Tobi- Fours mouth twitches as the doors to the cafeteria open revealing a young man. Everyone goes silent. "Who is that?" Christina whispers. "His name's Eric" Four pauses. "He's a dauntless leader" Christina who is shocked by everything looks at Four. "Seriously?! But he's so young's she says alarmed. My brother looks at her. "Age doesn't matter here" he's quick to say. Christina looks like she's going to ask something else same with Tris but they stop when Eric looks towards our table. He starts walking over here and I scoff. From the way Four was looking at him it looks as if I'm not going to like him. He sits next to Four. "Well aren't you going to introduce me" he says in a stern tone nodding to us three. "Christina Tris and Charlie," Four says. I never liked the nickname Charlie. “Ooh, Stiffs,” says Eric, smirking at me and Tris.“We’ll see how long you last" rather than talking to me and Tris he looks at me when he says this. "Are you under the impression I won't last here?" I snapped at him. "You will last if I want you to last" he says in a threatening whisper. Four rolls his eyes and pulls me back down to my seat. "Don't Charlotte." He commanded. I gritted my teeth and looked away. Most eyes were on me but I ignored them. Eric reminds me of my father and it seems he's the only one I won't like here. “What have you been doing lately, Four?” he asks turning from me to Four. “Nothing, really,” he responds. Are Tobias and Eric friends? I could've sworn from the way he was sitting they weren't but it was difficult to tell. “Max tells me he keeps trying to meet with you, and you don’t show up, He requested

that I find out what’s going on with you.” Eric tells Four. Four looks at Eric for a few seconds before saying, “Tell him that I am satisfied with the position I currently hold.” there's a momentary pause . “So he wants to give you a job.” Eric asks or more or so enlightens himself. “So it would seem,” Four says. “And you aren’t interested.”

“I haven’t been interested for two years.”

“Well,” says Eric. “Let’s hope he gets the point, then.” He pats Fours shoulder and gets up. I think a heavy weight was lifted off all three of us as we all began slouching once Eric left. “Are you two…friends?” Tris asks before I could. “We were in the same initiate class,” he says. “He transferred from Erudite.” “I thought I would only have trouble with the Candor asking too many questions, now I’ve got Stiffs, too?” Four says cautiously. “It must be because you’re so approachable,” Tris says flatly. “You know. Like a bed of nails." I laugh at Tris. He stares at us, and we don’t look away. He looks at us as if we were children challenging him maybe we were challenging him. When will he stop staring? "Careful Charlie you're just as stubborn as our father and it's beginning to show" he says. I scoff when has he ever seen our father stubborn? A Dauntless member somewhere behind us calls out Fours name Tris turns to Christina as do I. Christina moves her eyebrows. “What?” Tris and I ask. “I’m developing a theory.”

“And it is?” I said. She picks up her hamburger, grins, and says, “That you 2 have a death wish" she replies. Four vanished after dinner. Eric eventually leads us through hallways without telling us where we're going. Blind trust great. I have no idea why Eric is even with us usually leaders don't talk with initiates till initiation is over but maybe it is just for tonight. At the end of each dinky lit hallway is a blue lamp but that's the only light provided. We all have to be very careful not to fall the ground is so uneven it's ridiculous. Christina walks beside Tris in silence. Nobody told us to be quiet, but none of us dare make a sound. Eric stops in front of a wooden door and folds his arms. We gather around him and the door which seems to look creaky. “For those of you who don’t know, my name is Eric,” he says. “I am one of five leaders of the Dauntless. We take the initiation process very seriously here, so I volunteered to oversee most of your training.” meaning I'm going to have to deal with him who I already hate and my brother who probably won't even be of any help to me. Faction before blood and all. “Some ground rules,” he says. “You have to be in the training room by eight o’clock every day. Training takes place every day from eight to six, with a break for lunch. You are free to do whatever you like after six. You will also get some time off between each stage of initiation.” In abnegation we were never able to do what we wanted it was always think of others needs before your own so we took care of the faction less as such. God I don't even know what I'd do if I had freetime. “You are only permitted to leave the compound when accompanied by a Dauntless,” Eric adds. “Behind this door is the room where you will be sleeping for the next few weeks. You will notice that there are ten beds and only nine of you. We anticipated that a higher proportion of you would make it this far.” he says. “But we started with twelve,” protests Christina. She needs to learn to stay quiet I mean so do I but. “There is always at least one transfer who doesn’t make it to the compound,” I say, taking the spotlight away from Eric. He nods, not really caring . “Anyway, in the first stage of initiation, we keep transfers and Dauntless-born initiates separate, but that doesn’t mean you are evaluated separately. At the end of initiation, your rankings will be determined in comparison with the Dauntless-born initiates. And they are better than you are already. So I expect—” “Rankings?” asks the erudite girl standing behind me and Tris. “Why are we ranked?” Eric smiles at her question. “Your ranking serves two purposes,” he says. “The first is that it determines the order in which you

will select a job after initiation. There are only a few desirable positions available.” he quickly states. It sounds like he's done this a thousand times. I needed to go find Tobias if there was one person in this place about wounds it was him. I'm just tired of trying to take care of myself of my scars on my back and the bruises on my wrists. “The second purpose,” Eric says. "is that only the top ten initiates are made members.” When did that rule happen? Then Christina says, “What?”

“There are eleven Dauntless-borns, and nine of you,” Eric continues. “Four initiates will be cut at

the end of stage one. The remainder will be cut after the final test.” That means 6 initiates won't be members and the chances of me Christina and Tris not getting cut is slim. Christine and Tris looked towards me seeing that Eric was looking my way. He gave me a menacing grin. He must've been thinking what I was thinking. I'm not going to make it here. I was the smallest transfer here Tris falling in second smallest meaning my odds aren't good. “What do we do if we’re cut?” Peter says.

“You leave the Dauntless compound,” says Eric directing his attention towards me. “and live factionless.”“But that’s…not fair!” on of the Candor girls, Molly, says. Even though she sounds angry, she looks terrified. “If we had known—” “Are you saying that if you had known this before the Choosing Ceremony, you wouldn’t have chosen Dauntless?” Eric snaps. “Because if that’s the case, you should get out now. If you are really one of us, it won’t matter to you that you might fail. And if it does, you are a coward.”

Eric pushes the door to the dormitory open allowing us inside.

“You chose us,” he says. “Now we have to choose you.”