Pt. 1 - Erudite
I wake up every morning and do the same routine over and over again. Get up, shower, brush my teeth, put on my same pale blue top with the same navy blue slacks, grab a piece of fruit, and head out the door for school. I like school, I mean what Erudite doesn't, but I'm just... bored. I see my peers around me reading textbooks and old manuals to cars we don't even have around anymore and I just think to myself how mundane it all is. I want to stand upon the glass table in the middle of our giant library and shout "Wake up! Wake up everyone, there is more in this life that we can't learn in a book!" But I don't. I sit and study like I do every day; every single day of my life for the past sixteen years.
Living in the Erudite compound isn't all bad though; I suppose.
I sit in the quiet library and thumb through a random textbook on physics that I grabbed off the shelf. I'm seeing the words, but my mind is elsewhere and I'm not really reading them. Myra, my girlfriend, sits down across from me and plops a large handbook on sign language down in front of her.
"Hey hun," she whispers, leaning across the table to give me a kiss. I wouldn't call what we have love... maybe Myra would, but I wouldn't. Lust is probably a more appropriate word. Living on the Erudite compound we aren't quite as uptight at the stiffs over at Abnegation are when it comes to public displays of affection, but we do have to keep some sort of distance between us while in communal areas. It's a respect thing. Others, mostly the ones that don't have relations, would say they don't have time for make out sessions and sex. There are more important things to be learning. But then I will see them eagerly searching through the pages of books on the Kama Sutra; claiming it's for learning purposes, of course.
Behind closed doors though, Myra is a wild child. She'll let her tight bun down, whip her glasses off her face, and attack my face with hers like her life depends on it. She can get a little intense, but I'm a young man with hormones, what am I supposed to do?
"Hey" I reply, pushing my glasses (that I don't even need) back up the bridge of my nose. "Myra, before you get lost in the world of sign language, can we go somewhere private to talk?" I question.
She gives me a sensual stare and whispers "Mmm what do you have in mind?"
"No, Myra, I'm serious. I need to talk to you about something important," I correct her train of thought. She pushes out her fat bottom lip and gives me the saddest puppy dog stare, but she finally sighs "Fine," and grabs my hand to lead me out of the library.
We walk across the street to go sit on a crumbling stone bench in Millennium. I hear this used to be a nice park once, but now it's just a sad plot of land with some rusty pieces of junk, or art I'm told, scattered about. You can catch me reading under a giant bean shaped one sometimes. It's rusted, but I can still see my reflection cascaded throughout the uninterrupted parts of the mirrored sculpture. I like it. I wish I could pick the brain of the artist that created this piece, which through research I've learned is actually called 'Cloud gate'.
"So what is so pressing that I have to set aside my impending thirst to learn sign language?" Myra barks. She's annoyed I can tell. If we're not fooling around she always wants to be reading. She says she feels lost when she's not reading. Which makes the question I'm about to ask her a lot harder than it should be since I know Erudite is where she will always belong.
"Well, the choosing ceremony is in a few days..." I start, but there is a lump in my throat.
"Yeah...?" she urges me to continue.
"I was... erm, wondering if you wanted to change factions with me?" She stares at me in wide-eyed disbelief; like I've just asked her to help me murder someone. But she doesn't say no right away. I can see the cogs spinning in her curious brain as she ponders my proposal.
"Hmmm" she lets out. "And which faction were you thinking about betraying our families for?" She curses sternly.
"Dauntless."
"DAUNTLESS?!" She yelps. "Do you have a death wish?"
"Well, no. I have a thirst for adventure. Myra, I need something thrilling in my life!" I try and make her understand, but she is still in shock. It has to be Dauntless. The only way it couldn't be Dauntless is if I stayed here, and I can't. We can't go to Abnegation because what is the point of even having a relationship there when intimacy is selfish, and selflessness is the bases of their entire faction. I wouldn't last a day in Candor because then I would have to tell Myra that I don't truly love her, and Amity is out of the question because I'm afraid I would have to stab one of those peace loving hippies. So Dauntless it is.
"Myra, Dauntless is a faction that we could truly thrive in and be happy! Think about it. Think about how much fun we would have and how close we could be without cross looks of the jealous onlookers. There has to be more ways to learn about life than through literature. I need more... WE need more" I know if I make it sound glamorous enough she will follow me. Heck, I don't even have to convince her. I know that despite her skepticism right now if I were to choose Dauntless at the ceremony without even telling her, she would follow. She'll follow me to the end of the earth if I asked her to.
"I... Edward, I..." she's speechless and just stares at me with her big brown doe eyes. Her lower lip trembles as she digests my pleas. "Okay" she whispers sounding defeated. I knew she would break... she always breaks; which may be a problem among the Dauntless, but I will look out for her. Maybe I do love her?
