Well, she couldn’t be sure of that. She may have seen better looking guys in her time before she arrived at the Glade, but of course, she couldn’t remember.

 “What’s going on?” the boy said, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead and taking huge lung filling breaths. Then he spotted Pasty and his eyes widened.

 “What the klunk is a girl doing here?” he rasped. Pasty waved mockingly.

 “Alright there? You must be Minho.”

 Minho nodded uncertainly, an eyebrow raised. The Asian boy had jet black hair and soft, yet arrogant brown eyes. It was obvious the kid was strong, with his muscles shown clearly through his black t-shirt. Regaining his confidence, he grinned at Pasty.

 “Yeah that’s me. Someone get me a shuckin’ glass of water before I die of dehydration.”

 Alby handed him a metal cup of water and Minho drank it quickly. He was handed another cup straight away.

 “Ah, man. I need a shower.” He took off his t-shirt and used it to wipe his face and neck of sweat.

 “Later. As you can see, we are in deep klunk.”

 Minho took the seat on the other side of Pasty and she tried to keep her eyes on Alby.

 “Alright then. First, Pasty, can you think of anything other than your name?”

 “I thought that we already established this. No.”

 “Alright, alright. Just checking. Next. Does anything or anyone around here trigger any memories?”

 “Nope.”

 “Shuck it, Alby. We’re wasting our time here. She obviously doesn’t know any more than we do about life outside here,” Minho said. Pasty nodded.

 “He’s right. Just because I’m a girl, why does this make me a target of suspicion?”

 “We have to treat everything with suspicion! Anything out the normal is an object of suspicion!” Alby growled.

 “Slim it, Alby. She don’t know nothing. And she must be terrified. Think how you felt when you first arrived here, not knowin’ a shuckin’ thing. You were just about ready to klunk your pants. Why not start by giving her the Tour? If anything else strange happens, we can call another Gathering. It’s getting late anyway,” Newt said. Murmurs of agreement filled the room.

 “Alright, alright. But I ain’t giving her the shucking tour. Any volunteers?”

 “I will,” Minho said. Gally wolf whistled which was followed by some people laughing. Pasty felt herself blush, but played it cool.

 “Thanks, Minho. I didn’t fancy Gally giving me this famous Tour,” Pasty told him sweetly. More laughs followed, and Winston patted a furious Gally on the back.

 “Landed yourself right in a klunk hole there, man,” he chuckled. Gally stood up and flounced out the room.

 “Don’t dish it out if you can’t take it!” Pasty called after him. Alby rolled his eyes.

 “Nice one, Greenbean. Got him nice and annoyed now. You don’t want to get on the wrong side of Gally.”

 “Doesn’t look like there is a right side of that dude. Come on then, Minho. You’d better be a good tour guide.”

 Minho gave her another glimpse of his grin as he stood up “You bet I am. We’d better get going, everyone will be going to bed soon.”

 They left the room together and went back downstairs. As they got outside, they both received a glare from Gally, but Pasty realised this was probably normal for the other Gladers anyway. She waved at him cheerily and he looked seriously hacked off.

 “Man. He does not like you,” Minho laughed “You pissed him off good and proper.”

 “That’s my job,” Pasty replied with a smile.

 “Speaking of jobs, you will have to do something while you are here.”

 “What do you do?”

 “I’m a Runner.”

 “I wanna do that. Sounds awesome.”

 “I doubt Alby will let you. Anyway, it’s really hard work, you have to be prepared to put in a lot of effort and get nearly nothing out of it.”

 “Tell you what. I’ll have you a race. If I win, you can put in a good word with Alby for me. If you win…”

 “You have to kiss me,” he said with a laugh, his eyes twinkling, daring Pasty to accept his terms. He obviously thought her incapable of winning. Pasty raised her eyebrow with a sly smile.

 “It’s a deal. Tomorrow morning. First thing.”

 “Good that. Let’s get this shuckin’ tour over with first,” he said, opening his arms wide mockingly “This, my friend, is the Glade. The place where my arse has been plonked for the past two years.”

 “Two years?”

 “Yup. One of the first to arrive here. Me, Alby, Newt and Gally with a few others. There must be at least sixty of us now. Every day is exactly the same here. Everyone has a job of some sort, and you will try out for each one soon. There are four sections to the Glade. Homestead, Deadheads, Blood House and Gardens. But don’t worry. I doubt very much you’ll end up working in the Blood House. And you won’t be a Slopper, for sure. Man, you might even be a Runner. But anyway. Alby will sort that out. Most likely you will end up looking after the crops we grow or the animals we raise.”

 “Hang on a second. Hold it right there. Where does all this stuff come from?”

 “The Box,” Minho said, gesturing in it’s general direction. “It sends us Newbie’s, like you, once a month, and food and other supplies once a week. Electricity and running water was supplied from the day we got here.”

 “Wow.”

 “Yeah. Wow.”

The two new friends sat together under a tree, and Minho produced two apples from his trouser pockets. Suddenly realising how hungry she was, she bit into it gratefully. She spotted a cluster of trees in the distance which had an eerie feel to it, and began to get curious.

 “What’s over there?” she asked.

 “That’s the Deadheads. Where we bury the poor shanks who get killed. Or what’s left of ‘em anyway.”

 Pasty stopped in her tracks. She hadn’t thought of people dying.

 “It’s not common for people to die. And it only tends to be real stupid people who mess with Grievers.”

 “Grievers?”

 Minho ran a hand through his hair “Man, I’m making a mess of this. Come with me. Be careful not to klunk your pants at what you see next.”

 Pasty followed Minho along one of the walls, where he was pulling ivy away from it to reveal a small dusty window. Pasty peered through and saw the ugliest thing she had ever set eyes on. Around the size of a cow, a creature lurked on the other side of the wall. It was covered in spikes and was moaning mechanically. She drew slowly away, tearing her eyes back to Minho.

 “That’s one ugly bugger,” she said.

 “Agreed. And like I say, our biggest cause of death here. If you get stung by one and don’t make it back here in time to get the Serum. Hurts like hell, and people are never quite the same afterwards, but it works.”

 Pasty suddenly felt very overwhelmed with it all. She covered her face with her hands and fell to her knees.

 “Bloody hell. I just want to go home. Wherever home is.”

 Minho was surprised by her sudden change of character. She had seemed so confident and bold before, yet there she was, showing the first real emotion since he had met her. Unsure what to do, he sat beside her and enclosed her in his big arms. She leant against him, feeling very small. Getting brave, he stroked her hair.

 “You have every right to be scared. But know what? Everything happens for a reason. I think someday we’ll get back home. Until then, you’ve got me, right?”

 “What a lucky shank I am,” she mumbled, throwing as much sarcasm as possible into the word shank, but smiling at Minho to let him know she was joking. He smiled back, then pulled away and stood up.

 “You must be tired. Let’s get you a sleeping bag.”

 Pasty expected that they would sleep in Homestead, but she slept outside, like most of the others. It wasn’t cold, and her sleeping bag was warm anyway. She settled down next to Newt, and Minho joined her soon after, having had a shower.

 “Night, Pasty,” Minho whispered.

 “Night, Minho.”

 The beautiful sound of silence filled the air. Until a few seconds later, the fat kid to Minho’s left let out a huge fart.

 “Aww, Chuck!”

 “You’re gross!”

 “Pile on!”

 In the blink of an eye, all the boys within a meter of Chuck had piled on top of each other and were laughing, while Chuck squirmed helplessly. Newt woke up and grinned sleepily.

 “May as well join in. I feel like I ain’t had fun in ages!”

 So Newt jumped on top of the pile, and the whole pile groaned. Within seconds, Pasty had climbed out her sleeping bag.

 “Here comes Pasty!” she cried, and with a great yelp, she bulldozed into the pile of people. They all tumbled to the ground, laughing like they had never laughed before. Newt slapped fives with Pasty, who was still in stitches.

 “What the hell is going on here?” Alby roared. No one replied. “Get to bed the lot of you! And Newt! Minho! You should be ashamed…”

 Alby ranted on for another five minutes, but he didn’t notice Minho and Pasty giggling quietly into their pillows.