Author stuff: So, plot wise, we're about twenty-five months into the Maze Trials. Which means, there's eleven months between now and when Thomas arrives.
So, ten months from Chuck! Yay, Chuck!
I rewrote this chapter and a couple of others a while back because… reasons. Mostly plot. And I didn't like how it was progressing. It was all… messy.
Anyway, enjoy this!
Chapter 29
In Which Gally Has A Secret
Gally was avoiding her.
She'd become aware of the fact when she didn't see him for dinner. A part of her was relieved, in all honesty.
She'd kind of grown used to the giddy feeling that bubbled around in her stomach and sang through her veins every time he was near — the self-defense lessons had probably helped with that. But there was still something in her that made her want to run and hide whenever she thought about him.
It was… embarrassing. Newt seemed to get it, but at the same time, he was with his partner. He ended up laughing at her in a way that wasn't malicious, more teasing and friendly. That didn't mean that she didn't hate it, however.
So, the fact that she hadn't seen him in… almost a week. And then, before that, he'd slowly been spending less and less time with her or the others. She thought that she was the only one who'd noticed until Minho cornered her after he'd gotten back from running the Maze.
"What's up with your Keeper of the Builders?" he said, watching as she gathered the tools she'd used that day. Occasionally, she'd hand him one to help carry them back to the gardening shed.
"He's not my Keeper," she said. "I'm a Track-hoe, remember?"
Minho shrugged, taking another tool from her.
"Besides," she said, continuing, "he's got a lot of other things to worry about, now that you took away Archie."
"Oi!"
She grinned up at him. He returned it tenfold, before it slipped off his face as if it hadn't ever been there.
"He's probably a little upset about not being your bodyguard for the showers anymore," Minho said, trailing alongside her as she rolled her eyes and started toward the gardening shed.
"I doubt it."
"I don't know, Girlie. I think he enjoyed it. Having his little princess to watch over."
She scoffed, doing her best to ignore the teasing dig.
"Gally probably just has a big project or something. I don't know. I haven't spoken to him in…"
"What, it's been a while or something?"
"Yeah." Her voice was a lot softer and came out more pitifully than she'd wanted it to.
He managed to pull her into a one-armed hug. As he pulled away, he ruffled her hair. She couldn't summon the energy to fix it at that moment.
"Why don't you go try to find him, yeah?" Minho said. "I'll take these back to the shed for you."
"What? No! You'll put them somewhere I can't reach them or find them!"
"No, I won't."
"Why do I not believe you?" she said, looking up at him through her lashes.
"Those big eyes don't work on me, Girlie. Save it for Gally."
She rolled her eyes at him, muttering under her breath, "I wasn't giving your shuck ass any kind of eyes."
"What was that?"
"Nothing."
"That's what I thought." He took the remaining tools from her and jogged over to the gardening shed, where he disappeared inside.
She stood there for a moment, looking around and trying to figure out what she should do. In all honesty, she should go after Minho and make sure that he put everything back where they were supposed to go.
Something, however, was telling her to go find Gally. Actually, every fiber of her being was telling her to go find him, but she was honestly only allowing herself to think it was a tiny part of her. She hated the way her stomach flipped and flopped at the thought of him purposefully avoiding her because he didn't like her anymore or he found her annoying.
(The logical part of her brain was reminding her how stupid that was, but the irrational part of her that overwhelmed most of her other senses was forcing her to believe it.)
She wandered over to the Builders Hut, where he most likely would be hiding. Instead, she was greeted by a barrage of Builders.
"Shuck, is that the Girlie?"
"What are you doing here for?"
"She's probably looking for Gally, the shank."
"Hey, Girlie, come to pay us all a visit?"
"Missed your shuck face around here. Kept Gally from working us too hard. Sure you don't want to be a Builder?"
"Uhm," she said, holding her hands out in front of her. "Gally?"
A couple of them snorted and a few others barked out a laugh.
"The shank's been avoiding you, hasn't he?" Dan said, nodding towards the concrete structure. "The slinthead thought everyone wouldn't notice."
"Told us that we couldn't tell you where he's hiding, too," Alec said, shrugging.
"Yeah," Hank said. His eyes glinted mischievously, though. "Ah well. He and Minho have been a little secretive about their whole project."
"Didn't he tell us he was moving it to the Map Room?" Dan said, tapping his chin.
"Yep. Said he was moving it from the Runner's hut to the Map Room earlier this morning and, should anyone need him, they could find him there." Hank gave her a wink.
When she didn't react right away, he jutted his head in the direction of the concrete structure. He gave a sigh when she didn't move.
"That means you should go check there," Dan said.
"But—"
"Just go, you slinthead," Hank grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her in the correct direction. She stumbled, nearly tripping over her feet. She glanced back at them. They were all snickering.
Sighing, she started towards the Map Room. She'd never been particularly curious as to what it was like in the structure. It had always stood lurking in the background, away from everyone and everything else, mostly hidden by the Deadheads.
The door was a heavy vault door that looked like it took a bit of strength to open. Luckily, for her, it was propped open to allow a breeze to flow into the dimly lit interior. Electric lights, she realized.
"Gally?" she said, poking her head in. He looked up from… whatever it was Minho had asked him to do. Something with the crates that were stacked all around.
"Oh, uh, hi," he said, his eyes flickering away from her down to the crate in front of him. Two tubes made of bamboo were in each hand.
"Do you need any help?"
He looked up at her, blinking. She looked away.
"No, I got it." He easily slid the bamboo tubes into one of the crates.
"Oh. Um. Would you like some company?" She picked at a seam on the bottom of her shirt that was coming undone. She glanced up at him through her lashes.
"If you want." He focused all of his attention on the bamboo tubes.
She watched him work for a while before she spoke again.
"I overheard that you're working on something for Minho," she said.
"Yeah," Gally said, nodding. "The shank wanted me to remake his storage crates. He wanted some more dividers so that he can better organize the maps for the month."
She shuffled over to peek into the crate. True enough, there were enough slots in the crate for thirty bamboo tubes.
"He wanted thirty-five slots, but there wasn't enough room."
She nodded, picking up a tube and examining it. On the side, there was a Roman numeral carved into the side and filled in with what she assumed was tree sap. One side was completely sealed with wax, whereas the other had a stopper that could be removed with a little bit of work.
"That one holds the maps from day five hundred and forty," Gally said, tapping the Roman numeral.
Flossy quickly did the math in her head.
"The day we arrived," she said, running her thumb over the symbols. She looked up at him, mostly to see his expression.
He had turned away, scratching the back of his neck with one hand while the other was stuffed into his pocket. Her heart fluttered when his eyes turned back to her. With the way the dim light was casting shadows and reflected off his eyes, she couldn't help but blush.
She looked away and slid the tube back into the slot she'd taken it from.
"Yeah, a little over, um," he said, "a little over seven months ago."
She frowned and thought about it for a moment. Had it really been that long ago? That short ago? It was hard to believe she hadn't been in the Glade forever. Well, it was forever, as it was as much as she could remember.
"Listen, Flossy, um." He stuffed his other hand in his pocket. He took a deep breath and looked ready to hand her something, but he deflated a moment later. "Nevermind."
"Gally," she said, "you've been avoiding me."
"Uh, yeah. Sorry about, um, sorry about that. It's… it's nothing, really. Just some work that I, uh, needed to focus on."
"For Minho."
"Yeah, for Minho. And Nick. This, uh, this was the work." He gestured down to the crates and tubes.
"That's not a very good reason to avoid a friend," she said, crossing her arms.
"I'm sorry about that. I just… Uh, yeah."
She sighed, looking the room over. She wasn't entirely sure what she expected the Map Room to look like, but the organized chaos suited it nicely.
"Do, um," she said, drawing her shoulders in and not meeting his eyes. "Do you want any help?"
He was quiet for a moment. It took her meeting his eyes, which were glazed over as he stared at her face (was there something on it?). She caught the slight hint of a blush creeping up the back of his neck and ears.
"Gally?"
"Oh, um, yeah," he said, quickly shifting his gaze elsewhere. "Yeah. That would be. Thanks."
"Promise you won't ignore me?"
"Promise."
She smiled up at him, feeling her cheeks heat up and toes curl in her boots.
Author stuff cont'd.: This original chapter was a lot different. As I said, things were changed for plot reasons.
