"WICKED IS GOOD! "

It's a lie, Charlie! A lie! Wicked is lying! Don't trust them!

"WICKED ... IS GOOD.."

They're lying Charlie! Hang on, I'm coming! I'm coming as soon as I can!

"WICKED...IS...GOOD"

Hang on Charlie! They are lying!

I woke up gasping, and covered in sweat, and my head pounding. It took me a few seconds to figure out where I was, and that I wasn't actually being downed in tubes of water or being strapped down to a gurney. The disembodied voices where back. But louder this time. They were overlapping each other. I knew it was the same voices as before one male and one female, but who they were and why they kept repeating an oxymoron, I had no answers.

It may just be my brain trying to process all the klunk this places throws at me. But the other voice. It was the same smooth tenner as the night before. Like the other voices it seemed louder, almost like someone turned up the volume inside my head and was yelling, inside my head, making my skull ache. The odd tingly feeling like someone was inside my head was fading. And what was even weirder, was I felt lonely. I couldn't explain the phenomenon. I sat tangled in the blanket, covered in sweat, holding my aching pounding head, and wishing, longing almost for that presence to come back.

I was more jacked then I thought. It's been only a few days and I'm already loosing it. I rubbed my sore head a little longer. Untangling myself I slipped out of bed and tiptoed to Newt's bed and looked at the time on his wrist watch. It was early. 430 am. No point trying to sleep. The keepers and Runners would be up at 6 and Gladers at 7.

I quickly changed and crept my way to the kitchen. Frypan had slid me a key for the backdoor, and had closed up the collapsible metal blinds, locking them. He told me Dug was supposed to close up the day before and when he found me inside the kitchen he knew he would never ask Dug to close up for him again. Hoping the counter yesterday was a one time thing. So he slid me a key, "just in case." And winked.

I unlocked the back door and flicked the light on. I felt quite comfortable in the kitchen here. It was quiet, and no one made comments or watched me with calculating eyes. I set to work making breakfast for the few early early risers.

______________________

Alby, Minho, and Fry were perched on the counter, holding a plate of waffles and sauce, trying to talk and laugh and eat at the same time. There was another knock on the back door. Fry hoped off the counter and flung the door wide. Newt and Gally stood in the doorway.

"Welcome to the Early Bird Breakfast program!" He cried and swept an arm wide, ushering them inside.

"Glad you could make it! Hurry and grab a plate before these Hoover's eat it all!" I smiled at the boys. "Waffles are in the oven staying warm, cream sauce is on the stove, and coffee in the pot." I pointed to each place as I talked.

"Oh my Glade! Charlie, Love! These are amazing!" Newt gushed. He had downed half a waffle before talking.

I gave him a small smile.

"What's in them? It tastes like..." Gally trailed off, shoving another bite into his mouth

"Cinnamon. And vanilla."

He choked on his bite of waffle. Alby wacked him on the back. Once Gally stopped coughing his eyes went wide and then narrowed. He was giving me a suspicious look again.

"Is that bad?" I asked, confused why the two ingredients would cause this kind of reaction.

"Nothing." He shrugged, shaking his head.

I glanced at the other guys, maybe they had an explanation, but they were all giving him weird looks as well. Gally quickly finished his plate and left. No one seemed to notice his absence, they were all laughing and joking around. I noticed he paused at the door, glancing at me, and slipped out of the door. I frowned. Here was another mood swing.

"Hey! Snips."

Alby was waving a hand infront of my face. I blinked and looked around.

"Man, you space out a lot."

"Sorry."

"I said, your with the Builders today. So you gotta get scram form the kitchen." He shook his head at me with an amused smile.

__________________________

The sun had risen, it was going to be a scortcher today. Newt had just dropped me off and waved good bye. I turned and found Gally marching towards me. It was a drastic change from last night. He had been shy and seemed to let his guard down. Now he had his walls back, and heooked pissed. Sighing in resignation, I waited for him to come closer.

"Your late." He snapped.

I raised an eyebrow, crossing my arms.

"Needed extra beauty sleep? Or extra time to pick out an outfit?"

"What the hell is your problem?" I snapped back.

His eyes narrowed, and his jaw clenched.

"Rule one girl. I'm in charge and you do as I say."

Did he call me girl? The shuck? We starting at square one? What the shuck did I do?

"You want to shucken try that again?" I said calmly.

He paused, his eyes went wide. He looked I had slapped him. A few guys who were standing around, hoping to evsdrop didn't have to try too hard anymore.

Gally opened his mouth but then clamped it shut. I could hear him growl. He took a menacing step forwards, making me have to tilt my head up to look at him. But my feet stayed rooted to the spot, and I glared right back at him. He wasn't going to intimidate me.

"I said. Rule one. I'm in charge and you do as I say." He growled.

"No one is disputing that King of the Hill. However, you will not disrespect me and degrade me like that. I have a shucken name and you will use it."

He raised a threatening finger at me, poking me in the chest. Without breaking his eye contact I smacked his hand away.

"Touch me again, Keeper or not, I will end you."

He growled at me, still glarring at me. We both refused to break eye contact first. My heart was thumping wildly behind my rib cage, I could feel my hands going numb and shaking. I clamped them into tight fists, to hid the shaking. What is this guys deal?

"Take the ax and chop the pile of wood."

"Fine. It'll give me good practice, in case you forget yourself and touch me without permission."

He growled again, but didn't anything. We stood toe to toe, glarring at each other. Both too stubborn to move first. I slowly folded my arms.

"Hey uh..boss?" A guy asked awkwardly, not sure if he should step closer or stay where he was or walk away.

"What?" Gally snapped.

His eyes still stayed glued to mine. Did he always have streaks of midnight blue in his grey blue eyes?

"Uhh, were ready for your inspection of the walls before we nail 'em together..." He answered, I could hear the terror in his voice.

I raised an eyebrow at Gally who pursed his full lips together forming a tight straight line. With a noise between a growl and yell he ripped his eyes away from me and spun towards the kid.

"Fine, Sam. Move! Let's go!" He bellowed at the poor kid.

Gally stormed passed him, grabbing his arm and dragging him away. Gally didn't look back, just stormed away dragging the kid, I recognised as the kid at the bathroom my second day. He was the kid talking to Gally when I left the bathroom.

The guys who were standing around watching the show all jumped and scurried off to their jobs, the boss was in one foul mood.

Storming over to the worktable, and the tool shed, I yanked the door open. I found an ax, but it was dull. With another groan of frustration, I rummaged around the shelves. I finally found what I was looking for. It was shoved in the back corner. Another boy pointed me towards the wood pile.

With curses muttered under my breath I sat down and began my day.

___________________________

Third person

The face off between Gally and Charlie was intense. The Gladers had never seen anyone give his attitude right back. The few guys who were hoping for a show were not expecting her to snip back, they were expecting water works and whinning or whatever girls do. They didn't except her to stare him down and have him break first.

When Gally finally ripped his gaze away from her, he felt disoriented and dizzy. He grabbed Sam and dragged him away. He was glad Sam interupted them, he felt his heart racing and his palms were sweaty, and it felt hard to breath. He wasn't sure if it was because she made him mad or some other reason.

Ever since this morning when she had said those two words, cinnamon and vanilla, he felt rattled. Those were the mixes of smells he could remember from the changing. Was it a coincidence? Or was it more? It was definitely a mistake to let his gaurd down. Though it was a nice change to fall asleep with a smile. Newt had asked him what was so funny last night.

Sam brought Gally to the wall, showing him the changes they made as per his request yesterday after chatting with Alby. Gally did a quick check, nodded his approval and turned around to go check on the other group of guys, who were putting the last few boards onto the roof of the MedHut.

Halfway there he stopped in his tracks. He growled in frustration and took a few steps towards Charlie. Who was sitting on the grass beside the pile of wood. She hadn't even started and it was a full hour into the work day. He intended to call her out. No one can be lazy! And if she wanted to fit in around here, she couldn't be slacking off! She was a Glader, and she needed to be treated as such, even if he wanted to...no. He mentally smacked himself. He was not going to go there.

He had taken a few more long strides towards her when he stopped again. He stopped and watched her. She had the ax in her lap, and was using a course rock and was running along the blade. It was a slow mythitical rythum. It made a smooth grinding; stone on metal. She placed the stone back at the end and ran it along the edge with some pressure, and made sure to go to the end and extend. She flipped the ax over and did the other side.

As she moved in the rythum of the movements, her long hair swung with her body. The sun would catch it and sometimes her waves looked blond, sometimes it looked like honey and caramel, it may even have hints of red. Gally watched as the arm running the stone flexed and worked to sharpen the blade.

This girl was smart. A brain behind her beauty and firey aggression. How many shanks used the ax, but never bothered to sharpen it, including himself. It would take all day to chop that like of wood, which is why he gave that job to her.

It was a single person job and quiet. It was physically challenging, so he could assess her physical stamina and strength. And how well she could execute a task unsupervised, did she have the internal drive. She had said yesterday that she didn't like crowds, and they needed the wood chopped for Fry to cook, and other fires to heat around the Glade. It also was a spot in the open, so he could keep a watchful eye on her and intervien if anyone tried anything.

He had stood watching her for a while, until he realized he was probably being creepy, and shook his head, turned and went to check on that roof.

__________________________

The lunch bell rang, and groups of guys made their way over to the dinning area. Gally grabbed a plate and sat down inhaling it. Working in the sun all day always made him hungry. He liked the physical work. It took his mind off things. And hitting nails into a board was better than his fist into faces. Maybe that's why he had some respect for Charlie. They were quite similar. He felt like that more often now, since the changing. And he tried hard to keep all the emotions and anxiety inside, but that girl...she brought it out of him with a few words or just a look.

He was absorbed in his thoughts about her when he noticed she wasn't amount the guys at lunch.

"Hey! Where's our token las?" Newt asked as he plunked down opposite him.

Gally shrugged. Newt gave him a reporched look.

"She's your responsibility today, ya know. Did you loose her?"

Gally rolled his eyes.

"She's a big girl." Gally finally huffed, "do I need to babysit her?"

"No. She can very well look after yourself." Newt pointed a finger at him. "However, she could use a friend or two, someone to have her back. I thought...but maybe I was wrong. You two laughing together...like you might actually had made a friend Gal. Don't shuck it up!"

Alby dropped his plate down giving Gally an angry scowl.

"The shuck is your problem? Why is Snips working through lunch?! She's chopping wood all by herself. No shade, no water and your making her work through lunch? The shuck is wrong with you man?"

Gally rolled his eyes and growled.

"I did not tell her to work through lunch. And I didn't tell her jack! If she's hungry she'll come eat."

"You and I and Newt know she doesn't like crowds and these slint heads don't make it easy on her."

Gally huffed and got up from the table. He stormed over to Fry grabed a plate and water and matched over to the girl.

_____________________________________________

**Ooo sexual tension? Or just Tension tension?**
**Anyone pick up on WHY he gave her the wood chopping job? Mr Mr pays attention to what she says and put thought into her job trial!** 😍