Dauntless

chapter 7

I woke up with sunlight poured through the window, I squinted and rubbed my eyes. I pulled the covers off and got up, I remembered what day it was and groaned.

"Zoe! Time to get up! We've got to go soon!" called my mother from downstairs.

"Yes! Coming!" I shouted back. I got up and put on my black clothes, then ran downstairs. I had my breakfast in silence, then I said to my mum,

"I'm ready, should we go now?"

"Yes ok, you go and we'll catch you up." She said, I nodded and ran out of the house.

Why can't I have normal parents, parents that care about probably the most important day of my life? I thought, I ran the rest of the way, so Mt parents couldn't catch me up, then I would see if they even apologized afterwards.

I ran into the room and stood where I was told to stand in the line. The line was all of the children in my year, waiting to choose. I was infront of Ella, or surnames were exactly the same except for the 3rd lettter, mine was a 'c' and Ella's was a 'y'.

"You nervous?" I asked her.

"Yeah, a bit. But I know what I'm going to choose so it's not too bad." Ella replied, "You?"

"Yeah, I guess I'm ok. I just, keep thinking about what happened at Michelle's choosing ceremony, I don't want it to happen to me." I said.

"It'll be fine, don't worry." She said, but I could see the she thought I was going to transfer like Michelle. I opened my mouth to tell her I wasnt going to, but closed it when I remembered that we werent supposed to tell anyone.

Then the long speech about all the factions started, it droned on until finally, the first name was called out. It was a Candor boy, he walked to the center of the room and took the knife, he cut into his palm, and dripped his blood into the Candor bowl, there was a round of applause then he lined up in the Candor line.

I zoned out as the second name was called out, then I came back to reality when the person infront of me walked to the center of the room, my heart started beating faster and palms became sweaty. Then suddenly,

"Zoe Grace." said the man standing in the middle of the room. I walked towards him and took the knife, cutting into my palm. It stung and I thought of how it would feel biting into the knife, like the dog.

I stood there, with the blood drooping off my hand, and I walked over to the burning coals. I put my hand over the silver bowl and let my blood sizzle on the coals.

There was applause and I went over to the Dauntless line behind the dulcet bowl with my blood in. Ella walked up into the center of the room and she dropped get blood ontop of mine. I smiled at her as she came up to me, and she smiled back. After that, I zoned out-again, I tend to do that alot, zone out. I don't know what I think about but I'm just not ate of the world around me when I zone out.

This time what brought me back to reality was loud gasps and mumbles. I looked around, everyone was shocked. Ella wasn't though.

"What happened?" She asked me, she had obviously zoned out as well.

"I don't know, maybe someone transfered." I wondered aloud.

"Yeah, maybe someone from Amity or something to Dauntless." She replied, looking at the back of our line where someone had just walked to, but we couldn't see who it was because of all the heads in the way.

We told to settle down and the ceremony continued. But I still wondered who that transfer was.