Her Secret

Choosing Ceremony

Beatrice Prior stands perfectly still as her mother, Natalie, twists her hair into a bun. When she's done, Natalie gets up and grabs a mirror from inside a cabinet. All Abnegation owned a mirror. They were only allowed to use it on special occasions, though these hardly happened. Abnegation considered mirrors a sign of vanity. Beatrice glances at herself for a few seconds before her mother puts the mirror away.

"Are you ready, darling?" Natalie asks. Beatrice sighs and stares at her hands.

"I'm not sure what choice I'm going to make yet," she whispers, seeming slightly upset.

"You'll know when the time comes," her mother says kindly. 

"It's time to go!" Andrew Prior, her father calls. Natalie smiles at her before heading out of the room. Beatrice sighs and stands up from the stool she was sitting on. She places it out of the way and follows her mother out.

Beatrice's brother Caleb, is waiting in the entryway of their humble home with Andrew by his side. 

"Whatever happens, I'll always love you, Bea," Andrew whispers, giving Beatrice a hug. He then hugs Caleb before heading out the door. Natalie does the same before gesturing for the two of them to follow him. They leave the house and quickly walk to the building in which the Choosing Ceremony was being held. Erudite was hosting that year, which meant that their faction leader would be in charge of reading off the names to call people up to choose. 

The family heads over to the Abnegation section, but on the way gets stopped by a woman in blue.

"Hello, Andrew," she says cooly, walking up to them. 

"Good Morning, Jeanine," Andrew greets her, almost in the same tone of voice. The two stare at each other for a while, as if engaging in some sort of staring contest before Jeanine nods curtly towards Andrew. "It's nice seeing you," she says, almost sounding sarcastic before walking off, her entourage following her. 

Natalie eyes Andrew before looking at Beatrice and Caleb. "Bad blood," she whispers to them. Beatrice nods and excuses herself to use the restroom. When she comes back, Jeanine had already started giving her speech. Beatrice trips through the door and quickly makes it to her seat. Jeanine stops mid-sentence, baffled about how an Abnegation could be so clumsy. She quickly resumes her speech before most people could even tell she stopped. Beatrice knew though as Jeanine had made eye contact with her at that moment. Jeanine proceeded to falter through her speech, messing up a few times, her mind elsewhere. By the time she had finished, the few people that had noticed seemed quite confused. Others either hadn't noticed or thought it was normal; which it is. If you aren't the Erudite leader. 

The choosing ceremony began as Jeanine then proceeded to read off names from the list. Marcus was standing next to her, handing a knife to everyone, and wiping the blood off in between the eighteen-year-olds. 

"Prior, Caleb," Jeanine reads off after a while. Caleb hurriedly walks up, grabs the knife from Marcus, and quickly chooses Abnegation. "Prior, Beatrice," Jeanine says next.
Jeanine had collected herself and glared slightly at the girl as she grabbed the knife from Marcus. Beatrice ignores her as she quietly walks over to the bowls to make her choice. She stares at the bowl for a long time before deciding which faction that she was going to choose. She slowly starts to move her hand towards the sizzling coals in the Dauntless bowl. Before she can make it, though, a drop of blood rolls off her hand and falls in another bowl. "Beatrice Prior, Erudite," she hears Jeanine's voice announce. Her eyes widen as she realizes that she is ending up in a different faction than the one of her choice. Beatrice starts to think about how she now has to spend the rest of her life trying to fit in a faction she didn't even want to be in. Beatrice knew she was in big trouble as she headed over to the Erudite section. She was greeted by a member that introduced herself as Cara and was given a spot next to her. 

Beatrice looks over at her parents to see Natalie smiling at her and Caleb and Andrew glaring. She tries to ignore them as she looks straight ahead and tries to focus on the choosing ceremony, clapping whenever someone chooses Erudite. The ceremony goes by quickly, and the Erudites stay there to chatter amongst themselves, letting other factions go first. Beatrice awkwardly sits in a seat far away from the others. Jeanine approaches her, and she stands up to give Jeanine a seat. 

"What's your name, kid?" Jeanine asks, approaching her. Jeanine hadn't really cared what her name was as she had already forgotten it. Beatrice hesitates. "You are in a new faction now. It's not like anyone is going to know if you choose a nickname," Jeanine mutters. 

"Call me Tris," Beatrice says after a few seconds.

"Right, Beatrice Prior," Jeanine mutters. "My name is Jeanine Matthews, but I suppose you already knew that."

"Not before today, Ma'am," tris mumbles. 

Jeanine looks surprised but quickly collects herself. "Do you know what you're supposed to be doing?" Tris shakes her head and Jeanine sighs. "This is the time in which you get to know your fellow initiates." Jeanine then points to a group of people huddled in together. She raises an eyebrow as Tris stares at her. "What are you waiting for?" she asks. "Me to introduce you?"

"I suppose," Tris replies shyly. "I'm not very good at making new friends, you see." Jeanine rolls her eyes but proceeds to lead Tris over to the group.

"So what made you decide to choose Erudite? Especially being you didn't even know the faction leader," she mumbles. 

Tris hesitates, not wanting to tell Jeanine that she chose the faction on accident. "I like learning. Knowledge is important. And constantly learning is fun," she says with a smile.
Jeanine knows the girl is lying but lets it go. "What are you learning now?" she asks Tris, trying to press the matter. 

"For instance, I've met quite a few people today. I'm trying to learn about them now," she says. "I find that knowledge doesn't always have to come in the form of a textbook."
Jeanine nods, always having appreciated the different methods of learning. "You said you were shy and didn't like talking to people. Whom do you have to learn about?"
"You and Cara are the only ones I've met so far, but I think that's a good start, she mumbles, turning slightly red. 

"I see..." Jeanine says. "Hello everyone," she says, making their way over to the group of initiates. "This is Tris Prior. She asked me to introduce her to everyone," Jeanine mutters.
A girl starts laughing at her tone of voice. "Joanna," Jeanine mumbles, a scolding tone to her voice. The girl rolls her eyes. 

"Jeanine," she pouts, almost in protest. "Your tone of voice is funny though."
Jeanine rolls her eyes. "That would be my kid cousin," she mutters.
"I'm an adult now, Jean," she says with a smirk. "I've had my choosing ceremony," Joanna says, adjusting her glasses. Jeanine rolls her eyes. 

Ignore her, Beatrice," she says clearly, making sure Joanna hears, before walking off. The girl rolls her eyes before introducing the rest of the group to Tris. 

After about twenty minutes, Jeanine comes back to announce that they were now leaving to go back to Erudite. They take the elevators down and head out of the building. When the group reaches the Erudite headquarters, Cara and Jeanine stand in front of the initiates. Cara hands out a library card and an Initiate Identification as Jeanine talks. "You are now free to go explore the compound," Jeanine says with a forced smile. "Dinner is at six. Be in the Dining Hall by then," she says. The initiates file into the compound, and Tris is left to explore.