After lunch is done I go to my apartment to retrieve everything I need for tonight. I climb the stairs two at a time, suddenly anxious to get the afternoon started. I walk into my bedroom and go to the closet. I take down the red garment bag holding my dress and turn to lay it across the bed when I notice a rectangle-shaped black velvet box sitting in the middle of my pillow. I turn back to the closet and hang the dress up. I go to the bed and pick up the note lying on top of the box, unfold it, and read the words.
VI
Welcome to Dauntless
Love,
IV
I slowly open the box and inhale sharply. Laying on the black silk interior of the velvet box is a beautiful platinum necklace with a teardrop shaped diamond pendent and matching earrings. Below the earrings is a simple platinum bracelet with two charms on it, a Dauntless seal and an Abnegation seal. Tears slide down my face. I've never received a gift before. I close the lid and go back to the closet to retrieve my backpack from the top shelf. I put the shoes I'm wearing tonight and the box of jewelry in the bag. I finally go to my dresser and get the lingerie set Christina told me to wear and put it in the backpack. I once again retrieve the dress from the closet and drape it over my arm and head to Christina's.
I knock on the door and am immediately swept into an afternoon of buffing, polishing, waxing, which I never want to do again, masks, lotions, makeup, hairspray, and various tortures Christina seems ecstatic to dole out. While I'm waiting for the 20 minutes to be over so Christina can remove the cucumber mask from my face, I tell the girls about the jewelry Tobias got for me.
"Well are you going to show it to us?" Marlene asks. I get up and retrieve the box from my bag. I open it for them, and their reactions mirror mine.
"Do you want to wear the earrings tonight?" Christina asks.
"I don't have my ears pierced," I tell her. She goes to her small pub table and opens a box and retrieves a tool that looks a lot like a gun. "What's that?"
"It's to pierce your ears." She smiles brightly at me. Realization dawns on me, Christina knew about the earrings.
"He told you about the earrings," I accuse.
"Guilty," she bashfully says. "Now sit down, and I'll pierce your ears so you can wear those exquisite rocks tonight." Anxiety moves through my body not knowing what to expect. I stiffly sit on one of her dining chairs. "Relax, Tris." I try but never quite make it.
She takes out a little kit with various items I don't recognize in it and sets it on the table right next to me. First she pours some solution into a little dish. She puts on disposable gloves then takes my earrings, which are actually two parts – studs and pendants, and puts the studs in the little dish of solution. She wipes both of my ears with alcohol swabs to sterilize the area. Next she looks at my ears and marks spots on the fleshy part of the lobe making sure they're symmetrical. She takes one of the earrings and loads it into the gun, positions it on the mark, and pulls the trigger. There's a loud bang beside my ear and a quick pinch. She takes the other earring and repeats the steps, piercing my other ear. After she's done, she twists the studs and makes sure they aren't too tight. Then she takes a cotton ball, soaks it with the same solution she soaked my earrings in, and dabs the cotton at the front and back of both my ears. Then she gives me some ibuprofen for the pain and to avoid any inflammation.
"Now that wasn't bad," she says, pride in her voice.
"I've had worse," I laugh. I get up and go to her bathroom to look at the earrings. They're beautiful. "Thank you, Christina," I say as I hug her. She throws me a warm wet washcloth and tells me it's time to remove the mask.
After I rinse my face, she puts hot rollers in my hair, which is a new experience for me, and I lounge around in nothing but a black silk robe from the salon. It's lucky they love her at her job. We won't ever want for beauty supplies. I'm on the verge of falling asleep when Christina makes an announcement.
"I think tonight's the night," she says while running a brush through Marlene's hair.
"The night for what?" I innocently ask. The others laugh at me, and I instantly understand and turn various shades of red.
"It's the perfect night for our first time," she says. "We'll be all dressed up, and there's a romantic dinner and a party. It's the perfect night," she repeats with a dreamy sigh. "He's been waiting so patiently." Lynn is studying my face while Christina talks.
"You and Four haven't had sex yet? What are you waiting for, Stiff? You live with him," she says. I'm at a loss for words. I know talking about sex is something girlfriends do but the way I was raised you just don't do that. I'm becoming more Dauntless by the day but there will always be a terrible amount of Abnegation in me.
"He's in her fear landscape," Christina says. "Leave her alone. They'll do it when she's ready."
"Christina!" I snap. That's not something I wanted everyone to know about.
"Sorry," she says. She's done with Marlene's fancy braided updo and drags me to the chair.
"It's alright. He is in my fear landscape but it's changed." With that admission all eyes are on me. "Four and I had a fight earlier this week," I finally admit.
"The night he came home drunk?" Shauna asks. "I told Zeke he was being an idiot getting all sloshed like that. I kicked him out of bed and haven't let him back in. What did Four do?"
"He got a bit handsy. I slept in the dorm that night." I figure I might as well come totally clean, and honestly, it feels good to not be burdened by it anymore.
"I haven't seen you in the dorm since initiation," Christina says as she unwinds roller after roller from my hair.
"I came in late and left early," I say. "Things have been very tense between us all week."
"You two looked fine at lunch," Marlene says with a laugh. "We all thought you might have sex on the table the way you were all over each other." Another blush overtakes me.
"I went through my fear landscape today, five of my seven fears were exactly the same."
"Seven fears?" Lynn screams. "You only have seven fears?"
"Well six now actually," I say and her mouth hangs open. "The fear in my initial landscape of intimacy is gone but now instead of having to shoot my family, I have to shoot him. Of course I couldn't pull the trigger on my family so there's absolutely no way I could ever do that to him, so I kill myself instead to end the simulation."
"That's pretty heavy," Shauna says. "I thought my fear of killer clowns was bad." Killer clowns?
"It made me realize I was hanging on to a fear I no longer have and keeping him at arm's length. I not only was hurting him, I was hurting myself. Although I'm still not ready for sex, I knew I had to stop pushing him away, or I was going to lose him," I say. Christina meets my eyes in the mirror and her eyes light up.
"Is that why they call him Four?" she says. "I remember Lauren saying the lowest number of fears ever was four." Well she figured it out on her own so the least I can do is confirm it.
"Yes. That's why they call him Four," I say smiling. "His training instructor gave him the nickname and it stuck."
"What's his real name?" Lynn asks.
"Nope," I say shaking my head. "That isn't my secret to share. Maybe one day he'll tell everyone, but until he does, my lips are sealed." Lynn grumbles something at me about no fun.
Christina takes the final roller out of my hair and lightly runs her fingers through the curls to loosen them. I've never seen my perfectly straight hair with as much as a wave in it and now it's full of curls. She tugs and twists sections of hair securing them with bands and pins until my hair is swept up in a curly updo being held in place with faux-diamond crystal bobby pins.
I go into the bathroom and massage the lotion Christina gives me into my body. Once I'm sure it's totally dry I put on the strapless black lacy pushup bra Christina insisted I buy to go with the dress and matching boy shorts. I look at myself momentarily in the mirror. It's amazing what a few months have done to my body. I quickly put the robe back on and go sit on the couch to watch as Christina does Shauna and Lynn's hair.
The rest of the afternoon moves at a dizzying pace, and I now understand why we needed so much time with how many girls there are here. All of our hair and makeup is done, and we're dressed in the fanciest dresses I've ever seen. I'm standing in front of the full length mirror Christina borrowed from the boutique, especially for today, and I don't recognize myself. I thought my new work clothes made me look different but right now I look like a princess from one of the children's storybooks I saw in the library at school when I was a kid. My dress is a form fitting floor length black silk gown that has an overlay of black lace with hand sewn black and pearlescent beading all over giving it a glamorous shimmer. The lace cap sleeves, scoop neck, and hems are all edged in the same black lace. The pushup bra and design of the bodice actually makes me look like a curvy woman instead of a flat cheated little girl.
Peeking out from the hem of my dress are my very simple black open toe 3-inch pumps embellished with black faux crystals. My toenails are painted a deep crimson color to match my nails. My makeup is very basic yet completely flattering. My lips are lined and painted with the same color as my nails. My eyes are lightly lined in dark gray to enhance the blue gray color of my irises. My lashes have been curled and black mascara applied. My cheeks have a light rose color on them, a barely there shade. I know my natural blush is deeper.
The icing on the cake is my new jewelry. In my ears are the diamond studs only since I can't take them out for three days to add the tear-drop pendants. Around my neck is the tear-shaped diamond necklace that lays perfectly just above my newfound cleavage. On my left wrist is my charm bracelet. I adjusted the Dauntless and Abnegation charms so they are opposite one another.
Christina is wearing a black deep-V-neck floor length dress with wide shoulder straps that cross in the back creating an elegant look. She has black sparkly pins holding her short curly hair away from her face. From the front, Marlene looks like she's wearing a long-sleeved black floor length t-shirt that hugs her curves but when she turns around the dress is backless and daring. She has her hair in a fancy braided updo that looks stylish and trendy. Lynn is wearing a black skintight faux leather and polyester long tube dress that complements her style perfectly. Christina didn't do anything special with her hair since it's less than an inch long. Shauna is wearing a dark gray, almost black, strapless mermaid gown with a black lace and tulle overlay that looks very sophisticated. Her hair is styled into an elegant knot at the back of her head. Her long bangs are side swept and held back with one black-diamond-encrusted comb Zeke gave her for their first anniversary. We all compliment each other and note it's time to go meet our guys.