Experiment Erudite (A Divergent Story)

Chapter 8- A New Problem

~ 1 month later ~

I hear the knob of the front door turn and in walks Jeanine. Her heels clamp on the wooden floor, but that's not new.

I sit in the living room, reading while occasionally sipping on the tea that sits in a steel cup on the steel little coffee table in front of the couch, that I lay on. Jeanine finds me and comes to settle on the same blue couch that I sit on. She sighs and I can imagine an exhausted and upset Jeanine after a long day of work. But when I look up from my book, she wears a small smile of satisfaction.

"How was your day at work?" I ask in curiosity to why Jeanine seems so happy.

"Other than a few stubborn Divergent, it feels good being faction leader above nearly everything else," Jeanine lightly says. My stomach feels all knotted and I find it difficult to breathe when Jeanine mentions the Divergent. A nervous question rises above all of this.

I look down, " What if I'm Divergent?" For the first time in a long time, I feel fear.

Jeanine's smile fades as she sees a problem. She wraps her arm around me but gives a computerized response. "Well, we'll find out in three months when you take your aptitude test," Jeanine responds, staying silent for a while afterward. "If your results do happen to be inconclusive..," Jeanine purses her lips, "..then I will have to act on your result as I would for any other person," Jeanine finally whispers after some time. She looks disappointed at the thought as she runs her fingers though my dirty blonde hair.

Even if Jeanine is upset, my curiosity overpowers my respect for others. "Will you kill me? Will you run tests on me? Are you going to make me factionless?" I ask in a whisper while tears well up in my eyes.

"Stop thinking like you already took your aptitude test," Jeanine says. "We don't know what your results are and so we can't draw any rash conclusions, sweetie," Jeanine says in a very wise manner, her usual mood returning.

I purse my lips at her response. I know that she's right. My behavior was irrational. I try to shake the thought that I might be Divergent out of me. Jeanine sighs and gets up from the sofa, "I still have some conclusions to write. Have you completed your homework?" She asks.

"I don't have any," I respond picking up my book.

"Don't lie to me Kristen, I know the curriculum," Jeanine says knowingly with a small smile again.

I sigh, " I have a worksheet from advanced math,"

Jeanine suddenly gets serious. "Do it then. It makes our entire faction look bad," She says warningly as she walks out of the living room. I groan as I follow to go to my room. There would be no way to avoid this. When Jeanine gets to her door, she turns around to make sure that I go in my room to complete my homework. "I want to see that you completed the worksheet in the morning!" She adds as she sees me enter my room. The newly appointed faction leader enters her own place of sleep.