The Other Prior: Candice Prior || Divergent Fanfiction

Chapter 28: My Mystery Gift

Chapter 28: My Mystery Gift

After the ranking ceremony, initiates are supposed to pick their new living quarters. It’s in the order of rank, and me being the second rank, have to pick second. The choosing starts in an hour, and I have no idea what to do. There are many options available to me. I can choose to live alone in a huge apartment at the top of Dauntless – but that means I’ll be secluded and alone, something I’ve had enough of in Abnegation. I could choose to room with Shauna or Zeke, but Shauna wants to keep room in her flat for her younger sister, Lynn, to move in with her after initiation and Zeke- Well only Uriah is crazy enough to keep his non-existent sanity while living with Zeke. Four has chosen to stay alone in a fairly large, but totally modest flat on the fourth floor. The floors go up to six, each level getting more and more expensive to maintain. The only other option is to live with Mia. But some part of me still isn’t sure.
“Andi?”

Mia has appeared in front of me, standing there with a nervous look on her face.

“Yeah, Mia?” I ask, stopping the vigorous foot tapping that I have resorted to take out my stress of choosing.

“I was wondering whether you wanted to, umm, and feel free to say know, it’s just that- growing up in Amity, I’m not used to silence, and living alone, isn’t the most appealing option, and I would really love to live with my best friend. So do you want to live with me?”
She asks, mostly rambling, playing with her T-shirt nervously.

Well, I guess that solves that problem.

“Yes, Mia, I would love to live with you. Who else will make sure to keep my closet stocked?”

She mumbles a small, Shauna, but pulls me into an excited embrace.

We’re living together. That’s a whole step above ‘friend in shower’ But I think I’m ready to start moving on.

+++

After spending the hour with Mia selecting flats, I’m pretty sure what I want to pick. We’ve agreed on flat 503. It has a huge kitchen, because apparently Mia, unsurprisingly with her Amity background, loves to cook – which is good for me since I cannot cook. It has two bedrooms both with balcony views into the Dauntless compound and a fairly large living and dining area and one guest room, since both of us harbor an unspoken hope that one of our younger siblings will join us in the next two years.
“503”

I say it without thinking. I’m sitting on a table in front of Max and a housing department member as they record each of the members wishes for a house. The cost, for the first house after joining Dauntless, is financed by your starting credits. Each initiate gets a different amount of starting credits based on the rank. Mia and I have agreed to split the funding 50/50, even though I got more starting credits than she did, she refused to let me pay more that her, which is part of the reason we don’t have a flat on the 6th floor. Another reason is that Zeke is going to pick to live on the fifth floor too.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go for a more exotic options, we have two flats open on the 6th floor which have a very open floor plan.” Max says, handing me some pictures of those flats.

“But 503 is open, right?” I ask, pushing away the pictures and shaking my head.

“Yes,” He says, sighing, probably accepting the fact that I’m not going to budge, “503 and 506.”

I know that 506 is open too. It has a more open floor plan, which is why Zeke was eager to pick that flat to live in. ‘To throw parties day and night!’, as he put it.

“Great. I’ll take 503. Sign it 50/50. Along with another initiate. Mia Robertson.”

“Okay. We’ll confirm the purchase with her and get it going. You’ll have the keys in the transfer dorm before tonight.”

I think Max is disappointed in the choices I’m making. He looks at me with the sad eyes that my dad used to look at me with every time I forgot to help the neighbors with their groceries, or my bun came out while walking home from school. I think that he sees me as wasted potential. I’m not exactly sure how one flat can make it look as though I’m wasted potential, but maybe he was expecting more of a go-getter attitude. Just because I settle for a less fancy house doesn’t mean that I’m not a go-getter. I think my ambition of what I want to do in Dauntless will more than prove that.

+++

“That son-of-a-bitch stole my house from me!”

I was sitting, peacefully, might I add, in the Pit with Mia, making plans about our new house, accompanied silently by Four, who seemed to be totally zoning out. He will not understand the excitement surrounding this moment. For us, it’s about decorating and making a nice place to live in. For him, it’s about plopping down a bed and a dresser and sleeping, because as much as I love his company, he is still a guy – a guy from abnegation to top it all off.

Zeke is furious. He doesn’t lend us the pleasure of knowing why and at whom he is so angry, instead going off at some unknown person about house-stealing. By the time Shauna gets back from choosing her house, on the third floor, Zeke is still in full rant about said house stealer, none of us having had the opportunity to ask what he was talking about.

“Zeke, what the hell are you talking about?” Shauna screams finally, after a solid minute of looking at our confused faces and watching Zeke rant on and on.

“Eric! We all thought that he would pick a luxurious flat on the sixth floor, right? But no! He picked 506, the only other open flat on the fifth floor. So, I had to think on the fly and settle for 405. Which means you and me are neighbors.” He says, huffing angrily and plopping himself down next to Four, who I know was wishing for some solitude when he picked his flat.

“What?!” Both me and four scream simultaneously, Four spitting his water out on Zeke who doesn’t look very thrilled about it.
I’m sure that Four and I have different reasons for reacting this way, and I’m sure, though the guys have thick heads and are completely incapable of seeing through the most obvious of matters, Mia and Shauna are beginning to have an inkling of what’s going on between Eric and I. Shauna had caught on, but then we started phase two of initiation which didn’t give either of us enough life to take up on the ‘talk’ I had promised her that night of capture the flag.

Four is obviously concerned that Zeke is moving onto his floor. Zeke has already made it clear that he plans to party and drink and party and bring home girls every other night, and the fact that Four, after making his wishes to be slightly isolated has to put up with all this makes it even more hilarious. To me. Not to him, of course.

“I’m not getting the flat I wanted.” Zeke clarifies, unhelpful to both of our problems.

“I don’t care about that!” Four yells.

“Who did you say was moving to the same floor as me?!” We both say, utterly exasperated.

“Me.” He says, looking at Four. “Eric.” He says, turning to me.

We both sigh in defeat. I don’t understand it. Why? Why would he do that? Especially after I yelled at him before the final tests, and made it clear how I felt? We all had assumed that Eric would pick the sixth floor, and that the flirtatious Dauntless-born ranking after Eric would not pick to be on the same floor as me, since she apparently hates my guts, and that Austin, again, would back off after Zeke threatened him in the hall while coming to the Pit. Eric through all that out the window with his need to be annoying and confusing and ruin my plans.

“Shit.” I mutter under my breath rubbing my fingers to my forehead.

“Zeke, your apartment card says 305, not 405.” Mia points out before walking away to confirm our apartment funding, which makes Zeke shriek again from being kicked another floor down, Shauna let out a gasp knowing that he’s going to be on her floor, and Four a sigh of relief.

“God, you guys are weird.” I say, letting out a sigh. My problem remains unresolved, and I’m probably just going to have to learn to deal with it, but my life isn’t at it’s worst. I have these goofballs to call friends, and I’m convinced that each one of them is true. They’re weird, but so am I, so we match perfectly together.

They’re my weirdos.

+++

I’m holding my new apartment key in my hand, fumbling with the lock at the door. Mia has already visited and started on the shopping using my credit account, since she doesn’t have any credits to spare. I’ve kept the box of my clothes at my feet, along with a picture of Four, Shauna, Zeke, and I from before the mental stage started, and a picture of Mia and I that I just got framed, which are spread across the top of the box. I finally get into the house and am met by the huge kitchen island which I place my things on. The living room is in front of the kitchen island, connected to the guest room on its other end. The kitchen itself is a passageway from the living room the dining hall. Walk further away from the door, and there’s a small hallway at the end of which two doors and placed, leading to two bedrooms with attached bathrooms.

It’s amazing. All of the walls are painted black, so Mia is looking for some light-colored furniture and some paint. She refused downright to sleep on the floor like I suggested, so she’s out on the near impossible mission at 9 in the night of finding white coloured things in Dauntless.

I realize I’ve left the door open and move to close it when I notice a small packet on the front step. It’s wrapped with black paper wrapping and tied with a small jute ribbon. I pick it up and am shocked to see who it’s addressed to.

Candice ‘Andi’ Prior

The only two people who know my full name are Tori and Four, and neither of them would leave a package for me at my front door when the door is open and I’m standing right inside.

I slowly peel open the packing, not wanting it to get ripped too badly – it looks too pretty for that – fold it to the side, and keep it aside, revealing a leather-bound book underneath them. I run my fingers down the leather in awe. I’ve never had anything leather before. My boots are all cloth, and Abnegation is too plain to have fancy things like leather. I sit cross-legged on the floor of my new house, completely forgetting to close the door, fascinated with the gift in front of me.

I open it up.

I have to hold back a sob as I see the picture inside it. Taken from a council meeting from a few years ago from the Erudite newsletter, is a picture of all of us. A rare occasion, although none of us are looking at the camera. We are all engaged in talking to each other in a corner. Knowing Erudite, the meaning for capturing this photo was a lot more malicious, but I’m unable to think of any of that. My parents, my siblings, right there in front of me.

I flip the page and let out a tear-filled laugh. It’s a small boy in Erudite clothing posing with another girl wearing the same clothing. Underneath the picture is written Andrew and Jeanine. My dad was Erudite. The next page features a Dauntless girl smiling weirdly at the camera with her eyes crossing together and her tongue pulled out of her mouth. Underneath, the words are written in the same handwriting as that on the cover and on the last page: Nat after having a little too much to drink.

These are my parents.

I flip through pages of my parents’ old pictures, faintly wondering where the mystery gift-giver got them. My parents. Occasionally, there are pictures of us as a family in Abnegation as cuttings from newspapers and magazines, but mostly, they hold picture from my parents’ childhood. The pictures of my dad go far back – to the time he was around three, but my mom only has pictures of when she was around my age – not surprising since Dauntless has really bad records. My mom was Dauntless. Just like me.

“I’m glad you like it.” A voice says from in front of me at the doorway.

And when I look up to find the owner of the voice, I’m completely blown away.