I met Max at the station early the next morning. I'd woken up later than I had planned to and hurried to tie my hair up, do my make-up and get dressed. I made sure to get my appearance as neat as possible, after all I was going to the Choosing Ceremony and representing Dauntless with Max.
We caught the train to Erudite and sat in silence for most of the journey. It was only after nearly twenty-five minutes that Max spoke up.
"You won't have to say anything today, just introduce yourself to the other faction leaders." He told me.
I nodded. "Okay."
I wondered if any of them would remember me from the Erudite dinner. Jeanine would, of course, but I was interested to know if the others would recognise me.
"You'll have to stand with me and the other leaders at the front of the room, but Marcus Eaton will be doing all of the speeches and announcing names." He added. "Once the ceremony is over, you and I will lead the Dauntless back to the train. We'll be on the first car with the other Dauntless members that attend. Initiates get the other cars."
I nodded again. "Will we be jumping onto that roof again?"
"Yes. You and I will be, then we will be followed by the initiates. The rest of Dauntless will continue to ride to the station we left from."
"Okay."
"I want you to take a back seat when it comes to the net. I'll do the talking, you just need to stand back and watch."
"Okay. I will do... Anything else?"
"Not that I can think of." Max glanced out of the open door, then his eyes turned back to me. "We need to jump in a minute. I hope you can land on your feet by now."
I swallowed. I hadn't jumped off of a moving train for a long time. It felt foreign to me now.
I watched as Max took a few steps then ran and launched himself out of the car. I quickly followed and the second my feet left the ground, it felt like time was dragging. I felt suspended in the air for ages, the wind blowing into my face, my pony tail blowing around behind me, until I finally landed with a thump. I stumbled a little and had to put down one hand, but I managed to stay on my feet and grinned proudly once I had realised that.
"Not bad, newbie. Not bad at all." Max commented.
I straightened up and looked over at him, to find him looking impressed. Within a second of me seeing his expression, he suddenly became void of any emotion again and began to saunter towards the ceremony's venue.
~
People were just starting to arrive as Max and I entered the building. There had been a lot of people outside, slowly making their way in, and we'd squeezed through them all, running up the many flights of stairs.
The first person we spotted inside was Jeanine. I instantly found her gaze on me, and she slowly made her way over, closing the cover on her small tablet as she did so.
"Dauntless." She greeted with a sickly smile. "Max, Jacquetta. Good to see you both again."
"And you." Max nodded.
"I take it that you finally accepted a leadership role, Jacquetta? I am assuming that is why you are here with Max." Jeanine looked back at me.
"Yes. I did." I replied. "They all became very persuasive."
"I'm sure." She bowed her head a little, then turned back to Max. "Is she informed about our meeting later this week?"
"We've yet to fill her in on all of our plans." Max answered. "Once the ceremony is over and we get the chance, the four of us were going to sit and fill her in."
"Very well." She pressed her lips together firmly, then her eyes flickered between us. "If I do not get the chance to talk to you both again today, then I shall see you both in a few days."
"You will." Max replied.
Jeanine bowed her head again, then turned and walked back in the direction that she'd come from.
"Meeting? Plans?" I questioned.
"You heard what I said. We'll discuss it all with you soon." Max's eyes darted around the room. "Here is not the place to talk about it."
I raised an eyebrow, but didn't question it any further.
We were greeted by Johanna Reyes next, then Marcus shook both of our hands before Jack Kang nodded in our direction. We didn't talk to them for too long, and I found myself looking at all of the people filling the room around us.
Everyone lived up to their faction stereotypes. The Dauntless rushed in, laughing, shoving and joking. The Erudite were either sat with a book in their hand, or looked to be having some kind of intelligent discussion. The Candor's were clearly debating about something, and the Abnegation were holding doors for other people, and offering up their seats to those who needed them.
I glanced at the table of metal bowls containing the substances that represented each faction. I remembered how nervous I had been the last time I saw that table. It had been my turn to choose the faction that I would spend the rest of my life in. I had been so nervous, yet determined that I would make it in Dauntless. I thought my parents were going to go into cardiac arrest as my blood sizzled on the coals, but now I knew that they were proud of me. I'd made friends, found love, ranked highly in my initiation and now I'd taken up a position in leadership. Things had changed since I was that petrified sixteen year old slicing my hand with the knife and hovering over the bowls.
The sound of Marcus clearing his throat into the microphone drew me out of my thoughts, and I realised that the room was now full.
"Welcome," he starts to speak. "Welcome to the Choosing Ceremony. Welcome to the day we honour the democratic philosophy of our ancestors, which tells us that every man has the right to choose his own way in this world."
I glanced to my right to see Max stood up straight, his hands clasped behind his back, staring out at the swarm of different colours in front of us.
"Our dependents are now sixteen. They stand in the precipice of adulthood, and it is now up to them to decide what kind of people they will be." Marcus continued. I mimicked Max's stance, trying not to appear nervous. "Decades ago our ancestors realised that it is not political ideology, religious belief, race, or nationalism that is to blame for a warring world. Rather they determined that it was the fault of human personality - of humankind's inclination toward evil, in whatever form that is. They divided into factions that sought to eradicate those qualities they believed responsible for the world's disarray."
Marcus paused for a moment, allowing the words to sink in. "Those who blamed aggression formed Amity."
The Amity exchange smiled. I remembered how much my parents had wanted me to join the faction of smiling people dressed in the usual red and yellow.
"Those who blamed ignorance became the Erudite."
I glanced at the woman the other side of Marcus on my left. Jeanine tilted her chin upwards, a small smile formed on her lips.
"Those who blamed duplicity created Candor."
Jack Kang nodded slowly.
"Those who blamed selfishness made Abnegation." Marcus gestured to his faction. "And those who blamed cowardice were the Dauntless."
