"What are those walls?" I ask Newt, acutely aware of how close he is standing to me. I feel his hand hovering over my left shoulder, as if he wants to put his arm around me, but realizes that it might be weird. Finally he just drops his arm by his side and answers me.
"They surround the Glade on all sides, keep us in and the Greivers out."
"What are Greivers?"
"You don't want to know." He says grimly, making me look at him curiously. His shaggy hair falls down into his eyes as he looks down at the ground outside the window. I dip my head down to look in his eyes. When I do his eyes flick over to mine and he gets a look in his eye that I cant quite place. Then he just looks sad and sighs before standing up straight. It's then that I realize just how tall he is. I feel tiny next to him as he practically towers over me. "I'll take you on the Tour later. For now, I'll take you down stairs to introduce everyone to you. They might act a little familiar with you and they're probably gonna be upset."
"Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why will they be upset and be comfortable."
"Oh. Well, like I said earlier, you've been friends with everyone here since the Box brought them up."
"And how long ago was that?"
"For you, three years. Everyone else here has come up one at a time, one each month."
"I've been here for three years?"
"Yeah."
"But I dont remember any of it. What about life outside of this place, the Glade, whatever you guys call it. What's outside of those walls? What's it like?"
"Directly outside of them is the Maze. Beyond that, we dont know."
"How could you not know?"
"We've never gotten past the Maze."
"The Maze?"
He sighs. "Now is not the time to get into this." He holds out his hand to me, "Come on. Let's go talk to the others."
"Okay." I say, awkwardly walking past hand. He closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before following me out the door. "So, what is the building that we are in right now?"
"We call it the Homestead." He tells me as he leads me down a set of stairs. Before he can continue I see multiple people at the bottom of the stairs that are in the middle of a heated argument with the dark skinned boy from before. I pause and lean over to Newt and whisper to him.
"What's that guys name?"
"Which one?"
"The one with dark skin."
"That's Alby. He's... the leader around here."
"Really? He didnt seem too confident about that earlier."
"Yeah. He just got the role."
As soon as the words leave his mouth, one of the guys downstairs sees me and stops talking.
"Morgan!" He yells.
Alby turns around and the other boys take the opportunity to dash around him. The run up the stairs and wrap me in a huge group hug, I freeze as these strangers that are hugging me laugh as if we are best friends. Then I realize that in their minds we are friends, but I don't even know their names.
"Newt!" I say desperately, trying to get him to help me.
"Hey!" Newt yells and they all freeze. "Back off!" Immediately they all jump away from me. I walk backwards up the stairs until I run into a body. THe person behind me puts their hands on my arms and holds me protectively. "Slim it!" I hear newt tell them as I feel is chest rise and fall with is breath. "You're freaking her out."
"Soyyr boss. When we heard that you were awake, but we couldn't see you we got a little upset." Says one of the guys who hugged me. As confused as I am, I decide to try and act normal. I step away from Newt and take a deep breath in to calm myself down before speaking.
"Its fine. I understand."
I see the strong looking Asian guy from earlier give me a weird look. "Whats going on?" He asks.
"What do you mean?" I ask, still trying to pretend as if Im the me that they know.
"You're not acting right. First, back in the room when you woke up and didn't recognize us and now this. Whats going on?"
I look back at New, asking him with my eyes if it is okay to tell them. He nods his head and I turn back to the Asian boy.
"Im sorry. Whats your name?" As I ask him I can see the sadness growing in his eyes and everyone else either looks scared or depressed.
"Minho." He says in a sad, quiet, almost scared voice.
'"Hey Minho." I say, noticing the fact that he cringes slightly when I say his name. Then I turn to the guy who called me boss.
"And yours?"
"Gally." I nod again and repeat his name back to him. Then I go down the line. Everyone grows quiet and gathers around. When I look at them they automatically say their name with the same sad voices and looks. After I go through about 50 guys I find Newt and stand next to him. Everyone is still, silent, and saring at me. Just as I start to feel uncomfortable, Newt steps in to save me once again.
"Quite staring. You all have work to do!" He yells.
Everyone breaks away and goes off to do their own things.
"There are so many people." I say to him. Its then that it occurs to me that they are all guys. "Where are the over girls?" I ask Newt.
"There aren't any other girls." He tells me.
"What does that mean? How could there be nearly 50 guys and no girls?"
"I don't know. That's just how its always been."
"But you said that Ive been here for 3 years."
"Yeah."
"So I've been here, a girl in an all boy community, for 3 years?"
"Pretty much."
"Wow. Thats a long the for a girl to be alone."
He gets an upset look on his face that immediately makes me regret what I said, even though Im not sure why it upset him.
"You were never alone." He says in a soft, caring voice.
"No. Of course not. I didn't mean alone as in like, all by myself alone, but alone as in no other girls alone." I say stupidly, trying to make him feel better and failing miserably. The situation gets awkward quickly so I walk away before he notices the embarrassed blush painted across my cheeks. I walk around alone for a little while before one of the guys walks up to me. I think that he had said his name was Chuck.
"Hey Morg." He says to me.
"'Morg?'" I ask him.
"Yeah. Thats what a lot of people call you."
"Oh. Your name is Chuck right?"
"Yeah."
"How old are you Chuck?"
"I don't know. How old do I look?"
"About 12 or 13. How long have you been here?"
"Almost a month."
"Whats it like?"
"Whats what like?"
"Being the new kid. Whats it like?"
"Oh, its weird at first and kinda scary at times. Unless you have a friend right away that will help you through it."
"Did you?" He nods. "Who was it? Who helped you?"
"You."
"Oh." He nods again. "So, from what Ive heard, I sorta helped out anyone and everyone."
"Yeah, you did."
"Who looked after me?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if I looked after all of you, then who looked after me?"
"All of us... I guess."
"What do you mean 'I guess'?"
"Well, you never really seemed like you needed anyone."
"So I didn't have anyone then."
He scrunches his face up as he thinks and it makes him ooh like an adorable chubby dog, "Newt." He says.
"Newt? The blondie that was with me when I woke up?" Chuck nods. Well I guess that it would make sense, I think to myself, he was with me while I was asleep, and he's been helping me since I woke up.
"You okay?" Chuck asks.
"Yeah, Im fine." I say before walking away. I find the door that leads outside and open it. Once I am out of the building I take in the massive size of the Glade. As I continue to walk into the middle of the Glade, I turn in a fill circle, looking at everything around me. Suddenly something hits my back and I lose my balance. s I fall I turn so that my back is to the ground and reach out with my arms to grab onto something. Something wraps around my waist just as my arms find something and wrap around it. I look up to see what it is and find the Asian guy, Minho, standing above me. He shoots me a flirtatious smile and I blush. He laughs and pulls me up so that Im standing, its then that I realize that my arms are still around his neck. I bring them back down by my sides as I blush again.
"You okay princess?" He asks.
"'Princess'?" I ask.
"Yeah, thats what I call you."
"Alright. I'm fine, thanks."
"No problem. Where were you going?"
"No where. I was just gonna look around the place a little bit."
"How bout I give you a tour of the Glade?"
I am just about to agree when I feel an arm wrap around me protectively and hear Newts voice say,
"Shouldn't you be in the Maze, Minho?"
I turn to look at Newt and see him glaring at Minho. When I look at Minho he is still smiling, though I see a hint of sadness in his eyes.
"Yes. I should." He winks at me and I blush, again. "See you later Princess." He says before running away. I stand there for a moment before remembering that Newts arm is still around me.
"He was gonna show me around for a while." I tell Newt as i duck out from under his arm.
"I can take you on the Tour." He tells me.
I study his face for a moment before speaking again. "Why are you so protective over me?" I ask him.
"What do you mean?"
"When all those people came into the room after I woke up, you pushed them out so that there wasn't as much commotion. Then when a bunch of them were hugging me, you got them to leave me alone. After the introductions when people were staring at me, you got them to stop. Then just now when Minho was talking to me you got all over protective. Why?"
"Because I care about you." He says. We are both silent for a moment as he looks at the ground sadly. When I can't take the silence anymore I fake a smile and nudge his arm.
"So, you gonna take me on that Tour or what?"
He looks at me and smiles a little before grabbing my hand and pulling me towards a barn-like building.