Hey guys, thanks for checking out my story! This is the first one I've ever shared, so please give me some feedback. I would honestly appreciate it, but do take it easy on me. I am a peach, I bruise easy. Just kidding. Anyways, I haven't seen many Thomas/OC stories in here and I really thought there needed to be more, so I hope you guys like this!

Side-Note: In my story, the set-up of the Glade is slightly different than the book. The Homestead is still in the Northwest corner, but in the Northeast corner are the animal pens, and Tree Grove is instead in the Southeastern corner. I picture the Tree Grove to turn into the forest where the Deadheads lie and Eleanor's hide-away (which you'll learn more about) is right in the middle hidden in the trees. The Deadheads and the Map Room remain the same as the book. And, of course, the Box is still right in the middle.

Disclaimer: I don't own The Maze Runner or any characters aside from Eleanor, Linc and a few other OC's. Maze Runner Trilogy belongs to James Dashner, I'm just borrowing it ;)

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We Are The Cure

Chapter 1: Green Beans, Blue Skies, & Brown Eyes

"Blue skies smilin' at me…" I sing quietly, digging the heels of my sneakers into the dirt at the base of the southern wall of the Maze, where I am laying in the grass in the only bit of sunlight I get on the edge of the Tree Grove. "Nothin' but blue skies do I see." I pause, noting that as always the words to the song are true; the sky is forever blue in the Glade. Lifting my right hand to my mouth, I take a bite of a crisp, crunchy green bean, of which I have a bundle to snack on and am very happy about it.

Thank god for green beans, I think to myself, taking another greedy bite. Ever since I've been banished to the Tree Grove with the Deadheads, I've had the day of new arrivals (AKA a brand new greenie is brought to the Glade via the Box) to look forward to, since it's the only time Linc can sneak away with supplies so that I don't starve for the month. Aside from the food he brings, he also gives me his company for as long as he can, and I look forward to that almost as much as the new rations. Being stuck in the Glade is hell on its own, but being banished to a corner with only yourself for company is a brand new form of hell. Yesterday afternoon, I heard the alarm bells in the distance and knew I'd be getting a visit from my favorite Glader. Sure enough, later in the evening when the celebration was well underway, Linc showed up with supplies and stories.

"Bluebirds singin' along," I continue absent-mindedly, wondering what the song of a bluebird sounds like, what a bluebird even looks like, "Nothin' but bluebirds all day long." I don't recall the rest of the words. It's really a miracle I even remember any part of a song at all, but when I got stung by a Griever back when I first arrived here, I regained some strange memories of my former life. Once I came out of the Changing, lucky to be alive, all I remembered was hearing this song playing somewhere in the distance as wires were stuck to my head by a man with a blurry face…

"You!" I jump at the sound of a voice not too far off from my resting spot.

"You're bad," The boy continues, his voice becoming louder and more frantic with each word he speaks, "You're bad! I saw you! I know you!"

"Just calm down," Another boy replies, and my interest is piqued, "I don't know what you're talking about."

I'm not allowed to be seen, I know that, but the Tree Grove has been my secret home for the past…let me see here…7, 8, 9…oh, that's right – 10 months now, I've been in the Tree Grove for ten months, and as far as I know everyone thinks I'm dead except for Linc, Newt and Alby. The green beans who arrived after we faked my death don't even know I existed; my name has been crossed off the wall so deep, all that remains of Eleanor is part of the E. At least, that's what Linc told me. As quietly as I can, I creep through the trees in the direction of the Deadheads, where I think the voices are coming from.

"Lies!" The first boy shouts, and now I'm certain I'm heading in the right direction. "You can't be trusted. You're one of Them. You're bad!" I'm close now, very close. In fact, I can see one of the boys in the clearing where the fallen Gladers have been laid to rest. He is fair-haired, average-height and practically foaming at the mouth in anger, panting and sweating and red in the face. "You're going to ruin everything! You never should have come here!"

For a moment, I think he's spotted me, and I crouch down behind some shrubbery, bracing myself against a tree for support as I squat as low as I can go while still keeping the boys in my visual. The second boy has his back to me, but is only six or seven feet away; it appears he was paying his respects to the Deadheads, or maybe he was just curious about them when the other boy showed up to fight. Usually the Tree Grove is abandoned by the boys, since a lot of them are creeped out by the dead, but some do venture in. I've been lucky no one has stumbled far enough into the grove to find my little burrow, even though it is pretty well camouflaged. It would be bad for me to be stumbled upon by one of the Gladers who doesn't know I'm still alive: Alby said if I ever showed my face around the Homestead again, or anywhere within his sight (which is basically everywhere except the Tree Grove), he'd banish me inside the walls of the Maze at dark, right when the doors closed, and everyone knows that's a death sentence. What's worse is he said he'd do it with his own two hands, and before that moment I'd never have guessed it'd be Alby to abandon me when I needed him the most. He'd always said he'd be there for me, no matter what, that we could get through anything together. He was wrong.

"Ben," the boy whose back is to me says cautiously, "That's your name, right? I'm Thomas. I saw you last night, remember? With Alby and Newt? I've never seen you before that, all right. That's the truth."

I roll my eyes. This must be the green bean. I think to myself, almost certain, No one else would insist they've never met another Glader before. We all know that when we were brought here, our memories were somehow swiped, and all we've managed to retain is our first name. Who knows what happened to us or where we came from before? Who knows which of us were acquainted and which were not? For all this Thomas knows, he and Ben could have been best friends before this happened. I enjoy making up scenarios on who we were before we entered the Glade, it was kind of my thing before my banishment. I would pick a random Glader and tell him all about his life before this mess, about his favorite foods and how he liked to spend his days. The boys liked my stories, even if we knew they weren't true. It helped lighten the mood for a while, and goodness knows we need that in a place as depressing as this.

"No!" Ben roars, charging at Thomas with the cropped brown hair, "You're one of them! You're bad, you're bad, you're bad!" He knocks the darker haired boy to the ground, dirtying his brand new clothes as a puff of dirt surrounds them upon impact. Grunting, Ben grabs Thomas by the collar and adjusts his body so all of his weight is leaning on Thomas' chest, keeping him crushed to the forest floor. Thomas kicks his feet, attempting to buck Ben off him, but Ben has the upper-hand and doesn't budge. He wraps both his hands around Thomas' neck and starts to squeeze, incomprehensible words spilling past his lips.

I straighten up as I see the loser of this fight turning red in the face. My eyes widen, darting around the Tree Grove in search of another Glader coming to their new brother's rescue, but there is no one to be seen. Where is everyone? I start to panic, Ben's going to kill the greenie! Where the shuck is everyone?!

Thomas grabs hold of Ben's hands and tries to pry them away from his neck, but Ben is like a machine, he is not easing up in the slightest, and I can tell Thomas is losing strength with each oxygen-deprived second that passes. My hands twitch at my side as I stand there gaping like an idiot for a few more seconds. When I come to the realization that there's really no one coming to save this kid, I act on instinct. Reaching down to retrieve a decent sized rock near my foot, I take aim at Ben's head. I cock my arm back behind my head and swing it forward, releasing the rock at the exact right moment to hit Ben with a force strong enough to knock him clean off the newbie's body. His hands go slack as he is momentarily stunned, and Thomas scrambles away from him, gasping for air.

A split second later, I hear the tell-tale sounds of Gladers approaching as leaves are crunching and branches are breaking under the weight of passersby. I take one last look at the boy who was nearly strangled to death in the Tree Grove by the Deadheads and nearly jump out of my skin when his surprised brown eyes are staring back at me. I turn on my heels and run as fast as my feet can carry me back to my burrow, diving inside and curling up in a ball on the floor to contemplate my future.

He saw me. I wrap my arms around myself and squeeze tightly, picturing in my head those chocolate brown eyes of the greenie who was never meant to see me. What's going to happen to me now?

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There's chapter 1, hope it wasn't too bad. It was short, but I promise the chapters will get longer. I just wanted to introduce Eleanor and her first sighting of Thomas. What did you think of Eleanor so far? You will learn more about her next chapter, for sure. Like when she arrived in the Glade and why she is banished to the Tree Grove. If you have questions or suggestions, please leave them in the review box below or send me a PM!

Thanks again for reading. Until next time…