I

 "Larger than life,
niceties,
bigger than you,
more than me
I've got the Monday morning blues and,
oh my God, I've got the home for you
And give the everyday morning you use
There's things right here I can't afford to choose" 

"Think Twice" - Groove Armada

The chatter on the train was short lived, as the Dauntless-born initiates began to get riled up, piling up at the large doors of the train. The small group of initiates not from Dauntless glanced around to see what they were up to, murmurs growing and fears being outspoken. Harper walked to an opening and saw what was coming her way; she had been preparing for this for an entire year. It wasn't the jump or the fall that scared her, it was what came after she survived it. Perhaps falling to her death would be the easier way out, but being an Erudite, she knew that she couldn't simply opt out like that. Her brain simply wouldn't allow her to fail now.

The train rumbled underneath her feet, feeling as though it would topple off of the track any day, but it was sturdier than she was. The path of the train was far more distinct than hers was, and she felt herself waver for only a second. To force this out of her head, she jumped. The air whipped across her pale flesh, her tied-back brown hair loosened in the elastic that she always had it in. She leapt as the horde of other kids did the same, some lingering longer, some jumping before her.

He grabbed her arm in an almost forceful way, and it was in that moment that Harper knew something was wrong. In this perfectly balanced world, where nothing could possibly go wrong, something had shifted. As a fifteen-year-old girl who worried of nothing but her initiation in a years time, she knew nothing about the problems with the political aspect of the world. She didn't want a job in politics, she didn't want a job wielding a gun and watching that empty, boring fence that surrounded their world, she wanted to use her brain for making this perfect world even better.

How naïve she had been.

"Dad, what are you doing?" she said with a half smile she always put upon her face when she was worried, as if she was trying to cover her fear with a casual, nonchalant ambiance.

"Harper, kiddo, you know I love you," her dad said, but his voice was rushed, stern.

"Yeah..." She knew, of course she knew. Every parent loved their kid. "Look, dad if this is about that lab explosion, the teachers blew it out of proportion. It was just a chemical reacti-"

"Stop, Harper." He grabbed both of her shoulders and held them tight, his knuckles losing their colour. "What I'm about to tell you can never leave your lips, you can never speak of it to anyone but yourself."

"Dad, what's going –"

"Listen," he urged, "something bad is about to happen, it could be tomorrow or five years down the road. I need to ask you to do one thing for me, and it is going to change your life."

She stiffened, but waited for him to continue.

"I have discovered Jeanine Matthews is up to something, something that has to do with the turmoil and troubles with Abnegation. My information leads me to believe she is working with the Dauntless leader, Eric. Harper, I did not want to bring you into this, but you are the only hope we have to stop whatever it is she has planned."

"What do you expect me to do...?" Harper had a feeling that she already knew, but she wanted to hear the words come from her father's lips.

"I need you to choose Dauntless at the choosing ceremony. It is going to be a difficult initiation, this is why I'm telling you now, you can prepare yourself. I need you inside the faction, inside their heads, you're one of the smartest people I know, but their leader, Eric, was once Erudite as well. He's young, driven, but he is dangerous."

Harper realized what she was being asked to do. "Okay."

"Okay?" He was surprised, slightly, that his own daughter would alter her own happiness to face the hardship he was asking her to take on by herself. Once she left Erudite, she would have no contact with her father.

Perhaps it was her desire for something else in this world that made her agree to it, but she nodded again. "Yes, Dad, if you think this is what is best for us, I'll do it."

He sighed, his shoulder relaxing ever so slightly. "Don't lose sight of what matters, what's important."

"Once I get my mind set on something, not much can change that. You of all people know that," she said, sternly, no longer offering that half smile.

"Not even the persuasive mind of another Erudite?" He raised a cautious eyebrow.

"Isn't that just what you are? Right now?" she replied almost too snarkily.

"If Jeanine suspects you or even me, she will be keeping a close eye on you, and will inform Eric of her thoughts."

"I understand." She nodded. "But I need you to tell me everything I need to do, everything I need to know, because in a years time, I won't have any guidance."

"I know you won't fail." He kissed her forehead.

"I won't fail," Harper whispered to herself as she flew through the air, landing hard on the gravel-top building.

Her blue flats had little grip and she ended up skidding out of control, landing hard on her hands and knees. Glancing around, gritting her teeth as the rocks dug into her flesh beneath her now stained white pants, she saw that some others had landed far worse than she had. What else caught her attention was the man standing over all of them, watching them and judging them. She stood up quickly, just as she had trained herself to do; if you fall, get back up. She couldn't afford to be overlooked, not now and not throughout all of her initiation. She also didn't want to be watched by everyone, and this made her task even harder.

As she got to her feet, she didn't bother dusting herself off. Already haven climbed up the train trestle, jumped on and off the train, she suspected that there was no point in bothering keeping her clothes tidy. Chances were she wouldn't be wearing the blue and white garb for much longer either. Soon she would have to erase all things Erudite about her outer appearance, but she would always maintain that part of her under her skin. No one could take away her morals and her knowledge, that could not be stripped from her body while she was still living. Holding onto that thought, she trained her eyes upon the man standing at the edge of the building.

"Welcome to Dauntless." He raised both his hands in a casual gesture to the area around him. He had soft pink lips that were pulled into a small smirk at all times. Thick, bold tattoos snaked up his neck, and his body was accented with piercings. Harper inched her way into the center of the group of people all looking up at him, and she tried to remain out of sight for now. Her best way of ensuring she didn't lose her way was to assess everything now, assess everyone around her, before she tried to infiltrate. The man continued when shuffling ceased. "I'm Eric."

Harper tried not to flinch at the name; she hadn't expected this young man to be Eric, but now she knew, and she hoped he would stick around for initiation and training, so that she could figure out who he was. With a patient stance, she waited for what they were going to be told to do next. Eric glanced around, his eyes didn't stop on her as she thought they might. With everything that had happened in the last few months, she had a feeling Eric already knew about her plan, and she would be called out or even murdered in her sleep. But his eyes moved beyond her as though she were simply another face in the crowd. 

"I need a volunteer," he said at last.

A few murmurs came from all around her; some youthful, brave part of her wanted to be that volunteer, but another kid in all black spoke up. His dark skin looked warm in the sun, and he glanced around at the others, some slapping his back. He was Dauntless born, and he walked up to Eric with a cocky grin. Eric had his strong arms crossed over his chest and he raised his pierced eyebrows. "Jump."

"Jump?" The kid glanced over the edge of the building. "You're joking?"

"Do I look like someone who jokes?"

The kid muttered something that Harper didn't hear.

"You have three seconds before I pick someone else, and you will regret it," Eric snarled.

The kid shook his head and jumped; a shout came from the other side of the building, followed shortly by silence. No one knew what was at the bottom of the black pit, but one by one, each initiate took their leap of faith. Harper climbed onto the edge of the building when it was her turn; once the initiates realized that they weren't going to die, most of them were eager to jump and there was a line up of antsy teenagers.

Eric shifted his head back to get a better look at Harper when it was her turn. "Erudite."

She glanced at him, taking it that he was speaking to her. She wasn't sure if it were what he was calling her or if he was asking of her previous faction. Believing it to be the former she cocked her head to the side. "Yes?"

"You think you're cut out for this?" he asked.

"I don't know, were you?" She raised an eyebrow, showing him that she knew his origins, and regretting letting the words slip from her lips as soon as they did.

"I'm the leader of Dauntless, aren't I?" He grinned.

"So what is it then?" She sneered. "Scared of a little competition?"

Eric went to reply, but Harper took that leap, falling into the dark pit and landing upon the safety net on the bottom. The adrenaline that pumped through her was like lightning, she was smiling at the feel of so much excitement inside of her, but she knew that the adrenaline did not come entirely from the jump, but from her realization that she may have already exposed herself. She had already made her first mistake, and she was going to have to be considerably more cautious from then on.