Trivia Answer: Only two of you submitted guesses, so I'll leave this open and see if anybody else takes a shot at it. This chapter might make it easier to tell which faction I'm from. (See the bottom of Chapter 1 if you have no idea what I'm talking about.)

A/N: Sorry for taking so long! I kept discovering that some of the details of my story were inconsistent with the books, so I had to go back and revise! The next few chapters will be told from the POV's of the seven Generation 1's as kids, and the plot will eventually reconnect back to Tris and Tobias. If you left reviews for the previous chapter, I have responded in the review section.

YEAR 2242: AGES 7-8

March 20

Andrew

"Andrew! Perrier!"

The two brothers looked up from their respective spots in the living room, wondering why their parents were calling them. They hardly notice us at all, thought Andrew, the older of the two boys. Getting up from the computer, on which he was programming games, he asked, "Yes, Mom?"

Iris Carr barely glanced at her sons as she shuffled through the living room with a huge stack of papers. "The Matthews will be coming over today, so put away your stuff."

Andrew groaned. "Again? What for?!"

Iris hesitated. "We'll be holding a party because…um…our joint research project has been extremely successful."

The young boy peered past his mother at the kitchen table with a skeptical expression on his face. "If you're really throwing a party, then why do you have all those documents and computers spread everywhere? Shouldn't you be getting food and stuff?"

His mother was at a loss. "Well…"

Just then, Mr. Carr bustled into the room, carrying rolls of what looked like maps of the city. "My, my, aren't you an inquisitive little child," he remarked coldly. "The point is, you children need to play upstairs, because this is a grown-up's gathering, understood?"

Perrier's eyes lit up. "Is Amy coming?"

Andrew felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. "Wait, you mean they're bringing their kids? All of them?!" The Matthews had three children, all younger than him, whom he had been forced to play with on several occasions. Andrew was sure there was something seriously wrong with each of them. Dave seemed to have an insatiable desire to destroy things, Candice made rude remarks about everyone and everything, and the toddler, Amy, apparently thought her purpose in life was to invent songs with Perrier and sing them as shrilly as she could.

"Yes, the children are coming along, all four of them," replied Iris firmly.

Andrew looked up in alarm. "Four children? Don't tell me they had another baby!"

"Well, actually, Mrs. Matthews is expecting, but that will be her fifth child. The Matthews also have a girl about your age. She's called…" Mrs. Carr furrowed her brows as she struggled to remember. "…something like Jane? Jenny? No, it was more like Janie…or perhaps Jeanne…"

"Jeanine," Andrew's father supplied.

"Ah, yes, that's it! Jeanine! She always stays home, so you've never met her before. I don't know why they're bringing her over this time, but-" Iris winced as her son began to scream and beat at the table with his fists. "What?"

"NO, PLEASE, NO, NOT ANOTHER ONE!" Andrew yelled, all composure lost as he imagined an older, psychopathic version of Candice smashing through his stuff while singing. "CAN'T I STAY IN HERE WITH YOU GUYS?! WHY CAN'T THEIR KIDS GO SOMEWHERE ELSE?!"

"Absolutely not!" Leon barked. "We adults have important things to talk about! Why don't you like the Matthews children, anyway?"

"They're crazy, that's why!" Andrew half-wailed, half-sobbed. "They completely demolished my room last time! And I'm betting their older sister is more insane than the rest of them combined!"

"Amy's not crazy!" two-year-old Perrier babbled. "She sings so well!"

Andrew headdesked.

Mr. and Mrs. Carr exchanged a look. "Sometimes I think their experiments went a little too well," muttered Leon darkly.

Iris frowned. "Shush, will you?!" With an irritated expression, she turned back to Andrew. "I don't care. You either stay in your room and entertain the kids or I'll take away your laptop."

Andrew said nothing, wondering how many weapons he could smuggle from the kitchen before the demons arrived.

A half hour later, Kyle and Nora Matthews pulled up the drive with their mob of children in tow. Andrew peered at them from around the edge of the stairwell, electric flyswatter at the ready. Dave and Candice tumbled out first, already in the middle of a screaming fight. Mr. Matthews stepped out next, circling around to hoist Amy, who was whistling an earsplitting tune as usual, out of the back seat. As Mrs. Matthews clambered out of the passenger's side, Andrew was disturbed to see that her belly bulged out under her shirt. The fifth Matthews scourge is on the way, he thought dejectedly.

Last of all came a girl who looked about six or seven years old. She had the same dark blonde hair and light gray eyes as her siblings, though her thick glasses made her appear somewhat saner. So, this is the mysterious Jeanine, thought Andrew.

"Why won't you allow me to participate in your conversation?" she snapped at her mother, her voice already inflected with the air of superiority that marked the Erudite. "It's not as though I would go about broadcasting your experiments!"

"I don't know what's gotten into you, Jeanine," replied Nora, shaking her daughter by the shoulders. "We've offered to bring you over plenty of times, but you always opted to stay home and do whatever it is you do in that makeshift laboratory of yours!"

The girl groaned in frustration. "That's because those were pointless meetings for the sake of sociali-"

"Hello, Iris & Leon," Nora cut off her daughter's continued protests. "Sorry about Jeanine. She thinks we adults are gathering to hatch some kind of evil plot without telling her about it."

"That's NOT what I said!" Jeanine yelled. The adults chuckled uneasily.

"It's quite alright," said Leon quickly. As Iris pulled her sons down from the stairwell, Mr. Carr turned to Jeanine and said, "These are my children, Andrew and Perrier. I don't believe you've met them before."

"Hi," she muttered icily, scrutinizing the boys as though they were rabid lab rats.

"Hi," Andrew returned her greeting just as coldly, tightening his grip on the electric flyswatter behind his back.

"Hellooooo!" Perrier warbled, causing Amy to shriek with laughter. She wriggled out of her father's grasp and the two toddlers began to jump around in circles, singing tunelessly.

Iris clamped her hands over her ears. "Ugh. Let's head for the kitchen."

Sighing, the adults rounded up the other children, who had already scattered all through the house, and herded them upstairs. Andrew took up a defensive stance by the doorway to his room with his new weapon as Dave and Candice, still screaming and punching each other savagely, were tossed inside. Amy and Perrier followed, yodeling gleefully.

"Play nice, kids," said Mrs. Carr cheerily. She pushed a scowling Jeanine into the room and locked the door behind her.

"Wait, WHAT?!" yelped the girl, rattling the door handle. Turning to Andrew, she demanded, "Do they always do that?!"

Before he could respond, Dave picked up the bedside lamp and charged straight at him. "WAR!"

The older Carr child gritted his teeth and swung the flyswatter. ZAP! A loud scream of pain followed, accompanied by the smell of burnt flesh. Desperate times call for desperate measures, thought Andrew grimly.

"NO FAIR! YOU HAVE A WEAPON!" yelled Dave. "CANDICE, HELP ME!"

The third Matthews child, who had been trying to silence her little sister and Perrier by slapping them, stopped her assault and looked up. For a moment, Andrew hoped she would just laugh at Dave, but instead, Candice charged him as well, crying, "HOW DARE YOU DO THAT TO MY BROTHER, YOU MONSTER?!"

Together, Dave and Candice cornered Andrew, wrestled the electric flyswatter away from him, and took turns shocking him with it.

"AHHHHHH!" Andrew shrieked at the top of his lungs. He hoped his cries of distress combined with his attackers' shouts of glee and Amy and Perrier's singing would be loud enough to penetrate downstairs to the adults.

"SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU!" Jeanine screamed. She hurled something towards the open walk-in closet and a flash of blue lightning arced through the room. Dave, Candice, and Amy froze, staring at the glowing, multicolored sphere that now hovered in midair.

"IT'S THE CANDY BALL!" they cried hysterically, turning as one and scrambling into the closet. Andrew's and Perrier's mouths fell open in shock.

"Come on, go catch the glowing ball!" The Erudite girl gestured impatiently towards the closet, plainly wanting to get rid of them. "It'll give you candy if you catch it!"

Perrier laughed and toddled after the three younger Matthews without a moment's hesitation, but Andrew folded his arms and stayed where he was. "I'm not going anywhere near those four! I'm rather fond of my sanity, thank you very much."

"Valid point," Jeanine conceded, jumping to lock the closet. "Just don't get in my way." Turning back to the bedroom door, she muttered, "Now, I wonder how this latches…"

"How did you make that floating thing?" asked Andrew curiously. He had visited Erudite headquarters hundreds of times but had never seen anything of the likes of it.

Jeanine grimaced as she fired what looked like a tiny laser at the keyhole. "You wouldn't understand it even if I told you."

"Why are you trying to go outside, then, now that you've trapped all the little ones?" Andrew questioned, annoyed at being denied the secrets of the engineering marvel he had just witnessed.

"Again, it's beyond your limited mental capacity as an average seven-year-old child to comprehend, so please stop pestering me," Jeanine responded curtly as she tested the doorknob. It remained firmly shut. Next, she tried wedging several metal pins between the doorframe, but it still wouldn't budge.

That's it. She's crossed the line. Wondering what kind of terrible parenting it took to produce four children who were all abnormal in different ways, Andrew yanked Jeanine by the arm and pulled her around until they were face to face. "I don't know who you think you are," he growled, "but you have no right to talk to me like that! I am not retarded, unlike the freaks you call your siblings!"

Jeanine wrenched herself out of his viselike grip and glared at him. "Prove it!"

Shaking with anger, Andrew crossed the room to his desk and pulled a metal contraption out of the drawer. He jammed it roughly onto the door handle and turned a crank on the side. The bedroom door immediately sprang open.

It was Jeanine's turn to look astonished. "How on Earth did you do that?"

"You wouldn't understand it if I told you," Andrew scoffed. "As a typical seven-year-old, you do not have the sufficient mental capacity to grasp the concept." An awkward silence followed.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," Jeanine gave in at last. "It's just…I've never seen anyone below Middle Levels who can understand anything beyond food, play, or sleep." She stopped and thought for a minute. "I made the flying candy machine by putting some neon lights and candy in a plastic sphere. There's a hatch at the bottom that springs open with the application of pressure, and on top, some multidirectional rotor blades, which respond to the onboard sensors."

"I made my lock-picker using a simple leverage system attached to a serrated edge, kind of like a can opener," Andrew replied, wincing as muffled screaming filtered out from the closet. "How can you stand it, living with them day in and day out? I only have one sibling and I think I'm going nuts. You have three! And isn't another one on the way?"

"Yes, due in a month, actually," muttered Jeanine. "That's why I invented that glowing orb. It gets them distracted so I can hear myself think. Now, back to the mission. I came here because I think our parents are up to something. I mean, I know they often meet up just to kind of chat, but this time feels…different."

Andrew nodded in agreement. "I know! They've been whispering about something or other over the phone for weeks!" Finally, I have somebody my own age to talk to who's actually sensible enough to understand what's going on! he thought in wonder.

"I was hoping the adults would let me in on what they were doing, but clearly that's not going to happen," Jeanine explained. "So, I'm going to eavesdrop on them. Want to come?"

"Absolutely."

Together, the two children eased their way down the stairs toward the dining room. Andrew grabbed two wine glasses off a shelf and handed one to Jeanine. They pressed the glasses to the wall and put their ears to the openings.

"—still don't understand why you must use the osmo-fission method to artificially manufacture your children," Iris's voice buzzed through the wall. "It's highly volatile. Couldn't you just build a genetically modified baby in a standard growth tank?"

"No, that would be ineffective for our purposes," came Kyle's voice. "The growth of organic life forms over a period of months of cell division inevitably causes mutations within the chromosomes. We need our offspring to perform very specific tasks to the factions they go to, and we cannot afford for things to go awry. All four so far have been grown in this method, and while Jeanine appears to have turned out more or less as we wanted, the other three suffer from ADHD induced by ribosomal abnormalities arising from overheating in the incubation stage. Hopefully, the riskier but more expedient osmo-fission machine will rectify these problems."

"What are they talking about?" Andrew whispered, struggling to make sense of what he'd just heard. "It sounded like you and your siblings were…assembled in a laboratory."

Jeanine nodded grimly. "That's precisely what it means. I wonder what for?"

"No idea."

"So, which child is next?" asked a voice belonging to Leon.

"Abel, a male, whom we are conditioning for Abnegation," replied Mrs. Matthews. "After that, we may need to go another round for the other factions if our plan is to work."

"Your eldest was born for Erudite?" Iris asked.

"Yes," Kyle responded. "She'll be the main leader when all of this is over. Along with us, of course."

"Why didn't she follow your naming scheme?" asked Mr. Carr.

Nora chuckled. "To be honest, we hadn't planned out everything yet when Jeanine was born. She was sort of a trial run, so we gave her a random name. Later on, as we were mapping out Dave's genome, we tried to get Jeanine to change her name to Erinna, but she absolutely refused to respond to it. Oh well, it makes things less obvious, anyway."

"So, will you bring the little ones in tow on the big day?" asked Iris.

Mrs. Matthews sighed. "I guess we'll have to. Saturday's the only day we can do this sort of experiment in peace, and the daycare centers aren't open on Saturdays. Which is quite illogical, if you ask me."

There were murmurs of agreement followed by the rustle of paper. Through the door, Andrew heard his mother say, "Well, a toast to the new baby, then."

"To Abel, the future manipulator of Abnegation!" all four adults cheered. The sound of clinking glass echoed through the walls.

"Any new twisted thinkers detected? It would only take one to bring down our whole plan," said Kyle after a moment of silence.

"You mean the Divergent?" asked Leon's voice. "Here, I have a list of suspects. Solana Kenly, currently in Amity, is a possible Amity-Candor combination, or so our sources say. And Richard Eaton the Stiff could very well be an Abnegation-Erudite blend…" Mr. Carr proceeded to go through the list, which consisted of several dozen names. "Should we eliminate them?"

"The ones that have chosen, yes. As for the kids…wait until they've taken their aptitude tests," advised Nora. "We don't want random murders all over the place."

WHAT?! Andrew felt as though all his limbs had gone numb. Were his ears deceiving him, or had his parents just presented a list of people to be killed? Jeanine frowned as well, though she looked more intrigued than disturbed.

Suddenly, the ring of a mobile phone reverberated around the dining room. "Hello? Yes…no, no, next week…what?! How did they find out…alright, we'll be there right away!" Nora hung up quickly. "Kyle! The omega experiment!"

Mr. Matthews gasped. "Oh my goodness! Iris, Leon, I'm sorry, we really have to go! Urgent business! We'll tell you the rest next time!"

As one, Andrew and Jeanine turned and raced up the stairs, bursting back into the room just as the adults filed out of the kitchen downstairs. Andrew twisted the lock closed behind him as Jeanine let their younger siblings out of the closet, all covered with sticky candy.

"Darn it, it sounded like they were just about to get to the interesting part!" Jeanine complained, frustrated. "What do you think their 'plan' was?"

"Your guess is as good as mine," shrugged Andrew, feeling somewhat shaken. I must've heard wrong. Maybe they were exaggerating about the killing. "See you here next time?"

She nodded. "Of course! We've got to find out what's going on!"

April 5

Tori

Naomi Wu clenched her fists, feeling her blood boil as her young son wriggled out of his chair yet again. "SIT BACK DOWN!" she screeched, taking hold of his arm. "YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL YOU LEARN YOUR ABC'S!"

Across the kitchen table, Tori, who was doing her homework listlessly, winced as George burst into tears. "Mom! He's only three!"

"Keep your mouth shut, young lady!" Naomi roared. "You are no better! Loads of Erudite children learn to read when they're just two, but you only started when you were five. Five! What is wrong with the two of you?!"

Tori opened her mouth to reply, but at that moment, George decided to make a run for it.

Screaming in exasperation, Naomi grabbed her son by the neck of his shirt and hauled him back to his chair. "WHY-CAN'T-YOU-LEARN-YOU-STUPID-LITTLE—"

George's wail of fright drowned out Mrs. Wu's yelling. How dare she do that to poor Georgie?! Tori had had enough. Mustering a courage she didn't know she had, George's sister backed up and ran at her mother full-tilt. She was so light that her mother barely moved, but she did slacken her grip on George. Without thinking, Tori snatched his arm and pulled him into the upstairs bathroom, wedging the door shut behind her.

Trying not to think about what kind of punishment her mother would give her later, Tori wiped the tears away from her little brother's face and hugged him. "There, there, stop crying."

"T-Tori?" George hiccupped, looking up at his sister through watery eyes. "Why am I so stupid? I wish I could get smart, so Mom won't yell at me anymore…"

Tori clenched her fists. "You are not stupid, Georgie. Mom's just being delusional." She shuddered as their mother stomped up the stairs, demanding for them to come out of hiding.

"Tori?"

"Yes?"

"I'm scared." George shook and began to sniffle again.

Tori bent down and looked at her brother, her dear brother, the baby fat still in his cheeks contrasting with his solemn black eyes. With father dead of sickness and mother so stressed out all the time, we've got to stick together.

"Don't be scared, Georgie. I won't let anyone hurt you while I'm around."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

April 23

Jeanine

"Be good," said Kyle Matthews as he embraced each of his children in turn. "I'm going to visit mommy at the hospital now. She's giving birth to your new baby brother."

Jeanine snorted, knowing her mother was doing nothing of the sort. Hours before, Nora had begun screaming, supposedly in terrible pain, at which point Mr. Matthews drove her off to the "hospital" at Erudite headquarters. He then returned to pick up his children, who were to await the arrival of their new sibling in the hospital's waiting room. Jeanine had watched the same thing happen three times before, and she knew now, after eavesdropping on that conversation, that it was all an act. Her mother was probably upstairs in one of the laboratories right now, setting up the "osmo-fission" machine that would construct the new baby. Whatever that meant. Not for the first time, Jeanine wished her parents would let her in on what they were doing. It's not as though I were a reckless idiot, like Dave, or a blabbermouth, like Candice, or even a complete nincompoop, like Amy, she thought resentfully, watching her siblings chase each other around and around the room.

Knowing from experience that her parents would not be back for several hours, Jeanine pulled the glowing orb out of her pocket and tossed it into the air. "Go fetch!" As her siblings squealed with delight, she swiftly made her escape.

Two floors above them, Kyle walked into his private laboratory and sealed the door shut behind him. Nora, who had removed the layer of padding she wore around her middle to fake her pregnancy, stepped out from her hiding place behind a row of black supercomputers.

"You did remember to pay the C obstetrician team to fake the birth records, right?" she asked her husband critically.

"Yes, obviously. Now, can you turn on the generator while I boot up the computer?"

Mrs. Matthews hesitated a moment, looking around the laboratory. "I don't know…we're using such untested machines with so volatile an energy source…it seems so dangerous."

Mr. Matthews patted his wife reassuringly on the shoulder. "I know it is, but it's the only way. You and I both know why we can't use the growth tank method again; it's far too unreliable. If Operation Convergence is to succeed, our children's genetic blueprint cannot stray by even a single nucleotide."

Nora nodded reluctantly. "I know, I know." Slowly, she turned and plugged in the gigantic, oven-like machine beside her. It was made mostly of titanium, with a clear viewing window on its side to the vat of oil within. A dull, orange glow came to life in the machine, turning brighter and brighter until it shone with the brilliance of a small sun. When a light on the osmo-fission machine blinked green, the two adults dropped a hair apiece into a special flask near the control panel so that it could begin scanning their DNA.

"Read me the traits we want programmed!" called Kyle, sitting down at the command computer.

Nora took out her clipboard. "Blond hair, gray eyes, sycophantic disposition…"

Downstairs, the candy ball floated out of the door to the waiting room and into the hallway. Eagerly, the three younger Matthews children ran after it, completely oblivious to the strange looks the other Erudite gave them.

Meanwhile, Jeanine wandered the labyrinthine corridors of the vast basement, marking down all the oddities she saw in a small notebook. Despite the fact that she had been exploring Erudite headquarters for as long as she could remember, Jeanine had yet to map all of it. There are so many fascinating gadgets here, she mused, recalling the particularly memorable time she had discovered a prototype for a hovercar wedged under a mountain of old computers. How can anyone just stash their inventions down here and forget about them?

As she walked, Jeanine thought about her strange trip to the Carrs' house last month. What did Mom and Dad mean when they said they were creating Abel to lead Abnegation? Who are the Divergent, and why do Iris and Leon want to eliminate them?

Mr. and Mrs. Carr are just like my parents: focused only on their obscure scientific works and unwilling to tell their children anything. Perrier, too, is exactly what I've come to expect of other kids: senseless and annoying.

The older boy, Andrew, however, intrigued her. He's bright, alright, maybe almost as intelligent as I am. Jeanine decided this could be both a good thing and a bad thing. He could help me figure out what the grown-ups are up to, but, as I've seen, it would be almost impossible to trick him if I ever need to.

Back in the laboratory, Kyle and Nora jumped as an alarm pealed out from the machine.

"Energy's building up within the auxiliary chambers!" yelled Mrs. Matthews, peering into the vat of now simmering oil. A small blob had formed within it, which was gradually taking on the shape of an infant.

"Oh, no, this is what I was afraid of," muttered Kyle, typing furiously into the computer. "Can you shut it down?"

Nora slammed her fingers over the control panel, punching buttons left and right. Nothing she did appeared to have any effect. "The system's gone into a positive feedback loop! Nothing can stop it now!"

The machine rattled ominously. Suddenly, flames shot out of the top and and began creeping down the sides.

"Try everything!" cried Mr. Matthews in panic. "There has to be a way to stabilize it!"

The glass panel of the viewing window cracked. "KYLE! WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE! IT'S GOING TO EXPLODE!"

"AND GET THROWN OUT OF THE FACTION FOR DOING ILLEGAL EXPERIMENTS?!" demanded Mr. Matthews, who was now tugging on every single plug in sight.

"I WOULD RATHER BE FACTIONLESS THAN DEA—!" Nora Matthews never got to finish her last sentence. With a shuddering BOOM! the glass panel broke, sending boiling oil and flames everywhere. The containers holding the various flammable, acidic, and radioactive chemicals in the Matthews' laboratory melted in the heat, creating a huge explosion just as the three younger Matthews children ran past the corridor outside.

Fifty feet below the ground, Jeanine felt the walls shake as a series of powerful vibrations rattled down the hall. Panicked, she sprinted up the stairs and burst out of the Erudite library, just in time to see a ghastly mushroom cloud form above the decimated building two blocks away, right where her parents' laboratory used to be. And Jeanine Matthews screamed.

September 15

Evelyn

Evelyn Johnson picked her way through the rubble of the factionless sector. Her father couldn't afford a car, which meant that she had to walk home from school every day. The Erudite sector of the city was nowhere close to the area, but she was hoping to avoid the vicious kids if she took the long route. Pulling on a giant gray coat to cover her faded blue dress, she ran to catch up to a group of Abnegation children walking on the cracked pavement ahead.

"Hello," they greeted her, dipping their heads. "Are you in our faction? We've never seen you before."

Evelyn flushed and lowered her voice to a whisper. "No, I'm trying to hide from bullies. May I walk with you?"

The Abnegation children nodded and made a space for her. Evelyn smiled with relief and disappeared into the mass of gray. This is why I like Abnegation the best out of all the factions. They are always understanding, willing to let a stranger hide amongst them with no questions asked.

"Hey, look, it's the Stiffs!"

Never mind. Evelyn groaned as she spotted clusters of Dauntless, Candor, and Erudite children up ahead, pointing and laughing at them. She should've known the Abnegation were the targets of bullying as well. Still, it's better to be attacked as a group than on your own, by the members of your own faction. She lowered her head and prayed silently in her head, Please don't recognize me, please don't recognize me, please don't recognize me.

"Hey, where're you going, Stiffs?" yelled a group of Erudite boys. "Off to collect wood to heat your houses? Or is that too high-tech for you?"

Laughter echoed around the dilapidated buildings. Evelyn glanced at the children beside her. If the Abnegation were angered by this remark, they didn't show it. They marched on, faces blank, their footsteps a steady rhythm on the concrete.

"Don't bother talking to them, they'll probably offer to wash your floors or something!" a group of Dauntless across the street shouted back.

"Know why they wear gray?" called out a pack of Candor girls as the Abnegation passed them. "Because their minds are gray, and that's the truth!"

More laughter. A stone sailed out of nowhere and struck one of the Abnegation boys walking at the front of the group. As they stopped, the children from the other factions closed in.

"You're not moving an inch until you allow us to paint you!" leered a Dauntless boy, advancing with a can of spray paint. Before he could reach them, though, one of the Erudite stopped him, peering into the group.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here. Evelyn Johnson, disguised as an Abnegation!" The girl laughed maniacally, waving her companions over.

I'm screwed.

"She failed her math test today, the sorry excuse for an Erudite did," announced one of Evelyn's classmates. "What do you know? She's actually aspiring to be in Abnegation now!"

Evelyn grit her teeth, fighting the urge to cry. "So what if I am? These people are actually decent, unlike you dirty lowlifes!"

"Forget it, girl. You're no good for any faction!" someone jeered, and the surrounding kids laughed. Evelyn tried but failed to think of a snappy comeback.

"Please leave us alone." The Abnegation children stepped in front of Evelyn and gazed evenly at their assaulters. "We are not bothering you, and she is distressed enough as it is."

The Erudite advanced, unimpressed. "She is one of us, and we'll deal with her how we like."

Knowing the charade was lost, Evelyn turned and bolted across the street. The Erudite and a few Dauntless gave chase, shouting nasty insults as they followed her into the jungle of half-collapsed buildings. Though most of the Dauntless could outrun her, Evelyn was so used to escaping them via the factionless sector that she knew hundreds of hiding places. When all but a couple of children had gotten tangled in the piles of debris that littered the area, Evelyn faked a turn and jumped behind a dumpster. Pairs of pounding feet pattered down the adjacent alleyway, then all was silent. As the adrenaline faded from her blood, all of the troubles of the day seemed to drop onto her head at once like a sack of bricks. Evelyn began to sob. Why does everyone have to be so mean to me?

"Hey! Who's in my territory?!" came a voice out of nowhere.

The girl instinctively sprang to her feet and scrambled backwards. A disheveled figure stood before her, dressed in a mud-splattered red shirt and black pants.

As the person stepped closer, Evelyn could see that it was a boy with yellowish skin and curly brown hair. He looked maybe two or three years older than her and carried a serrated blade. He frowned as he regarded the terrified child. "Are you factionless?"

Evelyn shook her head, edging slowly away from the boy. "N-no," she said shakily, "the other kids in my faction were being mean to me, and I was trying to escape. I'm really sorry." Please don't kill me!

The boy sighed with relief and pocketed his knife. "Good. I thought you were another scavenger trying to take my territory. What faction are you?"

"Erudite, though I-I'd give anything to be born somewhere else," Evelyn replied, sniffling. "No matter how hard I try, I just can't understand things quickly enough, and then they torture me for being so dumb!"

"Is that so? It's nice to hear someone who hates those freakin' geeks as much as I do. Say, I'll make you a deal." The boy grinned mischievously. "If you promise never to recite the Erudite manifesto again, I'll let you walk through this area every day to avoid those bullies."

Well, that's simple enough. Evelyn nodded immediately. "Deal."

"Well, see you around…what's your name?"

Evelyn hesitated. Giving out her name to a factionless stranger was a bad idea, or so she had been trained to think. But he's also the first person to treat me kindly in a long time, she reflected. "I'm Evelyn Johnson."

"Zachary Valenzuela."

What is Operation Convergence? Why does Zachary hate Erudite so much? And, most importantly, will George ever learn his ABC's? R&R!