Choose Your Own Adventure: Divergent

Sneakers, Keepers- 17

Author's note: Don't wear dresses? Change the red dress to a baggy red worksuit. 

"I don't want that," you say, cutting Emery off, standing up and striding over to the open end of the hall. You point down at the carefree schoolchildren. "I want this. I want good food all the time and warm clothes and a real community and real friends, and-"

"But-"

"No," you emphasize, clutching your head. "I can't do this. Not with you, not with anyone, and don't try to convince me otherwise."

You walk off, joining the slow trickle of factionless coming back from dinner. You take a deep breath, gripping the cold metal of the ladder as you climb to your concrete block in the wall. You're young, so yours is up high. Families with small children and the elderly have the ones closest to the ground so they don't have to climb as high. 

You see Emery at the edge of the fraying crowd, and turn back to your ladder, finding the marking on the wall that reads 14-35 and swinging into your room. You can see Emery climbing, too, face pursed in concentration, and you resist the urge to watch him. You can apologize tomorrow. 

"Even if I could just watch the ceremony..." you mutter to yourself, brushing your teeth and staring into the broken mirror you hauled up from the dump. 

You sort through your clothes, trying to find an outfit for tomorrow, when your gaze falls on a familiar red dress, worn and battered. Normally you'd wear it with a white scarf or black leggings, but if you wore it by itself...

You could pass as Amity. The thought runs through you with a thrill, and suddenly, you're racing at 300 miles an hour. Amity is a huge faction, and even if they notice you're not one of them, it would go against their code to point it out.

All you have to do is wear a red dress and slip inside.

Advance to 18.