The First Divergent

5

"Welcome to the Dauntless sector," a tall man with broad shoulders and a wide smile tells us once we arrive at some building. "This is your second stage of initiation. Jumping off this building!"

"Are you mad?" A Candor boy asks.

"This is stupid," an Erudite girl says.

"This is why we chose Dauntless," Korisse says.

The tall man smiled at Korisse's remark. "Well, what a wonderful initiate we have here! Why don't we reward her with going first?"

"Sure." Korisse - with the help of the man - gets herself strapped in a cord and pushed off the building. The cord is cut and she falls. I hear her scream and cringe. But then I hear her voice. "I wanna do that more!"

"Me next." I say and without the chord jump off the top. I land in some sort of net and smile as Korisse helps me down.

"That was fun, eh?" She says.

"Yeah." I tell her. "Fun and dangerous! I love it."

After all the transfers jumped off, we go to some cafeteria. Most initiates are joyful, proud of themselves, but some show remorse for the one boy that died - an Erudite named Gordon.

"What's your name?" A boy with brown hair and blue eyes asked me. He looks Erudite, but his shirt has the Amity symbol on it. "You can change it."

We can change our name? It's like having a totally new life here, one that is different. One that is Dauntless.

"Kass." I say.

"Kor." Korisse says. "Kor."

"Or Kori."

~~~~~~~~~~

"Welcome to the fighting arena. We will make you all brawl without experience today and let you study fighting for tomorrow's fight." The leader - Jordan, I hear somebody call him - says to the 16 transfer initiates.

On a chalkboard names are written. Kor is against that jerk that bothered me the other day - turns out that he was Erudite.

"I volunteer for Kor because I want to fight Ivan." I state to Jordan.

"Works for me."

I immediately regret my decision. When I see Ivan up close, I want to back up. But I must fight him. And I must win.

I dive for Ivan's midsection and he jumps away, I fall to the ground. Ivan grabs me by the hair and punches my face. It hurts more than the knife. I think he hit my jaw. I see something out of the corner of my eye and yank it forward. Ivan screams. He's on the ground. Now's my chance! I jump on top of the boy's face and he screams, and I keep hitting him until I see the light leave his eyes . . . .

"YEAH KASS!" Kori cheers as I hop off the stage, proud of myself for winning. "You kick butt, girl!"

"You're stronger, probs." I reply.

"No way!" Kori says. Apparently when someone goes unconscious, class is dismissed and we go to the Dauntless dormitories. They look so much like a cave. A cave with beds.