chapter 1

"look at him, he looks like a baby bird!"

"looking in a mirror shuck-face?"

"take that back!"

"slim it you bloody shanks, he's waking up."

Thomas could hear a jumble of voices, all tangled together in a mess of words that didn't make sense – shuck-face? Shank? Where was he? All of a sudden, he felt very cold and wet. Someone had dumped water on him. He shot up, coughing and spluttering and rubbing water from his eyes. There was a roar of laughter from whoever had done it but that was all. Slowly, cautiously, Thomas peeled his eyes open and looked around him. He was in what looked like a dorm room, complete with bunks and small sets of draws, there were about 30 boys crowded into the room, all looking at him with amusement in their eyes. The door to the room opened and a scrawny man in a plain white suit walked in. Thomas heard people mutter things like, look it's the ratman. He had no idea what that meant but guessed they were referring to the man in the suit, who spoke for the first time.

"hello Thomas, I have no doubt that you are confused. Welcome to The Glade, think of it as your new home. You were sent here for roughly the same reason as everyone else. You were a delinquent and your parents wanted us to put you back on track, this is an all boys school and is very large, so I have assigned some students to show you around." the mans voice was nasally and annoying, he turned to address everyone else. "If you aren't Alby, Newt or Chuck, please vacate the room." there were grumbles of protest but everyone except a well built dark boy, a lanky blonde boy and a chubby curly haired kid left the room.

"you can call me Mr Janson. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask." the 'ratman' nodded at Thomas and walked out the room.

"I'm Alby, I'm head boy of this hell hole, but don't let that fool you, I ain't no posh goody two shoes." the dark kid held out a hand which Thomas shook, "this is Newt and Chuck." the other boys waved at him.

"lets just get this bloody tour over with." said Newt rolling his eyes. All three of them walked out of the dorm room and into a corridor, they walked up it quickly and discovered a huge room at the end of it.

"this is the canteen and all the rooms down there are the classrooms." Newt gestured to the doors branching off to the left and right. Chuck bounced on ahead, to a door at the far end of the room, Alby and Newt set of after him so Thomas had no choice but to follow. They went through the door into another room that was clearly not a classroom, it had big comfy sofas situated in the corners of the room, a treadmill at one side and a boom box at the other, lounging around on the floor and sofas were the boys that Thomas has woken up to. There was a boy on the treadmill too, a heavily muscled Asian boy who grinned at Newt as they made their way in.

"hows the greenie doing?" the boy asked, Thomas was surprised that his breath wasn't short from the running. Newt turned to Thomas,

"that slinthead is Minho" Minho got off the treadmill and stuck a hand out to Thomas, who shook it, he felt a bolt of electricity shoot up his arm as he did so, and quickly let go, dropping his gaze to the floor.

"what course are you taking?" Minho asked, Thomas frowned in confusion,

"course?"

"yeah, you've got the Builders who do construction, the track-hoes, they're farming, slicers and cooks, which is basically just cooking and then you've got the runners, the athletes." Minho explained, then jabbed a thumb to his chest, "I'm the keeper of the runners, although, you can probably tell." he gestured to himself arrogantly and smirked as Newt rolled his eyes and muttered something. The word runners stuck in his mind for some reason.

"well well well, look guys, it's the birdface." a voice came from behind Thomas who spun around into the stare of a tall boy with black hair and a nose that looked like it had been broken several times.

"back off Gally, he can't be any worse than you." this was Chuck, the kid hadn't really stopped talking throughout the tour but had gone silent the minute they'd stepped into the room.

"what did you say fattie?" Gally growled, advancing on Chuck. Thomas felt an overwhelming sense of responsibility to look after Chuck, to protect him at all costs, after all, he was only 12, 13 at most. Thomas walked forward and grabbed the back of Gallys shirt and threw him to the floor.

"leave him alone." the words came out low and harsh, scary almost. But Gally wasn't fazed, he jumped right back to his feet and came close to Thomas, spitting in his face as he spoke, "looks like we're gonna have a problem greenie. I'll hurt little Chucky if I want. What are you gonna do about it?" Thomas was about to reply when Minho stepped in between him and Gally, he clutched the boys collar in his fist and hissed,

"he won't do anything. But I will, i've broken your nose before, i'll do it again." he dropped Gally and spun around, grabbing Thomas's arm in one hand, Newts in the other as he walked from the room, Chuck and Alby following them.

"dude. That. Was. Awesome!" Chuck yelled, fist pumping the air and going red with excitement, looking at Minho giddily, "you totally saved our butts."

"yeah," Thomas said, smiling at Minho, "thanks."

"dude, don't sweat it , mates look out for each other." Thomas's heart sank a little when Minho said 'mates' and he frowned, why did that make him sad? He did like the guy, and did want to be his friend. Nothing more and nothing less, right?

"come on, im starved, lets see if Frypan will let us get something before dinner." Alby said, slapping Thomas on the back.