The Change

Chapter 6

As we were approaching the Doors, George was yelling out who got what 'section' today. When we got there we only stood for about five seconds before the great stone walls started moving. I covered my ears as the the scraping of the walls made me cringe. Newt looked over to me concerned, but I gave him a reassuring smile. "Okay, let's go!" George shouted the Runners and started sprinting into the maze.  The Runners soon followed suit. "Have fun today," Newt said right before he was supposed to leave. "Don't get lost," I called out after him. I saw turn around and flash me a smile. I smiled back and the smile was plastered onto my face until I got back to my hammock.

I decided to go and change my shirt in the bathroom. Afterwords, I was going to head to ask Frypan where I was supposed to meet the Gardening Keeper when I saw Gally and his gang approaching me. I quickly turned on my heels and started walking quickly in the opposite direction. "Hey Greenie! Where you going?" Gally called after me. I heard his friends snicker behind me. "Hey. Hey!" Gally snapped and grabbed my wrist tightly. I felt my heart stop and jump to my throat. He spun me around to face him. His friends enclosed around us so that no one on the outside could see what was going on.

"Look at me when I am speaking to you," he growled. I looked into his icy blue eyes and glared since there was nothing else I could do. I couldn't let him see I was scared. "I just wanted to wish you luck on your second day in the Glade," he said while using his free hand to push a strand of my hair out of my face. I don't know what came over because I snapped back, "Thanks, but I won't be needing it." Gally was clearly taken aback by these words. So much so that he let go of my wrist.

"Fiesty. Well, it'll keep things interesting," Gally said before smirking and walking away with his friends behind him. A disgusted shiver ran down my spine as I tried to push what happened out of my mind.  I could still feel where his fingers grazed my face to move my hair.  I took a deep breath and continued my journey to go see Frypan.

"Hey Frypan," I said when I finally found him. He was sitting down on a bench talking with a few other Gladers. "Greenbean! Back already?" Frypan asked with a smile. "I was just wondering if you could point me in the direction of the Gardens?" I asked. "Of course, it's not too far. Just go out and take about 20 steps to the left. Well, maybe 25, since you're on the shorter size," Frypan said sizing me up. "Thanks," I said before hurrying off to the Gardens.

I found them without any trouble and approached the group of Gladers discussing something by a toolshed. I walked over and joined the semi circle that formed around one of the Gladers, the Keeper, I presume. There weren't that many boys there which made me relax a bit more. "Okay, so rows one through four will need to go through some serious weeding because it seems we have neglected them a bit. Rows six through eight need to be trimmed. All the rows need to be fertilized and watered," the Keeper said. The boys all grumbled with agreement and they all grabbed their tools and started heading off to their rows.

"Um hey, I'm new," I said to the Keeper after the boys have left. He spun around to look at me. "Ah yes! You do stand out quite a bit! My name is Zart," said the boy sticking out his hand to shake. I accepted while introducing myself. Zart had short, curly, blond hair, that fell right above his sky blue eyes.

"You'll be working with me in row three for most of the morning. It won't be the most exciting task since we will be pulling weeds that these shanks have been ignoring all week," Zart said sighing, "but if you end up as a Gardener, I promise when it's time to harvest, things get a little more exciting!" I smiled and nodded while wonder how picking fruits and vegetables could be in any way exciting. I spent the better half of the morning trying to identify what was a weed and what was a plant and janking out plenty of pesky weeds.

I made a few friends during the whole weed pulling fiasco, and before heading to lunch I watered off my section. I have to say I was pretty much covered in dirt, but I didn't care, it was quite therapeutic. On top of that, I got to walk into lunch, talking and laughing with people. Sadly, after lunch I needed to head over to the Slicers' hut, and I was not looking forward to it. I already made up my mind to refuse to cut any heads off.

When I finally convinced myself to step inside the hut I was greated by a smell that made my eyes water. "Oh, hey Greenbean! I'm Winston, the Keeper of the Slicers," a boy with dark skin and curly hair said while wiping his hands off on his bloody apron.  Other than his blood stained apron, everything in the hut seemed to be pristinely cleaned.  "Woah!" Winston said when he took a good look at me. Oh great, here comes the comment about my body. "You are so dirty!" Winston exclaimed. Did I say that out loud?

"I cannot let you anywhere near the meat looking like that! It looks like you rolled around in dirt!" Winston continued frantically. "Oh, right. Sorry, I was working in the Gardens before this," I said, feeling bad that I sent the guy who owns most of the knives in the Glade into a panic. "There's a sink in the back. Wash off and then we'll get to talking about what you'll be doing," Winston said still baffled I'd have the audacity to come into his hut covered in dirt. "And don't touch anything!" he yelled after me. "Got it!" I yelled back to reassure and hopefully calm some of his nerves.  I don't want to remind myself that he owns many knives.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly, Winston had me mostly on cleanup duty and feeding the pigs out back. He didn't say it himself, but I think he didn't trust me around the meat after I showed up in dirt. I've got to say, if that's what saved me from killing anything, I was okay with it.

That evening, I sat down to dinner with my usual two friends, Minho and Newt. They talked about their day, and I told them about mine. "Oh, I remember when I first worked with Winston! Great guy! Almost chopped my fingers off though so I guess I wasn't a great fit," Minho said after I told them about the mini heart attack I gave Winston when I came back from the Gardens. "I can't see you slicing off the heads of chickens," I commented while pretending to examine Minho. "No? I think I'd be a natural!" Minho joked and we all chuckled.

It was nice having people that I could discuss my day with. Newt told us that he thought he found a lead in the maze and he was very excited about it. He really thought it could be something big. Minho and I both agreed that we were both very interested to see where the lead took him. "Hey Newt, do you know what I'm doing tomorrow?" I asked as we were getting up to leave to hit the hammocks. "Uh, Runners first, then Medjacks," he replied. I got an estatic bubble in my chest when I heard him say I'd be running tomorrow.

"I get to run in the maze tomorrow!" I exclaimed with excitement. "Yes," Newt chuckled, "Don't get too excited though, it's not as glamorous as it looks." "I doubt it'll be worse that whatever being a Slopper is," I said. "Probably, but you don't want to be running around with those shanks, it'll be so boring," Newt said waving his hands in emphasis. "Well, I thought I'd run with you," I said quietly.

Newt stopped in his tracks. "You'd want to spend a whole morning with me? Alone?" he asked in disbelief. "Well, if you put it that way, maybe I'll reconsider," I said, taken a little aback. "Oh! No, that came out wrong. Shuck! Um, well usually George takes the Greenies out, and I really need to get on that lead that I found yesterday, but I wouldn't mind having to spend a whole morning together. If I had the choice," Newt rambled while walking after me. "Really?" I asked stopping in my tacks to look at him. "Really," he said smiling down at me.