Chapter 6

"Hey, Love, get up! You don't wanna miss your own bloody party, now, do ya?"She felt someone shake her arm. Newt. She recognised his accent.

"Wha-?" She murmured opening her eyes slowly.

"Bonfire will start soon." He explained again. "Get up. I'll wait for you outside. You have five minutes."

"Alright, boss." She called after him. Somehow she fought the urge to go back to sleep. She brushed her hair quickly with her fingers and later rubbed her eyes. "Here goes nothing." She murmured and exited her room.

Newt took her to the centre of the Glade. Few logs were set up for people to sit and Frypan brought out a spare table and put jars filled with brownish liquid on them.

"What is this?" She pointed her finger at them. He followed her gaze and with a grin explained.

"It's moonshine – Gally's speciality-"

"So I've got a reason not to drink it." They both chuckled.

"Well, that's your lost, princess." A voice startled them. They turned around to see Gally with arms crossed on his chest. "Those parties suck without some alcohol." He confessed. "Can I have a word?" She shared a quick look with Newt and the blond lightly pushed her forward.

"What's up?" She asked trying to hide her nervousness.

"I wanna talk about your work." He explained.

"I thought you weren't going to look at it until tomorrow." She grinned. He rolled his eyes, but smiled, too.

"Plans change. Anyway, I really like your work." He told her. She swore her eyes were going to fall out of her eyelids.

"Can you repeat that?"

"I'm not sure if those shanks will understand it thought." He chuckled. "So tomorrow you'll have to describe everything to them. They don't have a lot going upstairs as Newt likes to say."

"Sure thing." She laughed.

"So now I was nice you want that drink?"

"Won't hurt to try." She shrugged but inside she was ecstatic.

She was right. Gally wasn't as black as they painted him. And when she got some alcohol in him, oh boy, he quickly became entertaining. He took her to the main circle and made her watch him beat up few poor shanks.

Yeah, I'm not gonna get used to their slang. She thought. She found the game, if she were to be honest, diverting. But she didn't have much time to enjoy it for Newt came to her and led her away. He said he wanted her to meet somebody. So, now they were walking around in search of… well some guy, meanwhile she told Newt what she found out about Gally.

"To whom are you taking me anyway?" She asked. He glanced at her with that ridiculous grin and took a sip of his drink.

"You see those guys?" He pointed at a small group. When she nodded he continued. "They, love, are runners. They're the one patrolling the maze, looking for the way out." He explained. An Asian one looked at them and smirked. "That shank over there-" Started walking up to them and cut Newt off.

"Has the most fabulous hair in here, unlike this slinthead." He teased. "So, the rumors for the first time in here are true." He referred to what he had heard of the she-bean's arrival. " I'm Minho."

"I'm to-be-remembered." She tried to sound smooth.

"Yeah, we gotta work on the nickname for ya."

"I think I have enough of those." Minho raised an eyebrow clearly wandering what she meant. She didn't have time to clarify for Newt stepped in.

"Don't worry about him, love."

"Love, huh?" Minho gave him a weird look, but she didn't want to overthink it. "That's cheesy." He said eventually.

"It gets better thought." She interrupted. "I'm also princess, trouble and greybeard."

"I'm up to the challenge." Minho announced.

"C'mon I dealt with greybeard. I don't think you can possibly come up with something worse." She told Minho, yet regretted it soon. She wasn't going to lie; his smirk kind of scared her.

"You don't know me." He chuckled.

She liked Minho. He was definitely quite annoying, but spending time with him was definitely fun. Or maybe it was just the moonshine?

"I see you're having fun." All three of them turned around to the place the voice was coming from.

"Greenie, this is Alby." Newt told her. Suddenly she became very aware of the fact he called her greenie. She'd rather be called anything else. She found being called the greenie extremely nerving.

"Hi." She said few seconds later trying to compose herself.

"A word, she-bean?" He didn't wait for her response. He just started walking away. She shared a looking with both Minho and Newt, and quickly followed behind. She tried to keep up with him but he didn't speak until they got away from cheering and yells of boys by the fire. "Sorry for all the fuse, Greenie." He started. "We didn't really um… expect you."

"That's fine. I can't say I expected any of that either." She laughed nervously.

"Listen, I can't really remember talking to a girl ever and Newt is obviously better in sweet talk than me. So, let me get this straight." He stopped to face her. He stayed quiet for a while as if he was trying to build up the tension. "You follow the rules, don't cause trouble, and you're not a distraction to the shanks and we can coexist just fine."

"I think I can do that." After all he wasn't asking for too much. She'd already decided she would do her part. When it came to a distraction part… She thought it harder to keep it under control. She was the only girl here after all.

"Good that." He smiled and put a hand on her shoulder, an unexpected gesture that brought a genuine smile onto her face. Just as Gally, Alby started to turn out not as bad as she thought him to be. "Newt's already told ya, you won't be trying out for a slicer's job, hasn't he?"

"He has. I actually asked for it myself." She confirmed.

"Yeah, I know, but you got to shucking realise it's the last time we're going to go easy on you. You'll be treated equally."

"I wouldn't have it any other way." She smiled genuinely at him.

"Good that. Now let's go enjoy the party. It's in your honour after all. Just do me a favour and don't let Gally convine you to fight him."

"Can't promise that." She laughed, but she had her mind set already. She was too lanky to fight such athlete as the keeper of builders.

After Alby brought her back to Newt and Minho other guys became curious of her. She couldn't really blame them. They were visibly uneasy around her, but after they saw her interact with Newt, Minho and Gally like they were buddies for months, they quickly warmed up to her.

She could mostly remember keepers like Zart or Fry. But also few builders, Ben – a runner, and Ian – one of the slicers and he kind of confirmed what she was told about them, they were the weirdest.

It wasn't long until Legend approached them. She almost forgot about the kid for a moment. After watching him annoy Gally with Minho she almost spitted her drink.

"All right, youngling." She told him. "Isn't it your bed time?" She heard chuckles around her. Legend looked at her like he wanted to at least throw her into the maze.

"And here I thought old people had less energy." They could probably go on like this for a while, but Alby stepped in between them and called it a night, sending everyone to bed.

"I'll see you in the morning, love." Newt said walking her back to his room. She smiled kindly at him and bid him goodnight as well.

She fell onto his her bed and it she didn't even have time to think of what occurred that day, because darkness took over her.