9 Leo

I think we are all supposed to be settled now that the oaths are done, but I am not. Michelle has already disappeared, slamming the door behind her again. Everyone else has managed to dissipate amongst the crowd of boys. There is no party planned for tonight, although there is a fire near the Homestead I can sit by.

"Hey." I see one of the boys off in the distance jog towards me. "So, you're going to be the new Med-jack?"

I nod, and I am about to say something before he continues.

"That's what Clint was telling me." He nods, looking around for the other boy and surprised when he doesn't find him. Clint must be the leader, although I've got no idea where he is. "I am Jeff, by the way."

He sticks his hand out towards me, and I find a smile on my face. Jeff and Clint don't look at me the way a lot of the other boys do. They always are sizing me up, either trying to figure out what to make of me or how to make me. I can't help but find it entirely unsettling.

"I'm happy he nailed you." Jeff says, wrapping his arm around me and pulling me forward. "Not that your friends are... you know, but you aren't... you know?"

I don't quite understand what he is getting at, but I nod anyway. It's easiest if I pretend to understand him, and I'm not sure what else I can do.

"You'll like being a med-jack." He tells me. "At least I think you will. I don't really know much about you, but I take it you don't know anything about me, or anything about anything either. And that isn't a knock on your intelligence; you're a greenie, and greenies are ignorant to everything around them. Before you argue, it's definitely true and there is no way around it."

Sure, I guess. At first I thought maybe I just wouldn't talk, but Jeff seems very keen on talking. And he continues to do it.

"I mean, we haven't had a greenie med-jack in ages. Which is nice, you know nice. Just me and Clint for the longest. And I do mean the longest, about a year I would say. Clint's been here longer, since the beginning group anyway. But that doesn't matter I don't think. Why would it to you anyway, you're a Greenie?"

"I have a name" I throw the words in, finally finding a break.

"Well, of course you have a name, all of us do. Except for that one girl who says she doesn't know it. But since you're new you are a Greenie, like all the other Greenies. That is actually quite confusing after all, you know. I don't imagine you know why you all came up in a group, but that sort of klunk doesn't happen, you know. It's always the same, day in and day out."

I guess so. It's only been a day I've been here, so I wouldn't know anything about regularity. It all seems the same, and it all feels the same. There is nothing, and I actually mean nothing, that I am familiar with. Familiarity as a concept seems so foreign to me.

"So, tomorrow we will train you. If you'll meet us at the crack of dawn, then we will get right down to business."

He lets go of me, back off for a second.

"Good that?"

"Good that." I answer, with a smile spreading across my face.

He turns and runs away, further off into the Glade, and I can't help but shake my head. Jeff is many things, all of which are odd and confusing, but he makes me laugh all the same. Or maybe I should say he makes me try not to laugh.

I'm closer to the Homestead, and the fire that burns right by it. Tonight it is smaller, but just as warm. If anything, it feels cozier and much, much more comfortable.

"Hey," I can hear Dawn's voice ring across the field. "It's Leo, now isn't it?"

She sits on a log, another glass in her hand. It's full of a different liquid than that from last night, since this one is much clearer, and doesn't give her laugh the same lightness it had before. It's sober.

"Yeah, my name is still Leo." I try to joke, but it comes out more sarcastic than I want it to. "What have you been up to?"

She shrugs, handing the glass off to the Keeper of the Cooks beside her, before coming up to me. She wraps her hand around my wrist, before dragging me off towards the rest of them.

"We've just been hanging out. Relax, you're always so uptight."

Am I? I don't even know my own last name, let alone if I am uptight or not. Maybe I am, but I think there is a line between being uptight and being cautious. I am absolutely one of those two things, but not both of them.

I shrug, as she pulls my down on to the log next to her, between her and the Cook. Her hair is down, so far that it nearly reaches her hips, and I can see her hair tie, as well as mine, on her wrist.

"So, how are you liking the Glade so far?" Minho asks, who is sitting on the other side of her.

I shrug again. It seems as though all I am is a series of shrugs, and a lot of confusion. The longer I sit here, the more I realise I don't have any answers.

"Am I supposed to have any feelings towards it?" I ask. "It's all I've ever known, so I can't tell if it's good or bad."

"Good that." Fry-Pan shakes his head, before taking a drink out of Dawn's cup. "The Greenbean gets it."

"She'd be a shank not to." She shoves me playfully, as I stare into the flames of the fire.

I'm still not entirely sure what a shank is either, but Dawn seems to have herself entirely figured out. Knowing what you want is the first step, and knowing who you are is the next. It seems she has both answers nailed down. I can't even find a hammer.

"Who says she's not a shank anyway?" Minho's voice is just as playful as Dawn's, and I roll my eyes at the both of them as they speak.

I don't think I am a shank, given my loose idea of what the word means. Though it could mean a whole bunch of things given the variety of context it is used. If I asked what it meant, I'd definitely be a shank then. At least, I think I would.

"So you ready for tomorrow?" The Cook leans forward so his elbows rest on his knees. "Things should be getting back into the swing of things by then."

"You're kidding, nothing is going to be getting back into the swing of things," Minho argues.

From across the fire, I can see people moving off and away. It's not that late, but it looks as if everyone around here is awfully tired. Maybe the high from our arrival is wearing down, and the dreariness of the Glade is setting in on them. It can't be too awful, although it doesn't seem as if it would be too perfect.

"It'll never be the same again, not with girls here, and not with Alby being about to announce a shift in the rules."

"A shift in the rules?" I ask, tuning in and out of the conversation.

In the shadows I can see Alby talking to Newt. Neither of them are laughing, and with darkness over their faces it's hard to see if they are serious or if they are just talking. Although, I get the feeling it is the former from the way Alby's legs are stiff as they move further towards the map room, and from the way Newt pauses, before turning away and heading towards the Deadheads.

"Yeah, he will be announcing it tomorrow when everybody gets up." Minho continues. "Wake up call is going to be very, very early for you non-Runners."

"Not for me." I can hear the Cook's laugh, but I'm still looking for Newt's shadow as it darts into the forest.

Is that why he looks so solemn?

My feet move up beneath me before I even decide I am going somewhere. "I'll be right back."

If anyone says good bye to me I don't hear it. Instead, my feet are pounding off quickly into the forest.

It's darker than I thought it would be. Not as dark as the Box, but nothing is as dark as the Box. In here, I can hear my own breathing and my feet moving off the dirt. It is not exactly all the way on the opposite side of the Glade as the Homestead, but it definitely is not close. My breathing is heavy from the running, and while I can tell I'm not out of shape, I most certainly am not in shape.

"Newt?" I call out, moving deeper into the forest. "Are you in here?"

It's a large space, so I am not surprise when he doesn't answer.

My feet move along the ground, further in the trees. Sliding around the corner and the wet dirt, I manage to stay on my feet. The bark holds me up, as my hands wrap around it and I peer through the dark space.

"Newt?"

I move from tree to tree, twisting and wrapping around them until I couldn't tell you where I came from let alone which way to go for me to get out.

Something bumps into me from behind, and I spin around on my feet at the sharp gasp.

"Who's there?"

"Leo," I spin around, and though I can barely see him in the dim lighting, I know it is Newt. "What are you doing in here?"

He shrugs, "I could ask you the same thing."

What am I doing in here?

I back up away from him when I realise we are incredibly close together. His breath is warm, and so is his skin despite the cool night air. Why isn't he cold? I am freezing.

"I hadn't been here before, and I saw you walk in here." I tell him.

He nods, looking around the forest. "I don't know."

What doesn't he know? Everything? Because it feels like I don't know anything, let alone everything. There are so many questions, I couldn't tell you which one I should ask first. They all seem equally valid at any point in time.

"You are the second-in-command here, right?" I ask, waiting for confirmation from him.

He nods, "yeah, that's right."

"I heard there is a new rule Alby is introducing tomorrow." I tell him.

He backs away from me, and his feet slip in the muddy ground. He manages to catch himself on the tree to his left, steadying himself before he stands up and looks at me. "Yeah, that's right. I can't tell you what it is though. We've got to wait until Alby announces it tomorrow."

That seems awfully fair. Almost entirely fair actually. Entirely awful as well. Though I still have more questions floating around my head. "What were the rules before?"

"There are three." He tells me, moving past me and gesturing for me to follow. When I reach his side he steps off further away from me. "The first rule is do your part. It's why it was so important to find you four jobs as soon as we could. Before you arrived, solving the Maze was the most important thing. I mean, it still bloody is, but now jobs feel less important."

"The second?" I ask, tripping on a root.

He reaches out to catch me, but in the process trips himself and we both hit the ground.

"Are you alright?" He props himself up on his hands, to look at me next to him.

I nod my head in confirmation. It's hard to see, and it doesn't seem like I am very good at pay attention to the things around me. Regardless, I take his hand and he helps me up.

When I stand up, I realise he is taller than me. Quite a few inches too, and it isn't because the ground isn't flat. His hair is blonde, but barely blonde at the same time, though it is difficult to tell in the lighting.

He lets go of my hand quickly, backing up from me.

"Right," he looks at his feet, before he continues walking. "The second rule, is don't hurt another Glader. There's only been three banished, and we almost were going to banish your friend Michelle back there for doing it, but we let her off since she didn't know."

Michelle is hardly my friend. I haven't said more than a sentence to the girl in all the time we've known each other. Technically, I'm closer to this complete stranger than her.

Although, she is also a complete stranger.

"What's the third rule?" I'm trying to divvy up my attention between him and the ground, but the ground is winning.

"The third rule, is never go in the Maze." He tells me. "The only reason we know to exist is to solve that Maze, but we don't let people in. It's too dangerous. The Runners are an exception."

I don't think I am going to have a trouble operating within this framework. There's not a single bone in my body that wants to go in that Maze, and I'm not particularly violent to begin with. Working isn't going to be hard for me to do either, so I don't think I will have any problems.

"And the fourth?"

We are at the edge of the forest now, about to step out.

"The fourth-"

"Newt."

It's hard to see, but it is Alby calling out to him.

"Yeah?" He asks, moving closer to the boy, and I follow him out of the forest.

"I forgot about one thing we've got to discuss." Alby calls back.

"I'll be right there." Newt answers, before turning back to face me. "Sorry, I've got to go."

He apologises way too often, I notice. I reach for him but hold my fingers back inches from his skin. "What's the fourth rule?"

"Come on Newt."

Newt's face tightens, as he give me one last look, before turning towards Alby. He shuffles forward, looking at me over his shoulder.

"I will talk to you tomorrow."

~~~~~~~~~~

Newt's behaviour is so peculiar. I live for it. So is Alby's, but that's Alby for you. What do you think the new rule is.

Ask questions until Sunday.