CHAPTER 1

Tris pov

I wake up to the sound of my 'father' screaming at me.

"BEATRICE GET UP NOW! YOU ARE GOING TO BE LATE!"

I reply now knowing it will be worse later if I don't.

"Yes father." I say. I sigh and get out if bed, and start to do my hair and makeup. I took a shower last night knowing that Marcus would want me down for his beating early. Extra early for the first day of school. Especially since it's a new school.

Great right. (Sarcasm.) I run to my very small closet to see what I could wear to make a good first impression. I pull out skinny jeans, a shirt that says 'you can't sit with us, and my black combat boots. I walk over to my nightstand and put on my lucky necklace. It was the last present I had ever gotten from them. My real parents. When I turned 9. Before my world came crashing down. It is silver and has a heart. In the heart is a little 6. 6 is my lucky number. I remember the accident as if it were yesterday.

FLASHBACK~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a dark snowy night in New York and my mom, Natalie, my dad, Andrew, and my big brother, Colby, (AN: YES I AM VERY AWARE I WROTE COLBY, JUST KEEP READING TO UNDERSTAND) were going to one of my singing competitions in Massachusetts. We were all singing Christmas songs, since Christmas was really almost a month away.

That was when the blankets upon blankets of snow had started to fall. We were going around a turn when we skidded. Another car, coming the opposite direction, tried to get out of our way, but it didn't work. The car came crashing right into us. Head on. I heard the screams of my parents and then BANG!

Everything stopped. No more screaming, just the smell of smoke and the start of sirens in the distance. I had started to scream and cry and try to get out of my seatbelt that was suffocating me. I turned my head and that was when a piece of metal that was hanging down decided to dig its way into my head. And then everything faded away to blackness.

The next time I woke up I was in a bright room with an IV in my arm. No one was here and I started calling for my mom and dad, but they weren't coming. I had started screaming and that was when a couple of nurses ran in and offered their condolences. I had no idea what they meant. So I started kicking and screaming until the doctor came in with a big needle. The nurses had distracted me while the doctor jammed it in my arm.

All of a sudden I had started to feel as if I was flying. I had started to giggle uncontrollably as the doctor asked me how I felt.

"I feel as if I'm flying." I say laughing hysterically. Just then my brother Colby came bursting in the door. He came rushing to my side and knelt down next to the bed I was in. I was still laughing like a hyena.

Colby started yelling at the doctor and nurses asking what they did to me. They started to try and calm him down as I felt a huge wave of dizziness and drowsiness wash over me. My laughter stopped and everyone turned to look at me. One of the nurses stepped forward and put her hand to my forehead.

"Don't worry Colby, your sister will be fine. She will just need to sleep for a couple of days."

I feel my eyes close, even though I am fighting to keep them open. I hear footsteps lead towards the door and the doctor say,

"And Amelia, while she's sleeping please change that bandage her head."

And with that I drift off.

The next time I wake up, 4 days later I might add. Colby came in and explained to me all about the accident and how our parents moved on to a different life. I was crying and so was he. The doctors wanted us to leave the next day, but when I had tried to get up and walk around, the pain in my head was so severe, that I had swayed and fell down.

Luckily one of the nurses grabbed me before I hit the ground. She picked me up, which was apparently very easy for her, since at 9 years old, I was so tiny and weighed next to nothing. She put me in bed as I passed out from the drums inside my head.

When I woke up one of the nurses was sitting next to me and I asked her, "why does my head hurt so much?"

She replied that the metal inside of the car had gone into a very sensitive part of my head and that I had needed 52 stitches. She did that there would be a scar, but you would barely be able to see it. Karen told me that the pain medication, they give me, has no effect for some reason and that the doctors don't want to give me too much. It was all too much information to comprehend at once. I had just nodded and fell back asleep.

When I had finally been able to walk without falling, Colby and I were kicked out of the hospital and put into a nursery for kids. It was basically an adoption center. Colby and I stuck together and he pretty much always carried me to my bed every night after dinner because the pain medication that Miss. Rose had to give me made me so drowsy I couldn't move. It didn't really help my head much either.

Then one night Colby wasn't there to carry me upstairs. A boy named Peter carried me explaining that Colby was adopted and he wanted to say goodbye, but I was sleeping. The boy named Peter became my best friend in the house and we realized that we were in the same grade. We made an agreement to be best friends forever. That was one of the worst mistakes of my life.

On one of the first Friday's in January a new boy came in. His name was Eric. Peter instantly forgot about me and went with Eric. They always taunted me and punched me until one day, Miss. Rose said that there was a family here to meet me.

Marcus, Evelyn, and a boy my age named Caleb. They had asked me if I wanted to live with them in their house. I said yes, absolutely, thinking that now I wouldn't have to see Peter and Eric ever again.

They quickly signed some papers and Evelyn held my hand as we walked back to their fancy car. She had helped me buckle my seatbelt and we drove off to their big house. That night when I was brushing my teeth, Evelyn came in and under the bright light only then, did she notice that I had a black eye and a big bump on my cheek.

"Beatrice," she said softly. I looked at her. She gently touched my cheek and eye where I had gotten punched. I flinched away and she asked me who did this to me.

"It was Peter and Eric. They would always make fun of me and punch me." I say trying not to sob. She had picked me up and pulled me into her arms and rocked me back and forth, while I cried. She stroked my hair saying

"Shhhh... We're here now. We wont let them touch you again. Okay?" I nodded and hugged her.

That was the old Evelyn. Now she's mean just like Marcus, but what are you going to do.

I had finished sobbing, but some stray tears were rolling down my face as Marcus came in. He had a look of shock on his face and then he kneeled down next to me and wiped away the tears. He had taken me out of Evelyn's arms and quietly picked me up and walked to a room and place me in a bed.

"This is your room, Beatrice. You'll be safe here no matter what. He gently kissed where the bump was on my cheek and right under my eye and said that they were going to take good care of me.

I had believed them. Until I was 10. I had run into the kitchen where Marcus and Evelyn were and asked them for a piece of Dauntless cake. Marcus slammed his fist down in the table and yelled at me. He told me that we value selflessness. Abnegation. Not Dauntless. That Dauntless was for weirdos. I tried to object saying it was just cake, when he pulled out his belt and yanked me by my hair to the wall. He pulled my shirt off of me and started to whip me. I had screamed until I passed out, which was after 9 whips. That was the day Evelyn, Marcus, and even Caleb started treating me like a pig.

Caleb was in the same grade as me and would torment me. Finally I made some friends, but as I grew older and the beatings grew longer, Marcus worried that I would tell them. That is why I moved.

FLASHBACK ENDS~~~~~~~~~~

I sigh and realize that today is my first day of high school. I quietly run down the stairs and see Marcus sitting on the couch watching TV. I slip into to the kitchen and cram a piece of toast down my throat and I say,

"I'm here father." He jumps up and yells at me to go stand against the wall and take off my shirt.

I do as I am told and he says his common catch phrase.

"Beatrice this is for your own good."

He whips me and I bite my tongue to keep from crying out in pain. He whips me again, and again, and again, and again, and again, until I finally can't take it anymore. I scream and fall down to the ground.

Marcus pulls me back up.

"Listen to me little girl. You are not to tell anyone about this. Do you understand me? If you do, you will die and so will that person. Now get out of my house!" He yells.

I nod and look away, not wanting him to see the tears that have gathered in my eyes. He puts his belt back on, gives me one last death glare, and goes back to watching TV. I turn, grab my shirt, and slowly begin to climb the stairs, wincing every time my foot touches the ground. Just as I reach the top, Caleb comes out of his room and shoulders me and gives me a glare. I cry out in pain, as he says, "What stiff, can't take it anymore?"

I run to my bathroom and take out my numbing cream. I groan as I see that there is barely any left. I scrape the remaining bit of it on my fingers and rub it on my back. I sigh, knowing that that there is no way that the cream will last me the whole day. I jog to my closet and out on my tank top that I use after beatings. If one of my wounds does open then this shirt will absorb most of the blood. I throw on my shirt, grab my keys and run out the door knowing that I'm late.

I run to my car and think to myself,

'Way to make a good first impression Beatrice.'