If I Was Dauntless Born

Chapter 2-- Sibling Rivalry

It is early in the morning. The sun hasn’t even come up yet. Well, it’s not like I could tell. Living underground doesn’t really help you to rise with the sun. When I rolled over, my alarm clock read 6:30. Perfect. My family wouldn’t be up for another good 30 minutes. I rolled out of bed and slipped my feet into some fuzzy black socks. I wadded my hair into a top knot for now.

I yawned as I pulled a shoebox out from underneath my bed. Inside was a wad of cotton wool, a deodorant stick (the cap was glued on), and a can of whipped cream. I tiptoed out of my room with a grin on my face. It was pranking time.

Slowly, I pushed the door to Uriah’s room open and slipped inside. I grabbed Uriah’s favorite pair of sneakers and shoved the cotton wool inside. Then, I snuck over to his sleeping form. Luckily, he is a heavy sleeper so I had no worries about him waking up as I covered his hair and body with whipped cream. “Perfect.” I whispered softly as I tiptoed back to my room.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Uriah. He is my twin and best friend. I can still remember countless times when Uri and I would run with the “big kids” and jump off of trains and fight each other in the Pit. Uriah is always there for me… but he is the best to pull pranks on. Right now, we have an ongoing prank war. He has frozen my clothes, and I have frozen his cereal. He has given me baking soda in eggs, and I have given him apple cider vinegar when he was expecting apple juice. We are always pulling pranks on each other. Sometimes my older brother, Zeke, will join us. I have no idea how my mother can handle us. There is not just one of us, but three. She is supermom.

I decide to take a long, hot shower because I have plenty of time before I have to be ready to go today. I soaked in the water for what felt like hours. When I heard the racket of my rambunctious brothers, I decided that it was time to probably wrap up my shower. I grabbed the bar of soap off the ledge and began to scrub. Except that there was no lather. At all. I scrubbed for 5 minutes before I realized that this was another of Uriah’s pranks. I stuck my arm outside of the shower curtain and opened the bathroom door. Then I chucked the dysfunctional soap out of the bathroom. I heard a muffled “Hey!” from Zeke and a “Having trouble sis?” from Uriah. I rolled my eyes and grabbed some soap from my secret stash.

When I got out of the shower, I wrapped my hair in a soft towel. Except something wasn’t right. My hair was green. Yes, you read that right. Green.

“Uriah!” I screeched. I pulled my clothes on quickly and stormed out of the bathroom. As soon as I step out of the door, I hear Zeke howling with laughter on the floor. Uriah has just stepped out of his room, and he still has whipped cream in his hair.

“I think that green is a good color on you, Tris.” Uriah said smugly as he crossed his arms over his chest.

“Did you do this?” I barked.

“Do you really think that I, your angelic twin brother-slash-best friend, would do that?” He said as he gave me his best puppy dog face.

“You better pray that this is temporary, or you won’t be living to see another day.” I threatened as I lunged towards him. I caught him off guard, and we both went tumbling to the ground. I pinned him to the ground as I threatened him with everything that I had in me. Uriah just laughed, not even remotely concerned that his sister was on top of him telling him that she is going to stab him with a fork.

Then, Uriah did something that I wasn’t expecting. He flipped us over so that he was on top.

“Sorry sis, but you can’t mess with these guns.” Uriah said as he flexed his “muscles.”

“Get over yourself.” I muttered as I tried to get out from underneath Uri. Just then, Mom walked in.

“Zeke! Get off of the floor! Uriah, get off of your sister! Tris, what happened to your hair?” My mom yelled. I pointed to Uri, and he put on his innocent face. He only uses that face when he is totally NOT innocent.

“Go get ready.” She said as she pulled us off of the ground. I grabbed a brush and plopped onto the couch across from Uriah who was brushing his teeth and putting on his shoes. I had to work so hard to keep a straight face.

Uriah was repeatedly jamming his feet into his shoes with one hand and brushing his teeth with the other. The cotton wool made Uri think that his shoes were too small. I could also tell that the numbing gel in his toothbrush was taking effect. He tried to tell Mom, but all he could do was mumble and drool everywhere.

“Mom, my dooshes iz moo call.” Uriah tried to talk again. With that, I totally lost it. I started laughing uncontrollably on the couch.

“Having trouble there?” I told him while laughing. My mom rolled her eyes and went to help Uri. I walked down the hall to the cafeteria with Zeke and got some breakfast on the go. We met Uriah and Mom by the tracks.

“How ya doin’, Uri?” He just glared at me. Zeke and I broke down laughing again. The train was coming around the curve, and we all lined up to jump. The train came by, and I started running. Zeke ran in front of me. I was so caught up in the adrenaline that I always get when jumping that I almost forgot where we were going.

The Choosing Ceremony.

My steps faltered. Today, I could lose Zeke. I could never see him again. I shook my head to clear the bad thoughts and jumped onto the train. Zeke wouldn’t leave us, right? He loved us too much. I remember one of my close friends, Ezra, lost his older brother. Danny transferred to Erudite, and Ezra was crushed. Ezra looked up to his older brother so much. Surely Zeke wouldn’t do that to Uri and me.

But anything can change today at the blink of an eye.

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First chapter, woo!