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THE YOUNG GODS
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
" FALLING DOWN "
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ROSIE SHIFTED UNCOMFORTABLY on her bed hearing voices from afar in her sleep. It felt as if she had slept for an hour or two before smelling the fire they always start in the mornings. Rosie bolted awake when a loud bang was heard at her bedroom door.
Before she could react, Frypan bolted inside yelling, "Get up! We need to get out! Now!" The scared boy turned to the girl grabbing onto her arm pulling her out of her bed.
"Fry!" Rosie yelled his hand still gripping onto her arm as she stood up trying to figure out what was happening, "what's going on!?"
"The building's on fire." Frypan spoke quickly reassuring her, "Ander's okay."
Rosie followed Frypan out of her room noticing most bedrooms emptied out, Gally and Alby were across from her in Newt's room pulling the injured boy out of bed. "Why are you still in here!" Gally growled at Rosie, immediately furious that she was one of the last to get out.
"I just woke up," Rosie spoke before the smoke got stronger and a piece of the ceiling on fire fell down a few feet away from them.
"Go! Now!" Alby yelled pushing Rosie in front of them all five rushing out of the Homestead.
Nick rushed around counting the boys making sure no one else was inside. "Winston!" Nick yelled not able to find him nearby.
Rosie turned around looking for the boy. He clearly wasn't inside since she saw his bedroom empty. "He's over here!" Clint yelled from the benches. Winston sat on the bench with Clint wrapping his arm with a white bandage.
"Everyone out?" Nick asked as majority of the boys worked together to gather the bit of water supply they had left. Rosie grabbed a bucket throwing the water at the fire that instead of decreasing became more intense. Everyone backed up as the top two floors collapsed down burning the whole kitchen in ashes.
Everyone stared at the building on fire almost non-existing. They couldn't do anything about it, the water they had saved had run out. A drop fell on Rosie's head causing her to look up at the dark sky. Droplets of water started rushing down on them and in a matter of seconds the Gladers had water pouring down on them.
"Gather the buckets! Fill them up!" Nick yelled grabbing two buckets himself waiting for them to fill up. Everyone did as they were told placing down the buckets to get water. The fire fought for a few minutes to stay on but it soon started to die out with the rain winning over.
All of the Keepers and Leaders rooms were ashes, there were no more bedrooms nor beds including Rosie's. Looking down at the clothes she was wearing, it was a large t-shirt with baggy shorts and nothing else. She was barefoot and all of the clothes she owned burned down with the building. The kitchen was completely burned, none of the food inside was going to work luckily for the cooks, a lot of their supplies were in their outside kitchen.
Turning around Rosie sprints to her best friend who was laid on a bench recovering from the incident. "Are you okay?" She spoke reaching Ander as he nodded holding out for her hand.
Rosie intertwined her fingers with his sitting down wondering what the Gladers were going to do. "How did it even happen?"
She shook her head, "I don't know. Fry woke me up and before I knew it I was standing outside watching it burn down."
"I'm fine!" A voice behind them argued as Rosie turned around to see Gally being followed by Jeff. His eyes found Rosie as he pointed at her, "Little thorn! Tell, Jeff, I'm fine, please!"
A little smile formed on the girl's lips as she asked, "why wouldn't you be fine?"
"Rosie, what he's not telling you is he got burned on his shoulder!" Jeff explained which got Rosie to widen her eyes in concern.
"Gally sit down, now!" Rosie exclaimed grabbing a hold of his other arm and pulled him to sit down on the bench she was on.
A groan left his lips as he complained, "but I'm fine, it doesn't even hurt that bad!"
"Jeff, I got him." Rosie muttered as Jeff nodded explaining what she had to do before handing her the cream and leaving. "Why do you have to be such an idiot?" She questioned him.
"Hey! I was helping people out of the fire." Gally defended himself as he watched her tug on his shirt before helping him take it off. Rosie admired his toned body realizing he was in good shape compared to other guys.
The boy cleared his throat grabbing her attention as she looked at him, "what?"
"You done checking me out?" Gally asked her a grin forming on his lips as he could see a bit of pink color forming on her cheeks. "I don't mind you staring but—ow!"
Rosie hit the boy in the head as she muttered, "I was not checking you out, you shank."
"Whatever you say, Princess." He replied making her stop her actions as she looked over at him again. "What now?"
"Princess, really?" She asked with her hands on her hips.
"What? I think it suits you." Gally replied pulling her arms to bring her more closer to him. "Now stop drooling and heal me so I can go and help."
Rolling her eyes she mocked the boy, "heal me so I can go and help." The girl uncapped the cream and spread it over his shoulder. She could feel the boy staring at her. "Stop looking at me like that," Rosie mumbled trying to avoid Gally's gaze and focus on his shoulder. She felt fuzzy inside and it was because of him.
"Like what?" He asked with a grin on his lips.
Rosie glanced at him making eye-contact with him, "like you could fall in love with me or something."
A chuckle left Gally's mouth as she moved her gaze back to his shoulder, "I mean I don't think that would be a bad thing, would you?"
A scoff left her lips as she questioned him, "you being in love with me? Doubt you'll ever be."
What Rosie didn't know was Gally was already falling for her. In this particular moment, Gally smiled wide as he shook his head playing around with her as he grabbed her chin to face him. "Anyone would be a fool not to fall for you, Little one." Gally stated letting go of her chin.
Butterflies erupted in her stomach as she shook her head with a giggle, "you're such a fool!"
"A fool for you?" He asked with a grin, "always."
"Shut up, idiot!" Rosie spoke as she made sure the cream was spread evenly. "You're good to go."
"Aw! You healed me!" Gally expressed standing up before muttering at her, "took ya long enough."
"Shut up!" Rosie exclaimed slapping his bare chest as he laughed before grabbing her waist to pull her to him.
The boy planted a quick kiss on the top of her head thanking her for helping him, "thank you."
"Yeah, no problem." She answered watching him slip his shirt back on and start walking off.
A few seconds later, Gally stopped walking and turned around to face her one last time before asking, "you wanna come with?"
"One sec." She lifted her pointer finger before looking over at her friend. "You'll be alright, if I go with him?" Rosie asked Ander who nodded.
"I'm fine," Ander reassured. "Go on."
A smile curved on Gally's lips as he could see a smile form on her lips as she nodded eagerly sprinting towards him. "Come on, you fool, they're waiting for us." Gally called out to her as she reached him and jumped on his back. The boy grabbed her by her thighs as she gripped her arms around his neck as he sprinted towards the group of leaders and keepers.
"WE STILL GOT THE empty construction over at the corner." Newt spoke currently sitting on the bench surrounded with the leaders and keepers. "We could use that as the Council meetings."
People turned their heads to see Minho walking towards them hoping their room wasn't burned down. "The map room is okay. Barely anything was touched in there." He spoke reaching the group relieved that his work was safe.
"Good, we can't let that be destroyed." Nick spoke running his hands, "back to what Newt suggested. It's currently empty, right?"
Gally nodded since he had been in charge of the building years ago but was task with other constructions. He was never able to finish it. "I could do some stabilization and I think it'll be good to go. Fits all of us."
"What about the kitchen? Anything restored?"
Frypan looked at Rosie who was sat on the bench next to Newt, "Most of the food we had stored in there isn't consumable anymore. A lot of it burned. Luckily most of the supplies were stored out here in this kitchen."
"I was talking to Rosie and we agreed on it together. We can remain out here as the Cooks. Let this be the permanent kitchen." Frypan suggested trying to lighten the work load for the Builders.
"So, main room that needs to be restored is the Med-Hut? And bedrooms?" The Keepers nodded waiting for their assignments, "Med-Jacks make sure to write a list of what you need that got burned in the fire. For now as of rooms, we'll be sleeping with the rest of the Gladers on hammocks. Cooks same as Med-Jacks write a list of what was lost and cook some breakfast before helping the rest. Everyone else can help with cleaning up the mess."
Rosie stood up sending Newt a small smile before walking towards the outside kitchen. Rosie grabbed paper from the bottom of one of the cabinets and a rusty pencil she found. "Jimmy, list off what we need for tomato soup."
The Cooks listed all of their meals and ingredients scratching off ingredients that was saved and what wasn't. All the Gladers helped pile up the burned wood into piles saving whatever they could and piling it on another spot.
Hours passed by since the fire and the boys had made a lot of progress with the building. The Cooks had finished their duties and wondered around helping with any tasks. Rosie spotted the British boy doing labor work with the rest of the boys.
"You should be resting, Newt." Rosie spoke reaching the boy who turned around once he heard his name.
A tired smile slowly formed on his lips, "don't worry, love, just giving the lads a hand. Nothin' to worry about."
Rosie raised her eyebrow paying attention to the tired sigh, sweat drowning his head, and heavy panting. Newt noticed the girl analyzing him and he quickly wiped off the excess sweat trying to relax his heartbeat. She was right, he should definitely be sitting this one out especially when he started feeling pain hours ago.
An understanding silence formed between them causing Newt to speak up again, "fine, fine, I'll sit down for a bit." Rosie smiled as Newt headed to the nearest bench but stopped midway before turning around, "fancy a chat?"
"Yeah." He extended his hand offering it to her which she hesitantly accepted nervous of the tingles that ran through her body.
"Nick told me I can't be a runner anymore." Newt spoke looking down at her hand he was holding as they sat down. "Bloody Minho told 'em."
Rosie let the boy's finger trail around her hand somehow soothing her nerves. She knew exactly what he was referring to but acted as if she didn't, "told them what?"
Newt dropped her hand fumbling with his own hands looking down, "that I tried to kill myself." He was blunt which Rosie didn't think he'd be. It's as if he didn't care that people knew anymore. Newt chuckled trying to cover his emotional pain, "More reason not to want me eh?"
"Don't laugh about it." Rosie spoke trying to gather her thoughts, "any sad emotion is valid."
A sigh came out of his lips and Rosie saw the hesitation in his eyes before replying, "I know you're overwhelmed with this place, with me. But I never thought that feeling would ever go away but it did for a brief moment at least. And it was in your presence, like right now talking to you, it makes me feel better. I know it sounds mad because I don't know you—you don't even know yourself. But—" Newt stopped talking thinking to himself that he was expressing himself too fast and too much. "Sorry. I'll stop."
Rosie shook her head holding back a smile, "no, finish what you were going to say."
Newt flustered and nervous looked up from his hands taking a breath finishing what he wanted to tell her, "I just wanted to know if, if you wanted to give me a chance with you, if you let me. You don't have to of course—"
"You have it." Rosie cut him off as her hands trailed from his arms to his rosy cheeks, "you've been having it." The corners of his mouth curved into a smile feeling her hands caress his skin. A sigh of relief left his lips knowing both of them were going to take this slow and not rush anything.