Divergent: Audrey Lorm

Chapter 3

All my friends threw a party last night, to celebrate potentially the last day we will all be together. I hope we all stay, but Madilyn is the only one I have skeptics about. If she changes factions, I don't know how I'll get through initiation without her.
Today is the day of the choosing ceremony. I'm sitting beside Madilyn, waiting anxiously for the ceremony to start. I wonder what thoughts could be going on in her head right now. Hopefully they're positive.

When the traditional speech begins, I get more nervous by the second. Madilyn can't even be considering Erudite as one of her options.
Before I know it, the ceremony begins and the first person is choosing. This Erudite boy goes up, takes the knife, slits his wrist and drops his blood back into the Erudite bowl. Unlike the Dauntless would, the Erudite don't cheer, clap, smile or even acknowledge him. That must be so boring.

By now, some of my friends have gone, and chosen to come back to Dauntless, looking forward to the cheering afterwards.
Suddenly I hear the Dauntless start cheering. I look up and see they called her name. Madilyn.
Right before she was about to get up, she looks over to me. She gives me a shy smile. That can't be a good sign. I pat her on the back, quite hard, to remind her how strong she actually is.

Shaking, I watch Madilyn take the knife from the women's hand. Her hand is shaking too as she slits her wrist and forms a faint gash in her hand. Madilyn's hand is hovering over the two bowls. Dauntless and Erudite. I need her to choose to stay here. I can't pass initiation without my best friend.

Anyone else would be whaling or crying in this situation, but not Madilyn. She firmly places her hand over the Erudite bowl and let's her blood turn the water red.
Madilyn turns to me and looks me directly in the eye, a stern look that says sorry and goodbye, a look I will never forget.

How could she do this to me? How could she abandom me and all her other friends? I'm no longer sad, but furious. That's not where she's meant to be and live.a She made a huge mistake. I don't know if I can do it without her. There's a part of me saying "go with her", but I remind myself she's not the one keeping me together, it's just me. I will prove to her that I don't need her. When it comes to my turn, I will look her directly in the eye and drop my blood in the Dauntless bowl and never look back. I will show Madilyn that I'm moving on.