The New Initiates

Chapter 13

My eyes widen, and I feel myself go bright red. Next to me, Alex nudges my arm. “You two secret lovebirds or something?” she  asks. I try to reply but my mouth is completely dry. I look across at Allie, who looks amused at my discomfort. Aria, who looks sick of waiting for her dare to be completed. I look at Daniel, who is shaking his head. Is he trying not to laugh? I think. Aria sighs loudly. “Come on! We haven’t got all night!” I watch as Nate gets up and crosses the circle. He crouches in front of me. “We’ll just  fake it, don’t worry.” He whispers. I smile, relieved. Sadly, Alex seems to have heard. “Nate, it will be a proper kiss! Don’t even think about faking it.” I groan and roll my eyes. Nate smiles. He leans forward and his lips brush mine. “That wasn’t so bad, was it Rose?” Allie laughs. I put my head down, as Nate walks back to his place. “Allie, truth or dare?” he asks. I look up now, my face no longer burning. Apparently Allie feels brave because she replies, “Dare.” Nate smirks. “Perfect.” He says.

Daniel POV

Allie looks panicked. Nate explains her dare. “You have to go to the tattoo parlour, and take one of the pictures off the wall and bring it back here, that’s not so bad, is it Allie?” I realise what he’s done, since Rose was embarrassed by Nate’s dare, and Allie made that little remark, Nate has given Allie a dare that any Dauntless could do with ease and added, “that’s not so bad, is it Allie?” on the end, pretty clever really. Allie shrugs. “Be right back.” She says leaving the room. Minutes later, she returns with the card that shows the Dauntless seal. She throws at Nate. “Keep it.” She says.

“Rose, truth or dare?” Allie says with a slight hint of menace in her voice.

“Dare” Rose replies in the same tone. Allie grins, it’s obviously what she’s been waiting for.

“I dare you to go get a tattoo,”

“But-”

Allie holds up a hand. “Oh, not now, obviously. But tomorrow.” Rose sighs and nods. She looks around the circle and her gaze stops on Brody, or is it Carter? Rose speaks, “Brody? Truth or dare?” Brody looks up and smiles. “Truth.” He grins. Rose looks caught off, obviously she was clearly hoping he would pick dare. “Uh, okay, um…” she trails off, thinking. She nods. “Alright Brody, If you didn’t pick Dauntless, what faction would you have transferred to?” The room goes quiet and everyone turns to look at Brody. “Wow, I never thought about that.” He replies. Rose raises an eyebrow, like she does every time she knows someone is lying. Brody sighs. “Okay, I probably would have picked Abnegation, because no one ever fails their initiation, you know?”

We re-enter the dorm, and everyone looks at us. Rose walks quickly over to her bed and pulls the covers over her head. Allie smirks and shakes her head and I turn to Aria. “Too far?” Aria asks. I nod, “There was a line Aria, but your dare went over that line.  In fact, your dare went so far over the line that the line is now invisible to you.” Aria frowns.

“It isn’t a huge deal though, I mean, if you play truth or dare with girls and boys, someone will have to kiss. It’s just an unlucky twist of fate that it was Rose and Nate.” She says. I shake my head and glare at her. “No, not fate. It was a cruel thing to do when we’ve only just come to Dauntless.” I cross over to my bed and pull back the sheets. As I climb inside, I hear Allie mutter to Aria, “They’re wimps, the lot of them, I swear.”