AN: Hey, so my friend read the first chapter and she said that it didn't seem very "Tobias". So I rewrote it. Please, tell me whether I should delete this or replace the original chapter one with this one or whatever. Also, thanks for the new reviews and follows and favourites and stuff. :) stay cool guys - Grace xx
I check my watch. The initiates should be jumping any minute now. The net waits beside me wide and sturdy, lit bright from the sun above. The last time I was here was last years choosing day, and before then, the day I jumped. I didn't want to remember the feeling of inching toward the edge of the building, my mind and my body going haywire with terror. The awful drop, the helpless flailing of the limbs. The slap of the net fibres against my arms and neck.
"You know," Lauren says, "If you were up for some serious studying, we could use you in tech services."
I say, "If you are recruiting, you should talk to Zeke. He's much better than I am."
"Yeah, but Zeke doesn't know when to shut up. We don't recruit for skills as much as compatibility. We spend a lot of time together."
I grin. Zeke does like to surround himself in chatter but that's never bothered me. Sometimes it's nice not needing to provide any conversation. Lauren plays with one of the rings in her eyebrow and we wait.I try to crane my neck to see the top of the building from the ground, but all I can see is sky.
"Bet you it's one of my Dauntless borns." Lauren says.
"It's always a dauntless born. No bet."
They have an unfair advantage - they usually know what is at the bottom of the jump though we try to keep it from them as much as possible. The only time we use this entrance to headquarters is on Choosing Day, but, the dauntless are curious. They explore the compound when they think no one is watching. They also grow up cultivating in themselves the desire to make odd moves, to take drastic action. To commit themselves fully to what they're about to do. It would take a strange kind of transfer to know how to do that without having been taught. Then I see her.
Not a black streak, like I was expecting, but grey, tumbling through the air. I hear the snap of the net pulling taught around the middle supports and it shifts to cradle her. For a second, I stare amazed, at the familiar clothing that she wears, then I put my hand out into the net so she can reach it. She wraps her fingers around mine and I pull her across. As she tumbles over the side, I grab her shoulders to steady her. She's small and thin, fragile looking, like the impact with the net should have shattered her. Her eyes are wide and bright blue.
"Thank you," she says. She make look fragile but her voice her voice is steady.
"I can't believe it," Lauren says, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "A stiff, the first to jump? That's unheard of."
She's right. It is unheard of. It's unheard of for a stiff to join dauntless even. There were no abnegation transfers last year, and before that, for a long time, there was only me.
"There's a reason why she left them" I say, feeling distant from the moment. I pull myself back and say to the initiate "what's your name?"
"Um.." She hesitates, and I feel for a brief moment that I know her. Not from my time in abnegation, and not from school, but on a deeper level. Dissatisfied with the name she has, her eyes and mouth search for a name, just as I felt. My initiation instructor gave me an escape from my old identity. I can give her one too.
"Think about it," I say, a smile playing on my lips, "you don't get to pick again."
"Tris" she says, like she's already sure of it.
"Tris" Lauren says. "Make the announcement Four."
I look over my shoulder at the crowd of dauntless members that have gathered to watch the initiates jump and announce, "First jumper, Tris!"
This way, they'll remember her, not for the grey clothes she wears, but for her first of of bravery, or insanity. Sometimes they can be the same thing. The crowd cheers, and as the sound fills the cavern another initiate plunges into the net, this tine letting out a blood curdling scream. A girl, dressed in Candor black and white. This time, Lauren is the one to reach across the net and pull her out. I touch my hand to Tris's back to guide her towards the stairs just in case she isn't as steady as she appears. As she takes a step, I say "Welcome to Dauntless."