I look at my phone and realise that it's still quite early so I decide to browse the school website.

Welcome to the Faction High School website!

Home

About Faction High

Academic

Enrollment

Our Community

I click on 'About Faction High'. My screen is loaded with different colours in different columns.

Here are our Factions!

Grey under 'Abnegation the Selfless'

Blue under 'Erudite the Intelligent'

Red and yellow under 'Amity the Kind'

Black and white under 'Candor the Honest' and

Black under 'Dauntless the Brave''.

Underneath all of that, there was a plain white box, with the words 'Factionless' above it.

"What is this school?" I say out loud. Thought it may seem crazy, I find it kind of interesting. I hover my mouse over 'Dauntless, the Brave'.

Am I brave? What do all these 'factions' have anything to do with the school? I sigh and close the tab with the school website and log onto my facebook instead. The secound my newfeed pops up, over 70 notifications clog my profile. I scroll through them, seeing that they are all:

'School won't be the same without you, Bea'

'Wtf do u expect me to do without my bff!'

'i heard the new guy is ffffiiiittt XDD still miss u tho'

'GOODBYE BEA U WILL BE MISSED'

'U left yesterday and im already upsett!'

'Promise we'll stay in touch, Bea!'

'Plz say ull visit us over the break!'

It's weird seeing status' like these form people I practically never talked to. Half of these messages are from people who never liked me, and only talked to me to criticize how my hair looked that particular day.

"Well, I guess some people are like that" I laugh about the fact that i'm talking to myself. I shut my laptop, took a super quick shower, changed into my pyjamas, grabbed the book I am currently reading ('The Fault in our Stars') and lay in my bed reading.

The next thing I know, I wake up with the book in my hands, my fingers still marking where I last read. I look at my alarm clock. It reads 11:42.

Shit.

I jump out of bed and run into my en-suite bathroom.

Shitshitshitshitshit.

I wear my clothes from yesterday hastily.

Shitshitshit.

By the time i'm downstairs, it's 12 and my parents are scolding me for waking up late, saying it's my fault that we won't arrive on time.

I should have put an alarm.

We all hustle into Caleb's car. The engine roars to life and the GPS lays out the directions to the school. Once we arrive, I see the colours that were on the school website.

There was a building painted blue, one painted grey, another black and white, the other red and yellow, and one covered in so much black graffiti that you can't even read what's written. They all seem connected together though, as if some classes may be in other buildings.

The reason why we have to come to school on a Sunday is beyond me. Something about taking a tour around the school, getting our schedules and talking an aptitude test, whatever that was. As we step out of the car, I hear Caleb's sharp intake of breath.

"I know, right." I say. We look at each other, then make our way to a smaller building with the sign saying 'Reception'. Our parents walk in front of us.

"Caleb?" I stare at the floor.

"Yuhuh?"

"Are you still talking to Susan?"

His piercing blue eyes look at me, and I could swear that I see them welling up with tears but with one blink they disappear.

"No. She made her choice."

Susan and her brother Robert had been our neighbours and friends since we were 4 years old. Two years ago, Caleb and Susan started going out but when he told her that we were moving, she didn't take it too well.

I decide to end the subject there, mainly because we were at the reception.

"Hi, my kids are new here. Caleb and Beatrice Prior." my father says to the bored-looking lady behind the front desk.

"It's Tris." I say, confident with my new nickname. My dad stares back at me and mouths 'Tris?'. I nod.

"Tris Prior" he corrects himself.

"Caleb and Tris Prior." the lady says under her breath as she searches up for our profiles. The printer makes a whirring sound and she hands us our schedules.

"Caleb, it seems like you have enough credits to graduate this year. Same with you, Tris. You're classes will be for seniors instead of sophomores. Got it?" she says, looking up at us. We both nod in unison.

"Someone will be here in just a minute to take you for a tour around the school."

Just as she finishes her sentence, a man walks through the doors and my Dad smiles at him.

"John, it's been a while!" he says to the man.

"Andrew! It's nice to see you again." they shake hands as my dad introduces us and Mum.

"This is my wife, Natalie, and our children, Caleb and Beat- I mean Tris." he smiles.

"Lovely to meet you all. So, let's get on with the tour, shall we?"

An hour passes as John takes us through the school. My parents are deep in conversation with him. I then think of him, the guy in the coffee shop, wondering if he goes to this school, and if he does what faction he would be in. Those blue eyes, those deep, deep blue eyes.

"Well, it's time for the aptitude test!" John exclaims when we end up back in the reception.

"What exactly is this test?" Caleb asks. He always asks questions. Always does his homework on time. Always studies. My brother is a complete nerd!

"Not supposed to say, but I will fill you in after!" he says, handing us a thin booklet and gesturing us to sit down.

As I open the test, I realise the questions have nothing to do with anything academic. I look over at Caleb and he shares the same look of surprise.

"Well, I guess we better get this over with." I say. He nods at what I say, and then I look at the questions.

1. You most want your friends and family to see you as someone who...

a. Is willing to make sacrifices and help anyone in need

b. Is liked by everyone

c. Is trustworthy

d. Will protect them no matter what happens

e. Offers wise advice

...

7. What activity would you most likely find yourself doing on the weekend...

a. Volunteering

b. Painting, dancing, or writing poetry

c. Sharing opinions with your friends

d. Rock climbing or skydiving

e. Catching up on your homework or reading for pleasure

...

23. When choosing your outfit for the day, you select...

a. Whatever will attract the least amount of attention

b. Something comfortable but interesting to look at

c. Something that's simple but still expresses your personality

d. Whatever will attract the most attention

e. Something that will not distract or inhibit you from what you have to do that day

I finish the last question (q. 35) and look up at Caleb to see he is already finished.

Typical Caleb.

We hand the papers back to John and he gives them to the lady at the front desk. I am suddenly engulfed in conversation about how i'm settling in, what classes i'm attending, etc etc.

Ten minutes later, John has the tests back in his hand.

"I get that you two might be quite confused over what these questions are supposed to mean." he says. "Your answers in total will choose what faction you are put into. If you don't like that faction or the faction doesn't like you, you are assigned to become one of the Factionless. If you have more than one likely faction to be put into, you can pick from the ones that you got. We call that Divergent. It's very very rare but you never know"

It all clicked. I knew the test was vaguely familiar to something. They represented what the factions were. Selfless, Intelligent, Kind, Honest and Brave.