I look back on being 17 and think, 'Oh my God, how did I not die?'

.

Thomas is a very special kid. At least, that was what his parents said-daily, constantly-and parents rarely lie. Of course, objectively speaking, he was. Athlete, even though track running wasn't much of a sport, member the school presidency, social butterfly, good looking, good student and with a lovely girlfriend. He was a true parents' dream. It would be weird for him not to be all these things if one were to look at it.

WCKD Academy had three possible extracurricular activities and all students were forced to attend one. Since Thomas sucked at soccer and had the skills of a two-year-old playing with playdoh when it came to art, track running was the only thing available to him. That led to his father getting him a trainer for it, three years prior to him entering the Academy. Yeah, his parents were fun like that.

The reason he was part of the five-membered class board, because WCKD Academy supported democracy above everything else, laid simply on the fact that he knew people. He was just enough of a confused idiot for everyone to like and remember as 'that Thomas kid who did that one reckless thing' and it came without saying that everyone wanted one fun person in the board. Plus, he was nice enough to most kids. Even the outcasts. And there was also the fact that his parents owned the Academy.

This might have been the reason he was a social butterfly in the first place. He constantly had to prove that he was a lovable guy and not the son of the only people who could crash your self-esteem, make you eat it, throw it up and then eat it again. On the other side of the scale, people would approach him first to ask for a favour. Little did they know that Thomas was barely in his parents' good book.

As for the other good traits of his, these were all because of his parents. Good looking? Good genes. Good student? Mum and dad are the bosses of the people responsible for grading you. Lovely girlfriend? Star student, star cheerleader who was given a push to date Thomas by his own mother. Thomas really couldn't blame Brenda for taking the deal, a deal she thought he knew nothing about since this would earn her a spot in his mother's good list. Still, every time they went out or made out he was always uncomfortable. For a long time, he thought it was because his parents had found a way to control even his love life.

Then he realized it was probably because he was gay.

Then again, maybe both.

"Have you seen my headphones, anywhere?"

"Have you looked in your room?"

"Obviously, stupid, I wouldn't come here otherwise."

"Haven't seen them anywhere."

"Fuck, I must have left them at Brenda's."

"Why would you need headphones at your girlfriend's house?" Teresa questioned, "I imagined you would be too busy sucking faces."

"I expected nothing more than a relationship virgin like yourself." -a pillow hit him right in the face-"Hey!"

"Out of my room, jackass."

"This is my room too, ugly Betty!"

"Not anymore. I declare this land my property." With a smirk, she threw another pillow at him. "Now, be-gone thot."

Sometimes, he wished he was one of these twin-eater babies. It would save him a lot of trouble.

The thing was, many siblings, at some point, sit down and think about who the gifted child is and who the black sheep is. Naturally, all parents will dodge the question and will give a big lecture about the unconditional-yet fairly shared-love they feel for all their children. Unfortunately, they're all liars. Most kids are loved a little more or a little less than their siblings and the favouritism is never really shown.

This was not the case.

Teresa was, in every way, Thomas' equal.

And yet, to their parents' eyes, so much better.

An excellent student, a good cheerleader, a fresh air for anyone who met her, class president two years in a row and objectively good looking. Unlike her twin brother, she never went through a zit phase. As for relationship status, she didn't lack suitors, but their parents never gave her a green light for any of them. Said they were too air-heads.

Thomas wasn't sure since he liked Winston.

He didn't like Aris though who seemed to hit on every living being with legs-and non-legs but that was one time at Disneyland-so that was a bullet dodged.

But it always seemed unfair how Teresa didn't get a forced boyfriend.

(On second thought, he wouldn't mind if he, himself, was given a fake boyfriend instead of Brenda.)

Anyway, this was the drama known as Thomas' life. Every day, the same routine. And then Newt appeared and oh boy, did that go south. In a weirdly good way, anyway.

As if some greater force sensed his upcoming monologue, his phone buzzed. He opened the screen to see a notification from Newt. A wide smile crossed his face. His boyfriend was texting. Ah, what a lovely word. Not texting, of course, the boyfriend part.

Although it wasn't that lovely when just below his name, was a conversation with Brenda. This wouldn't go well. Eventually, at least. And yet Thomas was known for acting rationally without thinking. Constantly. Even on weekends.

We need to talk, read the message and Thomas was certain he had a small heart attack. He let out a yelp and threw his phone across the wall. This was an example of acting rationally without thinking.

As on cue, Teresa barged inside, a kitchen knife on her hand and a frying pan on the other. Thomas felt lucky the kitchen was near her room instead of the bathroom, otherwise, she would be probably armed with body spray, razors and maybe a toilet brush. Or, even worse, their mother's bonsai tree.

Because the one place everywhere that desperately needs some good Feng Sui is the bathroom. Basic knowledge.

"I have arrived!" Teresa exclaimed "Is it a robber? Is it an old nemesis? Or is it, and please say no, a bug?"

"None of the above," Thomas mumbled as he retrieved his fallen phone. Luckily, it was still alive, just scratched. "I did something bad."

"Sounds like you."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Sounds a lot like you."

"I got that."

"No, seriously, like that one time during our trip to Rome when you thought that opening the car's door while we were driving was a good idea."

"It was for science!"

Teresa ignored him. She tiptoed her way towards him and went to look at his phone. Thomas grabbed it with both hands and hid it.

"Back off."

"Come on! What was so scary it made you throw your phone away?"

"A picture of you."

"I can kill you in your sleep."

Thomas gave her a push away from him and opened his phone. He took a deep breath and quickly typed a reply. If Newt was breaking up with him, he should come up with a plan on what to do next. Should he serenade him? Buy him something? Beg for forgiveness? Maybe all three. Yes, something like that would certainly work.

We're throwing a surprise party for a friend of mine tomorrow. Thought you might want to come.

Somehow, this was so much worse.

In Thomas' mind, the course of action that should be taken was for him to agree. Show his support and go straight to the wolf's den where people could and would question his appearance. If this happened, people from his school would find out and that would probably lead in many things coming clean. Things that shouldn't.

On the other hand, he really couldn't say no to Newt. He was trying with all his might to be, not a good, but at least a decent boyfriend. Saying something as simple as no to Newt was equal to declaring his undying hate for the blonde.

"Who's that?"

"Hey!"-Thomas closed his phone-"Privacy."

"Party Tom, party."

"One you aren't going."

"Why not? I like your friends."

"You don't know that one."

Teresa raised an eyebrow. It seemed impossible for her not to know Thomas' friends since all of them, well not all, had to be approved by their parents.

"So you have a new friend who also invites you to a party, and yet, mum and dad don't know."

"They wouldn't approve." That wasn't a lie. They wouldn't approve of Newt for a number of reasons. First, and most importantly, he wasn't from the Academy. In fact, he was from Coal Hill and Thomas' father held a grudge against the current principal of the other school. Secondly, his relationship with Thomas didn't offer anything real, at least to them. Finally, he was confident they wouldn't be thrilled with his style choices. All in all, they wouldn't approve even if pigs flew.

"Why? Is he a murderer?"

"No, he's,"-he paused thinking this through, Teresa shared most of their parents' views but at the same time was more sympathetic, especially towards her favourite twin-"from Coal Hill."

"Yeah okay, for real. Why wouldn't they approve?"

"I'm not joking."

"No!"

"Yes."

"You're friends with the enemy!"

"They aren't the enemy." Thomas shot back "Look, Newt's new in town. He doesn't even pay attention to the whole WCKD versus Coal Hill."

"Yeah well, what about his friends?"

"What about them?"

"He asked you to come to a party, I assume his friends and classmates will be there."

"I have met some of them?"

"And?"

Skye was weird. Charlie threatened him. Dan seemed feisty.

"They were interesting."

Teresa sighed. "Are you sure you want to go? Coal Hill is full of weirdos and trouble makers. They are crude, their teams suck and I doubt most of them have a basic knowledge."

"Newt isn't like that," Thomas replied. He couldn't exactly vouch for all of the students, but he knew Newt wasn't like that. Just like he knew that his friends wouldn't be awful if only just a little weird and protective. "And I want to support him."

"Fine." Teresa said, "When are we going?"

"We?"

"I'm not letting you go there alone. The last thing I want for you is to die and then have me suffer all kinds of psychological issues due to the loss of a twin."

"Look, if you come, you must behave."

"I will, promise."

"Okay then."

"So, can Minho come too?"

"Why?"

"Extra muscle."

"For what?"

"You never know!"

"Fine, but no one else."

"Okay okay."

Naturally, this was a lie. Teresa also pressured Thomas to invite his girlfriend. And since Teresa was cheer captain and Brenda part of the squad, she also had to invite some other cheerleaders to prove she didn't favour her twin's girlfriend. Then, of course, Brenda invited her brother Lucas who went to the same gym as Alby who then invited his sister Harriet who attended a cooking class with Fry who just had to invite his two best friends Winston and Gally.

Long story short, the entire WCKD Academy was informed about the party and they all planned to attend.

.

"Okay, be a dog for one week or an ant for a day?"

"A dog for a week."

"That was incredibly fast," Dan mumbled before sipping his drink.

"Dogs are fluffy. Whenever I'm down, I can just hug myself and boom sadness disappears."

"That's smart. And depressing."

"I get it from you," Phil said jokingly. Dan laughed, either that or a whale was dying near them. However, happiness was cut short as a new wave of students arrived. No, perhaps 'arrived' wasn't the right term to describe the sea of already drunk -ironically- hormonal teenagers who could easily stomp on Dan. "This is how the apocalypse will come."

"I sincerely doubt it." Dan groaned as he rubbed his temple. He lifted his gaze just in time to catch a glimpse of some familiar faces. "Woop frickin doo."

"I can not believe this is the same person who knows what abjure is."

"I'm a man of many talents," Dan told him before grabbing a guy's shirt. "Step back, toffee-nosed."

Now, the thing was, Dan knew that Newt had invited his boyfriend to Quinn's party. What he didn't know was that his boyfriend would bring a group with him. A group consisting of a bunch of rich snobby kids, the football team who was lowkey ready to gut out Coal Hill's team and that one guy who had punched him in the face. Still, Dan knew that Newt's feelings aside, he couldn't let these kids pass or chaos would ensue. It always did and people always ended up at the hospital. At the same time though, he wasn't an idiot. All of WCKD's kids were tall, large and fit and he was a boney noodle. So he grabbed Thomas and hoped that no sane man would punch his boyfriend's best friend.

He also hoped Gally wouldn't punch him again.

Hopefully, it was a girl who spoke up. "We were invited."

"By who?"

"A friend." the girl shrugged "You can't know all the kids at this school."

"No, but I organised this party so I know the guest list and, I assure you, there are no asshole troublemakers involved."

"Dan," Phil said and put an arm on his shoulder. Dan sighed in defeat and let go of Thomas' shoulder. "It's not something personal guys, but you do have a tendency to behave inappropriately."

"Lies." an Asian guy standing next to Thomas said. "It's your school that causes us troubles. Even now, we came in peace, and this guy went all macho on us."

"That guy punched me!"

"That was forever ago!"

"It happened earlier this year!"

"Gally," another girl said as she slid her hand in Thomas' "apologize, won't you?"

Gally sighed in defeat and extended his arm towards Dan. "We'll behave. Scout's honour."

"Well--"

"Dan," Phil said sternly.

"Okay, apology accepted. But if I hear trouble, I'm gonna repay that punch."

.

Trouble was heard shortly after.

.

It all began when Noah and Newt went to find out exactly why WCKD was here. For Thomas' luck, when that happened he had gone with Winston to get the girls something to drink. For everyone's bad luck, the group now consisted of the great pleasure that was Gally, Thomas' girlfriend Brenda, Thomas' sister who-didn't-know-she-shouldn't-have-invited-her-brother's-girlfriend-to-a-party-that-his-boyfriend-invited-him-to and Minho.

"You! Wicked kids!" Noah yelled, half-drunk, "I'm here to banish you from this party. Cause you're lame. And we don't like ya."

"Banish is a serious word, did you finally pass your English class?" Gally joked. Noah gasped. He actually gasped. If Newt wasn't a pacifist, he would kill Quinn for this torture he had to endure.

"Listen, um, guys, this is a bit of a private event."

"Your whole school is here."

"It's because we all love our Quinn girl!"

"No, no, no." Newt cut off Noah "Back to our point, you are--"

"Hey, I know you!" Teresa shout suddenly in excitement. "I had seen you at that one party, you wore the most amazing dress which I adored, even though I think blue fits your eyes better but--"

"Oh, that was you," Gally mumbled in confusion. "But you're in pants now."

"Yeah?"

"And you're a guy." -Brenda and Teresa glared at him- "I mean, I wasn't, I'm not. I didn't really mean it like that, it's just--" before he could finish off his sentence, Noah punched him in the jaw.

"Bloody hell! Noah!"

"Don't worry, you little unprotected bird. I will defend you and then Quinn will see how much of an awesome guy I am."

"I don't need defending!" Newt shout just as Minho kicked Noah. Brenda and Newt tried to separate them to no use. Finally, with the little strength Newt had, he elbowed Minho so he would let go of Noah. Then, Noah punched Gally again while Brenda urged them to stop.

"That's the man I love, asshole!" Teresa yelled and jumped on Newt's back. Nearby, more people joined the fight, not knowing who exactly they were fighting. At some point, Newt accidentally hit a guy behind him who turned out to be Thomas.

"What the--"

"WCKD can suck my dick!"

"New--" in the end, it was Kara who knocked Thomas down while she tried to release her hair from another girl's grip. Chaos, in all forms, ensued. Soon, the gang all found their ways to each other.

"I threatened a guy with a broken beer bottle!" Dan exclaimed in happiness.

"Buddy bit a guy!" Skye cheered. Grant picked the dog from the ground and grinned "He's such a good boy."

"I was trying to spend some quality time with my boyfriend and then some girl threw the punch at my face. I knew her. She's in my math class. I helped her cheat once!" Charlie complained with crossed arms.

"I hit someone with a baseball bat! I don't know where it came from but I'm living for it." Brendon said and showed them the baseball bat.

"This is surprisingly not my worst birthday party," Quinn said and motioned for them to give her a hug. The group happily complied and wished her a happy birthday.

"Police!"

"No Liz? Who the fuck is Liz?" Brendon questioned. Charlie, speechless, pointed at the cars that had arrived at the woods. "Oh fuck me, Sandra Dee."

"I have been waiting for this moment my entire life," Dan stated and went to grab a bottle of vodka. He rubbed his hands once and then proceeded to smash the bottle. "Scatter!" he yelled.

.

No one did scatter.