Tris Prior's Selection

Chapter Nineteen -We are the Elite

Tris' POV

"Tris, come on honey. Up please." Joan shakes me awake. "We've left you as long as we can." I groan that there's nothing happening today. Carefully, they help me from the bed.

"The Prince has ordered all of the selected remaining to meet him in the throne room in an hour. We have to get you ready." Marie urges as a wave of panic rushes through me.

"He's kicking people out." I state softly as they begin to brush and style my head, Joan nodding.

"Yes sweetie. I think that may be the Prince's intentions." A deep sickness finds it way to my stomach as I tell myself that I've let my family down.

My maids pull my hair into two long intricate braids from the front of my head all the way down, threading pearls, beads and bronze threads through my hair. The dress I end up in has long sleeves and is dark red with gold and an old fashioned look about it that I find fascinating. Underneath my first pair of proper heels boosts up my height which I feel is worth the time I have to spend practicing walking in them.

"Ready to go?" Robert asks, having arrived to escort me to the throne room. I nod, following him along the corridors, surprised that I don't see any other ladies being taken to the meeting as well. "Go right in." I nod softly, walking into the room to see each lady sitting down. Zeke and Uriah stand either side of Marcus and Tobias in their thrones and I am pointed into one of the last free chairs as another Lady arrives last.

Slowly, Tobias stands up, and the chatter amongst the girls stops instantly.

"Today," he breaths in deep. "I will be narrowing the Selection down to the Elite." A small gasp runs through the crowd. "Twenty Three of you be leaving today to leave the six Elite girls remaining for the next stage of the selection." I shut my eyes softly as Christina reaches out to grasp my hand tightly. We all knew this was coming, in almost a month, Tobias has got rid of nearly nobody.

"Lady Poppy of Amity. Please leave." Tobias says gently, a girl with reddish hair stands and walks out calmly. "Lady Marina of Erudite.." The list of names continues until eight people, including myself, remain.

"Lady Marlene and Lady Shauna," the faces off my two friends fall but Tobias halts them with his hand. "Alternative options await you. Please follow the butler." At these words, Zeke and Uriah step down from Tobias' side and follow my two friends from the room.

"Congratulations." Tobias says softly, glancing towards me. "Please proceed to the Ladies room and I will be with you shortly." Together we stand, and I look around at who is left.

Molly, Myra, Patrica, Christina, Becky and myself.

Still holding my hand, I can feel Christina shaking softly as we enter the ladies room.

"Are you okay?" I question, she nod.

"Just the pressure, we're part of the Elite Tris." She mumbles, going to sit down. I frown when I notice a familiar face coming towards me.

"Prince Eric." I curtsy. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Don't play games Tris." He snaps. "You know why I'm here. I want you to become mine." I raise my eyebrows.

"Yours?" I question. I glance over towards Patricia who is watching us like a hawk. "Have you considered Patricia, if she doesn't become The One I'm sure she'd be willing to become 'yours' as you put it." I say, giving a small sarcastic smile. Eric lets out a small growl.

"I want you." He murmurs. "I'm going to wait, until the selection is over." He says, watching me. "Then you'll come to me." He finishes as Tobias walks in, instantly narrowing his eyes at mine and Eric's proximity. "I'll leave you be." He says softly, the Prince side of Eric returning as he kisses my hand softly. I nod in response.

Almost the second he leaves my sight, Tobias takes his place.

"We need to talk about yesterday." He says sternly. "You can't just run off like that Tris. You're making this incredibly hard for me." I watch him incredulously.

"Hard? For you?" I hiss. "Of course being The Prince with hundreds of people at your disposal and 35 girls at your feet is hard." I snap, drawing attention from Becky who is standing nearby. Tobias' hand shoots out and grasps my arm.

"Be quiet." He replies coldly, I open my mouth to speak but he cuts me off. "No Tris, you don't understand the sacrifice I have made to let you get this far, if you make one more mistake I'm going to have to give you up." I glare at him.

"I'm pretty certain you 'gave me up' anyways. Do you remember telling me to go with Eric?" He nods looking slightly irritated.

"That was a mistake." He mutters, mostly to himself. "We'll talk about this later." He adds before walking off and leaving me to assume that I will have to wait for hours on edge later in case he appears in my room.

Unsurprisingly he heads over to Myra next and the conversation between them that follows appears a lot more calm and gentle than the one we just had that was borderline fighting. Patricia sits looking annoyed instead of relieved she's made in into the Elite, nothing new with Molly trying to match her expression like a loyal lap dog beside her.

After a while Zeke and Uriah come in, both of them with unprofessional and contagious smiles on their faces that before long have me grinning too.

"Lady Beatrice." Uriah says with a small bow and a cheeky grin. "How have you been?" He asks more seriously, I give a short shrug.

"Not much has been going well at the moment." Zeke nods softly.

"Don't worry Tris. We've got you covered." He says almost cryptically, tapping his nose when I send him a quizzical look. "On another note, you'll get to see Marlene and Shauna again." Beside me, Christina perks up after giving up trying to pretend that she wasn't listening; they were both more her friends than mine.

"How?" She blurts, looking hopeful. Both of the boys smile.

"They agreed to go out with us." They say, sounding Dauntless and not like the Prince's guards. They are about to continue when Tobias stands to walk to the centre of the room and they both hurry to stand a few steps behind him.

At this point a dark look come across Christina's face.

"Of course they get another chance with someone." She growls, not particularly towards me and therefore I don't bother speaking to her.

"Once again, congratulations." Tobias speaks softly and slowly, looking at every girl in the room. "A ball with be held on Saturday evening to celebrate The Elite." He says, walking out and leaving us to trail our way back to our rooms.

We are the Elite; I still can't comprehend it

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Two things;
1) I'm on holiday. The next chapters are on my iPad. I can only update from my phone and I'm not rewriting them onto here anytime soon, 4 days times MAYBE. Otherwise when I get home next week.

2) I'm feeling pretty damn shitty up in the head department right now so reading some comments, whatever they are about I don't care, would probably help. As long as they're aren't just people being rude.

Enjoy.