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THE ONLY THING Davina could focus on for the rest of the Choosing was the blood pounding in her head, throbbing under the plaster on her hand, her pulse racing at her throat. She barely heard the rest of the names or registered any familiar faces, only standing there with her eyes on the floor and hands squeezed at her side.
Someone had patted her on the shoulder, a Dauntless-born, and someone had called her 'Nose' and called her brave, but it meant nothing through the white noise in her head and the bitter taste flooding her mouth. She could still feel them– her family. They were still too close to her and her leaving, she could still imagine the look on her mother's face as it sunk in, she could still look across the room and see the reflection she would never mirror.
Davina suspected she wouldn't feel better until she left the Ceremony.
Luckily for her, the Dauntless moved first once it finished up, scattered applause filling the room as Marcus announced the ending. Some people were laughing, some were crying, and Davina still did not steal a glance back at her family.
The crowd she had become a part of headed for the stairs, jostling her in the same direction so roughly that even if she had intended to stay, she wouldn't have been able to. She kept her eyes forward, gritting her teeth and moving forward. Focused on anything that would shrink the shadow hanging over her.
She could see Edward was just ahead of her, his hand in Myra's as they walked. Davina didn't care to talk to him yet or try to push through the crowd and catch up to him. He wasn't going anywhere now, she could talk to him later, even if she felt alone as she hurried forward, following the swell of the crowd.
To her right was a girl from Abnegation, one of two Stiffs that transferred to Dauntless, who was short and blonde. She looked as plain as Davina would expect, but she realised she was the one with the brother that had twisted Davina's stomach during the Ceremony.
She tore her gaze away and caught a glance to her left, making eye contact with a pale-looking boy from her own Faction. "William?" she asked in disbelief. He looked different from the last time she had properly seen him and not stolen a glance at in the hallways at school, awkward exchanges on the street.
He gave her a weak grin, as if that would hide his obvious nerves, before the Dauntless around them began to run, breaking out of the crowd. There were whoops and shouts and laughter, a whirlwind of freedom and chaos as they sprinted down the stairs at an alarming pace.
"What the hell is going on?" Will shouted above the noise.
The Abnegation girl just shook her head as Davina kept herself focused on moving forward, one foot in front of the other. She wasn't unfit, but was stronger than she was enduring, and by the time they reached the first floor and burst through the exit, Davina felt her lungs burning from the sprint.
