"So, Dex," says Sam, "There's something I've been meaning to ask you."
Me, Sam and Jo are sitting by Plato's bed after much convincing the nurse on his part to actually let us in. It's late morning and it's been an hour since Cassie and Phoebe left us for good. To be Factionless.
Phoebe had been sad and had been quite eager to leave, but Cassie, who'd been crying, gave us each a hug before they were led off by a Dauntless leader. Along with Edgar, of course, who didn't even bother to say goodbye to his so-called friend Isaac. And now there are only seven of us Initiates in total.
"What?" I ask Sam.
"Well," he takes off his glasses and cleans them with the hem of his shirt even though they are already clean, "I don't know if this is inconsiderate or-"
"Just ask the question Sam," I say impatiently.
"Is Dex your real name?" He blurts out, looking a bit sheepish.
"Is that your question?" I blink, startled, "Why did you think that would be inconsiderate?"
He shrugs and begins fiddling with his green glasses again, "Well it's not really an Amity name and I didn't want you to be offended-"
"I'm not offended," I cut him short, "If you really want to know, my full name is April Dexter Meadows. Dexter is my middle name, but I cut it short to 'Dex'."
"Dexter is your what?" he asks, confused.
"My middle name?" I say. He looks at me blankly. "What?" I ask.
He shrugs, "We don't have middle names in Candor."
"Really?" I ask, "Why not?"
Sam glances at Jo, who's been following our conversation, intrigued. She smiles, "I guess it's because Candor like to keep everything short and simple. Even names."
"It's a bit like how there's no hand-shaking in Amity," Sam adds.
Jo raises her eyebrows, "You don't handshake in Amity?"
"We hug," I say defensively.
Jo pulls a face. "Ugh. Imagine hugging all the time." We all grin. We sit in silence for a few minutes, before Sam glances at Plato and then looks at his wristwatch.
"Plato, we're going to get some lunch," he says, "But we'll be back later."
Plato nods, and pulls the bedsheets over him. "That's ok. I should be out of the hospital wing tomorrow."
"Cool," I say, and we all head out into the Cafeteria. As we sit down, I say, "Hey, wasn't Amy going to meet us here after her date with Lyra?"
Sam shrugs, "They're probably having lunch together. I wouldn't worry."
"It feel weird with Phoebe and Cassie gone," Jo says, as she helps herself to food.
"Yeah," I agree, "It's really quiet."
"Well," says Sam, "Not with you around, Dex."
I grin. Can't protest to that. And I say, "It's nicer without them though." Jo and Sam gives me a look. "What?" I ask.
"You can't say things like that!" hisses Sam.
"Why not?" I ask perplexed, "It's the truth." Jo and Sam just exchange a look and sigh.
"Oh Dex," says Jo, "Whatever are we going to do with you?"
Amy doesn't show throughout lunch, but just as we're finishing off, she heads towards us.
"Hey," she says somewhat breathlessly, "Some older Dauntless are taking Lyra and the others to do some sort of Dauntless ritual. Lyra wanted to know if you guys wanted to come too?"
And that is how, with some persuasion, we ended up on a train with the other Dauntless-borns heading to an unknown destination. Of course we all said yes to Lyra's rituals. A Dauntless ritual sounds fun and dangerous, and that is the reason, after all, why I joined Dauntless in the first place.
"Shame Plato couldn't make it," Lyra remarks, "Is he still recovering from the hospital?"
"Yeah," growls Sam, "I never forgave Edgar for that."
"Edgar was one of the ones that was cut, right?" A Dauntless girl asks. She's black, with long ebony hair that falls to her waist.
"Yeah," says Jo, who's studying the girl, then she adds, "Hey, don't I know you? You were on my team for Capture the Flag, right? One of our Team Captains?"
The girl snorts, "I would have been the Team Captain if it wasn't for your friend Isaac."
"Trust me," I say, "He's no friend of ours."
But the girl ignores me and turns to Lyra, "Hey Ly, you going to introduce us?"
"Oh right," says Lyra, "Guys, this is Amy, who of course you all already know." Amy blushes, "The others here are Sam, Jo and Dex."
"This show-off here is Makena." Lyra says, indicating to the girl we were talking to.
"I'm not a show-off!" Makena protests.
"Excuse you?" cuts in Violet, who's been sitting near us, "You've haven't stopped talking about Capture the Flag since your team won!"
"We won fair and square!" Another Dauntless says, "She's just stating the facts! Besides, if you'd won, you would have done the same!"
"True," concedes a boy, who's sitting on Violet's right.
"Anyway," Lyra says loudly, "That's Violet, but you already know her. That's Hayley over there."
Hayley smiles, "For your information, I'm non-binary and my pronouns are they/them."
"Acknowledged," says Sam, smiling. He points to us each in turn and says our pronouns. Hayley nods.
"And the boy next to Violet is Diallo, Makena's brother," Lyra continues.
"And my boyfriend," Violet adds in.
"And Violet's boyfriend." Lyra says before adding sarcastically, "Very important." Amy punches her on the shoulder, "Ow! Anyway, that couple over there," she motions to two boys sitting in the corner of the car chatting quietly to one another, "are Ollie and Alec, and that trio," she points to a boy chatting to two girls, "are Akas, Siobhan and Zara. Is that everyone?"
"There's me," pipes up a quiet voice in the other end of the car. Lyra turns her head in that direction.
"Oh right, sorry Cal. Didn't see you there. That's Callum."
Callum waves, "Hi." He's a small boy and his long blond fringe obscures most of his face.
"There was another one of us but he was cut," Makena tells us, "Ethan."
"Yeah, well, they don't need to know that," Violet adds.
"Lyra tells us that three of you were cut?" Hayley says, putting bubble gum into their mouth, "Must've been rough."
"Yeah," says Sam curtly, "It was."
"Do you guys know where we're headed?" Amy asks, changing the subject.
Hayley shrugs, "All I know is that my sis is taking us somewhere. It's a surprise apparently. She's in another car with her friends."
"Her name's Bernie," Makena adds.
Violet rolls her eyes, "Will you please just stop with the names?"
We chat for the next few minutes, before some older Dauntless come into the car.
"We getting out soon so get ready." One of the girls say. She glances over and raises her eyebrows but doesn't comment.
We all stand up, ready to jump out of the car.
"You excited?" Sam asks.
I smile. The adrenaline rush is already coursing through me, "I bet you a slice of Dauntless cake that I will land on my feet"
Sam laughs, "For some cake? You're on."
The older Dauntless begin jumping out the car and we soon follow. As I throw myself into the air, I'm sure I'm going to land feet first, but I haven't timed it right and I end up landing sideways on the stones. Beside me, Sam is getting back onto his feet and is smiling, "That cake is mine."
I glare at push my hand into his stomach. He still hasn't righted himself properly and ends up falling back onto the stones.
Jo eyes us and raises an eyebrow, "Wow. You two sure are hyper."
Sam grins, "What's there not to be hyper about? We're doing this super secret Dauntless ritual!"
Some of the older teenagers hear him and send him a disdainful look.
"Yeah," Jo adds more quietly, "Some of them don't seem to want us here."
"Who cares?" I scoff, "We got invited so we're here to stay."
Jo just smiles, "You're Dauntless through-and-through Dex."
I clench my teeth to stop the words 'I wish' come slipping out of my mouth, almost biting my tongue off in the process.
Amy frowns, "You ok, Dex?" Not trusting myself to speak, I just nod.
We're lead through a city, which looks so similar to the one where we did Capture the Flag that it could even be the same place. Hayley's sister and her friends take us into a building and, in groups, we all get into the lift.
The lift takes us up to the one hundredth floor. Sam and I race out and look over the edge.
"Wow," I say, looking at the buildings below, "You can see everything from up here!"
Sam turns round and looks at Amy and Jo who have just come up on the next elevator, "Guys! Come over here!" Jo smiles and makes her way over, but Amy, looking ashen, stays where she is.
"It's almost like you're flying," Jo says softly.
One of the older Dauntless laughs, "Flying? You soon will be!" And he points to a piece of wire, which I realise, to my delight, is a zipline. "We're getting on that!"
"Wow!" says Sam. I beam beside him. This might be the first time I'll be doing something properly exciting in Dauntless.
"You ok, Amy?" I hear a voice, and see that Lyra is looking at Amy anxiously, who is clutching her arm.
"I-" Amy stutters, "I'm really not good with heights. I was never good with them to begin with. That's why I almost didn't make it to the rooftop on the first day," She shudders, "But since then it's got worse."
Sam and Jo exchange worried looks.
"Hey that's ok," says one of the Dauntless-borns-Ollie, "Tell you what. We can do an Amy sandwich. You can go between me and Lyra so Lyra will waiting for you at the bottom. How does that sound?" Amy just nods mutely.
Violet takes a place on the side of the roof next to me and Sam.
"I'm surprised you guys are ok with Amy being chicken," I say, tilting my head towards Amy and Lyra, "Thought you didn't like fear."
"Dex!" Sam and Jo gasp simultaneously.
Violet laughs, "Oh, Dex. Everyone's afraid of something. Fear is something to be proud of. And besides," she smiles, "Amy's dating Lyra so she's one of the family."
"Wait," says Jo, "So hypothetically speaking, if we're dating one of you, we're already considered Dauntless?"
Violet smiles, "Yeah. But I'm taken." She tilts her head to Diallo, "You could try Hayley or Makena though."
Sam coughs, "Sorry, this is all hypothetical right?" Jo just smiles in answer.
"Ok team!" says a voice, and I see that it's one of the older Dauntless-born, "We're all going to be getting on this lovely contraption here!"
I tilt my head and see that something's connected to the zipline.
"Don't be shy!" says another one of the Dauntless-born, "Form a line!"
"This is going to be fun," whispers Sam beside me, as we join the queue.
"I lost the bet so I get to go before you," I say as I move in front of him in the line.
"Seriously?" I hear his voice say from behind me. I just grin.
"Diallo's going first to test it!" Violet shouts, shoving her boyfriend forward.
"I am?" Diallo blinks surprised. Then he looks down at the zipline, "Nope. I'm good!"
"Come on baby brother!" Makena smirks, "Someone has to go first!"
"I'm only younger than you by six minutes!" retorts Diallo.
She sticks her tongue out at him, "Baby."
Violet lays a hand to her forehead, "Oh woe is me," she says dramatically, "Am I dating a coward?" The Dauntless laugh.
Diallo flushes, "Fine. I'll go first."
"That's my hero!" Violet mock-squeals.
He scowls at her, "I'll get you for this." The Dauntless strap him in and then he's sent flying down the zipline. We hear his whoop of laughter.
As I'm near the front, I only have to wait for a few people to go before it's my turn. The Dauntless-born straps me into some ropes, as I lie down head-first on my front.
She shows me a red toggle, "Pull this when you're near the end so you can stop." I nod, "Ready?" I smile in answer, "And, go!"
She pulls me backwards and suddenly I'm shooting down the zipline, as free as a bird. I zoom past all the buildings, watching my reflection in each one, and I laugh in exhilaration. I extend my arms and smile as I feel the air rush against my sleeves. Glancing down, I see the roads are like ants beneath me and I grin. I have always loved heights.
Soon, it's clear that I'm reaching the end of the zipline and my clammy hand quickly finds the red toggle. I pull it, screeching to a halt.
Beneath me, Dauntless reach out their hands to help me out. I stand beside them, my heart hammering in my chest, as I wait for Sam to come in.
His smile, when he comes to a stop, is as big as mine.
"Wow," he says as he gets down beside me, "Wow. Wow. Wow. " I laugh and he laughs with me. "I don't know about you," he says, "But I really want to be Dauntless now."
"Then we can do this every day!" I beam.
Sam grins, "All we have to do is get through the second stage of training!"