A month flew by in what felt like the blink of an eye.
Ada felt like she'd fully settled into the Glade by now, as much as she can be. She has her job, her routine, her friends. Although, she hasn't spoken to that many people.
She's joint at the hip with Frypan. It was the shared love of cooking that pulled them together, and there's never a moment spent in or out of the kitchen where they're not roaring with laughter.
Newt's like a brother to her. He pretty much adopted her as a little sister because of their accents, and Ada's more than happy with having the blonde boy to look up to.
Through Newt, she's become good friends with Minho, who introduced her to Ben. They're definitely her favourite Runners; and Alby pretends not to notice when she slips them some extra bacon in the morning.
Alby has a soft spot for the girl. Maybe because she gives him extra bacon sometimes too. And she's more than a little clumsy in the kitchen, leading her to befriend the two Med-jacks as well.
But that's it. She has spoken to no one else - no more than a few sentences at least. A friendship with Zart seemed hopeful at first; but then he made a pass at her which the girl instantly shut down. No one found out, and she's just avoided him from then on.
Despite her interest in the Keeper of Builders Gally, the most contact they had shared was on the night of her arrival to the Glade, in which he wasn't even addressing her. She had only ever seen him building: ordering the others around, deadly focused, muscles looking great. At most, they had shared a few glances, brief but still leaving Ada with a strange sensation in her stomach.
And here she was, a month after her arrival, stood at the next Greenie's bonfire by herself.
The Greenie after her was a small chubby boy, with brown curly hair and an enthusiastic nature. Since she was the Greenie before him, she was tasked with showing him around the Glade and helping him to settle in. This led him to follow her around the whole day, like an excited puppy, and tire himself out so much that he was fast asleep instead of attending the bonfire in his honour.
When she learnt that it was tradition to help out the Greenie that arrived the month after you, her mind was of course filled with questions of, 'why wasn't I helped by whoever arrived before me?'. But she didn't need to ask them. The look on Newt's face when he told her of the tradition, told her everything she needed to know.
Obviously, the boy before her had died.
Ada was at the outskirts of the chaos. It was particularly wild this time, considering Minho had a day off the following day, meaning he was able to let loose and get as drunk as he possibly could. This only meant Newt had a lot more work to do in having to look after the mess of a Runner.
"Ada!"
The Runner in question had spotted the girl hanging back and sending wistful glances towards the quiet of the Deadheads, and chose to swoop in and direct her instead into the midst of the party. She let out a sigh but didn't verbally protest otherwise, letting Minho drag her onto a log beside him.
"I've been thinking-"
"-That's dangerous."
She jumped into his already slurring speech, earning a death glare and a sloppy shove to the shoulder. Biting her lip, she raised her eyebrows to tell him to continue.
"I've been thinking, that you need to start making the best of this place." She furrowed her eyebrows together and tilted her head to one side. The boy sighed, taking her confusion as a sign to further explain. "You've barely talked to anyone here, Ada!"
She shook her head in refusal, but deep down - so far down that it wasn't her conscious thoughts - she knew he was right. And who would've thought a drunk man would speak such truth? Only Minho could make more sense drunk than sober.
"You need to branch out, darling."
Although to Minho's face, she refused his words, she was now seriously considering them in her mind. She replayed the sentence over and over, trying her best to find an opportunity where she could speak to someone new or make a new friend.
But she had found nothing.
Tiredness weighing on her eyes and her mind, she was ready to give up, when she overheard a conversation a few feet away.
"It's not like there's a Greenie I can fight." Gally said with a chuckle, his fellow Builders snickering along with him.
This sparked Ada's interest.
It had become apparent that Gally traditionally fought the Greenie at their welcome bonfire; but hasn't at Chuck's - since he's only a kid - and neither did he at Ada's; despite the fact she was perfectly capable. Of course, she knew exactly why he hadn't.
Because she's a girl.
And then her mind repeated the words once again: you need to branch out, darling. It was probably the best thing Minho had ever said in his life.
I do.
"You can fight me." Her words came out louder than she anticipated, and the whole group fell into silence.
As she leapt up from the log, Gally's eyes met hers and she felt her stomach twisting nervously. But then, a nervous smile had settled on his lips, and she decided that she found it more than entertaining watching him squirm.
She strolled over towards him and his friends, standing at the edge of the sand pit traditionally used for the fights. Her movements caught the attention of many others boys at the bonfire, who sensed a fight would be happening, after the lack of one for two months.
They began to group around the sandpit, eyes all on a silent Gally, who was still just watching her carefully. She knew that she wasn't acting like he expected a girl to act, and she loved it.
"What?" She challenged, feeling a surge of adrenaline at his speechlessness. "Are you scared?"
Ada was smart with this word choice. She knew that it would elicit a response in Gally that would certainly end in a fight between the pair, and although she was sure she wouldn't be good at it, Minho's recommendation of 'branching out' was playing on repeat in her head. Who cares if she ended up with a few scratches?
"Definitely not, shebean."
The feminised nickname made her eyebrows shoot up, and she hid a laugh as the Gladers began to whisper amongst themselves, already placing bets on who would win. Gally's expression had turned purely serious, but the girl couldn't help the amusement crawling onto her face at the whole situation.
She stepped into the small sand arena, using either hand to roll up her sleeves and signal that she meant business. Gally stepped in after her, standing opposite her, looking surprisingly relaxed after his previous panic.
"You ready?"
This earned whoops of excitement and celebration from the Gladers watching on, despite the question not being aimed at them. She glanced quickly either way, and when she looked to her right, she could see Alby watching her thoughtfully. Turning back, she nodded.
It was easy enough to say you were ready. Whether you actually were or not, is a different story. Ada wasn't actually ready for Gally to lunge at her, although she declared that she was.
When his hands came threatening her wrists, she was too slow, and was forced to allow him to capture one. Luckily, she was quick enough to bring the other one away at the same time, and she leaned up on her tiptoes to hook her free arm around his neck and drag him away from her forcefully. He had no choice but to drop her wrist.
But that wasn't the end of it.
Gally came swinging back at her just as she let go of him, catching her at her prime vulnerability. His hands dug lightly into her shoulders and shoved her backwards. She stumbled back only a few steps, and it was then that she realised an important fact.
Gally's holding back.
His pushes were far too gentle to be maximum strength, and despite his claim about fighting everyone as harshly as possible, Ada knew it for certain. He was holding back because he thought her to be a weak, fragile, girl. At least, that's what the self-deprecative part of herself told her.
Gally went to 'lunge' for her again, his arm going for hers, and immediately she panicked; and maybe there was a little rage mixed in too. As she jerked her body away, her other hand instinctively made a fist and swung at his face, making contact.
As pain jolted through her knuckles and up her arm to her shoulder, she stumbled back in surprise, clapping a hand over her mouth. Gally had turned away as the crowds began to whoop and cheer for her, but she only felt riddled with guilty.
"Gally, I'm so sorry."
Her words were lost over the crowd's jeers and shouts of entertainment.
Although the boy's back was turned, she could see his finger coming up to his face to wipe some of the blood away from his mouth. Minho was laughing particularly loudly, clearly drunk, with his arm slung around Newt.
"Congrats, darling! You branched out!" He yelled out in delight, earning a bemused look from Newt and probably the other Gladers too, as no one but Ada and Minho knew where the phrase had come from.
I did shucking branch out.
In her distraction, Gally's foot suddenly hooked around her ankle, tugging towards himself and in doing so, sweeping the girl from her feet and onto her ass. However, the girl had quick reactions, and so this wasn't achieved without her latching onto his shirt and taking him down with her. And of course, due to his weight falling on top of her, this ended up with her pinned directly beneath him.
This is a nice angle.
Despite the small trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth, the boy had a smirk on his lips. He was raised up in a press-up above her, but his face was only inches from her own, meaning she could see every freckle dotted across his cheekbones and every speck of green in his bright eyes.
He was panting heavily; clearly, she knocked the breath out of him when she sent him to the ground with her. And although she tumbled to the ground harshly, she barely felt a thing. In fact, there wasn't even a scratch on her after their fight.
"Hi." He said, breathlessly, making her stomach do backflips.
"Hi." She repeated, also sounding breathless, despite not really getting tired out by the fight.
Dust was imprinting on the back of her clothes and into the locks of her hair, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She knew Frypan would be having a field trip seeing what was going on between two of his best friends - but she was enjoying it far too much to let it into her mind.
Shuck, he's hot.
"Alright lovebirds, Gladers, it's time to hit the hay." Alby broke the spell, and Gally moved in an instant, getting up off her and extending her a hand.
She took it, stumbling a little on her feet, and having to turn immediately away from Gally to hide her flustered expression. The Gladers - especially Minho - had broken out into a chaos of groans and disgruntled yells, but most of them obeyed the leader's orders, trailing off towards their hammocks.
Minho however, flung his arms around Ada, causing her to nearly fall flat on the ground once again. His breath tickled her face, as her nose wrinkled at the stench of Gally's alcohol on his breath.
"So proud of you Ada!" He dragged out her name as he squeezed her tightly in a hug. "I wish I could get a punch in on Gally without him going after me."
As he pulled away, she could see his pout, but she couldn't see Gally's amused expression. He folded his arms across his chest as Minho stumbled over to Newt again, who was cursed as the boy's babysitter.
"Drunk words are sober thoughts." Said Gally, suddenly appearing beside her, both watching as Newt had to haul Minho into the Homestead with great difficulty, as the boy expressed an urge to dance in the fire.
"You think he wants to dance in the fire?" She replied, with a smile on his lips, as she could hear Minho in the distance, playfully arguing with a sober - and irritated - Newt who was trying to get him back to their room.
"Probably." He responded with a low chuckle, making Ada's stomach flip at the sound. "It's Minho, you never know."
"You meant the punching thing though, right?" He nodded to confirm and Ada was forced to stifle a laugh as Alby strolled past with an empty glare, clearly refraining from asking them to get to bed for some unknown reason.
Although he didn't even ask them, both Gally and Ada stuttered over excuses of 'getting right to the Homestead' as the leader glided past them and to the wooden shack himself. They watched him leave in pure confusion, not knowing his secret plans of leaving them be in order to play matchmaker.
Ada suddenly felt extremely awkward. Despite her previous close proximity with Gally, she wouldn't call him her friend, since they had practically just met. And now, the pair were stood together - alone - with nothing to say.
Or so she thought.
"That was one way to meet, huh?" Gally commented, and Ada let out a nervous chuckle, remembering how good looking he was up close. At least in the dark, she could avoid fidgeting because she didn't have to keep eye contact with him.
"Hah, yeah..."
"That was one hell of a punch." He said, touching his finger to his lip and wiping the rest of the blood off. Ada cringed at the reminder she caused it. "I'd hate to get on your bad side."
"I'm sorry!" She dragged out the apology, her hands running through her dusty hair guiltily. "I really am Gally. It's just- you just came at me- and I panicked! I had to-"
Gally let out a hearty laugh and rested his hand on her shoulder, interrupting her rambling. She narrowly avoided flinching at the touch, despite the fact he was making her feel very nervous - in a way that made her heart thud a little harder and butterflies fill her stomach.
"It's okay. It was badass."
Badass.
She had to duck her head down to avoid Gally seeing her blushing cheeks. She felt ridiculous getting this flustered, and if she could stop it she would, but there was nothing she could do.
Except leave.
"Uh, I should go take a shower really."
Perfect: to avoid getting flustered around Gally, don't be around Gally. Now all I have to do is keep that up forever. It could definitely work, right?
"I can wait outside, make sure no one walks in."
And then her heart melted. His eyebrows were raised and his mouth just agape as he posed her the question, and she forgot all of her previous thoughts about avoiding him forever as she stared at the boy.
"That's really sweet, thank you."
To avoid making him feel more awkward, Ada pretended to not see the blush on Gally's cheeks as he brushed off her compliment in a modest way, and instead gestured towards the showers.