YouTube One-Shots

Divergent Youtube Style

"Michelle Wahr," calls the Amity representative at the podium.

This was it. The biggest decision of my life. I take a deep breath, hastily wiping my sweaty palms on my black pants. I hesitantly step up onto the stage. The man wordlessly hands me a knife. Five bowls stand in front of me. The choice should be obvious. My aptitude test screamed Dauntless. I wanted everything that faction stood for. The fighting, the thrills, the strength. But at the same time...I was terrified. I had lived my whole life in Candor where everything was obvious. Who to trust, what to do, what to say...everything.

The man gives me an encouraging pat on the back as I stumble towards the bowls. I look out at the crowd, and my eyes fall on the group of Dauntless initiates. A girl stares back at me, her mismatched eyes boring into mine. The edge of a tattoo peeks out from under her black t-shirt, accenting her collarbone. There isn't a doubt in my mind that this short, tanned girl could kick my ass into next week if I looked at her wrong, but something about her was...magnetic. Alluring.

She cocks an eyebrow, as if to challenge me, and I realize I have been staring. A fiery determination starts in my gut. I stride purposefully towards the bowls, and before I get there, I know what choice I will make.

My eyes never leave hers as I cut open my palm and hold it out over the sizzling coals. She smirks and brings her hands together in a slow clap. For a second my entire body buzzes with something foreign as I stare at her. I am confident enough to jump off the stage and take a bow, matching her smirk with one of my own. She flicks her eyebrows up and laughs, surprised. As I walk over to take my place behind the Dauntless-born initiates, she stops me with a hand on my arm.

"Hey," she says, her high pitched voice countering her intense stare. "Great performance."

"Thanks," I reply. I open my mouth to say more, but I'm cut off by the next name being called.

"Ryan Terry."

A confident brown haired Erudite takes the knife and slides it easily across his palm, some of the blood dripping onto his green hoodie. He confidently dribbles it over the coals and walks over to stand by me.

"Hey, what's with the green? Aren't you supposed to wear blue?" I ask curiously, my Candor side taking over for a minute.

"Fuck that," he says. "I hate blue."

I don't quite know how to respond to this, so I just shake my head and focus on the rest of the ceremony.

The rest of the Choosing Day is a blur, the only notable transfers being when a blond Amity named Felix transfers to Dauntless and my friend Lizzie transfers to Erudite.

We leave first, filing past the rows of watching parents around a corner. I hear a train and groan, knowing what was coming next.

"Oh, fuck, we don't have to jump, do we?" Felix asks, his eyes shining with fear.

"Unless you want to fail initiation, yeah," I reply.

"C'mon, let's go!" shouts Ryan excitedly, leaping at the train with a whoop. His enthusiasm is infectious, and I find myself sprinting at the moving metal cars. I'm tall enough that I can grab one of the handles and pull myself up. I look out and see Felix and a girl I don't recognize running after the train.

"Felix!" I scream, reaching out. His fingers brush mine before Ryan reaches past me and pulls the boy up in one fluid motion. They stare at eachother for a second too long before Felix blushes and pulls away.

I close my eyes and lean my head against the cold steel wall of the train as it picks up speed. Just as I'm falling into a peaceful half-slumber, I feel someone sit down beside me.

"I never got to introduce myself," says the girl from earlier, smirking at me. "I'm Kristen."

"Hi, I'm Michelle," I say, shaking her hand. "Happen to know where we're going?"

"If I told you, I'd have to kill you," Kristen says and I laugh.

"Like to see you try," I respond.

"Oh, really?" she challenges, raising an eyebrow.

"Fuck yeah."

"And how exactly would you stop me?"

"Well, I was thinking since I can't beat you in a fight, I could just use my womanly charms to convince you," I joke. We burst into laughter. Every time we look at each other we burst into another fit of giggles until my stomach hurts. It's not that the joke was that funny, it was just that all the tension that had built up over the day was finally being let out. We eventually calm down, gasping for breath.

"What's your tattoo of?" I finally ask, breaking the laughing spell. She sits up and pulls back her shirt to expose a design of a dragon entwined around her collarbone.

"I got it because I wanted something that was a symbol of strength, but also beautiful," she says softly.

"Just like you," I murmur as the scales shimmer in the sunlight. I unconsciously reach out and brush my fingers across it. She chuckles and I pull my hand back, embarrased, but she catches it and pulls me in closer. My heart hammers against my ribcage as she whispers in my ear.

"It's not polite to stare, y'know."

"Since when has a Candor been polite?" I counter. She laughs again and pulls away.

"I'll definitely be seeing more of you, little minx," she stands up and winks before walking away to join the other Dauntless-born.

"Ooh, Michelle is gettin' some," cackles Ryan.

"You're just upset Felix isn't doing the same to you," I call back, feeling a rush of satisfaction as he flushes a bright red. We bicker back and forth like siblings until suddenly the Dauntless-born start jumping out if the train.

"Oh, shit, I think we're supposed to jump," says Ryan, and I see a familiar cocktail of excitement and fear in his eyes.

"We're gonna die, we're gonna fucking die," whimpers Felix, and something about his flinching away from the risk angers me. In one motion, I stand up and leap out the door, rolling to a stop on the graveley rooftop. Ryan and Felix are close behind, and as soon as the blond's feet touch the ground I am yelling at him.

"What the Hell, Felix? If you wanted to stay in Amity, why didn't you? We can't afford to have someone chickening out like that on a mission or we'll die," I shout. I get right close to his face, not entirely sure what's spurring me on. "You chose Dauntless. Either man up, or wind up like him." I gesture to a boy who fell from the rooftop and is lying in a mangled heap on the ground.

"Listen up!" shouts a voice. I turn to see a smug man with a close shaven head. "My name is SeaNanners, and I am one of the leaders of your new faction. Several stories below us is the members' entrance to our compound. Our initiates get the special opportunity to go first."

I look down and almost throw up at the pitch black hole in the ground that seemed to go on forever.

"Is there a net at the bottom or something?" asks a Dauntless boy with strangely gray hair. Nanners shrugs.

"I don't know, Izik, but you're welcome to find out," he chuckles. There is a minute of tense silence before Felix runs past me and onto the ledge. He turns and gives me a hard look, and for a second, I see someone more than Felix Kjellberg. I see the man the aptitude test saw when it told him Dauntless. I see someone who will fight to the death for what he believes in. I see someone who can take anything. my doubts about him vanish as he jumps over and vanishes. Nanners laughed and turned to the remaining intiates, clapping his hands together and grinning widely.

"Who's next?" he asks.