Chapter One

Aptitude

My name is Rose Tyler, and I never really belonged in Erudite.

It's not as if I hate being there– on the contrary, I suppose I'm intelligent enough to fit in, and all of my friends and family are here, in my home faction. The thing is, Erudite is much too... simple for me. If I disappear, you shouldn't be surprised to find me sitting on a rooftop or riding on the top of the train around the factions, leaning off the edge and kicking my feet out.

I figure that everyone else I know is a perfect Erudite. Sure, my mother had only passed the initiation by the minimum, but she still belongs there more than any other faction. And, of course, Mickey will probably transfer somewhere, but everyone else is alright and content to stay in their faction and obey every order Jeanine gives them.

I never trusted Jeanine. Ever since I was ten years old, I haven't trusted our recognized leader. She'd acted strange since the initiation that year, and now nobody ever sees her, except for a few of her staff. She's furiously working on some project, they all said. Nobody ever said what it was. I think it's a bit suspicious. Everyone else was either following Jeanine blindly, or gone. Disappeared. I figure that I could discover what's up, so long as I didn't get caught– which I won't.

But today is not the day to investigate further. Today is my aptitude test.

I went off to school, dressed in the usual Erudite blue. My mum was worried that she would start freaking out or something; I sometimes wondered if Mum thinks I'm still a baby. I brush a strand of blonde hair off of my face as I sit in my seat in the Advanced Math class, boredly jotting down notes– as if I'd need them, anyway. Unless I continue in Erudite… which I'm not sure I'm going to do. All of our classes that day were cut in half so the students could get through them before lunch… before the Aptitude test.

After lunch, the cafeteria is repurposed into the waiting room for the test. The administrators call out ten names at a time– two from each faction, one for each room. All the administrators are Abnegation, except for one Amity and one Candor. I suppose I was raised to hate the Abnegation, and I don't see anything to counteract what I've been taught. They were always silent and wanted to help everyone, as if everyone needed help or something. Like they had the upper hand and felt sorry for us. I wouldn't want to be an Abnegation.

I was mad that I wasn't allowed to prepare for the test. None of us were. But the other Erudites agree with me. I glance around the room, hoping that I will be called soon. The waiting has grown from tense to tedious. I wish they'd get it over with.

Finally, an administrator comes out again. She calls out the names, and Rose Tyler is called in from Erudite. I run up, adjusting my scarf. I follow the administrator to the exit, smoothing out my dress. I want to make a good impression. Two Abnegation boys walk stoically beside me. Two Candor Irish Twins are having a friendly debate about which faction they would get; the younger one adjusts her glasses and flips her brown ponytail in a friendly way. Two Amity girls skip down, elbows locked. A Dauntless boy ruffles the hair of a Dauntless girl, who shoves him to the side, giggling. I glance at the Erudite boy beside me– Adam, I think his name is. He looks about as nervous as one could get, and keeps fiddling with something in his hand.

There are ten rooms in here, separated by mirrors. I walk into Room 8, hopefully looking more confident than I feel. An Abnegation is there, with her dark hair held up in a high bun. I can see myself reflected in the mirrors; watching as I realize what is going on. I bite down on my lip and assume I'm supposed to sit in a chair that is in the middle… it looks like a dentist's chair, with a machine placed next to it. I hurry over to the chair and sit down before I can persuade herself not to. I'm a little frightened, but I decide not to tell the Abnegation woman that. I keep my eyes shut and put my head on the headrest. I feel the Abnegation woman attach an electrode to my forehead, and then another. She keeps attaching them, and I grip the armrest. I feel a poke on my arm, and open one eye. The Abnegation woman hands me a vial of clear liquid.

"Drink it." the Abnegation woman tells me.

"And then?" I ask. My accent is rare in the city, my mum told me. I've worked hard not to lose it.

The woman shrugs. "Trust me. Nothing bad."

I drink it. I close my eye.

I open my eyes an instant later. I am in the cafeteria again; it's snowing outside of the windows. The tables are empty, except for the one in front of me. There are two baskets. One holds a knife; the other holds cheese.

"Choose." says a voice behind me.

I turn around. Nobody is there.

"Choose." the voice repeats.

It is the voice of Jeanine. Of course it is somebody I would never trust. But maybe that was part of some sort of test… maybe it wants me to go anyway. I reach out and grab the knife.

The baskets disappear; the only thing remaining is the knife I grip in my hand. I hear something behind me and whirl around. A huge, shaggy dog stands by the door. A growl comes from his throat.

I look down at the knife in my hands, then back at the dog. The dog barks and runs towards me. I don't think twice; I run at the dog, knife in hand. The dog jumps. I slide away and whirl around to face my attacker. The dog turns around as well, but I leap at it. I brandish the knife and kick the dog to the ground.

The dog looks up at me and whines. I look down as the dog whimpers again. He isn't angry. He's scared. Scared of me.

I drop the knife.

Before I can hear it clatter to the ground, I blink. When I open my eyes, I'm clinging to a pole on a bus. All the seats are taken; the bus is crowded with people. I hear someone ask, "Do you know this man?"

I whip around around. The man sitting behind me holds up a newspaper. The front page read "Brutal Murderer Finally Apprehended!" With my Erudite upbringing, I read every newspaper. That headline was never in the papers.

I blink again, thinking again that this must be a test of some sort. "Me?"

"You." he nodded. "Do you know him?"

Something in me tells me I knew the man in the picture. He's tall, wearing a leather jacket– possibly from Dauntless, then? But no, the shirt underneath is a dark green, unlike what I've seen in the Factions, so he must be Factionless. He has short brown hair, a hooked nose, and rather large ears– an appearance that is unique, yet would easily go unnoticed in a crowd.

She glance up at the guy holding the paper. He has burn marks on his hands covered painfully in bandages. There are dark sunglasses on his face. I don't like the look of him.

"Do you?" he asks with a snarl.

"Um… no. Not at all." I shake my head.

I sit up in the chair. The electrodes snap off my head, and I gasp as a headache hits me like a falling book. I rub my head. I turn to the Abnegation woman. "Gosh. Did your head hurt like this when you finished your test?"

"No, miss." She tells me. "Must just be you. Took you longer than most others, too. Two other groups came and went."

"What?" I ask, sitting up.

She glances at me, then looks away. "Sorry, miss. Probably shouldn't have said that."

"Oh, gosh. My friends are going to be so mad." I lean my head back and put my hands over my eyes. I bring them down a second later, and look at the woman. "Nevermind them, though." I paused, but the woman just cleans a bit. "Well?"

"Well, what?"

"What did I get?" I ask her.

"Oh, yes. Of course." She looks at me.

I hold my breath. This could decide my entire future.

My aptitude.

"Dauntless. You got Dauntless."