Summary: When tragedy strikes, Beatrice Prior's life is turned upside down, her plans for the future are jeopardized, and life becomes a lot more complicated. The one silver lining to the path set before her comes in the form of a certain blue-eyed...
Jonah stood firm and reminded him of all of the problems we had just experienced with Erudite. Marcus bending the rules for his daughter would be not only frowned upon but could be an issue that Abnegation would pay for later. Marcus then asked if Jonah would be willing to alter my hidden birth certificate and change it to list my date of birth as being the needed couple of weeks earlier. My mouth fell open, this man is desperate for me to leave. I suddenly felt sick to my stomach. Jonah refused on principle and reminded Marcus that Candor also holds the master lists of citizens' birth information. It would not be worth the risk. I could hear the confusion in Jonah's voice. I don't know him well, but he has known me my entire life as he was a friend of my father's.
As their voices trailed off the further away they walked, I wiped away my silent tears. It was not that I craved Marcus's love and acceptance, it was just the bitterness I felt at how much my life had changed since my father and Caleb died.
I never told my mother or Tobias what I heard that day. There would be no point. Instead I just filed it away and made a note to stay out of Marcus's way as much as possible.
Suddenly I realize I have been sitting on the school steps for an excessive amount of time. Tobias has never been this late. I have enjoyed people watching and being in my own thoughts for quite a while now. Tobias is very late in meeting me for our walk home.
I wonder if something happened today and he is not coming. Maybe he went home ill and I was not informed? Or maybe he needed to stay after class to work on an assignment? I decide I can't sit on the steps and wait any longer. I have a lot of homework to do this evening and we have a big dinner planned as Marcus gave us specific instructions on what we were to cook and what time dinner was to be served, the meal being one of his favorites.
I walk back into the school and look around the first floor to make sure I don't accidentally pass Tobias while he is on his way out to meet me. I then decide to go to the second floor where the classrooms for the older students are.
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Having climbed a flight of stairs, I look into the main hallway just in time to see Tobias and an Abnegation girl his age talking and laughing. Tobias is leaning against the wall as he holds his books in front of him. The girl is a few feet away from him as she is adjusting her backpack straps across her chest. I see that she laughs at something he says and then bites her lip and smiles. He smiles back, his eyes are bright.
I feel as though I have been punched in the stomach. Tobias has literally left me waiting outside while he hangs out after school and flirts with another girl. I turn and walk away, careful not to draw his attention. I walk down the stairs and out of the front door of the school. I don't look back as I quickly walk home. I bite my lip to make the tears that threaten to fall go away. I am not only hurt...I am really mad.
A few minutes later I hear Tobias yell my name as he is frantically running to catch up to me. I just keep walking at my steady pace.
"Beatrice! Wait, please," he gasps as he finally catches up to me. I calculate that he must have run very fast as I had left the school a while ago.
