Because of her job as a cook, Ada had a lot of down time. In fact, she and Frypan probably had the most downtime of any of the Gladers. Sure, she had to wake up a little earlier than everyone else to make lunches for the Runners, but the long break after it and until lunch was more than enough to make up for it.

She and Frypan were two of the only full time cooks in the Glade. A few more boys aided them , clearly less skilled and passionate for the job. Sometimes if they were feeling the full strain of cooking for all of the boys, they'd get some help from a few others that knew the basics, and it was done with ease. 

But, unlike those few, they didn't have another job around the place. This meant that when they weren't cooking breakfast, lunch, or dinner, they could lounge around the Glade doing whatever the hell they wanted. And boy did they have fun with it.

So there she was, enjoying the after-lunch bliss by lounging on the grass and basking in the sun like it was her last day on Earth. She watched the Gardeners and Track-Hoes slaving away in the Gardens, and the Slicers feeding the pigs captive in one of the animal pens outside the Bloodhouse.

It was the day after the bonfire, and the events of the night before were fresh in her mind. 

Her knuckles were dusted a light purple, a little bruised after punching Gally in the face during their fight, something which she learned she didn't need to regret. The boy thought of her as badass, and seemed to find the whole situation fairly amusing.

The Greenie had found his name to be Chuck, and had already worked through jobs as both a Slicer and a Gardener and not finding his knack in either one. As he took his break five minutes ago beside her, she reassured him that she hated both jobs too.

Now that he was gone again, she was alone. With her arm dramatically draped over her forehead, she squinted to look at the Builders across the Glade. She couldn't take her mind off of Gally: their fight, her being pinned beneath him, his sweet words of keeping a look out whilst she took a shower.

And when she left the showers the previous night, wearing a fresh dust-less set of clothes with her hair still wet, Gally had a thick sweater in his hands for her to wear. The girl didn't know if he'd want it back, but she wasn't intending on letting it go from where it was draped over a chair in her room.

The Builders were fixing a hole in the roof of the Homestead. As one of the boys stood on the roof with a hammer, a few planks of wood, and some nails; a number of boys shouted instructions and words of help up to him, despite not being able to see the extent of the damage.

Their Keeper however, had his eyes fixed elsewhere. He caught sight of the girl sat alone, eating her sandwiches, and staring dreamily across the Glade at where he and his fellow Builders were hard at work. When she caught him looking, she adverted her eyes instantly to the Gardeners, who seemed to be fighting over who would be collecting fertiliser from the Deadheads.

Gally, however, didn't look away.

His eyes still watched the girl as she kicked her legs out in front of her and laid back on the grass, relishing in the afternoon sun. The other Builders hadn't even noticed his distraction let alone the reason of it. But even so, he made an excuse of needing a drink of water in order to slip away from his work and make his way over to her.

She hadn't noticed his plan to interrupt her peaceful downtime, since she was lying flat on her back and staring up at the clouds trailing across the sky. She raised up her hand, using her index finger to trace the outline of the white clouds in an attempt to ease her boredom. 

Gally cracked a smile at her strange antics, sitting himself down beside her as quietly as possible before saying, "You having fun?"

She sat up, startled, before relaxing at the sight of the tall boy. She smiled at him warmly, shuffling next to him as she tucked her hands over her knees.

"Definitely. Wouldn't want to waste all the free time I get."

Gally rolled his eyes playfully, earning a scoff from the girl. She never took him as the type to hand out advice, but he surprised her in saying, "You need to calm down on that bragging."

"Why? It's a lot of fun watching your face when I say it." She sent him a wink, making his stomach twist nervously. It took him a second to think of a reply, because he found himself distracted by her cheeky smile.

"Ah, but is that worth the price of Alby finding you a second job because he doesn't think you're working hard enough?"

The smile immediately wiped from the girl's face, and it was Gally's turn to laugh. She edged closer to him subconsciously as she questioned, "He can do that?"

"He's the leader. He can do whatever the hell he wants."

"That's fair, I guess." She mumbled in reply, and he chuckled softly.

Alby was currently across the Glade chatting to Newt. Ada noticed recently that he didn't actually seem to do much. Of course, he kept the whole place in order, but otherwise he just lingered about the place to make sure everyone was doing their work.

"Look, I actually wanted to apologise," Gally started, scratching his neck sheepishly.

He earned her attention then at the words he used. Her head snapped away from the leader, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as Gally stared back at her with guilty eyes.

"I'm sorry. I didn't want to fight you because you were a girl." He shrugged, his cheeks growing red as he avoided eye contact. "I underestimated you, and I shouldn't have. Especially as you hit me harder than most of the boys in this place."

Ada blushed bashfully then as Gally met her with a knowing smirk. She certainly packed a punch, and Gally didn't envy anyone that she truly got mad at.

"It's okay, Gally." She eventually replied, her eyes on the group of Builders she could feel were now watching the two of them. "You've learnt from it - in the hard way." 

He shook his head at her comment, laughing softly, as his eyes wandered away to where Chuck was now trying his hand as a Builder. Ada noticed this too, asking him,

"Shouldn't you be helping out with that?"

Gally shrugged, tilting his head to watch Chuck struggling to handle a hammer. The few Builders around him were exchanging exasperated expressions, but their Keeper seemed unbothered. 

"I'm sure they're fine." He dismissed, as the girl stifled a giggle at his reluctance to do his job. "You wanna know why I actually fight the Greenies?"

Not expecting there to be an actual reason behind it, Ada nodded in reply, as Gally shifted his position to stretch out his legs in front of him.

"If they whack their heads on the ground, or take a shove a little too hard, they remember their names. Believe me, I know what it's like to feel lost in this place, and it's worse when you don't have your name."

Ada couldn't help but smile softly at the reasoning. She couldn't lie; she wasn't expecting it to be something helpful. But the more she talked to Gally, the more she realised that he was actually a good person.

Dinner was a perfectly concocted soup that Ada and Frypan spent hours - well, maybe not hours but still a lengthy amount of time - creating and perfecting to serve up to the wolves of the Glade. They were like wolves. As soon as the food was offered to them, it was almost all gone in a flash. The Cooks barely found any food left for themselves.

After everyone had served themselves, Ada grabbed a bowl and sat down besides Minho, Newt and Ben to enjoy her own hard work. They were sat at a table in the corner of the food hall, in the perfect position for the girl to look out at everyone else in the room.

Ada was besides Newt, and Minho was sat across from her. Ben was by his side, and the three of them were engaged in deep conversation about Ben getting his foot tangled in ivy in the Maze a few months back. Ada pretended to take interest for a few minutes, but eventually she ducked out of the conversation and chose instead to scour the hall.

She looked down the length of each table in the room, as the boys chattered and laughed together in what seemed to be the most communal part of the every day Glade. The only thing more communal about the place were the monthly bonfires.

Ada's eyes finally caught on Gally. He was almost directly across the room from her, sat on a table close to the door to the Homestead. She could see he was being surprisingly quiet, as Alby and others talked around him, but he simply just sat and ate. 

He smiled at something one of his friends said, brushing a hand over his hair and finally diving into the conversation. It was only a few sentences, and then he fell quiet again, instead invested in listening to others talk. 

She was certain she was being subtle about her staring - but there was nothing less subtle. Minho and Ben were both far too absorbed in their conversation about the Maze to notice, but considering the fact Newt wasn't a Runner, he was also less than interested in their mindless chatter.

He was watching her carefully, definitely being far more subtle than she was attempting to be. Following her eyes across the room, he caught sight of Gally, and his eyebrows shot up in surprise.

Newt prided himself on being a smart guy, but the assumptions he made up in his head as to why Ada was looking at Gally were completely off. True, it wasn't unrealistic to assume that Ada may be afraid of the grumpy and intimidating Builder, but he probably should've guessed that it wasn't the case from the way she was looking at him.

But then again, romance seemed to be the one area that Newt was completely hopeless in. He had been stuck in the Glade for two years, and had yet to figure out Minho's blatantly obvious crush on him.

On the other hand, how would Newt be able to figure out Ada's crush on Gally if the girl hadn't figured it out herself?