A/N- I do not own Divergent or any of its characters, rights go to Veronica Roth.
August 11th
"Beatrice!" My mother sing-songs when she walks into the house, the metal clatter signifying her throwing the keys into the ceramic pot. It's early morning and I'm currently sat on my bed reading my new novel. "Beatrice! It's nine o'clock, time to get out of bed!" I hear the pitter patter of her feet as she charges up the stairs, then the sound of the door knob jiggling as she tries to enter my room. "Unlock the door Beatrice," she says. I huff and heave myself out of bed, unlock the door, and then lay back down again, covering my face with a pillow. "Come on," she grabs my ankles and starts to pull me out of bed.
"Hey!" I yell, slapping her hand away.
"Oh good, you're awake. Time to get out of bed. Get in the shower and get dressed, because I got you a job," she says whilst picking up my dirty laundry off the floor and shoving it into the hamper, then opening the curtains and blinding me with the morning light.
"A job?' I spring up off the bed and look at her in complete and total shock.
"Yes. Suzanne at work was telling me how her daughter, who owns a small bakery, is struggling at the moment because one of her staff members just quit. I told her you'd be fit for the job, so she rang up her daughter, Becky, and she agreed to give you a trial run this afternoon!" she claps her hands together and beams at me, "isn't this exciting? Your first job!"
"Well, I was kind of hoping that I would actually get to pick my first job myself, but whatever, thanks mom," I say sarcastically. "Where is it? What will I be doing? I can't even bake..."
"It's called Dauntless bakery, next to the salon, it's only round the corner so you'll be able to walk there. You won't be baking, you'll manage the till and serve the customers, and take care of the cleaning. It's a part-time position."
"Sounds brilliant," I deadpan.
My mother huffs and taps her foot, her arms are crossed and she gives me a pointed look, "well what do you expect? You have no idea what career you want, and you barely graduated high school. In fact, I seem to recall you failing mathematics, and you won't even re-take the exam like I suggested."
"If I retook the exam, I would just fail it again, so what's the point?"
"You wouldn't fail it if you let Four tutor you-"
"Mom!" I cut her off, "I'm not letting some guy who I barely know spend their days tutoring me, I bet that's the last thing on earth that he wants to do!"
"Hmm," my mother smirks at me, "just please go to this trial run at the bakery. For me? You need money to live Beatrice, and you need something to do. You may love it, and decide that you want to open your own bakery one day." Typical. Now she has my whole entire life planned out in her head.
"Yeah, whatever, thanks for getting me the interview. I suppose it would be nice to have something to do around here," I decided to please her since there's no point in arguing, and I know that she struggles to support me and pay rent, so I guess she really does need the help. I could do with a bit of spare cash, and decide that maybe this would be a good opportunity for me. I try not to think about it too much, to avoid the nerves setting in.
"That's the spirit! Now come on, wear your black trousers and black t-shirt, you can go down there in a couple of hours. I'll go and make some eggs and toast."
Later, I'm walking down my street, on the way to the bakery. My legs feel like jelly and I'm dreading the next few hours. What if I embarrass myself? What if I'm no good? What if she hates me? What if. Then, my palms start to go clammy and I have intense amount of raged butterflies trapped in my stomach. When I see the salon, I look along the row of shops and locate 'Dauntless Bakery'. The whole front is glass window, with a black banner at the top, with a lit-up sculpture of chocolate cake. I enter through the door, and a little bell chimes. There are a few people sat at some of the small tables, and there's a woman with brown hair behind the counter, serving the customers with delicious mouth-watering sweet treats. I walk up to the counter to try to get her attention, I'm short but the top of the display counter comes up to my neck so it's not too bad.
"Um," I clear my throat, and the woman looks up at me and smiles.
"Hello, how can I help you?" she asks me in a calm and sure voice.
"My name's Tris- Beatrice Prior, I'm here to see Becky?" My voice is a little shaky but I try to control it as much as possible.
"Oh! Hello Tris, I'm Becky," she sticks her hand out over the top of the counter for me, and I grasp it, giving it a firm shake. "If you come round this way, I'll show you the ropes." I follow her through the swinging doorway into the back of the bakery, where she hands me a black apron with the logo on it, and gives me a tour. There are tonnes of ovens and baking equipment, and she shows me how she sorts out and labels the special orders. She tells me how to set out the baked goods in the display counter, and the importance of good hygiene. I pick up how to use the till pretty quickly, and I already know how to clean since I do most of the housework at home. She informs me that the bakery does get quite busy, so I'll have to be able to cope well under pressure and work quickly so that people are served on time and not left waiting too long. I hope that I'll be able to handle it, I'm not the quickest person in the world I'll admit. A couple of hours later, once I've watched her and feel confident I know what to do, she lets me loose and leaves me to it. It's not busy since it's only early afternoon, so I'm able to serve the customers without keeping them waiting too long. When it gets to five o'clock, I am exhausted and decide to go into the back since there aren't any customers. Becky is icing some cupcakes, which look both delicious and pretty.
"So," she says while concentrating on the decorations, "how do you think your first day went?"
"I actually enjoyed it," I fiddle with my apron, "It's good to have something to do."
"Great! Well, you did an awesome job, so I'd be happy to take you on," she smiles at me, wiping her messy hands on her apron.
"Really? That would be great," I smile back at her. This isn't normally like me to jump at an opportunity, but why not? At least it will help me to get off my ass.
"Yeah of course. Erm, I'll give you your forms to sign, it's just minimum wage I'm afraid as I can't really afford that much. I employ one other person so you'll just work your shifts out between the two of you," she walks over to the other side of the room to the large notice board, looking at the calendar, "in fact, we won't need you in tomorrow because Kyle is working all day, but you can come in the day after at 9am."
"That's fine, shall I just dress as I am?"
"Mhmm yep, I'll give you your cap when you come. I'm not big on hair nets, so just tie your hair back and wear the cap at all times," she moves back to icing the cupcake and looks through the window in the doorway to the cafe, "just sort that customer out and then you can go home."
"Alright, thank you for the opportunity!"
"No, thank you! I've really appreciated the help," she smiles warmly and shakes my hand, "see you in a couple of days." I say goodbye to her and walk back into the cafe, only to be met with the deep blue ocean eyes.
"Four?" I ask and he glances up from the display counter, he looks taken aback for a minute but then gives me his small signature smile.
"Tris, I didnt know you worked here?" He walks over to where I'm stood behind the till.
"I actually just started today, my mom's friend's daughter owns the place."
"That's cool, well, can I get a piece of that to go," he points to the large chocolate cake that's situated in the middle of the display counter.
"Sure," I slip on the pair of disposable gloves and grab the spatula and paper cake box. I slide the glass of the cabinet open and scoop up a ready-cut slice of cake, dropping it into the box. I shut the cabinet back up and take my gloves off, moving over to the till. I take his payment and hand him the cake.
"So when do you get off?" He asks me while opening the cake box and grabbing a napkin from the side.
"Now actually, you were my last customer," I take of my apron and hang it on the hook, grabbing my shoulder bag from underneath the till.
"Come on then, I'm walking so you can come with me," he gestures for me to walk out the door with him and I move around to exit the counter, following him through the door.
"How'd you know that I'm walking home?"
He turns to me and smirks, "are you?"
"Yes," I admit sheepishly. "Lucky guess I suppose," I mutter. I thought that seeing Four again would be more awkward than it is, considering what happened the other night when I last saw him. But, he's acting like it never happened.
"Do you come to the bakery often?"
"Nah, I was just dropping my car off at the shop, thought I'd stop by on my way home," we continue to walk in comfortable silence for a couple of minutes.
"So, why the fancy suit?" I gesture toward his attire, it's a deep grey suit that fits him extremely well, complete with a deep red wine coloured tie.
"I work at the kitchen display house, selling and designing kitchens for customers. It's not what I want to do but it means I can save up enough money to move out," he says in between mouthfuls of his cake.
"So what is it that you want to do?"
"Interior design, it's what I studied at college. I'm also trying to save up enough money to start my own business, so I can start decorating and designing people's homes."
"Wow, that's, impressive. So you've already been to college? How old are you?"
"I'll be 22 in october, can't believe i'm still living at home to be honest, but it's temporary. If I didn't plan on starting my own business then I'd be able to move out now," he laughs to himself.
"You sound like you've got it all figured out."
"Only my career," he gives me a meaningful look, then continues eating his cake. I knew he was older than me, but he seems much more mature than I thought he was, considering he's got his career planned and he'll be moving out and starting his own business. I mentally face palm myself when I think about how idiotic I must of seemed with my bloodshot eyes, picking up my tenth grade level math books. Fantastic.
"You must think I'm an idiot," I say. He looks at me with a furrowed brow.
"What?"
"For the other night, you know, when I was taking the term 'relaxation' to a new level."
He laughs at my comment and chucks the now empty cake box into the trash can as we walk by, "I don't think you're an idiot Tris. I thought it was quite funny actually, we've all been there before," he raises his eyebrows at me and nudges me with his elbow gently. Then he sighs and scratches the back of his neck, "but I'm sorry that you had to witness that at my house. We were all just having a, disagreement of sorts."
"It's fine, all families argue. Trust me, I know," I give him a knowing look and stop as we approach his house.
"Want me to walk you back?"
"No, I'll be alright, it's only round the corner. I should probably get a bike or something so I can get back and forth quicker," I laugh to myself about the idea of me huffing and panting on a bike. I'm so unfit right now, I don't even think I'd make it out of my driveway.
"Not passed your test yet?"
"I've not even taken any lessons. Now that I've got a job I'll start saving up for them," I watch as he walks backwards up his driveway.
"Maybe I'll teach you someday," his voice is slightly louder, but still deep and sexy. Damn it, Tris! You can't think like that! I smile back at him, trying not to giggle too excitedly. Jeez, I know how to embarrass myself easily.
"See you soon, Four."
"I hope so," he jogs back into his house, locking the door behind him. What just happened?
"Your life is crazy," Lynn tells me over the phone. I'm currently laying on my bed, palm to my forehead. "One minute you're having a lie in, the next minute you have a job! How does that even happen?"
"Just luck I guess, my mom sorted it all out for me," I reply. I start flicking through a meaningless gossip magazine, cutting out bright pictures for my scrapbook. Scrapbooking is something that I've always done, and I don't think I'll ever grow out of it. I have a whole shelf of books that I've scrapbooked throughout the years, they're private, and no one has ever looked through them except for me.
"What are you doing tonight?"
"What do you think?" Staying in my bed, of course.
"Right," she sniggers. "I'm going out with Uriah and Marlene."
"Both of them together? Like, at the same time?" That should be sufficiently awkward. I don't think Lynn realises that Marlene and Uriah look like a couple to the outside world. This whole situation is a mess, and I'm afraid that my best friend is going to get hurt.
"What's your point?" she snaps.
"Isn't Uriah Marlene's boyfriend?" I know I'm winding her up now, but I can't help it. It's amusing to see Lynn wound up.
"No!" She shrieks, "she does not have a boyfriend! He's more like, a brotherly figure," she reassures herself.
"Uh huh yeah okay…"
"Whatever, Bye!" She hangs up on me and I can't help but laugh about her temper. I've now finally finished this scrapbook, and it's my eleventh one. I walk over to my tall bookshelf that houses the others and pick up the first one that I ever did. It's a pretty pink colour, and is very girly compared to the others considering I was only 8 when I created it. This one has more family pictures in it, including ones of my dad and brother. I think I first completed a scrapbook so that I could keep my memories safe, and it was a way to cope with the gap in my life from the absence of my father and brother. I flick through the pictures of us at christmas, smiling around the christmas tree. Me and my brother looked alike, but I bet that's not the case anymore. I actually have no idea what my brother looks like now, but I wish I did. When I look through these photos, I can clearly see how happy we all looked together, but I now understand that was not the case. Something separated and damaged our family, and I feel like I'll never find out what it is. I never talk to my mom about my dad and Caleb, because she won't answer any questions that I have. She told me that they had their 'differences' and decided that it would be best if they split up. Before I knew it, Caleb and my dad left for Florida and I haven't seen them since. They send me a christmas and birthday card every year, and occasionally some presents because he knows that my mom doesn't have much money, such as my laptop and books and DVD's. In the back of this scrapbook, there's a small letter taped to the last page. It's a letter from my dad, telling me that he's sorry for the way that things have turned out, and if I ever want any of my questions to be answered, to call him. There's a number and an address at the bottom of the letter, but I haven't used any of this information yet. Maybe, someday I will.