𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐋𝐒 || 𝐠𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭

He did not even wait a second for the Greenie to prepare before running towards him and shoving him to the edge of the circle. Zart and some others grabbed him and pushed him back inside, but Gally used the momentum from that to throw him into the dirt behind him.

The Keeper just smiled as he got up slowly. "Come on, Greenie. We're not done yet. Show us what you got."

"Stop calling me Greenie," he grunted out as laughter echoed throughout the group of boys around them.

"Stop calling you that? What do you wanna be called? Shank? What do you think, boys? Does he look like a Shank?" Gally questioned, and every yelled out positive answers. The Greenie then lunged toward him. They fought for a second before he was thrown to the ground once again, and Alex winced. Come on! You know what? I think I've settled on Shank."

He ran into Gally again, and the girl finally yelled out, "Let's go, Greenie!" He voice distracted Gally for a split second which was just long enough for the boy in the blue shirt to throw him into the dirt. Everyone gasped in shock.

"Not bad for a Greenie, huh?" he asked, but then the Keeper swept his foot under him, causing him to fall to the ground next to him. He hit his head on the ground hard and groaned as Gally got up.

"Thomas. Hey," the Greenie exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet. He looked around in amazement and chuckled, "Thomas! I remember my name. I'm Thomas!"

After a second, they all smiled and shouted, "Thomas!" They approached the new member of their group and embraced him all together, giving him drinks and pats on the back.

"Good job, Thomas," Gally told him, shaking his hand, which shocked all of them, especially Alex since all he had been able to talk about was how much he hated the boy.

Their moment was interrupted by a screeching in the distance.

Their heads whipped toward the Maze as the all too familiar and unpleasant sound met their ears once again. Thomas questioned after a couple seconds, "What the hell was that?"

"That, my friend, was a Griever."

《 ✢ 》

AS THEY BEGAN TO PACK UP the bonfire, Alex took her chance to speak to the Greenie.

"What's up, Greenie? You seem distracted," she said as she approached him. This was the first time she had talked to him other than when she introduced herself.

He looked a little startled when he heard her voice, and Alex thought back to how jumpy she was when she first came up. He calmed down when he saw that it wasn't a threat. "Sorry. This whole thing has just got me a bit freaked out."

"You would be crazy if you weren't freaked out. You'll get used to it," she assured him. They both looked over to where the Keeper of the Builders was glaring at them. Once he realized he had been caught, he looked away and went back to bossing people around. It took him a second to react though, so the pair saw the entire thing. "I see you've met Gally."

"Yeah, what is his problem anyway?" he questioned, looking over at her since the boy hadn't been exactly welcoming since he arrived. In fact, he had been the exact opposite of welcoming. Gally had never been the nicest person, but something was a bit off this time.

She sighed, not knowing exactly how to describe Gally, especially since he had been particularly rude to this Greenie for whatever reason. She explained, "He's just like that. He'll bully you for a bit, but after a while, he'll get bored. Or you'll die."

"Oh, thanks," he joked.

"No problem," she responded with a smile. There was a pause between the two before she broke the silence. She quizzed curiously, "So, you start trying out jobs tomorrow. Any idea on what you wanna do?"

He did not skip a beat before he answered confidently, "I'm gonna be a Runner."

"You dead set on that?" she wondered, shocked that he chose that to be the job he really wanted to have. Usually, it was a punishment for the Greenie to be a Runner. Most of the time, they came back from their first day crying with a million cramps.

He nodded. "Yep."

"Well, then, good luck. You know what, Greenie? I hope you don't die. You don't seem like the worst person to have around," she told him as she started to walk away. She really wanted to go to bed.

"Thanks," he said, and as she got further away, he yelled, "And my name's Thomas."

She was on her way to the Homestead when someone came up behind her. She turned toward them, but then she kept walking forward when she saw who it was. "Gally, what do you want?"

"I, uh, I want to apologize for, uh, yelling at you earlier," he informed her, and her jaw almost touched the ground. Never, in the three years that she had known him, had she heard him apologize for anything at all ever.

Brushing off her shock, she waved him off since she wasn't actually that mad. "It's fine."

"So, we're good?" he asked her, and she became aware of how worried he actually was that she was mad at him, which was pretty confusing because he never cared about what people thought.

"Yeah, we're good. I know you didn't mean it," she assured him, and then she remembered the moment after the fight when he had welcomed the Greenie to the Glade after he remembered his name. "Plus, I saw you being nice to the Greenie earlier."

He raised his eyebrows. "You noticed that?"

"Yes, I did. You were very polite," she replied, nodding her head slowly to show that she was proud of him for not being a total jackass for once.

"I was, wasn't I?" he said as they reached the door of the building which meant that it was time for them to depart since only she had a room in the Homestead. "I think I should get a prize or something."

She smiled and reached for the handle of the door, but she was still looking at him. "Oh, what did you have in mind?"

"I'll have to get back to you on that one."