𝙎𝙒𝙀𝘼𝙏. 𝙎𝙊 𝙈𝙐𝘾𝙃 𝙎𝙏𝙄𝘾𝙆𝙔, itchy, nasty sweat that covered her entire body in a nice thin coat. It dripped from her hairline into her eyes, from her nose into her mouth. Her skin was fried and red from sunburns and the heat was unbearable. Just that morning, four people had to be sent to the Med-Jacks because of it. Disgusting could not even begin to describe how she felt, but nonetheless, she continued to haul ass on a house-in-progress alongside Gally and the other Builders.
Throughout the nine days of work, the murmurs of her being seen as a weak girl were driving her insane. All day, every day, a pack of rude boys would intentionally try to degrade her with their words before they even truly knew her and her capability to do just as much work as the rest of them.
I give her two more days before she gets all bossy and needy and I run into the Maze myself... At least we finally have a woman in the Glade to take care of some light housekeeping, those poor suckers won't have to Slop anymore... She's probably just here to repopulate... She won't last another day here—she's a useless shuckin' twig.
Despite the fact that their criticism bothered her almost as much as the swarm of gnats that refused to leave her alone, she chose to ignore it and prove them wrong, that she wasn't and wouldn't be weak and useless. She had made it through nine days of hard, tiring work in the Glade with only five days left before Nick would finally assign her a place and to say the least, she was kicking some ass at those jobs—a direct quote from Gally. The work was exhausting but it felt good knowing she wasn't allowed special treatment to slack off. They treated her like one of them; a Glader. At least, some of them did. A handful of them was respectful and willing to give her a chance and she appreciated every last bit of it.
Gally finally released them for lunch after every last support beam was secured in place. She was excited to eat and not because of the food itself, but because of her new friends Dmitri, Scott, and Gally too. She was pretty bummed that she wouldn't be able to work with them until after lunch, but at least she could see them at lunch before it was too hot to even speak.
It was quite an interesting story of the day they met: on her day as a Track-Hoe, a boy by the name of Simon—being the supposed clumsy person he was—had lost his balance while reaching for an apple on a too-high-up branch and fell. It resulted in Simon knocking the poor girl out of the tree. Oddly and lucky enough, just below the branches was Scott and Dmitri carrying the long and heavy trunk of a tree towards their current project. Scott seemed to be at the right place at the right time as the trunk slipped from his grip and he effortlessly yet unintentionally caught her before she hit the ground.
"Way to go, Scott, you finally got a girl to fall for you!" Laughter erupted at Dmitri's joke and she scrambled out of Scott's hold. After the humiliated girl shamefully adjusted her clothing and snatched her missing left boot from the ground to frustratedly shove her foot back inside, Dmitri struck up a conversation and plopped down next to her to begin picking leaves and twigs out of her hair. Their company only lasted about ten minutes because Gally started shouting at them to get back to work. But since then, she ate her meals with those same two builders every day.
And they drove her nuts.
Never would she have thought boys could be any more wild and immature. Dmitri, Scott, and Gally seemed to have proved her wrong, they were like children. Gally was the one she least expected it from, he was always so serious about building and was usually barking orders at everyone.
Every day someone would get food thrown at them or a chair pulled out from under them by the three rambunctious Builders. And even though it happened every day, it never got old. In a place like the Glade, really anything remotely humorous was needed and they were the ones who happened to provide it. She could hardly follow their boyish humor and inappropriate jokes, but she would pretend to every day even if that meant she had to take a grape or two to the eye (or two).
Dinner and an interactive show, she called it.
Normally she would have washed up before eating, but Building was a major load of work and she was absolutely starving to the point where she almost started gnawing on a piece of wood. The air was a good five degrees cooler inside the Homestead. Not much, but good enough for her considering it felt like 100 degrees out in the sun—it most likely was. Most of the Gladers were already inside with their food, she searched the room quickly to find her friends as she picked up a sandwich, an apple, and a water bottle. Her eyes landed on a raised hand in the air connected to a beaming Scott who waved her over. She weaved between the tables and plopped down next to Scott, across from Gally and Dmitri.
"You know," Gally said with a mouthful of food. She grimaced as he continued. "We should just come up with a name for you, at least until you remember your real name. It's kinda tough trying to catch your attention."
"We already have, it's Greenie," Dmitri snorted.
She rolled her eyes and bit into her apple, then taking a swig of water. "I mean, anything could be better than being called Greenie. Go for it."
Scott nodded his head slowly, furrowing his eyebrows as he searched his mind for a name. "Alright, how about, uh... Gladys?"
"No way! I'm not an old lady, Scott." She tried to appear annoyed with him, but she couldn't help but crack a smile as he teased her.
"I kinda like it, it suits you. You're so cranky and bossy all the time, just like an old lady," Gally piped in.
She scoffed and placed her hand on her chest in mock offense. "I am so not bossy and cranky! You're all delusional."
"Me? Delusional? Please remind me again who's the one who fell out of a tree the other day."
She threw her hands up in exasperation. Stupid boys pushing her buttons. "What, that wasn't even my fault! I was pushed. I could have died, does no one care that I had a near-death experience?"
"Runners have near-death experiences nearly twice a week. You're not that special, kid," Scott said, earning an elbow to the abdomen.
She scoffed yet again. "Kid? You're not that much older than me, kid."
It didn't take them long to finally finish their food and take their time to get back to work. Gally standing up signaled the rest of the Builders to finish up and get back to work.
The second she stood up, she tried her hardest to ignore the feeling of someone eyes glaring at her. It was a strange feeling: cold, making her shiver. She didn't want to turn around and see who it was, but she did anyway. Her breath hitched when her eyes immediately met those of a dark-haired boy glaring daggers at her with his arms crossed on the table. He didn't even try to hide the fact that he was staring straight at her and his eyes only narrowed further at their eye contact. She didn't hesitate to turn straight around and head towards the exit, the uncomfortable feeling following her along with his eyes on her.
The second the heat of the sun landed on her, she unintentionally let out an exasperated sigh without realizing it. Dmitri noticed and nudged her with his shoulder. He asked, "You okay there?"
Her head snapped up to his, eyes squinting at him through the sunlight. She cleared her throat and shrugged. "Uh, yeah. That was just... weird I guess."
"What was weird?"
She glanced back at the Homestead, and when she found Glaring Boy walking beside another group of boys, she immediately wished she hadn't looked back. "I don't mean to call anyone out, but that guy keeps glaring at me. I know a lot of guys don't necessarily like me, but he's looking at me like I killed his entire family."
She cringed when all three of them immediately—and quite obviously—looked back.
"Oh, that's just Pierre," Gally answered simply, offering no further explanation.
"...Okay, so can anyone tell me why he's damning me to hell with his eyes?" They all shrugged simultaneously, which creeped her out for a split second, and murmured things among each other that she couldn't understand. "Quit being so difficult, speak up!"
"Well," Dmitri began. "Pierre's just... a dick. All the time. To everyone. That's just the way he is, really; just an angry, bitter person. Oh, and when Newt became Nick's third I don't think Pierre was too happy about it, pretty sure he wanted that spot for himself but with an attitude like that, you ain't always gettin' what ya want. But don't worry about him, okay? Ignore him, we all do."
"Guy's a shuckin' creep," Scott grumbled, glaring right back at Pierre with just as much ferocity,
Can't be too hard to ignore him, right?
· · ────── · ❦ · ────── · ·
Finally building beside Scott and Dmitri made her current state of sweat and nastiness just a fraction more bearable. Instead of silence and boredom, she was constantly laughing because of them. Of course, Gally had to get them back on track a few times, but he always had a hint of a smile on his face no matter how stern he was attempting to be.
Hours later, the sun was descending closer and closer to the West doors and she was nearing the end of her job: the roof. She managed to tune out everyone as she hammered the nails down and was deep in thought. Her mind wandered back to their conversation today—about her name. Every day that passed made her more and more eager to just remember. She felt so out of place and couldn't shake the feeling no matter how hard she tried. And the harder she thought about it, the more she slowed down her movements and eventually came to a complete stop, resting her chin on her knee with her arms limply beside her. One hand was holding a hammer, in the other a nail.
Gally noticed soon, and he snapped his finger in front of her face to bring her back to reality. Dmitri and Scott seemed to have tuned into the conversation a few feet away. "Uh, you good, Greenie? You look awfully distracted."
"Can I be serious with you guys for a minute?" She asked timidly. They looked startled for a moment, but they nodded for her to go on, eager to know what caused their friend's mood to change. "I was thinking about it—my name—you know, trying to remember what it was. No matter how hard I do, it's just not there. I even thought about just going by some other random name like you guys were saying but... I don't know, they don't feel like they could be my name, you know? Does that even make any sense?" Once again, she had a hard time trying to put her thoughts and feelings into words.
They hesitated, maybe processing it, and then finally nodded in agreement.
"And," Dmitri added. "You can't go by Greenie forever. Someone else is gonna come up in the Box and steal your title. But, you shouldn't worry about it too much. I'm sure you'll remember by then."
"Yeah, I hope so." He reached over and gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder, which she returned with a half-smile.
They resumed their work, she was back to kneeling over a stack of wood and a pail of nails hammering down each slab to create the roof, and she was nearly finished. In the process of securing the last piece, Dmitri stood up to retrieve the bucket beside her. Funny thing is, he tripped, and his body collided with hers. Her hands flew around in search of anything to grab onto as she tumbled over the edge... head first.
The world seemed to slow as the grass beneath her grew closer and closer to her face; she shut her eyes. Gravity pulled her down... then abruptly came to a stop when a hand wrapped around her ankle. Her body jerked and she felt a nice pop in her knee.
She screamed as she fell, but so did someone else. Her eyes shot open and she was face-to-face with an upside down Newt with an utterly horrified and confused look on his face. Very, very, very awkward to say the least.
"Uh..." She reached up—or down?—and waved. "Hey, Newt?"
"What in the world are you doing?" His eyes flickered up to Scott holding onto her ankle for dear life, noticing her foot was slowly starting to slide out of her shoe. "What the bloody hell is happening?"
"Hey, Newt, a little help would be nice," Scott called through gritted teeth from his place on the roof.
In a flash, her foot broke free from the boot and before she knew it, she landed in the blonde boy's arms. Her dark eyes met Newt's and she groaned and removed herself from him. Throughout the encounter, his face held confusion and she had to force herself not to laugh at the poor kid.
She looked up to see Scott, Dmitri, Gally, and all the other Builders on the roof bursting into fits of laughter. She hoped her face was already burned enough from the sun to hide the fact that it was reddening from embarrassment. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Newt's face had brightened as well and just when she thought it couldn't get any worse, behind him was Minho, Will, and Santiago trying to contain their laughter having witnessed the whole thing as well.
She huffed and threw her hand up in the air, using her free hand to shield her squinting eyes from the sun. "May I please have my shoe back?"
Without a word, it fell right into her hand and just like the unfortunate time before, and angrily shoved her left foot back inside.
Once again, she adjusted her shirt and pushed her hair out of her face before turning to Newt. "Thanks for, like, saving my life, I guess."
She gave him a tight-lipped smile and friendly pat on the shoulder before brushing past him.
Except her leg gave out. And she landed flat on her face in the grass.
That was weird.
Santiago and Newt rushed to her side, offering her help but she hauled herself up on her own. She brushed grass off her clothing and blew her hair out of her face, again. "Okay, I'm so over falling. From now on, if I do it again, just let me die. I think the universe just wants me to."
With a laugh, Santiago said, "Are you okay though?"
She only nodded and started to walk away again but as soon as she took a step with her left, she had to brace herself for the next fall that came. Only, she was stopped by hands grabbing her arms and keeping her from hitting the ground again.
"Alright, to the Med-Jacks we go."