Dauntless

Chapter 17

That morning, we went down to breakfast, tired. We had woken up really early because we couldn't sleep. So we were nearly the only people there, except for a group of transfers.
It was the end of the weekend, but we weren't doing any more training tomorrow, because tomorrow was visiting day.
I'd just finished eating breakfast when I looked around me. Jonathan- sorry, Joe, was walking away, he glanced at me and smiled slightly, then carried on walking.
"Hey, guys. I'm gonna go for a little walk." I said to the others, they nodded glumly, picking at their food.
I jogged down the corridor Joe was walking down, I silently walked up behind him and I jumped on top of him.
"Whoa!" He shouted. "Hey!" He said when he noticed me. I jumped off him and said,
"Hi! I was just wondering if maybe today could be our start over day? Unless you're doing something."
"No, I was just going back to the dormitory, but we could hang out, sure." He replied.
"So, why are you up so early?" I asked.
"Why are you?"
"Couldn't sleep."
"Neither could I." Was all he said, I waited for him to carry on. "I was thinking about visiting day. My parents won't be here."
"Hey, it's ok! There will be loads of people who's parents won't turn up, even some dauntless!" I comforted, thinking about Zack, his parents didn't care about his choice, they were too busy to pay him any attention any way.
"Yeah I know, it just woke me up early. It's no big deal." He said, taking a bite out of a loaf of white fluffy bread.
"Hey! Did you steal that from the mess hall?" I asked, pointing at the loaf.
"No...?" He said, looking around sheepishly.
"Oh my gosh! Haha!" I laughed, "Such a bad ass!" I joked, nudging him playfully.
"Shut up!" He whined. He tore the loaf in half and handed a piece to me.
"Here, you can have some."
"Aww, thank you!" I took it and bit into the bread, chewing on it.
It was then that I realized, Joe was somehow bringing out the child in me, the Zoe that joked around in class and thought that she was invincible, unlike the Zoe who got confused about stupid men and got upset about her family.
"What?" Asked Joe. I realized that I was staring into space and had stopped chewing my mouthful of bread. I swallowed it.
"Oh no, nothing. So, what are we going to do?" I said.
"Uhhmm, I thought about going up onto the roof, I like it up there, it's where I think."
"Ok, sure! Race ya!" I shouted as I sprinted down the corridor and up the long flight of stairs. "Hey!" I heard him shout. But I kept running, I could hear his footsteps behind me, getting closer and closer. He nearly over took me on the stairs, his long legs skipping three at a time, but I put my arm out to block him. We reached the highest level before the roof, and I grabbed a chair from the corridor and pulled it into his path.
There were no more stairs now, the roof was the other side of this ceiling, and the only way to get up there was the outside ladder next the window, or a hatch in the ceiling, but I knew which one I would prefer to do.
I opened up a window and I climbed out of it, my heart beating in adrenaline to see how high up I was. I reached beside the window for the ladder, I grabbed it and I swung myself around onto it.
"Zoe!" I heard Joe say from inside the building, but when I looked at him, I saw the reason why he chose dauntless, there was a fire in his eyes that yearned for adrenaline, I smiled at him and I set off up the ladder.
I looked down behind me to see Joe climb out of the window and onto the ladder, he looked up at me in awe.
I quickly hurried up without looking behind me until I reached the top. There the ladder had a couple of rungs missing, where there hadn't been enough ladder to reach the top but the dauntless had bothered to fill it in.
I secured my self on with my feet, and I took both hands off the rungs and latched them up onto the side of the roof. My heart was beating fast, as I lifted myself up off the ladder, knowing that if I slipped, I would be falling to my death, and nothing could save me.
I heaved myself up onto the roof, and I looked behind me. The view was spectacular, better than from the zip wire, I gasped as I saw what was I front of me, we had woken up so early, that we were watching the sunrise.
Joe heaved himself up next to me, and we stood, watching the breathtaking view.
The sky was a pinky, purple colour as the white, bright orb slowly raised over the city, spilling out its light like warm love. I closed my eyes and absorbed the the warmth cast over me.
The wind whipped my hair in front of my face, and I breathed in the fresh, morning air.
I heard Joe sigh as he sat down next to me. I looked down, and he looked at me.
"You look beautiful in the sunlight." He said. I laughed the awkwardness off and replied jokingly.
"And you look like an angel come down from heaven above."
"Hey!" He said as he swatted my leg.
I lay down next to him. Watching the fluffy white clouds skid across the sky.

+++

All of that morning until lunch time, Joe and I talked and talked. It felt so good, to talk freely to someone. I mean I could obviously do that with Ella, but for some reason this was different.
We came down for lunch when I heard Joe's tummy rumble from hunger. We didn't use the ladder on the way down, it seemed too dangerous, lowering ourselves down onto the ladder. So we opened up the hatch in the ground, and dropped through into the building.
We walked into the now busy mess hall.
"Zoe!" I heard a shout, I looked around and saw Ella running towards me.
"Where were you?" She asked when she reached me, " 'oh, I'm just going for a walk' and then don't come back until lunch! We looked all over for you!"
"Sorry." I mumbled.
"Where- oh." She caught sight of Joe.
"Hi." He said, raising his hand.
"Hi." Replied Ella, taking in how much he had changed.
"Yeah, sorry. I met up with Joe and we hung out."
She looked at me quizzically.
"Oh! Joe! You changed you're name." She realized.
"Yeah." Replied Joe.
"Ok, well Zoe you're coming with me now. Bye Joe." She said pulling me away.
"Bye Joe." I laughed, as I was dragged away.
I felt so happy, child Zoe had made a come back, and I hoped she would stay.
"Zo, what are you hiding from me?" Ella asked when she had pulled me to a quiet place.
"what? What are y-"
"Rico came looking for you. He wants to see you."
And then old Zoe came running along, scaring her child self away.