Ash seems off, when the Box reveals the youngest Greenie they've ever had. He's just a kid— twelve at the most, chubby cheeked and a mop of coppery-brown curls on his head. Even Arthur had been older than this kid. He klunks his pants when the others try to get him out of the Box, and twice more when they put him in the Pit to calm down.
The last time had been when Alby had approached, so he decided to try something different this month, and asked Ash if she minded giving the poor kid the tour and rules, and slowly introduce him to some of the other Gladers. She agreed almost instantly, and headed off to the Pit on her own.
"Hey," she says softly, crouching at the edge. The boy looks up at her with tear-stained cheeks, and slowly begins to calm down.
"My name is Ash," she says. "You're safe— no one's gonna hurt you. We've all been exactly where you are right now. Do you remember your name?"
The boy shakes his head, and starts to cry again. Ash is quick to reassure him. "Hey, hey, it's okay— none of us could at first. It'll come back to you."
"P-promise?" the boy stammers, and Ash nods serenely.
"I promise," she says. "It took me about an hour and a half. The longest we've seen is... well, none of us actually saw it, since he was alone, but Alby says it took him a full day."
"A-Alby?"
Ash nods. "He's the guy who tried to come over here earlier," she explains. "He was the first one to go through what you just did. He was all by himself for a month, until that Box came back with— with someone else."
Nearly a year has passed since George's death, and she still can't bring herself to talk about it. The only time she'd been able to say his name was when talking about her nightmares with Gally that night...
"Wow," the kid mumbles.
Ash shakes herself out of it, and fixes the kid with a long stare. "How do you feel about getting out of there... maybe get some clean pants? I'm sure we've got spares that'll fit you— somewhere, anyway."
The boy nods sheepishly, face red. Ash undoes the knots keeping the door closed, and reaches a hand down to help him out of the Pit. He clings to her a bit, and she tries not to gag at the smell of shit.
"Alby asked me to tell you he's sorry for scaring you earlier," she says.
"'S not his fault," the boy mumbles, and Ash leads him toward the Homestead. The rest of the Gladers are off emptying the Box and sorting the supplies, and the boy eyes the crowd of them apprehensively.
"How many of us are there?" he asks.
"Uh... god, I haven't been asked that in a while," she admits. "Just under forty, I think. One every month, and I think Gally said we hit the three year anniversary a couple of months back, so... yeah, right around forty."
"You guys have been here for three years?" the boy asks, eyes wide. "Why haven't you left?"
"I'm not the right person to ask about that, bud," she says quietly. "How about I get one of my friends to help us look for some new pants for you, then I'll take you on a tour of the whole place?" He looks nervous at the mention of involving one of the other boys, but nods.
Ash calls Newt over, the one she suspects is least likely to laugh at the kid aside from Alby. He wrinkles his nose as he limps over, but he doesn't comment on the smell.
"Do we have any spare pants that would fit the Greenie?" Ash asks him politely, and Newt takes a moment to think about it.
"Might have to cut off the bottom of the legs, but I think so," he says, and slowly leads them over to the dresser with almost everyone's spare clothes— except for Ash's, who keeps hers in her own drawers in her room.
After a few minutes, Ash continues the tour with a less-disgusting Greenie. She points out each of the buildings— minus the Map Hut hidden deep in the woods— as well as the animal pen and the gardens. The poor kid looks about as green as his nickname when Ash explains what the Bloodhouse is.
"What do you do?" he asks quietly.
"I'm the Keeper of the Medjacks," she says, rather proudly. "That means I'm in charge of the people who deal with everyone's injuries and illnesses."
"Do people get sick often, or just hurt?"
"Eh, mostly minor injuries," Ash says. "The worst we've had is a broken leg..." she trails off, not mentioning the injuries they couldn't treat. "And as for getting sick, it's mostly just boys getting a cold after staying out in the rain too long. Sniffles, sneezing, low-grade fever that goes away in a couple hours. Nothing too big or serious."
"What job do you think I'll have?" he asks.
Ash pretends to deliberate, already knowing the answer. "Well, first you'll shadow everyone else's for a while to see how you fit. Then you'll take on Slopper duties until you're no longer the Greenie." She's exaggerating the amount of time the usual Greenie gets Slopper duty, though this is no ordinary Greenie.
"What's... what's a Slopper?"
Ash tries to hide her grin. "You'll be the one cleaning the bathroom block, helping the cooks clean up after dinner, that kind of thing."
The kid goes quiet, clearly deflating, and Ash giggles.
"You probably won't actually be a Slopper the whole month," she assures him. "After shadowing, you'll get about a week with it while the rest of us try to decide where to put you, then the Keepers take over Slopping."
The boy cheers up after that. He doesn't really ask many more questions, except for the obvious one, just as they approach the Lookout Tower.
"Where are the other girls?"
"There are none," Ash says quietly. "It's just me—" The boy frowns at her, clearly noticing her change in demeanor. "It's okay, though," she says with a shrug, trying to shake herself out of the funk she can feel herself falling into.
That night, at the bonfire, the Greenie continues to cling to her side. He's apprehensive even of Nellie, who approaches them with her usual stick (somehow still intact after more than a year and a half).
The fire seems a little brighter than usual, though she thinks it's probably just her imagination. Her mind is racing, excitement coursing through her. She watches the others, mostly gathered around the wrestling pit. Gally's going up against Frypan, who doesn't last long despite the builder clearly going easy on him.
An idea sparks in her mind, and she slips out of the Greenie's grasp and toward the back of the crowd. She crouches and takes off her shoes, then her socks.
"And just what are you up to?" a voice asks from above her, and she looks to see Newt smirking, holding a glass of that murky alcohol in one hand.
Ash returns the look as she stands back up. "Just taking off my shoes," she says innocently. "A bunch of them are barefoot— why can't I be?"
Newt shakes his head, laughing to himself as he simply walks away. She watches him wander toward Minho at first, but he seems to change his mind as he changes course rather abruptly.
Note to self, get them to talk it out.
She makes her back to the front of the crowd, pleased to see the greenie warming up to Nellie. He's giving the happy dog a belly rub, and her tongue lolls out the side of her mouth.
Gally throws his current opponent, Ben, out of the circle just as Ash returns her attention toward them. Everyone's cheering and laughing, knocking each other around as they try to work up the courage to go next.
Heart pounding and unable to keep the grin off her face, Ash steps into the sand. The noise dies down around them as Gally turns to see her, eyes wide in shock.
"My turn," she says cheerfully, perhaps sounding too chipper for the situation.
He blinks a few times before shaking his head. "No, I'm not fighting you," he says.
Tilting her head, she says, "Why not? Afraid you'll lose to a girl?"
Some of the boys snicker to each other at the obvious bait, but Gally rolls his eyes.
"No, I just don't wanna hurt you," he says, crossing his arms.
"You won't," she promises. Gally narrows his eyes, scrutinizing her.
"I'm not gonna go easy on you," he warns.
"Good," she retorts, and falls into a defensive stance like he'd taught her. Easy to move from if necessary. Knees just slightly bent, bringing her center of gravity down.
They circle each other at first, neither turning their back on the other, until Frypan calls out for them to get on with it.
Gally makes the first move, stepping forward and feinting right before trying to grab her from the left side. She actually moves into it, ducking under his arm and spinning around so she's once more facing him. He frowns, and tries again but without the fake run.
She dodges him once more, this time with a rather simple side step. "I thought you said you weren't gonna go easy on me," she teases, heart racing as a flutter of oooooh!'s rise from the crowd.
"You asked for it," he grumbles, and tries once more.
This time, he goes straight at her, and her only option is duck under him, sliding across the sand on her stomach, right between his legs. She can feel the rough grains getting into places she wishes they wouldn't, but she refuses to let the sensation distract her. Swinging one leg out to the side, over her other leg, she uses the momentum to both flip herself onto her back as well as to knock into Gally's ankle.
The hit doesn't knock him over, but it does bring him down on that knee. He grunts at the impact, and starts trying to get back up— but Ash strikes again, using both of her legs this time to push against Gally's other ankle.
It works a little better this time, bringing him off balance, and he falls forward to catch himself. His arms under him, and his legs splayed out a bit, Ash finally gets back up to her feet. She's well aware that her entire backside— and likely her entire front as well— is covered in half-damp sand, but she keeps her eyes trained on Gally.
She steps back just far enough to stay out of his reach should he try to retaliate.
"You're not giving up yet, are you?" she asks, surprising even herself with how confident she sounds. How confident she feels.
"You wish." He spits some sand from his mouth, straightening his legs as he gets back to his feet. Ash decides to play nice, letting him do so without attacking.
Almost.
Before he can fully regain balance, she switches tactics— goes from defense to offense— and charges at him. She doesn't reach, keeping her arms close to her own chest as she hurls herself at him.
Caught completely off guard, they both go tumbling; the boys at that section of the circle practically dive out of the way so they don't become collateral damage.
They land in the grass, Gally first on his back, Ash on top of him. Before either can really register the rather… interesting position they've found themselves in, Ash scrambles to her feet and takes a few steps back.
Her hair is coming undone from its braid, some of it hanging loose on the other side of her face. Sweat is beaded across her forehead, and sand clings to almost every inch of her from the shoulders down.
But she smiles, breathless, as she processes everything. Gally picks his head up to stare at her for a moment, an unreadable look in his eyes. The warm glow from the bonfire is reflected in them, until he closes his eyes and lets his head hit the grass once more.
He's yielding.
The other Gladers erupt in obnoxiously loud cheers, sounding way louder than just a couple dozen teenage boys. You'd think she'd just single-handedly beat a griever, or an entire army… or ate a worm.
Teenage boys, you know?
Ash steps closer and nudges his foot, prompting him to open his eyes again. She offers him a hand to get back up, and he doesn't hesitate to grab it and pull her down with him. Rolling to the side to avoid landing on him— not wanting to risk having to confront those feelings, not in front of everyone else— she just laughs as she hits the grass.
"I'm gonna be honest," she says between giggles. "I know I talked a lot of smack earlier, but I did not expect to win."
"Yeah, yeah," he grumbles, though he doesn't even sound that annoyed. "Rub it in, why don't ya?"
"Oh please, you definitely went easy on me," she says, going quiet with a small sigh. He doesn't deny it, but she's not upset by the idea— he'd put up enough of a willing fight for her to still feel accomplished.
She stares up at the stars as her heart rate slowly goes back to normal and the adrenaline wears off. The sand starts to feel itchy, but she ignores it for now. She can feel the heat from Gally beside her, his arm ever so barely touching hers, and she wants to fall asleep.
She wants to stay like this forever, though she knows she can't.
One more month, she tells herself. Just one more month.