Divergent: Four

Chapter 2

Song: You Found Me by Kelly Clarkson.
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A bell rings alerting me to wake up. I blink several times to make sure I was still in Dauntless, not back in my father's house. It's been exactly two years since I have joined Dauntless and today is when the Transfers come, I'm going to be their mentor until they become full Dauntless members.
The first thing I see are the words "Fear God Alone" painted on the plain white wall. I have my own room with everything I needed: a bathroom, shower, table. I sit up and wipe the sleepiness out of my face.
"Four please come down to get the Transfers," a voice says overhead.
"Sure thing let me get ready," I reply as I brush my teeth and checking myself in the mirror. I aged a little, I don't have that young boy face anymore. My face is now more manly and my eyes got a deeper blue, a dreamy and waiting color. Of course my body is now more muscular due to all the training I've been doing.
It was hard to earn the trust of the Dauntless since I was a transfer from
Abnegation and they thought I wasn't tough enough. Ha I showed them that I was tough as a Dauntless could be. Now people don't even notice I was a transfer.
I grab my towel and wipe off the excess water dripping from my face. My hair looks like a jungle so I decided to comb it a bit to calm it down. When I finish, I take off my shirt and throw on a fresh black shirt, a pair of black jeans and a jacket.
Dauntless was of course black and black suits me much better than gray or white. I look too much of an angel when I wear white and I don't want people to underestimate my abilities.
I went out and walk to the open cavern with a net on the bottom where the transfers and Dauntless borns will jump to show that they are brave. They don't know that there is a net down there so if they back down, they're factionless.
It's kind of cruel to me but you chose Dauntless and you have to be brave.
I stride quickly to the cavern and see Lauren and a couple of others are already there.
"Hey Lauren," I say, while I fixed the net.
Lauren says hi and starts talking about who's going to be the first jumper.
"Maybe a Stiff will be the first one," I suggest. I stand up straight and stand next to the net so I can get the person who jumped down.
"No! Never and I don't even think a Stiff even chose to transfer to Dauntless," Lauren snorts while crossing her arms.
"We'll see." I cross my arm in front of my chest like her and she growls with annoyance as I mimicked her move.
I don't know why but I have this feeling I needed to be here today and it was the same feeling that made me go after the girl on the ferris wheel. I still remember the dream even after two years.
A girl is screaming from the top of the cavern and she lands on the net with a thud. I chuckle at the thought of my first jump. She's wearing Abnegation gray and her hair is tied in a messy bun. Her laughter twinkles in the silent cavern with relieve when she landed.
Lauren and the others held our hands and so do I. She grabs my hand instead of the others, I grip her arms but release her the moment she could stand upright again.
I study her small figure. She has a narrow face, wide, round blue-gray eyes, and a long, thin nose. Her hair was the color of golden chestnuts. She looks familiar, like I have seen her before.
She stares at me wide-eyed as she says, "Thank you."
"Can't believe it," says Lauren who is behind me. Her dark hair and three silver rings through her right eyebrow will probably scare the Stiff. Lauren does look like a dangerous gangster.
Lauren gives me the defeated look and smirks at the girl. "A Stiff, the first to jump? Unheard of."
I couldn't help but chime in to make Lauren more angry. "There's a reason why she left them, Lauren."
She gives me a death stare but I ignored it, and turn my attention to the new girl.
My deep voice rumbles as I say, "What's your name?"
"Um..." the girl starts. She must have a Stiff name that doesn't fit into Dauntless. Nothing Abnegation does fits into Dauntless.
"Think about it," I say, smiling faintly as I remembered when I got my Dauntless name, Four. "You don't get to pick again."
She looks back at me and in a full, firm, confident voice she answers my question, "Tris."
Tris, I privately repeat in my head. Tris..... Beatrice?!
"Tris," Lauren repeats, grinning for the first time in forever. "Make the announcement, Four."
I nod and look over my shoulder and shout, "First jumper-Tris!"
The crowd behind me actualize from the darkness of the cave. They shout and cheer pumping their fists along with it. Then another person drops into the net.
It is another girl, wearing Candor clothes. Her screams made the crowd laugh, but it soon became cheers.
I set my hand behind Tris's back and say, "Welcome to Dauntless."
When all the initiates came down from heaven, me and Lauren lead them down a narrow tunnel. Showing them this and that. The tunnel is made of stone and when I first landed here, I thought I was in the heart of Earth.
Me and Lauren stop and turn around with folded arms. I glance quickly at Tris who bumped into an Erudite boy and smirk.
"This is where we divide," Lauren says. "The Dauntless born initiates are with me. I assume you don't need a tour of the place."
She finished off with the joke and knew that I thought her well. Lauren smiles and beckons toward the Dauntless born initiates. They break away from the group and dissolve from sight in the shadows.
Most of the initiates are Dauntless born so now there is only nine people left standing in the group. Tris is the only one from Abnegation, there were no Amity transfer. The rest are from Erudite and, from Candor surprisingly.
I look back at the remaining Transfer. "Most of the time I work in the control room, but for the next few weeks, I am your instructor." I pause and hope no one says anything rude about my name, "My name is Four."
Too quickly said, Four.
"Four? Like the number?" says the second jumper, who is the dark skinned girl from Candor.
I cringe and glare at her. In the calmest voice I can spit out I reply, "Yes, is there a problem?"
"No."
"Good. We're about to go into the Pit, which you will someday learn to love. It-"
The same girl snickers. "The Pit? Clever name."
God damn her! Does she have to interrupt me every time I say something?!
This time I lost my patience with the girl. I walk up straight to her with a scowl on my face and narrow my eyes.
"What's your name?" I ask quietly, leaning close to her face.
"Christina," she manages to squeak out. I wouldn't be surpise if she peed her pants.
"Well, Christina, if I wanted to put up with Candor smart mouths, I would have joined their faction," I hiss angrily. "The first lesson you will learn from me is to keep your mouth shut. Got that?"
Christina gulps and nods.
I let go of my breath and let all of my anger flow out. I start toward the shadow at the end of the tunnel and wondered why a Candor would want to be Dauntless. Them with their honest ass mouth irritates the shit out of me. They dribble out words, unchecked and careless, and if she doesn't control her honesty, she's going to have a problem. The crowd of initiates moves on in silence.
"What a jerk," I hear Christina mumble.
I prepare to turn around and launch at Christina but Tris's reply stops me.
"I guess he doesn't like to be laughed at," Tris says after. I smile slightly in the darkness, knowing that I got backup and not everyone hates me. I'm not a very easy person to love.
A double door comes into view and I push it open, the initiates walks into the place called the Pit.
"Oh," Christina whispers behind me. "I get it."
I smirk and thought to myself, next time don't talk back to your instructor Christina.
The Pit is an underground cavern so huge, even with my height I couldn't see the other end of it. Uneven rocks towered several stories high above my head. In the stone walls are places for food, clothing, supplies, and leisure activities. Narrow paths are craved out for people to walk from and back. There is no barriers to keep anyone from falling. I learned that the hard way.
Though it might look like this place is underground, it looks just like a city from the outside. Blue lanterns hung at random intervals above the stone paths, they glow brighter as the sunlight goes away.
People are everywhere, all dressed in Dauntless black and shouting and talking. The elderlies are not seen here because they were too old and didn't last too long with all the roughness that happens in Dauntless.
"If you follow me," I say, if not then good luck to you. "I'll show you the chasm."
I wave them forward, leading them to the right wide of the Pit. As we approach I heard the roaring of the fast moving chasm water.
I turn back to the group and see Tris peeking over the side.
"The chasm reminds us that there is a fine line between bravery and idiocy!" I shout, over the loud water.
I had a friend who jumped down to the chasm and killed himself because he was acting stupid. He thought he had powers and he'll survive but look who is the instructor of the group now. I blamed the beer and alcohol the Dauntless born gave him.
"A daredevil jump off this ledge will end your life. It has happened before and it will happen again. You've been warned."
I lead the group away from the railing and toward a gaping hole across the Pit. I am leading them to my favorite place, the dining room! The room is well lit so the initiates wouldn't be blind as bats anymore. People are clinking silverware and shouting over each other.
When the initiates walk in, the whole room broke into a chorus of applauds. They stamp their feet. They shout. And I turn around to check on the group and see Tris and Christina shyly smiling. Most of the group broke away to find their own seats to dine on.
I went to find my own seat, with Christina and Tris cautiously following me, not knowing where to sit and I was a familiar face. I sit down to a couple of friends and Tris slide down next to me while Christina is on her left. They acted as if they didn't follow me at all.
I smirk when Tris stared at the food in front of us as if it is a form of new life from outer space. Today we have hamburgers and by the look on Tris's face, she probably never tasted one before. She reaches out to pinch a bun in her fingers.
I couldn't help it but nudge her with my elbow. Watching her suffer of poor food disorder sadden me deeply.
"It's beef," I say. "Put this on it." I pass her a bowl of ketchup.
"You've never had a hamburger before?" asks Christina, her eyes wide.
I know Christina, I know, it's very sad that no one ever tasted a burger before.
One of the many reasons why I left Abnegation. They have plain food that has no taste whatsoever.
"No," Tris says, confused. "Is that what it's called?"
"Stiffs eat plain food," I say, nodding at Christina.
"Why?" she asks.
Tris shrugs. "Extravagance is considered self-indulgent and unnecessary."
Christina smirks. "No wonder you left."
"Yeah," Tris says, rolling her eyes. "It was just because of the food."
My mouth twitches slightly, laughing inside at their conversation.
The doors to the cafeteria open, the room went goes quiet with a hush. I look over my shoulder and saw Eric the "Great" walk in. Eric is pierced in so many places I ran out of numbers for them, and his hair is long, dark, and greasy. I bet he uses oil to make his hair that greasy.
"Who's that?" hisses Christina.
"His name is Eric," I say out of boredom. "He's a Dauntless leader."
"Seriously? But he's so young?."
I give her a grave look. "Age doesn't matter here."
Eric was way too young and had no experience to be leader. He's a ruthless human being and is a terrible leader. I sometimes regretted my decision to deny leadership, Dauntless would have been in much better shape with me as leader. But when I think of meeting my council member dad, I say no.
Christina was about to ask another annoying question but stopped when Eric starts to our table. He drops to the seat besides me. Eric offered no greeting, so neither did we.
So much of a so called leader.
"Well, aren't you going to introduce me?" he asks, nodding to Christina and Tris.
I say, "This is Tris and Christina." I went back to eating my food and let Tris deal with Eric instead.
"Ooh a Stiff," says Eric, smirking at Tris. "We'll see how long you last."
That line came toward me like an insult. Tris will last longer than you Eric. I wanted to punch Eric in the face so bad but I knew that would get me to be factionless. I plan to be leave Dauntless and live a factionless life after initiations are done. I just don't feel like Dauntless is my place anymore. I sit there tensely as I finish my food.
Eric taps his fingers against the table making a tapping rhythm.
"What have you been doing lately, Four?" he asks.
I lift a shoulder. "Nothing, really," I say.
"Max tells me he keeps trying to meet with you, and you don't show up," Eric says. "He requested that I find out what's going on with you."
I look at Eric for a few seconds before calmly saying, "Tell him that I am satisfied with the position I currently hold."
"So he wants to give you a job."
The rings in Eric's eyebrow catches the light. I knew Eric sees me as a threat to his position, he doesn't want a former Stiff to be the leader.
"So it would seem," I say cooly.
"And you aren't interested."
"I haven't been interested for two years."
"Well," says Eric. "Let's hope he gets the point, then."
He claps me on the shoulder, the contact a little too rough, and gets up. When he walks away, I turn to Tris and saw her slouching again. My body was content again and wasn't tense after Eric left.
"Are you two... friends?" Tris asks with curiosity.
I thought for a moment before answering. "We were in the same initiate class, he transferred from Erudite."
After a second I finished, Tris starts to question me again, this time a question that I didn't want to answer.
"Were you a transfer too?" Tris blabber out quickly.
"I thought I would only have trouble with the Candor asking too many questions," I say coldly. "Now I've got Stiffs, too?"
I like Tris most out of the group but sometimes she just asks too much question that doesn't want to be answered.
"It must be because you're so approachable," she says flatly. "You know. Like a bed of nails."
I stare at her tensely but she never looked away. I am anything but approachable, I yelled at Christina in front of the whole group and she's calling me approachable? This girl is crazy.
Tris's cheeks is starting to redden and I just say, "Careful Tris."
"Four!" someone yells at another table. When I look away to them I could hear Christina telling Tris that she has a death wish. My mouth twitched up a bit then went down.
I disappear into my own room to rest and get ready for the training tomorrow.