The students all sat in Thomas' least formal living room that his family owned, glad that it was Friday and they no longer had school for the weekend.

Gally was on the couch, and at the moment, was in control of the remote to the large Philips TV, The Walking Dead on.

Brenda had gotten up to get snacks, after Gally had said that it was her turn to get the junk food, and after a lot of arguing did she finally comply.

Alby sat in a separate black leather seat, drinking from his Coke can while watching the show.

Teresa was beside Alby, a few feet away on the floor, her own can of coke in her right hand as she complained about her calculus homework that was in her bag, finished, which had been strewn across the floor.

Minho was beside Gally on the couch; his feet propped up where Brenda had been sitting previously. Chuck, Thomas' cousin who was still in middle school was on the floor at Gally's feet, was eating some kettle potato chips chips.

Thomas and Newt were on the other part of the couch that completed the 'L' shape his mother loved for the couches to make; Thomas was glaring at his friends, just knowing they had planned this.

Newt watched the show, paying Thomas no mind before yelling to Brenda. "Brenda! Hurry up; I want my Coke and Sour Patch Kids." He called without looking away from the screen.

"Newt," Thomas' mother, Ava, scolded as she came into the room putting in her right earring. "Hi, Mrs. A," Newt smiled sheepishly. A rule for when Ava was at home: no yelling.

She smiled, shaking her head. "I'm off. I won't be home until late Friday, early Saturday of next week. I don't care if you all stay just no parties, no funny business. Nothing, understood? Also make sure it's okay with your parents if you stay."

Thomas nodded. "Understood, have a good time, say hey to dad for me." Thomas said, she nodded, "Of course, I'll call when I land, alright?"

Thomas nodded, turning back to the large TV. Ava smiled once more at her only son, before turning and leaving the room to finish getting ready.

"Your mom is awesome!" Minho said which was true. Ava and Kevin-his dad-were both extremely lax and didn't mind-usually-about all his friends over.

Thomas' house was the best to have all of them over, Teresa's mom was OCD and the house was always spotless, Newts parents said no because of the fact his mom was a nurse that worked at home and made phone calls to patients. Alby always said his room was a wreck, and his mom wouldn't let them see his room until he cleaned it and that they weren't staying in the living room.

Aunt Harriet drove Thomas insane half the time, so Chuck's was a no-go. Minho occasionally had them over, but he preferred going to others houses, and Gally's brothers drove them all up a wall.

Not to mention Thomas had the biggest house, which happens when both your parents were scientists that made a lot of money, but Thomas hated flaunting the money, he didn't want friends because of his money, the only one out of the group-well two if you count Chuck- was Teresa because her dad worked with his parents and lived not too far from him.

Brenda came back suddenly, arms over flowing with junk food and soda. She pot the soda down, before throwing the Sour Patch Kids at Newt, giving Gally his bag of pretzels, throwing Alby and Teresa both M&Ms, just Teresa's had peanut butter in the centers of hers. She took one of the two six packs of Coke and she took one before passing them on.

Once all of them had a coke, Thomas had stolen some of the candy from Newt; Thomas heard the faint echo of his mom yelling that she was leaving.

"She gets to yell?" Asked Newt in disbelief, Teresa rolled her eyes, nodding. After five minutes of watching the show silently, the crinkle of bags and the sound of slurping, Minho quickly whipped out his phone.

He dialed seven digits and holding the HTC Desire to his face. "Hey mom, is it okay if I stay with Thomas for the weekend and maybe the week too?" Alby let out a laugh before getting out his own phone, texting rather than calling.

"No Thomas' mom okayed it as long as it was okay with you." Minho informed. "Yeah, I cleaned my room; no I've got plenty of clothes. We did our homework first thing, Mrs. A made sure of it. Thanks, love you, bye." Minho hung up quickly. "I can stay!" He announced. Alby nodded, "My parents said it was cool."

Teresa sighed, slipping out her Sidekick before texting, who everyone assumed, was her own parental's.

"Dammit," Gally cursed, doing the same with his phone.

"My dad okayed it," Teresa shrugged, tossing her phone on the floor lazily.

"So my mom's okay with it, besides it's not the first time we've done this." Gally said, sliding his phone away.

"Chuck, Newt, and Brenda?" Teresa asked.

"I'm in charge of Chuck, his mom is working out of state too, won't be back until Saturday, and his dad is with friends going to some football thing for his friends birthday." Thomas shrugged, stealing a red sour patch kid front the bag.

"Yeah, and I already cleared it with my mom when Tommy told me his mom was leaving for a week. Why do you think I brought the bloody huge bag of clothes?" Newt said, rolling his eyes.

"Lemme see," Brenda said to the others who were waiting. She got her Droid Razr out, texting her mom.

"Gally, you bloody shank, turn the volume up so we can actually hear it!" Newt called over to the boy who flipped him off, but nevertheless, turned up the sound.

"Your house Thomas," Teresa said in a singsong voice, when the doorbell went off. Thomas sighed, when he heard the doorbell sound again, getting up, and shuffling his way down stairs to the front door.

When he opened the door, looking around to see no one was there, but on the ground was a box of books. He grabbed the object, while he kicked the door shut, before walking back to the room he and his friends had claimed for the moment.

He walked through the door, to see Gally stretching his legs with his hands behind his head, Minho cursing Newt out who looked to be holding in his laughter, as did the rest of the group that was called the Gladers.

"-If you ever klunking mess up my hair again, you shank, I will murder you, do you shucking understand?" The Gladers had come up with their own form of words after Minho and Newt both got in trouble at school when they both called their English teacher a 'dumbass-no-good-for-nothing-goddamn-prick-who-can't-even-teach-a-subject-right' in sync, which was very impressive to be honest, but Mr. Gillian didn't find it very funny.

"What do you have, Tommy?" Newt said, ignoring a still glaring Minho. "Books, someone left them," Thomas shrugged sitting them on one of the white round tables in the middle of the room, before flopping back on his seat.

"Well I'm starving, and it's going to take forever for someone to get here, so let's order takeout." Gally said, which made Minho brighten up. "My mom said yes finally," Brenda said, finally looking up from her phone. Minho seemed to perk up even more at that, and Thomas nodded. "Fine, but you're calling it in. Get me the sesame chicken, no sweet carrots, broccoli and the rice, and make sure there is shrimp sauce."

"Get me that, just add in a spring roll." Newt said, lazily shifting on the tan couch. Gally groaned as that all started throwing their orders at him, and Thomas couldn't stop staring at the box that said The Maze Runner. He grabbed the box, getting the book that was book one, flipping it over to the back cover.

"Guys, when Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He's surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone. Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It's the only way out— and no one's ever made it through alive. Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying. "

"I think we should read it." Teresa chimed, getting up and grabbing the book, before going back to her spot.

"The Maze Runner: Chapter One."