps with the bandages and ointment." He looks over at me and smiles.
"And Tris," Harrison continues. "Who is Seeley Booth?"
"An old friend," I answer. "He's more like a brother, really."
"My condolences, then," Harrison replies. He turns back to Four. "Four, who are you staying with?"
"The Priors." Tobias' face would put a tomato to shame.
"Hmm. Do you have any of the assignment I gave you last time done?" Once a teacher, always a teacher, I suppose.
We nod. "It's finished," I say, "but on our computers."
"Share it with me," he orders. "And now let's get back to class. I'll give you two a new assignment after I read this one. You can sleep for the rest of the period."
We do just that. Tobias shares the Google Doc with him, and then we sleep. Harrison wakes us up about two minutes before we have to leave for Spanish.
During Spanish, Señora Pedrad also lets Tobias and I sleep - after I show her our notes.
After Spanish, I hand Four his note for Bio. "Go to the head's office instead of the cafeteria," I remind him.
"I know, Tris," he answers, slightly annoyed and slightly amused.
We part ways at the cage staircase. I head to Linear Algebra, where Caleb immediately folds me into his arms.
"How are you doing, Bea?" he asks. "I'm sorry about Booth."
My mother hesitantly walks over. She puts her hand on my shoulder. "Andrew emailed me about your friend's father. I'm sorry, Tris."
I nod. "I don't have the homework, Na-Mom."
She grins, and then laughs. "Your almost-brother's dad just died, and your almost-boyfriend's father put him in the hospital, and you're worrying about not having the homework?"
I smile back at her, but it's a broken smile. "Yeah."
Caleb releases me as others walk in, but my mom wraps her arms around me tightly. I return the motion, rather surprised.
"Playing favorites, are you, Ms. Prior?" someone calls.
She turns around, also releasing me. "Tris is my daughter, Peter," she replies coldly. "And if you know what's best for you, you'll stay away from her."
Peter sneers at me, and I sit near the front of the classroom, right next to Caleb and the other Erudite. They glance at me and snicker, but Caleb growls something at them, and they stop.
After class, Caleb hands me a copy of the notes.
"You didn't have to, Caleb," I say, hugging him.
"You won't be taking notes today, Beatrice," he replies, a hint of amusement. "So I kind of did."
"Thanks, Caleb." I grin at him and walk towards the head's office.
Four is waiting for me outside of the office, twisting his hands nervously. I take his hands in mine and look into his eyes.
He breathes in and out deeply. "Thanks for doing this, Tris. How much support do you think you can get me?"
"Well, I'm on full ride," I answer. "The school will provide you, tops, a half scholarship. We can see how much your dad has paid. There are scholarships for foster kids. We can get some other ones. I say we can get maybe eighty five percent of it covered. At the most."
"And the tuition's thirty thousand dollars a year."
"So we'd have to scrape together at least four thousand five hundred dollars," I continue. "And some for Booth."
"What kind of job do you think we could get?" Four asks, hesitantly taking one of my hands as we walk down the hallway. I can feel some stares, but we ignore them.
I lean into him just slightly and think. "Well, minimum wage is eight dollars twenty five cents an hour. With two of us, if we're aiming to get about six thousand dollars, we'll need to work about, um, three hundred and, uh, seventy five hours each. We won't have to pay taxes 'cause we'll both be earning under the minimum. If we work after school as well as on weekends -"
"We can't work after school," Four interrupts.
"Why not?" I ask.
"Sports."
"We can drop out," I say. "Four, paying your tuition is more important."
"But sports will get me college scholarships," he argues.
I frown. "Which days are sports on?"
"Varsity practices are Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursday. I'm sure you'll make varsity," he assures me.
I bite my lip, calculating. "So if we worked on every day except Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday, we could work about twenty hours each week. Maybe more. So roughly forty hours total, which about three hundred thirty dollars a week. At that rate, we'd need to work for eighteen weeks. We might as well just keep the jobs for the entire year - earn as much as possible." Four mutters something under his breath. "What?" I ask sharply.
He reddens. "I just said that you're really smart."
"Oh," I reply awkwardly. "Um, well, we're here."
Tobias nods. "You ready?"
"The better question is if you are ready, Four," the head calls. "Come in, you two."
Four reddens, and I chuckle. We walk in and sit uncomfortably in the chairs. "Hi, um, sir. How are you today?" Four begins.
"I'm well," he answers. "Beatrice, I don't believe we've met. I am Dr. Giovanni."
"Hi, sir. Most people call me Tris," I tell him, offering a hand to shake. He takes it, shaking my hand firmly. "Were you Dauntless?"
He chuckles. "Yes." Then his face, lined with wrinkles, turns serious. "Four, Tris, I understand you're here to talk about a special scholarship circumstance?"
I look at Four, who's clearly nervous. He's flushed. "Uh, y-yes, sir. M-my dad, uh, well, I -"
"Four's in foster care," I say, cutting him off. "His father is in jail while they wait for the trial. Four was abused. Now, he wants to finish the year out here, but he doesn't have a scholarship like me, and his father won't pay. The state obviously won't pay."
Dr. Giovanni's eyebrows raise. "And you want to ask us for a scholarship."
"Yes, sir, at least partial," Four responds.
The head nods. "How much?"
"As much as possible."
"How do you plan to pay for the rest?" he asks.
Four and I meet each other's eyes. "I'm really good at getting scholarships, and I'm sure as a foster kid Four could get a few," I tell him.
"And we're going to get jobs to earn the rest," Tobias finishes.
"'We?'" Dr. Giovanni questions.
"Tris and I," Four answers.
"Why would you help him?" the head asks, suddenly curious. Almost too curious.
Tobias gives me a look, telling me something's wrong. "Why?" I reply.
"Because that's awfully…Abnegation of you," he replies, and suddenly I get Four's look.
I shrug. "He's my boyfriend. I want him to stay here." I slouch a little. "And my dad told me I had to." Tobias nods very slightly, telling me that was the right thing to do.
Dr. Giovanni isn't curious any more. "Okay, Four. I think I can get you a sixty percent scholarship. We have an extra one from a scholarship kid that turned us down and we've been planning to split it up on kids next year, but I think we can give you part of this one."
Four grins at me, and I hug him. "Thank you so much, sir," Tobias says, grinning still. "Tris and I can earn the rest."
The head nods. "I'm sure you can. I'll see you two around. Good luck, Four."
Once we step out, I kiss Four on the lips soundly. He kisses me back and puts one hand on my waist and the other on the back of my head. I wrap my arms around his neck and grin into the kiss.
We step back after about thirty seconds, both grinning at each other. Tobias brushes his lips against mine again. "Thank you so much, Tris."
"You're welcome, Tobias," I whisper. Four grabs my hand and we run to the cafeteria, where our friends are sitting.
When we sit at the table, everyone stops talking and looks at us. Four and I look at each other.
"Why are they staring?" Four murmurs.
"I have no idea," I answer.
Our friends continue to stare at us, and then Christina lets out a whoop.