A Food War…?!

"Solving conflict isn't always easy, Hope.

"However, if the right person is standing beside you…

"You can solve anything."

Hope awoke the next morning to Hugo at her side. The birds were chirping, the sun was rising, but the boy… was gone. Instinctively, Hope looked everywhere for Newt: she looked left, right, up, down, in every corner, yet couldn't find a single trace of him. Newt had left, and Hope thought that that fact would've made her feel relieved, but… Oddly, it made her feel a little sad. Lonely even. Of course, though, Hope buried that feeling by getting ready for the day ahead. She had something special planned, so she wanted to get started on it right away.

Once Hope had done her business, she walked outside and toward her job. There, she found Frypan, and they both greeted each other with glee. Hope had already told Fry about her "special plan" the night before, so he had already started on it. She helped him as well, preparing her part of the plan. And as always, the two finished quite quickly with their perfect teamwork.

They were ready for the Runners.

"Here you go, Minho," Frypan said while handling the Keeper a plate. "Two eggs and some bacon."

Minho half-smiled. "Thanks."

"…Do it now," Frypan whispered into Hope's ear. "Do it before I give the other three their food… Heyyy, you three!"

Hope only nodded in response and then turned around to face a small bookshelf of sorts. Furthermore, when she grabbed her two mystery items from the shelf, Hope carefully sneaked around Frypan handing the three other Runners their breakfast. She quickly followed behind Minho, who was walking toward his usual seat. But right before he sat down, Hope tapped him on the shoulder. "Hey, Minho."

"Huh…?" Minho mumbled while he turned around. "Um... Hope?"

"Hello!" Hope beamed, hiding her surprise behind her back. "How's your morning going so far?"

"Uhhh… Good?" Minho said in a puzzled tone. He still hadn't gotten used to Hope's sincerely, so his mind wasn't fully used to her earnest care for him yet. "What's up with you?"

Hope shrugged. "Nothing much."

"It doesn't seem like 'nothing much'."

"Why do you say that?"

"You have the biggest smile on your face."

"Well, I'm happy."

"Why…?"

"'Cause I get to see you!" Hope chirped, causing Minho's expression to immediately turn flustered. Again, he wasn't used to this. Not at all. It was really weird, but it also felt… kinda… nice. "Although, I'm smiling for another reason. It still involves you, though."

"Then," Minho gulped, "what is it?"

"Well, y'know how we talked a little last night?" Hope inquired. "About you?"

"I guess…" Minho muttered. "But I still don't get it."

"Minho, I took everything you said to heart," Hope told him, a warm and kind smile on her face. "The good, the bad, the normal. And if I'm gonna be your friend, I wanna do everything that I can to keep those bad things away, so… So I made you a little something!" Hope moved her hands out from behind her back, revealing to Minho her surprises. "I made you some biscuits and jam, Minho! I remember you saying that Frypan's biscuits were your favorite and that you also loved strawberries. So, Fry made the biscuits, and I made the jam this morning! It's a treat for you!"

For the first few moments, Minho didn't speak. All he did was stare down at the two fluffy biscuits filled with vibrant red jam. He didn't know what to say or what to do. His mind was asking, Why would they do this for me? Should I take 'em? However, in Hope's mind, Hope took Minho's confusion for rejection.

"U-Um…" Hope slowly started retracting her hands. "I-If you don't want them, I can just-"

"Why did you make these?" Minho interjected, not able to keep in his question any longer. "Why… would you do that?"

"Well, I wanted to do something special for you - just you," Hope answered with a small smile. "To show that you're appreciated. To show that you have people that care about you. This is just for you, Minho. This is your gift."

"I…" Minho shook his head. "I don't know if I can-"

"Here." When Hope said this, however, she did something that made Minho's head freeze once more. Hope grabbed his right wrist, lifted it up, and placed the two biscuits onto his palm not holding his Breakfast. She enclosed his fingers around the pastries, but didn't move away just yet. Hope's two hands held Minho's, and Minho felt her warmth seep into him. Even that dark brown eye and blue eye of Hope's… were so warm as they looked up at him. "You deserve this, Minho. And when you come back from the Maze, you will still deserve it. You have always deserved it."

Hope then let go of Minho's hand and walked off, leaving the boy to stand there… utterly flabbergasted.

That day was a normal day. Well, if trapped in a Maze was normal to you, then it was definitely that. Nothing necessarily noteworthy happened in the morning, and nothing noteworthy really happened during lunch either. It was so normal that Frypan gave Hope the afternoon off, since the dinner he planned would only take a half-an-hour. Tomato soup and biscuits: the biscuits were already made, and the soup was just crushed up vegetables. It was as easy as that.

However, because Hope was what you'd call a "workaholic," she spent her free-time practicing her bow. This time around, she worked on being quicker with her shots and not taking five minutes to shoot one arrow. Around Hope were various trees, so she would turn her body to each of them and shoot them as quickly as she could. Sometimes she hit the tree, sometimes she couldn't position the arrow correctly, while most times… she just didn't hit the tree. Still, Hope's archery was coming along quite-

Thump!

"Hey, idiot!" All of a sudden, just as Hope's arrow struck a tree, she heard a furious yell from far away. "I'm going to kill you!"

Hope recognized that voice. She knew that voice, but had never heard it so angry before. Therefore, Hope took off her arrow-pouch and placed that and her bow against a tree stump. She then quickly ran toward the noise, which got louder and clearer the closer she got to it. Even Hugo seemed surprised by the scary-sounding voices.

"Are you talking to me?!" Hope heard another familiar voice shout. "'Cause if you are, that brain of yours is more jacked-up than I thought!"

"You know what you did!" the first voice barked.

"I didn't do anythin'!"

"It had to have been you, Zart!"

"What did I do then, Wins?!"

Instantly after Hope and Hugo excited the woods, they saw the tense situation brewing right before the corn field. There stood Winston, who was standing in front of Zart, and either of them had raging looks on their faces. The argument drew many boys to observe and/or move closer, but none of them were gutsy enough to get between the two Keepers. From what Hope had heard, it seemed that Winston was accusing Zart of something, yet Zart himself had no idea what was going on.

"You killed my pig!" Winston ultimately admitted. "You put poison in their feed, didn't you?!"

"What are you even talking about?!" Zart scoffed. "That doesn't even make sense! Why would I do that?!"

Winston got right up in Zart's face. "Oh, I think we both know why… Slinthead."

"…Hey, hey, hey! Calm it!" But thankfully, right before anything could get physical, Newt's yell entered the scene. He had Gally at his side as well, so the two each grabbed a boy and pushed them back from one another: Newt got Zart, while Gally got Winston. "What the bloody hell is going on?!"

"Zart killed my pig!" Winston accused, but the accused feigned innocence.

"I did nothing! I don't even know what he's talking about!"

"Can't we just be civilized here and slim it?!" Gally huffed, having to tighten his grip on Winston to keep him from murdering Zart. "Talk it out or something?!"

"Zart didn't 'talk it out' when I accidentally let my pigs free!" Winston argued, prompting Zart to - naturally - bite back.

"Those shuckin' pigs ate a fourth of our crops! Of course I was angry!"

"And of course you'd wanna get revenge by killing one of 'em!"

"That's just plain stupid!"

"What's 'plain stupid' is this argument!" But then, all of a sudden, the Leader of the Glade finally stepped in. The group of boys that had started crowding around the scene, immediately took a step back to allow Alby a way in. And when he walked closer to the two seething teens, there was this calm that washed over Hope. She knew… that Alby could handle this. "You two need to leave. Get away from each other."

Winston and Zart both clicked their tongues. "But-!"

"If you don't, you'll be stuck in the pit for two days!" Alby snapped, making the two instantly shut up. "Now leave. We'll talk with you individually and get to the bottom of this. So go... All of you, go!"

Despite Winston and Zart's obvious distaste for Alby's words, they followed them nevertheless. Gally's and Newt's holds on them lessened, allowing the two to turn around in opposite directions and walk off. Same with the crowd of boys, who sighed, but followed their leader's instructions nevertheless. Likewise, once everyone had gone back to their jobs, Hope calmed her anxiety and decided to stride over to the scene of the crime. As well as Frypan, who had been one of the spectators of the fight.

"Newt! Gally!" Hope called out to the boys. "A-Are you two okay?!"

"…Pretty much," Gally replied once Hope reached the group of four. "We got here just before anything physical could happen."

"Yeah, thankfully," Newt agreed. "Winston and Zart are two of the strongest boys here. If they actually fought, Clint and Jeff would have had a looong day."

"I'm just glad that nobody wanted to get on Alby's bad side today," Frypan acknowledged. "He saved the day."

"It's not saved yet," Alby said, putting his hand on his hip. "We gotta figure out what happened and fix it as soon as possible. A fight this serious between two of the Keepers isn't good, especially if those two Keepers are in charge of supplying the food."

"Wow…" Hope mumbled without even realizing it. "This is just like Newt's story…"

"'Newt's story'?" However, Hope's words didn't go unheard by Gally, who immediately questioned the girl. "What story?"

"O-Oh, um…!" Hope stammered as an embarrassed blush lined her cheeks. She even tried to glance at Newt for support, but he was just smirking. "Well… Well, uh, Newt told me a story about… the war between… the Builders and… the Cooks."

Dot.

Dot.

Dot.

"…YOU TOLD HER ABOUT THAT?!" both Gally and Frypan screamed, causing Newt to let out a loud fit of laughter. The older boy was laughing so hard that he couldn't even care about their scary glares.

"Newt, c'mon, dude!" Gally hissed. "That's personal!"

"And it wasn't a 'war'!" Frypan added. "It was just Gally being unable to fix what needed to be fixed!"

"Say what…?!" Gally barked at Fry. "That wasn't it at all! You just didn't know how to control a fire, so you blew-up your entire kitchen!"

Frypan scoffed. "Because you didn't know how to make a stove!"

"I make perfect stoves, thank you very much!"

"Says who?! Your mom?!"

"Says me being a Keeper of the Builders!"

"And being the Keeper of the Cooks mean that I know how to use a sto-!"

"I am not breaking up another fight, you two!" Alby cut in, and the two best friends immediately stopped their bickering. While Newt, one the other hand, was doubled-over with laughter, and Hope was standing there, utterly bewildered. "We need to focus here, okay? Get a grip."

"Fine…" Frypan and Gally grumbled, yet they were still glaring daggers at each other. "Whatever."

"Okay, thank you," Alby said and then gave Newt a sharp glare. "Newt. Stop laughing."

"S-Sorry, I just- Pfft!" Newt howled, prompting Alby to understand that he couldn't control his second-in-command. So, instead, Alby just carried on. "As I said earlier, we need to get to the bottom of what happened. Individually, we question Winston and Zart to see their sides, and then we'll come to a conclusion. We have to resolve this."

Newt saluted. "Aye, Aye, captain."

Gally deadpanned. "Oh, now you're calm?"

"Newt, you know Zart the best, so you find him," Alby instructed before abruptly… turning his gaze to Hope. "And Hope, you take Winston."

"W-What?" Hope gulped. "Why me?"

"'Cause, like Newt, you're good with people," Alby explained. "So don't worry: all you gotta do is ask Wins his side of the story. And after the show he just pulled, he'll love to talk about it with you."

"So Newt and Hope are the Peace Keepers now, huh?" Frypan asked with a smile. "I kinda like it."

"You two meet back up after talking to them, okay?" Alby also added. "Try to figure things out. Find parallels. Figure out what really happened and keep us from needing to break up another fight."

With that, Alby went back to his day, leaving Newt ready and Hope… not so ready.

"Zart, c'mon…" Newt urged. "Don't take it out on the carrots. They didn't do anything wrong."

"I. Don't. Care." Zart seethed, viciously pulling out carrots from the dirt beneath him. Each time, he chucked the orange vegetables into a pile. "All I care about is never seeing that Slinthead again."

"You one-hundred percent know that Winston purposefully let those pigs out?" Newt asked, making Zart immediately nod.

"Yes, Newt! Winston is the one who makes sure that that gate is always closed, but then, somehow, that gate was open yesterday?! Winston isn't a Keeper 'cause he makes mistakes like that."

"Nor is he a Keeper for sabotaging other Keepers," Newt retorted while crossing his arms over his chest. But when Zart didn't respond and merely kept picking carrots from the ground, Newt let out a long sigh. "Okay, okay, I won't argue anymore. Just… tell me every detail about what happened yesterday involving those pigs eating your crops."

Zart didn't even hesitate. "Yesterday morning, after breakfast, I went into the woods to find manure. But after I came back, Winston's stupid hogs had eaten practically a fourth of my crops. And yeah, I was shucking angry. I was furious for good reason. And sure, getting back at those fat pigs for ruining my crops was a thought of mine, but I would never actually do it! Plus, I'd own up to it! I'm not a coward!"

"But after yesterday, you'd be the first one anyone would suspect to kill that pig."

"It'd be too obvious, though. If I really wanted to get back at Winston, I wouldn't do it the day after and poison the feed that I make."

"Good point," Newt agreed. "However, is there someone you think could have done this? Who would want to do it?"

"Maybe it was Winston himself," Zart chided. "Maybe he just wanted an excuse to humiliate me in front of everyone."

"So your suspect is Wins himself?"

"Only because his only suspect is me."

"Ah, shuck…" Newt huffed. "This is gonna be difficult."

"W-Winston…" Hope stuttered as she watched Winston violently chop up a rack of pig. "Can we please talk about this…?"

"There's nothing to talk about," Winston said in a low, angry tone. "This pig wasn't ready to die yet, but Zart decided that it was. Now we gotta eat a baby pig."

Hope stared sadly at Winston's back. "You're really hurt by this."

BANG!

"It's a waste of food!" Winston snapped after he'd struck the dead pig with his ginormous knife. "It's a waste of resources and my time!"

"B-But…" Hope blinked in wonderment. "But why would Zart do this? What would be the point?"

BANG! He struck the pig again, causing Hugo to drop his ears in fear.

"Probably because he thought I let those pigs out yesterday," Winston acknowledged. "Which I didn't, by the way!"

Hope took a deep breath. "And… what do you think poisoned the piglet?"

BANG! The meat split into two pieces.

"It's a special plant that we use to kill the pigs. Zart finds it and brings it here. But, this morning, it wasn't on the counter where he usually leaves it."

"But you said that Zart poisoned the feed. Wouldn't all the pigs be dead if that happened?"

"Okay, sure. Maybe he just fed it to one of 'em. It doesn't change the fact that a pig is dead."

"And you don't know anyone else that could've done this?"

"I don't know anyone else who'd want this. Zart is the only person here who'd wanna sabotage me."

"So you're sure? Dead-sure?"

BANG!

"Hope, I've never been more sure in my life," Winston stated without hesitation. "And I can't wait to see that Slinthead in the pit tonight."

A/N: Dun, dun, duuun! (O_O)

And, Lucy2703x, everything will be in one book. Take that information as you will. ;+X

But thank you for all the support! You all are so kind, and I appreciate it so much! 3