curiosity killed the cat

Aptitude Test | T-0 hours

Anastasia felt severely underdressed as she entered the cafeteria with her Erudite class. Maybe she should have listened to her mother. But then again, the test was wholly mental, and an outfit had no power to dictate its results. The tests began after lunch and the went alphabetically per faction, leaving Anastasia crushed between the voices of her peers. Cara to the left of her - an almost mirror image of her mother's blond hair and blue eyes - and a boy who she did not know to the right of her.

The murmurs of the cafeteria halted momentarily as the Abnegation and a Dauntless and Erudite volunteers enter the room, walking towards the other set of doors at the opposite side of the cafeteria. One of them would be proctoring her. One of them would be the last person she would see in ignorance and the first she would meet with a newfound understanding. The doors shut close, and the voices swallowed the silence. Books and newspapers found their ways back onto the Erudite table. Talk of convergent and divergent series. The biophysical makeup of the human body.

Anastasia leaned away from the table and put on the headphones she had stolen from her mother. Supposedly they were to connect to music, but they also blocked out the unnecessary chatter of her class and that was good enough. Peering around the room, she looked at all the other factions. At all what they were to be doing. Amity singing songs and playing a sort of rhythm game. Dauntless hollering and jumping as they spun a knife on the table. At yet another table, Candor students made wild gestures with their hands and yet even further away were the Abnegation sitting quietly, waiting.

She had always admired the Abnegation. To be selfless in every moment of one's life must not be easy, especially at the expense of even the most mundane human experiences. How they could just sit there - so quietly, not looking around, not moving. Abnegation, to Anastasia, was built on one of the most difficult virtues for humans to obtain, and perhaps that is exactly why the other factions find so many faults with it. Her mother didn't think so, blaming her distaste for Abnegation on the sole issue of stealing and governance rights.

By this point volunteers have walked in and out of the room countless of times, calling people up one by one. And then it was her turn. The Abnegation volunteer called out the next round of names. Two from Dauntless, two from Abnegation, two from Amity, two from Candor, and then: "From Erudite: Anastasia Matthews and Frank Mulligan."

Anastasia feels heads turn around to watch her as her name is uttered, whispers of "Jeanine Matthews" and "Tobias Eaton" surrounded her almost immediately. She stood up and followed the Abnegation volunteer, thankful for the doors that quickly shut the world behind the 10 of them. Here, they were met with a barren row of ten rooms - not so different to some of the halls in Erudite apartments she had been in - only used for aptitude tests. But unlike most other rooms Chicago, these were separated not by glass or wood or brick, but by mirrors. A smile quickly darted on her face as she thought about the genius who decided to add just a bit more anxiety to the aptitude test takers.

Anastasia nodded to her mirror self as she walked into room 4, where she could do nothing but laugh.

Marcus Eaton.

Of course. Of all the possibilities for any Abnegation volunteer she just had to land the man she wanted to see the least. How was a faction leader even allowed to proctor these tests? And why hers? She shut the door behind her, internally cursing at whatever luck she had this day.

"I don't know if you're doing this so you can get back at Erudite and my mother, sir, but frankly, it's not going to work." She said as she sat down in the reclined chair in the center of the room, her eyes immediately taking in every single part of the room.

A low rumble of a laugh came from the man standing near the machine besides the chair, "I am here to do my duty for Abnegation and Chicago, Miss Matthews. Now," the tall man shifted his sight to the machine, grabbing wires from it, "this should be over quickly, and you can get on with your day."