7

Cal and I walk together, heading back to our rooms after a hearty meal. I turn my gaze to my brother. We're both tired out, to exhausted to run or sprint like we usually do. I've always wondered why my brother is such an artist, because believe me, that's not a dauntless thing. He's strong and fast, he got one of the top scores in initation. Why did he choose to be a tattoo artist when he could of got one of the top dauntless jobs? My brother may be tall, swift and muscular, but sometimes I wonder if he's what I'd define as a stereotypical dauntless. He seems to avoid fights, and he doesn't seem as against the amity as most dauntless. He pretends to be, of course he does. He calls them pansycakes, he claims that they drive him crazy, but I sometimes doubt if he really thinks that.

"Hey, Cal?" I say.

"Yeah Vic?"

"What faction did you get?" I ask.

"Dauntless," he answers, talking a bit too loudly and quickly, "dauntless, of course." I think he's lying to me. We never lie to each other! We've always trusted eachother with everything. I did lie to him though. But, I had to! I'm divergent! Cal avoids eye contact all the way back to my room. When we get there he opens the door and leaves without saying goodbye. Cal must feel guilty. I want to know what he got in his aptitude test, I wonder if he's really dauntless at all.

"Hey, Vic. How'd the apititude test go?" I forgot all about my dad. I'm not really in the mood for questions, especially if I'll have to lie to my father. Somehow, I think that lying to dad will be easier than lying to Cal.

"Dad, we shouldn't be talking about it." I remind him, which is true. No one is meant to speak about their aptitude, it's one of those old rules. It isn't taken seriously like "faction before blood." We've all been told the rules in school. I remember seeing the words "faction before blood" in a textbook. Three textbooks actually.

"What did you do with your jacket Vic?" He asks.

"I gave it to an abnegation test administer to help block a mirror." I admit, without thinking about how my dad will react. There's been enough lying today, so I feel like I should at least tell him the truth about the jacket.

"Vic, you did what?" He asks, his voice loud and angry. I know why he's upset. That's not what dauntless do. That's what abnegation do. "You got abnegation didn't you? That's why you're refusing to talk about the test!"

"Dad calm down!" I don't want to deny it because I did get abnegation. I really want to tell him the truth.

"No! I won't just calm down! My daughter's probably going to leave dauntless and join her stupid abnegation buddies!" I don't like his loud and dangerous tone.

"Dad stop it! Shut up about the stupid test ok!" My sudden anger only makes things worse.

"Vic, how dare you speak to me this way! I'm your father not your brother!" He heads towards the door.

I don't think about what I'm doing, I'm itching to fight. I tackle him the way Cal taught me to. He falls down on his face. At this point I know we've both lost control. My father raises his fists and throws a good punch, but I duck and his hand sails past me and smacks into the wall. I hear a thud and a loud crunch as his tight fist hits the wall. He was punching hard. A large hand-shaped dent is left in the wall. A few splinters of wood and white wall paper flutter to the ground. While he attempts to pull his hand from the wall, I punch his head as hard as I can. It hurts my fists a little, but that small throbbing pain is nothing compared to what my dad must be feeling. His hand comes lose as I try to hit his nose. My father's fist whooshes at me and I don't have time to evade the hit. A pain throbs through my shoulder in the spot where he hit me. He raises his fist again, and I know he's going for my face. I lob his nose with hits until it bleeds, while he makes several attempts to smack me. This is going too far, I know it is.

"Stop! Dad, we don't have to keep doing this!" I say, not wanting him to be hurt anymore. I shouldn't beat up my dad.

"Vic you're a coward! A fight isn't over until one of us is unconscious!"

"Or dead!" I retort, sarcastically, "this is stupid, we shouldn't be trying to hurt eachother!"

"Faction before blood Vic! If you were dauntless I'd care more!" He yells. I want to tell him that I am dauntless, because I did get dauntless on my aptitude test, but he doesn't seem to be listening anymore. His fingers whip past my eye, but I jump back to avoid being hit. I punch his eye as he tries to draw back and rewind for his next punch. He steps back and clutches his eye. I send a kick at his face while he's distracted with the pain in his eye. He looks super sick, dizzy and bewildered. He must be about to go unconscious. He begins to fall, but manages to land a strong punch before falling unconscious. My shin stings where he landed his last hit, and I'm pretty sure that'll be bruised tommorrow. I'm not concerned about that now though, I'm worried about dad.

I bend down next to him. His nose is still bleeding, so I wipe the blood of his face. I lay my head on his chest, he's breathing. I forgot how to check a pulse, so I try to recall what I read in a first aid book about unconsciousness. I remember that you have to put the person into a recovery position, so I do that. He's really heavy though, which doesn't make the job any easier. I'm nervous about doing this stuff. I do remember that first aid book saying never to help someone if you don't know how, but I think that was with the CPR and complex stuff like that.

"Dad?" I whisper, pressing my face close to his left ear, "dad! Are you ok? Dad!" I don't know why I'm screaming, that won't help the situation. Take deep breaths Vic. Calm down. I breathe in and out trying to relax, but it's very difficult to become calm in front of an unconscious person, especially if they are your dad. Why would I tackle him? That started this and it was stupid. I know that I'm going to cry. A tear falls onto his face. That reminds me of something I read. In a first aid book I read, water was scribed to be the best thing to wake up someone that's fainted. I need to find some water. The waterfall, of course. No, the bathroom.

I get to my feet quickly. What can I use to contain the water? I leave the room and begin to sprint. I know the way to the bathrooms well and the run is fairly short. No one seems to be around here right now, and I'm glad about that. I don't want my dad to be embarrassed, and others are sure to harass him if they find out that his daughter beat him up. The batheroom floor is covered in white tiles and the walls are painted an odd grey hue. The toilets and urinals are right out in the open, with no stalls or anything. Most of the other factions think our bathroom sounds gross, mainly because we don't have a batheroom for boys and a batheroom for girls. We all use the same one. There are only three sinks, and one of them is broken. I see myself in the mirror above a sink, and I don't look too good.

My long black hair is all tangled up and my dark eyes look red. There's a lot of blood on my clothes and I seriously doubt that that crimson red liquid is gonna come off easily. Good thing my clothes are black or the stains would be ten times worse. My shoulder's swollen and my knee is bruised. My knuckles are pretty red too. I didn't have a shower this morning either, which probably isn't helping the look at all.

There's a cupboard filled with cups that people put toothbrushes in. Most of the ceramic white cups are full of tooth stuff, but I find an empty cup. I turn on the tap and fill the cup to the brim. The cold water feels cool and refreshing after that fight. I really want to wash my sweaty hands, but I need to help dad first. I pass the shower, and feel really tempted to have one, but I don't. I speed walk out of the bathroom and up the odd paths of the complex. I hurry into the room and drop down beside my dad, tipping the containce of the cup onto his face. That seems to do the trick.

Dad wakes up spluttering. He sits up slowly. "Dad, are you ok?" He nods stiffly. The fact that I helped him seems to annoy him for some reason. I know why. Helping people, and being selfless, that's what abnegation do. "Look, I'm sorry ok? I got dauntless. I gave my jacket away, big deal. Please don't let it get between us." He winces.

"You sound like those erudite, with all the sociologist talk." He mumbles. I don't know how to answer that. I did get erudite. "You need a shower Vic."

"Yeah, I gathered that much. So are we good?" I ask.

"Yes." But I sense hesitation in his voice.

"Dad, if I were in abnegation would I beat you up?" He smiles.

"Go have a shower Vic. I'm going to bed, the choosing ceremony's tommorrow and we're catching the first train this year." He says.

"Since when have we ever actually made it in time to the first train?"

"Never, that's the point. Now go!"

I leave the room and head to the bathroom. I'm happy that no one's there because, unlike most dauntless, I like my privacy. I open the wooden bathroom cupboard and find everything I need. The shampoo, the conditioner and the body wash. There are a few clean white towels in the bathroom cupboard as well. The showers are at the far side of the room parallel to the door. The floor there has a drain on it, and there's this wooden bench thing in front of you that you can put your stuff on while your showering. Just like with the toilet situation, there's no stalls or dividers. So anyone can see you, which I defiantly don't like. I know Cal hates these showers too, because he's always trying to avoid having a shower even if he really needs one. Tori keeps telling us that she thinks it's no big deal, but I disagree with her.

I put my stuff on the bench and peel off my sweaty clothes which are really sticking to me because of the sweat. Then I turn on the warm water. Most of the time the water's really cold but today I luck out and get nice hot water. It's been a while since I had a shower with water that's not really chilly. I let the warm water massage my body. This is what I needed after a stressful day. I'm just finishing washing my hair when I hear the doorknob turning. Felix walks in. "Don't look!" I shout but it's already too late.

"Sorry." He mumbles, blushing as he looks away. I've never seen Felix blush, and I admit that I like how it looks. I might like it a bit better though if I wasn't super embarrassed right now. I feel my own face go hot. I quickly rinse my hair and turn the shower off. I know I'm blushing really hard as I wrap the towel around me. I hope he didn't see much. I turn to look at him. He's brushing his teeth, and he immediately casts his eyes away from the mirror. Was he watching me? I don't think I've ever felt this awkward before. Of all the people that could of walked in it had to be Felix.

"You can look at the mirror now, I'm good."

"Oh...umm...Vic...thanks." I'm not really that ok with it, because this towel only just covers me. Felix rinses his mouth, puts his toothbrush away and turns to look at me. He lets his eyes rest on me for an awkward moment before he says anything. "Look. Vic, I'm sorry."

"It's ok, you didn't mean anything. Just please forget about it, and don't mention it."

"Ok. Sure." And then he's gone, as quickly as he arrived. For some reason, I kind of miss his presence. I'm glad we aren't enemies anymore, or he'd never let me hear the end of it. I dry myself off and put on my clothes before anymore incidents can happen.

It doesn't take me long to return to my room. Dad's already in bed and I take the hint and do the same. But sleeping is quite hard, with all that's going on tommorrow. I know that I'm going to choose dauntless but I can't help but wonder if that's really the right faction for me. Choosing dauntless would be easy, and isn't choosing what's easy the coward's way? Don't be silly Vic, tommorrow you'll be an adult and tommorrow you'll still be dauntless. Now get some sleep. So I let the warmth and darkness of this room put me to sleep. As sleep wraps itself around me the last thing I think is, Vic is dauntless.