Thomas' Tackle
That night, a bonfire as bright as the sun was lit. Around that same fire held dancing, laughing, yelling boys, all with smiles on their faces. The event reminded Hope of her first day in the Glade, and truthfully, it had felt like ages ago by then. Now, Hope had fully settled into her new life and had even made amazing friends. She loved seeing each of them smile so naturally and joyfully. They all reminded Hope one one big, happy family of brothers. It was honestly adorable to watch them act like little boys around one another. Moreover, despite Hope not being a boy, she felt included. She may have not been a part of many of their conversations, but simply seeing the boys have fun was enough for her. Even Hugo, who was pretty much a Greenie himself, was hanging out with the Slicers and eating his fill of meat. Therefore, it seemed that Hope's first month in the Glade had gone quite well. She was now officially not a Greenie, too.
But the newest Greenie, on the other hand, had Hope worried.
"Hey, Newt…?" Hope said, prompting Newt to turn around from where he stood. "Why haven't you talked to him yet?"
When Newt followed her gaze to the Greenie sitting by himself, he let out a long sigh. "What do you mean? I talked to him earlier."
"Newt… You know what I mean…" Hope stated with a meaningful look in her eyes. "Is this about when I cried?"
"If I said yes," Newt glanced away, "would you be mad?"
"Of course not. I could never be mad at you, Newt," Hope acknowledged kindly. "However, my crying had nothing to do with him. And, even if it did, neither of us remember it. It wouldn't be his fault."
"I know that, but…" Newt huffed. "I just get bloody weird when I see you sad."
"Hey, it's okay. I'm not angry with you, remember? I just… want you to talk to him."
"Why?"
"Because I think you two would be good for each other. He needs someone to gently push him into doing things. Not like Gally, who really pushes him. He needs someone on his side, Newt. Someone who… doesn't give up on him, but not in a pushy way."
Newt merely stared down at Hope for a few moments, their eyes never looking away from the other. In under one a day, Hope had understood that boy, and that power of hers astounded Newt once more. One conversation, one little look, and Hope could somehow understand a person's wants and dislikes. She was a master at reading people, he guessed. Hope always knew exactly what to say, and she never used that ability to hurt anyone, either. She always used it to help someone. And that fact that Newt… unable to fight any longer.
"Okay, fine…" Newt ultimately scoffed. "I mean, I already wanted to talk to him anyway, but… Thanks for the push."
Hope smiled. "Do you want me to come with you?"
"Nah, I'm good - I'm not that lame, Hope," Newt said and then walked past her. "C'ya later!"
"C'ya!" Hope waved back. Then, once her hand dropped, Hope nodded to herself. "Why do I have the feeling that those two are gonna be the best of friends one day?"
"…OHHH!" Just then, an accumulation of shouts bellowed through the area near Hope. The noise made her jump a little, but it also didn't take long for her to know why the noise was made. Since, exactly like last month, Gally was once again… fighting poor, poor Gladers. "Get 'em, Gally! Let's go!"
Hope could only shake her head at what she was seeing: Gally was wrestling with the younger boys again, completely dominating them each and every time. Hope had to wonder what the point of such activities were, but again, she was a girl. And maybe boy stuff like that was simply unknown to girls like Hope. Besides, the boys seemed to enjoy it, so who was Hope to judge? Although, while Hope was watching the sparring from afar, she noticed someone through the cheering group of boys. And this someone made her instantly walk over to them.
"Hello, Minho! Ben!" Hope beamed once she'd stood in front of the two boys. Minho was sitting on a stump, while Ben was standing beside him "How's it going?"
"Pretty good," Ben answered with a friendly smile. "And by the way, this stew is super good. I don't know what you and Fry did, but it's some of the best stuff ever."
"Thank you! Frypan will love to hear it!" Hope chirped. "How about you, Minho? How was your day?"
Minho shrugged while he spooned some food into his mouth. "The norm."
"Is… that a good thing or a… bad thing?" Hope asked anxiously, causing Minho to finally look up and give her a smile.
"It's a good thing, Hope. Stop worryin' so much."
"R-Right," Hope stuttered and then smiled again. "Well, um, did you meet the new Greenie yet?"
"I heard that he face-planted into the dirt," Ben snickered. "At least we know what job he won't be getting, huh, Minho?"
"Definitely," Minho agreed almost instantly. "We don't need a Runner that trips like a Slinthead."
"A-Actually, he was running pretty fast until he fell," Hope claimed, an excited glint in her eyes. "Like, really fast. He's super curious, too. He's not even scared of the Maze - ran right up to it today."
"Are you tryna get a good word for him, Hope?" Ben questioned. "'Cause if you are, I don't think this is the right job-"
"WOAH!" Once more, Hope suddenly heard an accumulation of shouts come from the fighting circle. However, the scene she saw after turning around, made her eyes go as wide as saucers. Gally had been pushed into the Greenie, but instead of apologizing to him, Gally proposed something to him.
"What do you say, Greenie?" Gally asked with uneven breaths. "Wanna see what you're made of?"
At first, the boy just stayed silent; he obviously didn't know what to say. Regardless, Jeff had an answer for him. "Greenie! Greenie!" the Medjack cheered. "Greenie! Greenie!" Many other boys had started chanting as well, causing the singular boy to look around in surprise. The poor teenager had no idea what was going on, but he was still being peer-pressured into doing it. And, even worse, the entire Glade was watching.
"Ah, geez…" Hope sighed while she ran up to stand beside Newt. "You guys weren't this tough on me when I got here."
"Yeah, well, you were a special case," Newt remarked before taking a sip of his beer. "And, by the way, you were right about him. He's a little stubborn, but if he gets pushed just the right way, he'll give in eventually."
"Th-That's great to know, but this isn't great," Hope stammered as everyone around her cheered. "Gally's scary when he fights."
"Yeah! But I believe in him!" Chuck, who had very abruptly appeared beside Hope, yelled into the circle. "C'mon, man! You got this!"
"Ruff!" Even Hugo joined in. "Ruff, ruff!"
"…Alright. The rules are simple, Greenie," Gally started, the torches surrounding him making his face turn into a deep orange. "I try to push you outta the circle, you try to last more than five seconds."
"Hahaha!" the Glade laughed.
"Take it easy on the Greenie, Gally!" Frypan chirped.
Oh, but Gally wasn't going to 'take it easy.' Not even close. The moment that the newest boy readied himself, Gally roughly pushed him and made him fall backwards. Luckily, Zart and some other boys caught the boy, but then they pushed him onto the ground. Face first. Hope just had to cringe at what she saw, feeling pity for the poor Greenie. She was even about to say something right before-
"C'mon, Greenie!" Gally pestered. "We're not done yet!"
The boy stood up and glared at his opponent. "Stop calling me 'Greenie.'"
"Stop calling you that?" Gally smirked. "What do you wanna be called? Shank?"
"Hahaha!" Once more, the other boys laughed at Gally's quip, which made Hope almost speak up again. However, again, she was cut off by the boy charging at Gally. This time, the boy held his ground - Gally unable to push him down. Oh, but that… that didn't last long. "OHHH!" The Glade erupted in more shouts when Gally threw the Greenie to the ground.
"You know what?" And Gally himself wasn't helping one bit. "I think I've settled on Shank."
The boy stood up and charged again without a second thought. He was sick of being humiliated, and he was sick of Gally. Therefore, the moment that he felt Gally using all of his weight against him, the boy moved from his grasp. This caused Gally to fall onto the ground, since without anything to push, there was nothing to hold onto. The rest of the Glade gasped in surprise, but encouraged the Greenie regardless. They didn't seem to have much of a preference. More so, upon seeing the boy fight smarter, not harder, Hope couldn't keep herself from smiling; and that smile only deepened when she saw Minho nod in satisfaction. But right before Hope could even look back at the fight-
"OHHH!" The Glade erupted in shouts, but not in victorious shouts. While he was still on the ground, Gally decided to play a little dirty: he used his leg to trip the boy, making him fall sideways and… head first into the ground. Seriously, Hope could have sworn she heard his skull thump! against the ground. The scene made Hope unable to keep still and unable to keep quiet any longer.
"O-Okay, wait a second! Please!" Hope yelled as she quickly ran into the center of the circle. She then kneeled in front of the boy and showed him a fearful look. "Are you okay?!"
"I-I'm…" The boy slowly glanced up to look into Hope's eyes. And the moment the two made eye-contact, the boy's eyes widened in realization. "Thomas."
Somehow, Hope knew exactly what he was talking about. "W-Wait, you mean… your name is…"
"T-Thomas!" the boy exclaimed, hastily standing back up. Hope followed right behind him, even having her own smile adorning her face. "My name is Thomas! I remember! I'm Thomas!"
"...THOMAS!" Alby bellowed into the night, prompting everyone else to do the same. Every single of the Gladers walked closer to Thomas and started shaking his hand, calling him by his true name. Even Frypan gave Thomas his alcohol, in which the poor Greenie immediately spit it out after taking a little sip of it. Nevertheless, it was a momentous occasion and an amazing moment. Thomas' first day in the Glade may have not gone as swimmingly as Hope's, but it was still packed full of what Hope experienced: acceptance. Sure, Thomas may have caused some problems here and there, but… he was still one of them.
He was still trapped.
"Do you think she's broken?"
"There must be something wrong with her."
"Look at that face."
"What a waste…"
"W-Why… Why do I have to be this way?"
The next morning, Hope woke up with another dream in her head. A few more voices, too. Once more, the girl and the woman were gone. They were replaced with hushed voices from many different-sounding voices. But that last one… That last voice… sounded like Hope's own voice. It sounded exactly like that last one.
"Sh-She scares me!"
"Why do I have to be this way?"
Hope just sat in bed for a few moments.
She kept replaying those voices in her head.
The sun was rising in the East, but Hope didn't feel its warmth.
Hope felt… cold.
"Hope?" Or until she felt a warm hand be placed atop hers. "Did you have a bad dream?"
"Sort of…" she replied to Newt's question after he had sat up as well. Lately, the boy had been staying later into the morning, because he understood that Hope had fully accepted his presence. "I heard… a lot of voices."
"New ones?" Newt asked. "Like the boy's voice from yesterday?"
Hope only shook her head. "Mhm."
"Why do you look so sad, then?"
"I don't know. I just… have a bad feeling."
"About…?"
"About today," Hope said and then took a deep, calming breath. "I-It's probably nothing, though, right? Everything will be just fine."
"And if it doesn't," Newt squeezed her hand reassuringly, "I'm here. I'm right here if you need me."
"I know…" Hope showed him a warm smile. "Thank you, Newt."
"Anytime." Newt smiled back. "Any time in the world, Hope."
Bump, bump!
"…Hey, Hope!" All of a sudden, there was a knock on Hope's door and Alby's voice was heard afterward. "I hear you two havin' some flirting time in there, but I need you to borrow you, Hope!"
"Oooh, a request from the man himself," Newt teased with a handsome smirk. "You must be some special girl."
In response, Hope simply let out a chuckle and jumped out of bed. She then waved goodbye to Newt, woke up Hugo, and readied herself for any mission that her fearless Leader needed.
"Just talk to him for me," Alby had told Hope. "And do what you do best."
After talking with Alby, Hope walked over to where she knew Thomas was sleeping. It was still pretty early in the morning, so practically nobody was up. More so, the morning dew was causing the grass to sparkle against the sun's rays - the sky was perfectly blue, too. It was a beautiful sight, but despite Newt's comfort, Hope still had that feeling in her gut. The feeling that something was going to go wrong that day. Still, Hope tried to forget about that feeling by going through with Alby's request. He had told her to wake up Thomas and bring him to the Wall of Names. Why did he ask her to do that? Hope didn't necessarily know. But again, Hope would do anything Alby told her to do. She just had that much respect for him.
"Woof…" Suddenly, Hugo let out a quiet yet irked bark; Hope didn't even have time to respond to the noise before he took off. Naturally, Hope quickly followed behind her dog, but it was strange, since Hugo just ran to where Thomas was sleeping on a hammock. The moment that Hope was standing above the sleeping boy, though, was when she finally had an answer to her confusion. "Grr…"
"Wait a second…" Hope inched closer to Thomas. "Is he… Is he having a bad- Oh!"
Thomas jolted awake without a single warning, causing Hope to practically fly into the air. At first, Thomas' chest was heaving up and down, his eyes wide in bewilderment; it was obvious that he was still half-asleep. But then, almost like he was checking to make sure, Thomas looked around at his surroundings. And when his eyes met Hope's was also when all of his sleepiness… just washed away. Somehow, he knew he was awake.
"H-Hope…?" he uttered out her name. "What… What're you…"
"Are you okay?" Hope asked as she took a step closer. "Did you have a bad dream?"
"'A bad… dream'?" Thomas said her words under his breath. "I think… I don't know if I… I don't know… Hey!" Hugo unexpectedly licked Thomas' face and made him let out a noise of surprise. Though, it didn't take long for Thomas to smile after seeing the dog's innocent face. He lifted his hand to scratch behind Hugo's ear. "Hey there, buddy. Were you worried about me?"
Hugo's tail wagged. "Ruff!"
"A-Are you okay, though?" Hope questioned again. "I mean, you looked pretty scared."
"Thanks, but I think I'm fine," Thomas reassured. "It was just a weird dream or something. Nothing bad."
"If you say so…" Hope mumbled, prompting Thomas to show her a quizzical look.
"What're you doing here, though? Did you need something?"
"Actually, yes. I do need you," Hope replied with a sheepish smile. "I… need to show you something, Thomas."
"Show me what?"
"Something very, very," Hope frowned, "important."
A/N: Gosh, I didn't even write that much of them, but I just love Thomas and Newt. Minho, too. 3
