Cruel//Eric Divergent

four-belong

[edited]
After listening to a an extremely dull and repetitive speech from Jeanine and then yet another mind numbing one from Marcus Eaton, Abnegation's leader, names were finally called. As my last name is E I was near the start.
"Astraea Ellis," Marcus calls.
I quietly say goodbye to my family, and then walk confidently to the stage. I have so many thoughts running through my mind, all the eyes on me feel like unopened boxes of consequences and regrets, but the one thought I circle back to is that I want to make the feeling of freedom I experience every night permanent. I keep my head held high and cut my hand with the knife, letting my blood fall straight onto the sizzling Dauntless coals.

"Dauntless," Marcus announces and there is wild applause from the Dauntless and whispering from other factions, mainly from the faction I had just left behind. I wipe my hand and move to sit down in the Dauntless section, being patted on the back and brought into a hug by an older member who gives me his seat. I sort of tune out for most of the ceremony until I hear,
"Emerson Kelly," from Marcus.
Emerson walks forward slowly but confidently, and let's her blood fall into the Dauntless bowl. Let's just say I cheer the loudest. She sits next to me and we wait for Alex's turn.
"Alexa Martin," Marcus yells.
Alex walks forward timidly and shyly but once her blood falls in the Erudite bowl with a plop onto the water, she seems to release the tension in her body and smiles proudly. Honestly, there was not too much surprise there, she had always been incredibly smart and too curious for her own good, although having this predictable outcome isn't making losing one of my best friends any easier.

Finally the ceremony ends, and we run outside with the other Dauntless. I'm whooping in joy and laughing, even as we climb up onto the train tracks, something I found easy enough due to my lifetime of climbing trees and sneaking around the city at night. I know what we have to do and I'm as prepared as I can be,so when the train comes I run and heave myself onto the train with minimal difficulty, landing on a poor Candor girl. I haven't seen Emerson since I began climbing up to the train tracks, so I just have to hope she's made it on and I'll see her later.

"Is it just me or are they trying to kill us?" The girl from Candor says with a breathily laughed sigh.
I just laugh and apologise for squashing her. Just then, as the platform ends, an Abnegation lands on ME this time.
"Sorry, sorry!" She says, as we all laugh and introduce ourselves, the Abnegation is called Beatrice and the Candor is Christina, I think I can see us getting along well.

"Get ready!" Says another nameless Dauntless. Beatrice went to look out of the the train. She gasps then,
"They're jumping!" I rush to the door and see that the Dauntless are infact, jumping onto a roof several stories above the ground, with a solid 2 metre gap between the train and the roof. I know I have no option except to do the same, so I walk backwards in line with the door, wait for the right time and,
"See ya!" I say as I run forward and jump. I feel like I'm suspended in the air, but then I hit the ground. I keep on my feet, which I'm almost slightly impressed with, although I do feel slightly jarred and honestly don't feel the need to experience that again real soon.
I make my way to Emerson when I see them hit the roof. We stand together, like old times, but somehow completely new in another sense.

"Listen up, I'm Eric, one of your leaders here," says the extremely attractive man walking on the side of the roof. Eric huh? The one I almost beat? Probably. Also, he looks oddly familiar, like I've seen him somewhere before? Damn, the roof. He was the man who caught me out after curfew and now he's one of my freaking leaders.

"If you want to enter Dauntless this is the way in," he says gesturing to the drop behind him. "If you don't have the guts to jump, you don't belong in Dauntless," Eric concluded. While people asked stupid questions I stared at Eric, trying to figure out why a leader like him was alone on an abandoned roof in the early hours of the morning, and even more so, why he didn't turn me in. I can see him better than the other night now, notice more specific details about him. His hair was shaven on the sides with a blonde quiff in the middle. He had an eyebrow and lip piercing, and tattoos on his neck and arms, the one on his neck continuing right up to his jaw.

"So who's going to go first?" Eric questions as I start to listen again.
I think about it for all of 0.2 seconds and then,
"Me," I say and walk forward.
Eric eyes me as I pass and I hold his gaze, not willing to let him frighten me into submission. I think I see a flicker of something in his eyes, almost a recognition that he knows me, but possibly can't place where from. I step onto the ledge and look downward. Okay,  it was higher then I thought, with a gaping black hole further down, continuing down further than I could tell.

"Amity? Really, sure it won't upset the peace too much?" Eric says with a cold smirk on his face.

"Peace is overrated, it's much better to just be free," I say staring directly at Eric as I simply step off the ledge down into the abyss.

I land on a net and laugh until I'm pulled of my firm hands. The person who pulled my off is pretty good looking, tan skin and a sharp jawline. Familiar in an unnerving way, a way I can't figure out.

"What? Did you get pushed?" He asked rudely, because I'm Amity. I was Amity.

"No, I jumped, you should've gotten some popcorn and watched," I replied.
He grinned and then sort of chuckled.
"What's your name? You can choose again but only once," he says. I don't particularly care for changing my name, my name is the name of a Greek god, and I'm proud of it. Anyway, I almost guarantee I'll end up being called Astra like I have been all my life no matter what my name officially is.

"Astraea, my name is Astraea," I say loudly.

"Astra!? It's really you?" Four asks this in disbelief, as though he cannot believe I am standing infront of him, as if I was a ghost. And I feel the exact same, it's just clicked to me who he is.

"Toby! It's really me! I've missed you so much!" I announce as I wrap my arms around him, embracing my best friend for the first time in three years. My parents are quite important in Amity, and often attended the same events as leaders, many I was dragged along to, and that's where Toby and I met. I was seven and he was ten, and being the only kids in the vicinity, we became fast friends, almost an escape for each other. We part from the embrace grinning from ear to ear, before Four, as he's known now, remembers he has a job to do and turns back to the group.

"First jumper, Astraea!" He yells out, and the Dauntless cheer.
"Welcome to Dauntless," he says with a small grin and a nod, a promise we'll catch up later.

Eventually everyone had jumped, we'd had a small speech, and we were on our way through Dauntless to start our new lives.