Divergent High

The Greetings

Tris' POV

After having my arm pulled off by Christina, we reach the room 421b. English. This one couldn't be too bad. I mean, in Ohio, it was my one and only favourite lesson. I love the subject and I doubt that that will change here.

We walk into the classroom and immediately, my face changes. Instead of looking like the other classrooms, where the tables are in rows, they are in groups and there are posters all over the walls with bright words written on them. "Wow..." I mumble under my breath as Christina introduces me to the teacher.

A  smallish woman turns around, her face is framed by a pair of large glasses at the centre and her hair is blonde and ridiculously curly. She puts her hand out for me to shake. "Hello! Tris, is it? Welcome to English!" She says in a very enthusiastic voice. I simply nod and mumble a "thanks" and follow Christina to a table at the back of the room.

"Aren't Uriah and Will in this class?" I whisper to Christina.

"No, but Four is."

"Who's Four?" I ask, slightly confused. Who would name their child "Four"? Did I even hear it right? Four?

"You'll see."

As the words left her lips, the door swung open and revealed a moody, looking guy with dark brown hair and blue eyes. He barely gave a greeting or a "sorry" to Miss, before he started for the back of the room. My table. The seat next to me. "Tris, this is Four." I could literally feel my jaw dropping. He was good looking. Okay, he was really, really good looking. He wore a tight white t-shirt under his black and white football jersey, tight blue jeans, and white converse. His bronze hair was spiked upwards with nearly too much gel, but not quite there yet. And he had these piercing blue eyes that could make anyone feel uncomfortable and at home instantly. By the faint creases in his forehead, you could tell that he wore that scowl a lot as well. However, he smiled brightly when he saw Christina. Maybe he was only happy when he was with his friends? Loyal. But there has to be a fault somewhere...

"Who's that?" Four spits, his smile dropping as he turns to look at me. And there it is! There is the fault. He judges people before he meets them. He doesn't like me and he doesn't even know me. It immediately makes him ten times less attractive.

"Four..." Christina says warningly with a glare before turning to me and smiling. "This is Tris."

"Am I supposed to care?" He asks grumpily. I look down at the table and laugh. "Something funny, Stiff?" He asks angrily. Christina slaps him hard on the arm.

"Four! Apologise now!" She exclaims. Four just laughs.

"Oh yeah. Good one, Chris. As if I'd apologise to someone like her." He says. Christina goes back to yell at him, but I don't want a scene to be caused on my first day... Or ever.

"Listen, I can tell when I'm not wanted. I'll move, if that will make you happy?" I ask, putting my bag on my shoulder.

"Ecstatic." Four deadpans. I nod, ignoring a seething Christina and move to a table no one else is sat on. As I sit down, the teacher starts talking about the Shakespeare passage the class have been looking at. Lucky for me, it's one of my favourites of his so this term should be easy.

"Okay! Can someone tell me the prologue that I asked you to learn over the holidays from Romeo and Juliet?" She asks. This was an easy one, but the last thing I needed was to be known as a swat as well as a Stiff. When no one put their hands up, the teacher sighed frustratedly. "Come on, guys! It was the one task I gave you!" She exclaims.

"Why don't you ask the Stiff to do it?" Four asks, turning to glare at me. I can see behind him Christina has tightened her hands into fists. "Sorry, I mean Tris." Four says. So this is how he wants to play it?

"That's because Tris wasn't here when I set the work and-"

"It's fine, Miss." I cut her off before turning my attention to Four. "I'd be happy to do it." I say, glaring at him. This sudden burst of confidence kind of freaks me out, but I'm not going to let him make me look like an idiot.

"You didn't get a book, idiot." Four spits. I smile sarcastically at him and clear my throat.

"Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Do with their death bury their parents' strife.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love,
And the continuance of their parents' rage,
Which, but their children's end, nought could remove,
Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend."

I smile to myself after I finish before turning to Four. "Is that good enough for you?" I ask, quirking an eyebrow. I can see Christina beaming at me from the corner of my eye and it makes a small smirk form on my lips. Four just scoffs.

"Great. A Stiff and a Nerd. Abnegation will take you with open arms." He says, getting a few laughs from the rest of the class.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember you putting your hand up to answer. I guess we can see why someone didn't get accepted by Erudite." I say, making more people laugh.

"Watch it." Four growls.

"Or what?" I reply, but I can feel the adrenaline rush from my burst of confidence starting to ware off and now I feel like I only replied so I could be prepared to get the stuffing beat out of me.

"That's enough, you two." The teacher says warningly. "Well done, Tris. That was read beautifully." She says, smiling kindly at me. I smile back before going back to my book.
The rest of the lesson was just spent with me and Christina making small talk and listening to the teacher murmur on about Shakespeare. Four made the odd comment, which I easily brushed off. Seriously, what is his problem? Why does he seem to act as if everyone owes him something? I guess it's just another thing I'll have to figure out...