ALEX HAD A BUSY DAY THAT DAY. There was one of these days about once a week where everyone scheduled something all at once. It was absolute anarchy all day, and she hadn't stopped moving since she woke up. If she wasn't teaching someone, she was straightening up the Range or running to someone's aid because they accidentally stabbed themselves with an arrow because apparently boys cannot handle weapons correctly without injuring someone.

That was why she let out a huge sigh in relief when she finally got to sit down and eat at dinner. Her legs ached, and she had, like, eight cramps at once. She threw her tray against the table aggressively as she plopped down in the seat next to Newt.

"You okay?" he asked, eyeing her with a concerned look as she put her face in her hands and rested her elbows on the table. She looked like she was about to pass out, sweat dripping down her forehead. She could not wait to hit the showers and go to sleep.

"Yeah, I'm just tired. It's been a long day." She nodded slowly, staking a deep breath before picking up her fork and stabbing at her potatoes violently. She took a bite before turning to the blonde boy next to her. "Do you think Gally acts differently around me?"

He furrowed his eyebrows and took a sip of his water, not knowing what she meant. "What do you mean?"

"Well, I was talking to Winston the other day, and he said that Gally doesn't get as mad at me as he does at other people. Is that true?" she questioned, lowering her voice a bit as the boy they were talking about sat down a couple seats down.

He did not even hesitate for a second before he answered, "Oh, yeah. Definitely."

"Really?" she quizzed, totally baffled. If so many people had noticed this before, how come she had not, and how come no one told her about it? Were they scared of Gally? Of her? Why was she completely oblivious to everything happening around her?

"I mean, you're the only one the slinthead communicates with through something other than grunts and yelling," he pointed out, and she thought about how Gally always just shouted angrily at people all of the time whenever they did the slightest thing wrong. "You've got to admit he's got a short temper."

She nodded, remembering what Winston said about being scared to tell the Keeper of the Builders about the cracked table because of how much they knew he would overreact about it. "Yeah. He gets so shucking mad at everything."

"Except you."

"He's gotten mad at me," Alex scoffed, rolling her eyes and taking another bite of her potatoes. She wasn't sure why this bothered her so much, but it did because she wanted to know why he acted so differently around her. Was it because she was a girl?

Newt just raised his eyebrows at her with a smug expression, not convinced. "Name one time." For some unknown reason, it took her a full five minutes to come up with something, and his smirk was growing by the second.

"There was that time Minho and I were fighting and we ran into the wall that he was building and knocked it over. He got so mad that his face was red for, like, three hours," she told him, relieved that she finally thought of something to say. The longer it took her, the less it was helping her case.

"He wasn't yelling at you, though," he countered, pointing his fork at her as he argued, recalling the time that she was talking about with a shake of his head. He remembered it differently. "He was yelling at Minho. You just happened to be standing there."

"Whatever. It still counts."

《 ✢ 》

THE NEXT DAY, MINHO GOT THE DAY OFF, so he decided to spend some of it at a training session with Alex. His favorite weapon to use were the axes. He never told her why, but she guessed over time from observations that throwing them made him feel all manly. Over the years of teaching, she had discovered that you could tell a lot about a person by their choice of weapon. 

Some of the more shy people around the Glade went for the bow and arrow because it seemed less violent than the other ones. The Builders tended to go for the sword because it was more hands on, and for some reason, they had to prove their masculinity. It did not really help their ego when a girl beat them every single time. For the most part, the Gladers leaned toward the long distance weapons.

"How's it going, finding a way out?" she asked him as she sat on one of the rocks and watched him, just to make sure that he did not kill himself with the weapons. Her voice was kind of hopeless though because she did not really expect a positive response. "Any leads?"

He finished the throw that he was in the middle of before sighing and turning to her, running a hand through his 'perfect' hair. No matter what he was telling everyone else to keep their hopes up, he never lied to her. He knew she could handle the truth. "To tell you the truth, Al, it's not going so well."

"Nothing?" she questioned with raised eyebrows. How had they been there for three years, going into the Maze every day, and they still hadn't found a way out? She had been doubting for a while now that there was even a way out of the godforsaken place.

 What if whoever put them there had done it just to watch them suffer while looking for a way out? Maybe they were just mice in a lab used for entertainment, and maybe people paid to come watch them suffer. She wouldn't put it past the Creators. Some people were seriously shucked up.

He shook his head, shooting her a small smile to cheer her up. "We're gonna get out of here someday, though. I promise you."

"Yeah, I know. I'd just like to have working hips when we do," she muttered, and then she smiled when he glared at her and mimicked throwing the ax in his hand at her violently. She held her hands up to protect her face even though she knew he wasn't actually going to throw it. It would not have helped her very much either. "I'm just kidding, you slinthead. I have faith in the Runners, especially you. I know you won't stop until we're out."

"You're damn right, I won't. Or at least until I'm out. I couldn't care less about y'all. I just pretend to like you for food and so you won't kill me in my sleep," he informed her jokingly, causing a grin to spread across both of their faces.

She rolled her eyes and picked up a pebble from the ground next to her, chucking at him, but he easily dodged it, letting it land in the grass behind him, and kept laughing. "Hey."

"It's survival of the fittest, baby. Every man for himself."