In hindsight, it wasn't clear what bothered her so much about the idea of her brother fighting Gally. It's not like she particularly liked Gally, or didn't want to see him hurt. He was a bully, and he had been suspicious of them over things they frankly couldn't control. She didn't really know what his problem was, and frankly, she didn't care.
Or, maybe she just didn't want them to see Alex like this. She thought, maybe some subconscious part of her was afraid of the Gladers knowing how Alex can be… like a dog with a bone.
Because of that, she also knew that once he started something, it was very hard to get him to stop before it was finished. It was simultaneously one of his best traits… and also one of his worst. And one day it might even get him killed.
"Elsie, wait a damn minute!" Newt's accent was intensified as he struggled to catch up to her, but she didn't even pause in her stride.
Why were they so damn far?
"Elsie—" He continued, "Would you just—bloody slow down!"
As they approached the boys, many of whom had hooch in their hands and a huge smile on their faces as they waited for the excitement to begin, Newt finally caught up.
"No way, ya slinthead!" Laughed one of the boys. He looked to be about sixteen, the same age Elsie and her brother, and had an under bite with a lisp that she couldn't help but think made him seem innocent. "Gally's got at least forty pounds on him."
And that was an exaggeration if she'd ever heard one. Gally was shorter than Alex, first of all, and most of his weight pooled in his damn ankles. Her brother, meanwhile, was no small stock. He had a large frame and in another life, he might have been a professional swimmer. Elsie shot that guy a withering look as she passed.
"Forty? Man, you must be a builder, 'cause that's the shuckiest klunk I've heard all night!" Chortled an older boy with black hair, his thick arms crossed smugly over his chest as he shook his head.
"Oh yeah? How about this, I bet your next meal from Frypan that Gally will have that whacker kissin' the dirt in—fifteen seconds flat!"
Elsie didn't linger to see whether the boy took that bet. Her eyes were focused on Alex, and Newt still buzzed in her ear, urging her to take a second before she did anything rash.
She looked back at Newt just before they reached her brother, and his entire face was asking her just what the 'bloody hell' she was going to do. Or, maybe he was just frowning at her, but… you know. It was funnier to picture an accent.
Alex turned away from whomever he'd been talking to; eyes focused on the ring as he stepped forward and almost ran into smack into his sister. He stopped as his foot almost crushed her toe and his chin snapped up. "Elsie?" He frowned, as if he had forgotten she existed at all. "What are you doing?" Alex didn't object as she pushed him away from the ring, drawing stares as the only girl in the camp pushed her oversized brother around like a ragdoll.
"No, Alex, what the hell are you doing!" They had a gone a good distance from the crowd, though the boys still spectated their argument, and the sound of Elsie smacking Alex's shoulder cracked over the open field.
Newt took that as his cue to melt into the rest of the crowd, awkwardly trudging up to a group of guys to grant them some privacy. Elsie's attention was now focused only on her brother as he rubbed petulantly at his shoulder. She hadn't actually done damage, and they both knew that, but she made her point.
He pouted down at her. "I—I don't know!" He looked over the top of her head at Gally, his eyes narrowing into sharp slits. "He's just so—shucking smug, Elsie!" He dropped his hand from his shoulder and squeezed both of them into tight fists as he said it for emphasis. "I just gotta—" and proceeded to mime strangling Gally.
Her lips were pursed, her eyebrows up as she watched her brother's lame attempt at trying to explain himself to her. Her silence registered with him and he paused to look down at her. Apparently, the expression on her face said it all, and he sighed and sagged in exasperation. "Elsie," He sighed, rubbing his face.
"Oh, don't do that," She growled, pointing at his hands. "You know I hate it when you do that! What are you gonna do, Alex? Hmm? What's the plan? Are you really gonna give a black eye to one of the top dogs of the Glade on our first night?"
"I wish," He scoffed wistfully, totally missing the sarcasm in her voice. And also missing her point. She threw her hands up in irritation, and he looked back down at her again. "Oh, come on, don't ruin this for us!"
That was enough to clamp her mouth shut in surprise. She backed up and frowned at her twin. "What?" She squinted as she tried to make sense of his plan and slowly said, "So now you're doing this for us?"
"Listen to me, Elsie." He put both his hands on her shoulders and locked eyes with her, so it was clear she realized he meant what he was saying. "I'm so close. I'm so close to getting in! I can get there—I know I can! They just have to invite me. That's all!"
Her mind was whirling, working double time to translate his nonsense-babble. "What the hell are you talking about, Alex?"
"I'm talking about—" He started, drawing the attention of the boys closest. He lowered his voice and tried again. "You know I need to get out there."
And suddenly, it was all became clear. "Oh, Alex…" She deflated as she stepped away from him in disappointment, bringing her hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "I should've known," She murmured to herself. Alex was rambling on about how important it was that he prove himself to them, and she finally turned back around. "So that's what this is all about, then? You think painting yourself as a tough-guy is going to earn you a one way ticket out there?" Her finger stabbed at a wall, where the loud groans of the shifting maze sung to the Glade in the night.
"Elsie, listen to me," He pleaded; using that same phrase he always did when he thought he knew better than her. It fanned the flames, and her face grew hot with anger. "This is more important than you realize—"
"Oh, no. I can understand perfectly," she hissed at him, rearing up like a cat as he tried to reach out to calm her down. "You're so—" she searched for the right word to express how she felt, "so—shucking stupid, Alexander!"
He pointed at her excitedly, practically bouncing on his feet, "See! See, you're already using their lingo, Elsie! Don't pretend you're not feeling it, too. Just let me do this, I need to."
She was pretty sure a vein in her forehead was about to pop. "I'll tell you what I'm feeling Alex! I—I'm—" Then, gradually, she broke off, taking in what her brother looked like in that moment. His eyes sparkled with determination. His jaw was set, his shoulders back and feet planted firmly on the grass of the field. She knew, then. She knew no matter what she said to him, no matter how she reasoned with him, he wouldn't stop until he made it out in that maze.
Conflicting feelings clashed in her heart. On the one hand, there's no one in the world she trusted and loved more than Alex. He's never done anything that he didn't think was the best for them both. If going into the maze was the wrong choice, he wouldn't be trying it. For all that the Gladers have said about it, one thing remains true. It's their only way out. Maybe that's why he was doing this. Maybe he really just wanted them, all of them, to go home.
And the argument to that, of course, is that there's no proof they'd go home if they left. Who said there was even a home left to fight for? Who says there's any guarantee that there's an exit at all? In which case, Alex would risk his life out there for nothing. And in any case, there was always the chance that Alex was just trying to climb his way to the highest tier there is in the Glade out of sheer competitiveness. That position happened to be a Runner. Could he just be in it for the glory? The honest truth was: she couldn't be sure.
So, with all of this feeding the angry monster that grew inside her, Elsie turned her back to him and strode right back into the crowd, shoulders crashing with a few unsuspecting boys in her path.
Alex trailed behind. She knew he was worried what she might do. She marched straight up to the ring of sand, her eyes focused narrowly on Gally, who waited expectantly in the middle of it. His face shifted from an initial surprise to see her, as if he too had forgotten she existed, to a split second of shock at her nerve to step into the circle of sand, to an interesting shade of pink when she didn't stop until she was nose to nose with him.
All of the anger she harbored for Alex's stupid plan, all of the fear she felt that he might succeed, and the resentment she felt for just about everyone and everything in the Glade—she channeled all of it into the searing glare she focused on Gally's nervous little rat eyes. He did a good job of hiding his embarrassment, but she could see it. She could see everything.
Silence fell over the crowd as they watched, waiting for one of them to speak. And honestly, it wasn't Gally that she was mad at, per se. She could care less about him. It was what his position in this represented. He was the one Alex wanted to fight. He was the one that had to lose, so that Alex could impress the Glade. He was the one who taunted him, who antagonized him, and pushed them to this point. So that was why she was here. But she didn't want to fight him. She didn't want to do anything, so she would just stand on the sidelines and do what she did best. Watch her brother, and silently form a plan.
Of course, none of the boys realized what she was doing. To them it looked like she was challenging Gally, or perhaps that she was trying to send some kind of message. Gally's eyebrows were disturbingly calm as he looked down at her, and she clenched her jaw and smacked into his shoulder as hard as she could. He stumbled to the side—out of her way—and nearly lost his balance. She watched with no expression and a tight jaw as his face lit up in anger and humiliation.
Then, without waiting for a response, she turned to the only neutral person she's met in the Glade—Newt—and dug her heels into the sand angrily as she stomped over to him.
Newt watched her with round eyes, his jaw slack and the jar of hooch empty and upside down in his grasp. Elsie opened her mouth to comment about the lost alcohol, but before the words could come out, Newt's eyes flickered over her shoulder, and he stepped forward with his hand up to yell at her. Suddenly, a body launched itself at her and the calm night air briefly cooled her face before she was thrown harshly into the sand. She thought she heard Alex yell her name, but she couldn't be sure.
She gasped, struggling to regain the wind that was knocked from her lungs, floundering like a fish out of water. The boys broke into excited exclamations, unsure how to feel about the newest greenie being thrown to the ground—or, maybe it was more about the fact that she was a girl.
Sand was stuck to her face, little grains swimming into her eye and feeling like tiny shards of glass. She blinked rapidly to try to clear them but that just made it worse. Her time breathing into the sand felt as though it lasted an eternity, but really, it lasted seconds. She pushed herself slightly from the ground just long enough to see Gally looking down at her with an expression that was oddly difficult to read—though he didn't look particularly proud or satisfied—his face red and panting.
Then, several things happened at once. She knew Gally wouldn't get away with that, and apparently, so did he. When her brother charged him, he was already facing him with open arms. Just before they collided, Gally stepped to the side. It was a quick response, well-timed but predictable, and her brother saw it coming. As Alex blurred past Gally, his hand was already around his neck, and he didn't hesitate to smash him into the sand with punishing force.
Someone grabbed Elsie's shoulder, and she flinched instinctually. It wasn't until she turned and saw Newt's face that she immediately relaxed and latched onto his hand so he could haul her back out of the way, just as Gally kicked Alex's legs out from under him.
"Alright?" Newt asked, brushing at something on her back before giving it a quick clap. Her eyes were focused on my brother and Gally, on the boys who hooted and hollered around them. She nodded without looking away, noting that boys in the crowd passed objects around as either Gally or Alex got the upper hand, throwing each other in the dirt. The object seemed to be who could get the other to fall down—and stay down. But the staying down was the trouble. Both of them were like pitbulls, angry and foaming at the mouth, ready to rip each other apart. Gally for reasons she couldn't begin to fully understand, Alex because of what Gally did to her. And because he had something to prove.
She looked away from the fight and started to brush the rest of the sand off, starting with her face. "He's such an idiot! He'll never learn, I swear..." Elsie grumbled.
Newt raised an eyebrow at her with a rueful smile. "Well, that might be true. But I've got two meals on your brother there, so he very well better pull through!"
She snorted. "You don't have to worry about that. He's always been this way, stubborn as hell… he won't leave that ring without Gally on the ground behind him."
"How do you know?" Newt asked, not in an accusing or hostile way, just pure curiosity.
"I know my brother," she frowned.
"Yeah, but how? How can you remember that about him?"
"The same way I can remember that a bird flies and a pig shits," she said, giving Newt a funny look. "It's his nature. Once he puts his mind to something, nothing and no one can stop him."
Newt considered her words, looking back at Alex as he knocked Gally on his ass again, and the crowd roared excitedly. He turned back to the crowd and pumped his fists, getting them even more animated, and talking shit about Gally to get him riled up. She knew Alex had gotten well past putting Gally in his place for pushing her down. Now, he was just having some sort of power trip. Now, he was just trying to impress the Gladers.
Gally launched himself off the ground and into Alex, and they were at it again. "Whoa!" Yelled the crowd in excitement, followed by laughter.
Elsie rolled her eyes. Turning, she backed off and went to sit in the grass again. She didn't have to hover; she could watch from the ground. And besides, she knew the outcome already.
Newt wandered over to her, apparently not done with their conversation. "You say that like it's a bad thing," he observed, the tone in his voice carefully light. It occurred to her that he was testing her response, and she realized maybe Newt was more observant than she initially thought.
"It's his best strength and his greatest flaw."
"And what's yours?" Newt asked, and she looked up at him as she answered as honestly as she could.
"I follow him."
Newt stared at her until she looked down at the ground and picked a blade of grass, twirling it between her fingers. Her mind briefly flashed back to the conversation they had about whoever controlled this whole thing, making sure they had just enough to survive, maintaining the Glade and all that was in it for some unknown goal. Leaving them to try and solve a problem they didn't even know for sure that there was a solution for.
Cheers erupted from the crowd, and her brother's name was being chanted. Gally was left—beaten and alone in the middle of the ring. His eyes were dark, creepy even, and they definitely held some brewing anger as he watched Alex walk away. Elsie watched as her brother was showered with the Glades' version of fanfare, bottles of hooch shoved in his hands, exclamations and alliances formed instantaneously. They hadn't even been there a full day yet and already, he had a foot in the door to be a Runner. Already, he was blossoming. But as she looked back at Gally's brooding face, she wasn't so sure it was a good thing.
She sighed and looked down at the blade pinched between her fingers. "I'll always follow him."
Later that night, Alex was helping her set up a hammock, having done his own hours earlier while she was busy stewing over the state of the world.
She looped the rope around one of the thick trunks of a palm tree three times before she hesitated, trying to figure out a way to tie it. After a bit of pointless analysis, she tied a bow to secure it. Then, thinking better of it, she double-knotted it. Beside her, Alex snorted. "What is this, a hair lace? Scoot over, I'll do it."
Elsie couldn't fight down a smirk, still enjoying his sense of humor as she always had. "What makes you think that you can do better?"
"Oh, sweet sister," Alex wistfully sighed. "Sweet, simple sister of mine. Watch and learn."
The night air of the Glade was surprisingly warm as it blew through their wing of the Homestead. All around them, there were other hammocks hanging, some with nets tied to the trees as well to hold boys' laundry and what looked to be small bottles of soap. Self-consciously, she reached up to scratch at her hair and frowned when she felt grease. Then, she focused on what Alex was doing, and frowned as she watched him twist the straps into a complicated knot.
He gave it a final tug, and then patted it. Alex looked up in satisfaction and then caught sight of the other end, also tied with a bow, and shot Elsie a withering glare. Sheepishly, she laughed and scratched the back of her neck as he went to fix the other side. Things felt a little off between them, perhaps a little strained. She cleared her throat and tried to ignore the awkwardness and looked at his hands, trying to make sense of the way his fingers moved through the complicated pattern of the knot.
"Hey," Elsie suddenly said, and reached out to grab Alex's hand.
"No, don't, I'm almost finished." He tried to push her away with an elbow without letting go of the knot but she only swatted his arm and wrapped a hand around his wrist. She pulled insistently until he let go of the unfinished knot with a loud groan of frustration. Whining, he said, "Why did you do that—what?" Alex withdrew his hand from her grasp when he noticed the scowl on her face.
Elsie put her hands on her hips. She pointed at his knuckles. "It looks like you got in a fight with a wall, and lost."
"No," Alex smirked. "I got in a fight with Gally, and kicked his ass!"
Unimpressed, Elsie tilted her head. "We need to have those looked at."
Alex balked. "No! Are you kidding me?"
"Why not?!" She cried. "Do you want to get an infection?"
He looked all around them like he was afraid to be overheard, and motioned for her to lower her voice. "It's really not that bad!"
"Your skin split open, Alex! You're still bleeding. This place is covered in dirt—even the water they drink is dirty here! What do you expect to do if those cuts get swollen, or pus starts—"
"All right, all right!" He relented with a wave of his hands. "We can go!"
"Great!" She declared, turning to leave right that instant. With hands still on her hips, she started to march. After only a few steps she came to a stop. Turning, she looked back at her brother uncertainly and rubbed the back of her neck again. "Ah, where exactly do we go, again?"
Alex rolled his eyes at her, but moved around her to lead the way. "Of course you weren't paying attention on the tour. You were too busy ogling mister Tall-Handsome-Tour-Guide."
She bristled. "What?" Her voice was shrill and she smacked Alex's shoulder, anger intensifying as he snickered and dodged her. "Which one!?"
Her brother once again rolled his eyes and shot her a bland look. "Alby," he flatly said, and then lightly hit her on the shoulder himself. "You know which one, ya dong!"
Elsie sniffed and stuck her nose in the air daintily. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Alex laughed to himself and shook his head, saying, "Suuuure ya don't."
Silence stretched between them as one waited for the other to make the next comment, Elsie braced to verbally deflect Alex's next barbed insinuation. But they were too stubborn to be the next one to speak first. Fed up, Elsie tried to outpace Alex, who sped up to stay in the lead. Elsie scowled and pushed her brother's arm as she tried to move ahead, and he shoved her right back and charged forward, and before she knew it they were all but racing.
Although she didn't exactly know their destination, she could see a single door made of sticks in the wall about fifteen feet in front of them, so she jumped ahead, turned to stick her tongue out at Alex and sprinted the rest of the distance. The second her fingers touched the door she jumped and cheered. "Ha! I made it here firrrssst, I made it here firrrrsst!"
And then she realized Alex had switched direction at the last second, and was currently blurring across the ramp before he disappeared down a covered hall. He tricked her!
The door opened behind her swung open and smacked her in the back, and she made a weird, strangled squeaking noise in her throat as she stumbled, whirled on her heels and saw none other than Alby.
She didn't even know he could blush, but his face and neck went deep red and he went rigid with surprise, like he'd been caught doing something indecent. "Er—greenie?!"
"Sorry!" She exclaimed, her voice shrill. "I was just—"
"Oh, klunk, I hadn't even considered..." Alby trailed off, looking back at the door he'd just emerged from with a clouded expression like he was deep in thought. He rubbed at his jaw. "I mean, I guess you'll probably want a separate room for..."
"What?" she frowned, completely lost. Elsie looked at the door, then at Alby's hand, and finally noticed a roll of toilet paper. "Oh! Ohhh..."
Alby cleared his throat and hid the toilet paper behind his back, and Elsie was overcome with the almost irresistible urge to giggle. She coughed to cover it and Alby looked anywhere but at her. "Right."
They both tried to move in the same direction, stopped, moved in the other direction, and forced out awkward laughs.
"Oh, you buggin' idiots!" A boy erupted from behind her. She and Alby jumped at the sudden voice and she backed away to let the boy approach. He pointed impatiently at the door. "Are you going in or not? Because Frypan's Saucy Sauce—"
"Not!" She choked out, and then escaped up the ramp with her hands out apologetically. "Sorry!"
And with that, she beat a hasty retreat in the same direction her blasted brother had gone. Elsie's mortification gave way to anger when she pushed through the door at the end of the hall and discovered her brother.
Alex burst out laughing when she appeared in the large, empty room. There were three empty beds and numerous shelves hanging on the walls filled with what looked to be medical supplies. Alex had taken up the foot of the middle bed. There was a discarded package of bandages behind him, and he was currently wrapping his knuckles. He stopped just long enough to point at her. "What happened? Did ya get lost along the way?"
Elsie strode forward to bop him over the head with the empty box of bandages. "You little—dong!"
"Oooh," Alex teased as he chuckled and pushed away her next thump before it could land. "Good one!"
"You made me make a shank of myself!" She hissed.
"Ah, I know the slang is still new to us and everything, but that's not as insulting as you think it is. Shank can be more like..." He paused to think of the appropriate description. "Positive, maybe. I think it's just another way of saying dude, or something."
"Whatever!" She shortly dismissed. "I don't care! Are you even listening?! I just walked in on Alby in the shucking toilet!"
Alex looked like he short-circuited. His face went blank, briefly bemused, and then landed somewhere closer to outraged. He stood from the bed like Alby himself was standing in the corner for him to throttle. "What?!" He took a deep breath. "Where is he?"
"No!" Elsie thumped him on the arm. "You don't get to do that!"
He blinked at her in confusion, momentarily distracted from his rage fueled glaring contest with the corner. "Do what?"
"Play the over-protective brother role! Go hunt down Alby to strangle him over an honest mistake! You can't fight every single guy here just because he looks at you wrong, Alexander, that's reckless and it's going to get you hurt!"
Now he was blinking rapidly, shaking his head at the sudden direction of conversation. "W—What? How did you even make this about that?"
"Because someone has to," she hissed, and now that she was on the topic of his fight with Gally, she was truly upset. "What the hell were you thinking?!"
"I—I don't—it's not that serious, Elsie!" Alex exclaimed, giving her a dirty look. "It's not like fights are out of the ordinary around here. What did you think that circle of sand was there for in the first place?"
It was her turn to blink. "What?"
Seeing that he'd derailed her, he nodded. "Yeah. It's a fighting ring. They do it all the time."
Slowly, she shook her head. "But... it's not the same."
Alex tilted his head. "What's not the same, exactly?"
Elsie slowly sank down and sat on the edge of a bed, pushing her fingers into her hair, suddenly exhausted and confused, questioning everything she'd interpreted from the fight to begin with. Then she remembered the look on Gally's face, and she shook her head with renewed resolve. "No, you didn't see the way Gally looked at you, Alex. He didn't think of it as just some fight."
Her brother sighed and went over to sit beside her. Then, he patted her arm with a freshly bandaged hand, and she felt something inside her warm at the familiarity of it—the feeling of him comforting her and helping her make sense of the world. She didn't realize until just that moment how desperately she wanted to vent to him, needed him to tell her she was being crazy. "Gally's a slinthead, Elsie."
She gasped out a laugh, wiping at her nose. "What?"
Alex studied her closer and his face fell slightly. "God, Elsie, are you crying?"
Stubbornly, she quickly shook her head and looked away. "No."
Alex wrapped an arm around her shoulders and dragged her closer to his side, tucking her against him. Suddenly, he chuckled, drawing a hesitant smile from her. "It felt really good to knock that asshole down, Elsie."
Overcome with a flurry of emotion, she couldn't help but laugh and turn to look at her brother in awe. "You... you remember that word?"
He nodded like they were sharing a secret. "Yeah, but not until I ran my fist into Gally's face for the first time."
She snorted. Then, she covered her face and hung her head. "Oh, my god... this place, Alex... it's..."
And she was strangely relieved, oddly felt like she was confiding in the single most sane person she'd seen since they landed in this place, and she was so relieved to find that it was her brother. She felt an overwhelming flood of guilt for ever doubting him, and Elsie laid her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes as she grasped his arm tightly. "We'll get through this, Elsie," Alex said, and he sounded so confident, so sure of himself, that she finally relaxed for the first time in over twelve hours. She felt tears streaming down her cheeks and she sighed again, desperate to believe him. "Trust me."
Personally, I picture Elsie like a young Deborah Ann Woll and her brother like a young Alex Pettyfer. Who do you see them as?