AN: I was actually about to upload the chapter after this, I thought this one had already gone up!
Anyway, happy weekend, and thanks for all your kind reviews, follows and favourites :)
Chapter 18
Tris was curled up in a sofa chair in a movie room, just beginning to wake up.
Her neck was stiff from the angle she had been at while she was asleep. Her lids were heavy, and she only opened them a slit to take in her surroundings.
Uriah and Marlene were asleep on the floor, on a pile of pillows, curled up against one another.
Will was somehow folded into the other couch, and Lynn was asleep in a bean bag.
They had played poker in front of several movies well into the early hours of Friday morning, until they had eventually crashed and fallen asleep.
Will and Lynn had joined Tris, Uriah and Marlene right before dinner. Christina had not been with them – see was ranked 9th overall, so she would be taking her test on Friday morning, and thus was stuck with the other untested recruits she had taken her test.
Tris blinked a few times, then reached for her cell to find out what the time was.
It was nine thirty.
This caused Tris to wake up quite quickly, surprised at how late it was.
She sat up, stretched, and then said, "Guys, wake up. It's past 9.30. We've missed breakfast."
"We missed breakfast?" Uriah queried in dismay, sitting up rather quickly, disentangling himself from Marlene.
"We'll have to raid the kitchen," Lynn said simply.
"We can do that?" Will asked curiously.
"Sure," Lynn replied. "We have our ways."
"I want more sleep," Marlene mumbled, rolling over and curling into Uriah's side.
Uriah chuckled and said, "Come on Mar, you've got to get up. You'll feel better after some coffee."
Tris stood and headed for the door, with Lynn hot on her heels.
The five of them made their way down to the dining hall, off which the kitchen could be found.
Lynn punched a code into the kitchen door and soon they were raiding the breakfast supplies and eating.
"What do we do for the rest of the day?" Will wondered, munching on a breakfast muffin.
"We should probably go to the gym, and put in some target practice," Tris decided for them.
"Yeah, we don't want to fall after the final hurdle," Uriah agreed. "I doubt the senior agents would be pleased with us if at the first chance we have just goof off, instead of being responsible almost-agents."
"With our luck Eric will be keeping tabs on us and take a billion points off our final scores if we slack off today," Marlene seconded glumly.
So they moved off from the dining hall, in a sort of pack, and made their way to their dorms, to shower, change into gear, and head off to put in some training in their chosen areas before lunch.
When Tris headed to the dining hall for lunch, she was alone, having been the first to leave the gym after her workshop.
She found Christina sitting alone at their usual table. Tris approached silently, trying to assess Christina's mood from her posture.
Christina wasn't slumped over, nor was her head hung, she was just sitting normally, albeit rather motionlessly. Tris concluded that her test had therefore not been a disaster.
As she got close to the table however, Tris could see that Christina seemed to be in a sort of daze, which accounted for her stillness.
Tris decided to simply approach the table and sit down next to her friend, and wait to see what was going on.
After waiting for a few minutes for Christina to say something, Tris eventually said, "Did you make it out in time?"
"Yeah," Christina said in a monotone.
"So, do you want to tell me what's bothering you then?" Tris asked.
"Not now," Christina said quietly.
"That's fine," Tris said calmly. "I'm sure you'll talk when you're ready. But you might want to try to snap out of whatever trance you're in now before the others get here."
"Noted," Christina replied. "I think I'll get some lunch now."
She and Tris went and served themselves some food, and were sitting down to eat when Will and Lynn walked in, Uriah and Marlene behind them.
"There's my girl!" Will exclaimed. "You crushed it, right?"
"Right," Christina said cheerfully. "And I'm all ready to be included in whatever post-test nonsense you lot have been up to."
"We played poker," Lynn supplied. "We didn't get too wild."
"We were waiting to get wild until after we actually received our results," Marlene pointed out. "There's usually a big party, with lots of drinking, on the Friday night once the recruits get their results."
"Poker it is until then," Christina said with a grin. "Or truth or dare. That could be interesting."
"Or potentially havoc wreaking," Uriah said with a fiendish grin.
"Which is why is can wait until another, less tense time," Marlene said firmly.
So they returned to their movie room from the night before, to resume the waiting game.
At about half past four Christina threw down her hand with a moan and said, "I'm out! I've been on a losing streak for an hour. I just can't concentrate, I'm too busy thinking about our final results."
"What if I let you give me another make over before dinner?" Tris offered, taking pity on her friend.
Christina's eyes lit up and she clapped her hands gleefully.
"Can I come too?" Marlene asked hopefully. "I'm sick of this silly game too."
The three of them stood, ready to depart the card game that had filled much of their agonising waiting period.
"You coming, Lynn?" Tris asked.
"I think I'll stick with poker over a makeover session," Lynn said dryly.
Lynn was not a girly-girl at all, she was very much a no frills tomboy.
Marlene, Tris and Christina headed for the dorms, walking briskly and chattering.
Christina and Marlene were largely engaged in planning what they would do to Tris, who listened on, partly amused, partly uneasy.
"Braiding?" Marlene suggested.
"Curls?" Christina countered.
"Braids and curls," they said together, grinning.
"Red lips or pink?" Christina asked.
"Red, our Tris should have a daring shade of red," Marlene said firmly.
"Please tell me you two will inflict this torture on one another too," Tris moaned.
"This was your idea, missy," Marlene said, in a playfully stern way.
"I just wanted to cheer Christina up," Tris muttered. "I'm the one who will need cheering up after this."
"Why did you want to cheer Christina up?" Marlene asked, her mind focusing on that detail.
"Ah," Tris said, with a long pause.
"It's okay," Christina said, letting them into her dorm room. "I'll explain. Let's just get set up first."
Marlene and Christina collected anything that might possibly be useful to their cause, and were soon stationed on either side of Tris, who was sitting on a chair in front of the mirror in their room.
"So, I want to know why you need cheering up," Marlene said.
"Me too, but I was just going to wait until you were ready to tell me," Tris added wryly.
"You don't know?" Marlene asked, confused. "I thought you wanted to cheer her up?"
"I did, I do, but I don't know what's bothering her. When I got to the dining hall for lunch, she just seemed really upset, but she didn't want to talk about it yet. I thought when she got sick of poker that it would be a good chance to talk, and cheer her up," Tris explained.
Christina coughed and said, "I'm still here."
Tris and Marlene chuckled and looked sheepish.
"I guess the test just really took me by surprise. Being alone, facing a mission, an important, serious, life or death mission, really impacted me. It made it all so real, this job we're training to do. Up until now, I guess the seriousness of it all hadn't hit me, and it did, and it made me think," Christina explained, curling Tris's hair as she went.
"I know, I forget sometimes too, that what we're doing it's just a super boot camp, or a video game, it's easy to forget, locked away in our compound here," Marlene agreed. "Then some nights, I'm lying in bed, and I think, 'I could die, doing this. Is this what I really want?'"
"I know it's what I really want," Tris said firmly. "Maybe in the beginning, I wasn't so sure. But I'm sure now. Even if I only help one person, it would be worth it. We're doing something that counts, something that will make a difference, maybe for many people. I want to do what I can to stop the evil in this world, and we're being trained to do just that, and to do it better than anyone else."
"I know," Christina agreed softly. "I eventually reached that conclusion, once I was able to process my post-test shock."
"What if we don't make it?" Marlene said quietly.
"You will, Tris will, Will will, I'm the one who's least certain to," Christina replied.
"We've all worked hard, we're all going to be fine," Tris said firmly.
"Well, we'll know before too long," Marlene said, resigned. "And let's not talk about it anymore, let's just make ourselves hot for the celebrations tonight."
"Just please don't make me look like a prostitute," Tris begged playfully.
"I have more taste than that, and you know it," Christina scolded her.
The time passed quickly from then, as they were absorbed in their chosen escape from their impending reality.
It was dinner that really dragged by.
Tris kept sneaking glances at Four, hoping to gain some contact from catching his eye, but it really only made things worse. She couldn't talk openly with him, and this reminder only added to the agony of waiting.
"Zeke couldn't give you any information about the results?" Marlene pressed, squeezing Uriah's arm hopefully.
"Nope, you know he can't. They don't have the results yet. As soon as they're sent in from other branches they come almost straight to us," Uriah replied. "He did tell me that he has a good supply of booze for the party – he's throwing it tonight after we pass and are hailed full agents."
"It's so weird, just becoming full agents almost instantly, with no ceremony," Will remarked. "You pass in the top ten and you're in, end of story. One meeting on Monday and your future position within Dauntless is determined. It's so quick."
"Because everything else has happened so slowly?" Lynn pointed out sarcastically.
"Well, the next ten minutes can't go fast enough for me," Tris said firmly. "Does anyone remember where the announcement is actually being made? They're telling us in person, right?"
"Yep, we're all meeting in the main lecture hall just before eight," Christina affirmed.
"Well, it's getting close to eight, let's get going," Marlene said, standing up and hopping from foot to foot with impatience.
The others stood as one, and walked briskly at out of the dining hall, followed by the other recruits, from Peter, Molly and Drew, to the other legacies.
Tris looked one last time over her shoulder into the dining hall, hoping to make eye contact with Four.
Their eyes met, and she was rewarded. He gave her the smallest shadow of a smile, and she felt momentarily calm.
The recruits had been gathered for only a few minutes before they were joined by Eric and Four.
"So, we'll get right down to business," Eric said brusquely.
"When you graduate college or school, there are usually speeches and moments in which to dwell on your learning journey. Not here. We're not interested in looking back, we only look forward, because sometimes tomorrow is all you have left. Sentiment is not something that takes priority – this is a job, and for the successful recruits, it will soon be your life," Four surmised.
"Blah, blah, blah, et cetera," Eric continued. "As far as I'm concerned that was too sentimental as it was. As you know, you will meet with Harrison on Monday to discuss your future role with Dauntless, those who rank in the top ten, that is. You will be notified of the time and place of your meeting, which will obviously also fall in the order in which you were ranked. Those who don't fall in the top ten will be leaving immediately. You will remain here to be seen to. Now, here are the rankings."
The room was held captive by Eric's words, not because they liked him in the slightest, or even really cared what he was saying. They were really only focused on one thing. The rankings. As soon as Eric stopped speaking, he pressed a button and the ranking list was projected onto the wall at the front of the room.
Tris stifled a gasp. She was first. Her combined scores, even with her less than average first round, had put her in first. She could choose whatever position in Dauntless she wanted.
Tris looked straight at Four, openly, wanted to see his reaction. She wasn't disappointed. He was smiling broadly, proudly at her.
Their gaze was broken as Tris realised that her friends were talking noisily, congratulating each other, and her.
Uriah hugged her, picking her up and setting her down exuberantly. Christina gave a squeal and hugged her too. They both must have ranked in the top ten. Tris had forgotten to finish reading the list.
She turned her eyes back to the screen and read on.
Uriah, Marlene, Lynn, Peter, Will, Christina, a couple of legacies.
Molly was gone. Drew was gone. Her friends were safe. She was first. Tris was elated.
Her friends were all celebrating with those most important to them, Christina and Will embracing passionately, Uriah swinging Marlene round and round. Tris wanted to celebrate with Four.
Technically, she could. As of that minute she was officially a Dauntless agent. Agent Prior. Agent Tris Prior.
Tris moved from her friends and made a beeline for Four, who was already making his way towards her.
He pulled her into a tender hug, but it wasn't enough for Tris.
She grabbed his faced in her hands and pulled him toward her for a searing kiss. He was hers and she was his, and they didn't have to hide anymore.
AN: Thanks for reading! I wasn't sure how to have that final moment play out, but it really just wrote itself in the end :) I hope you enjoyed it! So, there are exciting things to come!
Please leave a review, after 10 or so reviews I will update.