Disclaimer: The characters and setting belong to Veronica Roth.
Thanks to my beta Still Alone, and my reviewers Tara, LittleMissBookwormBrainiac, Catebrazil, maryann and CrimeGirlMariah2000!
The morning of my choosing day dawns bright and fresh. The sun full and high beating down waves of hot light down onto the city. Making light bounce of the metallic roofs of the faction hubs.
I pull myself slowly out of bed, and go to grab my Abnegation robes from where they are hanging haphazardly over my desk chair.
This is the last time I will ever wear these overly thick, stifling clothes. The last time I will stand in this small, square room and wonder how my brother is getting on. Tomorrow I will know.
"Jane, get yourself down here right now!" My Fathers booming voice echoes up the stairs, in a cold demanding manner. The last time my Father will ever impatiently call up the stairs to me. I smirk
Ignoring his call I neatly tuck my long hair into a tight, neat Abnegation bun, straighten my clothes and then make my way down our creaky staircase.
My father is standing at the bottom of the stairs. His eyes are cold and hard as he evaluates me slowly. "You know what you have to do, don't you girl?" He snaps staring at me with a face as cold as iron. It would have made me cringe once upon a time.
"Yes sir, I will choose Abnegation to cover up the stain Tobias left on our family." I recite, my Father has given me this particular lecture many times in the past week, so it's easy enough to remember it.
He gives me a curt nod, and swings the front door open letting a stream of brightness into our otherwise gloomy house.
I roll my eyes and follow my moody father out of our little unornamented house.
The last time I was in this room I was sat among Abnegation watching my brother's year sweat. This year I'm in the group of nervous 16 year olds. I'm not nervous. I know exactly where I'm going.
This year it's the Amity leader Johanna Reyes leading the ceremony. Her scarred face is familiar enough. Even if it is covered with a curtain of brown hair in a vain attempt to cover the large scar that runs down her pretty face.
"Welcome to the choosing ceremony..." The speech continues as usual, Johanna reciting the factions virtues in her honey sweet Amity voice.
Soon enough though the speech is over and she is calling names in a monotonous voice. Starting with Reuben Yacomeni the Erudite.
Predictably no one transfers until Lucy Norman from Candor decides she's rather be an Erudite. This causes much disruption around the hall, and it takes Johanna several seconds to quieten down the mutters.
"Jane Eaton." The sound of my name passing the faction leaders lips jerks me back into focus, and I slowly step out of the ever shrinking line of teenagers.
I take the offered knife and make a neat slit across my hand, I move forward to stand in front of the large marble bowls. However I have none of my brothers hesitation, I quickly position my hand over the hot coals and squeeze a drop of blood out of my hand.
A cheer erupts from the section of the room dressed all in black. I am Dauntless.
The ceremony doesn't last much longer after that, and I find myself standing awkwardly behind a group of Dauntless borns who decided to stay in their faction of origin. They are taller than me so even when I stand on my tiptoes I can only see black clad shoulders.
When the last boy makes his choice -Candor- its time to leave. The Dauntless leave first as usual. I walk past grey clothed Abnegations who shake their heads and look disapprovingly at me, I keep my eyes trained forwards to avoid their accusing glares.
They boy next to me is from Erudite and he looks about as nervous as I should feel. I wonder what's waiting for me at Dauntless headquarters. I wonder if I can even survive initiation. All I can think about is meeting my brother again.
The crowd of Dauntless leads us towards the stairs rather than the bank of elevators. I thought only Abnegation used the stairs.
Suddenly though everyone starts running noisily up the stairs, whooping as they stampede up them like elephants. I am breathless by the time the Dauntless spill through the exit.
The sun is still shining, and light is bouncing of the buildings temporarily blinding me. My confusion disappears as I hear the familiar sound of the train horn behind me.
"Do we have to jump on that thing?" The Erudite next to me exclaims, looking at me incredulously.
I nod once keeping my gaze locked on the train and watch the faction members swing themselves easily onto the train.
Leaving just the faction transfers standing at the station. I break out into a jog and run alongside the car for a few moments before jumping sideways. I am not strong enough to pull myself in and I cling to a handle for a moment.
An Amity transfer reaches out and pulls me up into the carriage. "Thanks," I mutter breathlessly and sink down onto the floor next to her.
She is a little taller than me with tan skin, probably from working outside a lot. Her eyes are a startling blue and her blonde hair is cropped short. Pretty.
"I'm Claudia," She extends her hand to me, and I shake it once.
"Jane," I reply with a smile.
"Do you know where the Dauntless Headquarters are?" She has to raise her voice to be heard over the rushing wind filling the train carriage.
I snort, in avery un-Abnegation manner. "Does anyone? It's like they just popped out the ground or something,"
"They're jumping!" A Candor transfer calls snapping me back to attention. I stand quickly to look in the direction he is pointing. Sure enough the black clad Dauntless members are jumping from the train onto a long rooftop, rolling as they land.
Just the idea of jumping off a moving train onto a rooftop with 20 ft drop below it makes me want to throw up. "I guess we'd better jump to then." My voice sounds much firmer than I thought it would.
Everyone in the carriage looks as queasy as I feel watching the Dauntless jump from the train. No objection are offered however, this is what we signed up for. I grab Claudia's arm. "Let's do it together that way we have someone to drag us off."
She nods and the two of us take a big step back. We exchange a final glance before taking a running jump off the train.
I land with a roll. My knees and elbows sting slightly where they have been scratched by the gravel, but the pain is easy to ignore.
Me and Claudia are the first transfers to make it off the train. We exchange a quick smirk before making our way over to where the Dauntless born are clustered around a dark skinned man with muscles so big, one of his arms is probably the size of both of mine.
A few moments later all the transfers have made it onto the roof apart from a rosy cheeked Amity who refused to jump, and went whizzing away with the train. He is factionless now.
"Listen up!" The muscular Dauntless calls. "I'm Max, one of the leaders of your new faction! Several stories below us is the members entrance to the Dauntless compound. If you can't muster the will to jump off, you don't belong here!"
"You want us to jump off a ledge, into nothing? Is there water at the bottom or something?" A mousy Erudite asks incredulously. I think I heard her name was Brianna.
"I guess you'll have to find out." Max says cryptically. he is offering us no clues. "Who's first?"
There is silence for a moment before a muscled Candor steps out of the pack of initiates, and walks purposefully to the ledge. "I'll go,"
Max nods and steps of the ledge to allow him room to jump. He hops onto the ledge and takes a deep breath before stepping over the edge into nothingness.
No noise is heard until there is a thud of a body hitting a net, and a loud cheer erupts underneath us. He's alive.
"Who's next?" Max calls out looking at the group of us.
I take a step out of the group the gravel crunching under my feet as I do. Everyone whizzes round to face me. Claudia shoots me a reassuring smile, as a step up onto the ledge.
I can feel the wind hitting the back of my legs and tangling my hair as I look down into the large hole we are expected to jump through. There is nothing but blackness beneath me.
"Come on then Stiff we haven't got all day, you know." Max snaps impatiently behind me.
I breath out once before stepping forward into nothingness. I feel all the air whoosh from body as I descend quickly from the rooftop. If I could have screamed I would of, but the shock and the sensation of falling had stripped me of any ability to move or make any noise.
What seems like an hour but in reality is about 10 seconds later I hit a coarse black net with a thud, and I scramble up to jump off.
A hand reaches up to assist me of the net, and I take it gratefully slipping off the net. When I am standing on hard floor I get a good look at the face that the hand is attached to. Tobias.
Two updates in one day! I won't normally update this quick it's just the weekend at the moment so I have more time!
Yay! So that's chapter two guys, thanks for reading and all your reviews I read and appreciate every single one of them!