Chapter 1
Tris POV
I wake up to my alarm clock of a brother, pounding on the door, yelling at me,
“Beatrice! Get out of bed! It’s our first day at Factions High, and I don’t want to be late.” I hear footsteps moving away from my door, and look at my alarm clock. It reads 6:30. School starts at eight, and we don’t live that far away. My parents made sure of that when we moved from California to here. Chicago. Somewhere down the hallway, I hear a shower turn off, and I drag myself out of bed and walk over to my really small bathroom that’s connected to my room. I turn on the shower and step in, feeling the water cascade down my back. I wash my hair, and step out of the shower, turning off the water and putting on my blue bathrobe. I walk over to my dresser and grab a black loose t-shirt and sweatpants. I walk downstairs, and see my mom sitting at the kitchen table, eating oatmeal.
“Mother!” I yell, and run over into her arms. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back today?” My mom is a flight attendant, so she’s not around much, and my dad is in the military, so he’s barely here too.
“I didn’t know! I was put on a different flight, instead of the one to Amsterdam, I was put on the one p and coming here, and didn’t get a chance to call!” She smiles, and pushes me back, hands on my shoulders.
“You’ve grown,” she says, looking me up and down. I roll my eyes.
“Mom?”
“Yes dear?”
“You saw me a week ago. I haven’t grown.” She smiles, and I hear footsteps coming down the stairs.
“Mom?” Caleb asks, incredulous. She smiles, and points to the door.
“Leave. You don’t want to be late for your first day. You need to get the tests done.”
“There’s an entrance exam?” I ask, surprised.
“I love exams!” Caleb says, looking excited.
“Didn’t I tell you?” My mom asks, looking back at me from Caleb. I violently shake my head.
“Oh. I must have forgotten. Well, I’ll explain it now. There are ‘factions’ at this school, or, rather, different interest groups. When your father and I went there, we were in Abnegation. They are the selfless ones, they never do stuff to hurt others, and put others before themselves. Then, there’s the Amity. They’re really nice, and the peaceful ones. They never fight, and tend to be really happy.” I could never live there, I’m pretty good at being nice, but I couldn’t be nice all the time.
“What else is there?” I ask, beginning to get worried. Neither Amity, nor Abnegation seem like a good fit for me.
“Well, there’s Candor,” Caleb says, interjecting and interrupting Mom. I turn to him, and gesture him to continue. Maybe this one’ll be better.
“They’re the honest ones. They never lie.” Never mind, this one’s not for me either. Too many secrets.
“Anything else?” I ask again, really worried now.
“Yes,” Mom says, looking at Caleb, as if telling him not to interrupt this time. He looks down, and begins to tie his shoes.
“Then, there’s the Erudite. They’re the smart ones. They tend to study a lot, and do other nerdy stuff. Your father doesn’t like them very much.” I groan. That doesn’t sound like me either! My mom must see the worry on my face, and she smiles.
“The next one sounds like you, don’t worry.” I smile, and start to put my Converse high tops.
“Dauntless. They’re the daredevil, sporty ones. They’re the ones who do the sports teams. Even soccer. And cheer.” She looks at me when she says this. I smile. I’ve been doing cheer for a while, and I also did soccer at my last school. I finish tying my shoes, and get up, walking to the door, pulling on my elementary school grad hoodie.
“Bye Mom! Bye Caleb!” I run over to my silver Toyota Matrix. Caleb and I have different cars, because our parents decided we needed our own cars. Caleb’s is a BMW i3. He decided he had to get a hybrid for some stupid reason. I jump into the driver’s seat and do up my seatbelt, putting the key in the ignition and find my favourite song, Timber by Kesha and Pitbull. I start to sing along to the rap,
“Look up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, naw it’s just me ain’t a damn thing changed.”
When I get to the school, I park my car in the huge parking lot, and get my first real look at the school. It’s huge! The front has an ornate looking entrance way, and above the door is a big F, in an old fashioned looking script. I gasp. It’s beautiful. Over to the right, I can see the corner of a football field, and a soccer field. To my right I can see a big, empty field with bleachers. I wonder what it’s used for. Also to the right, I can see some tennis courts. I walk up to the doors, and see Caleb’s car pulling into the lot, so I decide to wait for him.
“Hey,” I say when he gets to me. Together, we walk into the school and see a big sign.
WELCOME! To old students, welcome back! To the newbies, welcome to our school.
(The office is in the north building, second floor. Please, take a map.)
I see a little pile of paper under the sign, and go over to it. It’s a map of the school, including each building and teacher name and everything! Wow, this school really is big! We see that we’re in the south building, and we’ll have to pass through either the west or the east building to get to the north one. We decide to take the east route, and go towards the right hallway, hoping to not get lost.
We eventually get there, having only taken a couple of wrong turns. Mother never told me it would be this big… When we get to the office, there’s a nice looking lady, dressed all in black, standing behind a desk. We walk over to her, and she doesn’t look up from some papers she’s looking at.
“Newbies?” She asks.
“Yes, ma’am. We need to do our tests and get our lockers and schedules.”
She finally looks u, and smiles. “I’m Tori. Did your parents come to this school?”
“Yes ma’am, they were Abnegation.” I answer, playing with a piece of my hair.
“Good. That means I don’t have to get someone else.” She doesn’t elaborate. Why would she need to get someone else? She gestures us into a small room, and pulls out seats.
“Here are the tests, when you’re finished I’ll be at the front desk.” She walks out after handing us the tests. There are only a few questions.
1. What do you do in your free time? (Choose the one that best describes you)
a) Sports (Soccer, football, tennis, cheer, etc.)
b) Study/read
c) Debate with your friends
d) Play games and hang out with friends
e) Help others
I choose a, and look at the next question.
2. What do you value most?
a) Selflessness
b) Bravery
c) Intelligence
d) Peace
e) Honesty
The test goes on from there, and, after about ten total questions, I’m finished. Caleb’s not done yet, but I go over to the front desk and give my test to the woman.
“Thanks. Go sit over there, while I check this over.” She gives me a smile, and I go sit down beside a girl with short brown hair and long legs, which I can tell even when she’s sitting down.
“Hello,” she says, turning to me. “You new?” I nod, and she smiles.
“Me too.”
“Cool”
“What’s your name?” She asks after a long and kind of awkward pause.
“Be-“ I want to say Beatrice, but it just sounds weird. New school, new place, new name.
“Having trouble with that?” She smirks a bit, and looks at me.
“Tris.” I answer her, and smile.
“Christina,” she answers, smiling back.
“Christina?” The woman asks, looking up from a test. Is it mine? Or is it Christina’s?
“You got Dauntless. Congratulations.” She smiles, and then starts to laugh.
“What?” I ask, confused at her reaction.
“It’s just.. My parents came here, and were Candor. I thought I would be too, but I guess not!” I smile too, until the woman says my name.
“Beatrice?” She asks.
“Actually, would you mind calling me Tris?” I ask while standing up and walking over to her.
“No problem. Which reminds me, I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Tori, and I’m part of Dauntless.”
I get over to the desk, and smile.
“What did I get?” I ask, half nervous, half excited.
“Christina, would you mind waiting in the hall?” Tori waves her hand to the door, as if dismissing her.
“I’ll wait for you outside, ‘kay?” she says, as she opens the office door.
“Okay.” I answer, turning back to face Tori. Her face has become serious.
“Tris, you are lucky. You get to choose.” I’m officially confused.
“What d’you mean?” I ask, looking down at the test.
“Your answers gave you an equal aptitude for Dauntless, Erudite, and Abnegation. Which one would you like?” I know exactly what I want.
“Dauntless,” I answer, smiling again. She smiles back, and goes to her computer to punch in a couple of stuff.
“Okay, everything’s set, here’s your timetable,” she answers, handing me a piece of paper.
Name: Tris Prior
Timetable
1: English
2: Math
3: First Lunch
4-5: Gym (Double)-elective
6: Social Studies
7: Science
8: Language B (French)
“Everything’s in the North Building, which is the Dauntless one. Oh, and one more thing. Give Christina this. I forgot to give it to her.” She hands me Christina’s timetable.
“Okay ma’am, will do.” She smiles, and ushers me out.
“Go to your locker. You have 15 minutes until first bell.” I rush out of the office and see Christina sitting on the floor, her short shorts covered long legs laying in front of her. She’s sitting around with a bunch of people, three of which look older then us, and three that look about the same age.
“Hey Tris!” Christina gets up off the floor when she sees me, and I hand her the timetable.
“Thanks,” she says, looking at it. One of the older guys, a kind of muscular one, with piercing blue eyes that I could get lost in fake coughs.
“Oh, sorry guys. This is Tris. Tris, these are my friends. We went to elementary school together. Although they,” she gestures to the three older looking ones, including the piercing blue eyed one, “are all a year older then us.” She smiles at me. I wave at them, and they all get up.
“We can be fully acquainted at lunch, for now, do you need to be shown to your lockers and first classes?” The other older boy asks, looking over Christina’s shoulder at her schedule.
“Hey! You have english first? The multi grade one?”
“Yeah. All my classes are multi grades. Why?” Because Four and I have the same thing,” He says, pointing to himself and the blue eyed boy who now has a name.
“Cool! What do you have?” Christina looks at my timetable, like a greedy kid looking for chocolate.
“Same,” I answer, looking down at my schedule.
“Awesome!” Christina squeals. I wince.
“We have everything together!” I groan. Joy.
“Looks like you have… English with everyone, math with me and Will, um… YAY! We all have the same lunch! What else… Gym, obviously, with everyone. Anyone in our year and the next one up has gym together. You have social studies with… Four. Damit, we don’t have that together. Must’ve not seen that… and… science together, with Uriah, Marlene, and Shauna. Oh, and Zeke.” She points to everyone in turn. Uriah and Marlene are two of the people who look our age, Will is the other one. Shauna is the other older one, and I think her and Zeke are dating.
“And, last but not least, damit! We don’t have French together, I’m taking Spanish instead. But you have that with… Four. And Will. Oh, and Marlene.”
“Coolio!” I think Uriah said that. “But, alas, we must now head to the south building. That’s the ‘Dauntless Headquarters’ as everyone calls it, but really it’s just the wing with all the Dauntless rooms in it.”
“To Dauntless Headquarters!” Zeke yells, and starts running down the hall. The others follow suit, and, since I don’t want to be left behind, I follow. I hear a few, ‘stupid Dauntless’ and ‘the hooligans are back’, as I run, all coming from people dressed either in blue, or black and white.
When we get to the entrance, Uriah turns to me.
“What’s your locker number?” he asks, pointing to my schedule.
“Um… Let me check.” I look at it, and see 5th floor, 123 written beside LOCKER:.
“I says 5th floor 123,” I answer, looking at Uriah.
“OMG!! Tris! Your locker is right next to mine!” Christina squeals in my ear. Again. She starts jumping up and down.
“It must be fate. We are destined to be bestest friends forever and ever!” Oh, joy, is all I can think.
“Well, Tris. Welcome to Dauntless.”
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