Rampant: A Divergent FanFiction (Book Two) ©

Chapter 31

                “Some sight, huh? Seems like forever since I’d last seen all of the faction colors together in one place,” Dan noted as he took a sip of his coffee. “Well, almost all of them.”

                “Yeah, none of the abnegation kids transferred this year,” I agreed. “So there isn’t any gray in sight.”

               “Do you think a stiff would ever make in dauntless anyway?” He asked aloud, though it sounded more like he was musing to himself. “It’s a pretty rough place to get used to.”

               “Yeah, I think it could be possible,” I answered after a long moment of thought. “It takes courage to be selfless and to completely forget about yourself. Not a lot of people can do it. I think if there were just the right amount of balance, any abnegation kid would easily be able to fit into this lifestyle.”

                “You have a point,” he admitted as he suddenly seemed to evaluate me. I didn’t understand the look he was giving me, but before I had a chance to ask, he added in a low voice, “I mean, you’re technically a stiff. In fact, it always amazes me when I think that no one other than Amar and Banks noticed that you were acting out of character. It’s actually really obvious when you think about it.”

               “Yeah, I was lucky,” I nodded, unable to hide the twinge of dark irony from my voice. Lucky, that was the last word I’d have used back when I first found out. Even now, I could hardly associate where I was in life with that concept.

               Taking a gulp of my own coffee, I sighed and stared out at the families that were clustered in the center of the Pit floor. Blues, yellows, reds, and a mix of black and whites peppered the sea of black. Early in the day, I’d woken up my own and also Banks’ initiates, giving them the usual spiel of faction over blood; though I wasn’t too enthusiastic when I said it.

               Internally, I just couldn’t bring myself to believe in such words, my family was my family, even if we had different ways of viewing life. Still, to keep up with appearances, I’d given them the lecture that had been recited to me, and then I’d brought them down to see their families.

               “Dude, that guy looks pissed,” Dan muttered into my ear as he subtly nodded his head forward.

               I followed his gaze, and cringed a little when I caught sight of what he’d seen. A stocky man dressed in a crisp black and white suit was angrily stalking around the floor of the Pit, brusquely shoving past people that were in his way. He seemed to be looking for someone, and only appeared to grow more aggravated when it was clear the person wasn’t there.

               As I watched, the man narrowed his eyes on the back of a blonde girl’s head, and without hesitation he rushed over and yanked her back by the collar of her shirt. The girl was Mel, and as she stumbled and cried out, the man quickly seemed to realize that she wasn’t who he thought she’d been.

               “This is going to get interesting,” Dan said, and I nodded quickly as we watched from the sidelines.

               A different man in blue, Mel’s father presumably, had shoved the candor man backwards and begun to jab his finger accusingly at him. Though we were far, I could clearly hear the aggression in his tone. At first, it appeared that the candor man was embarrassed, but as Mel’s father continued to yammer on, that sentiment disappeared.

               “Shit, that isn’t good,” I said as I began to make my way towards the group.

               A certain stereotype that candor had were that we were hot-headed and argumentative, and unfortunately, that was more-often-than-not very true. Even though he was at fault, the candor man was already growing red-faced and was arguing back, puffing his chest out with each growing shout.