Chapter Text
Darkness.
Drowning.
The first things she ever knew.
She spat up a substance - water? - as the metal grate floor dug into the palms of her hands. Gasping for air only led to her breath hitching, meaning more throat-stripping coughs forcing their way out, mingled with whatever liquid was obstructing her airway.
The box she was in was slowly, shakily, moving upward. She hit her head on the ceiling when she tried to stand up, causing her to stumble backwards and right into something sharp, a corner of a wooden box, she realized. How she could identify it, she didn’t know.
She greedily sucked air into her lungs as she lay on the floor of the moving box. There were only small red lights on the walls outside of the box, but they moved past, making it hard to see anything. She slowly pressed her hand to the top of the box, pushing as hard as she could against it. There was a small amount of give, but nothing she could work with.
Her eyes frantically scanned the area. Crates, barrels. And her. Going who knows where.
No memories. She had no memories, she realized. Her mind was a complete empty space, and she was stuck alone in a cramped claustrophobic box.
She dug her hands through her hair, nails scratching against her scalp. It was all she could do to remember to breathe, let alone figure a way out.
What the hell was she going to do?
The box stopped moving with a loud grinding sound. She froze, waiting.
Then a light blinded her. She put a hand over her eyes to shield them from the brightness until they adjusted.
Through the metal grate doors that were the ceiling, she saw a group of maybe fifteen boys surrounding the opening, silhouetted by the light. They were all staring at her, and whispers spread through the group, about her, she assumed.
“Is that a girl?” “It’s a girl!” “We’ve never had a girl.” “Why would the Creators send us a girl?” “Is she hot?” “Move, slinthead, let Alby through!”
A dark-skinned boy, taller than the others, with a larger build - clearly the one in charge, probably the oldest - pushed his way through the crowd and crouched on the edge of the opening. He studied her for a moment, and she stared right back. Finally, he reached down to the grate and undid a lock. Two other boys helped him pull the doors open, and she immediately jumped up to her feet. She knew she couldn’t go anywhere, the boys had the opening completely surrounded, but it felt better to be standing, like maybe there was some authority in it. The boy put out his hands, as if talking to a wild animal.
“Woah, calm down,” he told her.
“Where am I?” she demanded. “Who are you?”
“Alby,” he said, gesturing to himself. He gave a half smile, though it was a bit solemn, she thought. “Welcome to the Glade, greenie.”
She blinked. “Is that supposed to mean something to me?”
He smirked. “Fair point. Come on, let’s get you out of there.”
He held out a hand to her. She narrowed her eyes, and hesitated. This could all be a trick. She didn’t remember anything, and waking up in what was practically a cage and being sent to a bunch of teenage boys was utterly confusing. Zero context didn’t help. How could she trust them when she didn’t even know what she looked like, or her own name?
“We’re not gonna hurt you,” Alby assured her.
She felt all their eyes on her as she slowly, cautiously, took his hand and allowed him to help pull her up out of the box. The group of boys moved back slightly so she could stand on solid ground.
“There ya go,” Alby said, letting her go.
She turned in a circle once, scanning her surroundings. Alby’s smile fell when her eyes landed not on a Glader, but an open space.
“Wait, don’t-”
She bolted. She didn’t look back even when she heard them all shouting at each other to catch her. She just focused on the steady thump of her legs pounding against the ground, careful not to trip and fall over a patch of mud, or a dip or hill on the uneven terrain. It was a rather large field, but around the edge was an enormous stone wall. As far as she could tell, there were only two exits.
And she was heading for the one closest.
She couldn’t see what was beyond, but a fight-or-flight response was in full effect, and if it was a way out, she didn’t much care.
“Stop her before she gets to the maze!” she could hear Alby order.
Maze? That was a maze? Questions immediately surfaced - How big was it? How difficult was it to navigate? Was there anything else in there? - and the thoughts made her falter. Could she survive out there? She knew literally nothing about the entire situation.
But if it was a way out…
Her lungs burned, but she kept going.
There were at least three boys chasing her now. There was something about the beyond, some cold, foreboding feeling surrounding the stone. Were there monsters out there? Was she strong enough to fend them off? Her mind circled back to the idea that out there was a way out. Something instinctual told her that she had to get out. And she was so close, how could she turn back now? Almost there… just a few more yards-
Something slammed into her from the side, sending her tumbling over, hitting the ground hard with a thud. There was so much momentum that she rolled over twice before coming to a full stop, and the grass did nothing to cushion the fall. The something that had hit her was still on top of her, and she realized it was actually a someone by the weight and warmth.
“Get off!” she cried, struggling to push herself backwards, out from underneath him.
“Bloody hell,” he said as he sat up and moved to the side, off of her. “I almost didn’t think we’d catch you, greenie.”
The boy had a different accent than the others, kind of like hers, but more… distinguished? She wasn’t entirely sure of the difference, but it was there. He was blond, and looked maybe sixteen? Seventeen? His big brown eyes reflected the current smirk on his face, but also looked kind of… sad.
After studying all this about him, she debated running again, even though she was still breathing heavily. Maybe if she could surprise them…
“No, don’t run again,” the boy said tiredly. Dammit. He must have noticed her eyes darting around, deciding. “That’s a bad idea. You’ll get yourself killed. Only runners are allowed out there.”
She scoffed. “The hell did I just do?”
He laughed a little. “No, runners. One of the jobs here. Come on, let’s head back to the others, then we can explain everything.” He stood up and offered her his hand. “Last time someone did this, you took off. I’m gonna trust you won’t do that again.”
She glared at him, and this time decided to stand without his help. A few other boys who had been chasing her were standing a yard or two away, waiting, ready to run again if need be.
“Got her?” one called to the blond boy.
“Think so,” he replied. He turned to the girl. “Right? You won’t run off again, will you?”
“I think that depends,” she said, still on her guard.
He laughed. “Well, don’t. Come on.”
They started walking back to the rest of the boys. There were at least thirty, maybe more. They were all starting to congregate around the box, thanks to the commotion she had caused. She looked back behind her at the opening to the maze.
“No, you don’t,” the blond boy said, stepping back behind her to keep her from taking off. He placed his hands on her shoulders, steering her back towards the camp.
“Don’t touch me,” she muttered, shrugging him off.
He held up his hands as if in surrender. “Sorry.”
They marched back over to Alby and the rest. She could feel all of their eyes on her, so she kept her chin up, trying to prove she had some sort of authority or dignity. Maybe she was confused and frightened, but she didn’t have to show it like an idiot.
“Where am I?” she demanded once again, before anyone could say anything.
“You aren’t in charge here,” one of the larger boys shot back. She gave him her best death stare.
“It’s okay, Gally,” Alby said. He turned back to the girl. “Like I said, I’m Alby. I’m the leader here. This is Gally.” The rude one nodded hello. She didn’t react at all in return. Alby pointed behind her at the accented blond. “That’s Newt, second-in-command. Welcome to the Glade.” She waited for him to elaborate, but instead he turned to Newt. “Wanna give her the tour?”
Newt nodded. “Meeting after, I assume?”
Alby nodded seriously. He turned to the group at large. “Everyone back to work!”
The boys slowly dispersed, but she felt that she had disrupted everything. They still stared at her in wonder and confusion as she watched them go back to their various jobs, whatever those were.
“‘Right, greenie,” Newt began - his “all right” was almost cut off at the beginning because of his accent. He began to recite information, like something he’d done a hundred times. “This whole area we call the Glade. Beyond it is the maze. We’ve all got roles. Only runners are allowed in the maze; they explore it and map it out. This is all to try to find a way out of here. Other jobs include-”
“No, wait, stop,” she interrupted. “We’re stuck here?”
“Yes, and trying to find a way out. The runners-”
“Who put us here?”
“We call them the Creators.”
“So you don’t know.”
“Well, no.”
She sighed frustratedly and ran a hand down her face. “Okay, why can’t I remember anything? What I look like, my name, I… I’ve got nothing.”
Newt looked sad. “That’s normal. None of us remember anything when we first come up. Your name, you get back in a few days, at most. As for what you look like, we have mirrors, don’t worry.” He smiled good-naturedly, like this was supposed to make her laugh, but it didn’t help.
“And… everything else?”
Newt shook his head. “We dunno. The Glade is all we know. Every month, the Creators send up that box, with supplies, seeds, occasionally basic medicine, and always one more Glader. We all ‘em greenies til they remember their name. However…” He tilted his head when he looked at her, like he was studying her, trying to figure something out. “We’ve never had a girl before.”
“What? I’m the only girl here?”
“Afraid so.”
She nodded, but with wide eyes, trying to process. “Fantastic,” she said sarcastically.
He smiled in amusement. “You’re also the only one here with a different accent.”
“Huh.” She rubbed her temples. “Sorry, carry on. What were you saying about jobs?”
“Right, we’ve got runners, the ones who explore the maze, builders, pretty self-explanatory, they’re the strong ones with less going on upstairs, if you know what I mean, cooks, slicers and blood housers who take care of and kill the animals for meat, track-hoes and gardeners, also self-explanatory, baggers, who are essentially guards and handle the dead, and med-jacks.”
“Med-jacks?” she repeated.
“Yeah, sound fun?”
“No, I just… why’s that familiar?”
Newt shook his head. “I don’t know. Here, let me show you around.”
They began walking through the field. She constantly felt Gladers watching her; she figured that if things were to go on like this, she’d get used to it (and perfect her death glare). Newt showed her the gardens, most of the buildings (the med-jacks’ work area, bunk houses, the kitchen, meeting room, etc), gave a brief explanation of the forest, and circled back around to the Box before leading her up a sort of tree-fort they’d built for lookouts.
She leaned against the railing, looking out over the Glade, while Newt leaned against the tree trunk behind her. He stepped forward when the grinding sound of the maze doors beginning to close sounded over the whole area. They watched together as two runners jogged back into the Glade, and the doors shut behind them.
“What happens if they don’t make it back in time?” she asked.
Newt looked down. “They’re trapped out there all night. No one makes it back from that.”
“Oh.”
They watched in silence as a little boy, maybe thirteen, came running up to the two runners, to relay the story of the new girl, no doubt. The boy even pointed up to the lookout, and the other two stared up in the direction of his finger. She rolled her eyes a little and stepped back from the railing. Newt watched as she sat down on the floor, against the tree trunk.
“This is just bloody brilliant,” she muttered, running a hand through her hair.
Newt laughed, and leaned back against the railing, now facing her. “Ready to hear the rules?”
She looked up and him and shrugged helplessly. “May as well.”
“Rule one, everyone does their part. No slackers. This whole operation goes to hell if we don’t work together. Rule two, never harm another Glader. To trust each other enough so this runs smoothly, we can’t go around picking fights. And three…” His expression changed to something much more serious. “Never, ever go beyond the Glade.”
She scoffed and looked away. “Coulda told me that one before you let me out of the Box.”
Newt grinned. “Yeah, probably.” He looked at her for another moment before moving to sit down next to her. “You alright?”
“The hell do you think?”
He nodded. “Don’t blame you.” He paused. “Headache?” She nodded. “Need to go to the med-jacks?”
She shook her head and looked down, but ran her hands through her hair again, nails scratching her scalp. “Why does that word bother me so much?”
“I’ve no idea. Unless your name is Med.”
That finally made her smile a little. “Or Jack…” The smile fell as she trailed off.
He furrowed his eyebrows. “What?” he asked. Then he realized what she could be thinking. “Jack?”
She shook her head again. “No… not exactly? I dunno.”
“Right, well…” He stood up and offered her his hand again. “Come on, Jack. Let’s figure out your job.”
She laughed, and considered, before standing up on her own. Newt looked mildly offended.
“Wow. Twice now, you’ve done that.”
She smirked. “I can’t say I’m sorry.”
Newt scoffed, but smiled. A part of him thought that maybe she would fit in; or at least that the thought wasn’t far-fetched. There was the matter of the boys accepting her, of course, but with that death-glare of hers, she could level them with just one look.
“Okay,” he said, leading the way down the ladder, “tonight’s greenie day, as you know, which also means that tonight’s bonfire night.”
“Bonfire night?”
“Yeah, to celebrate. You know, welcome the newbie.”
“Oh. Fun.”
“You’ll be fine.”
They each jumped off the last few rungs of the ladder onto the grass. “No, I know, it’s just a lot of attention.”
They began walking back towards the buildings. Newt shrugged. “Yeah. We all went through it, though.”
“You weren’t all an abnormal gender.”
He laughed as they reached the meeting room, where there were three other boys already gathered.
Alby introduced her to the only unfamiliar one - one of the runners she’d seen come back. “This is Minho. Minho, meet our new greenie. And you already know Gally.”
She resisted the urge to reply, “Unfortunately.”
Minho observed her for a moment. “When Chuck said… well, I guess I thought it could be some sort of prank.”
She wanted to say, sarcastically, “Thanks,” but instead she just nodded.
“Why would the Creators send us a girl?” Gally asked (to everyone but her, it felt like).
Minho shrugged. “To mix things up, experiment? This whole thing is almost like a game, to see how long we can last, or something. This just adds another variable.”
“Do you know your name yet?” Alby asked.
“No, I don’t,” she said. Newt looked at her with a hint of confusion, like maybe she should say something about the half-remembered familiarity of jack, but she shook her head slightly. He understood the meaning: not yet. He respectfully left it at that.
“I wonder if you’ll remember more than the rest of us,” Minho said thoughtfully.
“Well, if none of you do, it’s not likely that I’ll be any different, if they want to experiment,” she mused. “It’s adding another variable, yeah, but they probably want to keep the other ones simple. So the ‘game’ remains the same, just with a new player.”
“She’s right,” Newt agreed. “We should treat this the same way we’d treat a male greenie. Find her a job, make her part of the group.”
“Keep playing,” Minho added.
“How are we supposed to just let this happen like normal?” Gally protested. “She’s a girl.”
“Yes, thanks, genius,” she couldn’t help muttering.
He scoffed and shook his head at her. “This is different. I for one wanna know why. Things have been the same for almost two years. Why the change?”
“You have all the same information we do, Gally,” Newt said.
“But why would they just send us a girl-?”
“Can we move past the point that I’m a girl?” she interrupted. “Everyone is well aware of the fact, thanks. I’m just another person.”
He stepped forward, towards her, trying to intimidate her. He was almost a head taller than her, but she didn’t back away. “Look, shank, you can’t just waltz in here and expect-”
“I was brought up in the Box just like the rest of you,” she retorted, crossing her arms over her chest and sticking her chin out to match his intimidation tactics. “Why should I be so different? And don’t say because I’m a girl, we’ve already established that. I’m stuck here just like you are. I thought one of the rules here was something about working together? And trust?”
“We can’t just trust you, you’re different-”
“Gally,” Alby interrupted. “Leave it. This isn’t helping anyone.”
He gave her one last glare, which she perfectly matched in intensity, and stepped back. She rolled her eyes and muttered, without thinking, “Crazy eyebrows.”
“You know what-”
Both Newt and Minho moved to moved to hold him back, Newt with a hand on his shoulder, Minho right at his side. The girl smirked triumphantly.
“See?” she said. “I can insult you just like the rest of the boys. And apparently you aren’t afraid to start a fight with me, either.”
“That’s against the rules-”
“She has a point,” Alby said, “but he’s right, you can’t just do that. Either of you.”
She held up her hands. “Sorry. Just trying to prove something.”
Newt and Minho moved away, but she spotted the amusement in Minho’s eyes and the smirk Newt sported as soon as his back was turned to Gally.
“I think we should give her a main job,” Alby said with authority. “She can work just like the rest of us.” He turned to her. “Most greenies start out as slicers.”
“That’s a hell of a job to begin with,” she commented.
“You said you wanted to be treated like the rest of us,” Gally countered.
“I think we should put her with the med-jacks,” Newt said before an argument could start again.
“Newt,” she said, “it didn’t ring a bell like that…”
“But it did ring a a bell,” he insisted. “Earlier, she said there was something recognizable about the idea of med-jacks.”
“Do you remember more than us?” Minho asked.
“I don’t think it’s like that,” she tried to explain.
Alby shrugged. “Either way, that might be a good idea.”
“Oh, good,” Gally said sarcastically. “Special treatment.”
“If any other Glader said something was familiar about something in here, I’d put them there too,” Alby assured him. “Get someone to make a closed off space from the rest of the bunks.”
“See,” Gally insisted.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but girls have different parts.” Gally rolled his eyes, but his face got the slightest bit red. Alby continued, “She’s gonna want privacy. And if this continues, if we do end up getting more girls, then there should be a spot for them, too. Start off small, a bed and her own bath area, just basics. We’ll expand later if we need to. Is that going to be okay?”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
“It’s no problem.” Gally looked like he wanted to say something about it being at least a hassle, but Alby said (mostly to keep him quiet), “You’re a Glader now. We’d do the same for anyone else.”
With that, it seemed that the little meeting was adjourned. Gally practically stormed out.
“Welcome to the Glade,” Minho said before exiting.
“Frypan’s in the kitchen. Go see if he can get you anything to eat,” Alby advised before he left, leaving her and Newt alone.
Newt leaned casually against the wall. “So, Jack, should we go get food?”
“You don’t have to call me that.”
He shrugged. “So far, it’s our best bet on a name, and ‘greenie’ gets old fast.”
She nodded and smiled a little. “Okay, then.”
They headed out of the building and Newt led the way over to the kitchen. “Talking back to Gally was pretty cool, by the way.”
She laughed. “He was just getting annoying.”
“Well, he’s ‘annoying’ quite a lot.”
“Ah.”
Newt pushed open the door and called, “Hey, Frypan! Newbie needs something to eat!”
She winced. “You really had to yell it like that?”
He chuckled. “You don’t like attention, do you?”
“I’ve already got to deal with the whole Glade staring at me.”
Frypan came in, a pan in one hand and a spatula in the other. “Newt, make her a sandwich or something. I’m kinda busy right now. Preparing for the bonfire, you know.” With that, he exited into the next room again.
Newt looked a little taken aback. He blinked. “Alright, then.”
The girl thought for a minute. “You think he’s afraid of me?”
Newt laughed. “What’s to be afraid of?”
“Wow, thanks. I just mean… I’m the only girl here. It’s new, it’s different.”
He went to a cupboard and pulled out whatever items he needed to make a sandwich. “Don’t blame yourself. Do you want to do this, or should I?”
“Oh, uh… I’m… not sure how.”
“Oh, right. Never mind, then.”
There was silence as he prepared the food. She watched him, just observing. She took note of the cloths around his wrists, and the way he stood with most of the weight on one foot. A bit of his hair fell in front of his eyes, and he casually swept it back. There was a relaxed carefulness in his hands as he cut the bread.
Woah, she stopped herself, only an hour here and those are the things you’re noticing? This is the guy you’ve spent most of the time here with, that’s… natural, right? No. No! Absolutely not. I can’t just-
“What is it?” he asked, pausing what he was doing.
She blinked, and quickly shook her head. “Nothing. Sorry.”
He nodded, not entirely convinced, and looked back to the food.
~~~~~
As soon as the sun set, the Gladers lit the bonfire.
It grew quickly, using fuel that had been gathered from the Deadheads. The boys talked, ate, and laughed together around the fire. There was a ring around a small area where some wrestled (Gally kept winning, and gloated about it). They were all like one big family.
Except, of course, the new girl.
Some welcome party; she was standing over to the side, leaning against a building, and couldn’t feel less included. Even if she started as a med-jack in the morning, she knew no one, and everyone else was fairly preoccupied to notice. She didn’t really blame them for that. Maybe if she stayed to the side and practiced glaring, she’d be intimidating enough to have some form of authority over people whenever it was needed.
Eventually, Minho took pity on her and left his group of people to come over to her.
“Hey,” he said, jogging up next to her.
“Hi,” she replied.
“You bored?”
She shrugged. “Kind of.”
“Come on.” He grinned. “You haven’t met everyone yet.”
“Well, how often do people get injured?”
“More slicers get injured than anyone else. Occasionally someone’ll come back from the maze needing help. Otherwise… coughs, sometimes a fever or two. You hopefully won’t meet everyone just by being a med-jack.”
“Let’s hope not.” She smiled a little bit.
She let him lead the way into the crowd. The smile fell as soon as she noticed the difference as she passed people - it would either fall silent, or whispers would spread like wildfire; often both, one after another. She was determined not to follow too closely to Minho, though. She wanted to show some form of independence. This was fine, right? She’d have to get to know all these people anyway.
Minho stopped at a group including Newt, the boy she had spotted earlier, and the other runner she’d seen.
“Guys, this is the new Glader,” he introduced her. “This is Chuck and Justin. Justin’s my running partner, and Chuck is a slopper.”
“Hi,” Justin greeted her, though his smile seemed a little forced.
“Hey,” Newt said, much more casually, since they’d already spent an hour together earlier. Chuck just gave a nervous smile.
There was an awkward silence in the group for a moment.
“You remember your name yet?” Justin asked.
“Not yet,” she replied.
“You talk different,” Chuck observed in surprise.
“Yeah.”
“Sorry,” he added hastily. “If… that was mean. I didn’t mean to make it sound mean.”
“No, no, that’s okay.”
There was another tense silence. Nobody knew what to say. Justin stared at his shoes. Newt sipped whatever drink he was holding. Chuck was glancing all around, everywhere but at her. Minho looked at all of them, waiting for someone to say something.
Finally, she decided to say, “Did I interrupt a conversation? I didn’t mean-”
“No,” both Newt and Chuck said. Newt cleared his throat, and Chuck continued, “No, we weren’t… it’s okay.”
She nodded with raised eyebrows. “I’m gonna… go get some water.”
Minho gave her a look that said, “I’m sorry,” and she gave him a small smile in return. She weaved her way through the crowd, praying that she would find Alby or Frypan or someone who would know where something to drink was. She didn’t notice that Newt had left the group and was following her until he caught up, surprising her.
“Oh, hey,” she said, suddenly a little happier. She couldn’t put her finger on why. Maybe being alone with the only person she knew here? Yeah, sure, that was it.
“Hi. You tried this?” He held out his glass of… some sort of liquid. “Gally’s concoction.”
“Oh, no,” she said, “if he made it, I’m not trying it.”
He laughed. “Probably the wise choice. It takes some getting used to.”
She smiled. He noticed then that she’d only smiled like that with him. But to be fair, she hadn’t had much interaction with anyone else.
He looked at her in the firelight for a moment, considering something.
“What?” she asked.
“Can I show you something?”
She narrowed her eyes a little, but answered, “Sure.”
They made a sharp turn out of the group of boys and across the field. She could feel all their gazes on her, but she didn’t look back and she didn’t look down. Newt stopped at the very edge, at the wall. The bonfire was so large that there was just barely enough light to see, even that far away. Up close, she could see lots of scratches, marks, carved into it. Letters, she realized. Peoples’ names.
“Everyone writes their name here when they remember it,” Newt explained. “Then you’re really a Glader.”
She didn’t have to ask what the names that were scratched out meant. With a pang of her heart, she noticed one that was crossed out that just read, “Greenie.” She ran her fingers over the marks.
“Everyone’s here?” she asked.
“Everyone,” Newt confirmed. “There’s me.” He pointed to his name. Just above it was Alby’s. To the left was Gally. She also found Minho and Chuck without much trouble. “When you remember, yours’ll be up there, too.”
She spotted one crossed out that read “Jack.” A weird, heavy feeling arose in her chest when she saw it.
Suddenly she wrinkled her nose. A completely disgusted expression came over her face.
“What’s wrong?” Newt asked.
“Jacklyn,” she mumbled. She looked at him, as if asking for confirmation. “That can’t… nope, definitely is. My name’s Jacklyn.”
He tilted his head in confusion. “That’s great, why would-”
“I hate it.”
Newt burst out laughing. “Jacklyn” looked down and shook her head, bemused.
“No Glader’s ever hated their name before,” he managed, still chuckling.
“Well, looks like I’m the first for many things.”
Even in the dark, she could make out his contagious smile and now-soft eyes. “What do you want us to call you, then?”
She looked at him thoughtfully. “I guess Jack is okay.”
“Jack it is, then.”
They stood in the dark, looking at each other for another few moments. She finally grinned and shook her head in disbelief.
“I can’t believe I’ve got a name,” she confessed.
Newt smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I knew you would.”
They stayed where they were for a few more seconds before Newt realized his hand had been on her shoulder for too long. He somewhat-awkwardly took it off, and cleared his throat.
“Ready to be introduced to everyone, Jack?”
She smiled. “Sure.”
They started walking back together. She mostly focused on where she was stepping, careful not to trip and fall over uneven grass in the dim light. And because she didn’t want Newt to notice how awkward she was feeling about his hand on her shoulder.
“Hey, Gladers!” Newt called to get everyone’s attention when they were close enough. “Meet Jack!”
Everyone cheered for her. She allowed herself to be patted on the back by a few different people, even though she was surprised they’d be this supportive of remembering a little thing like her name. Even Gally gave a small smile. But then she realized they’d all been through the same thing. They knew how it felt to be without it, and they knew how it felt to get it back, and feel like they finally had an identity.
From within the crowd, she looked back at Newt, who was standing at the edge, watching, giving everyone the moment. He smiled encouragingly at her, and she grinned back.
From there, they both realized that they’d already grown fond of each other. It was too early to do anything about it, but the connection was there, no matter the protesting thoughts either of them had. Something was there.
But for now, Jack was just another Glader. And maybe that thought wouldn’t be so bad.