Her first actual day in the Glade was exactly as she anticipated. Alby walked her around the camp, his voice and body language serious and the other boys gawked as they passed. She couldn't necessarily blame them; from the looks of it, she was the only girl. But it was starting to irritate her. Keeping her chin lifted and her shoulders back, she tried to focus on what Alby was riddling off to her.

"We'll start you in the kitchens with Frypan," She lifted one eyebrow, meeting the older boy with an accusing stare.

He smirked back at her, rolling his eyes, "Everyone starts in the kitchens. It's a system we've created. You'll work half a day at each job and then we'll vote to see where to place you. That being said, you have an equal chance at becoming the next builder as you would doing something like cooking or laundry."

She huffed, loosening up a bit and nodded, "Let's go meet Frypan then."

000

She enjoyed cooking. And Frypan's company. He was a sweet kid, very talkative and helpful. He made sure she felt comfortable and was actually impressed when lunch came out somewhat decent.

"Not half bad." He grinned, swallowing his bite and raised a hand for her to slap.

She high-fived him happily, admiring her work and his approval.

"You can ring the dinner bell if you want." Frypan motioned towards the large upside-down cylinder hanging just to the right of the door way. Planted in the ground beneath it was a large wooden stick. Putting two and two together, she pulled the stick from the soft ground and tucked it inside the cylinder. The sound that was emitted as she twirled the stick around reverberated in her ears and echoed across the Glade. Soon boys were spilling from every direction to come stand in line. Frypan gave her the pleasure of ladling out servings to each boy before getting her own bowl and looking for a place to sit.

She assumed her and Frypan were friends enough to sit together, but was reassured when he patted the seat beside him. Other boys surrounded him, some she had seen and some she hadn't. She was familiar with Alby, for obvious reasons and Newt was a relief. Settling down at the table, she found her anxiety about the others were slowly starting to disappear. She didn't have much of a choice really. This was home now.

"Gally and the others are going to start on the bonfire after lunch. He thinks they'll have it done before dinner." Newt shoveled food into his mouth, glancing up at Alby between bites.

The girl paused her own eating to shoot him a confused look, "Bonfire?"

"It's tradition. We have a bonfire for the Greenie. Kind of like a Welcome Party." Alby explained.

Frypan elbowed her excitedly, "Lots of food, Gally's special drink; It's pretty cool."

She nodded along, trying to seem enthused.

"It'll be a chance for you to meet the others. Get you acquainted," Newt continued, "By now, Greenies usually remember their name, so it's sort of a celebration of that."

She huffed, poking at her dinner, "So does that mean there's something wrong with me?"

Still not being able to remember her name was an annoyance. She could tell it was just on the tip of her tongue, like she could sputter it out at any second without hesitation. But thinking about it only gave her a headache. Adding on the fact that she was a female surrounded entirely by boys, made everything imperfection ten times worse. Remembering this, she felt the eyes on her once more.

"There's nothing wrong with you, Greenie," Alby consoled, leaning in, "It takes time."

Yeah, but how much time?

000

"You'll work in the Gardens with Zart and I for the rest of the day," Newt informed her as they emptied their plates and led her away from the kitchen, "You care to get your hands dirty?"

She shrugged, sighing as she did, "Don't really have a choice do I? Because if I do, I'd rather take a nap."

Newt chuckled and shook his head, "No, I guess you don't really have a choice."

"Then I'd love to get my hands dirty." She smiled sarcastically, which he returned with an eye roll.

She liked Newt. He was easy to get along with and they seemed to share a bit of the same humor. And judging by his position amongst the other Gladers, being his friend might put her in good graces with everyone else. At least, she hoped.

000

She couldn't remember when it had gotten so hot, but her hair was going to be an irritation as it stuck to the back of her neck and forehead. Her hands were caked in dirt so there wasn't much she could do. Gardening wasn't too bad. Zart was pretty funny and the job was pretty easy. Though he had warned her that Harvest Season was ten times the work. And ten times the mess.

But somewhere in the middle of their conversation, a thought came to her head. It was vague and fuzzy, like the feeling you get when you know you've forgotten something but can't quite remember what. And then, slowly the thought manifested itself until it finally it was shouting at her in screaming color.

"Cleo." She had interrupted Zart, pulling her hands from the earth to sit up more intently.

Zart and Newt paused, eyes shifting to her confused.

"Cleo," She repeated, smiling, "My name is Cleo."

After a moment the two boys smiled back and a weight seemed to lift off her shoulders.

"Welcome to the Glade, Cleo." Newt nodded.

The moment was interrupted by a loud crash and then a high pitched squeal and the trio turned to see a small pig making a beeline for open land. A young boy chased after it, stumbling on his feet. Others joined in, herding the pig in random directions, all just too short to catch it. Newt and Zart jumped to their feet to help, and Cleo followed closely behind. She watched the pig zig zag between boys, none of which came very close to capturing it. Most ended up face first in the grass. Then Zart was involved, working with the Keeper of the Slicers -Winston, to try and wrangle the animal into a smaller space. But the pig was too quick and soon it was headed towards the forest.

That's when Cleo took off. She wasn't sure what made her want to run now, but watching the others fail to catch the pig made her antsy. She felt useless doing nothing. So she took off, quickly closing space between her and the pig. Boys shouted from around her, almost as if they were cheering but she kept her focus on the animal.

She was gaining on it, only a couple steps behind. With one big step she could easily grab him, but that turned out to be the tricky part. She had never caught a pig; therefore, she had no idea how to. She had started running with no idea what to do after.

But, it didn't matter anyway. One minute she was racing at the pig and the next she was tripping over her own feet, meeting the grass with a hollowed 'oomph' and rolling onto her back to suck in deep, labored breaths.

The boys were still shouting, now in disdain, and she could hear the pig squeal somewhere ahead of her. Taunting her, it felt like. Panting, she sat herself up.

A boy was approaching. The kid with the eyebrows. She vaguely remembered him for their first meeting yesterday when she arrived. He walked with purpose, definitely a bit full of himself and shot her a smirk.

"Nice legs." He commented as he came to stand above her.

She blinked up at him, eyebrows furrowing, "Excuse me?"

Reaching out his hand, he waited for her to take it, "I said nice legs. You're fast."

Tentatively, she took his hand, slightly surprised how easily he lifted her to her feet.

"Thanks." She quickly removed her hand, brushing off the dirt and loose grass from her shirt.

"I'm Gally." He introduced, arms crossing over his chest.

"Cleo."

Gally smirked again, thought it wasn't as hard as the first, "Cleo. Nice name. Congratulations."

She gave him a small, tight smile, unsure exactly how to respond. He seemed to cringe a bit, face flushing before his arms dropped to his sides.

"I'm, I mean- congratulations on remembering your name," He stuttered, "Not on- not on it being Cleo. Not that there is anything wrong with the name Cleo. It's a great name. It's an awesome name," He was having trouble saving himself and she was enjoying every minute, "It's just- I get the stress of not knowing, so I'm glad you aren't stressed anymore. If you even were stressed and," She smiled and he finally took a breath, "And I've made a complete idiot of myself, huh?"

"Not completely." She teased.

Gally scoffed, a little embarrassed and his eyes shifted to his feet. She bit onto her bottom lip, still enjoying how flustered the once proud and stoic boy had become. But she had little time to take it in before the metal grinding of the doors sent ice down her spine. She stiffened almost immediately, taking an involuntary step closer to him as the sound reverberated throughout the Glade.

Gally was quick to rest a hand on her arm, comforting but still uneasy, "You'll get used to it. At least a bit. It's a bit jarring at the first, I won't lie, and sometimes it still catches us off guard. But nothing bad is going to you."

Cleo kept her eyes squeezed shut, listening to the metal turn and grind against itself until it stopped, and the Glade was quiet again. Sighing, she relaxed, stepping away from him.

Gally's hand lingered on her arm for a moment before he clear his throat and shoved it into his pocket, "I should, uh, I should get back to work. I'll see you at the bonfire tonight, right?"

Cleo, relieved that the subject of her fear had been forgotten, smiled again and nodded, "Of course. I'm curious about your special drink."

Gally, who was already starting to step away, shot her a wink, "Nobody does it better."

I'm back! Finally! And I'm so sorry it took me forever to post something. Things came up and then more things came up, and then I completely lost all motivation to write anything and then I tried writing something and it just felt forced, but I'm back now and I'm hoping I'm back for a while. I haven't seen The Death Cure yet (I'm going Saturday) and I'm hoping that it gets the creative juices flowing even more. Thank you to everyone who has favorite and followed the first two stories and left wonderful reviews and I'm sorry again that it took so long. Love, love, love you! Xx -Kay