Chapter Twenty-Three: "...that was so worth it..."
Chapter Twenty-Three!
I stand with Will and Tris at the railing overlooking the chasm, late at night after most of the Dauntless have gone to sleep. Both my shoulders sting from the tattoo needle. We all got new tattoos a half hour ago. I got the symbol of Candor, it's a circle with a scale in it with one of the scale down, and the other shift it up, as if they're weighing the truth.
I know it was a risk, especially after all that’s happened. But that symbol is a part of my identity, and it felt important to me that I wear it on my skin. I step up on one of the barrier’s crossbars, pressing my hips to the railing to keep my balance.
This is where All stood. I look down into the chasm, at the black water, at the jagged rocks. Water hits the wall and sprays up, misting my face. Was he afraid when he stood here? Or was he so determined to jump that it was easy? I hand Tris a stack of paper.
She got a copy of every report the Erudite have released in the last six months. She takes them one by one, and throws them into the chasm. One very report there is at least three pictures of Jeanine Mathews-the sole reprisitive of Erudite.
“Have you ever met her?” I ask Will. I crumple the first report into a ball and hurl it into the water.
“Jeanine? Once,” he replies. He takes the next report and tears it to shreds.
The pieces float into the river. He does it without my malice. I get the feeling that the only reason he’s participating is to prove to Tris that he doesn’t agree with his former faction’s tactics. Whether he believes what they’re saying or not is unclear, and I am afraid to ask.
“Before she was a leader, she worked with my sister. They were trying to develop a longer-lasting serum for the simulations,” he says. “Jeanine’s so smart you can see it even before she says anything. Like…a walking, talking computer.”
“What…” Tris flings one of the pages over the railing, pressing her lips together. “What do you think of what she has to say?” He shrugs.
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s a good idea to have m ore than one faction in control of the government. And maybe it would be nice if we had more cars and…fresh fruit and…”
“You do realize there’s no secret warehouse where all that stuff is kept, right?” Tris asks, her face's getting hot.
“Yes, I do,” he says. “I jus t think that comfort and prosperity are not a priority for Abnegation, and maybe they would be if the other factions were involved in our decision making.” Wrong move! I think. I should try to keep them calm.
“Because giving an Erudite boy a car is more important than giving food to the factionless,” Tris snaps.
“Hey now,” I say, brushing Will’s shoulder with my fingers.
“This is supposed to be a lighthearted session of symbolic document destruction, not a political debate.”Tris just stares at the page in her hands.
Will looks at the floor, I touch his chin, and move it so he's looking at me. I give him that kind of look that should tell him to be gentle with Tris, she's not in a stable place right now. He nods, annoyed, but he understands.
“All that stuff she said about your dad, though,” he says, “makes me kind of hate her. I can’t imagine what good can come of saying such terrible things.” I can. If Jeanine can make people believe that Tris's dad and all the other Abnegation leaders are corrupt and awful, she has support for whatever revolution she wants to start, if that’s really her plan.
She just nods and throws the remaining sheets into the chasm. They drift back and forth, back and forth until they find the water. They will be filtered out at the chasm wall and discarded.
“It’s bedtime,” I say, smiling. “Ready to go back? I think I want to put Peter’s hand in a bowl of warm water to make him pee tonight.”
“That sounds great, but I have to talk to Four about something,”She says, pointing toward a shadow ascending the path. I follow he hand, I squint, but I wonder how she knows it's him. I'm starting to think that she has develupted a crush on Four, which is a bad idea, a crush on your instructer can maybe cause some caius.
“Are you sure you should be running around here alone at night?” I ask, just making sure. I look at Will, he looks a bit scared, I nod my head in approval of how he mannaged the situation. He looks at me with his hypnotizing green eyes. I smile wider, and so does he.
“I won’t be alone. I’ll be with Four.” Tris says, or something like that. I wasn't paying very much attention I was, I am too busy looking at Will to listen.
“All right,” I say, trying to sound noarmal, but Iit came out distantly. “Well, I’ll see you later, then.” Will and I walk toward the dormitories, I mess up his hair with my hands, and Will jabbed me in the ribs. He knows that that's my tickleish spot. I laugh.
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WIll and I ploted a sceam to prank Peter. We've decided that we're going to make him wet the bed. It shouldn't be so hard since I'm pretty sure that Peter can sleep through a whole perade of Elephants and still not wake him up. Besides his snoring is probably louder than the Elephants themselves.
"Lets go fast." Will whisperes. We are by the bathroom suplies in the bathroom, but we try not to make any noise, wouldn't want to wake up ugly Betty or anyone. We grab the first bucket we see, and walk quietly outside. Will clamps his hand over his mouth, obviously to contain his giggles.
Once we're outside we fill the bucket up with Hot, but not too hot, watter. We both giggle.
'Now all that's left is to stick Peter's hand in the bucket, and he will wet himself!" I say, Will and I slap hands.
"If we manage to pull this off we will be in the record books!" Says Will.
"Maybe not in the record book, but this will be amazing."
"It's full!" He says pointing at the bucket.
"Lets go!"
We sneek back into the room, and Will gently puts the bucket on the floor. I gently take Peters hand, and slowly dip it in the watter. Peter snorts and Will and I clamp our hands over our mouths to contain our giggles.
"Do you think he actually peed?" WHispers Will.
"There's only one way to find out!" I whisper. I pick up the blanket slightly. Under the blanket we see a big circle under Peter's pants. We laugh hard into our palms, It's a miracle that no one woke up. After the laughter dies down. I say,
"You know that when Peter wakes up he's going to kill us, right?"
"It doesn't matter that was so worth it!" Will says, and again we collapse into laughing. Then we change, and I put my p.js on. I crawl into my bed, and I sleep a dreamless sleep.
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Authors Note:
What do you guys think? did you like it? So again I want to say thank you to all the readers. I hope that you all really enjoy this book.
Please feel comftorable to drop comments, it's always nice to know that your book is appreciated! also, I have the next chapter, but if you want to read it you have to get ten votes into this chapter, then I'll continue try getting more people to read it!!!
-Tali21