Prior Rings

Chapter 27: Tris - Girls' Night Out

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, and to my wonderful beta reader, Rosalie! I really appreciate the support.

Chapter 27: Tris – Girls' Night Out

Like most of the others in my faction, I don't technically need to work. The city provides those of us who went on the mission with a "heroes' pension" that covers our monthly expenses. Apparently, Tori proposed it originally, in order to ensure that Amar could receive the care he needed from George and Tobias and Cara without any of them trying to fit other jobs in around that responsibility. I gather it was one of the few unanimous decisions the city council has ever made.

But I find myself itching to do something, anyway. So, I spend time with the others, going to work with them to get a sense of what I might enjoy doing. The list of options is essentially endless now, since factions no longer have a monopoly on any given type of job, but that makes it more difficult than ever to pick.

Cara is studying to be a doctor, a position that appeals to both the Erudite and the Abnegation parts of me. But it only takes a short time of shadowing her to realize that I've seen too much blood in my lifetime as it is. So, I decide against the medical profession as a whole.

Amar isn't up to an outside job yet, so he mostly works within our building, though he occasionally helps Tobias set up other factions. George sticks close to him, taking care of his medical needs in between his regular appointments and therapy sessions, and helping him deal with the many issues that still arise every week. He's much better than he was, I'm told, but after seeing the full-out melt-down he had a few days ago when a car back-fired outside the window, I can understand why George makes sure not to be far away.

Shauna is running her own tattoo business, serving the many former Dauntless who live all around the city, as well as anyone else who wants a tattoo these days. She competes with the shop that Tori used to run, but it seems she has plenty of customers. That's not surprising, given how many people Dauntless kicked out over the years – most of them would much rather give their money to Shauna than to their former faction.

Christina and Zeke both work in the city's police force, with Zeke in surveillance and Christina doing patrols. They keep trying to get Uriah to join them, but he's apparently been having trouble picking a career. I gather he's tried quite a variety of jobs, but nothing has lasted long. Currently, he's serving as a guard for the city council, since they don't want all of their protection to come from any single faction.

I suppose that's why I find myself following Christina through the building where the next council meeting will be held. They alternate the location, and this one will be in a place that was abandoned until five months ago. It's now a community center for those who choose to remain factionless. As Evelyn says, everyone should have a sense of community, even if they don't want to base their lives around a specific theme.

Christina's job is to start securing the space, to ensure the council will be safe here – along with any members of the public who choose to attend the meeting.

It's not the most interesting work I've ever seen, though there's clearly an art to it, judging by how Christina stops to look at some things while passing by others that don't seem too different to me. I suppose that's a benefit of having grown up Candor – she notices every detail and knows which ones matter.

"We should do something fun tonight," Christina chirps as she runs her hand over the top of a doorframe, presumably checking for wires.

My eyes narrow a bit. "That depends on what you consider 'fun.'" I'm not particularly interested in going clothes shopping for hours.