near north side//peter hayes

14

Another day, another round of fear sims. Another round of fear sims, another round of distraught sixteen year olds to deal with. It's hard to watch the initiates go through this. You can tell it is taking a toll on all of them. I can tell Tris is uneasy when she walks into the room. She looks bad, but thankfully not as exhausted or traumatized as the others. She looks like she is trying to deal with her fears, unlike Al who seems like he has started to give up.

"It's just a simulation, Tris," Four says quietly, trying to calm Tris.

She closes her eyes and her fear sim starts. This fear is different from last time. The screen is dark for a while before the blue lights of the pit floor light up the screen. The initiates are standing around her, their arms folded and their faces blank. She reaches her hands out as if to grab them but her finger touches glass. She looks around realizing she is in a glass box. She tries to get out, but it doesn't work. In the sim Four taps on the glass and points to Tris' feet while smirking. Tris is standing in a half inch of water. Fear sim Four looks at Tris and her situation, and he shrugs.

The water in the book is rising fats, if Tris can't find a way to stop it she will drown. Tris starts to panic, as she punches the glass and screams for help.

"Hey!" she says. "Let me out of here! Get me out of here!"

The water is up to her thighs. She has done nothing to try and get out, only screamed, and pounded on the glass. She starts hitting it harder as if she could break it, at least now she's trying to do something to get out. She starts hitting her shoulder into the wall. The water is up to her chest now and she starts screaming again.

"Help!" Tris screams. "Please! Please help!"

She is now floating in the water. She takes one final breath as the box is now full of water. She starts to panic, thrashing all about. She lets out a scream and shoves the wall with her palm. Then you can hear it, a cracking sound. The glass was cracked, a little at first but as Tris keeps hitting it, it shatters.

"Oh no," I say to Four.

He looks at me like he had just received the worst news of his life.

We look over when we hear Tris gasp. She is sitting up in the chair shaking her hands. Four and I stand at her side looking at her.

"What?" she asks.

"How did you do that?" I ask her.

"Do what?" She answers.

"Crack the glass," Four says, with his infamous stone cold expression.

"I don't know," Tris says.

I can't tell if she is lying or not. I want to know if she knows she is Divergent. Some aptitude test administrators will input test results and never tell the person they got divergent, trying to protect them.

Four offers his hand out to Tris. She takes it, swinging her legs over the edge of the chair, before standing up.

"I've got it this time," I say to Four.

I grab Tris by the elbow leading her out of the room and into the hall. I can't let this go unchecked, she needs to know that what she just did will get her in trouble. Maybe even killed. Tris pulls her arm from my grasp. I just look at her, trying to figure out in my head how to help her. Four helped me by himself last year, this year Four and I can help Tris together. Four isn't divergent, he doesn't get exactly what it's like.

"What?" Tris demands.

"You're Divergent," I reply.

Tris leans back pressing her shoulders to the wall, trying to look calm, cool, and collected. "What's Divergent?" she asks.