DIVERGENT - Erudite: Caleb's Story

The Choosing Ceremony

I awake, sprawled on my back in an uncomfortable position across the floor of my bedroom surrounded by several mountains of books. The left side of my body compressed into the rough carpet, my hair, tangled and messy. My clothes crinkled and unneat.

I lift up my head slowly to check my watch on my right arm. It reads 8:30am. The Choosing Ceremony starts in an hour. I jump up and stroll downstairs to the kitchen where I can smell the sweet scent of porridge oats.

I walk in to find my mother cooking all of the family breakfast. I tell her 'Good Morning' and then I give her a slight hug before sitting down at the dining table in the middle of the room. I wait quietly for breakfast to begin as eventually Beatrice and our father comes into the room and joins me. Beatrice sits opposite me, she looks unsettled and rather stressed. Although her hair and clothes look perfectly neat and tidy, her eyes are red, sunken and puffy like she hasn't slept for a month. I think The Choosing Ceremony is getting to her too much.

A while later, our mother joins us at the dining table with four bowls of fresh porridge for us all. I take a bowl and begin to eat it. The warm porridge oats and the sweet cinnamon added within it satisfy my taste buds. It doesn't take me long before every oat in my bowl has been devoured. After we all finish breakfast, we decide to get ready to go to The Choosing Ceremony.

I shiver with nervousness as I brush my hair and put on some new neat clothes. My hand shakes significantly as I clean my pearly white teeth. Eventually, I am ready to go and I run downstairs to the front door to leave. Beatrice and our mother and father all stand ready to leave at the door, we all go outside and we start walking towards The Aptitude Centre.

As we get there, many other people from all different factions are strolling inside the building. Myself, Beatrice and our parents do the same and when we get to the main room we start to walk up the stairs to sit together on the Abnegation levelled section of the room with our other fellow faction members when the president of Chicago approaches us.

"Hello Andrew. Is this your family? Are your children choosing their factions today?" She asks my father. He shakes her hand and then begins to reply to her.

"Yes. This is my wife, Natalie and my two children who are going to be choosing today, Caleb and Beatrice." He tells her in a polite and formal manner.

"It's lovely to meet you all. I am Janine Matthews. I will be in charge of the ceremony today." She explains. She holds out her hand for me and Beatrice to shake it. I shake her hand. Beatrice shakes her hand. I recognise her immediately from the council panel that my father works for.

"The ceremony is about to begin. Choose wisely." Janine gives Beatrice and Caleb and serious look and walks away.

As I sit down between Beatrice and our mother, I look around the room at all the other people from other factions. There is a sea of different colours. A section of Erudites who are dressed in blue, a section of Amity who are dressed in red and yellow, Candor in white, Dauntless in black and maroon colours and finally my faction, Abnegation, where everyone dresses in grey. I finish glaring around at the other factions when Janine Matthews in a blue blazer, blue pencil skirt and blue high heels walks onto the stage and everyone in the room falls silent. She begins to speak to everyone from all the factions.

"Good morning everyone, welcome to the Choosing Ceremony. Today, we have several faction members that are going to choose their fate but remember, once they choose, their is no going back to their old faction. Anyway, let's get started-"

Janine Matthews calls out several names from an incredibly long list until finally-

"Caleb Prior" Janine announces. My heart pounds in my chest, my arms and legs shake as I make my way down the stairs and onto the stage in front of everyone in all the factions.

Janine pats my shoulder and moves back so I can make my way over to the five stone bowls on the long marble table in the center of the stage that represent the five factions. I stand directly in front of the table. On the edge of the table is a knife. I take a deep breath and pick up the knife to carefully draw a drop of blood from the palm of my hand.

I glare expressionlessly up at my family whilst my hand moves and lingers over a bowl that isn't the Abnegation bowl. My blood drips into it. I am no longer an Abnegation member, I am an Erudite member.

I walk over the Erudite section of the audience as all the members of the faction chant and cheer for me. I feel excepted and like I belong but also a little guilty for leaving my family but I have to put it behind me. I couldn't go back even if I wanted to.

Eventually, the Erudite crowd calms down and Janine Matthews returns to the middle of the stage and reads out the last name on the list-

"Beatrice Prior" She bellows. I sit down within the Erudite section and I watch anxiously as my sister approaches the stage. She lingers in front of the five faction bowls. After little hesistation, she uses the knife to draw a drop of blood and she puts her hand over the Abnegation bowl. The blood runs down her hand and dries up in an instant. I gasp silently as well as some others around the room.

Beatrice moves her arm over to the Dauntless bowl without thinking and instantly, the blood drops onto the dark embers. The Dauntless members scream and whistle as loud as they can as Beatrice strolls slowly over to towards them. Janine walks off the stage and immediately, everyone begins to leave.

I watch after my sister as she is carried out of the doorway by the Dauntless members. I watch my mother and father who still sit in the audience, looking after me with tears in their eyes. Tears begin to build up in my own eyes for an instant as I walk out with the Erudite members but they soon wash away when I am directed out the door towards the Erudite Headquarters to start my new life as an Erudite member.

I carry on making my way over to Erudite Headquarters when I spot Beatrice in the background try to climb into a railway station to keep up with the Dauntless members. I worry about her and how she is going to cope in Dauntless as she struggles to pull herself up. Eventually, with much effort put into it, she makes it and she runs out of my sight along the tracks. I shake away the thoughts and worries and carry on following the other Erudite members and Transfers to the Headquarters.

When I finally make my way over to the Headquarters it is late in the evening and I feel exhausted yet excited at the same time. All the members of Erudite stand in front of the main glass doors when a very tall young man in a perfectly neat blue blazer, blue trousers, blue leather shoes and large round glasses with short dark brown hair strolls over to us all.

"Hello and welcome to the Erudite Headquarters, my name is Timothy and I will be your Tour Guide and Leader for this evening. Please follow me." He speaks in a very posh voice. As he turns around and begins walking he straightens out his already perfect blazer repeatedly. Myself and all the other members begin to follow him through the many rooms and sections of the Headquarters.

"This is the Initiation Room. This is where you will be evaluated during the tasks you will face to determine whether you will stay in this faction or not." Timothy explains. All of the Transfers gasp in shock. A small girl with mousy brown hair and a freckled complexion opens her mouth to speak. "What do you mean, 'stay in this faction or not'?" She asks with a sweet yet serious tone to her voice.

Timothy chuckles under his breath for a second and then looks around at everyone's confused faces. "You mean to tell me that you don't know? Well, the people who pass the Initiation tests get to stay here and have their own role of their choice but the ones who fail will sadly, have to join the factionless..." He explains to everyone.

He rubs his glasses gently to clean them and then he carries on walking into the next room. Myself and some of the others don't move for a second and instead, contemplate on the consequences of failing Initiation. The thought of it dawns on me. I shake off the thought and I run after the others to catch up.

I step into the next room. It is a room split into two larger seperate bedrooms, one for the girls, one for the boys. "These are the bedrooms. It is getting late now and you have to get ready for your first test tomorrow so you better get some sleep, I will show you what else there is to see tomorrow." Timothy utters. He walks out the room and strolls to another section of the Headquarters elsewhere.

Everyone begins to choose a part of the room that will be theirs and I pick mine in the far left corner. I change my Abnegation clothes for Blue Abnegation clothes and then I get into bed and fall asleep, ready for the next day ahead.