The Glader Academy

~a Maze Runner story~

by SilentLurker

A/N: Hi! SO I've had this idea for a while and last night I finally wrote the first chapter. Just a couple of things before you start reading.

Obviously with the movie out, there are two different versions of our beloved characters now: the characters we imagined when we first read the books, and the actors that portray them on the big screen. In my story you can imagine them however then heck you want to- I promise I'll try to keep them in character- but I just wanted to let yall know that I'm going to use the movie version of Gally in my story. (I feel like he's more on a friendship basis with the rest of the gladers in the movie, so that's why I'm using the movie version of him. Plus he's just so freaking awesome ILU Gally!).

Yeah that's pretty much it. I hope you enjoy my story! :)

- everything will change -

~Thomas POV~

College sucks.

I mean don't get me wrong, it's super fun with the parties and the sleeping in (sometimes) and especially when you're bunking with your best friends (...also sometimes).

But besides all that: it sucks.

Especially because of what college I go to.

The Glader Academy: living proof that demons still exist. Here at TGA, they take the form of professors. And they're evil!

This is not an exaggeration; I repeat- not an exaggeration.

All the teachers here seem to think that the students are all extra-terrestrial and that we have knowledge nobody else understands. What I'm trying to say is they think we're super shucking smart so they give us piles of homework and tests that none of us understand.

I mean college is hard enough- studying every single day for three hour tests that don't even have half the things we studied on it. But then there's TGA- studying every day for five hour tests that everyone ends up failing anyway because there's like nothing on there that we learned about!

Anyway, forget about that for right now. I never introduced myself.

My name is Thomas. I'm 19. I live in a dorm right off campus with my best friends, Newt and Minho. I'm in my first semester right now, and so are they, so the three of us are pretty much sucking at everything together- which is nice. At least I'm not alone in this shuck college.

Oh, shuck? Yeah, about that; it's just a word my friends and I made up, in place of a curse word- one of many, actually.

See another thing about this place is that they're very STRICT on their rules. And "do not curse" is one of their rules, so of course my friend Minho had to find a way around that, and we did.

It's pathetic, I know.

Don't judge.

Actually... you can judge him. He made most of them up.

So now that you've gotten to know me and the weird place that I live and go to school at, let me tell you a little bit about what's going on here at the moment.

Tonight is the Scaryween Festival.

Yes. You heard that right.

Scaryween.

(Told you this place was weird).

The Scaryween Festival is apparently this huge Halloween thing the school does every year, on Halloween, and I've heard it's actually pretty scary, despite its embarrassing name.

An older student here, Alby, told us that they always do this really sick Haunted House that scares the living daylights out of you. Apparently after you come out of it, "everything will change."

At least that's what he said.

Either way, my roommates and I are going. We're going to meet a couple of friends there and go through the Haunted House.

I don't know how "everything will change", but hopefully it means that this place won't suck so bad.

Hopefully.

"Tommy- what the bloody klunk is that?"

Thomas looked up from what he was doing. His face immediately turned red as he tried to shove whatever he had underneath the couch pillow.

"What? What the shuck's going on?" Minho demanded, entering the room.

They were in the living area of their shared dorm room- a medium sized room with an old blue couch, a TV, a broken bookcase filled with books (and a radio and other random junk), a kitchenette area in the corner, and three doors- one leading to the bathroom, one leading to their bedroom, and one leading to the outside hallway.

Minho and Newt were standing at opposite sides of the couch, where Thomas was sitting, staring at him with questioning looks on their faces.

Thomas coughed awkwardly.

"Uuuuuh, nothing guys. Just some, um, ya know... poptarts."

Minho crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow. "Why would you be hiding poptarts under the pillow?"

A large sweatdrop appeared on Thomas' head.

"Stop playing around, Tommy. I saw what it was, and it wasn't a bloody poptart." Newt told him, becoming impatient.

"Um, well, errr-"

"Wait, then what was it?" Minho asked Newt.

"I don't know- it kinda looked like a movie-"

"A movie?"

"Yes, a movie!"

"Why would Thomas be hiding a shuck movie?"

"How would I bloody know?!"

Minho pouted. "You don't have to be so rude."

Thomas sighed and finally stood up, still hiding the object behind the pillow and holding them against his chest. His friends gazed at him in eagerness.

"If I show you guys... promise not to make fun of me?"

"Promise, Tommy."

"Yeah, whatever."

Thomas and Newt glared at Minho, who smiled sweetly and added, "Only joking! I would never make fun of my favorite shuck-face!"

Thomas glared. Then glanced down at the pillow.

"Ok...here it is."

He removed the pillow and revealed his secret.

In his hands was the newest album of none other then Lana Del Rey- and in mint condition.

Newt and Minho stared at it. And stared. And stared some more.

They kept staring while Thomas waited in anticipation for their reactions.

...More staring.

"Sooo..." Thomas began, looking around awkwardly. He cleared his throat and then bravely began to explain. "Brenda let me borrow it. She told me her music is really good, and at first I was like nah, but then I listened to it and I-"

"THOMAS WHY?" Minho suddenly burst out saying, grabbing Thomas' shoulders and shaking him roughly. "YOU'VE BEEN BRAINWASHED BY GIRL MUSIC!"

"Dude!" Thomas shoved him away.

Newt rolled his eyes as Minho grabbed a random paper from off the ground and starting dramatically fanning Thomas with it.

Thomas curled his eyebrows.

"Why-?"

"Don't worry bro, you'll be ok! If you just barely started listening to it, then there's still hope! We can still save you!"

Newt and Thomas shared a look.

"Minho, I like this kind of music and I don't need saving." Thomas stated simply, swatting the paper fan away.

"Yeah, and you know just because it's sung by a girl doesn't technically make it "girl" music-" Newt started, but Minho interrupted.

"Oh no, Newt, not you too! Ugh, this is all Brenda's fault. Her and her stupid girly ways."

Thomas and Newt shared another look. This time, a worried look.

"Dude... I think you have a sexist problem." Newt told his Asian friend, sitting down on the couch and grabbing the pillow. He clasped his hands together and rested them against his chin.

"Well, I am pretty sexy." Minho wiggled his eyebrows.

"No, sexist. Not sexy."

"Is there a difference?"

Newt facepalmed.

"Hey guys, we're gonna be late for Scaryween. We should probably leave now." Thomas said, grabbing his friends' attention.

Minho instantly started laughing.

"Dude, Scaryween was worse off as it is, but when you say it it's hilarious!"

Thomas squinted at him.

"Gee thanks."

"Anytime, shuck-face. Let's go." Minho ran to the room and Thomas followed until he realized Newt was still sitting on the couch. He looked back.

"Newt? You coming?"

The blonde boy waved him off, looking somewhere else. "I'll catch up with you guys. Got some homework still."

Thomas frowned, feeling his friend's excuse wasn't completely truthful. He decided to let it go.

"Ok. See you later."

"Later."

~Thomas POV~

Scaryween very much lived up to its lame name. It took place in a field not too far from campus- and it was lame. There were only a couple of booths set up for games, decorated with colored construction and crepe paper, the few places that were selling candy and food were OUT of candy and food, the pumpkins that littered the place didn't have any faces carved into them (except for one near a dunking booth that had a face with fangs carved into it- and cat ears on top of it), and the green and orange lights that lit up the place were randomly blinking on and off- which I guess was the only thing about this place that made it feel like Halloween.

"This place is bogus." Minho said when we arrived, glancing around at how very little people there were. "I thought Alby said it was supposed to be cool?"

"He said the Haunted House was cool." I replied, shrugging. I looked past the festival and the crowd and spotted the Haunted House- a large dark building where a lot more people were crowded around, waiting in line to get in.

"Aha! There it is." I pointed it out to Minho.

"Well it better not suck. Let's just find the others and-"

Minho was interrupted by a very loud "AYYYYYYYY!" We turned around and saw our friends Fry and Gally walking towards us.

"What the shuck are you supposed to be?" Minho demanded when he saw Gally's costume. Fry was wearing an awesome chef's costume with a super tall white hat and everything.

Gally was wearing...uh...

I don't know.

"You shanks really don't know who I am?" Gally asked, chuckling.

Fry muttered something like "here we go" before Minho and I shook our heads.

"I'm the Doctor."

"The what now?"

"The 11th doctor. Don't tell me you've never seen Doctor Who?" Gally stared at us like we were crazy.

We did the exact same thing.

"Oh wait, Doctor Who- that's the show that Newt watches." I explained, turning to my confused roommate. "Remember? With the tardle?"

"It's called the tardis." Gally corrected.

"Who the shuck cares!" Minho yelled, impatient as always. "Let's just get to the haunted already."

Fry, Gally and I rolled our eyes.

As we began walking toward the haunted house, through the crowd of other college students, Fry asked us about our costumes.

"My costume is kind of obvious, you shanks," Minho said, pulling out his wand and then pushing his hair back to reveal his drawn-on scar.

To top it off he even pushed up his large, round glasses.

"A giant loser nerd?" Fry suggested, the same time that Gally said, "Yourself?"

The guys and I started laughed as Minho tried to punch them, his face turning red.

"I'm Harry frakking Potter!"

"You're frakking Harry Potter?"

"Just shut up already."

We laughed some more until they questioned me about my outfit.

I smiled proudly at the large tinfoil hat I was wearing, made by me. Then I looked down at my silver shirt and black pants and shoes.

"You can't tell?" I asked, trying to make them guess.

"You look like an alien." Gally commented. "So basically you look pretty normal." Minho laughed.

"Actually he kinda looks like a fork." Fry commented.

"Yep!"

The guys stopped walking. Minho gave me a told-you-it-was-a-stupid-idea look.

Fry blinked. Then he started smiling. "Wait, I was just joking-"

"No, I really am a fork." I told him.

Suddenly I started to regret my costume choice.

What the heck. A fork? A fork?

Why did I do the thing.

Why am I such a shank.

"Thomas you are such a shank." Gally said, before they all started laughing at me.

I glared at them.

"Yeah well at least I don't fly around in a toodle."

"TARDIS. It's called a TARDIS!"

"Guys!"

We turned around when we heard the voice of a familiar friend, and we saw somebody running toward us at the speed of light.

"Guys!"

The familiar voice yelled again, getting closer this time, dodging straight through the crowd.

"Is that Brenda?" Minho asked.

It was hard to tell with her costume.

"It kinda sounds like her." I said, trying to get a good look-

"HOLY CRAP GUYS!" Suddenly she smacked right into me and we went tumbling into the ground.

"Ouch! Ugh, sorry Thomas."

"That's ok." I told- who I'm pretty sure was Brenda- as the guys helped us up.

When I rubbed the dirty dirt crap out of my eyes and I finally had a good look at her, I saw that she was indeed Brenda.

Wearing a giant Hello Kitty costume.

My jaw dropped. And I think so did Minho's. And Gally's and Fry's.

There was absolutely nothing wrong with her costume (minus the fact that there was a giant Hello Kitty face surrounding her head, and it was kind of creepy), but the only reason we had our mouths down was because of how much pink was on her costume. It's a known fact that Brenda HATES the color pink. And no one really knows why.

She would never wear pink, tho. So it was kind of shocking seeing her in a giant pink Hello Kitty costume.

"Brenda...wha-" Minho began, but Brenda gave him a death glare and stopped him before he could even get out 3 syllables.

"Don't you dare say a thing. This isn't my costume, it's a disguise. I borrowed it from someone to get away from my roommates."

"Why?" Gally asked, totally confused. "And who the heck are your roommates?"

"Teresa and Sonya- and they're driving me CRAZY!"

Something happened when she said Teresa's name.

I don't know what...I think my head hurt. Or my heart.

Or my head. Yeah, definitely my head.

So, Teresa? Yeah. She's Brenda's roommate.

She's also my childhood best friend. (Used to be.)

We were also kinda together once. (Once.)

Then something suckish happened.

All you need to know is that she has a boyfriend and we don't talk anymore.

So yeah.

Ok, what's happening?

Minho was trying really hard not to laugh.

"Brenda, just tell us what happened," Fry said kindly, trying to understand the situation. "Anything we can do to help?"

"Yes! Hide me!" Brenda said desperately. "I can't STAND them anymore. If I hear one more story about Emma hooking up with Hook but he's got a thing for David but David's married and Regina's pissed and the baby is gonna die- I'M GONNA DIE! AND THEN I'M GONNA KILL THEM."

Minho and I exchanged a glance.

"Don't worry Brenda. You can hang with us," I told her, and she sighed in relief. "We're headed to the haunted house now- they can't find you in there."

"Crap Thomas- thanks!" She gave me a hug and I hugged back. "You guys saved my life."

We started heading to the haunted house (again) but this time with Brenda.

Hello Kitty, Harry Potter, a fork, a chef, and the Doctor.

Pretty much the weirdest group in the festival, but we didn't mind much.

On the way there we saw Teresa and Sonya (Brenda was hiding behind Fry and Minho, even tho she was pretty well disguised with the Hello Kitty costume). We hurried when we saw them, but not before Teresa caught my eye.

She stared at me and then gave me a small, sad smile. Then she giggled at my costume, and then turned away.

I couldn't help but smile a little bit too.

She was dressed up as a knife.

The haunted house was... well...

I don't know how to describe it.

...Wicked. It was wicked.

It started off just like any other haunted house. Fog came through around our feet as we walked in; ghosts falling from the ceiling and vampires coming out of coffins.

Cheesy, normal "scary" stuff that they do in every haunted house.

Then it got weird.

It got colder and there was a lot more fog. There was broken glass everywhere, and fake dead bodies with lab coats on them. The bodies were bloodied up and ripped apart so we could see their insides- it was so gross. Instead of everything being dark and hard to see, everything was white- and way too bright. We had to step around all the glass and (fake) dead bodies and it was so gross.

Then it got scary.

As we were walking through, a dead body grabbed my leg and freaked the CLUNK out of me. That's when we made a run for it- and that's when these real ugly looking zombie-type things started chasing us.

Then this guy dressed in army-type gear appeared out of nowhere and gave us these sick looking guns (I'm still unclear on if they were real or not) and told us we had to shoot the zombies to survive.

So we were running and shooting at the same time, and the zombies were yelling and reaching out for us- and people somewhere else were screaming bloody murder and laughing like hyenas- but we eventually shot all of them and they "died."

Then when we thought we were at the end, we entered this maze.

It was not your average corn maze.

There were giant rat-things at every wrong corner, and they were literally like human-sized rats (humans in rat costumes...I hope) covered in this slimy goo stuff. When we ran into them they would JUMP on us and squish us, and we had to freaking crawl out of them and keep running.

Then when we finally found the end of the maze it was over. Thank goodness.

When we got out, the five of us pretty much collapsed on the grass at the same time. We kinda just stayed quiet for a while until Minho broke the silence.

"Well... that was scary."

"No shuck." Gally retorted.

"I'm usually into scary stuff like that, but this haunted house was way too crazy." Brenda said quietly, unzipping her Hello Kitty costume.

I sighed, staring up at the night sky and all the stars. How could a college put on such a freaky haunted house?

"You guys know Alby, right?" I asked.

Everyone said yes, including Brenda, who was now laying on the grass in her regular clothes- the Hello Kitty costume discarded a couple of feet away.

"So you all know he's an older student and he's been through the haunted house already. Anyway, he told me that when you go through it, everything changes."

Everyone was quiet for a couple of seconds.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gally asked, worry in his voice.

I shrugged, my shoulders digging into the dirt on the ground.

"I have no idea."

"It kinda sounds like a bad omen to me." Minho muttered.

"Since when do you believe in omens?" Brenda asked him.

"I don't, I'm just saying it sounds like one."

"Omens are just stupid things to scare people."

"I know- I'm just saying it sounds like one."

"Whatever."

"Whatever." Minho mimicked in Brenda's voice.

I heard her sit up.

"Did you just mimic me?"

"Course not, Hello Kitty."

"WHAT did you just call me, Scarface?!"

"Excuse me, I'm Harry frakking Potter!"

"WILL YOU TWO please shut up?!" I yelled, sitting up and glaring at them. They were sitting up across from each other, glaring at each other and now glaring at me.

Brenda huffed.

Minho pouted.

Gally and Fry sat up too, and then we were all sitting in a circle. I took off my fork hat and rubbed my head- a headache had developed from Minho and Brenda's stupid fighting.

"I think we should just call it a night." Gally said, taking off his fez and holding it in his lap. "Maybe tomorrow we can forget about what we saw in there."

"Saw in where?"

All of us looked up- Newt was standing behind our group, holding a bucket of candy.

"You lot look like you had a wonderful time," he said sarcastically, inserting himself between me and Gally. "I brought a bucket of candy if anyone's interested."

Minho's hands were the first to dive in.

"Newt, join the party," Fry said, half-smiling. He took some candy after Minho. "Be glad you missed it. The haunted house wasn't all it was cracked up to be."

"It was worse." Minho muttered, shoving candy in his mouth.

Newt raised an eyebrow.

"Worse? What do you mean?" He looked at me.

"It was just really, really scary- and not in a good way." I tried to explain.

"It sucked. The whole thing." Brenda said bluntly, snatching a mini Hershey's bar. "I might sue."

Newt's eyes went wide. "Wow Brenda, I thought you loved things like this...and I never knew you were the suing type."

Brenda smiled. "I was joking about suing. But seriously, the haunted house was just sick. I'm glad you weren't there."

Minho glanced at her before grabbing another handful of candy.

"I am too, man," I told Newt. "At least one of us won't be scarred for life."

We talked for a few more minutes before deciding to call it a night. Gally and Fry went back to their dorm, and we were just saying goodbye to Brenda when her roommates showed up.

As in, Teresa and Sonya.

As in Teresa.

"Oh, heyyy guuuuys," Brenda greeted them awkwardly, scratching the back of her head.

Newt had been caught up on the whole Brenda-avoiding-her-roommates thing, so he wasn't confused with her behavior.

Teresa frowned at her. "Where'd you go? We lost you at the cotton candy and we couldn't find you since."

"Yeah, you missed me explaining the finale- Emma and Hook finally kiss and it was so romantic!" Sonya said, smiling excitedly.

Brenda looked like she wanted to gag.

"Oh, well I was, ya know-"

"It's our fault, girls, we're terribly sorry," Minho interrupted, smooth as fudge. "We invited her to hang out with us and didn't let her have time to tell you two. Completely our fault."

Sonya smiled at him, and Teresa shrugged.

"Oh ok, it's no problem Minho." Teresa turned back to Brenda. "We're heading back to the dorm now. You ready?"

Brenda froze.

I didn't know what she was thinking- but I'm pretty sure it went along the lines of "crap back to the dorm crap with my crazy roommates crap they're gonna watch chic flicks all night again flip flap crap I have no hope crap crap crap" or something like that.

So I decided to save her.

"Wait, I thought you were sleeping over at our place tonight?" I quickly asked Brenda, eyeing her.

She snapped out of it and looked back at me, her eyebrow raised. She looked at me like I was insane.

"Remember, we were gonna finish that Chem homework and then you were just gonna crash at our place?"

She caught on quick.

"Oooh yeah, right- I totally forgot," she turned back to her roomies and smiled sadly.

I don't think she was very sad, tho.

"Sorry, guys. I promised Thomas I'd help him out with his homework tonight."

Sonya the red-headed Wonderwoman (as in she was dressed up as Wonderwoman) gave her an understanding smile.

"No problem, Bree! We'll see you tomorrow. Just remember to get some sleep!"

"Yup, will do!" Brenda replied, still keeping up the smile for her friends' sake.

Sonya hugged her and walked off. Teresa said goodnight and then followed her roomie, but not before giving me a look.

I couldn't tell what she was trying to tell me with her look. Or if she wasn't trying to tell me anything at all, and she was just looking at me. She seemed completely stone-faced.

With Teresa sometimes I never knew.

Brenda turned to me and beamed.

"How many times are you gonna save my life?"

"I don't know, but that's how many times you owe me."

She and Newt laughed.

"Yeah, ok. Fair enough. Where am I gonna sleep?"

Minho suddenly joined the conversation. "Sleep? What are you talking about?"

We stared at him and raised our eyebrows.

"Brenda is bunking with us tonight," Newt told him. "Didn't you hear a word we were saying?"

Minho's eyes grew wide. "What? She's bunking with us? When did that happen?"

"What the heck have you been doing the last couple of minutes?" I asked.

He folded his arms. "I was texting, and it was VERY important."

Newt and I exchanged a knowing look.

"You were texting your mom, weren't you." I said.

Minho's face went red.

"Shut up."

"ANYWAY, back to where I'll be sleeping..." Brenda said nonchalantly, turning back to me.

I turned to consult the guys.

Minho glared. "Don't look at me. I don't care where the girl sleeps."

SMACK!

"Ow! My glasses!"

Newt and I cracked up as Minho retrieved his Harry Potter glasses from the ground. When he stood back up, his face was red from where Brenda had smacked him.

"Gosh, Brenda, that hurt!"

"Good. So we feel the same." She said sarcastically. He squinted at her.

"I guess you'll just have to sleep on the couch," Newt told her, shrugging. "There's nowhere else. It's actually pretty darn comfortable, tho."

"Sounds good to me." Brenda replied.

"Ok, now that we've got that settled, let's head home." I suggested, and everyone agreed. We all started walking back together. Minho and Brenda fighting occasionally, Newt carrying his bucket of candy, and me with my fork costume.

That night when we all settled into bed (Brenda was on the couch out in the living area), I had this strange feeling inside of me.

I couldn't shake the feeling that after tonight, everything really would change.

But whether it would change for the better or for the worse, I had yet to find out.

A/N: Woop woop! This story EXCITES ME! :D

I hope you liked it as much as I enjoyed writing it. And if you believe in omen's or anything similar to that, I hope I didn't offend you- I just needed to use that in my fic for some Minho/Brenda teasing.

So I hope you caught a few things in the Haunted House that related to the books... hehe. The giant rats were the Grievers and the zombies were the Cranks, of course.

I am SO excited to write this!

I'll try to update soon. :) Please review!

-Lurky

p.s. I don't own Hello Kitty OR The Maze Runner. TMR by James Dashner. Also known as J-