Four Boys, Two Crowns, and a Prom Campaign to the Death
Authors Note: This is my first chapter fic for The Maze Runner. I have this outlined to be around 12 chapters, but I'm awful with estimates. The main pairings are obviously Newt/Alby and Thomas/Minho, but some side pairings you'll see are Gally/Ben, Harriet/Sonya, Teresa/Brenda, and Aris/Rachel. Anyway, critique would be great!
Chapter 1
As the school day at Glade High came to an end the hallways filled with the noise of happy students leaving for the day, as well as noise from some students who were staying after for one reason or another.
Two such students were Thomas and Minho. The two boys in mention were trying to hang up a poster before track practice, but trying to get the poster level was turning into a bigger struggle than they had previously imagined.
"Would you just— Dude, what are you even trying to do?"
"What are you trying to do?"
Newt laughed from his spot leaning against a locker. They'd been going on like this for a while now.
It was finally reaching that time that so many Glade students had been waiting their whole high school careers for: Prom.
Well, junior prom at least.
Thomas and Minho may not have always been in that group, but upon deciding to date three weeks prior they had certainly fallen into it.
Meanwhile Newt still couldn't find it within himself to care. He wasn't much of a dancer, and all of the mystical firsts that people seemed to associate with prom he had already done with Alby, and in a much classier setting than under a disco ball in a room full of cheap crate paper, or in a dirty hotel room that didn't even have cable.
Still he was happy, or at least very amused, that Minho and Thomas were getting so into it. The two may have only been dating for a few weeks, but they had already decided that they were going to become prom kings.
Of course Newt didn't see that happening. He and Alby had been giving each other starry eyed looks since the seventh grade, and by eighth they'd been holding hands underneath the table at lunch. And now that they were juniors it was no secret to anyone that they were dating.
If anything they were the closest thing the school had to an 'it' couple. Everyone knew they were dating and, for the most part, everyone liked them. In short, they were going to be prom kings whether Newt cared or not. But still, it was nice to see Thomas and Minho having a good time.
"What are those two slintheads doing?" Alby asked as he came up behind Newt, his backpack slung over his shoulder.
On a normal day Alby would've already met up with the group and been up to speed with whatever shenanigan was going on, but today he'd had to stay after in chemistry to talk with his teacher.
Apparently Mr. Michael felt it necessary to explain to him that there were ways to deal with other students without yelling. And really Alby supposed he agreed. But in his eyes when some slinthead was mixing random chemicals, near a lit Bunsen burner, without goggles on, at Alby's damn table, that was a yelling time.
But whatever. He'd gotten off with a warning, and Blaise would probably be too scared to sit at the same lab table as him.
God, he wished he had chemistry with Newt. Or at least with someone who wasn't going to fucking kill him.
"Well, I'm trying to get this poster straight. I don't know what Thomas is doing," Minho complained as he finally pulled the poster out of his boyfriend's hands. He'd had enough of the back and forth.
"I'm trying to put it up high enough so that people can see it, but some shuckface won't let me," Thomas snapped back.
Minho only had to look at Thomas for a moment before they both grinned like idiots. It was impossible for them to actually stay mad at each other.
"You're the only shuckface I see," Minho retorted as he finally settled on a position and hung up the poster. He then stood back to admire his work.
It was a rather large poster with the words 'Minho and Thomas 4 Prom Kingz' written messily, accompanied by a bad cell phone picture of the two of them in aviators.
To everyone who wasn't Minho or Thomas, it looked ridicules.
"Did you two even try with that thing?" Alby asked as he looked at it from his spot beside Newt. He was disgusted and he didn't bother trying to hide it.
Newt tried not to show it, but he was definitely feeling the same way. It was funny how Alby had a way of saying the rude things that Newt would never let himself say.
But it was what it was. Alby and Newt were both over organized and detail oriented. Sloppy lines were enough to make both of them cringe. And they were definitely cringing.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Where's your poster again?" Minho asked, arching one of his eyebrows up comically far.
"Wouldn't waste my shucking time," Alby said with an eye roll.
"Yeah, I wouldn't either. Not when you guys would have to beat Thomas and me," Minho said mockingly.
"We're destined for royalty," Thomas joked, as he put his arm around Minho.
"Doubt the crowns would fit over your big shucking heads," Alby retorted.
"Well come prom night you're see that they fit us like gloves," Minho said with a smirk.
"Too bad they won't fit you like crowns," Newt said evenly with a smirk of his own.
"It's alright Newt, no need to get jelly on us. I'm sure you and Alby can win something else someday," Minho joked.
"Don't you idiots have track practice to go to?" Alby finally asked, his face resting in its natural state of mild hostility.
"Aw, can't take a little trash talk?" Minho said, trying to egg the couple on.
"Come on, Minho, we're gonna be late," Thomas said as he pulled at his boyfriend's arm. "We can remind them about our inevitable victory later."
Minho grinned in reply. He always liked it when he and Thomas could be smug assholes together.
"Yeah, alright. Race you to the track!" Minho said quickly before he took off in a burst.
Thomas barely managed a wave before he was running at Minho's heels.
That left Alby and Newt to stare at the awful prom poster.
"They're gonna be this way all the way up until prom," Alby said, his tone annoyed slightly more than usual.
"Probably. But at least we'll get a good laugh at prom," Newt said as leaned his body lightly against Alby's. "You know we're going to win."
Alby let out what sounded like a snort, but Newt knew constituted as a laugh from Alby. "How could we not with posters like these?"
"They are bloody awful, aren't they?" Newt agreed as he tilted his head to better stare at the poster.
"Can barely make out the wording," Alby criticized.
"I just wonder what made them think a puke green color was the way to go," Newt mussed.
"Stupid shanks is why," Alby replied with an eye roll.
Newt sighed as he shook his head.
"Let's just go before we tear it down for the good of the school," Newt suggested, and for the first time since walking up to him, Alby smiled.
"Coffee then your house alright?" Alby asked. The shorter boy wanted nothing more than to relax and spend some time with Newt.
"Sounds like a bloody dream come true to me," Newt said with a smile as they began making their way out of the school and away from the awful prom posters.
With any luck Thomas and Minho would calm down about their prom king campaign within a week.
Thomas and Minho's prom campaign did not simmer down in a week. If anything their efforts got stronger.
The two had posters all over the school and the pair rarely talked about anything that wasn't prom related.
And Newt figured that he could deal with all of that if it wasn't for the fact that people had begun taking them seriously as contenders for prom kings.
People were actually talking about Minho and Thomas like they were the schools 'it' couple. The poster children for high school sweethearts. It was ridicules! They'd only been dating for a month!
One bloody month!
How could people even begin to want to vote for them?
But Newt had calmed himself. Because he honestly didn't care about prom, or winning some plastic crown and getting his picture in the year book for the 20th time. Really Newt's only desire for prom was to spend the night goofing off with Alby, before hitting some after parties, and then letting Alby hit it once they got someplace quiet.
But of course, sometimes people had a way of pushing things.
Once again Newt and Alby were getting ready to leave school, as Minho and Thomas were getting ready to go to track practice.
"So we were thinking that once we're prom kings we could dub you guys as our prom princes or something. You know, to ease the sting?" Minho was rambling now. His trash talking had intensified tenfold within the last week.
"Would you please stop talking about the bloody prom? Neither of us cares if you get voted prom kings," Newt said sounding exasperated.
"Please, Newt. I know when you're jelly," Minho said, a cocky grin on his face.
"Tommy, can you take this lug to track practice before I run him over with Alby's car?" Newt asked calmly.
"Sure," Thomas replied easily, Minho rolling his eyes as he began making his way toward the track without being told, mumbling about Newt being a jealous shank. "But Newt, you really shouldn't worry about the stuff Minho's saying. Us being a better couple than you guys isn't a big deal."
Thomas took off jogging toward the track before Newt even had time to speak.
It really wasn't a big deal. Newt knew Tommy didn't mean anything nasty by the comment. Knew he was just trash talking like they all did. But that didn't change the fact that he'd just put down the last piece of straw to break the camel's back.
"Better couple," Newt said calmly.
On the inside Newt's blood was boiling.
Thomas and Minho had no idea what being in a long term relationship was like. They had no idea what it was like when things got hard. How could they? They'd never had to face the things he and Alby had.
In the years they'd been together the two of them had conquered more issues than most relationships ever saw. When Newt had gotten so depressed and overwhelmed with life that he had jumped off of the top bleachers at the football stadium, Alby had dragged him to safety. And then Alby had not only spent weeks with him at physical therapy, but had also talked him into regular therapy. And even now they still had to work through those issues because the depression still managed to sink in sometimes.
And when Alby had gotten a football injury the year before and had been in almost constant pain for months, making the boy about three times as irritable as usual, which was already hard to deal with for people whose name wasn't Newt, Newt had been there. Even when Alby had seemed impossible to be around, Newt had held on.
And really wasn't that what being a couple was about? Holding on and making each other stronger?
Newt knew Tommy shouldn't have managed to cause the reaction he did, but he had. Because there was a part of Newt that wanted to be acknowledged for his relationship. A part of him that wanted to make sure people saw what he had with Alby because too often it seemed like the only thing he had to be proud of.
And to someone like Newt all of those feelings felt so stupid and illogical that he felt a need to push them back, but then Alby grabbed his hand.
Alby had watched a distant look come onto Newt's pale face after Thomas' comment. That look had been enough that Newt hadn't had to say more for Alby to understand exactly what he meant.
He knew that Thomas' last remark had gotten to Newt. He knew that Newt had taken it as a direct attack against the quality of their relationship.
And Alby wasn't okay with that.
"Looks like we're going to show two shanks what an actual couple looks like," Alby said, giving Newt a smile that was really only a slight upturn of his lips.
Newt grinned. No one else was so capable of knowing exactly what he wanted.
"We should start by tearing down all those shucking posters," Alby suggested after a moment of silence.
"Obviously," Newt agreed, the feeling of being so in sync making him all the more willing to be destructive.
There were many advantages Newt and Alby's relationship had to Tommy and Minho's, but if Newt had to pick the one that would help them the most now, it was that he and Alby worked like a well-oiled machine, while Tommy and Minho worked like two drunken freshman trying desperately to hold each other up long enough to get back to their dorm rooms.
