I'll be posting two chapters for today because I won't be having internet for the next few . anyway, enjoy! And please do comment ouo
Holly woke up the next day hearing a loud thud. She saw herself lying on her own hammock not knowing how and when she got there when she obviously fell asleep in the open. Then she noticed that she wasn't covered with the blanket Chuck prepared for her but with a soiled white hoodie, the same one Newt was wearing last night. She yawned loudly, tied her hair up in a ponytail, and got up walking across the courtyard holding the hoodie to give it back to its owner. The loud thud she heard came from the deadheads where a bunch of gladers chopped down a tree for them to use in repairing their little village. Everyone was already awake, greeting her a good morning and busy with their designated tasks like the usual. She was quite surprised that a community of young boys had so much discipline and worked hard as a team. As she continued to walk, she finally found Newt chopping up some log to be used for bonfires. Newt stopped chopping and wiped his sweaty forehead with his forearm and smiled at the girl approaching him.
"Good morning. Seemed like you had a good sleep" he grinned and continued to chop the wood.
Holly nodded with a smile and held onto the white hoodie, "Yes, I did. Thank you for accompanying me. Uh, did you, by any chance, carry me back to my hammock?"
"Even if I'm not as muscular as the other guys, I'm quite strong. See?" Newt then began to flex his arms to show off his biceps.
Holly giggled and slowly poked his biceps with a finger, "I can hardly feel them"
"Pfft, you could have lie just even a wee bit" Newt playfully rolled his eyes at her and chuckled.
"But nonetheless, thank you for the effort of carrying me" she said with uttermost sincerity and handed back his hoodie, "Everyone is working hard, what can I do?"
"Hm, I don't think Alby gave you any specific task yet" Newt wrapped the hoodie around his waist and looked around the glade thinking, "Hm, there! You can help the other track-hoes with the crops. It's quite easy"
"Alright, I'll be going there now. I'll see you later!"
Holly ran to the gardens and was warmly welcomed by the keeper of track-hoes, Zart, and a few other gladers who worked in that area. They helped Holly with the work, showed her how to pick the corns and how to plant new ones. Holly was a fast learner and eventually filled up a basket with a dozen of beautiful golden corns. As she continued to work, she noticed Minho and the other runners passing by them to get to their Map room.
"Good morning, Minho!" Holly cheerfully greeted him with a wide smile.
Minho looked back at her with a confused expression as to why she was talking to him and just continued to walk away. Holly puffed her cheeks and remembered that he was not the twenty four year old Minho she knew and that she had beat him last night in wrestling which gave her a slim chance of befriending the younger version.
"Don't worry about Minho" Zart explained after seeing the bummed expression of Holly and watered the soil, "He usually isn't friendly with greenies. Give him some time"
"I think he's just annoyed I beat him up last night" Holly said with a playful grin.
Zart laughed and nodded in agreement, "Good that. Anyway, can you bring this basket of corns to the cooks? They need it to prepare lunch"
Holly nodded and bent down to carry the basket to the other side of the glade. In the kitchen area, fry pan was already busy boiling some of the meat and sliced a few carrots.
"I have the corns here" Holly said with a grin, putting the heavy basket on top of the table and puffed.
Fry pan was ecstatic to see the corns and grabbed at least four to add to his recipe, "Thanks for the help, Holly"
"You're welcome. Do you need any more help?"
"Nah, I got this covered. Thank you though" he smiled and tossed her a red juicy apple as a reward.
Holly successfully caught it with both hands, smiling. "Okay, I'll be heading back to the homestead"
Back at the homestead, some boys were talking or playing games while some, just like Newt, was taking a nap. Holly bit on her apple as she sat on her hammock and opened her backpack. She touched the cold surface of the metal box and looked at Newt's direction, chewing a chunk of the juicy apple given to her. One of her missions was to give Newt a vaccine for the Flare before going out of the maze. That way, it could prevent Newt from becoming a Crank. She didn't know how long she had left and had no idea when she could give it to him. The gladers would have thought she was an enemy if seen stabbing Newt with a syringe.
"Look out!"
Before Holly could even see what was happening, a ball went flying towards her direction and had hit her directly on the face. She had let out a squeal and fell off her hammock with her bag falling on top of her and the half bitten apple rolled across the homestead. Newt quickly woke up from his nap after hearing a squeal and deep gasps, confused, and saw a crowd huddled on the other end of their makeshift home. He got up on his feet and limped to their side thinking that some guys were having a fight.
"Alright what's going on?" Newt asked, squeezing his slim body through the crowd, annoyed that his nap got cut off. To his surprise, he saw Holly on the floor groaning with blood dripping from her nose down to her shirt. He rushed to her side and gave her a hand just like what the rest of the guys did. "Oh God, are you alright?"
Holly got up scrunching her aching nose and wiped off the blood, "That was unexpected" she laughed, getting her hand covered with her own blood.
Gally and Chuck ran back to the homestead and were surprise to see blood on Holly's face, hand, and shirt.
"Oh God, I'm so sorry" Gally said in a panic. "This shank here was supposed to catch it" he shot Chuck a deadly glare who in return cringed.
Chuck's stubby cheeks reddened in embarrassment and felt guilty for causing such trouble, "I-I'm sorry, Holly. It was an accident"
"It's alright" Holly smiled and ruffled his curly hair with her clean hand, "You didn't do it on purpose. No big deal"
Newt was standing beside her and could see that her shirt was covered with her own blood already "Do you have a spare of clean clothes inside your bag?"
"I do have some" she nodded, grabbing the purple bag from the floor.
"Alright" he looked at the other gladers, "Okay everyone, back to what you're doing. The show's over"
Chuck apologized one last time before he left the homestead while getting scolded by Gally. Once everyone was minding their own business again, Newt told Holly to follow him with her bag.
Newt led the path to the woods and could hear nothing but the rustling leaves, snapping of twigs, and chirping birds. He continued to walk until they finally reached the end of the woods where a small stream was located.
"The water is completely clean so you can wash yourself with it" Newt said and looked at her nose concerned, "Does your nose hurt?"
Holly shook her head and continued to wipe off the dried blood with her top, "It's alright, it doesn't hurt that much"
"Okay well, uh, you've been wearing those dirty clothes since you got here and now it's even covered in blood. I'll stay behind this tree so you can freshen up or do whatever business you need to do" he said and walked behind the big tree without turning back. "I won't look"
Holly walked up to the stream and placed her bag on top of a dry rock. She unzipped it carefully and pulled out a pair of clean denim shorts and a white long sleeved top. She knelt down beside the stream and cupped the cold water with her hands and splashed it on her face to get rid of the blood stains. She started taking her clothes off one after the other beginning with her blood stained top and down to her pants. She tossed it to the side and peeked at the tree wherein she could see Newt standing behind it facing the opposite direction.
"You're not looking, right?" she asked before unhooking her bra.
Newt chuckled and kept his gaze up in the sky, still a bit sleepy, seeing a bit of sunshine peeked through the trees. "No, I'm not. By the way, how's your stay so far? Aside from being hit by a ball"
Holly got completely naked and washed herself with the cold water feeling refreshed after working under the sun soaking in her own sweat as she answered his question, "It's pretty good. All of you are nice to me" she replied, quickly taking her underwear and wore it.
"That's good to know. I hope none of the guys are scaring you"
"They might be creepy at times" Holly admitted with a soft laugh. There were a bunch who tried flirting with her and there was not a time she could spend some quiet time alone. She zipped the shorts she had put on and hooked her bra. "Most of the older ones remind me of my brother though"
Newt's eyes widened after the mention of the word brother and turned around completely forgetting what she was doing, "You remember your brother?!"
Holly hadn't put on her shirt yet and screamed seeing Newt look at her shirtless self and threw a small stone directed at him. Newt was startled and didn't have enough time to evade the stone that had hit him directly on the face causing him to fall back on the bed of dried leaves. He let out a soft groan and rubbed the corner of his eyebrow which was gashed.
"Newt! I'm so sorry. I-I didn't mean to" Holly had already put on her shirt when she ran towards him with a hint of panic escaping her lips. She gasped and panicked even more as soon as she realized what she had done, "It's bleeding!"
Newt chuckled and tried not to mind it, "Oh look, we both got hit. It's not that bad. And it's obviously my fault for looking. I deserved it"
He stood up and walked pass her and to the stream. He cupped water with his hand and gently let it trickle down his face to clean the gash. He winced for a moment at the stinging pain but managed to smile so as not to make Holly worried or guilty for what she did. They sat by the stream for a while, away from the noisy crowd of the other gladers.
"So, you remember things about yourself?" He asked once more, pushing his bangs back. In his three years in the glade, no boy had ever remembered anything about their past except their first name.
Holly tucked her hair behind her ear and slowly nodded; wrapping her arms under her legs. "I do remember who I am. Although, I don't remember how I got here"
"Would you mind telling me about your past?"
"My past?"
"It would feel nice to hear things that happened outside the Glade. Something that you remember about yourself, something that tells who you are"
Holly rested her chin against her knees and thought of any simple information she could share to him.
"Well, my whole name is Holly Adams, which, I know I'm sure you already know since you noticed it from my bag's tag" She started and watched Newt nod at her smiling. "Uhm, I was born and raised in London. We moved to the U.S. when I was thirteen because of my parent's job" she looked at Newt again and could see how interested he was to everything she was saying.
She began telling him stories about her mum, dad, and overprotective older brother Jake who would call her pony because she always tied her hair in a ponytail. As she went on and on, she didn't realize she was already smiling. Talking about her family made her feel that they were close by. Before she could even continue with her story, Newt quickly grabbed her for a tight hug. Holly was surprised but nevertheless hugged him back which actually relaxed his tensed body.
"Thank you for sharing me your story" he whispered, pinching the bridge of his nose to control himself from tearing up, "It somehow makes me feel normal to hear you talk about your past"
"No problem" she said with a gentle smile and patted his back. "And don't worry; I'm pretty sure we'll find a way out of this place and find your family"
From the distant, the two of them could hear the other gladers calling out their names. They had been in the woods for so long that it made the others worry. Holly quickly grabbed her soiled clothes and stuffed it inside her bag then walked back to the Glade with Newt.
"If it's alright" Newt started, "Would you mind sharing more stories about yourself?"
"As long as you don't get bored" Holly chuckled and nodded.
Newt smiled, "I would definitely not get bored"
They arrived back in the glade hearing Fry Pan clanking pots and pans just in time for lunch and they both decided to keep their conversation a secret.