I met Tucker the next morning, sunrise like he requested but he was already irritated.

"You're late."

"No, you said sunrise."

"If you're on time, you're late," he grunted. "Here, take this," he handed me a make-shift bucket with some rough thin papery substance."Go to the showers. Clean them."

"Is anyone going to be in them?," I asked.

"Shuck, you're a girl...," Tucker paused. "Right then, go to the Bloodhouse."

"Aye aye," I mumbled sarcastically and went to the Bloodhouse.

Winston greeted me with a simple hello but I honestly had no idea what I was doing, I was given no direction and a bucket. Unluckily, Tucker had followed me to the Bloodhouse to do just that and honestly I would have preferred figuring it out on my own than spending the day with him.

"You have to really scrap up the poop, if not, it all builds up."

Woah, never would have thought of that, I thought sarcastically.

"You know, you're not at all what I expected from a girl."

At that moment, I was on my knees, scrapping at chicken poop stuck to the floor while gagging at the scented of blood mixed with animal hair. I didn't know what he meant, but knowing Tucker, it was not a compliment.

"What do you mean," I coughed and went back to scrapping.

"Girls are supposed to follow rules. Girls are supposed to ya know, listen and stuff."

I sat back on my knees and looked over my shoulder to him," That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"Hey, no slacking! We have a lot to do today," he directed me back to the floor. "And that, right there. Girls aren't supposed to be so harsh."

"Who told you that?," I don't even know why I asked.

"Nobody."

"So, the one thing you remember from your past life is about how girls should be behave?," I was not expecting a response.

"No, I remember a lot."

"Oh, Really?," I didn't believe him.

"God, greenie! You have to scrub in circles or we'll be here all day! And yeah, I remember bits of the old life."

I paused for a moment to remain my cool and started to scrub in circles," What all do you remember?"

"I know I was a boy, that's for sure. My name was Tucker. I know I had a mom and dad, betting I was an only child..."

These are just assumptions? Everyone has a mom and dad... He's just talking to hear himself, I rolled my eyes and tried to drain him out. Time passed, Tucker was really riding me on the cleanliness of the floor until it was lunch time. I asked if I was allowed to eat and he howled with laughter.

"You're a Slopper, not a slave," he said.

Instead of going to the kitchen and seeing Siggy and Joe, I snuck off to the Slammer to see Jackson.

"Jackson?," I whispered as I looked down in his cell.

"Hey, what are you doing here?," Jackson sat up quickly.

"Just checking on you..."

"You really can't be here. You are making me look innocent."

I rolled my eyes," What are they going to do? You know they won't un-punish you. Just like they won't un-punish me," I sat down and faced him.

Jackson half shrugged, agreeing with what I was saying.

"Yeah, maybe... besides, it's not so bad."

"Yeah, I would take the Slammer over being a Slopper," I sighed.

"Tucker wearing on you?"

"I do not want to talk about it. But, Jackson... I have to tell you something."

"No, we... we shouldn't talk about that. Not now."

"Huh? No, it's not about Ben... it's about Newt."

"Newt? What about him?"

I sighed and looked to my lap," He might know that I invited you in my hut the other night..."

"WHAT?!," Jackson called out.

"He... well... he, came by and... things got out of hand fast."

"Out of hand how?"

"He saw right through me Jackson... he knew I was lying," I looked up.

Jackson sighed," You are a terrible liar."

"But he doesn't know about Ben."

"Good. Probably for the best."

"Yeah..."

Jackson's brow furrowed," Then what did you tell him."

"I told him you were there so we could talk... about him...," I buried my face in my hands.

Jackson snickered," Are you serious?"

"This isn't funny Jackson! I almost told him everything! My feelings!"

"That's a good thing. Can't you see?," Jackson shifted "you can finally just tell him and let it all out in the open."

I peeked to him through my fingers," I knew you would enjoy this..."

Jackson chuckled," It's a good thing."

"I'm just so glad Gally came and stopped me from saying anything. I mean, right now I can still cover this up. I'll just tell him we were talking about how much we hate him or something."

Jackson scoffed," Yeah, there's a good plan," he said sarcastically. "Look lunch is probably over, I don't want you to get in more trouble..."

I pulled the ends of my hair," Okay... fine...," I stood up reluctantly.

"Hey," he reached out through the bars and I took his hand. "It'll be okay, okay? No matter what you've got me. Anything with Newt or with Ben or with the Glade, just know that I'm here for you." His blue eyes were ablaze as he gave me his sweet little speech.

"I know Jackson. You're my best friend."

"I damn well better be," he laughed and I laughed too. "See you 'round," he went back and sat in his cell.

After lunch, Tucker was right behind me as he always was pointing out the flaws.

"Well, you'll have to redo it," he crossed his arms.

"What? Why? It's clean!"

"Because it's not clean. Look over there, I see feathers and right here is more blood."

He was right, it wasn't a great job now that he pointed out the inconsistencies.

I sighed and went back to work, and Tucker went back to being Tucker. I was about to boil over and slap him in the face after a full day of listening to him talk but luckily it was dinner time, and the universal sign that the day in the Glade was over. I was hungry, I really was, but I was still too embarrassed to go to the Kitchen, so I went to my room.

The next day, I woke up and was walking to the Bloodhouse again when a familiar voice called out to me.

"Hey! Hey, wait up!"

I turned to see Ben jogging towards me and for some reason a pit formed in my stomach. The closer he got the larger it grew and it made me nervous to be so close to him.

"Maybe we should have made you a Runner," he joked.

I tried to smile, but my lips were stiff and I just shuffled my feet and looked over my shoulder to my destination.

"Yeah, look, I was just checking to make sure you're okay."

"What?," I turned back to him.

"I mean, I heard about the whole Jackson thing and I was just making sure you're good."

"I... I'm good."

"And they're making you be a Slopper, tough break."

I wanted to say something to Ben, I wanted to just reidirate everything that had happened. I wanted him to tell me that the needle was safe, it wouldn't hurt him or anyone else in the Glade. I wanted him to tell me it was a stupid prank or that he took it back into the maze and had forgotten all about it. I opened my mouth but stopped when I saw Mihno and the other Runners approaching the door.

"Well, I got to go. I'll see you later," he smiled and then ran over to the door.

I waited to watch them all enter the maze as one, like a force to be reckoned with, a team of unstoppable potential. Maybe today will be the day... I thought without any real expectations.

Today was worse than yesterday. Tucker would not take no as an answer and he was determined to make me clean the showers. He went in and cleared everyone out and put me to work. I never really noticed how disgusting these boys really were until I had to clean that Shower room. I was thankful that Tucker didn't stay and linger over me, he had other things to do so he left me alone. I cleaned the room before lunch and my stomach was begging me to get some food, but I suppressed the urge and went back to my room.

Seeing Ben brought back the bad memory of what was hidden in the Deadhead, but I couldn't do anything. I had to wait for Jackson to get out of his punishment and that was going to take another 5 days!