Amity (Eric Coulter LS)

Prologue

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Living in Amity wasn't bad.

The community was warm and welcoming, never shutting people out for any reason. You were accepted no matter what, even if you were a little louder than others or a little angrier than others. The only thing Amity asked from you, was that you tried to rein yourself in, tried to not cause a fight or a disturbance in the peace.

Charlie, despite her very Amity upbringing, could easily count as someone disturbing the peace every now and again. Don't get her wrong, she loved her family and her home, but the constant happy, peaceful mantra that the community had, it felt suffocating at times.

There wasn't anything wrong with not wanting to argue or fight, but some times Charlie felt irritated with it. She wanted to scream and rage and cry when she was angry, and she wanted to fight back when the other kids in school looked down on them for their farming and constant happiness.

That's not allowed however. They'd made that very clear when Charlie got into a fight with a boy from Candor. That he'd started it, and that she'd defended her neighbor, that didn't matter. In the eyes of the adults she should've tried to find a peaceful solution.

It didn't matter that peaceful solutions weren't always possible either.

"Charlene, you need to hurry if you want to catch a ride to school." Her mother called out from the kitchen.

"I know. I'm going now." Charlie answered, giving her mother a quick hug and rushing out the door and towards one of the cars taking the Amity kids to the school inside the city.

The cars used were the same open ones where they put the produce after harvest. Charlie loved them. The warm sun on her face and the fresh air was her favorite time of day.

"Y'know all the sixteen year olds are going to take the test next week, right?" Jake Sullivan leaned over to ask.

"Yeah, and next year it's our turn. You scared?" She teased, ruffling his short hair.

Jake laughed. "No, I know where I'll end up. Are you scared? Time's running out in Amity, huh?"

Charlie forced a laugh when she saw Grace Summers watching them a little. It wasn't a secret that she was far from the picture perfect Amity. "Where do you think I'll fit in, if I'm leaving Amity?"

The speculation was a fun way to pass time, and besides, Jake was the only one that didn't mind talking with her about it. Everyone else just, pretended that nothing would ever change. That she'd stay and somehow fit better into her birth faction.

"I don't think you'd fit into Abnegation, neither do I think you'd like Erudite." He smiled, poking her cheek. "You're way to willing to lie for Candor, which leaves Dauntless."

"Dauntless, huh?"

He nodded, adopting a grave look. "Absolutely, I can see it in front of me."

The two of them burst into laughter just as old man Jenkins stopped the truck.
"Kids, we're here."

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The school had kids from every faction, which meant you could see crowds of blue, white, black, grey and reds and yellows in the halls. Charlie some times wished she could blend in more, maybe stuff like this wouldn't happen if she did, or at least, it would happen less.

"You're lying. Everyone knows you happy little tree huggers keep the best food for yourselves, just admit it." Axel, a kid from Candor had managed to box her in some time around lunch, she had a crowd behind her, watching them, a wall to the side, his goons on the other side, and Axel himself right in front of her.

She's pretty sure the only reason he continues to target her is because she got in trouble one time for punching him.

As if that's going to stop her from doing it again if necessary.

"Why would we keep the best stuff for ourselves? That wouldn't be very kind. Besides, why would we keep the meat, we don't eat it?" She replied, poking holes in his logic while she tried to think of a way out of this.

Normally she wouldn't be worried, but Axel seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed and looked more pissed off than normal.

"Don't talk back to me, pansy-"

"Hey, hey, hey, what's this?"

A new voice stepped in, one of the teens from Dauntless, evident by the clothing and mohawk. Charlie was honestly a little surprised that he bothered to step in at all, the other teens usually stayed out of the way when Axel went on his high horse.

"Alice-"

"His name's Axel." One of Axel's minions snapped, only to be waved off by the Dauntless kid.

"That's what I said. Look, we all know how these fights end when you start them, it's quite frankly, boring, to watch you get your ass kicked by Amity here every second day. So why don't you take your minions, and go elsewhere?"

Charlie's eyebrows went up as she gained a surprised expression hearing that the Dauntless kids had been watching her and Axel whenever they were around. She couldn't see why it would be interesting for them.

Axel's face turned from pink, to red, and to an almost purple, the mocking tone not at all appreciated.

Then- for some not so smart reason, Axel tried to swing at Charlie - or the Dauntless kid, it was hard to tell honestly. In any case, his fist met the wall instead, because the other two possible targets had done the sensible thing and moved out of his way.

While Axel was busy tending to what was, most likely, a broken hand, Charlie was pulled into the crowd by the Dauntless kid. "Sorry 'bout that, couldn't resist. I'm Martin, what's your name?"

They walked quickly, going in and out of different crowds of kids. "Charlie. Why did you step in? No one else ever has."

Martin pulled her into a corridor leading to a few classromes that no one used at this time of the day. "Well, Charlie, this is how it is, I think you're pretty cool, and Axel is a dick and we've been planning on talking to you anyways, so why not?"

"We?" Charlie frowned, wondering what the hell he meant.

"He means us." A new voice piped up from the front of the classroom they'd entered.

Charlie took in the small group of Dauntless teenagers taking up part of the classroom. All wearing the Daunless preferred styles of clothing and with mixed expressions.

Martin, smiling broadly, said. "So, Charlie, how do you feel about becoming a part of our little group?"

This was so much fun to write 😁

Vote and comment, it keeps me motivated :)