*Disclaimer: I do not own The Maze Runner or any of its characters, nor the idea of Newt's sister. I only own my characters and my ideas, aside from Paradise.

BTW: I use a very bad curse word in here for anyone who feels uncomfortable with cursing. (Although, if you're on the Fanfiction website, it can pretty much be assumed that cursing will be happening. Just saying. But I warned you!)

Lean on me, when you're not strong

And I'll be your friend

I'll help you carry on

For it won't be long

'Til I'm gonna need

Somebody to lean on

- Lean on Me, Bill Withers

Chapter 3: What Friends Are For

Newt stared at Lizzie, looking lost. She was frozen; her hands were gripping the cloth so hard that they were turning white. I saw her chest heave, as if trying to gain some breath, and then she turned and sprinted in the direction of the woods. Theo looked at me, shrugged, and ran after her. Oliver stepped forward and clasped his hands together.

"Well," he said. Everyone shifted their gaze to him. "I'm sorry about that. I'm sorry about everything that has happened to you people. For right now, we are working on healing the injured, and I'm sure you're all anxious to see them, but I think it would be best if you got some food and water in you. I know you all have questions, but it's important to stay healthy." He clapped his hands once, signalling everyone to get moving. The members of Paradise hurried into action, coaxing worried family members and friends into sitting on the ground, while the cooks brought out food from the kitchen. I turned to the group behind me.

"You heard the man," I said. They stared at me. I sighed. "Look, I'm not a people person. So just find a patch of grass, grab a piece of bread, and keep your mouth shut until someone says otherwise. Got it?"

"No nonsense." The girl with brown hair nodded approvingly. I sighed once more and headed over to Oliver. I could hear the little group behind me and fought the urge to groan.

"Oliver," I called. He turned to see who called his name and smiled at me.

"Lennox, perfect. We're going to need to get these people some new clothes," he told me. He was acting very jolly: it reminded me of Santa Claus.

"Of course," I amended. "Although, I am going to need measurements first." Oliver always seemed to forget that people came in different shapes and sizes. Ironic, really, considering that he was nearly two feet taller and a good forty pounds heavier than me. Oliver laughed.

"Right, right. So, who are your friends?" he asked.

"I'm not really sure," I said. I turned back to the group of friends: the girl with brown hair, Minho, Thomas, some Hispanic guy and Gally who had both come out of nowhere, and now Newt. He still looked hopelessly confused. "Um, who are you?" If Newt didn't recognize Lizzie, no way in Hell would he recognize me, and Minho had treated Liz as his own sister, so he would have said something if he had remembered. I decided to play dumb; no need to complicate things and confuse them even more that they already were. Thomas stepped forward.

"I'm Thomas," he introduced. "This is Brenda," he motioned towards the brown-haired girl. "Minho, Jorge, Gally, and Newt."

"Welcome," Oliver said warmly. "And who was the girl who was injured that you brought with you?" Thomas's expression became pained.

"Teresa," he told us. I had a feeling that he and Teresa were a little close. I scrunched up my nose in thought: Thomas and Teresa, I had heard those names before.

"What's going on here?" Minho asked.

"Survival," I replied. Oliver gave me a look, and I shrugged. "What? What else is there to it?"

"It's a little more complicated than just 'surviving,'" Oliver informed them. "Ignore Lennox here; she's our resident cynic-slash-seamstress."

"Meaning?" Gally asked.

"Meaning get on my bad side, and you won't have new clothes," I said. Gally smirked at me.

"None of them remember you, Lux," he said. "But I do." He looked extremely pleased with himself. Everyone stared at me. I almost wished I could make a facial expression that I could try to hide.

"Well, how fucking grand. Do you want a sticker? Because I have no idea who you are." He blinked. Clearly, that wasn't the answer he was expecting. Minho barked a laugh, Thomas and Brenda snickered, and Newt looked like he was trying not to smile.

"Excuse me?" Gally stepped forward. Oliver leveled him with a stare, and Gally backed down.

"Look, I have more important things to do than fight with you right now. I don't know what you're talking about, but you need to drop it. Here, we work together." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Or?" Gally challenged. I sighed: why was he doing this?

"There is no 'or,'" Oliver said. I nodded.

"You were at WICKED?" Thomas asked.

"I don't know. I don't think so." I shrugged. God, I hope this doesn't come back to bite me.

"But now you're here," he said.

"Yes," I replied.

"How?" Minho asked the question this time.

"I don't know. The same way everyone else came? Frankly, I don't care. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have over one hundred outfits to sew, and not a lot of time to do it." I fluttered my hands and they made a path for me out of their little group. I walked to my workshop, pretending like everything was normal.

I barely got through the first sketch before the guilt of Lizzie crawled up on me. My best friend was out in the forest, hurting, and I was in here doodling. Sure, her fiance was out there, but how much help could he be if he never even knew Newt? I sighed and rubbed my face, throwing down my pencil. I was on my feet and out the door before I'd even realized I'd made up my mind. Oliver and the group of friends encountered me halfway down the stairs.

"Oh, Lennox, where are you going? I was going to have you take their measurements," Oliver said.

"I'm going to go check on Lizzie. Just take them downstairs and have Dylan do it. He knows what to measure," I replied. "And if he gets caught up, have Bethany help."

"Thank you," he said. I smiled.

"No problem. Where's Leo?" I asked.

"Playing in the grass." Oliver gave me a panicked glance, silently asking if that was wrong. He and his wife hadn't been able to have children, though it was a dream of his. When his wife died of the Flare, he had basically given up all hope. Then, Ava had sent him here and that poor woman had committed suicide. Oliver had eagerly taken Leo in. The only problem was that he didn't exactly know how to raise a child.

"Want me to take him?" I offered.

"That would be wonderful. What would I do without you, girlie?"

"Be unbearably lost in every aspect of life." I smiled once more and continued down the stairs. Thomas and his friends had all been quiet during the exchange, but I knew for a fact that they were simply gathering information. I would have done the same thing. Outside, I found Leo with nearly three fistfuls of grass stuffed into his mouth.

"Please, spit it out," I told him. He willingly obliged and released the handful he had in his left hand. I took a hold of it and pulled him along to the forest. Swinging our hands together, I marched him towards Lizzie's favorite spot that only Kate and I knew about: a secret clearing behind the boys spring. The ground had a springy sort of feel to it, so much so that when you walked, you bounced. I pushed aside a flower-covered vine and stepped inside, swinging Leo up into my arms, so that he wouldn't accidentally fall through the ground.

"Lizzie?" I called out. I waited patiently for an answer, knowing that even if she didn't say anything, her sniffling would give it away.

"Over here," she whimpered. I followed the sound of her voice to see her sitting cross-legged on a pink flower bed. I set Leo down.

"Stay away from the water," I commanded. He nodded and took off after a kaleidoscope of green and blue butterflies. I walked over to where Lizzie was sitting and plopped down beside her. "Hey," I said. I nodded in a "'sup" sort of way. She giggled, then frowned again.

"Hi," she replied sadly.

"Oh, Lizzie," I whined. "Don't be this way. You knew he wouldn't remember." I tried to reason with her. We all knew that our memories would be wiped before we went into the Maze. The creators never said that we would get them back. She sighed.

"I know, but it still hurts." She pulled her knees up to her chest.

"I'm sure it does," I conceded. "But there's a bright side."

"And what's that?" she sniffled.

"You can still tell him that you're his sister."

"So?"

"So, you can help him remember. Or you can give him memories from his past. You can tell him about the time that you guys did something twinny, and he can live it all over again. This isn't the end of the world, Lizzie. There are still options."

"I just never thought he would forget me," she said quietly.

"It's WICKED, Lizzie. Not him," I replied gently. She gave me a sad smile.

"You're much better at this than Theo," she informed me.

"What did he say?" I asked. I stood up and brushed off my skirt. Lizzie got to her feet beside me.

"Nothing. He couldn't find me," she said.

"Your fiance is clueless." I shook my head and whistled for Leo. He came running up to us with a huge smile on his face. He was holding a pretty white flower with a lot of tiny petals. He held it out to Lizzie.

"For you!" he exclaimed. Lizzie took it and bent down to kiss his cheek.

"Look, Lux. I could have one of those soon." She sighed dreamily.

"A flower?" I asked.

"A child," she corrected. I looked at Leo, with his chubby cheeks and pretty green eyes. I felt something tug at my heart.

"Yeah, sure," I muttered.

"So, the skirt will bell out like this…." I drew as I talked, showing Lizzie what I hoped she envisioned for her dress. "And a sash here with a bow in the back…."
"And no straps," she added. I nodded.

"No straps," I murmured. The knock on the door startled me from my trance. I looked up to see Newt standing in the door.

"I was, uh, told I'd find you here," he said. I assumed he was talking to Lizzie and pushed her forward. She shot me a glare before quickly turning back to her brother.

"Yes," she agreed. Newt waited. "Oh, right, sorry. Look, I'm really sorry about earlier, it's just that it's been so long since I've seen you and―"

"Liz," I coughed. She looked back at me. "He still doesn't know who you are."

"Oh." Lizzie's shoulders sagged. "Yeah. I forgot." Newt didn't seem to like Sad Lizzie anymore than I did.

"You can tell me, you know. It would be nice to know something from my past," he said.

"I'm your sister," she told him. I was very impressed with how Newt handled it; it seemed to wash right over him. "Twins, in fact. My name's Elizabeth, but you called me Lizzie." Newt smiled at her.

"I'm Newt," he said.

"I know," Lizzie replied.

"I know. I just wanted to formally introduce myself to my sister." He grinned. Lizzie threw her arms around him.

"I've missed you so much, and I know you don't really know who I am right now, but it's still such a relief to see you and know you're alive and―"

"Lizzie," I cut off her rambling. "One, you need to breathe. Two, you need to let Newt breathe." Lizzie released the chokehold she had on her brother and tucked a piece of blond hair behind her ear.

"Oh, right." She blushed. Newt looked at me.

"And you're Lennox, right?" he asked.

"It's Lux, actually. Only Oliver and Rebecca call me Lennox," I said.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Newt," he stated.

"I gathered that." I picked my pencil up, wrote Lizzie in the top right hand corner, and stood up from my desk. "Well, you two obviously have a lot of catching up to do. I'm done for today, so I'm going to go. Bye." I left the room and walked out of the building. The new immunes were getting set up. We had just gotten new hammocks and blankets, and a group of people were hanging them up. I could smell food cooking in the kitchens; I suspected Frypan would soon be joining their ranks, if he hadn't already. Glancing in the direction of the injured ruined my mood. So many people were hurt, and I wasn't sure how many could be saved. Luckily, Theo ran up to me during this train of thought.

"Have you seen Lizzie?" he asked. He sounded out of breath and looked about five minutes away from passing out, not to mention frazzled beyond relief. One thing that I liked about Theo was how in love he was with Liz. He would do anything for her, and I enjoyed knowing that she would be safe without Kate and I.

"Yes," I said. He waited.

"Where is she?"

"With Newt."

"What?"

"She and Newt are having a sibling moment. Do not go up there and ruin anything. Give him a chance to play the over-protective big brother role," I ordered.

"So, she's okay?" Sometimes, the heart Theo had surprised me. No one really expected much emotion from the green-haired guy. It often seemed like our roles had been reversed, with him caring and me not.

"She's fine, Theo. I wouldn't be standing here if she wasn't."

"Right, right. Thanks," he said.

"She's my best friend. I'd do anything for her. You and me? We're on the same team," I told him. Theo gave me a tight smile. "I think the builders wanted your opinion on something." Theo nodded and took off in the direction of their latest project. I smiled to myself as I thought of Newt's reaction when Lizzie told him that she was engaged. Finally, a bright spot in all of this awfulness.

Hey, I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! It is so easy to fill up five or six pages with this story, and it continues to surprise me! I love this story so much and I'm three chapters in! What do you guys think? How do you like my characters? Are they good? Believable? Too holy? Please, let me know your opinions, especially on Lux!:)

Anyway, so Scorch Trials came out Friday. My friend and I went to see it and can I just say wow. I mean, the movie was amazing and Dylan O'Brien's facial expressions killed me. (Seriously, just like watch him run, it's hilarious.) Unfortunately, the book-to-movie representation wasn't very good. *Sad face* But I seriously love Thomas Brodie-Sangster, like he's just adorable, and if they happen to keep him alive in the next book, I won't object. I feel the exact same way with Finnick in the Hunger Games. So, if you've seen the movie, feel free to share your opinions. If you think I should add in some elements from it, if I should avoid it altogether, etc. etc. (Although, the Cranks were the stupidest things I've ever seen. THEY ARE NOT ZOMBIES AND THEY DO NOT MAKE WEREWOLF NOISES!)

Please follow, favorite, PM, review! I love hearing from you guys. It's what makes my stories go round. Stay tuned for the next installment. Thanks for reading; you're all dolls!

~Isabelle