7 Michelle

"So, the gathering can be officially called to an opening."

For the first time, I sit before a circle of boys, all with smug looks and straight backs. They think they are all high and mighty, and the toughest around. Especially that tomato-faced boy, who won't make eye-contact with me as I stare him down.

When he looks over, I watch his hand flinch up to the deep purple flesh on his eye. I can't help but smirk. Didn't think my elbow would hit him so hard when he tackled me, but it's still bruised a day later.

Good.

"So normally," the one who acts like the toughest of them all begins, "we let the Greenie go around everywhere and then we pick where they go, but that doesn't seem like an option with these many Greenies in these circumstances. Any objections?"

"These circumstances?" Dawn mutters through her teeth, before the leader glares at her.

"Slim it."

The only sound is the creaking of boys in their seats, and their eyes shifting away from us. They put us all at one end of the circle, with the funny talker on the left, the brunette next to me, me in the middle, and the pipsqueak on the very edge.

"Alright, that's settled then." He sighs, looking back down the aisle at us. "We'll let them pick their placements, if that's alright."

"No," the tomato-face says. "I object to that."

"Of course you do."

"Slim it Minho. You shouldn't even be here. You aren't going to get saddled with any of them."

"I'm a Keeper just like you Gally."

"Saddled?" I lean forward in my chair. "I am not a horse."

"Slim it." Their leader repeats. I know his name, I've heard it before, but I don't particularly care to remember it. "Gally, if you end up with one of the girls, which I highly doubt anyway, you'll only have to keep them for a week trial."

"I don't want to get one either." Another boy pipes in. "No sissy girl is going to be able to handle the job of a Bagger."

"Then you'll be happy when no one chooses to work for you, right?" The leader asks. "Listen, I bet none of you here actually want one of these shanks in your group, right? Which is fair, and fine, and what not, but somebody has got to do it. Things have suddenly changed around here. ."

"We could make them their own group." Someone suggests. "Put them in charge of it."

"What would we have them do?" The funny-talking boy asks. "And who would be there keeper? We're a team."

"I don't get all this yappin'." The one who yelled at the Tomato-face sighs. "Sure, you don't want a girl in your midst, big whoop. There's already a girl in the Glade, four of them. Shanks better get used to it sooner or later, or we will be in a lot deeper klunk then we already are."

"Good that." Someone else seconds. "I wouldn't mind another hand in the kitchen. Aren't y'all always complainin' about too much work without enough help?"

"I can handle myself." The tomato-face shrugs.

"And your eye proves it," I sneer.

"Enough," the leader stands up, and all the whispering stops.

He really does own the area. Everyone seems to respect him, even if some don't seem like they want to. He doesn't seem older than any of them, and as far as I can tell he isn't in charge of anything except all of them, and I wonder how he proved himself their leader.

"Let's just ask them one by one what they would like to do, and if there are any objections, then we debate." He begins.

"I second that," the funny-talker agrees.

There is a few grumbling here and there, but no one openly objects. How he manages to hold a grip on everyone I don't know, but I can't help but find it annoying. Everyone seems to just be following their orders without even thinking about it. These 11 boys have more power than anyone else in this whole clearing, but they seem to relinquish it within seconds to the boy in front of me.

"Alright, let's start with Dawn." He points to the funny-talker, and now I realise I am going to have to learn her name.

She shrugs, as she looks at the group. "Just put me somewhere that needs help."

The boys look around each other, before one of the boys who talked earlier leans forward in his chair. "I'm Fry-Pan, I work in the kitchens. Does that interest you?"

"Why not?" She leans forward, as if she is also deciding if he is the right pick for her.

Not that any of it matters. We don't really have a choice in where we go, even if they have provided us with the illusion of power. Nothing we do here matters at all. We're still locked up no matter what job I pick, or where I work, or what I do.

"So, is that settled then?" The boy with power asks.

"You sure you want her?" The tomato-faced boy asks. "She already broke our biggest rule, day one. Ran out into the shuckin' maze without any repercussions might I add."

"Anyone who manages to outsmart you lot is someone I want on my team." The cook leans back, as he strokes his wild beard.

"I don't mind the kitchens." Dawn answers firmly, but I can tell she is lying.

"If you are going to object Gally, you had better make a recommendation." The boy funny-talker mutters.

"I already did, and you shot it down." He crosses his arms, huffing down with his back against the seat.

Good that. He finally shuts up. It is quite the miracle.

"Alright then, it would be you next." The leader addresses the next girl in line.

She pauses in her chair, looking around at the boys. Of course none of us managed to pick where we wanted to go. While Dawn did it because she lacked the perfect spot, and I did it because I don't care, she didn't out of uncertainty. As if she is struggling between two questions.

"The Med-jacks?" She asks. "If there is no objection."

I watch a boy fly up in his seat, as if he has been waking up from the longest slumber. He looks at her surprised, by smiles anyway.

"There most certainly is no objection from my part," he smiles, as if he has never had anyone want to associate with him. "We'd be happy to have you on our team."

No one else objects, which means it is on to me. The leader nods my way, and I lean back in my seat, running my thoughts over the jobs in my head. If I don't choose one, I can guarantee I will get shoved into the worst job in here. I do not want to clean up other people's messes so instead I choose to pick the only thing that sounds interesting.

"I want to be a Builder." I say.

The tomato-face roars up in his seat. "This is a riot. You're going to give the worse one to me. No way is she coming into my job. Send her somewhere else."

"Gally," the leader warns.

He is the one name Gally. How didn't I pick up on it sooner? I mean, they openly addressed him by name and everything, but I never made a connection between him and the Keeper of the Builders. I definitely do not want to work with him.

Although, he does not want to work with me either, and I can tell by the way his chest huffs up and down, and his eyes bulge out of his head. So, I have two options, switch somewhere else, or stand my ground so I can just bug him for the week before I get reassigned.

This could be interesting.

"I am not taking her," he says. "First, she punches me in the face-"

"It was an elbow." I roll my eyes.

"Then, she goes and gets into another fight with Ben, and is in the Slammer for a night. She's broken our second most important rule twice, all within the first twelve hours of her being here. Now, you want to send her on to my crew? Shuck that."

"Where else would we put her?" The funny-talking boy asks.

"Send her to the Baggers, she is brutal enough."

A boy stands up in his chair. "Brutal? She doesn't know how to follow the rules. You want her to be dragging herself off to the Slammer?"

"Send her to the bricknicks then."

"She will break everything she touches."

"Then why would we have her be a Builder?"

"I am right here." I stand up quickly, staring down the boys. The ones who are standing recoil back into their seats at my loud bark.

All of them except for Gally. He stares me down, with a scowl on his face.

"Thanks for your vote of confidence boys." I tell them. "It's not like I woke up in a strange place, with a bunch of boys who I've never seen threatening to lock me up. It's not like the first thing one did was tackle me, and then drag me off to a cell, and the second thing one did was grab me in his arms and shake me violently. There's a difference between violence and defense, and I know that difference."

"Michelle has been hostile since the beginning," Gally argues.

"I've been hostile since you've been hostile." I snap back. "Listen, I'm not asking for a clean slate or nothing. I'm just asking to be able to do a job like the rest of you Gladers do. Is that not fair?"

"Gally, if nobody else will take her-"

"She is not coming with me."

"Does anyone else object?"

This time, when everyone is silent in their seats, I know it isn't because they are fine with the pick. None of them want me. They don't want to take the violent girl into their hands and have to deal with her. Maybe they think I will beat them up, or perhaps they are worried I am a slacker, but whatever the case is I will prove them all wrong.

"This can't be happening." Gally gets up, moving out of the room. "In one week you will all regret this."

Please, in one week he will regret not having picked me in the first place. I will be damned if I let these boys think I am nothing but trouble. They may be right, but that doesn't mean I want them to think it. I am going to be the best out there, of any of the boys in my midst.

"If you are going to be a Builder," the leader begins, "there is no funny business. If there is so much as one complaint against you, you'll be banished. Understand?"

I get out of my chair, knocking it over as I stand up. Making my way towards the door, I look back for half a second. "Yeah I understand."

Not slamming the door, but choosing instead to let it close behind me on its own, I head out into the night.

~~~~~~

Why do I always created Bad Girls who mess with the devil? Like, Michelle is barking up the wrong tree, but no one is stopping her? URgh.

What position in the Glade is your favourite?

Work hard until Sunday.