All rights still belong to Scholastic and Susan Collins

Chapter 2

When they had just arrived home, Gregor immediately took his stuff to his room and climbed out of his window onto the roof of his house. Gregor just lay there pondering what his life would be like if he had stayed in New York. Would Gregor be happier? Would he and Luxa be a thing? Who knows, but that's when a loud deafening shriek seemed to be echoing from the house next door.

Gregor sat up, almost falling off the roof, and in the corner of his eye, he saw a shy young girl. The girl looked to be about his age and she was lying next to a ladder, holding her arm. The girl's arm seemed to be mostly ok. The arm didn't seem to be broken, but the girl did seem to be in a lot of pain. Although heavily introverted, Gregor still believed in being a nice person, so he called out to the girl, "HEYYYY! Are you ok down there? I live next door and heard you scream. "

Almost instantly and without looking up, the girl with her face still firmly planted in the dirt replied, "I think I'll be ok for right now but thanks for checking on me, is there…"

But before she could get the rest of her sentence out, Gregor had already gotten off of his roof and had been rushing through his house to go over and help check on the not so frail girl. The girl could not get even a glance at her savior, but she decided hey this guy who sounds like my age, seemed tremendously strong when he helped me up, and just came over and checked on me, so I need to do something nice for him. After a few seconds of weirdness, she let out, "Uhhhhh… since you were so nice, and you came and checked in on me, can I take you out and treat you to something?"

Gregor just stood there in disbelief. Did a girl just ask him out because of his personality? It wasn't usual for him to get asked out by a girl, but she wasn't able to even look at him. Her face had been turned away the whole time, and even now she was scanning the Christmas Lights she had just hung. But she then started to turn around to look at her hero. And at that point, Gregor said, " Sure, where would you like to go?"

When she finally looked around, she let out a slight gasp. Her savior and the guy she asked out turned out to be her crush from school. Gregor was the guy whom all the who the girls swarmed at school. This small epiphany left an already anxious girl very red in the cheeks. She nervously responded to Gregor, " Would it be ok if we went to the arcade down the road?"

To Gregor the arcade was a place where he could escape reality for a change, Gregor only seemed to have positive memories there, he and his sisters used to come up and visit there uncle before the mess happened and even to this day he only has good memories there. So he immediately complied and asked, " I love the arcade, and would you be able to pick me up? I don't have my license yet. Also, when would you like to go?"

The girl replied," Sure I can drive you, would 6 tomorrow night work for you, also by the way, my name is Ella. I think I'm in your 3-block class."

Now that she said that Gregor started to realize that she did kinda look familiar, but the only thing he managed to get out was "That will work I better get going" As Gregor was walking away he thought this would be his first official date. Oh, wait I wouldn't call it that I would call it more of a hang-around where I try to make friends with another person who probably has no friends since they just moved in 3 months ago.

When Gregor got home, he walked through the door. He saw food on the table and guessed that it was time for dinner. He took a plate of food and went to his sorry excuse for a room. Ever since he moved, he was put into the attic, but it was only the size of a closet. When he finished his dinner, he fell asleep right away, even forgetting to bring down his dishes.

The next morning, he woke up sweating again. It has been a while since Gregor didn't have a nightmare. Nightmares have plagued him ever since he left New York. The one thing that could help him calm down was running. So seeing as he was sweaty, ready, he might as well go for a run. While he was running, he saw this large figure standing in a library reading a book. The library was closed on Saturdays. Gregor didn't want to get in trouble, so he just tried to forget about it and finish his run.

When Gregor finally got home, he went to his room to relax and take a shower, for he did have to get ready to hang with his neighbor, Ella. He couldn't pick what he wanted to wear, he did know that he needed to cover up even though it was late spring and though hot. For Gregor had many scars due to the many battles that he had to fight in Regalia.

When the time came, Ella drove over and picked Gregor up in an old beaten-up Ford Fusion and started the roughly 15-minute drive to the arcade. On the way, they made light conversation, mostly just awkward simple pleasantries, but then Ella started to talk about her past. " Before I moved here, I used to live in Philly in Pennsylvania and there I was a social reject. Everyone thought I was a weirdo and no one ever wanted to hang out with me. I ran track and did all these sports to try to make friends, but that didn't end up working. Eventually, I fell in love with working out not because I wanted to fit in but because it brought out the best "

Now that Ella shared Gregor kinda felt morally obligated to share his story, but he couldn't trust Ella to the tooth so he told her only parts of his story" I grew up poor in New York, while we were there we had lots of problems, and so to try to fix them my mother forced me and my family moved out here because we could stay with our uncle and have a better and happier life."

By the time they had reached the arcade, Gregor was starting to enjoy Ellas' company a bit. Ella was a nice, caring person who just wanted to have friends, and Gregor wanted to be one.

The pair had a fantastic night. For the first time in at seemed like forever, was able to enjoy someone's company and forget about the struggles that were going on inside of his brain. As for Ella, she was almost dying, she got to spend a whole evening with one of the hottest if not the hottest in the whole school, and he seemed to be enjoying her company as was whole pair did not want to leave the arcade that night they were having too much fun playing games and just enjoying each other's company, but eventually like all good things, their time at the arcade had to come to an end, because it closes at 10 pm. But considering how they were two strangers, the two had one of the most fun days in forever. On the way home, the atmosphere in the car was almost perfect. The conversations the two were having were innocent and enjoyable. It was like the two of them finally had their other half.

That's chapter 2, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It took me a while to rewrite it all and fix all of my dumb mistakes. Also, let me know how you feel about Gregor and Ella and if you think they should be together in the endgame or no. Please enjoy the rest of this series, Sincerely the author W3hn.