Dauntless High School

Chapter 5

TRIS

"Hey, Caleb," Zeke and Uriah say cheerfully in synchronisation. It's creepy when they do that. "Your truck's all squeaky clean," Zeke adds, looking at me.

"Thank you," I say. I look at them. They're both soaking wet and dripping all over the floor. Good thing Uriah already has half a dozen changes of clothes here; once he had to borrow some of Caleb's clothes and he looked ridiculous. The clothes were way too preppy and Uri was practically busting out of them. Caleb may be tall, but he's skinny as a rail.

"I don't know why you hang out with those hellions." He got that word from Dad. "They're going to get you into trouble someday." I just roll my eyes.

"Those hellions are always there for me, Caleb," I retort. My brother hasn't been there for me, and he knows it. As happy as I always am to see him, he really only comes round to do his laundry every two or three weeks. Otherwise I never hear from him. And he never tells me when he's coming, so sometimes I miss him when he does come by. It's certainly more than I see Dad, but Caleb is only a half hour away.

"Why do they have clothes here?" He loves to play the protector when he comes around, pretend to be the world's best big brother. The image of him trying to beat up either of the Pedrads, who each must outweigh him by at least thirty pounds of muscle, is amusing.

He won't like the real answer, so I lie. "They had already agreed to wash my truck, so they brought a change of clothes. They put it in my room when they got here." They did know they'd have to wash the truck, but the clothes were already there. Uriah and I sleep over at each other's houses often enough that we each have a drawer in the other's dresser. But Caleb definitely doesn't need to know that.

"-thought you'd choose Four," Uriah is saying as he and Zeke walk in.

Zeke replies, "I was going to, but Tris gave me one of her death glares." He shudders. "Your girlfriend is scary, Uri." Oh, they're talking about the dare game earlier today, at lunch. "Hey, Caleb," he adds, like an afterthought.

Being chosen for a dare is like being initiated into the group, and I'm not that sure about Four yet. So I simply say, "Four isn't one of us yet. It's too soon." Uriah rolls his eyes.

"Who is Four?" Caleb asks. His face is puckered like he just sucked on a lemon.

"New kid," Uriah answers. He wraps an arm around my waist and kisses my temple. Caleb gives me that look of disapproval that I memorized long ago. "Just started at Dauntless today. He's the new quarterback on the football team."

Caleb shakes his head. "Who the heck names their child Four?"

Zeke sits down at the table, and Uriah begins helping me carry the food over. "It's a nickname," Zeke shrugs. "His jersey number." I got the feeling that was only a convenient coincidence and there is a lot more to that nickname, but I keep that thought to myself.

The rest of us sit down and start eating. Caleb talks about some horticulture course he is taking at the university and goes on for at least ten minutes about aquaponics, which he finds absolutely fascinating and the rest of us couldn't care less about. Zeke, Uriah and I make faces at each other when Caleb isn't looking.

Then he turns the academics discussion to me.

"So, Beatrice, how is school going?" Zeke quietly snickers at my brother using my full name.

Uriah shoots me a pointed look. "Yeah, Beatrice. How is school going?" I glare at him.

"It's fine." It would be a lie, I suppose, from Caleb's perspective. But not from mine because as far as I am concerned it is fine. I couldn't care less that I have C's in half my classes. I have better things to do than study.