Choose Your Own Adventure: Divergent

Choosing Ceremony V.2- 24

The elevator opens, and the Amity press forward, excitement in the air. Loud cheers and clapping echoes from the hall, and your eyes widen as you pass through the concrete and into the most brightly colored and beautiful auditorium you've ever seen.

The cheers flood your ears, and you follow the others into the Amity section, sitting in the soft, fabric chair, completely in awe. Cheyenne goes to sit in the front with the other sixteen-year-olds. She wiggles her fingers and raises her eyebrows at a man and a woman sitting just behind her, and you guess they must be her parents.

Excitement pounds through every fiber of your being as you take your seat. The podium in the center already has the five bowls laid out, and you crane your neck to see them, shivers going through you.

A hiss of smoke rises from the Dauntless bowl, and you can feel it. This is it. This is the closest day you, Y/N, will get to the factions.

You cheer and clap with the rest of the factions as the Abnegation walk in, followed by Marcus, their leader. The shouts reach a crescendo as Jeanine ascends the stairs, carrying her clipboard.

"The faction system is a living being, composed of cells," she says, nodding to all of you as everyone quiets down. "All of you."

The silence crackles with anticipation.

"And the only way it can survive and thrive," she continues, "is for each of you to claim your rightful place. The future belongs to those who know where they belong."

She nods to the audience with a professional smile, and Marcus steps up behind her.

"When you leave this room, you'll no longer be dependents," he says, smiling, "but full-fledged members of our society. Faction before blood."

Everyone chants the words back to him, and you quickly shout along with them. "Faction before blood," you say, your words ending just a hair after theirs.

"Jonathan Ziegler," Marcus calls, and a tall, Erudite boy in a suit strides on stage. He carefully cuts his hand with the knife, then drops his blood in the Erudite bowl, the clear water dissolving the red.

The next name is called, then the next, then the next.

Cheyenne gets up, breezing over and placing her blood firmly in the soil. "Amity," Marcus says, nodding to her. We clap.

It goes on like this until the last sixteen-year-old has chosen, and everyone shouts and claps and stands up one more time. Then everyone gets up, laughing and congratulating each other. You gather that there's going to be some big party at the Amity farm later as everyone walks back out into the chilly night, and you smile and laugh along with everyone. Amity is wonderful, immediately making you feel included, part of a big family.

It's all you can do to peel away and walk back, back out into the darkness, finding your way back to the factionless warehouse.

Advance to 26.