Hey everyone, Sorry for the wait. I wanted to reread this one over. It was originally longer, but I decided to break the chapter up because I really couldn't part with anything that I wrote. So I will post the second part of the chapter soon. Thank you for all the reviews. It really does help!
Chapter 6: Jobs
"Get up, brat." I open my eyes and see a figure standing in the door way. Fear instantly fills me. "I'm honestly tired of you. Why are you still here anyway?" He asks as he walks into the room. "All you do is go to school and come home. Never do anything to help me out. To help the only person willing to stay and help you, give you a place to live." I sit up and scoot to the wall behind me and curl up into a ball. Not again. "You are even worse than your brother." My body shakes. Please just go away. "When will you help me? Give me something I need." He cocks his head to the side as he shuts the door. The only source of light is the moon coming through the window.
"Please, tell me what you want. I will do it." I plead with him. "I don't want you to do this." My voice is shaky. "I, I, I."
"Your very selfish, Aundrea. Not fit for abnegation. You should just die because you're too stupid to fit in anywhere." He says as he gets to my bed. I do my best to curl up even more.
"What do you need?" I ask quietly. "I will do it, silently." I plead with him and he stays there.
"That won't work and you should know that. But you're just stupid." The man's voice is very calm. "Get over here." He suddenly barks. My shaky body slowly starts to move over to him. Once I'm in arms reach, he grabs my hair and pulls up. It's so hard not to scream as he throws me to the ground and gets on me. "You are so stupid." He hits my face. "How can you really be so stupid? You don't cook and wash the floor at the same time, you stupid brat." His knuckles graze my nose and it bleeds. "There will be a burn mark on that white floor now and I can't do anything about it. You know what others will think of it? They will think I am an unfit leader." He punches me again and again. Eventually, I stop feeling it. I just lay there and take it. My face will be swollen tomorrow. But that's okay, it's Saturday and he won't be here. "You are so stupid. No one is stupid enough to cook and put water on the floor. You are going to slip and fall. If you would have died, it would have looked bad for me. Having one son off in the Dauntless and the other dead." Wait, Bass is a live?
"He's alive?" I ask him in a very hoarse voice.
"You don't even know." He gets off of me and runs his hand through his hair. "You're too stupid; I guess I will have to explain it to you." He looks at me. "Tobias is alive. He isn't factionless and living in the Dauntless compound." This is good news. My brother is alive still. I couldn't go see him during visiting day, my father beat me badly and I was messed up that day to even remember who I was. That was six months ago.
"My brother is alive." I whisper so only I can hear. I move and sit up slowly. "He's alive." There are more tears in my eyes, this time, I'm happy. For the first time in six months I'm happy.
"What is wrong with you?" My father asks me. I shake my head and stare at him.
"My brother isn't a coward. You are." I slowly stand up, with blood dripping down my face, onto my night gown. "You come in here just to take your anger out on a fifteen year old girl." I laugh. "You better get out of here and leave me alone. I am done putting up with you tonight. This is the third time you came in here." My voice is very calm. "Get out." I tell him. My father's response, he just hits me in the side of the head.
000
"I really think you need to get checked out." I hear Christina's voice.
"Why are you always waking me up?" I ask her as I slowly sit up and rub my face.
"Because I'm the only one that cares." She jokes. "No, because I'm the closest to you and only one that can hear or understand you babbling." I open my eyes and see her half way up my ladder.
"Normally you're right in my face, what's the occasion?" I ask her.
"We're going to be late to the train." She says as she climbs down the ladder.
"What train?" I ask her as I pull out clothes from my drawer.
"Eric told us yesterday we are going to be learning about Dauntless jobs. So we need to be there in fifteen minutes." Christina tells me as I see Tris pulling out clothes. "Both of you slept in, so I will leave you both in here and will met you at the train." She says before leaving. I look down at Tris.
"She is getting us muffins." I nod and look at my clothes and pull my hair into another bun. Tris hasn't put hers up. I'm starting to think its habit for me as well as worry it's going to be used against me. Better hurry then. We both get dressed and we head out to the pit. We don't need to ask where to go. People just point upward at the long narrow path that leads above the pit. So we hurry. There is one door open and it shows the outside. Christina is there with three muffins in hand. She hands us our normal ones and I look around. Everyone is here and the train's horn goes off.
"What took you so long?" Will calls over it.
"Stumpy legs turned into an old lady over night and Sleepy head likes to sleep." Both Tris and I glare at her.
"Oh shut up." Tris tells her.
"I don't know what's going on here; it must be the food making me tired." I protest as I pick a small piece off the muffin. "It's too rich, that's it. My little body can't handle it."
"Little body?" Will asks. "There is nothing little on that body." I throw the piece in my hand at him. He just eats it. The train gets here and people start to load on. Tris is going to have a hard time, so I stay back so she can get up for sure. She runs with the train tries to jump. I lean forward to catch her because she is going to be short, but Al saves her. Now with her in, I just hop into the train next to them. We go over to the corner of the car.
"You feeling okay?" I turn and see Peter asking Tris that. "Or are you a little… Stiff?" I glare at him and I feel three sets of arms around me, so I don't move forward without hurting them.
"We are all awed by your incredible wit." Will says right next to my ear.
"Yeah, are you sure you don't belong with the Erudite, Peter." Christina is one of the arms on me. "I hear they don't object to sissies." I smirk at Peter's blank face.
"At least you can belong somewhere. You are too much of a liar to be even accepted with your own family and you are just too…" I start off, but Four interrupts.
"Am I going to have to listen to your bickering all the way to the fence?" I glare at Four's annoyed face. Why did you have to cut me off? Everyone remains quiet now. All this quiet is making me tired. I didn't sleep well last night. Thanks to my father. I roll my eyes as I sit next to Christina and Al, both very warm people. I rest my head on Al's shoulder because I'm too tired to even think about it and rest my eyes.
I wake up to my body being launched forward. I can't help but let out a yelp as I hit the floor with my head. Dang that hurt. Four pairs of hand are now trying to help me up. I stand up once the train stops and I shake my head.
"Note to self don't fall asleep on the train." I mumble as we get off the train.
"Follow me." Four says as he walks off. My head hurts again. Where is that magic meds that woman gave me? It makes the pain stay away. Four takes us to the gate that is huge. "If you don't make the top five, you will most likely to get guard duty. Once here, there is some chance for promotion. But slim. If you do get promoted, you will be on patrol for the farms of Amity."
"Why do we need a patrol?" Will speaks up.
"If you get it, you will find out." Four doesn't like to be interrupted. "But if it comforts you, some of them say it's not as bad as it seems." He says.
"What rank were you?" Peter half shouts and Four looks at him for a moment.
"I was first." He tells him with no emotion.
"And you're doing this? When you could have a government job." Peter doesn't seem to understand. He wouldn't fit in Erudite at all.
"I didn't want one." Four says before moving on. He leads us to another gate that is just about to be open for a truck.
"Beatrice, Aundrea." We both turn our heads to see a former blond haired Abnegation kid, Robert. As the daughter of a leader, I needed to know people by name. He is in the back of the truck and I am tempted to hide her from him. She is bruised badly. Tris's eye is black and looks horrible. I reach for her shoulder to pull her behind me. "What happen to you?" Dang it, I'm not fast enough. We both watch him hop over the side of the truck and walk over to us as the Dauntless guards examine it.
"Nothing, just training." She says quickly while flashing a smile. I hear a snort type thing.
"Beatrice? Is that your real name, Stiff?" Molly's voice speaks up from behind. I turn and glare at her. "And Aundrea? What type of name is that?" Tris turns her head to look at the rude girl. I could care less if she mocks my name, but she called her a Stiff.
"What did you think Tris stood for?" Tris asks her with sarcasm.
"Oh, I don't know… Weakling?" Molly snorts again. That isn't very becoming of her. "Wait, that doesn't start with Tris. My mistake." I glare at her and wonder if I hit her in the jaw if she wouldn't be able to speak anymore. Her eyes show a hint of fear and I can't help but smirk a little.
"No need to antagonize them." Robert walks next to us. "My name is Robert." He smiles at her as he speaks softly. He is a perfect fit here. "What's your name?"
"Someone who doesn't care what your name is." She bites out. "Why don't you get back into your truck? We're not supposed to fraternize with other factions members." I try to steady my breathing. Can I hit her in the jaw now? Most likely get in trouble for it, but it will be worth it.
"Why don't you get away from us?" Tris snaps as she turns and faces Robert again. He just has a small frown on his face. Amity is about peace and hate quarrel.
"Right, wouldn't want to get between you and your boyfriend." Molly is really pissing me off. I go to go after her, but both Tris and Robert hold my arm.
"They don't seem nice." He says as he pulls me back as if it's a normal thing for me to get upset like this.
"Some aren't." Tris says as I watch Molly walk back to her friends.
"I'm tired of her crap." I mumble as I stop moving and they let go of me.
"You both can go home, you know. I'm sure Abnegation would make an exception for you both." I turn and look at him with an eye roll. I will never go home willingly. Not when my father is living. I will kill him before that.
"No thank you." My voice is quiet.
"What makes you think I want to go home?" Now it's my turn to hold Tris and try to calm her down. Her cheeks get red from embarrassment. "You think I can't handle this or something?"
"It's not that." Robert is very kind. "It's not that you can't, it's more that you shouldn't have to. You should be happy." I'm perfectly happy, minus Molly and Peter. Drew hasn't really done anything to me or my friends, yet. He is more of a lackey.
"This is what I chose. This is it." Tris states firmly. "Besides, Robert, the goal of my life isn't just…to be happy."
"Wouldn't it be easier if it was, though?" He turns and looks at me. I ate lunch with him occasionally. Sometimes he saw bruises, but Robert just thought of me as a clumsy girl. "What about you? Your father would understand you coming back." He says with a weak smile. I look him in the eyes and sigh.
"The world would have to be ending for me to go willingly back. I don't want to see that man if I don't have too." I tell him in a calm voice. "The life as an Abnegation isn't for me. I get pissed off to easily." He smiles.
"But you can always control yourself." Robert laughs a little bit at my brief confusion. "I could tell you were upset, even though you tried not to show it." He pats our shoulder and walks back to the truck. Control myself. I shake my head and look at Tris.
"Since when can I control my temper?" I ask her with a scoff.
"I don't know." She says as Four walks over to us. He doesn't look too pleased.
"I'm worried that you too have a knack of making unwise decisions." He says with his arms crossed over his chest. Tris mimics him.
"It was a two minute conversation." She protests.
"I don't think a smaller time frame makes it any less unwise." Four shakes his head and looks at her black eye upset. What surprises me is when he touches her eye brow. "You know, if you could just learn to attack first, you might do better." What?
"Attack first?"Tris is confused too. "How will that help?"
"You're fast, if you can get a few good hits in before they know what's going on, you could win." Four says as his hand drops.
"I'm surprised you know that, you weren't there." She says more confused.
"I don't have to be there to know." He glances at me. "You're either afraid of hitting people or you like to toy with them. Stop whatever it is." I raise an eyebrow.
"I do what I want." I wave him off with a smile in a joking tone just so Tris and him don't think it's being afraid so much of toying. I don't like toying, but if it might make me look better. I'm for it. My smile drops and I nod my head. "I will do my best, Four."
"Looks like the next train is here, time to go." He says before walking off. Tris and I look at each other for a moment before following him to the train.