In the Shadows - DIVERGENT HIGH

Chapter 12

Today it is all or nothing. I know it's just a talent competition but it will either make or break me in this new school. But I am ready.
For my new dance, my leotard is black, plain, with long sleeves and a high turtle neck. I don't wear a skirt. I feel that it reflects the mood of the piece perfectly, simple but powerful.

The heavy beat of the music pulses through my veins and I dance like it's my last chance. Nothing distracts me from my dance, my motive. I focus on my technique and presentation; I have control, no one can reach me. My smile bursts through when I finish because I know that I have done well. If it isn't good enough, that is no longer my problem.

Drowned, blinded by the roar of the claps that ripples through the hands of my small audience, I take and extravagant bow, run to the side of the studio and wish good luck to the other girl, Ella.
My eyes float over from her to the judging panel. A shiver grows up through my bones as when I see their faces, impressed and calculating, watching her. It takes me a while to spot the intruder; Four. What is his business here? He surely can't be a judge. My eyes linger on him, my mind elsewhere, before I realise that whilst my eyes had been unseeing, his had been finding mine. Our gazes meet their aim, latching onto one another across the room. His irises are the colour of the deep ocean - a rich, full navy - framed by his downward pointing brown lashes. Once again, I detect the shields, the seams that are soon to burst, the fullness of his sorrow and pain. Is it only me who sees this? Now Beatrice, don't go thinking you are unique. You are a nobody, you mean nothing to him. I am going to protect you. His words. Spinning, spiraling in my head. What did they mean?
Dizzied by my own network of thoughts, I grab onto the wall for support, my eyes swooping downwards to the floor. Guilty. I know I must see him after this. It's my last chance. Suddenly, it doesn't matter to me where I come, if I even make the next round. Don't take enemies for friends. The punchline of my song. Am I jumping to conclusions? So many questions with so few answers. I am going to find the answers to them. I am dauntless. I am selfish. I am brave.
---------------------------
"Hey!"
He swivels on the spot, those eyes searching for the voices owner; me.
"Hi. I just wanted to know why you were here."
"What does it matter to you?" Cold.
"It matters a great deal."
"Why?"
I inhale. "What you said yesterday. What did you mean?"
"You didn't answer my question."
"Nor you mine." I could play his game.
"I meant what I said."
"But why did you say it?"
"Answer my question."
Another inhale. "I was worried that you, that you, you didn't, I, were you there to see me?"
"I care about you Tris. I like you." He says, his eyes reaching mine through a shy smirk. My heart inflates and liftes my skywards, bobbing along among the clouds.
He inches closer to me. I am selfish, I am brave. Don't take enemies for friends. What I do now is foolish, selfish, idiotic, brave perhaps? I slide my nose next to his and whisper: I care about you too. He places his hands on my neck, on the small of my back and hugs me close. For a second, I panic, unsure of what I should do. And it's gone as quickly as it came.
He turns his back and strides away as though nothing had happened. No one had seen us, his cover isn't blown.
The bell takes me by surprise and I hurry up to my next lesson (french I think) in a bit of a fluster.
"Miss Prior, I have a note for you." Madame Lovett lulls and hands me a folded wad of white paper. I know better than to make a noise and open it now and, for that, she sends me a brief smile before continuing with her summary of the work. If M Lovett was an animal, she would be a humming bird, small and sharp, ignorable but always there. When we sit down at our desks to complete the work, I take the opportunity to open the note:
Congratulations you are going through to the next round.
Have a final dance ready for a week today. I am relying on you.
Amar.
I tuck it away into my pencil case and hear a sharp whisper in my ear: what does it say? Christina.
"Just something about the competition." I hiss back, determined not to get distracted.
"Text me tonight. Here I'll write down my number. Don't forget, ok?"
"I won't." I reply.
"Hey can you help me with this; I don't get the past tense."
Take a deep breath Beatrice and help her. Besides it'll probably benefit your learning too.
"Sure. For regulars you put the like form of avoir before and then add the stem of the verb plus it's appropriate ending for example: J'ai mangé. Er verbs take the ending É, Re take U and Ir take I." I gabble.
"Say what?"
"Just read that." I jab my finger at the bit of text that sits proud at the top of the page. Honestly I can't see what's the difficulty. Oh rats I am meant to be playing the dumb idiot. Cover obliterated.

A/N Hey. A bit wierd please tell me what you think.
Thanks so much to Phoenix26062003 who has supported me so much recently. You should go and read her stories, here is a blurb of one of them:
What if Tris was pretty, what if she trained in Abnegation? She was abused by her father and now will choose Dauntless with only one fear: will she find love in Uriah? What will he do to help her? Uris no war fanfiction.
Also thank you so much to DoggyMoggy please check out her awesome hunger games story:
They thought I was an easy loss. I couldn't help it that they thought little of me. I wouldn't have expected myself to last nearly as long as I did during the Games. They thought they could make me into an extraordinary memory - they did but not in the way they expected. They thought they could control me. They thought they could separate me from the people I love.
The people I lost.
I could have saved them. They thought I would save them.
I let them down.

Bye!!!