A/N: Hello! This series (which is neither quite standalone one-shots nor properly serialized chapters) was born out of the first 2 minutes of the Divergent move, and a more general need for feels after finishing Allegiant.

I realized, at the end of it all, that since there's only a two-year difference between Tris and Eric, they would have been in school at the same time, and wouldn't it be amusing to imagine them growing up in tandem, maybe growing into friends. What can I say – I set sail on all the wrong ships.

"What are you doing? Stop it!"

The shout roused Eric from where he had been subsumed in a book, his latest inquisition into the world of biochemistry had been rewarded by the school librarians, and he looked up from illustrations of bacterial cell structures and the different diseases they caused in time to see a tiny girl in ugly Dauntless grey plant herself resolutely between a broad girl in Candor white and a willowy Amity boy in orange. They were little, fourth or fifth years compared to his seventh, and he glared at them before going back to his reading. The small and weak taking out their wrath on the smaller and weaker, it was nothing he hadn't seen a dozen times before and it was always tedious.

"Shut up and go away, mouse" The Candor girl towered over the other children, eyes bright and hard. "Joshua doesn't want your help, you're making him feel bad." She sneered at her target around the skinny grey shoulder.

"You are making him feel bad!" The Abnegation shook her head until yellow pigtails lashed against her cheek. "You are a bully and he didn't do anything to you so leave him alone!"

The girl's voice was high and clear and Eric wasn't sure he had ever heard a Stiff speak like that before. Everyone knew that quietude and modesty were the traits of the governing Faction, this girl was practically yelling.

It didn't faze the Candor girl and she shoved her new opponent much harder, knocking the Abnegation girl over into the boy, prone in terror on the ground. "You're just a stupid little mouse and you are being very rude! No!" She shouted as the girl in grey tried to stand and kicked her in the ankle. "You have to stay in the dirt until I say you can get up or I'll kick you again! That's where you stupid ugly Abnegation mice belong, in the dirt!"

The Abnegation girl whimpered, but steeled her soft face and clambered up again, an illogical move in Eric's book. She was out matched by her opponent, smaller weaker, and undoubtedly less used to cruelty. Getting up would earn her nothing but more pain, so why bother? He was surprised then, when the girl shoved her aggressor in the chest, hard enough for the bigger girl to take a faltering step back.

"You don't get to tell me what to do." She jutted her chin out, and retreated in a gradual curve, guiding the bullying girl away from the boy, scrambling to get his schoolwork back in his bag and exit the scene of the fight.

The Candor girl stopped following and put her hand son her hips to let out a fully-bellied laugh. "You think you did him a favor!" She made a grab for a pigtail and got lucky, dragging her victim close. "I'm gonna hit him twice as hard next time and I'm going to tell him it's all your fault! What do you think of that, mouse?"

The smaller girl hissed as her hair was pulled and they're now too close to Eric for him to have any hope of peace at all. They weren't his faction, he didn't owe them anything, but the big girl was stupid and that was the greatest sin among the Erudite. It was offensive, and the little girl was unusual, different, and therefore as worthy of his interest as a Stiff could hope to be. He marked his page carefully, put the book down, and then he stood up. "Hey, let her go."

"What's it to you?" The Candor turned, dragging her newest victim along for the ride to face Eric directly and size him up with calculating black eyes.

Eric glared at her, hands bunching into fists at his side. "Your stupid voice is annoying. Get lost."

Dark eyes rolled in disgust and the Candor shoves the nameless mousey Stiff in his direction before marching off with her head held high.

She stumbled, catching herself with a fistful of his dark blue blazer as footsteps echoed their approach and a dark haired boy in ugly grey clothes, ran around the corner, red faced and out of breath.

"Beatrice? Beatrice! What have you done?"

The girl dropped the heavy material and edged a step back, eyes cast obediently to the floor. "Caleb, I-"

"I heard you were fighting." The boy, Caleb, bee-lined for the girl, checking her head to toe and shook his head with disappointment. "Beatrice, you know what father says about fighting."

Mutinous eyes flicked up at Eric over the newcomer's shoulder. "It wasn't self-serving-"

"Hush," Caleb struggled with his temper and mastered it. "It's okay. I forgive you for arguing with me. We can just go back to our friends and I'll give you some cheese." He turned and caught sight of Eric, looming large and silent beside them. "I apologize for any disturbance my sister caused you."

He hesitated and Eric guess well enough the choice the boy was struggling with. Abnegation were always supposed to have something to offer, some trivial act of charity that was supposed to demonstrate their humility, their selflessness, their general all around 'better-than-you-ness', but Erudite was considered a rival, dangerous and greedy. "Whatever." Eric sat back down on his bench and re-opened his book, emphatically ignoring the stupid pair of Stiffs. The brother and sister left without a word, and somehow the empty stretch of hallways was less interesting than it had been previously.