Flower Child

Chapter Thirty Six

Tobias and I had spent the last few hours laying on his bed, talking, laughing, kissing. We didn't get up until we heard people laughing, yelling, and running through the halls, heading to the banquet. We had reluctantly gotten up and walked to the dining hall together.
He seems happier as we walk, he smiles more and every time his eyes land on me his smile goes wide. I like it, I like him, this side of him that seems to only come out around me.
When we get to the dining hall we have to separate. I go in first, going to the table that seats Mar, Lynn, and Uriah. Tobias walks in a few moments after me and walks over to Zeke's table
"Hey, where have you been?" Lynn asks as I reach them.
"Yeah," Mar says, "We stopped by your dorms and your transfer friends said they haven't seen you since the fear landscape. Congratulations on that, by the way."
"Thanks," I smile, "I was wandering around, I didn't exactly want to go sit in a dorm where all that anyone was going to be talking about was the landscapes, you know what I mean?"
Mar snorts and points at Uriah, "Yeah, I do, that's all this one has been talking about."
"I mean, can you blame me?" he asks, "I did really good, nothing compared to the Flower Child, but better than you."
Mar sticks her tongue out at him. They bicker back and forth, jokingly, but I wouldn't be surprised if Uriah got punched sooner or later.
Lynn rolls her eyes at them, "Is it true that you only had three fears?"
The other two instantly stop bickering to look at me with wide questioning eyes.
I sigh, "Yeah."
"Really?" Uriah asks, "Mor, that's amazing!"
I shrug and Mar shakes her head, "No, no, no, don't shrug! Three is unheard of, Mor! You should be proud of that!"
"No, no, I am! I am proud of it, but I don't want to make such a big deal of it," I protest, "I don't want to be known for how many fears I have, I wanna be known for more important things."
"Ok, Flower," Uriah says, wrapping his arm around my shoulder, "What job are you thinking about taking?"
I hadn't really thought about it at all. Based on my time in the landscape I'm assuming my rank will be relatively high, I could basically do whatever I want to. Leadership, tattoo artist, guard the fence, surveillance?
"I don't know," I say with a shrug.
"Well," Mar says, "you need to get thinking, because with how you did in the landscape and physical training, you're gonna have a lot of options, girl."
A microphone suddenly squeals. It's so loud that my ears ring for a second after it's done. I look to the source to find Eric standing on a table with a microphone in his hand. He taps it with his nails to get our attention. He only stops when the crowd of Dauntless is quiet.
"We aren't big on speeches here. Eloquence is for Erudite," he says.
The crowd laughs and I wonder if any of them know he's from Erudite, that he's more Erudite than Dauntless, that he meets with them in the dark and plans to use us to wage war against innocent people.
"So I'm going to keep this short. It's a new year and we have a new pack of initiates. And a slightly smaller pack of new members. We offer them our congratulations."
   The room erupts as it is prone to doing. Not into cheers, or yells, but into pounding fists on wooden tables. The noise is deafening, but it makes a warm feeling fall on me.
   "We believe in bravery. We believe in taking action. We believe in freedom from fear and acquiring the skills to force the bad out of our world so that the good can prosper and thrive. If you also believe in those things, we welcome you."
The words, even coming from Eric who I don't think believes a word that comes from his own mouth, hit home with me. Those are the reasons I came to Dauntless, the virtues that I care about, that I believe to be right about this place.
The fists continue to pound and some people whoop as well, the noise grows with each moment.
"Tomorrow, in their first act as members, our top ten initiates will choose their professions, in the order of how they are ranked," Eric says. "The rankings, I know, are what everyone is really waiting for. They are determined by a combination of three scores—the first, from the combat stage of training; the second, from the simulation stage; and the third, from the final examination, the fear landscape. The rankings will appear on the screen behind me."
As soon as the word falls off his lips, the screen displays the names, pictures, and ranks of the initiates. The number one slot has my picture next to it and in big, bold letters, "Mor."
   It takes me a moment to even register anything, a moment longer to realize what this means. I made it, I'm Dauntless, I actually did it. This had been my dream since I first saw the Dauntless jumping off the trains, climbing buildings and sculptures. I'm apart of the faction that I had looked towards for as long as I can remember. The happiness I feel pushes out all the bad, all the thoughts of war and my Divergence, all I feel is joy. It spreads through me till I'm grinning from ear to ear and my cheeks hurt.
   Uriah's arms wrap around my waist suddenly and he lifts me up into a hug that squeezes the air out of me. Mar and Lynn are cheering and hugging each other. The other initiates, now members, celebrate just like us. I read through the rest of the list, finding who my fellow initiates are.
   1. Mor
   2. Tris
   3. Uriah
   4. Lynn
   5. Marlene
   6. Peter
   I want to frown at his name but I won't let him ruin my celebrations.
   7. Will
   8. Christina
   The last two are Dauntless-born that I don't recognize at all. Below them, the start of the cuts, Molly and Drew. A sick satisfaction hits me.
   Uriah passes me off to Mar and Lynn, who attack me from either side, and runs off to congratulate Tris.
   "We did it!" Mar screams.
   Lynn laughs, "Hell yeah we did!"
   I laugh, wrapping my arms around them. We hug each other tightly, almost so much that I can't breathe. They release me and I turn to look at my transfer friends as Uriah runs back towards me. Tris is staring at the screen with a wide smile on her lips and Christina and Will are kissing sloppily. I grin at them and take a step towards them but someone taps my shoulder. I turn towards them and my grin turns into a full blown smile.
   "Do you think a hug will give away too much?" Tobias asks, his own smile is wide and bright.
   "You know what, I don't even care," I say.
   I step forward and press my lips to his. I barely hear the surprised shouts of Mar, Lynn, and Uriah. I think I hear Lynn shout, "I knew it!"
   He holds me too him, one hand on my waist and the other on the side of my neck. His thumb grazes over the bandage on my neck that is placed over a small injection sight. Suddenly, everything makes sense.
   A colored serum, transmitters that connect the mind to a computer system, made by Erudite, Eric and Max working for them.
   I pull away from Tobias and stare at him, wide-eyed.
   "Hey," he says, "what's wrong?"
   I shake my head, "not here."
   This is not something we can discuss here, with my friends, Dauntless-born and transfer alike, staring at us, or with the crowd of Dauntless surrounding us.
   "Later," I say.
It all made sense, so much so that I'm angry at myself for not seeing it sooner. I give Tobias a reassuring smile and a nod, I would explain everything later, because I'm pretty sure I know how Erudite is going to get Dauntless to fight for them.