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I stared at him, speechless. The feeling must have been mutual seeing that he didn't say anything either. Someone shouted something from behind him and it snapped him out of his daze. His expression went cold and so did his eyes. He grabbed my waist and hauled me off the net and onto a platform a few feet above the ground. I saw him look over the left side of my face. His cold eyes and neutral expression turned pained and apologetic.
"I can't believe it," A dark hair woman said as she walked towards us. The three silver rings in her right eyebrow glistened as she smile. "A Stiff? The first to jump?" She made it seem as if she just witnessed a miracle. "Wow, her 5 minutes here and she's already outdoing you, Four. She might be the new face to the Abnegation turned Dauntless club," she teased.
"We'll see about that, Lauren." His expression went cold again and his tone gave no hint of emotion. She looked me over for a few more seconds before walking away. His expression was still unreadable as he looked at me. After a year of dreaming how this day would go, this was not one of the scenarios that I had imagined. He looked over and began to shout, "First jumper, Alexan-,"
"Alex. Just Alex." I interrupted. He looked back over at me and I swear I saw a hit of a smile on his face.
"First jumper, Alex!" He announced correcting himself. "Go wait over there by Lauren," he instructed, his tone smooth. As I went to pass him, he grabbed my arm, "I'll talk to you later and I'll explain everything, I promise," he whispered. He let his grip linger though, before finally letting go. I nodded and made my way over to Lauren.
His behavior left me confused. Why didn't he mention the fact that I was his sister? There must be a reason for it, right? And why did Lauren call him Four? I had dozens of questions bouncing around in my head as I waited for the other initiates to make their way to the ground.
Once all of the initiates had jumped, we were separated into two groups; Dauntless-born and transfers. Tobias, or Four, Lauren, and Eric led us down a dark narrow tunnel. Olivia stopped short and I almost walked into her. Both groups had stopped.
"This is where we divide," Lauren announced. "Dauntless-born, you'll be coming with me. I'm assuming that you don't need a tour," Lauren began to walk past Eric and Four, leading the Dauntless-born further into Dauntless. I made eye contact with Jake before they turned a corner. Jake was my comfort zone here and now he was gone.
"The rest of you will be with me," Four informed us. "Most of the time I work in the control room, but for the next few weeks I'll be your instructor as you go through initiation. My name is Four. And Eric," Four motioned in the young leader's direction, "will be overseeing your training." I could tell by the look on Four's face that he wasn't exceptionally happy about it. I wouldn't be too happy either if I had a Dauntless leader looking over my shoulder while I was trying to do my job. The fact that it was Eric made it worse.
"What kind of a name is Four?" The one Candor boy asked with a chuckle.
"What kind of a name is Seth?" My brother questioned back sharply. So that was the Candor boy's name. I could tell by the tone of voice Four was using that the frequency of that question began to annoy him. "Follow me."
We all followed him forward, walking in the same direction as the Dauntless-born. It was only a few short minutes of walking before Four pushed open a set of double doors to the "the Pit".
As he explained the purpose and significants of the Pit, my mind began to wander. It wasn't long, however, before my eyes accidentally made contact with Eric's, who was standing off to the side. He scowled as his eyes met mine, reminding me that my choice words on the roof would come back to haunt me. I quickly looked away and back at Four just as he had finished speaking.
After the Pit, he showed us the chasm, which represented the fine line between bravery and stupidity. The rushing water of the chasm was beautiful, yet terrifying at the same time. The roaring of the water could have drowned and quieted all of my thoughts if we had stayed there for much longer. Once Four felt that we got our fill of the chasm he began to move us along.
We passed by the dinning hall on our way to the training room. I did my best to remember the way we came so that way when I had to make my way back here later I could. Four stopped in front of the training room doors, not bothering to open them. He turned to face us, Eric by his side.
"This is where you will be doing most, if not all, of your first phase of training. There are three phases; physical, emotional, and mental. You will be ranked by your level of performance in each phase," Four announced. Before he could continue, Eric spoke up.
"Rankings serve two purposes. One, is to determine which jobs you qualify for after initiation. There are only a few desirable ones. The second, is that ranks will also determines who gets cut," he said with a slight smirk.
"Cut?" One of the Erudite girl asked.
"After each phase training, the lowest ranking initiates will be leaving us." The smirk on his face was still there and an unsettling feeling creeped over me.
"To do..?" Another boy asked. I didn't see who it was this time.
"Well, there's no going back to your families so you'd live factionless," I'd much rather live factioness than go back to my father.
"Why didn't we know that?" The same Erudite girl questioned.
"It's a new rule." Something tells me he was the one that made that new rule.
"Somebody should have told us that," she whined.
"Why? Would you have chosen differently?" He questioned. "What, out of fear? If that's the case then you don't belong here and you might as well leave now," Eric crossed his arms. "It shouldn't matter to you that you might fail. You chose us. Now, we get to choose you."
Everyone was silent, too shocked to say a word. Four picked up on this and motioned us to follow him towards our co-ed living quarters. When we go there, I cringed at the sight of the bathrooms in the back and their lack of privacy.
"You have an hour to get some new clothes and change. After that, be in the chow hall," Eric commanded. Then he turned on his heels and made his way out of the room.
"Chow hall?" I turned, raising an eyebrow at the Erudite girl next to me, I think her name was Kristen?
"Military slang for cafeteria," she informed me without hesitation.
"Ah," was all I could mange as Four began to go into more detail about the currency at Dauntless, which was points.
"After lunch, you have the rest of the day to explore the compound and do whatever you'd like. Just make sure you're in the training room by 8am tomorrow morning. I'll come in as a wake up call an hour prior," As he finished he went to leave, but brushed past me. "Meet me in the dinning hall once you're done," he muttered as he made his way past me and out of the door.
"Alex!" I heard my name and spun around. Olivia had saved me a bed between herself and Kristen. I made my way over to them giving them a small smile. "Ready to do some shopping?" They both seemed a little over excited.
"Um, sure? Shopping really isn't my thing..." In Abnegation, I alternated between two grey attires, both very similar to each other. We were only ever allowed to get new clothes every 6 months.
"Don't worry, I got you covered. Shopping is my specialty!" Kristen squealed as she grabbed my arm, dragging me towards the Pit.
"Why does that not comfort me?" I looked helplessly at Olivia, who laughed in return.
XXX
A half hour into our shopping spree, I had managed to buy a few black T-shirts, V-necks, and tank-tops. Kristen had also added a few more less casual shirts that I hadn't bothered to look at. A few pairs of black pants, a pair of black boots, and tennis shoes later, I decided that I was done. Kristen and Olivia insisted that I stay and continue shopping with them, but I wanted to get to the dinning hall as soon as possible. Once I parted from them, I quickly changed into a black V-neck, jeans, and boots.
Finding my way to the dinning hall was definitely interesting as I got lost at least two or three times. After I finally made it to my destination, I noticed that it wasn't as packed as I'm sure it would be in about 20 minutes. I made my way over to the food line and piled my tray with food, a piece of chocolate cake, and a tin cup full of grape juice. Reaching the end of the line, I looked around for my brother. He sat at a near empty table on the other side of the dimly lit room. I balanced my food in my hands as I navigated my way through a crowd of rowdy Dauntless.
I plopped down in the seat to the right of him, taking him a little off guard. "Took you long enough," he sighed.
"It's nice to see you too again, Tobias," I mocked. His attitude had definitely changed over the course of the past year, but not in a bad way. He spoke with more confidence now.
"Don't call me that here!" He hissed, looking over his shoulder, checking if anyone was close enough to hear us.
"Sorry..." His tone took me by surprise. I was so used to him being this soft spoken kid... But what was wrong with calling him by his name?
He looked at me apologetically. "No, I'm sorry. It's just that people here don't now me by that name. They don't know about my past and I don't want them too," He continued to glance over his shoulder every so often, making sure that no one over heard us. "That's why I haven't told anyone that you're my sister. And I'd prefer if you didn't tell anyone either, at least until your initiation is over,"
"I don't blame you..." I said softly, brushing my fingers over the bruise on my face. I wouldn't want anyone knowing that I was Marcus' kid either.
"He did that to you, didn't he?" He looked over my face. His eyes turned from their cold façade to those of an older brother who understood my pain.
"He asked me if I was going to stay in Abnegation or follow you to Dauntless... I told him I was going to follow you," I didn't regret my decision to do so either and I never would.
I saw his lips curl into a smile. It disappeared a few moments later as if he remembered something. "I heard what you said to Eric on the roof."
"Yeah, so?" I questioned him as I began to eat my food.
"You can't say shit like that to people like him here. You don't want to be on his bad side." I could feel his eyes on me as I ate. "You of all people should understanding the concept of knowing when and when not to speak."
As I finished chewing I looked at him. "I'm not afraid of him. I lasted 16 years of my life with Marcus. Eric is an angel compared to him." He chucked at the comparison.
"Just don't piss him off anymore than you already have, okay?" I shrugged my shoulders in response. Four was about speak again, but stopped when we were joined by Jake and Aidan, who sat across from us. They nodded a greeting in Four's direction, but their main focus fell on me.
"Look who it is, it's the first jumper," Aidan smiled.
"I swear you've got more of a reputation here in your first couple of hours than I have in 16 years," Jake joked as he drank from his cup.
"Shut up," I laughed, flicking a piece of broccoli at him. It felt like I hadn't seen the boys in days. They looked just the same, though, in their black attire.
"No, seriously. The way you mouthed off to Eric on the roof...," Jake looked over at Four. "Did you hear about it?" I notice that the Dauntless-born seemed much more comfortable around Four than the transfers. Maybe they already knew him? The irony of Jake knowing Four, but not knowing he was my brother, made me want to laugh.
"Oh yeah, I heard. As a matter of fact I just told the Stiff that she needs to keep her mouth shut." He glared at me
"It was pretty badass though! He was so mad he almost threw the next kid off the roof!" Aidan exclaimed. Damn, I'm glad I jumped when I did then.
"Four's right. You need to be careful around Eric. He may be the youngest leader, but he's probably the cruelest," Jake advised. He was the youngest? How old was he? But it didn't surprise me to learn that he was the cruelest. The coldness of his eyes and expression gave that away pretty easily.
"How old is he?" I raise one eyebrow.
"A year older than us. He was in your initiation class, wan't he, Four?" Aidan looked at Four for conformation.
"Yeah, he transferred from Erudite." He informed us. As our conversation went on, I failed to see Kristen and Olivia make their way into the dinning hall. They made their way over and joined us, Olivia sitting next to me and Kristen sitting next to Jake. They smiled a greeting at the boys and Four.
"Whatcha guys talkin' about?" Olivia asked. Both her and Kristen changed into black attire. It suited Kristen, but looked a little odd on Olivia.
"Eric." I stated.
"He was giving you the dirtiest looks earlier," Kristen said.
"Yeah, I noticed." I sighed.
"Pretty sure you're on his shit list, Alex," Aidan looked pitifully at me.
"Speaking of the devil..." Jake's word made me and Four look over our shoulders. My chest tightened and my heart began to race as I saw Eric making his way over to our table. A feeling rose in my gut, telling me this confrontation was not going to end well.
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