Disclaimer: All characters and crap belong to Dashner.

Newt:

Newt sat at his kitchen table and stared at his math homework. He'd been doing this for about 2 hours since school ended. He sucked at math. A lot. So badly his teacher had insisted he got a tutor.

Unfortunately, the tutor he suggested was none other than the infamous Thomas. Newt had never talked to him before, but of course he knew who he was. Thomas was probably the most popular guy in school. He was an athlete and constantly hung around the other jocks and always had his girlfriend slung on his arm.

Newt's jaw had practically dropped to the ground when his teacher suggested Thomas tutor him. He didn't really know Thomas, but he seemed like the typical empty-headed moronic jock that was good for nothing but looking at. But apparently he was better at math than Newt, which didn't mean much.

Newt groaned and lied his head down on the table, he was so sick of this place. He'd only moved here about a month ago and he pretty much hated it. His mom had gotten a new fancy job and up-rooted their life in London and moved them to this crappy town in the middle of nowhere, where apparently making new friends just wasn't going to happen for Newt.

Newt stared a the blank worksheet. He had wanted to try and get a head start on his work before Thomas came over, so he wouldn't think Newt was a complete moron.

But as it turned out, he was a complete moron.

The doorbell rang and Newt jumped 50 feet in the air. He took a deep breath and told himself to calm down. He stood up to go let Thomas in, but he heard the door open. Newt realized his sister must've gotten to the door first, "who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Thomas, does Newt live here?" he asked.

"NEWTIE-BOOTY" she yelled. Newt winced at the nickname. His sister was only 6 years old and his old friends thought it was funny to tell her to call him that.

Newt walked up behind her. "I'm right here Sally, now go play in your room until dinner" he said. He glanced at Thomas. "Erm- you can come in. Sorry bout her."

"It's fine" he said as he tried to hold back a laugh. "Newtie-booty?"

"Don't ever call me that" Newt said, but he grinned. He lead Thomas into the kitchen and sat down.

Thomas glanced at the books strewn across the table. "You started without me?" he asked.

Newt snorted. "I tried" he said "but turns out I can't do anything on my own."

Thomas smiled and pulled out his own books. "That's okay, I got it done in study hall so we can work through it."

Newt stared at him. "You actually know what you're doing?" he asked.

Thomas made a face. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well you're..." Newt rambled "you're kind of the dumb jock type. ...no offense or anything."

"Yea, no offense or anything. You just assumed I'm a moron cuz I play sports" Thomas said.

Newt felt his face burn, why had he said that? "I'm sorry... I don't know why I said that" he mumbled.

Thomas shrugged and said "whatever, let's just work."

Newt nodded. "Okay.. soo.. number one" he said.

"Number one."

Thomas:

They worked for about an hour until they finally made it through the first worksheet. Newt looked utterly miserable, Thomas hadn't realized how terrible Newt really was at math. "Hey, that's one down only two to go" Thomas said, trying to sound encouraging.

Newt checked the time. "You don't have to stay and help. It's getting late and I still gotta make my sister dinner" he said.

Thomas shrugged. "I've got nothing else to do" he said, which was a lie. He'd promised Brenda he'd come over as soon as possible, but in all honesty he'd rather stay here and help Newt.

Newt looked at him and grinned. "Are you sure?" he asked.

"One hundred percent" Thomas said "so what's for dinner?"

"Mac & cheese" Newt said as he grabbed a pot out of the cupboard.

"Where are your parents?" Thomas asked. As soon as he said it he realized that probably wasn't an okay question to ask.

"Uh.. Mum works late" Newt said.

"Oh" Thomas said. He wanted to ask about his dad, but decided it might be a bit intrusive. "It's nice that you take care of your sister."

Newt shrugged "someone's gotta take care of the little bugger."

When the food was done Newt called his sister into the kitchen and they sat down to eat. An awkward silence filled the room while they ate. Thomas wanted to make conversation, but he didn't know what to say. Eventually, Newt's sister broke the silence, but she what she said didn't make it any less awkward.

"Is this boy your new boyfriend?"

Newt dropped his spoon and his face burned red. Thomas felt his own face heat up and Newt glanced at him before staring at his sister. "N- no" Newt said "he's just a friend."

"But why?" she asked "he's much prettier than Alby and he was your boyfriend."

"Sally!" Newt said. He looked like he was about to murder the child. He stood up and grabbed her bowl which was pretty much empty. "Why don't you go play?" he said, Thomas could tell he was trying to keep his voice calm.

"But-" she started.

"We'll talk about it later, okay?" he said.

"Fiiine" she said and ran towards her room.

Newt tossed her bowl in the sink and turned to face Thomas, whose face was still bright red. "So- um" Thomas rambled "you're gay?"

Newt stared at the ground. "Yea..." he said quietly.

Thomas nodded, he had suspected that Newt was gay but he didn't know for sure. For some reason Thomas felt oddly relieved. Newt was still staring at the ground with a worried expression. Say something he thought. Say something that doesn't make me sound like an asshole.

"You wanna get started on the next worksheet?" he said. Well I guess that's something.

Newt smiled "yea, lets do that."

Newt:

They focused on math for a while, but there was a weird tension in the air. He felt Thomas's eyes on him as he worked. He couldn't believe his sister had announced his sexuality to Thomas.

Thomas was the exact type of guy to run off and tell the entire school and then designate his life to making fun of Newt for it. But Thomas didn't seem to react that way, which was confusing. Newt didn't really understand Thomas's reaction.

"So.. um..." Thomas spoke up. He twirled his pencil in between his fingers and avoided Newt's eyes. "Can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead" he said.

"How did you.." Thomas said. He looked like each word was a struggle for him to get out. "How did you know you were gay?"

That was not what Newt was expecting.

He glanced at Thomas, who's face was bright red. Thomas's eyes darted to Newt's face and then back to his pencil. "I'm not asking because I'm gay. I'm not. I have a girlfriend. I'm just.. curious." Thomas rambled.

Newt cleared his throat. "I don't know" he said "I just never liked girls."

Thomas's visibly shrunk, as if that wasn't the answer he was looking for. "But um.. some people like both and that's... okay too" Newt said.

Thomas cleared his throat and sat up straighter, suddenly looking defensive. "I'm straight. This isn't about me" he said.

"I know" Newt said, but a part of him didn't believe Thomas. Or maybe he just didn't want to believe Thomas. Regardless, straight guys didn't normally ask questions like that.

"Look, I gotta go. I have to meet Brenda, my girlfriend" Thomas said, his voice sounding angry.

Newt rolled his eyes. "Fine" he said, standing up "then go."

Thomas shoved his books into his bookbag and walked towards the door. Great, this is just bloody great. Newt thought, I thought I was finally making a friend and finding a way to pass math and now I pissed him off.

Thomas was halfway out the door when he stopped and turned around. His expression softened. "I'll come over tomorrow night and we can finish the worksheets, good that?"

Newt nodded "yea, good that." Thomas smiled and walked out of the house. Newt stood there confused, but for once in his life he was excited to do math.

Hope you liked this chapter! I'll be posting more soon, but please let me know what you think!