Resurgent: A Divergent Story//editing

Chapter 21

- Al -

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Beep! Beep! Beep!

I am awoken by my alarm clock going off. On a normal day, I would press the snooze button, and give myself another ten minutes to sleep, but I can't do this today.

Today is the day where I decide my future. Today is the day of the choosing ceremony. Will I stay dauntless, and be with my friends or family, too have help, but go through the most challenging initiations of all the factions? Or will I go to any of the other factions, where I would succeed, but be alone, with no help from anyone I care about? These questions, and more like them, fill my mind as I see Amar waiting for me.

"Hey, I thought Mom would be waiting for me?" I say as Amar hands me a bowl of cereal.

"No, she was called last minute to be a trainer again, and had to help get it ready for the new initiates," he smiles, and I do too, eventhough I am disappointed, "but don't worry, I'll be there with you."

"Thanks 'R," I say, and I put my bowl in the sink. I go back to my room, and quickly get dressed. I wear my typical all black outfit, and put mascara on. I pull on my favorite purple jacket, and I go out to see Amar waiting for me.

We stand in silence for about thirty seconds, then the doors open, and Hector walks in with Marlene. Uriah is waiting with Dad for the initiates to arrive. As Hector walks in, I look away. I don't make eye contact with him the whole elevator ride. Once we reach the bottom floor, we all stumble out, saying there were ten of us, me, Amar, Hector, Marlene, Tommy, Shauna, Will, Christina, Jo and Claire, squeezed in that tiny elevator.

We all walk to the train, where we all jump on. It is my instinct to sit on the edge, but I don't, I stand with Jo and Claire.

"What is up with you and Hector?" Claire asks.

"He asked me what I was going to do tomorrow, and I said I had to think it over, cause, yanno, I was a little frazzled with the whole puking thing after the test." I say, and they both nod, so I continue, "and then, he got all mad at me and yelled." And, that is the truth, just not the whole truth.

"Wow," is all Claire can say.

"Are you and him still a thing?" Jo asks.

"I don't know if we were even a thing, to be honest guys," I say and Claire puts her hand on my shoulder.

"Hey," Will walks over to us, "We have to jump now."

We all jump, and then we enter a huge room, split into five sections, one for each faction. The room is filled with blue, black, white, red, yellow, and grey.

We follow Will and Christina to the Dauntless section, when suddenly Will starts going straight to the erudite. He embraces a blonde woman with glasses. They look very much alike. Christina walks over to him, smiles at the woman, and walks back with Will. The woman looks at the twins, and a tear streams down her face.

I take at seat between Amar and Claire. We sit in silence, then Amar grabs my hand. "It'll be okay, Al," he says, then he pulls his hand away, and wipes it on his shirt. "Awfully sweaty." He says, and I laugh.

Then, the erudite leader, Jeanine Matthews, starts talking about the faction system, but I block it out. Then, I hear a voice that fills me with so much hatred. Marcus Eaton stands there and reads the first name. In about ten minutes, there are two people in Candor, Jacob and someone I don't know, and that's it, there are few kids our age. The numbers are decreasing every year.

"Al Eaton." Marcus says. Amar gives me a pat on the shoulder, and so do the others in the row that I walk through. I walk down the steps and walk up to the bowls for each faction. I don't look at Marcus. I grab the knife, and cut a small line into my skin. I don't even wince at the pain. I extend my hand over the dauntless bowl, and squeeze, but no blood comes out. I squeeze as hard as I can, but no blood comes out. I grab the knife again, and try, and this time, so much blood comes out, it gets all over the white tile floor. My blood is getting everywhere, and I just stick my arm over the dauntless bowl. My blood is streaming out of my hand. I am covered in blood and finally, Marcus says, "Dauntless."

The dauntless sector brusts into applause. I pull my shirt up slightly, and wrap my hand in it. It is still bleeding, but I feel no pain. I sit in the front, the set off area for the initiates, although I am the only one. I look at my hand, and the cut is very deep. It'll probably need stitches. Then, Marcus calls, "Dauntless." and to my surprise, Jenna Kerman sits nexto to me.

"I didn't expect you here." I smile, and she does too, then she sees my hand.

"Oh my goodness," she says, her abnegation showing, "You'll need stitches."

"Um, I'm fine." I say.

I don't pay any attention to the rest of the ceremony, I am just releived that I will be able to see my family again, and they will try to help me get through my initiation, and I don't even know if I will live to see the end of it.