Divergent: Switched

Ceremony

Christina and I make the daily jump on the train to travel to the Hub, the main building of our city, Chicago.

She trains the transfers alongside me, but I'm the one to lead and make the decisions. Uriah and Marlene train the Dauntless-borns.

Will works in the control room. Lynn is one of the only decent leaders we have. Level headed, not letting her gender get the better of her. I mean, she literally shaved her head and dresses like a boy every day just so she gets a little more respect. I don't blame her. It took me quite a while to get respected.

And even longer to get feared.

Uriah has a younger brother, Zeke. Lynn has younger sister, Shauna. She and Zeke have something going on, I know it. They get defensive whenever I ask, proving my point, but I don't ask anymore. Will has an older sister back in Erudite. Christina has younger sister back in Candor. Marlene doesn't have a family, but she does have Uriah. They've been dating for two years.

I don't have a family. My mother died giving birth, and my father is dead to me. I can't even think about him. I do, however, have a brother, who transferred to Erudite when I did to dauntless. I haven't seen him in a long time, but I still love him. He's selfless, and smart, and as much as I hate to admit it, I miss him so much sometimes it hurts.

Christina, Will, Uriah, Marlene, and Lynn are my family now. But it isn't the same.

Uriah speaks up first, as always.

"How many transfers do you think you might have this year, Tris?"

"Probably about 10 or 11. Do you think Zeke will stay?"

"Of course he will. I told him that if he didn't, I would just kidnap him and bring him back."

"What about you, Lynn? Will Shauna stay?"

"I had a similar talk with her, it just involved more fists. Six, I talked to Peter about discontinuing the knock out rule during training matches-"

"Let me guess, he said no."

"You must know how to read minds."

"It's one of my special powers."

"You seem to have a lot of those."

Uriah butted in. "She also has the power to manipulate you into doing what she wants," he said with a smirk.

Lynn snorted. "Yeah right."

"Marleen, could I borrow your gun?" I asked nonchalantly, not even looking over in her direction.

She paused her conversation with Christina just long enough to pull her gun out of her back pocket. She handed it to me and turned back around. No questions asked.

I pointed it at Uriah and pretended to shoot him in the head. He grabbed at his heart with a dramatic gasp, then slumped over onto the metal floor of the train. I cackled evilly. Lynn rolled her eyes.

"Hey Stiff, quit playing stupid games and pay attention, we're jumping in five," Peter called from the other side of the box car, scowling.

"Sir, yes, sir!" I yelled, louder than necessary, giving him a mock salute.

He pretended not to hear the snickers from the others.

The train pulled around the final curve and I stood, walking to the open door and peering out. Our crumbling city flew past, and suddenly there was ground.

"Jump!" I yelled, and sprang. This was my favorite part. The feeling of weightlessness as you reach the point of your arch, then start to fall, the wind whipping the hair out of your face and stealing the breath from your lips. Then your feet hit the concrete, and your knees bend into a crouch. The train speeds on behind you, until it's out of sight.

With a whoop of joy, our pack of dauntless leaders and trainers started at full speed towards the doors to the Hub, earning several stares from the people mingling around outside. Some scared, some interested, some annoyed, some even amazed.

The small part of my heart that was reserved for only the most emotional things started to warm up at the fact that there were people who looked up to me as a role model. I smiled slightly to myself.

We squirmed past several pairs of legs before finding our seats among the other dauntless, who had taken an earlier train. We waited none-too-patiently for the ceremony to start. I beat Uriah several times at thumb wrestling. When Marleen started to draw in his attention, I chatted with Christina and Lynn. That didn't entertain me for long, so I drifted off for the remainder of the time.

I was woken up by Lynn jabbing me in the gut. I grunted in respond and was about to grill her when Marleen hissed at us to be quiet, the ceremony was starting.

It was long, and boring, just like last year's ceremony. There was only one moment when I was actually paying attention.

We were about three fourths of the way done when he was called.

"Tobias Eaton."

An Abnegation stepped up, nervously pulling at a loose string on the cuff is his dark grey button down. I didn't get a clear shot of his face, but I CAN say that he had a nice build (but there was no way in hell I was going to say that out loud). He was shaky. Nervous. Uncomfortable. But as soon as he reached the stage, his posture snapped straight up and all sign of emotion was gone. He reminded me of someone...

I watched him carefully as he ran the dagger across his open palm, drawing bright red blood to the surface. His hand was steady. He stepped forward to the five bowls, each a polished white and containing a certain object for every faction. Glass for Candor. Stones for Abnegation. Coals for Dauntless, and so on. Tobias curled his fingers inwards, stopping the blood from spilling out of his hand. I watched as he reached forward and held his hand over the bowl of stones. Staying with his faction, just like so many others.

I was about to look away to continue tying and untying the laces of my black combat boots when I saw him bite his lip, his eyes trained on the small drop of blood escaping it's way down his wrist.

His hand jerked.

The drop of blood fell.

It landed in the bowl of coals.

There was lots of cheering and hooting from the other dauntless, but I was frozen, glued in place. I knew who he reminded me of.

He reminded me of myself.

I closed my eyes and tried to control my breathing. Not now, not now. My fingers curled into fists, then slowly released. Breath in, breath out. Do what Christina taught you. Breath in, breath out. Not now. In, out.

I opened my eyes and saw the dauntless had taken their seats again. Christina stared at me wordlessly. "I'm fine," I mouthed, and she hesitantly averted her eyes.

The ceremony ended, and I stood to stretch my legs. Three hours is way too long to be sitting still, especially for a dauntless. They really need to rethink this whole Choosing Ceremony.

But, unfortunately, I'm not in charge.

So, I'm just gonna have to deal with it.

Damn.

~~~~~~~~~

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(Jessie and Morgan)