The Fault In Our Factions (Chapter 3)

Takeoff

"Hey John, wait up!" I try to drown out the voice as I'm walking along a pathway steadily, rolling the results of my test over in my head. I don't intend to be rude so I swivel around nonetheless to find my friend Mike Stamford jogging towards me. Earlier that year he had a bit more mass around the stomach area, but I guess he somehow worked it off because he's only a little pudgier than myself.

"Hello Mike," I say in return, and from the unusual address he can tell something is wrong by the presence of my face.

"So how did it go?" Go figure, I knew someone would bring the subject to be the main topic.

I sort of sigh heavily and continue walking, my attention staring at the pavement beneath my feet. Riding the bus home would not have been a smooth move after I found my results. "I really don't want to talk about the test," I mumble, and he stops before skipping to meet up with me once more as I sort of become annoyed.

"Why not?" He's forcing an answer out of me and I speed up a little faster.

"We're not supposed to anyways," I fire back.

I suddenly find Mike grabbing the sleeve of my shirt, and I look bewildered at him when his muscular arm intensely causes me to stare him directly in the eyes. "You didn't get an undecided answer, did you?" Maybe I did. Maybe my instructor was lying to me and that's why she intended for me to listen closely and ignored all the questions I asked.

But from what Johanna told me, I didn't think she'd fake telling me my test results. "No!" I blurt almost immediately, pretending to single out the concerned frown that made up his complexion.

"Then why won't you tell me what happened? Come on man," and I hated it when he called me that, "I'm your best friend. It's not like I'm going to spill the beans to anyone." He really was a true Amity citizen; finding peace for everyone and making sure they were happy, but he could pressure me in some situations.

My eyes rolled backwards as I glanced up at the sky and knew I wasn't going to get out of his complexity until I gave in or was clever. "I'm not going to share my results with you, so stop bugging me." I felt bad being such a jerk, but it was my own personal business and he didn't need to know.

"You're not telling me something!" he yelled back, several meters away after I'd strolled on further towards home. I turned back around, straining to keep my composure together while he urged on. "I'll let you know mine so we're fair."

I made a noise in a ridiculous manner while pressing my lips together. "Everyone knows you got Amity, Mike. You're like the role model of our faction."

"But why won't you tell me yours?"

I took three steps, more like strides before I was in his face. Not in anger, but in fixation. I wanted him to look at me and nothing else. "You want to know?" I asked, easing my eyebrows and slightly dipping ny head. He undoubtedly wanted to.

But I didn't flat out say it to his face. Instead I kind of grinned and remarked, "If you want to know, you'll see tomorrow."

Dinner that night was uneventful. Even my parents didn't bother to ask what happened in school. All of us, my older sister Harriet included, sat around the dining room table saying not a peep, but after we'd gotten halfway through eating, my confident father decided to speak up.

"You had the aptitude tests today, right?"

I swallowed a lump of asparagus in the depths of my throat. I'm a vegetarian, so if I choose a faction that eats pounds of meat, I'm screwed.

"Yeah," I just say casually.

"How did it go?"

"I'm not saying a word." I'd repeated that phrase millions of times that day, but no one seemed to get the idea that I didn't want to talk about it.

"Why not?" I looked up at him to my left. He seemed rather appalled, or perhaps ticked off was the proper word. I gave him the most defiant glare I could muster.

And then to my astonishment, I mocked all the teachers and the instructions they'd given us. "Because we're not supposed to share anything about them."

"I don't care about your results, I just want to know how the overall experience was." Dad always had a way of wording things more precisely than needed. I sometimes think he grew up in Erudite as opposed to Dauntless. My mum came from Abnegation. Harriet snorted from across the table, her mouth full of mashed potatoes.

"Well, if you desperately want to know, I'd say it was disturbing."

"Disturbing?" My mother now joined the fray in our conversation. "How so?"

"To my mind," I input, and I get up from my chair to be excused and remain alone in my room.

Considering my test results was one of the worst things in the world. I just lay on my bed and kept debating the different faction qualities. Twice I found myself staying right where I was raised in Amity, but then I could go either way my mother and father did.

I eventually just gave up and dropped the mind battle, sinking into a glorious sleep that I didn't know that night would be my last one in my comfy bed.

Nothing gutted me more at dawn that the feeling of staring down upon my perfectly made bed. To leave everything behind, wipe memories away like they're an old rag, it ached. I wore my best red v-neck shirt and a pair of tight jeans, flattening my hair to the best fashion it could present. The watch my father gave me, I wouldn't need that where I was going.

Debate takes time, but boy does it matter.

I rotate on my heels to find direct eye contact with my reflection. A skinny teenager, no more, just looking for the true personality deep within inside his heart. I really shouldn't be staring at myself, but I guess I'll never see my face in the same Amity peaceful light ever again.

My breakfast tasted soggy and salty. I couldn't swallow its contents and I was sent off to the Choosing Ceremony still arguing in my mind.

You know its right to stay here. To not leave Amity and remain loyal is the most positive outcome, but I belong somewhere else is the point. My knees wobble as I struggle to walk among a crowd of other sixteen-year-olds, all of who are preparing to identify their destiny today. My parents will arrive a few minutes later with Harriet, burning my reputation while they watch me select a faction.

The room we all sit in has a domed ceiling with curved benches all around. On the only flat wall, standing before the audience on a raised platform are five bowls, each containing elements related to the factions. It's incredible to see all the different groups of people gathered in specific regions, wearing the Abnegation, Amity, Candor, Dauntless, and Erudite colors. It's like a wave of tints of red, yellow, grey, blue, black, and white. No one has green on, which I find odd because the human eye can actually see more shades of green than any other color.

I am seated just to the left of the center isle with my mom by my side, listening to the sounds of chaos all around as people are babbling with curiosity. She just takes my hand as I shake in a petrified stance, and I nod and give a gentle smile.

"Attention." The president of our society has entered the stage with a binder in his arms, white beard and hair fluffy as he's dressed in his best suit. President Snow.

I despise him with every inch of my soul, along with over half of the city's population. His voice is the tone of death and he smells overpoweringly of blood red roses. And then he speaks and addresses us to begin the long, tedious event.

"Welcome to the Choosing Ceremony. We're all pleased to have you here, planning to select your rightful place. The future belongs to those who know where they belong." I cringe and my muscles tighten.

"So, without further ado, let the choosing begin." He smiles wickedly and opens his notes, holding a list of names that belong to the sixteen-year-olds in the room. Because we're going in alphabetical order, I will be one of the last to go.

People's titles ring in and out of my hearing as I find a beeping entering my right ear. My sister looks down the row at me, nodding as if to say 'you know what to do.'

"Phillip Anderson." A Candor initiate who stayed loyal to his faction. The kids in black and white cheered as he descended from the stairs and joined the rest of his crew.

"Sally Donovan." Wearing tight, black clothing from the Dauntless faction, her frizzy hair blocked the view of everyone until Snow announced to the theater, "Candor."

The list of names went on and on, and I only took interest in some people I thought had meaning in their faces. One girl particularly caught my eyes; she was actually the same one I ran into at school the other day with the cool braided hair style.

"Katniss Everdeen." The president made a sort of tickling gesture when he read her name, like he wanted to get revenge from her. A really pretty girl in a sky blue shirt with dark tinted jeans went up in front of the crowd, her hair still in the same manner. She stood before the bowls on the tables for quite some time before her hand rested over the darkest bowl.

President Snow delightedly spoke for everyone to process her decision. "Dauntless."

Again, after I followed her with my eyes, I lost the ability to consider anyone else's ideas. But another human caught my attention from the way he held himself in posture. A tall boy with curls in his brunette hair, walking like he ruled the world. But his choice was inevitable and he placed his hand over the faction he most belonged in, the one he'd came from originally, and for some reason to because I could see it in his pupils.

"Sherlock Holmes. Erudite."

"Molly Hooper." A female with ginger hair who was in my faction, which I didn't know, went to Abnegation. A selfless human who wanted to protect others. Maybe that's what I was.

"Greg Lestrade." A Dauntless born initiate who swaggered onto the stage and transferred to Candor.

And then, a creature of the devil himself walked up in front of us all. I could see the fire in his irises, the hate in his veins, but the smirk on his face showed he would show no one any mercy. And the president was pleased when he shouted the name to the hall.

"Jim Moriarty." Where he got the dark black suit in Dauntless, I don't know. But he strolled before the crowd and made his choice in enlightenment. Another soldier who went to the smart minds of Erudite.

Another beautiful lady went up to make her choice, a Dauntless hero who switched over to…Abnegation? I couldn't believe my eyes. The big of a jump made me feel like she'd abandoned her rightful home for a traitor one. I knew the fighters of Dauntless never appreciated the dedicated humans of Abnegation. Mary Morstan. That was daringly brave strike she just performed in front of such a high risk space. There are shouts and boos from her original family members as she joined the sea of grey on the opposite side of the auditorium.

And before I knew it, the voice rang out to the audience that was my name. "John Watson." My jelly legs rose as I descended down the stairs and stood before the entire Choosing Ceremony group, placed between five bowls with objects in their depths. Stones for Abnegation, soil for Amity, glass for Candor, coals for Dauntless, and water for Erudite. The clear liquid is a rusty brown color from all the transfers, and I look up to see Snow holding a knife for me. I take it willingly, the handle a deep shade of forest.

The silver blade cuts into the skin on my palm, and I wince as blood trickles down my wrist. The pain prickles for just a moment and then dies, leaving me standing with a ripped hand. My arm fidgets between all of the containers. I am undecided; I don't know where to go.

But then I lock my eyes on my new destination and shift my hand over to the bowl on my right. My dripping blood falls over the sizzling coals, the same deep color of the redness of my cheeks.

From peaceful to brave. From Amity to Dauntless.

I made my decision. The uproar from my new family members blares in my ears as I drop the knife onto the floor at my feet.

I will never be the same from this moment forward.