ᵉⁿᵍˡⁱˢʰ Shot Gun [Divergent]

▪︎ 05

It was incredible how long the joy and enthusiasm lasted.

When Ripley thought back to her own time as an initiator last year, it was a little different. The complete opposite. No joy at the dinner. Yet, she was a very different kind of person. That exuberant mood at the first meal. It was a little suspicious to her. It didn't fit with what had happened before. The train, the roof, and the leap into the unknown. A deceptive peace. The calm before the storm. Yes, and she was right about that. Something was brewing. A coming storm. Two shitty months.

Gossip here, gossip there, and of course, speculation among the newcomers about what was in store for them in the days ahead. Ripley would have preferred to say lots of shit, but the initiates would soon experience that and how great the training was going to be firsthand. In a few hours. In the middle of the night.

After a good hour of wandering around, unable to discover anything of interest to her, Ripley made the decision to go to her room. She didn't feel like drinking, she didn't want a tattoo, and any conversation, sooner or later would come down to the same topic. The initiators.

At a leisurely pace, Ripley strolled through the maze of hallways in the direction of her apartment wing. Early evening. Most would start laughing at her if she asked where she was going at this hour and answered, sleeping.

Halfway there, however, Ripley stopped abruptly, frowned, and raised her head to find out if she had heard correctly. It took a little while, then a smile appeared on her face and she walked towards the group that was about to cross her path.

"Hey Peter," Ripley grinned, looking over at her old friend.

"Do we know each other?" retorted Peter, however, and walked straight past Ripley, who had given her only a cursory glance.

What about a 'fuck off'? In the end, it would have amounted to the same thing.

Dismayed, stunned and outraged at the same time, Ripley's mouth opened as if by itself and before she looked after the group with Peter, she blinked several times to make sure that this had just happened.

'Do we know each other?' All right. So that was the reaction after they both, a year later, finally meet again.

All right, number two. Screw you, was what Ripley snorted when this dream encounter, this great reunion, was processed.