Divergent High

ｆｏｕｒ

FOUR

After getting home from Tris's house, I quickly start working on dinner. About twenty minutes into cooking spaghetti, I hear the heavy footsteps of the man I hate the most in this world.

"Why isn't dinner ready yet?" my father asks, walking into the kitchen.

"It will be in five minutes," I say, trying to divert the conversation. He seems to still be sober, and while his belt only comes out when he's plastered, he saves everything he sees to use as ammunition later.

"That wasn't the question," Marcus rejects the bait, his voice too calm as he removes his suit jacket.

"I got held up at school," I lie, the art having become second nature over the years. When you have to lie to keep from getting your ass handed to you every night, you tend to get pretty good at it.

"Are you lying to me, Tobias?" he questions, spitting out my name like poison.

I keep my head down, stirring the ground beef in marinara sauce. "No, sir."

"Okay," he says, eyeing me skeptically. "Get that dinner done."

"Yes, sir." Marcus leaves the kitchen then, his footsteps echoing as he trudges through the house and up the stairs.

This is definitely going to bite me in the ass later.

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TRIS

I'm in the kitchen cutting up an apple for a snack when my phone starts to buzz. My mom's picture appears on the screen, so I slide my thumb across it to answer the call, and turn on the speaker.

"Hi, sweetie," Mom says from the other end of the line. "How was your first day?"

"Good," I answer, taking a bite of an apple slice.

"Really, that's it? Just 'good'?" She laughs. "Honey, it was the first day at a brand new school, there's gotta be a little more to it."

"I don't know," I respond as I chop the apple into smaller pieces. "It's just high school, Mom, it's pretty much the same wherever you go."

"Tell me one thing that happened and I will leave you alone. Good or bad, doesn't matter." I groan, knowing that she will definitely not let me go unless I share something. Absolutely not going to go with the fact that I had a boy in my bedroom less than an hour ago, though.

"Fine, I made some friends. Some of them are on the volleyball team and said they're needing a new setter."

Mom claps on the other end, exclaiming, "Honey, that's great! Crazy how things work out like that."

"Uh-huh," I reply, finishing my apple and throwing the core in the trash.

"Are Dad and Caleb home?" she asks as my phone vibrates again. This time, it's a text from Christina, who I gave my number to at lunch earlier.

"I think Caleb is, but I haven't seen Dad all day," I tell my mom, picking up my phone to read the text message.

Hey, u still down for the mall tn?

"Mom, is it cool if I hang out with those friends tonight?" I ask, although she wouldn't really be able to stop me from going if she said no.

"Yeah, honey. Not too late, though," she tells me.

"Of course not," I agree sarcastically. Mom informs me that she's going to give Caleb a call and to let her know when I leave and when I get home. Texting Christina my address as I finish up my conversation with my mom, she replies that she'll pick me up in about 15 minutes.

I run upstairs, searching for my purse in my closet, and switching over my wallet from my backpack once I find it. After I spray a little more perfume on me and brush out my hair, Christina messages me again to let me know she's entering my neighborhood. Sliding on my shoes and grabbing my purse, I head downstairs once again just as I get the text that Christina is parked in front of my house. Jogging down my driveway, I open the front passenger door of her car and slide in.

"Hey!" she says, barely giving me a second to reply before she launches again. "Did you know that's Four's house next to yours?"

"Yeah, he told me earlier this afternoon. Small world, right?"

"Crazy small," Christina laughs, shifting the car into drive. "What do your parents do to have a house like that?"

"Oh, my mom is a fashion designer–"

"Shut up, is your mom Natalie Prior? Like she created Prior Influence? She is my idol!"

I laugh awkwardly as Christinas continues to freak out, "Yep, that's her. Anyway, my dad got a job in the DA's office here, which is why we moved."

"No way, Four's dad is the DA," she tells me, waiting to turn left as she exits my neighborhood.

"Oh, weird," I respond. "He didn't tell me that." He definitely did not, even though I had told him the reason that my family had moved to Chicago.

"Yeah, he doesn't really talk about his dad much. We rarely ever go to Four's house so I've only met his dad like once or twice, but I don't think they're very close." That definitely makes more sense that Four wouldn't bring his father up then, but it's so sad. My dad might work a lot, but he is still my hero, and I couldn't imagine not having a good relationship with him. "Okay, enough about Four, jeez," Christina groans, making me laugh as she turns up the music a little. I've only just met them all today, but Christina and Four do not seem like two people who would be friends if they weren't dragged into the same friend group by different people.

Christina hands me her phone with Spotify open, so I queue up a couple of my favorite songs to finish the drive to the mall.

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN DIVERGENT OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS!!! CREDS GO TO VERONICA ROTH!!!!