Lean On Him

Once we finished breakfast Christian, Alexander, and I headed toward the vans that were used to transport us to the school. I feel Alexander’s hand brushing against my own as we walk. I grab Christian’s hand and I speed up getting to a van and pulling myself and Christian into the last two seats available and close the door quickly. Christian starts laughing immediately and I elbow him.

“It’s not funny”, I mumble.

“Yes it is”, he says through his chuckling. “Come on he’s not that bad”.

I just roll my eyes and stare out the window as the van begins to move. I stare at the fields passing us by thinking of this time last year. There was a meeting and while sitting among the tree roots and watching everyone debate the decision of upgrading our irrigation system I just knew that this wasn’t what I wanted. I felt horrible as I thought how meek everyone was, bending to other’s ideas without really voicing their own. My parents just gave in when another person gave an idea that was different than their own and ignored what they had wanted. I could see how it could work but I didn’t want to spend my time doing what everyone else wanted.

That night while alone and sitting across from Christian I told him I didn’t think I belonged here. I didn’t expect to hear him say he felt the same and he was scared that he would leave during The Choosing Ceremony and he didn’t want to lose his best-friend. We spent the night debating where we felt we would go. Wanting to stay together we looked for somewhere we could go together. We decided against Candor as I wasn’t open and Christian didn’t like how rude they could be. Erudite was out, while we both did well in school neither of us wanted to study for the rest of our lives. Abnegation might not be so bad they were quiet and did everything for everyone else but with my natural distrust of most people Christian thought it wouldn’t work. That left Dauntless to choose so we started training.

We started with taking runs around the edge of the fields. That first run was the worst and we barely made it around but as the year drew on we had gotten up to four laps around the fields. During one of those runs we ran into a couple of Dauntless members doing a perimeter check.

“Hey”, was shouted at us as we turned around the edge of the wheat field. Startled we stopped staring at the two black clothed men jogging towards us. “What do you think are you doing out here”, said the same voice that yelled coming from the taller of the two. He had short dark blond hair on top and the sides shaved with very light blue eyes. He had a scar crossing his strong angular face it was very thin and ran from the outer corner of his left eye across his nose and disappearing where his jaw turned under. They both wore black cargo style pants with a ton of pockets and black t-shirts that stretched over their bulging muscles.

I was silent but Christian spoke up, “Just going for a run”.

The look he gave us was one of suspicion, “We’ve seen you out here for days. What are two Amity to gain from running laps”? I didn’t know anyone had seen us and if they had I assumed they would think we were just racing or something.

Christian looked him directly in eye and said “Maybe these two Amity are trying to make a decision for themselves before The Choosing Ceremony next year”. I watched confused as the Dauntless man threw his head back and laughed.

“Not liking the bread anymore young one”, he asked looking directly at me. I’m usually silent to strangers but I knew to get into Dauntless I needed to be a bit more open.

“Never liked it”, I responded following Christians lead and looking him directly in the eye. He laughed again.

“Well, running laps alone won’t get you out of here”, he looked at the other man nodding him over. The second man was slightly shorter than the first with long black hair pulled back from his face. He had a defined brow and jaw line with chocolate brown eyes and full pink lips. He had arms that displayed strong muscles and a healthy tan. I felt myself flush looking at him my eyes lingering a little longer than was necessary. “I’m Maloki and this is Kristopher. Don’t go anywhere.” He put his hand on Kristopher’s shoulder and they turned away speaking in hushed tones. It took a few minutes and I was just about to start running again my short patience running out when they turned around.

“We’re gonna help you train”. Whatever I had expected that was not it. I could tell Christian was shocked as well when his jaw dropped a little.

My eyes narrowed a little before I asked with one simple word, “Why”?

Kristopher answered this time his tone deep and soft and I closed my eyes for a moment letting it roll over me before I processed what he just said, “We both transferred into Dauntless and know how hard initiation is for transfers. If we had a little bit of help beforehand maybe we wouldn’t be working The Wall”.

We set up a schedule to meet each day, learning as much as we could. My crush on Kristopher calmed down into respect fairly quickly. They helped us to build the muscles we now try to hide beneath our clothes. They showed us some moves for fights but didn’t want us to be too good or everyone would suspect something was wrong. They taught us to throw knives with deadly accuracy and they even taught us to shoot. We met a few other Dauntless members who Kristopher and Maloki trusted. Tonight would be the last time we would see them until they returned to Dauntless on the weekends.

I felt the van slowing down and focused noticing that we were pulling up in front of the school. When we stopped everyone piled out walking to stand in line to get in. Listening to the others laughing and joking around us I wondered what it would be like to be completely carefree and let the group decide everything for me but I know it’s not really what I want.

I notice Alexander is standing very close beside me, “I wish I was a calm as you two seem to be”.

“We’re not really nervous about the results just what the test involves”, Christian answered for both of us.

That’s when I hear it, the train is coming. Stepping around Alexander to the edge of the group I watch as the Dauntless born start jumping from the train. I can’t wait to do that it looks like so much fun. As they run and tumble pushing each other around as they race to their door, I watch until they settle down laughing loudly. I turn sharply when I feel a hand on my lower back but it’s just Christian. We stand together quietly waiting for the doors to open where we’ll be lead to wait for our turn for the aptitude test. I looked into Christian’s eyes and smiled nodding as the doors began to open and he smiled back as we walked through the doors to our future.