Come on guys I don't know how I want this story to end so please tell me. Plus I just thought of another way to end it. I have to know where my story is going so I can direct my mind to the ending.
took three tries to get this chapter right hop you enjoy.
Once I had my medication and was now wearing a fresh pair of cloths; that didn't either have my blood or Eric's, we were off. The six of us walked down the corridor from the initiate dorms to the pit. My sister and my friends were talking about what they would happen to them if they were sent home. I stayed out of the conversation and just looked around. After a few seconds I realized there were people staring at us.
"Why are they staring at us?" I asked my sister and friends.
"They heard about the fight with Eric." Christina told me. I internally groaned
"Great so they know how weak I am." I grumbled.
"Actually it turns out Eric fights at least one initiate a year. All of them smart asses like you." Will told me. I glared at Will and he raised his hand "can I finish before you glare?" he asked me. I rolled my eyes at him. "Most usually quite after they get knocked down the first or second time." He explained "you kept getting up and trying to fight him. It took him nearly killing you till you finally lost." I looked over at a few people that were staring at me.
"Everyone's is really impressed with your Zed," Al added "even Eric himself." I rolled my eyes
"Can we not talk about that douche face for the rest of the day?" I asked my friends.
"For an Amity you really can come up with good insults for him." Christina commented.
"Years of pent-up anger." I gave her a teasing smile.
"Not that well," Abby commented with a smile across her face. I shoved her into Al with my shoulder. Abby started laughing and shoved me back causing me to stumbled into someone walking the opposite direction.
"So what was up with you and that dauntless born?" Chris asked Abigail. Abby blushed and gave a quick shrug. I knew that look all too well. A smile broke across my face.
"He's just a guy I was talking to earlier." She told her.
"Just a guy?" I questioned. "Abs you two did not stop talking the entire time we trained today." Abby rolled her eyes but the blush on her cheeks was very prominent. "If you're crushing just tell us." I told her.
"I just met him!" She squealed.
"Abs I'm your twin," I wrapped an arm around her neck pulling her into a head lock. "I know everything about you." Abby tried to get out of the head lock but she was too busy giggling. I released my sister as we walked into the pit.
"You know I want to get a new outfit too," Christina said as she we walked by a place with that had cloths. "What about you guys?" Christina asked us.
"I'm in," I smiled while looking in the store already.
"What about you Tris?" Abby smiled at Tris. Tris looked slightly awkward
"I guess," that was good enough for Christina because she wrapped a hand around her wrist and pulled her into the store. The guys stood outside waiting for us to finish shopping. I looked around the store and popped a couple pain meds in my mouth as I started feeling the pain of my broken ribs again. I walked around the store trying to find something I liked when Abby ran around a corner.
"Zed! Look at this!" She held out a long flowing black skirt that wet from mid waist to the floor. "It looks like the ones we wore back home." She right it did look like a skit that we would have worn back in Amity. Before I could make any comment she ran off and went to a section with shirts. I turned away and I grabbed better work out gear. I grabbed a pair of yoga pants and a sports bra. I looked around and a grabbed a pair of cargo pants and a pair of skinny jeans. I grabbed a couple more tank tops and a belt to hold up my cargo pants.
"Is that all you're going to get?" Christina asked as she came around a corner with a bundle of clothing in her arms.
"Yeah what's wrong with these?" I asked her.
"Nothing but I suggests at least one thing that is either cute or makes you look hot," I rolled my eyes at her and turned my head. I was going to do the exact opposite of what she suggested till I saw a corset top across the room. I put the stuff down leaving it with Christina. I walked over and grabbed the top off the hanger. It was my size and was a black corset top that had only straps for the hanger and opened up in the front. I turned around to show Christina. Christina looked over it from across the room then gave it a thumbs up. I walked back over and grabbed the other cloths I was going to get. "That top would look good with both of those pairs of pants. And that jacket you found." She told me. I rolled my eyes and we went to go find my sister and Tris. We found my sister and Tris by the changing room. Tris was wearing a black dress that really suited her.
"Get it," the three of us said to her. Tris smiled and went back into the changing room to change back into her normal cloths. Once Tris came back we finished the shopping and left the store.
"Did you three leave with the whole stock?" Will asked us.
"Hey I just got work out cloths, a skirt and a crop top." Abby defended.
"Just a dress," Tris said quietly.
"What about you?" Al asked me
"I just got a couple top pants and work out cloths." I shrugged.
"And a hot corset top!" Christina said out of excitement. "Come on let's get our tattoos." We fallowed Chris to the tattoo shop. When we got there I stopped at the door while my friends split apart. The shop was crowded which meant a high level of being touched. I swallowed hard and I looked at my sister who was still standing beside me.
"We can always come back," she told me. I shook my head and took in a deep breath.
"Bravery means doing something despite your fear," I said more to myself then her. "I chose Dauntless might as well start somewhere." I started walking into the shop. "But if you see me leave meet me back at the dorms."
"Alright." The shop was covered wall to wall with glass plates with tattoo designs on them. A couple columns were also set out with Tattoos and piercings. I looked around at both people either getting piercings or tattoos, and designs. Abby walked off at some point and was looking at a couple tattoo plates with Tris. I walked over to Christina as the artist placed a pad on the inner side of her bicep. The guy set it then turned on the machine. She made quick squeak sound causing Will to laugh. Christina reached out and grabbed Will's hand and squeezed it.
"It's probably not that bad," Will laughed but still held onto Chris' hand. I rolled my eyes at the two.
"Zed, are you going to get one?" Al asked me. I could tell that the whole Christina and Will thing was making him a little uncomfortable. I gave him a slight smile
"Not sure yet," I gestured with my head back in to the shop. "Let's go look." We walked back into the shop and started looking at the plates. As we stood there looking at the plates people started bumping into me. My anxiety was starting to peek and my ribs started to ache again. I dove into my jacket pocket and popped a couple pills. I swallowed them down just as another person pushed me forward. I shot the person a hard glare as they made their way to the back of the shop.
"Are you alright?" Al asked me. I shrugged; Abby came up to me with concern written all over her face.
"You okay?" Abby asked me as she walked up to me. I groaned, I wasn't in the mood for twenty people to ask me if I was okay.
"Other than having a giant twenty four year old beat the living crap out of me, and being in a crowded room full of people who keep touching me. I couldn't be worse." I took a deep breath causing me to cough hard. I placed my hand on the large forming bruise on my neck.
"You could be dead," Al added.
"Don't remind me." Abby crossed her arms over her chest.
"Well I'm not." I looked at my sister and I hugged her tightly "Thank you," Abby didn't hug me for a couple seconds. She was stiff and awkward like I usually was.
"For what?" she asked me.
"Getting him to stop." I told her, "If you didn't say anything I probably wouldn't be here." Abby hugged me back and lightly squeezed me. I took in a sharp breath as the pressure reached my ribs.
"Sorry." Abby let me go fast and gave me an apologetic smile.
"You weren't the one who broke my ribs," I told her, "or fractured them." Abby rubbed my arms then something caught her eye. She broke away from me and walked over to the wall behind me. I looked over at her and saw her pick up a glass plate. She smiled and turned it over to me. It was of two figures they stood apart but their hands came together in a high-five.
"Gemini," she smiled "the twins. We should totally get this one."
"We?" I raised my eye brow at her. "I thought you hated tattoos?" I asked her. Abby shrugged and looked at the tattoo.
"No matter what faction we choose home will always be in our blood." My heart squeezed as she quoted our dad. Abby looked at me with a sad smile. "We'll always be amity but why not add Dauntless into the mix." She looked around and grabbed another glass tablet. "This one it just me though." I didn't see the new plate she had grabbed. Abby grabbed my wrist and pulled me over to two tattoo artists (a man and a woman) that were just talking. "Hi can we both get this one?" Abby held up the Gemini design. The two looked at us; as they did I recognized the woman from choosing day. The woman smiled at us
"Your Jed's girls aren't you?" Both Abby and I looked at each other than her.
"Yeah," Abby said quietly; the women smiled and turned to the man.
"I got them Bud." She told him and he left. She turned her smile onto us "so you both want an identical tattoo?"
"Yeah," Abby held up the Gemini with a smile. "I would like it on my right bicep and this one on the other." Abby held up the two plates. I finally caught a glimpse of the second plate and it was a large oak tree tattoo that was highly detailed. The tattoo made me think of Eric's dragon tattoo. I thought about how its body curved as it flew across his back. Its scales rippling with ever twist and turns of its body. She thought of the flames that licked across his back that molded into the burns on his body.
How did he get those scars? She found herself wondering.
"Zed!" I looked up at my sister. Abigail's eyebrows pulled together with concern. "Are you okay?" she asked me. I gave my sister a reassuring smile.
"Yeah, my mind just wondered is all." Abby nodded then turned back to the dauntless woman. The woman guided us to a metal chair and had Abby sit down first.
"Either of you want piercings?" She asked us.
"Can I get one right here?" Abby asked as she pointed to the top right corner of her mouth.
"Sure," the women turned to me. "What about you sweet heart?" she wore a kind smile and I could see that most of her wrinkles were from smiling. She made me think of dad who had the same smile lines in his face.
"Um…" I thought for a moment "Can I get three rings on my right eyebrow? Can I also get one ring on the left corner of my bottom lip, a bar on my left ear, and on my right piercings down the helix?" the women and Abs raised an eye brow at me.
"Isn't that a little much?" Abby asked me.
"For a first time it is," The woman told Abby. She looked from my sister to me. "Anything else?" she asked me. I thought for a moment, I looked around the room and saw a guy with thorn like earrings in the lobes of his ears.
"Can I also get thorns like him?" I gestured to the guy. The women frowned.
"We'll start you off with something smaller first," she told me, "his are stretched out a bit." I nodded as pulled out her piercing tools. "I'm Helen by the way." Abby smiled and I couldn't help but mentally slap myself.
Eric recommended her and I didn't even put two and two together, I thought. I messed with the back of my hair causing me to wince. I needed to get my hair cut so no one would use my long hair against me again.
"Helen?" I spoke up softly. Helen looked up from me as she was placed the stud in the piercing gun. "Is there any place I can get my hair cut?" I asked her.
"Just across the hallway." She told me I nodded my thanks and I left the tattoo parlor. I stood out in the middle of the corridor taking in a painful breath. It had been crowded in there and I didn't realize that I was slightly anxious. I looked across the hall and there was the place that Helen told me about. I tried to take a step forward but someone rammed into me.
Please be anyone but Eric, were my instant thoughts. I pulled away to see the Dauntless born boy that had been flirting with my sister.
"Hey," he wore a goofy smile. He ran a hand through his shaggy hair as he spoke "it's one of the Amity twins." His smile grew a little "Zed, Right?"
Now I'm wishing it was Eric, I found myself thinking.
"Yeah the bruises should really give that away," I told him faking a smile.
"That was really cool by the way not backing down in Eric's fight." He smiled "That was really Dauntless of you." That was the first time anyone said I was anything like any faction.
"Thank you," I mumbled and looked down.
"No problem," he looked around behind me and I could tell who he was looking for.
"She's getting a tattoo," I gestured toward the parlor "with Helen." Trevor cocky smile changed into a softer genuine one.
"Well I needed to talk to my mother anyways." Trevor commented and walked past me. "Thanks" he said and pasted my shoulder. I rolled my and took in a deep breath trying to push away the quick feeling of his large warm sweaty hand. I shivered slightly and I proceeded across the hall. I stepped inside the parlor to find it was busy, not like the tattoo shop where it was wall to wall with people. Each chair had a person to it and another cutting or styling the sitting person's hair. Music blared from the tattoo shop and the music flowed into the shop I was in now. A girl walked passed me with a shaved head who I wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't rammed her shoulder into me.
"HEY!" I snapped at her. My anger was awakening now because of her.
"WHAT!" she turned back yelling at me. Someone's hand wrapped around my bicep and pulled me away from her.
"I can help you over here." a sweet voiced woman said as she pulled me away from the girl. I turned to the woman who was pulling me away and all I could see about her was midnight hair with red streaks. All of her hair was pushed to one side of her head and the other was shaved. I swallowed hard as I realized this was the same woman that I saw with Eric the first night. "Careful with Lynn she has the shortest fuse in all of Dauntless." She said and sat me down in a vacant chair. She smiled warmly at me "I'm Lucy or Luce." She held out her hand.
"Zed," I shook her hand cautiously.
"Relax," She turned her back to me as she opened a draw. "I'm not pissed about you interrupting me and Eric the other night." She said as she pulled out a pair of scissors. My eyes locked on the scissors. She set them down and placed an electric razor next to it. "I told him that we should have gone to my place but." She turned her dark yet warm eyes on me. "He had some issues with a transfer from Amity. And he needed a quick release" She smiled with a shrug. Lucy laughed lightly "I'm going to give a wild guess and say you're the Amity Transfer."
"That would be me," Luce started laughing hard.
"Well it's nice to finally meet you trouble initiate," She smiled "So how can I help you today?" she asked me.
"I need a haircut that will prevent my hair from being used against me." I told her, Luce nodded.
"You okay with a pixie cut?" she asked me. I shrugged "you have to give me something to work with." She told me.
"Not Lynn's or Eric's." Luce smiled and giggled a little.
"Done so I have an idea what to do now mind if I experiment a bit?"
"Go right ahead." I told her.
"What about color?"
"Okay."
"Alright," she picked up the scissors and walked behind me. She took hold of my ponytail "say goodbye to you long hair." I closed my eyes as she started cutting her way through it. My hair dropped to the floor and the last of my hair drifted to the front of my face. I opened my eyes and I now supported the same length of hair Christina had. I frowned as I saw that the angry amity girl was slowly disappearing before my eyes. "Having second thoughts?" Luce asked me. I shook my head; I was sad to see the amity girl go but I knew I belonged here in Dauntless. My test said I was Dauntless so therefore I will be dauntless. Even a dauntless born had told me not backing down from Eric made me Dauntless.
"No," I told her.
"Are you sure you want me to do whatever I want?" she asked me.
"Do whatever you want." I told her. Luce nodded; she picked up the scissors and started cutting away my hair. I watched my blond hair get cut away and drift to the black tiled floor. She cut around my head leaving the hair on top of my head alone. After she cut my hair till it was barley touching the tops of my ears; she took the electric razor and started shaving the sides of my head. She moved the hair that was on top of my head out of the way so she wouldn't get it caught in the razor. She set down the razor once she was done and took the scissors and the last of my hair. She started cutting it till there were only about six inches left. She let go of my hair and I looked at myself in the mirror. I had about half an inch of hair around my head and the top of my hair barley hung in my eyes.
"I'm not done yet but what do you think?" Luce smiled her warm smile.
"Not too bad," I gave my reflection a half smile.
"Alright now the color before I style it," Luce opened a couple of cabinets and pulled out a couple tubes and a few bottles. She set them on the counter and pulled on a pair of gloves. She took one of the tubes and emptied purplish goo into her gloved hand. She rubbed it into the other glove then started massaging the go into my hair. I winced slightly causing her to frown.
"Am I hurting you?" she asked me.
"Just a sore scalp from my fight." I said and closed my eyes.
"Yeah I heard about the fight with Eric," she kept frowning. "He always picks on at least one person during initiation," she told me.
"So this year it's me?" her frown deepened.
"Looks like." I watched her poor more goo into her hand and started massaging it into the front of my hair. I watched my hair go from pale blond to and ink black. Once my head was covered she pulled me aside and rinsed out my hair. Having someone wash my hair felt really good and reminded me of when I was a little girl and my mother washed my hair. I smiled at the memory of my mom. "And up," Luce said I sat up and she placed a towel on my head. She walked me back to her station. She removed my towel and I gasped. My hair was dark and I couldn't believe that I was naturally blond. "Like it?" I looked at her and I just nodded. "Still not done yet." She told me. I nodded; once my hair was dry she took six inch hair and started putting blue foam on it. I started seeing the black being stripped away making the tips of my hair into a paler blond. Once she rinsed that out of my hair she added an orangey red paste into her hand. She put the paste into my newly bleached hair. I looked at Luce's reflection and she looked focused on what she was doing. Once she finished she rinsed out my hair. When she sat me back down my back was to the mirror. She dried my hair and started styling it. She took a grey past and rubbed it on her hands and started pushing my six inch hair up. She pushed my hair up till she was satisfied. She took a black hand-towel and cleaned off her hands. "Now your hair is perfect for fighting and you look extremely dauntless. Luce turned my hair around so I could see my new hair. A smile broke across my face as I saw my new hair. Luce had turned the chunk of long hair on my head into a short fohawk and the tip were a bright orangey red that made it look like the last breath of flames on coals. "Like it?" she asked me.
"I love it!" I turned my smile on her.
"Come back in a couple weeks and I give you a trim and recolor." She smiles at me.
"Thank you," I smiled and left the shop. I walked back into the tattoo shop looking for my friends but of course they had all left. I was going to leave to catch up with them but Helen found me.
"There you are," Helen walked up to me. "I almost didn't recognized you." Helen smiled brightly "had an appointment."