Rulebreakers

Daren Redwood

^Picture video thingy is who I imagine Darren Redwood is in the story^

Taylor

I can’t believe it! My dad, whose famously known as ‘Four’, is going to be teaching me to fight. I’m sixteen. I have shoulder-length brown hair, the color is like my dad. Big blue eyes, like my mom, whose famously known as ‘Tris’. I’m really tan like my dad. We’re outside this city called Chicago. I have a good friend, named Mara. We are so close, we’re practically sisters. She has blonde hair and she’s really smart. Her dad is Will. Her mom is my mom’s best friend, Christina. There was a Faction System within Chicago. There was five factions: Abnegation, Dauntless, Erudite, Candor and Amity. All of them worked together to maintain the peace. The Factionless where my Grandma Eaton lives, she’s basically The Dictator of the rest of the Fenced Chicago. I am forbidden to see her, which doesn’t bother me at all. My dad gets in this weird protection way when he’s by Marcus and Evelyn, his parents. My mom gets the same way when she’s by Uncle Caleb.

My training finally arrives! Dad says, “Watch everything I do. I was the best fighter and the best thinker in my Dauntless-Initiate Class.” I nod and copy his every move. It’s sort of difficult, given that I’m weak and all. He studies how I fight and tells me to fight like mom: elbows, knees and feet.

Mara

I walk downstairs into the training room. I turn Sixteen in three months, but I sneak down here to the training room when I can’t sleep. My parents don’t know about me going down here secretly so dont tell anyone. It’s a secret and you have to keep it.

I close the soundproof door behind me and stretch. I want to focus on fist to fist combat. My mother, Christina says I would have probably lived in Erudite because I constantly am asking questions on how things work. I have always found fighting cool, I mean like how they fight is cool. So many different ways to fight, because everyone’s fighting style is different.

I start with doing some punches and kicks to see where I need to improve. I love the feeling you get during training. Your senses are clearer and time seems to go slower. About five minutes later I stop to take a small water break and nearly jump when I hear clapping behind me.

“What are you doing down here?” I ask my best friend’s dad, Four.

“I believe the question is, what YOU are doing here. I thought you are fifteen.” Four says. Great, I got caught. My parents are going to give me a long lecture with hundreds of facts and why we have the rules. What happened to that one saying: Rules are made to be broken? Oh wait, I need to answer Four.

“Um, just testing, A uh theory.” I say to Four.

“Oh, I see now. What is the theory?” Four asks me with a small smirk.  

“Um, Punching bags are good for punching?” I say with a smile. My voice filled with uncertainty. Well, that was a great answer. Good job Mara, good job. I mentally facepalm myself in my head.

“No, I saw the way you fought. You must have been practicing for a while. Dauntless and Erudite, smart mix.” Four says. Four needs to work on his jokes. Erudite people are really smart. Haha, not.

“Haha.” I say with a blank face.

“Tell you what, I will help you train now and then.” Four says. Wait, he would be going against the rules. There has to be a catch.

“Whats the catch?” I ask him.

“Just know who your real friends are.” Four says. What? Know who my REAL friends are? What is that supposed to mean? Why, oh why, does Four have to be all mysterious all the time? Someone should write a book: The Mysterious Four, And What He is Thinking. Boom, bestseller. But then again he is Divergent, whatever that means. I have heard some of those words like Divergent, but whenever I ask about it, people just give me a look like ‘Really? How do you NOT know.’

“Ok, Lets do this.” I say and we start with the training again. Four shows me better ways to put the power in my kicks and punches. He also tells me that I should wait for the other person to attack first, and use that to my advantage. Also, I need to block a little more.

“Ok, time to go.” Four says after about two hours of training. I have always been really energetic, turns out that is good for fighting. Sometimes I wish they didn’t outlaw street fighting. Now you have to get a fighting permit and then you have to do only professional fighting. No offence, but it gets a little boring because we are all taught the same ways to fight, meaning no surprises. But at the same thing, the rules keep us safe so, yeah.

I start heading out but Four starts talking, causing me to stop walking.

“Be careful Mara.” he says to me.

“Ok, Two plus two.” I say. Calling Four, Two plus two, was a joke me and Taylor have had since we were kids. I walk through the door. I decide to be a little adventurous and go to the roof. I walk making sure my shoes make no sound as I head down the hallway to the fire escape. I climb up and sit down on the concrete ledge up there. The roof is like a skyscraper roof so there is half walls of concrete to keep the gravel for the water system on the roof. That concrete half wall is what I am sitting on. I could go into deep detail on how it works but I don’t want to make you bored. But hey, thats the Nerd life. Haha, Nerd jokes. Ok, I admit that was a lame joke.

I go onto a tablet to read a book or something while I wait for myself to get tired. I still feel energetic from the fight. I start reading an article on things of the past. It is interesting how technology has changed. We don’t have these ‘Joke Books’ anymore. Everything nowadays seems so strictly for work or something compared to back then. Youtube? I wonder if we still have that. OneRepublic was apparently a good band among many others. I wonder why we don’t listen to music anymore. Now we always listen to news and stuff that will actually help us in the future.

I don’t see any reason for most of these rules. No this or No that. That seems like all they say nowadays. If people made millions doing what they love, why can’t I? I don’t want to sing or dance or something like that I want to be something different. Everyone talks about how this ‘new’ life is better. And Blah blah blah blah blah. Sure you are guaranteed safety, but you are sacrificing a lot of things that you love at the same time just because of a little risk.

They say this way that we have now is the best and safest to figure out what you can do for the greater good. But I just feel like it is restricting what you can do. After all that is what all these rules do. Tay can tell you what you can, and can’t do.

“Hey. Dara right?” A voice says behind me. He has dirt brown hair and is tan like Four. He has Hazel eyes, a rarity nowadays. He is wearing an old t-shirt, a windbreaker jacket, dark wash jeans. I recognized him right away.

Darren. Darren Redwood.

He is known for getting in trouble. Every kid is warned to stay away. And THEY did. Key word: They.

“Mara actually. What are you doing here Redwood?” I say.

“Looking for some people.” He says. I see he is very specific.

“What kind of people?” I ask him.

“Rulebreakers.” He says.

“Working for the police now are ya.” I joke. I need to work on my jokes...

“Yeah, because that is exactly what I am doing.” Darren says with sarcasm.

“Yeah, I see you are realistic.” I say.

“Ok. Hey, ya wanna come to the hideout tomorrow night, same time. Me and some guys are starting up a group of rulebreakers.” He says.

“Sure, wheres the hideout?” I ask. This is my big chance to finally break the rules. YAAAAASSSSSS!

“A1.”He says then runs off and disappears. I can’t believe what he just said, but he said it. A1, also known as outside the fence. NO one has  been out of the fence for eighteen years. I should tell on him and so says the right thing. But for some reason, I like this dangerous feeling. It makes you feel, how do I put this in words?

Alive.

I am going to A1 tomorrow. Watch out Chicago, the Rulebreakers are here.