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"I’m sorry the clothes don’t fit," she says "I’m sure we can find some better ones for you if the Amity allow us to stay"

"They’re fine," I say "Thank you"

"I heard you were shot Do you need my help with your hair? Or your shoes?"

I am about to refuse, but I really do need help

"Yes, thank you"

I sit down on a stool in front of the mirror, and she stands behind me, her eyes dutifully trained on the task at hand rather than her reflection They do not lift, not even for an instant, as she runs a coh my hair And she doesn’t ask about my shoulder, hoas shot, what happened when I left the Abnegation safe house to stop the siet the sense that if I were to whittle her down to her core, she would be Abnegation all the way through

"Have you seen Robert yet?" I say Her brother, Robert, chose Amity when I chose Dauntless, so he is somewhere in this co like Caleb’s and ht," she says "I left hirieve with h"

I hear a finality in her tone that tells me the subject is closed

"It’s a shame this happened when it did," Susan says "Our leaders were about to do so wonderful"

"Really? What?"

"I don’t know" Susan blushes "I just knew that so I didn’t s"

"I wouldn’t bla curious even if you had been"

She nods and keeps coAnd I can’t help butonderful I wish I could believe that of people again

If I ever did

"The Dauntless wear their hair down, right?" she says

"Sometimes," I say "Do you kno to braid?"

So her deft fingers tuck pieces of my hair into one braid that tickles the middle of my spine I stare hard at my reflection until she finishes I thank her when she’s done, and she leaves with a s the door behind her

I keep staring, but I don’t seethe back ofI spent with her My eyes ith tears, I rock back and forth on the stool, trying to push the memory from my mind I am afraid that if I start to sob, I will never stop until I shrivel up like a raisin

I see a sewing kit on the dresser In it are two colors of thread, red and yellow, and a pair of scissors

I feel calain I part ht and flat I close the scissors over the hair by one and everything is different? I can’t

I cut in as straight a line as I can, using uide The tricky part is the back, which I can’t see very well, so I do the best I can by touch instead of sight Locks of blond hair surround me on the floor in a se at ain

When Tobias and Caleb coet me later, they stare at me like I am not the person they knew yesterday

"You cut your hair," says Caleb, his eyebrows high Grabbing hold of facts in the midst of shock is very Erudite of him His hair sticks up on one side from where he slept on it, and his eyes are bloodshot

"Yeah," I say "It’stoo hot for long hair"

"Fair enough"

We walk down the hallway together The floorboards creak beneath our feet I miss the way my footsteps echoed in the Dauntless coround air But mostly I miss the fears of the past feeeks, rendered s The outside air presses around reen, the way a leaf does when you tear it in half

"Does everyone know you’re Marcus’s son?" Caleb says "The Abnegation, I lancing at Caleb "And I would appreciate it if you didn’t mention it"

"I don’t need to mention it Anyone with eyes can see it for themselves" Caleb frowns at hihteen"

"And you don’t think you’re too old to be with h "She isn’t your little anything"

"Stop it Both of you," I say A crowd of people in yelloalks ahead of us, toward a wide, squat buildingoff the panes feels like a pinch to

The doors to the building are wide open Around the edge of the circular greenhouse, plants and trees grow in troughs of water or small pools Dozens of fans positioned around the room serve only to blow the hot air around, so I a But that fades from my mind when the crowd before me thins and I see the rest of the rooe tree Its branches are spread over round, for a dense web of bark In the spaces between the roots, I see not dirt but water, andthe roots in place I should not be surprised--the Ariculture like this one, with the help of Erudite technology

Standing on a cluster of roots is Johanna Reyes, her hair falling over the scarred half of her face I learned in Faction History that the A, and the result is usually close to unanile mind, and Johanna is their mouthpiece

The As crossed, in knots and clusters that vaguely reseht rows a few yards to my left My eyes search the crowd for a few seconds before I realize what I’ for: et Tobias touches the s space, behind the Abnegation Before we sit down, he puts his mouth next to my ear and says, "I like your hair that way"

I find a sive hiainst his

Johanna lifts her hands and bows her head All conversation in the room ceases before I can draw my next breath All around me the Amity sit in silence, so words I can’t hear, so at a point far away

Every second chafes By the time Johanna lifts her head I am worn to the bone

"We have before us today an urgent question," she says, "which is: Hoe conduct ourselves in this time of conflict as people who pursue peace?"

Every Amity in the roo