Chapter Text
Ever since I could remember I had been in my mother’s shadow, I was known as Jeanine Matthews daughter, something I heavily disliked. I wasn’t as smart as my mother, her IQ was way above average while mine was the average, this meant that no one saw me just the fact that I was the smart woman’s average daughter. That was until I met Eric, we had always been in the same classes growing up so we knew of each other, but seeing as no one ever spoke to me in fear of my (not so nice) mother it meant we were twelve by the time we actually began to speak to each other.
It started with a new classroom layout, the teacher had said that some people were not concentrating hard enough, that people were distracted by their friends sitting next to them and they were going to change the seats so we sat next to someone we didn’t know; I’m sure the groans coming from the students could’ve been heard in the classrooms all the way down the hall. I was usually put on my own so I didn’t mind much, maybe I could make a friend (though there was still a lot of doubt in my mind about that). When Eric was put next to me we didn’t speak at all. He obviously knew who I was from my surname - and the number of times my teachers had told me that they would tell my mother about my failing grades stating that they didn’t understand how I could have come from the smartest women in the faction - but he didn’t know me. It was a few lessons after the seating was changed when we first interacted; I was struggling with a question - it must’ve been obvious to him even if I was trying to hide it - he had looked over at me a couple of times before pushing his workbook into my view showing me the working out he had done. The next few lessons had been the same until one day after class he ran after me trying to grab his attention. The words caught everyone’s attention as they stared at him in surprise but they all quickly lost interest and walked away. He had come to a stop in front of me, huffing out a breath before speaking,
“I know you’ve been struggling in your classes and I was wondering if you would like some help studying?” the question caused my breath to get caught in my throat, never had anyone wanted to help me before, not the teachers, not my mother and never another student, so this was a shock. I slowly nodded my head in answer and smiled slightly at him not knowing what to say. To my surprise, he smiled back before speaking again,
“Cool, how about tomorrow after class, we head to the library and we can start on whatever you want?”
“I would like that, thank you.” he seemed surprised that I had spoken but quickly got over it before smiling once more and began to walk towards the gates which lead us out of the school. Getting home that night I was smiling non-stop, which obviously caught my ever-observant mother as she questioned me,
“Why are you so smiley, lovey.” even if my mother was a bit obsessive with my average IQ she wasn’t completely put off and cared for me how a mother should,
“Oh, I.. um... Well, I’m going to get help with my work tomorrow - from another student.”
“Who?”
“The Coulter’s son, Eric, sits next to me in class and saw that I was struggling with some of the work and offered to help me.” I caught myself rambling, looking up at my mother to gauge her reaction, which was an odd look of content.
“That was awfully kind of him, I wonder why? Though your teachers have been increasing their phone calls home to say that your grades are dropping so this may help get them back on track.”
The next day after class Eric and I walked towards the library, we were silent the whole time not knowing what to say to each other, my head was running wild with the thought that Eric had changed his mind or that he would walk me into a prank where his actual friends would have a laugh at me, but none of that happened as we found a table and pulled out our workbooks. Eric launched into our first lesson, teaching me the formulas I would need for the first question in the revision book. By the end of the day, we had laughed and spoken like we were old friends, being told by the librarian to be quiet on more than one occasion even though there was hardly anyone in there. We had decided to study every day after class, and every study session went the same - getting to know each other and revising for the end of year exams - my mother had stated that the teachers started to call home and tell her how I was beginning to get better at the work I was given and that my grades were rising above the class average rapidly, which she was very happy with. Soon enough we began to see each other on the weekends, just to hang out not to do work, we would sit in the local park and chat and occasionally he’d bring a ball and we would play football. We would talk about things we had never told anyone, like the fact that he couldn’t wait to get away from his parents even if he stayed in Erudite after the ceremony - to me stating that I wanted to get away from being in my mother’s shadow for the rest of my life and that I wanted to prove myself. We had both discussed what other faction we thought we would go to, both stating that Dauntless seemed like the best option though I admitted that Amity seemed like a good option as well; I had always adored their simple life and their peace, though I had quickly stated that I wouldn’t get to prove myself in that faction. Eric understood though, he always seemed to understand me, even stating one time that he seemed to understand my emotions and thoughts better then I did, which was true - I had never been good with knowing how I felt only knowing that I had a constant feeling of being trapped in a place that wasn’t me.