The Erudite Girl

The List

I caught up to Macey as we were leaving. Ellie and Lilac were behind us, whispering. “Hey,” I said, my voice cracking from not using it.

 “Hey,” she replied. She looked as bad as I felt. Her short brown hair was ruffled in the front and her eyes had bags under them as if she had been squinting for a really long time. “That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

 “No kidding,” I agreed. “I can’t believe that we’re not even in yet.”

 “I know.” By now we had turned down a corridor and the walls were changing from white, to a richer, more comfortable feeling brown. “Part of me can’t wait for tomorrow and the other part is telling me that I could wait a long time for it.”

 “Same.” I nodded. I grasped for something to say, wanting to talk to her, but not sure how. “What was Dauntless like?”

 “Terrible,” she answered with a laugh. “I could have gone anywhere but there. Everyone’s idea of a good time was to dare people to do stupid things.” She shuddered. “For the record if you’re ever considering it, jumping off of a five story building, even with a parachute, is a really bad idea.”

 I laughed, happy to have something to distract me from the looming fear that I would end up Factionless by tomorrow. “I wasn’t considering it, but thanks for the advice.”

 “Oh I could give you a lot of advice,” she said smiling. “It’s also not at all fun to go zip lining or to slid down an elevator shaft and punching someone in the nose is not the best way to solve a problem, especially if that person is a teacher.”

 By now I was gaping at her. “You punched a teacher in the nose?” These stories seemed fascinating. One of my favorite things to learn about were other factions, but none of the Dauntless would ever talk to me.

 She cringed. “Yep. Do you remember Mrs. Peters?” I did remember her. She was a fourth grade teacher and really annoying. She had brown hair and was short and plump. I nodded. “Yeah, well I had a bad grade in that class so I went to her to talk about it and she fussed at me. So I went home that day and asked my friend, who I completely idoled, for advice. She told me to punch her in the nose. I did. I also got suspended for a week.”

 “That’s crazy!” I was amazed at the amount of nerve that must have taken. Never, ever would I have been able to do something like that. By now we were reaching a section of rooms.

 “Listen up!” Lindsey shouted. The hallway fell silent. “These are going to be your rooms. I would recommend not staying up very late. The tests aren’t over tonight.” My happy mood deflated at the mention of the tests. There was no way I was going to make it in after the amount of questions I didn’t answer on the last test. Even knowing that I still wanted it though. My traitorous brain still hoped that there was some way I could make it. I wanted it so bad. I had zoned out so much that I missed her next statement as everyone started moving.

 “Oh thank god,” I heard Macey say. She turned towards me, smiling. “We’re in the same room. I didn’t want to meet any more people tonight.”

That idea felt so foreign to me. I was so used to denying that I didn’t want to be around people, that when the words slipped out of my mouth they surprised even me.

 “Me either!” I agreed. Macey laughed as I followed her into the room.

 “Looks like your breaking out of your Amity habits,” she said pushing open the door. The room inside was simple, but it seemed like a beautiful sight to my exhausted eyes. It was a big room, with simple white painted walls and wood floors. There were no windows, but I figured that we were so deep into the compound that there wouldn’t be. Against the back wall was a simple looking desk with a computer sitting on it. Next, to that was a bookshelf that reached to the ceiling. On the two walls on either side of the desk was a set of bunk beds, each with a pair of blue flannel pajamas folded up on the comforter.