"Sorry but— can I sit?" Thomas stood by the side of my and Chuck's table. Gally was getting ready and would arrive soon, or so he told me.

"Yeah, sure." I smiled at him. Chuck scooted aside and let Thomas sit next to him. He even offered some of his food, but the Greenie refused politely.

"Up early, I see?" Chuck put on his tough voice.

"Yeah." Thomas shrugged. "Alby woke me up. So... about those jobs, hm? What will I do today?"

"Uh.." I rubbed my forehead. "I think either Slicers or Track-hoes. Please make sure you don't kill Josephine."

"Who's-."

"Her and Ben's chicken. Have you met Ben? He's a Runner. Probably in the maze already." Chuck replied.

I nearly gave him an offended glance for telling this much information about Runners, but then reminded myself no Greenie deserved to be told nothing and I wished to be a Runner too, since Thomas seemed very interested in the job.

"I haven't seen any other girls." Thomas then announced. "You're the only one, aren't you?"

"You're a genius, aren't you?" I chuckled. "Yes, I'm the only one."

"Pff." He leaned on his elbow. "Must suck."

"Well... sometimes. But it's okay."

No one said anything for a while. Thomas' eyes searched around the Glade, Chuck stuffed his mouth full with food, and I was carefully eating too.

"He doesn't like me." Thomas suddenly pointed out, staring at a quite angry-looking Gally. "Does he like anyone?"

I sighed. "Nope. Hates everyone. Especially me."

Chuck seemed super confused, frowned deeply and mouthed 'what the hell' to me, but my grin made him play along. "Oh, yeah. He tried to push her into the maze once. When the Doors were closing."

Thomas' head snapped toward the boy so fast I thought his neck would break. "What?!"

I had a hard time holding my laugh. "Yeah, he tried that. He nearly killed me when I was wrestling with him."

Horror was all on his face. "What? And he hasn't been... punished yet? He got away with it?"

"He denied." Chuck confirmed. His eyes were wide from twinkling. "Denied, denied, denied. And Newt—."

I gave him a glance.

"I- I mean... uh, Minho... likes him. Newt doesn't! Newt's a good friend. Newt, uh- hates Gally, so you should totally... hang out with him... a little more."

Thomas furrowed his eyebrows. "He's walking toward us."

"Oh, you should confront him. I'm super small and so is Val, so we can't do anything against him. You can." Chuck encouraged happily, grinning at me.

"Morning." Gally indeed arrived in front of us, giving Thomas death stares.

"Leave."

Oh god.

Chuck's eyes widened even more. I pressed my lips together to avoid any giggles to come out.

"Excuse me?" Gally stared at Thomas.

"Don't join us."

He tilted his head. "And why shouldn't I?"

"You're a pain in the ass. Leave her alone."

His jaw tightened. "You're the Greenie here, man. Not me. I'll do whatever the hell I want." He sat down next to me. I smiled at Chuck as the other two shared more death stares.

"Hey." Gally then said, wrapping his arm around me.

Thomas' mouth fell open.

"You're a..." He started, but couldn't find the right words.

Gally raised an eyebrow. "I'm a..?"

"Pervert." He said. "Stop touching her."

Chuck choked on his food from laughter, fell off the bench, and rolled over the floor, laughing loudly.

Both boys ignored him, after all. "Why would I stop touching her?"

"Because... she doesn't want you to... touch her." He said slowly, unsure, because I had a smile on my face.

Gally turned to look at me, triumphant. "You don't want me to touch you?"

"I want you to touch me." I nodded.

Thomas' face was hilarious. His eyes wide, mouth half open, and confused. "What?"

"I can't touch my girlfriend, according to you?" Gally wondered, his eyes still sharp.

His mouth opened further. "I- what? Girlfriend? He's your... boyfriend?"

"I suppose I am." Gally lay his hands on the table. "Is that a problem?"

"I- she said you- that you..." He trailed off, realization slowly hitting him, especially when he saw my face again. "Oh!"

I nearly joined Chuck on the ground from laughing. "Your..." Gasp. "Face..!"

Gally looked suspicious. "What did you tell him?"

I covered my mouth with a hand to mute more laughs, not able to reply. Shaking my head, I avoided to look at both boys their confused faces.

"We..." Chuck started, gasping a few more times. "Told him you tried to push her in the maze."

I laughed even louder, almost falling off the bench, but Gally caught me.

"Why would you say that?"

"Because it's funny!" I took ahold of my hurting stomach. "Did you see his face? Did you see your face? Want a mirror?"

He didn't show any signs of a smile. "That's not funny."

"You don't have humor, man." Chuck said.

A glance from Gally made him shut his mouth immediately.

"So, what's everyone doing today?" I then asked, just so Gally wouldn't kill Chuck right there and then, or Thomas.

"Building."

Not surprising.

"Washing the dishes, doing laundry. Whatever." Chuck shrugged. He didn't seem to like about his job as a Slopper, which I got, because it was probably the lowest ranked one. Sometimes I felt bad for him, and helped doing the dishes.

"What are you gonna do today?" Gally raised his eyebrows, gaze soft.

"Oh, well." I shrugged. "Help people around, I guess."

"Wanna go with me?" He questioned, lowering his voice slightly. Eyes still soft, smile warm, but head turned away from the other two boys.

My face paled. "To... build?"

He hummed, nodding. "I promise no one will do anything."

I didn't know what to say for a second. "I... I don't know. I'm not good at building, anyway. And those boys-."

"It's okay." Soon he had noticed I wasn't the most comfortable. "I don't want to force you." A smile, then he turned back to Chuck and Thomas again.

"I don't know." Chuck replied to something Thomas said. "They say you have to be chosen."

"So what? I just... wait?" He frowned, rubbing his chin. "That doesn't make sense."

I leaned closer. "What's this about?"

"Our Greenie here is a little too interested in the Runners." Chuck sighed as he rolled his eyes.

Welcome to the club.

"You know what?" I interrupted before they would go on. "I will join."

"What?" Three confused boys.

"With building, I mean." I added awkwardly. "Not with... turning into a Runner. Because I would never wish to be one... or something. Anyways! Let's go, Potato."

He chuckled and got up, placed a hand on my lower back, and lead me to wherever we were supposed to build.

"I talk a lot." I announced.

"I am aware."

I bit my lip. "You'll get distracted."

"I don't care."

"Everyone— or, most people— get irritated when I work with them. Because I talk."

"You can talk." He said, going through a box with nails or whatever they were. "And I will listen."

"You will?"

"Of course. I'll always listen to you." He assured. Then a hammer got pushed in my hands.

"Can I hit-."

"We have to work. Not hit people."

"Right." I coughed. "What do I do?"

"A part of the Homestead wall broke, so we gotta put wood over the hole."

I scrunched my nose. "How can the wall even break in the first place? Did someone throw something at it. Or someone?"

"I have no idea." He picked a piece of wood of the ground, held it so it covered part of the hole, and started hammering it to the wall.

"There are no other Builders here. I like that."

"We don't need twenty guys to fix this. They're building other stuff."

"But this isn't even building. Aren't the Brick-nicks supposed to make this? Aren't you supposed to make like a hut or something?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, I don't care."

I put my hands on my sides. "Do you care about any rule?"

"We only have three. I care about those."

"Don't you think three is too few?" I wondered. "No one said anything about if self-defense is allowed."

"Because we thought we never needed those rules."

"Until I shucked everything up."

"Hey." A sharp glance. "You didn't shuck anything up. Yeah?"

I looked down. "Is there a rule that people won't touch me? I'd like that."

"But then I can't touch you either."

"An exception for you. Or if I say yes to someone touching me."

He suddenly stopped all his movements, turned to me, eyes focused. "Did someone ever touch you without your consent?"

My cheeks caught a rose. Mouth fell half open. "Oh, well. Not really."

"Valerie."

"I swear it wasn't too bad." I said, quieter this time. "Carl only touched my shoulders, and then my waist, and he like, you know, leaned in. So I grabbed his shoulders and hit him in the crotch with my knee and ran away which was when I had that bleeding nose." I took a deep breath once I finished talking.

His knuckles turned white around the hammer. "He did what?"

"It wasn't too bad, Gally. He wasn't trying anything else, I swear."

His jaw clenched. Yet he turned away and continued doing his work, a little rougher this time.

"Don't-."

"If you keep telling me not to stop them, they'll never stop."

"If you do, they'll get worse."

"You don't know that." He said.

"If you go and 'tell' them to stop, it won't work. I've seen you throw Thomas onto the ground when he took one step close to the maze."

"Maybe I'm just trying to prevent that he goes through the same thing as me."

That left me silent. And aware of the fact I wasn't supposed to go further into arguing. The thing was, if I let Gally handle the Builders, he would nearly kill them, according to the way he had been handling Thomas on his first day.

I exhaled quietly and grabbed the hammer, attempting to help him, though I soon noticed I only got in his the way.

"Hold it like this." His voice changed now, as he gave me an example of how to hold the hammer. He was talking softer, and made gentle movements.

Another thing I knew I had mentioned before, I loved how he noticed how to act around me. Most of the time. Like now, he noticed I turned unsure, so he turned careful.

"And then the wood like this." He moved it perfectly. I hit the hammer on a nail in my hands, and it almost worked. Almost. I hit an inch beside it.

"I'll help. Don't worry." Gally chuckled and moved behind me, taking both my wrists with his hands.

It did not help, because I was nearly fainting.

His warm breath breezed onto my neck, I felt his body pressing against mine, and his soft voice made it even worse.

He helped me hit the nail, though I was convinced he did all the work and I only focused on him. "I like this kind of building." I blurted out.

He snickered. "I'm glad. Because-."

"HELP!"

Immediately Gally let go of me, I nearly dropped the tool, and both of us froze.