Sharpened knives and pencil shavings

Chapter 1: A new start

Author's note: Alright, so this is my first story on wattpad. This story was originally on Fanfiction.net (It still is, I am using that account still XD) but I have this account and I'm doing nothing with it, so I am putting this up :-)

Disclaimer: I do not own Divergent, Veronica Roth does!

Tris' POV

*beep*

*beep*

I groan loudly as I lean over, whacking the power button on my alarm clock to shut it up. Is it morning already? I close my eyes in the hope of this being a stupid dream.

"Beatrice!"

Well, there goes the hope that I was dreaming right out the window. "What do you want, Caleb?" I ask, my voice still groggy from sleep. I lie in bed with my eyes closed but not asleep. I'm pretty sure my hair is a mess by the fact that I can feel hair on my face. I hear my bedroom door creak open followed by a rather annoyed sigh. Caleb, as usual, to wake me up.

"Are you still asleep?" He asks incredulously, his voice laced with disbelief. I smirk slightly into my pillow.

"I wish," I mumble sleepily, forcing my eyes open. Caleb stands in the doorway, his brown hair already washed, dried and brushed. He's also dressed in a blue uniform. My brow furrows in confusion for a moment before I remember that today Caleb and I are going to a boarding school in Chicago. I groan loudly in frustration and try to will myself back to sleep.

Unfortunately, Caleb notices what I'm doing and fixes me with a look of pure disapproval. "Beatrice don't you dare fall back to sleep!" He scolds.

"It's scary how similar you are to dad," I mutter quietly, "except not really." I've never really been scared of much all my life. Caleb says that I was the one who scared people sometimes. The thought makes me laugh; I'm about as threatening as a pink butterfly stuck on a marshmallow (A/N: Points if you get that reference! Hint: Youtube!). "Alright, I'm getting up!"

Caleb nods at me in approval and closes the door behind him as he leaves.

After a minute of lying there, I haul my sleep-heavy body out of bed and drag it over to the mirror on the wall. I barely manage to hold back a groan as I see the state that my hair is in: across my face, sticking up in places and tangled like hell.

"OKay, we have a lot of work to do before we leave," I mutter under my breath to myself.

*PAGE BREAK*

After I've finished washing and getting dressed, I lug my suitcases downstairs and into the main hall. After that, I abandon them by the front door to grab breakfast from mum in the dining room. Caleb is already sat at the table dressed in his blue uniform: light blue shirt with navy blue buttons; a pair of navy blue trousers and a blazer of the same colour as his trousers and buttons with white stitchings. On the front pocket a large white eye is embroidered: Erudite, Caleb's chosen faction. Mum stands in front of the stove holding a frying pan. "Good morning, Beatrice," She says warmly with a smile.

"Morning mum," I say back smiling nervously. I hang my blazer round the back of the chair opposite Caleb and sit down.

"Your uniform is lovely, by the way," she compliments, placing a plate of pancakes in front of me. "Caleb, don't you think your sister's new uniform is lovely?"

I sigh and give my mum an appreciative smile. I don't really know what to think of my uniform to be honest. A black skirt that reaches my knees, fastened by an orange button; A black blouse with orange buttons; and a black blazer with orange stitching. On the front pocket, instead of a white eye, I have flames embroidered in perfect detail made of red, yellow and orange. Flames also decorate the rims of the sleeves, giving the appearance that my arms are on fire. Join all that with flesh coloured tights and plain black shoes with a small heel and you have a...strange uniform. I like it though, it shows that this school is unique among other boarding schools. Caleb looks at me sceptically. I can tell that he doesn't like it - but he won't say it in front of mum. "It's...lovely," he says finally. I can't blame him for his answer - it's a bit daring for a school uniform - but I'm still a bit annoyed that he said that. Throughout all that, I've barely touched my pancakes. I don't feel hungry anyway. Mum notices this and takes both our plates away.

"Well, are we all ready to go?" She asks. I seem to have lost my voice, so all I can do is nod.

*PAGE BREAK*

The school is divided into eight buildings. The largest contains classrooms and an assembly hall with a stage for drama productions. The next largest building is the sports hall and changing rooms. The third largest contains all the offices including the heads of factions who run the school. The other five buildings are all faction dormitories. As well as dormitories they each have their own dining room with its own culinary staff; each dining room adapted to the cuisine that the head of that faction chose. Your faction is usually decided by a special 'aptitude test' but if you really wanted to you canb choose another faction. My results were... weird to say the least. I had aptitudes for abnegation, dauntless and erudite. I was told that each faction stood for a certain virtue. Amity believed in peace and kindness; Abnegation believed in being selfless and helping others; Candor believed in being honest and not hiding anything; Dauntless believed in bravery and facing your fears; and erudite believed in intelligence.

I had chosen to join dauntless which is why my uniform was mostly black and a girl with bright pink hair with purple highlights that reached past her shoulders - who's name is Nelly, by the way - was leading me to a building with a large painting of flames above a glass doorway with the same design printed on the glass. 'Dauntless' was written above the doorway in bright orange letters. The building itself was longer than it was wide and curved (Imagine a section of a circle!) and was mainly obsidian black with orange in places. As I stare at it more I can see that it looks like the building is burning with black flames. I have to admire the art style of this faction; whoever designed everything was a pure genius!

When we enter the lobby, Nelly points me over to a woman with dark hair and dark eyes standing by another glass door. As I walk over, she looks up and smiles. She lifts up a hand and waves me over. "There you are!" She says. "You must be Beatrice, right?"

"Yeah, but call me Tris," I say, deciding that I need a new name in this entirely new place.

"Okay, Tris," She says, scribbling something down. "I'm Miss Wu, but everyone calls me Tori. Now, follow me and we can introduce you to the majority of your classmates."

*PAGE BREAK*

Tori leads me into a large lounge like area she calls the 'Social Area'. Apparently, if you want to socialise with people in other factions - or to just chill - this is where you go. The interior of the building is designed to look like you are standing among a burning city: the black forming silhouettes of city buildings, orange as flames and dark grey as smoke. The dark grey decorates the ceiling apart from a few patches that break onto a navy blue colour with some white dots. "Who did the artwoirk?" I ask curiously.

Tori looks back at me and smiles. "It was designed and painted by me, actually!" She says proudly. "We pride ourselves on our dormitory design and you can see why! As a little side note, the uniform's design was by me."

"Wow," I say in astonishment. "You must be really happy with the result!"

Tori laughs. "I am!" She says happily. "It really makes us sticks out among the other factions, and it's made me a treasured member of staff here for my artwork!"

There you have it! I took the design of the building, interior and uniform a bit far but I hope the design is good for you to imagine. I also want to emphasise Tori's art skills a bit.