Transparent: A Divergent FanFiction (Book One) ©

Chapter 16

                “Banks,” I repeated slowly. “That’s a funny name to pick.”

                “Maybe it has a meaning behind it?” Carla offered, digging into her food; apparently satisfied with her own answer to the mystery of his obscure past. “I don’t know, but he doesn’t seem to be much into making friends. I was trying to talk to him earlier, but he didn’t even acknowledge that he’d heard me.”

                “Rude,” Grace sniffed, shaking her head in an almost chastising manner.

                “He seems like a real charmer actually,” Dan joked; pretending to get defensive.

                “Yeah, yeah, I’m sure he is,” Grace rolled her eyes.

                “Well I’m certainly taken by him.” Dan said as he and Grace continued to playfully bicker back and forth, Carla seeming to relax as the minutes passed by.

                After dinner, Amar appeared and lead us down another series of hallways, never telling us where exactly we were going. We followed until we reached the end of a hallway and stood in front of a broad wooden door. Amar turned to us, and then clasped his hands behind his back in a very professional manner.

                “I’ve been training dauntless initiates for a while now, and it’s not a job I take lightly. The whole process is taken very seriously around here, with due cause, and there’s some important rules you all need to know. First off, you have to be in the training room by eight o’clock sharp every day. Training will take place from eight to six, with a break for lunch at around two. You are all free to do whatever you want afterwards, and you’ll get some time off in between each stage of initiation.”

                He unclasped his hands and then crossed his arms as he met eyes each of us.

                “You are also not permitted to leave the compound, not unless accompanied by a dauntless member. Now, behind this door is the room where you’ll all be sleeping throughout the initiation process. Pick a bed, and make yourself comfortable, because this’ll be your home for the next few weeks.”

                “What about the dauntless-born? We won’t all fit in there.” Billy asked.

                “That’s not a problem,” Amar shrugged, “in this first stage of initiation transfers and the dauntless-born will be kept separate. Don’t misunderstand, you will be evaluated equally. At the end of initiation, your rankings will be compared to theirs to determine who stays and who goes.”

                “Wait, what do you mean by rankings?” Howard interrupted from behind Billy’s left shoulder.

                “Yeah,” Samantha added, flanking Billy’s right side, “and what do you mean, who goes?”

                Amar pinched the bridge of his nose, and I could see he was getting irritated by their questions.

                “You will be ranked against them for two reasons; one, to decide the order in which you’ll choose a job after initiation, and two, is to see which top ten initiates will have the honor of becoming members.”

                We all lapsed into a sudden silence as we digested what he’d just said.

                “What?” Todd and Pam exclaimed; both sounding as panicked as they looked. “That’s insane!”