Lynn turns her attention to Will.
"Will, you're kind of naked over there," she says. "Which faction do you want to try this time?"
Will laughs, "I don't think I can fail at Amity, so I'll try that."
After thinking for a minute, Lynn says, "You have to go down to the Pit and give a sincere compliment and a hug to the first three people you see."
Will nods, and we take off down the hall behind him. This is going to be fun. Will is wearing nothing but a pair of jeans, and he has to find something to like about three people and get them to hug him in spite of his lack of a shirt.
The first person he finds is a thirty-something woman with a baby strapped to her front in a carrier.
"Hey," Will calls to her. "I like your piercings. Can I hug the baby?"
She's shocked by this outburst from a shirtless teenage boy, and before the can recover herself, Will throws his arms around her and the baby and gives them a quick squeeze before running away. From the hallway, we laugh at her shocked expression as she watches Will run away.
His second victim is a teenage girl, probably about fourteen years old. She is carrying several shopping bags.
"You have pretty eyes," Will says to the girl, and gives her a quick squeeze.
Her cheeks turn pink and I look at Christina and see her face flush with jealous anger. I pat her arm and she tries to hide her feelings, but I can tell it really bothers her. Will's cheeks are pink, too, as he scouts out his next victim. Just then, Eric walks around a corner. Will's bare shoulders sag.
He approaches Eric quickly and says, "Hey Eric! Nice shirt! I sure wish I was wearing one."
Eric glares at Will, and I can tell it isn't going to end well. But a dare is a dare, so Will throws his arms around Eric for the briefest second, then takes off running at full-speed toward Zeke's apartment.
In the hallway, we are all laughing so hard that we're fighting back tears. We replay the story to one another on the way back to Zeke's, and make each other laugh all over again.
Will's cheeks are still pink when we return, and Christina sits down on the far end of the small love seat they were sharing. She refuses to make eye contact with him.
"Um, Marlene, how about you?" says Will, restarting the game.
"How about Abnegation?" says Marlene, more of a question than a confident answer.
Will's face lights up. "Do me a favor and help Christina to not be mad at me," he almost pleads.
Marlene rolls her eyes and grabs the bottle of alcohol. She pours a shot for herself and one for Christina.
Handing Christina a shot, Marlene says, "Boys are jerks."
They clink their shot glasses together and toss back the drink.
Marlene puts her glass down and says to Christina, "He likes you. You know that. That was a dare. He's not in love with Eric, I promise."
At this we all burst out laughing, even Christina. Marlene smirks and Will puts his arm around Christina. She allows it, and his smile lights up his face.
"My turn!" yells Marlene. "And I pick Lynn. Which faction?"
"Every time we take another shot I get dumber and dumber," says Lynn, "so I'm going to try Erudite while I can!"
I grab the bucket of questions and hand it to Marlene. She stirs the papers before grabbing one.
"Describe the term 'guerilla warfare,'" she reads.
"Um, ok… Well, I guess you would say that guerilla warfare is when you use sneak attacks, like snipers and booby traps, with a small force going against a larger one."
Tobias nods beside me, agreeing with her brief description.
"Good enough!" says Marlene before reading the definition on the sheet. "Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which a small group of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and mobility to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military." (credit: Wikipedia)
"Wow, Tris," says Zeke. "Where did you come up with these Erudite questions?"
"I called my brother, Caleb," I explain. "He's in Erudite. I asked him for some Erudite questions about things the Dauntless might know, like guns and battle planning.
"Great idea," says Uriah. "Knowing the Erudite questions are about Dauntless things makes me less afraid to pick Erudite."
"Pansycake!" yells Zeke.
"I haven't seen you pick Erudite either!" counters Uriah.
"Enough," barks Tobias, and both brothers fall silent, though Uriah sticks his tongue out at Zeke as soon as he thinks Tobias isn't looking.
"Let's test that theory," says Will. "Zeke, which faction do you want?"
"Erudite," says Zeke, sticking his tongue out at Uriah.
Will digs in the bowl of Erudite questions and pulls out a sheet.
"Zeke," he begins, "long ago, before the world was destroyed by the last war, militaries had a group called 'cavalry' who went into battle riding on what animal?"
"On an animal?" says Zeke, doubtful. "Why would they ride animals into war?"
"It was before vehicles were invented," explains Tobias.
Zeke thinks about it for a few minutes before making a wild guess.
"Big dogs?" he guesses. "No, wait! Cows! Then they could eat them when they were done transporting stuff."
Will grins. "It says 'horses,'" he reads, then shows the answer to Zeke.
"What are horses?" asks Zeke.
"They were large four-legged mammals, like the ones on the carousel at Navy Pier. They were used for transportation before the invention of the internal combustion engine" explains Will.
"Um, Will," I say, "you're Erudite is showing."
He reddens slightly. Zeke removes his tee shirt. Now he and Will are both wearing nothing but jeans and, I assume, underwear.
Zeke turns to Uriah. "So you think you're not a pansycake? Let's see you try it!"
"Ok, fine," says Uriah. "I pick Erudite too."
Zeke digs a question out of the bowl.
"Uri," he says, opening the question. "Oh come on! This is an easy one!"
"What is it?" we ask in unison.
"Ugh. He has to go to the training room and field strip and reassemble a gun in under a minute."
We all had to practice that during the weapons portion of initiate training, so Uriah should be familiar. We all run to the training room, and Tobias unlocks a cabinet of guns. He browses the weapons in the case and grabs a riffle. He hands it to Uriah, who carries it to a table in the middle of the room. I watch the second hand of the clock in the room as it approaches the twelve.
"On your mark," I say. "Get set. Go!"
I keep my eye on the second hand of the clock as Uriah tears apart the gun and reassembles it. His movements are quick and sure.
"Done!" he calls, setting down the gun.
"Forty-nine seconds!" I call.
Zeke crumples up the question and throws it on the ground. Uriah gloats.
"Raise your hand if you haven't picked Dauntless yet," says Uriah.
Tobias and I raise our hands along with Uriah.
"Ok, Four," he says. "You just have Amity and Dauntless left, right? Which one do you want?"