Those Five Words

10.

Chapter 10

FOUR POV

The rest of the ceremony went past in a blur. It feels like a lifetime since I left my home but it was only this morning. We are standing on the roof with Amar. I have Zeke and Shauna with me; thank goodness my friends are with me. I look over to the crowd of initiates and I see the one person I hoped I would never have to see again, Eric.

I can't believe he picked Dauntless, well I can he is a brute. But I was hoping he wouldn't pick Dauntless. At least him being a transfer I won't have to have much to do with him. Although now he is here I know there will come a time when I will have to fight him, he will make sure of that.

"Welcome to Dauntless!" Amar shouts. "Where you either face your fears and try not to die in the process, or you leave a coward. We've got a record low of faction transfers this year, unsurprisingly."

I and the other Dauntless start to punch the air and whoop, we all take great pride in the fact that no one wants to join us.

"The only way to get into the Dauntless compound from this rooftop is to jump of the ledge," Amar says, opening his arms wide to indicate the empty space around him. He tilts back on his heels and waves his arms around, like he's about to fall, then catches himself and grins.

"As usual, I offer the opportunity to go first to our initiates, Dauntless-born or not." He hops down from the ledge and gestures to it, eyebrows raised.

I may not like heights but I am not going to miss the opportunity to be the first jumper. "I'll do it," I say. Zeke high fives me as I walk towards the ledge and the other Dauntless-borns let out a cheer.

I get onto the ledge and I look down. Big mistake I should never have looked down. I am regretting my decision to go first but that only lasts a second or two and then I tilt forward and let myself fall. My stomach drops and my limbs fumble in the air for something, anything to hold on to, but there is nothing, only the drop, the air, the frantic search for the ground.

Then I hit a net. I am so thankful that it is over. The net curls around me. I hook my fingers in the net and pull myself toward the hands at the edge of the net. I land on my feet on a wooden platform and that is when I see dad standing there with the biggest grin on his face.

"First jumper Four," dad calls out to the crowd. I couldn't see anyone at first and then I see them. The Dauntless were hiding in the shadows. "Welcome to Dauntless," dad says as I hop of the platform and run over to give Charlie a big hug. "I told dad you would be first, I knew you wouldn't make me wait," Charlie says. I then see mum and I give her a quick hug and dad comes over and gives me a friendly slap on the shoulder. "I'm proud of you son," he says.

Zeke is the next jumper and he comes and joins me as we wait for everyone else to jump. "That was so cool, man we have to do that again," Zeke says. I am just shaking my head. There is no way I am going to do that again ever, I think to myself. Next he will want me to go zip lining with him. Shauna has finally jumped and she comes over and we all hug. We are joined by Uriah and Lynn both are ecstatic to see their siblings back in the Dauntless compound.

We are standing among the other initiates when Amar lands on the net. He rolls off the net and is having a conversation with my dad. When he has finished talking to dad he gathers us all around him in a semicircle. "My name is Amar and I will be your initiation instructor. I grew up here, and three years ago, I passed initiation with flying colours, which means I get to be in charge of all of you this year. We will all be training together. Dauntless-borns will fight each other and the transfers will only fight transfers. This is so the Dauntless-borns don't break you transfers in half."