Her Secret

Exploring Erudite

Tris stares at the cards that Cara had given her before deciding to wander through the compound. She wasn't sure where to go, but let her feet take her. She easily finds the library quite quickly and decides to browse through some of the books. The first thing she spots though in the library is a large, life-size portrait of Jeanine. She stares at it for a few seconds.    

"She looks better without her glasses on," a voice says from behind her. 

"Who are you?" Tris asks, whirling around. "Oh. Joanna. I thought you were someone else," Tris says with a sigh. 

Joanna lets out a small chuckle. "Do you want some book recommendations?" She asks the girl.  Tris hesitates for a few seconds before nodding. 

"I suppose I  could use some reading material," she says with a small smile. 

"Excellent!" Joanna says, clapping her hands together. A nearby librarian tells her to be quiet, and Joanna shushes her. "You be quiet, Nancy," she whispers. The librarian rolls her eyes at Joanna's childishness before continuing to shelve books. Tris then walks through the aisles of books. "Have you read this one?" Joanna whispers to Tris through the bookshelf. She slides the book through, and tris shakes her head. The two repeated the process until Tris was hardly able to carry the large stack of books Joanna had given her to try reading. 

"Um, Joanna? Can I even check this many books out at the same time?" Tris asks.

Joanna laughs. "Of course you can. We're Erudites. There is no limit," she says with a smirk. The librarian checking her out, eyes the stack before giving her a messenger bag and putting the books in them. Tris thanks her before heading out of the library. Joanna follows her out and falls in line next to her. "My cousin has taken a liking to you," Joanna says with a smile. "I find it funny. She hates people too much to hold a conversation with them unless she has to." 

"Is that a good thing though?" She asks. 

"Depends on her mood," Joanna jokes. "Oh. Piece of advice. The password to the laboratory changes once a month. There's a puzzle you have to solve. I think it's sudoku this month Hope you're good at that," she says with a smile. 

"Remind me why I chose this faction again," Tris jokes. Joanna laughs slightly. 

 "I suppose. I should let you have fun on your own and bug some of the other initiates," she says with a smile. Joanna waves to her before running off. 

"She's a lot to handle," Tris mumbles to herself. She takes a turn down another white hallway and finds a line of doors. She peers into a window to find that most of them are dorms. Tris decides that being she was one of the first people there, she could have her pick of the dorms. She looks at a few to find that they were almost the same but had one thing making them unique from the others. She walks into a dorm in which she finds a top bunk with a desk underneath it. She smiles to herself as she decides she likes the layout of this room. As if trying to claim one of the two bunks, she takes her sweater off and lays it over the office chair, leaving herself in a tight-fit grey tank top. Tris places the bag of books on the desk too. She looks around the room to find everything is blue and white, which wasn't surprising. From the sheets to the decorations, to the walls. After about five minutes of admiring the room, a girl in a black dress walks in. Her hair is brown with the blue dye at the tips. "Um, Hi," Tris says awkwardly. The girl nods to her. "We get to pick our dorms, right?" Tris asks. 

The girl nods. "I think so," she says in a small voice. "I'm Audrey, nice to meet you. Is this bunk taken?" She asks, pointing to the one on the opposite side of the room. Tris shakes her head and Audrey smiles.  "Great. I'm going to take it. What's your name?"