Approaching the bonfire, a couple other boys join them with torches, and Alby takes one before offering it to Ash. Surprised, Ash takes it from him carefully. She holds it to the wood pile, stacked up rather fancy. A few pieces start to catch fire, but the progress is slow.
Ash tries another angle, jamming the torch into a cavity in the bottom of the stack and letting go. It does the trick, and the bonfire rushes up in flames. Boys cheer behind her, and one of them— Frypan— calls out that dinner's ready.
Newt is the one to walk with Ash to the picnic tables. Frypan's got bowls stacked in the window, and a ladle in his hand, ready to scoop out portions to everyone who wants one. Alby yells out a reminder that the Greenie goes first, and she blushes as Newt nudges her forward.
Frypan gives her a bright grin as she grabs a bowl and a spoon, and he pours out a hearty helping of what looks— and smells— like a beef and vegetable stew. Ash lingers near the window, waiting for the others to start getting served. She's clearly too nervous to start eating all alone.
The knife Alby had given her is sheathed, the clip hanging on the outside of her pants waistline— for some reason, she doesn't have any pockets— which shows off her possession of the blade for all to see.
Newt and George are among the next to be served, and Ash follows them to one of the tables, sitting on the same side as Newt. On the other side, with George, another Glader sits with them. It's the one Alby had pointed out earlier, one of the exceptions to rule three.
Minho.
He introduces himself, and Newt returns the gesture on her behalf, as she has a mouthful of Frypan's stew.
It's quite delicious, despite the boys' teasing. The broth is surprisingly flavorful, given the setting and limited resources. Along with the chunks of beef, there are chopped up onions, carrots, and potatoes. Everything is cooked through pretty well, and very tasty.
The meal hits the spot, settling nicely in Ash's empty stomach. She finishes it quickly, before a couple of the Gladers even have a chance to get all the way through the line. The boys at her table stare and laugh.
"Someone was hungry," George teases.
"That's literally the first thing I have any memory of eating today," she replies. "And based on how hungry I was, I wouldn't doubt if it was the actual first thing, too."
"You didn't get a snack when you got out of the Box?" Minho asks, sounding surprised.
"She was unconscious," Newt explains. "Didn't wake up until over an hour later."
"Oh, damn," Minho says, taking another bite. "That's weird..."
"A lot of things have apparently been weird about me," Ash says evenly, and all three of her table-mates laugh in agreement.
The rest of them finish eating after a few more minutes, and George takes it upon himself to take Ash around and introduce her to the rest of the Gladers. He starts her at the table with Alby, Frypan, and two others.
"You've already met these two," George tells her. "Fry, this is Ash. Ash, these other two shanks are Zart and Gally. They're in charge of our gardens and building projects—" he points to each of them respectively, and Zart tilts his chin upward in greeting.
"What's up, she-bean?" he asks, but she just blinks at him in confusion.
"What?"
"Well, our nickname for the newbies is greenbean, or greenie for short," Zart explains. "You're the first girl, so... she-bean."
"Oh," she mumbles. "Um, I'm okay, I think. Given the situation."
"She's definitely better adjusted than most any other Greenie we've had," George says with a small laugh, and a light blush crosses her face.
"Maybe I'm just better at internalizing it," she says. "Because I'm definitely still freaking out on the inside." That makes Alby, Zart, and Frypan laugh, but Gally stays quiet, focused on his stew. George notices the tension radiating from him, and quickly leads Ash away to the next table.
She quickly learns the names of the other boys, without much confusion between them. Wyck, Winston, Bobby, and Hunter. Dylan, Max, and Jeff. Tyler, Andrew, and Eddie.
Eddie was the Greenie before Ash, and seems pleased to have been 'promoted'. Every one of the boys seems nice enough, cracking jokes with her and laughing at hers. Gally's coldness seems to have been an exception, not a precedent, for her relationships with the boys.
As the tables finish their food and drop off their bowls back at the kitchen window, they start to gravitate back toward the bonfire. One of the bigger boys adds a couple new logs to help keep it going. Gally disappears for a few minutes, but comes back with a tray of mason jars, full of some kind of clear-ish liquid.
Winston and a couple other boys get excited at the sight, but Ash couldn't be less interested in it. The liquid is clearly some kind of alcohol, and it looks disgusting.
The dog, Nellie, approaches her with a stick in her mouth, wagging her tail. Ash laughs, and takes the stick. Nellie takes an excited stance, smacking her front paws on the ground, like she's ready to run after it as soon as Ash throws the stick. Sure enough, Ash sends it flying end over end, away from the fire.
Nellie takes off, practically flying. It only takes about five seconds for her to find the stick and bring it back. She deposits it at Ash's feet before retaking her 'ready' stance. Ash is slow to react this time, and Nellie barks once to get her attention. Her ears are in the forward position, and she's already panting, pink tongue flopping out one side.
Ash throws it again, and again, and again. Nellie doesn't seem to ever get tired of it, and her enthusiasm is infectious. Ash laughs the next time Nellie yells at her to hurry up.
After a few minutes, she starts humming a small tune that's been stuck in her head for the last couple of hours. The words of the chorus tumble past her lips before she can stop them.
Newt sidles up beside her, a mason jar in his hand, and he quietly watches her continue to play with Nellie, listening.
"What's that?" he asks quietly, and Ash glances to him as she waits for Nellie to return once more with the stick.
"Not sure," she says. "I've had it stuck in my head all day... I didn't even know it had words 'til they started coming out."
"Well, let me hear 'em," Newt insists. "Sounds nice— and catchy."
Biting her lip, Ash looks down at the dog, depositing the stick. She tells her no more, then nervously hums the chorus one more time, before opening her mouth to sing. The words tumble out, one after the other. Her eyes slip closed, blocking out any distractions.
As the final one leaves her mouth, she realizes the rest of the boys have grown quiet. Her eyes flutter open again, and her whole face flushes when she realizes several boys have made their way closer to listen to her. Not all, but enough to make her feel very self-conscious.
Face feeling hot, she opens her mouth to say something, but Frypan beats her to it.
"That was awesome," he says.
"How'd you remember all those words?" another boy asks, and Ash simply shrugs.
"I— I don't know," she says. "They just... came out. I was telling Newt before..." She shakes her head to clear it. "Look, I hope y'all enjoyed that, because it's not happening again," Ash says. "Holy crap, y'all are nosy." Newt laughs, slinging one arm around her.
"You're the one who was bein' loud," he tells her, words slurring ever so slightly.
Ash blushes harder, carefully removing herself from under his arm. "Can we just... move on?"
Several of them laugh, but respect her wishes when Alby insists. Near the bonfire is a second sand pit, where Gally's waiting with his arms crossed. His usual scowl is in place, and he's got most of his weight on one foot. He doesn't seem amused nor impressed by Ash's accidental performance.
Zart steps over the rope that lines the edges of the second pit, grinning cockily, and Gally's expression finally changes. He smirks at the other boy, and beckons him to take the first go.
They circle one another for a moment, throwing playful insults first. Newt grabs Ash's arm and drags her over to watch, placing themselves at the front of the crowd, right next to Minho and Frypan.
Finally, Zart makes the first real move, launching himself forward to try and tackle Gally, but the Builder pushes him aside with ease. Zart lands on his side in the sand, grunting, but quickly gets back up to try again. He throws a punch; Gally dodges it. A second punch is caught in the Builder's fist, and then Gally's free hand makes contact with Zart's chest— and then Zart goes flying out of the circle, barely caught by the boys behind him.
Laughs rise up from everyone watching, and even Zart chuckles a bit. Gally holds out one closed fist, which Zart meets with his own in a half-hearted bump.
"Who's next?" Gally shouts, looking around. His eyes skip right over Ash, darkening briefly as they pass.
"I guess I'll give it another shot," George says, stepping forward. He shakes himself out, rolling his head around. "I got nothin' to lose except my dignity, right?"
"Want me to go easy on you, Georgie?" Gally asks tauntingly, but his opponent just laughs and shakes his head.
"I'll throw you in the real Pit if you do that," he says, skipping over the circling portion to go right for an attack.
Nellie's wet nose against Ash's side distracts her from the fight, as she crouches down to the dog and scratches behind her ears. Nellie doesn't seem to like the fighting, whimpering into the human girl's side.
"You can go to bed," Ash tells her, whispering. "You don't have to stay next to me all night."
Cheers and more laughter rises up around them, and Ash looks up to see that George has already been shoved out of the circle.
"Did I seriously miss the whole thing?" she asks Minho, standing back up.
He snickers. "Wasn't much," he assures her.
"Anyone else?" Gally yells. He looks straight to Frypan with a somewhat hopeful look, but the Cook is distracted in the same manner Ash had been only moments before.
He's crouched with Nellie now, with the dog on her back and both his hands rubbing her belly. "Nah," Frypan says, "not this time, man."
Gally scowls once more, and storms off when no one else volunteers. The crowd begins to disperse, everyone breaking off into smaller groups to hang out until Alby tells them it's time to go to bed.
Nellie really seems to like Frypan, eventually getting back up to bring him her stick. He throws with her even longer than Ash had, over and over until Nellie is the one to get tired. Ash watches, laughing quietly.
In the end, when Alby calls it a night, she and Nellie go back to the Medjack hut to sleep for the night. There's a small wooden box that hadn't been there before, with "The Girl" neatly printed on the top. Inside, there's a small leather pouch with about a dozen hair ties, one spare shirt and pair of pants, two pairs of spare socks and underwear, and an even smaller box with a bottle of mild pain killers and a few each of pads and tampons.
Frowning to herself, she puts everything back into the box before sitting on the end of the cot. Her shoes— brown work boots, sturdy and laced up a couple inches above her ankles— take a few moments to get off, then she lays down with a blanket draped over her. Nellie curls up in the grass next to her, and Ash rolls to her side so she can reach down and gently pet her until they both fall asleep.