Zeke

I let the sun warm my eyelids for a while before I begrudgingly open them just a slit. I sneak a peek at the ceiling and the top of the wall in front of me. Even though today is important, I'm not ready to face it yet and besides, my alarm hasn't gone off, which means that it's still early. I can go back to sleep for a while still and that's exactly what I intend to do. I have plenty of time before I need to be at the Choosing Ceremony. However, when I roll over on to my side I am greeted by my very much awake 14-year-old sister curled up on my bed, facing me. I can tell instantly that she's upset.

"Ezi, are you going to leave us?" I swear that at the end of her question I hear a quiet sniffle. She's a tough girl so her sniffling catches me off guard. I've only ever seen her cry once when she was 10 and I beat the tar out of the Erudite kid who caused it (though he eventually won the fight). She never told me what he said that made her so upset but it didn't matter. I'm relieved when after searching her face for any signs, I decide she's not crying.

"Ri, why would I leave? If I left then who would make sure your ugly mug stayed in check?" I'm chuckling softly as I look at her and watch as Ri dramatically rolls her eyes at me and groans.

"Ezi, be serious. This is the biggest decision you're ever going to make. It affects everything." Her eyes are so wide and sincere that I know if I had been planning to transfer I wouldn't be able to go through with the decision at this point. I would feel too guilty: like I was the worst big brother in the world.

"Why are you so worried about this, Ri? Worried that you'll be stuck with just Uriah and Mom? I would be too." I tuck a lock of hair behind Ri's ear and grin at her. It doesn't seem to ease the anxiety I see brewing in her eyes.

"Ezi, answer my question."

"Yeah, Ezi, answer her question." Uriah plops down on the foot of the bed and takes a bite out of a piece of toast. I pull a pillow from the mattress behind me and launch it at his head. I hate it when he calls me Ezi. Only Ri calls me that.

"Ugh, you're both ridiculous. Maybe I'll transfer factions just so I can have some peace. I'll take whichever one won't allow irritating younger twin siblings." I don't mean it, really. The motto of the city may be 'faction before blood' but I can't imagine not seeing my family or doing anything that would hurt them. Ri, however, is clearly not in a joking mood and instead is staring at me with terror written all over her face. "I'm kidding, Ri. I'm not going anywhere. My test results were Dauntless- not that it matters because I've always known this is where I belong. Besides, if I transferred, then I wouldn't be able to torture you and make sure you never date."

"God, Ezi, when you put it like that then I wish you would transfer."

All thoughts of returning to sleep have already left my mind, so I quickly pinch her side and jump out of bed while she's still laughing. She is right, though—today is the biggest decision of my life. But I've known what I would choose for years now. I'm Dauntless and always have been. I wouldn't be able to even begin to imagine a life anywhere else.

Later that morning, I take the knife from Max and slice my palm like I'm supposed to. Reaching my hand to let the blood drip over the coals is like muscle memory even though I've never done it before. I'm Dauntless and always have been, just like my father was. The hoots from the other Dauntless ring out and fill the room to its brim. I don't have to look up at Max to know that his face is blank but his eyes show the slightest hint of happiness.

I turn and walk over to where my faction is sitting. I can't shake the question Ri asked me earlier today as the Dauntless cheers continue.

"Ezi, are you going to leave us?"

You never had anything to worry about, Ri.

Amar claps a hand on my shoulder, pulling me from my thoughts, and I take my place with the other Dauntless. Looking around I mostly see 16-year-old Dauntless born initiates that I know and a few transfers so far. We're still not half way through the alphabet so we'll be here a while.

When a gray-clad, skinny Abnegation boy slices his palm and drips blood onto the Dauntless coals, there's a hush in the room before all of Dauntless begins whooping and hollering. The Abnegation look at each other and begin murmuring in confusion. No one has ever transferred from Abnegation to Dauntless. Even Amity is more likely to try to transfer to Dauntless than Abnegation is. Abnegation is about as far from Dauntless ideologically as it gets. Whoever this Stiff is, he's done something completely new and it's catching everyone off guard.

I don't remember the Stiff's name but it's toward the beginning of the alphabet so the ceremony ends not long after. It couldn't have come soon enough. I can tell my entire faction is itching to get out of here and we all jump up, running and yelling down the stairs toward the train tracks. I've done this hundreds of times throughout my life but today is different. This is the day that begins the rest of my life. I know that I still have to get through initiation but I'm not worried; I'm Dauntless through and through.

I jump from the train, glad I haven't stumbled too much despite the amount of alcohol I've had. In the weeks since initiation started life has been a blur of fighting, shooting and working but it hasn't included much in the way of enjoying being Dauntless. Tonight, though, the Dauntless tradition of Dare is changing that. I take a few steps forward with Amar and Four near me and suddenly Amar is upon me.

"I see you've met my young friend Ezekial, here." Amar says to Four as he puts me in a headlock and rubs his knuckles over my head. Even though he's like a brother to me I really hate it when he does this in front of people. Even more, I hate when he calls me by my full name. He's as bad as Ri sometimes.

"Just because my mom calls me by my full name doesn't mean you need to, Amar." I shake him off easily since he's loosened his grip on me.

I look over at Four and roll my eyes. We only really met tonight on the train ride out to Erudite for Amar's dare. While we're not training together since he's a transfer and I'm Dauntless born, he recognized me as the first jumper and I know him from all of the rumors and his fear landscape. He's the initiate with only four fears. I remember him skinny and dressed in grey, slicing his hand at the Choosing Ceremony. Now that memory seems out of place juxtaposed to the Dauntless prodigy standing before me in all black and more muscle than I have ever claimed.

"Amar's grandparents were friends with my parents." I explain.

"Were?" Four asks it and looks embarrassed; like he didn't mean the question to be said out loud.

I explain the rest to him; how my father died when I was young. Amar adds in that his parents died when he was young and his grandparents jumped from the chasm when he became a member. Four looks perplexed and surprised by the realizations and I worry that he's going to keep asking questions that are increasingly going to become ones I don't want to answer but we're interrupted by shouts from the others for Amar to get on and do his dare.

Later that night as we're all drunkenly watching Four get a tattoo, I decide that I could be friends with this guy. He's quieter than any other person I've met—probably a hold over from his Abnegation roots—but it doesn't bother me. Even though he clearly doesn't trust anyone, he strikes me as someone who would be a good friend; someone I could trust.

For that reason I am happy when Shauna tells me the next day that she invited Four to sit with us. Through the grapevine I heard that he beat Eric that morning in what is being considered the bloodiest Dauntless fight in initiation history. Apparently Eric even lost a tooth, which makes me ecstatic because I hate that jackass. Shauna tells me quietly that Four has agreed to help her learn to fight and I am grateful to hear it since I've seen her struggling so much throughout the physical stage of training. My suspicions about Four being a good friend are confirmed then and as initiation progresses he quickly becomes my closest friend even if he still is intimidating as hell and more secretive than any one person probably should be.

I'm not surprised when Four ranks first in our class at the end of initiation. While I feel the pangs of jealousy at his success, they quickly leave as I congratulate him and then find my way to my mother, sister and brother through the celebrating Dauntless. I am clobbered by Ri before I can even think of getting any words out.

"Ezi! I'm so happy for you!" She yells out as I'm holding her up off the ground by her waist and she hugs me around the neck tightly. "You're really staying." She says softer and I can tell that as much as she believes in me, she has been irrationally worrying about me having to leave Dauntless since the morning of the Choosing Ceremony.

"Yep. Hope you never wanted to date because I am sticking around and now not only am I a member but also the most terrifying Dauntless member is my best friend. No guys are coming near you, Ri." I give her a wide grin and she pretends to pout but I can see the glimmer of laughter in her eyes.

Ri, to my knowledge, has carefully avoided every guy who has ever looked at her. Maybe it's because she doesn't want to find out if Uriah and my joking threats to harm any guy who comes near her are serious or maybe it's because she's not comfortable with their advances. Either way, while most Dauntless girls her age have begun dating and even I had had my first kiss and more at her age, I feel confident that I am right in thinking that the only guys Ri has ever even hugged have either been in our family or Amar's. The only way she touches any other guy is if she's in a fight.

"Zeke, you didn't come in dead last! Good job!" Uriah slaps me on the back as he says it and I jab him in the gut lightly, starting a short, joking fight between the two of us.

"Yeah, well in two years I'll remind you of that when Ri is ranked first and you're ranked last." I grin at Uriah broadly and my mother finally steps between us, telling us to break it up.

My mother pulls me into a warm hug. All I can think is that even though I'm a full Dauntless member and am not supposed to need my family and especially not my Mom, I'm glad that she is here right now for this instead of at the fence. I'm glad they're all here. I can pretend like I don't need them—and I guess really I don't in a lot of ways—but it doesn't change the fact that it would have killed me to not be here right now in Dauntless. I only hope that in two years I'm welcoming Ri and Uriah as members instead of wondering how they are in their own factions. The thought is too sad, though, so I push it from my mind.

Tonight is for celebrating. I am a Dauntless member now.