Dauntless High School

Chapter 1

TRIS

"Honey!" my boyfriend calls jokingly from downstairs. "I brought you something pretty!"

"I'm in my room!" I call back. I hear his giggling as he makes his way up the stairs, amused with whatever he's done this time.

Uriah walks in obscured by a stop sign, and I laugh back. He leans it against the wall and waves his arms to point at it dramatically. "Happy unbirthday," he grins and sits down on my bed.

"Perfect," I laugh. "I can't believe Al stole a stop sign. I really thought he was going to chicken out." I pull my t-shirt off over my head as I cross the room to my open closet, barely dodging Uriah's attempt to grab me around the waist.

"I guess he's tired of being the first one drunk at parties and embarrassing himself in front of half the school," Uriah says. That's the penalty for refusing or failing to complete a dare: at the next party, you have to take five straight shots and sing karaoke to whatever song the gang chooses. Each time Al takes his penalty, I almost want to argue that we show him mercy. Only because he is completely and totally tone deaf, listening to him sing is more painful than it is funny. It's a relief that for once, Al didn't refuse Uriah's dare.

I toss my t-shirt in the laundry hamper and scan the contents of my closet. The skinny jeans I have on are fine, so I just choose a cute black top and pull it off the hanger.

"Woah, hang on there," Uriah protests as I prepare to pull the top over my head. He pulls me by my hips and I fall into his lap. Uriah trails his fingers up my bare stomach. "It looked like you were about to put more clothes on. If you ask me, you're totally going the wrong direction there." I giggle and press my lips to his. Uriah quickly kisses me back, pressing me closer with his hand against the small of my back, and I wrap my arms around his neck in return.

But before he can turn this into a full-on makeout session (or more), I pull away. "Not now, Uri. We're supposed to be at Christina's in..." I glance at the clock by my bed and my eyes widen. "Ten minutes. And I haven't even fixed my make-up yet!" I stand and quickly pull on the top that had fallen to the floor, then hop up and glance in the mirror. "And my hair." In the mirror's reflection I can see Uriah pouting behind me and I roll my eyes.

Five minutes later, I have brushed my hair, touched up my makeup, and pulled on my black converse. I leave my truck in the garage and ride with Uri in his Jeep. I first became friends with Uriah and his twin brother Zeke when I moved to Chicago in third grade. We've been inseparable for half our lives now, but somehow about a year and a half ago, friendship was no longer enough for either of us. The brothers have been the people I can rely on through everything, at my best and at my worst. They're just there for me in different ways now, obviously.

"Are Chris's parents home?" Uriah asks while he parks at the curb in front of Christina's house.

"I don't think so," I answer. "If they were going to be home, she wouldn't have invited us. We'd have been at my house or yours."

Uriah rolls his eyes and reaches behind my seat to grab a case of beer. "Zeke and I spent all day cleaning up, I'm not ready to do that again yet. It would've been yours, not mine." They had their usual friday night post-game party, which half the school showed up to. I can attest, the place was completely trashed when I woke up there this morning.

I hop out of the Jeep and wait for him on the sidewalk. "It was worse before I left. Didn't you notice the two trash bags in the kitchen filled with beer cans?" I ask as we start up the walk to Christina's house. "Did you think the cleaning fairy visited? No, that was your girlfriend, thank you very much."