Divergent: A Retelling

Amity is my Home

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT MY WORK, I AM RE IMAGINING IT IN MY WAY

I often wonder what it's like to be factionless. Homeless. Starving. Free. Living your life, not part of a faction, not stuck in a single role. Living like you don't have to fear being different, because, when it comes down to it, the factionless become that way the same way you would. Either being cast out of your faction, or failing initiation.

My name is Emily Townes. I never thought I was particularly pretty, maybe at a certain angle, my eyes are my favorite feature though, green with a brown rim around the pupil, spotted with gold.

In school, if there are other people with your name, they would resort to numbers. In one of my classes, Faction History, there are three Emily's. I am Emily number three.

Right now, I'm sitting in the tallest branch of the tallest apple tree, waiting for my mother to call me down. It's close to evening, and that's when we all go to the dining hall for group dinner, and then retire to our homes until morning. "Emily! What are you doing up there? You know I don't want you to fall!" She calls. I've always been a thrill-seeker, and my mom had always hated it. She just worried for my general well-being, but because of this, I was closer with my dad, while he was still alive at least. He and I were more alike. I shift along the branch I'm sitting on and as I get closer to the trunk, I wince as a small stub on the branch catches my pants and digs into my thigh. I jump to the closest branch below me, clenching my jaw. "Emily, be careful!" My mother calls again.She has every right to worry, but sometimes it's annoying. Just because I was a daredevil didn't mean I wasn't clumsy. I usually ended up in the infirmary at least once a week because of that. I had scars all over my knees, elbows and hands. Just yesterday I sprained my ankle tripping over a root as we did our chores. I quickly get down from the tree, stumbling a little. My mom sighs again, her gray hairs shining in the setting sun. She bends down to look at my leg. "Mom, I'm fine. It's just a scratch."

She stands up and looks me in the eye. People say I look a lot like my mom. Except for the eyes. Hers are brown, with flecks of gray and blue. "You know I hate it when you go up there without a ladder." She says, taking a stray hair and putting it behind my ear. I shrug her off and start walking towards the grub pub, at least that's what me and my siblings have always called it. I don't have any friends, everyone is kind of weird around me, because I can't stop fidgeting or I'm constantly interrupting people, even if it's not on purpose. Plus, I seem to get overstimulated very quickly, so I'm told to work by myself. "Mom, I know what I'm doing." I say as we walk.

"But you're always hurting yourself. You come home from school with a scrape on your knee, or come home from the fields with cuts on your arms." I shrug. "It's not a big deal." "Honey, I'm worried about you." "Why?" I ask as I walk up the steps to where everyone is getting in line to get their food. It was Broccoli Cheese soup tonight with a caramel apple cobbler. I never had any taste for cobbler. "Do you think I'll switch factions?" I ask, grabbing a bowl. Mom and I have had this conversation before. The day I turned sixteen. She was aware of my reckless personality. It then turned into a big fight and it was one of the only times I had ever cried. My sister, Valerie switched factions first. She was the oldest, older than me by five years, and a natural born Abnegation. She has brown eyes like my mom. On visiting day, we got to see her and watch her help the factionless. Then my brother, Adam, switched factions. He has green eyes like me and my dad. He's easily the best looking one out of all of us. He's arrogant but honest. He went to Candor three years ago. He was my least favorite and most favorite at the same time. He'd always push me around, but God help anyone else who did.

Then there's my other brother, Sam. The same brown eyes, but flecked with yellow as my mom. Last year at the choosing ceremony, he didn't hesitate to choose Amity. Obviously he's my mom's favorite.

"Don't joke about that!" She says angrily. I roll my eyes as I turn away from her. I wasn't even that hungry, but my mom likes it when we're together. In the sea of red, yellow, and brown, my mom and I find Sam. He sits with us once a week. My mom and I sit down. She sits next to Sam, and I sit across. It was a rule in Amity that you didn't start eating until everyone at your table had sat down.

We have the same conversation as always. How the crops faired that day, who had sung the best song in the field, etc. I, however, wanted to talk about other things. 

"Did you see that Erudite is going after Abnegation again?" I asked, interrupting Sam, who was talking about some boy he noticed in the field.

"You know we don't talk about politics at the table." says mom. I sigh.

"But don't you guys want to know where everyone stands with this?"

"It doesn't really affect us," says Sam with a shrug before eating a spoonful of soup "Actually it does. Abnegation makes up all our leaders. They're chosen because they're selfless enough to not let their own bias get in the way. Erudite values knowledge, so obviously they think they can do a better job, but then that would surrender control to a biased government."

My family stares at me. I furrow my brow and duck my head, playing with my soup. Whenever I say stuff like that, they look at me like I'm from another planet. I always knew I was going to switch factions, and now I want to do it even more. I don't hate my family, I just don't fit in with them. Sure, I like to have fun, but I don't like to sing or hum while I work, and I don't want to be stuck on a farm for the rest of my life.

After dinner, my mother goes back to our house, and Sam goes back to his. He picked a house just down the street from us. At this time, my mother and I usually create new pieces of clothing or draw intricate designs. But since it's the day before the aptitude test, I am to go up to my room and get extra rest for tomorrow. Tomorrow is when my fate will be decided.