Ada didn't get a wink of sleep that night. 

For starters, she was still hungry. Newt never let her eat the eggs - the selfish shank ate them himself - and so she couldn't get to sleep with her stomach empty.

And she was also terrified. She had herself convinced that for some bizarre reason - her punishment was going to be a hit with a frying pan. Maybe it was the lack of sleep causing her to think that.

She trudged down to the food hall, her eyes immediately finding where Alby and Newt were hunched at a table, talking in hushed whispers. Her chest tightened and she scanned the room first for anyone else to possibly sit with.

But it was no hope, Minho was already running the Maze.

So she was doomed to go and sit with the leader and the second-in-command, still dreading her punishment. As she slid into the seat opposite the boys, they immediately stopped talking, sharing a glance before looking to her.

"I heard about your little kitchen visit last night Greenie." Alby started, his voice stern. Ada let out a heavy sigh, already feeling the punishment ready to be unloaded on her.

"Listen, Alby-"

"-Shhh." He cut her off, leaving her mouth hanging open.

Did he really just shush me?

"Did you really just shush her?" Newt asked, and Ada realised he looked just as shocked as her. She closed her open jaw, and raised her eyebrows furiously at Alby, hoping that was enough to showcase her anger.

Alby let out a frustrated sigh and turned to Newt, whose eyes were fixed on him, death glaring him. He turned back to Ada, seemingly calm, and gave her a smile.

"We've gotta take you to Frypan."

Her heart dropped to the floor, and as Newt and Alby got up from the table, she stayed put out of fear. She stammered over an excuse, but Newt hauled her to her feet - somehow gently - and in an instant, she had been whirled off to the kitchen.

"Please, is this so bad that you've gotta get a frying pan involved?"

At her question, Alby stopped straight in his tracks. Ada could hear muffled laughter behind her, and turned to see that Newt had his hand over his mouth to stop his stream of giggles. She turned back to Alby, still watching him questioningly.

"You think we're gonna hit you with a frying pan?" He asked, clearly taken aback at the suggestion.

"You're not going to?"

Newt couldn't hold in his laughter at that point. He burst out into hysterics, and Alby joined him swiftly, both laughing until they were crying.

Ada felt herself growing frustrated from their laughter, but couldn't deny that she felt a little relieved. However, that relief soon turned to frustration at their lack of explanation.

"Can you please just explain what's going on?"

"I'd like to know the same thing." An unknown voice came from the entrance.

A boy; about sixteen, with dark skin, buzzcut hair, kind eyes, and a friendly smile was stood with his hands on his hips and watching them all in amusement. He moved past the three, and as he did, the apron he wore around his waist came into view.

"Why are y'all up in my kitchen?"

"Ada," Alby straightened up again, moving to the unknown boy and clapping a hand on his shoulder. "This is Frypan."

Frypan's a person. Obviously.

The leader turned to Frypan, amusement still prevalent in his eyes, and Ada felt the embarrassment swelling in herself as she knew exactly what was about to happen.

"Frypan, this is our Greenie, Ada."

Frypan gave her a friendly wave, and the girl relaxed a little, thinking that Alby wouldn't do what she was expecting. And then,

"She thought we were going to hit her with a frying pan."

"Alby!" The girl whined, as he and Newt burst out into laughter once again. Frypan couldn't help but giggle along, also finding it entertaining that she confused his strange nickname with a piece of kitchen equipment. 

"Yeah, I thought you were gonna punish me because Newt caught me in here last night."

Frypan's face dropped and his hands moved to his hips again as he said, "So it was you that left that unwashed plate, pan and cutlery in the sink for me to wash up?"

Ada let out a scoff. She immediately turned to the second-in-command who was suddenly rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding her eyes.

"I was sent back to my room before I could wash up anything. Someone ate my food and left it all in the sink, it wasn't me." 

She raised her eyebrows at a very red-faced Newt who was squirming under all of the unwanted attention. He let out a nervous chuckle before looking to an angry Frypan. Frypan went to snap at him furiously, but was swiftly cut off by the culprit.

"Let's move past that mishap." This earnt an eyeroll from the chef. "We're here because the food Greenie made last night was bloody amazing."

"I wouldn't know, because I wasn't allowed to eat it." The girl mumbled under her breath, before she properly registered the compliment. "Wait, amazing?"

As her jaw dropped from disbelief, Newt only nodded to confirm his words. Frypan looked intrigued now, and Ada began to realise what was actually going on. 

They wanted her to try out as a Cook.

The Glade was short on Cooks. Only Frypan and a few others cooked every meal, earning a little extra help for a meal every so often only when some of the Gardeners or Trackhoes had nothing to do.

"We think that you have some potential for becoming a Cook." Alby added, and although Ada knew he hadn't tried what she had cooked, Newt probably didn't shut up about it to him.

Frypan looked ecstatic now, beginning to ramble on about how he was the only Cook in the place with any passion for it, and how much he was longing for another good Cook. Ada was beginning to get worried that Newt was making her sound too good, and that she was going to disappoint, but then she remembered his exact words.

'The food Greenie made last night was bloody amazing.'

Bloody amazing.

She firmly decided that she needed to believe in herself more. Newt went out of his way to get Alby to let her try out as a Cook. He wouldn't do that if she wasn't any good.

The leader and the second-in-command both clapped the girl on the shoulder, before disappearing quickly from the kitchen to let Frypan teach her the ropes of the job. The boy seemed to have forgotten completely about Newt leaving him to do the washing up from the night before, as he was only ecstatic with the possibility of Ada's cooking skills.

The boy had her first simply just cutting vegetables. It was easy enough; she had a knife and a chopping board and she was left to her own devices. She found it quite peaceful.

Although she pretended not to notice, Frypan was watching her carefully out of the corner of his eye. Every so often he'd shout something out to her, vague tips to perfect the already well done job she was doing - if his impressed smile was anything to go by.

She was watching Frypan from her peripheral vision. The boy was humming under his breath, cooking burgers on a grill and moving around the kitchen to keep everything in order.

"Can you keep an eye on these for a second?" He called out, holding out the spatula he was using to flip the burgers to her.

"Uh, sure." She replied, quietly, a little nervous that she was being tasked with something that could go terribly wrong.

And she knew that if it did, she'd have a lot of angry Gladers on her ass.

"Strange you have the same accent as Newt, huh?" Frypan commented, in attempt to make conversation.

He moved towards a cupboard to pull out a pile of plates, and placed them down on the counter connecting the kitchen to the food hall. Ada wasn't annoyed by the remark posed as a question. Instead, she was wondering how it took so long for someone to bring it up.

"It is." She replied, pausing to flip a few burgers over to avoid burning them. "I mean, we look nothing alike." She shot Frypan a pointed look to which he laughed loudly.

"I definitely don't think you're related, Greenie." He pulled out packets of burger buns, placing them beside the grill, and gesturing for her to start assembling burgers. "But, perhaps you knew each other, before all this nonsense."

She decided to go with it, taking a bun and gently shuffling a burger from the grill and onto the bread. She sprinkled some lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber over it, and then placed another bun on top.

"It's definitely an interesting theory." She murmured, although loud enough for the boy to catch. She slid the plate towards him, to which he approved, and then she smiled softly. "It'd be funny if we did. Just the idea of meeting each other all over again."

It wasn't particularly funny. But, Ada was choosing to see it that way, instead of seeing it as the miserable thought it really was. 

But now that Frypan had brought it up, it was in the forefront of her mind. What if she did know Newt before? What if they were good friends? What if they grew up together? And then, she just forgot it all. It was frustrating.

Frypan told her to go enjoy her lunch - which she was definitely going to find tricky now - and took over the cooking once again, shooing her out of the kitchen. She picked up a plate on her way out, leaving the Homestead and choosing to sit on the grass near the Deadheads.

She had to admit, the food was heavenly. Her thoughts drifted from Newt and the possibility of knowing each other before it all, as she found herself completely distracted with the mouth-watering burger she helped make. And yeah, Fry did do most of the work, but she did help.

I'm not bad at cooking.

"Hey there." A warm voice interrupted her delight, and she paused in raising the half eaten burger to her mouth as Alby appeared beside her.

She greeted him with a smile, and he sat down beside her on the grass as she continued to eat, looking out on the rest of the Glade. He had a hint of mischievousness behind his eyes, and although he was saying nothing, Ada could tell that he wanted to. She was beginning to grow impatient with his silence, and quickly found herself caving.

"Alright, give it up." She said expectantly, and the boy finally broke out into a grin.

"I've been talking to Fry. He's already all for you being a Cook." 

Ada felt her heart pick up at the relief of finding a job she was actually good at. And it was always a positive that she enjoyed it too.

"So, what happens now?"

"Well, you can get started immediately." He said simply, as the girl sat back with a satisfied smile. "You happy with that?"

"Definitely."

The leader briefly questioned her on her time spent in the kitchen that day, to which she was more than delighted to fill him in on all of the details. As she geeked out about Frypan letting her handle the burgers for a brief moment - who knew you could geek out about cooking - Alby finally found the excuse of getting food himself to escape.

She was then approached by the second-in-command, who had been blissfully unaware of her droning on about cooking burgers to Alby. He instead seemed pretty mesmerised by the food in her hand as he sat himself down in the spot Alby previously occupied.

"Alright Greenie?"

"It's Ada." She shot back, earning a chuckle from Newt, still watching her food with a hungry glint in his eyes. It was painfully obvious he wanted some, but she didn't seem to catch on to that. 

"How you going with jobs then? The cooking going any good?"

She nodded gleefully, swallowing a mouthful of her burger to chirp back a, "Yep. I'm a Cook now."

Newt's eyes widened in surprise, before a grin broke out on his face. He leaned forwards to clap her on the shoulder in congratulations.

"Nice one! I told you the eggs were good." He said smugly.

"I'm still mad you ate them."

Her salty words only earned a smirk from him. He glanced hopefully to her plate, where the last remains of her burger sat. Newt's stomach was rumbling, and he found himself considering just taking it. He then firmly deciding against it, remembering he was not in her good books after eating her midnight snack.

"Can I try a bit?"

But it didn't stop him from asking. And the girl was far too nice to say no.

She handed the plate over to him, missing the way his eyes lit up as he scoffed down the last bit of the burger. It wasn't like he wouldn't get his own in ten minutes, but for some reason, other people's food always seemed more tempting than your own.

"Have you carved your name yet?" He suddenly asked aloud.

She tilted her head at the question, not knowing what it meant. She didn't even have to voice her confusion for Newt to realise, and his eyes lit up in realisation.

"I get to do it with you!"

Grabbing her hand, he yanked her up from the ground and began to head off across the Glade. It didn't seem they were heading anywhere, to Ada. In fact, Newt was heading directly for one of the Maze walls.

"Newt, where are we-"

She trailed off when they reached what Newt was referring to. He dropped her wrist and nudged her forwards, towards the stone wall and the intricate carvings dug into it.

Names. Their names.

Each Glader, at some point, had taken a blade and dragged it across the stone in the shape of their name. Some were crossed out - Ada being quick enough to know why without asking - and all were scratched in different ways. 

What she noticed was, they were all together. The names were all scattered around the same area of the wall. They were united. And that's what seemed so striking about it all.

When she turned back to Newt, he was holding out a blade to her. His expression was blank, but his intent was clear. He didn't need to say anything to instruct her.

She took it from his hand, turning back to the wall with it clenched tightly in her right palm. Tracing her fingers over the etches of people's names, she found a gap between Gally and Minho's. She rested her left palm over Gally's name and raised her right up to the wall, directly over the blank space.

And then she began to carve.

It took a few minutes, but Newt waited patiently as she dragged the three letters of her name into the stone as neatly as she could. Leaning back, she could see it was a little lopsided, but she was happy with it. And somehow, it felt like a representation of her.

"Congrats Greenie," Newt beamed at her as he took back the knife. "you're a true Glader now."