CHAPTER THREE
• he's kinda hot though •

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"SO, WHAT DO you think about the greenie," Minho taunted with his eyebrows wiggling in their usual way. Evony laughed but didn't respond. This was a usual conversation for the two friends, especially after a box day. He had it convinced that at some point a boy was going to come up the box and she was going to fall in love with him. So far the closest she had gotten was having a weak crush on Max for about a week.

"Minho, no." She dismissed. Since the two were currently running, she sprinted past him and out of earshot.

It wasn't long before he caught up to her. "Minho, yes." He nagged again, this time bumping her on the shoulder as they ran.

"No."

"Yes."

"Minho."

"Evony." He shot back.

"Could you stop?"

He faked a confused expression. "Stop what?"

She rolled her eyes, unpleased with the childish behavior of her friend. "You know what, you do this every time."

"I do?" He questioned. It might've sounded sincere but the glint in his eye told her otherwise. Slowing to a stop he pulled off his pack and flopped onto the floor. "We're having lunch."

Evony sighed, relieved that it was time to refuel her body. She slid down the maze wall until her butt hit the floor. Instantly she dove into her ham and cheese sandwich, practically swallowing the whole thing in just a couple bites. Both teens sat as they ate, the comfortable silence taking over.

She chugged down half of her water. "I don't know."

Minho snapped his head over to her. "You don't know..what?"

"The greenie," she confirmed, "I don't know about him yet."

He slowly nodded his head. It looked like he was deep in thought. Evony returned to her food, taking a bite out of her apple and leaning her head against the ivy covered wall.

"You think he's hot?"

She almost choked on her piece of meat. "What?"

"I mean," Minho started, acting like his question was the clearest thing in the world. "Do. You. Think. He's. Hot." He slowed his words to pronounce them one at a time. Evony slapped him in the shoulder in return for the treatment.

"You don't have to baby me. I understood the question." She remarked. Her body slid down farther on the wall until she was practically laying on the ground. After only a moment of thought, she responded with a small shrug. "Sure. Thomas is cute."

"Yeah, but is he hot?"

Her mouth gaped open like a fish out of water. "Uh-"

"I think he's hot." Minho confessed with a smug smile. He shoved his water bottle back into his bag and stood up. He started walking towards the direction they needed to go.

Evony rolled her eyes once more. Her friend calling another guy hot wasn't a surprise at all. In fact it would be more shocking if he called a greenie ugly. She decided to taunt him back with the same tone he used on her. "Maybe you should see if he's into guys then. If he says yes you can invite him to join you and Ben the next time y'all have fun."

Minho stopped and spun around, his finger pointed out at her. He waved it back and forth inches away from her face. "Me and Benicles are not having fun."

"Is that what you call him in the bedroom? Benicles?"

"We are not having sex!"

She held her hands out in defeat, "Sorry, sorry. Of course not." The smirk on her face said otherwise, but Minho didn't have time to address it as she darted off down the corridor and out of sight. He sprinted up behind her, catching up quite quickly due to his speed and height. She was fast; however, there was no way she could compete with a full grown man who worked out every day.

"Whatever, lets keep going." Minho attempted to brush off the topic. She could hear the prominent annoyance in his voice so she let it go.

So for the rest of the day, the two ran, only stopping to catch their breath if absolutely necessary.

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Evony didn't get a second of peace when she arrived back at the Glade. She had stepped all of two feet inside the grass landscape when Chuck came running up to her, panting from the lack of oxygen. Both her and Minho came to a stop in front of the youngest boy. He stood there catching his breath for a second before he actually began speaking.

"Newt-he wants-he lost Thom-" He struggled to heave out the words. Evony casted Minho a reassuring glance and nodded towards the direction of the Map Room. SHe knew he was itching to go and hang out with the fellow runners who were probably awaiting their appearance. After waving him off she turned back to Chuck.

"Okay, try again. What's wrong?" She queried. If the boy had something to tell her the minute she got back, then either something really bad or really exciting happened. RIght now she was praying it was the latter.

Chuck bounced anxiously on his feet, pointing over to the other side of the glade where the pond and a patch of woods were. "Newt said Thomas ran into the woods. I was told to find him, but I've looked for everyone and I think he's gone."

"He's not gone, buddy." She chuckled lightly, "Probably just over welcomed from all of the attention he's getting as the green bean."

Realization dawned on the boy's face, him nodding his head in a rather aggressive action. "Oh." He said, dragging it out. "Kind of like me. You think he's klunking his pants too?"

Evonys words were caught in her throat. She didn't understand why such a young boy was with the rest of them, but then again she also didn't know why one girl was with a bunch of males. Even though she doubted that the greenie was in the woods shitting his pants, she didn't want to directly tell Chuck that. That would just make him feel worse, and she found that she cared a lot for the younger boy. So much so that she would defend him at any cost.

"You never know," She smiled and clapped him on the shoulder, "Here, how about you go tell Newt you found the greenie, and i'll go get him out of the woods. You can even take the credit if you want."

Chuck let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you! I'm so hungry, I'm going to go get something to eat."

He gave her a quick hug and ran back off in the direction he came from. This left Evony alone, which meant that she now needed to go seek out the greenie who was apparently isolating himself in the woods.

Honestly she understood where he was coming from. On her first day she had climbed the tallest tree and stayed there until the next morning. She had been terrified by her new surroundings: the walls, the boys; both things baffled her. It had been Newt who had found her and Minho who had talked her into coming down. The three became friends almost immediately.

She also made friends with some of the other gladers. Of course some were stronger friendships than others, but she was still appreciative that she had people to talk to. Frypan was one in particular that she got very close with. He even taught her how to make his famous soup. Then boys started coming up every month, and that resulted in both alliances and enemies to be made. Over time the group of kids split into their designated groups, most sticking with people of the same job.

Evony wondered what job Thomas was going to get. He kept saying that he wanted to be a runner, but they didn't need more runners. The only way Minho would allow for the boy to even get a trial, would be if he had some astonishing performance where he proved his worth. There wasn't really a way for him to do so, so she decided he would probably end up being a gardener or something.

That would be good. A Track-hoe was probably the safest job of them all.

She trudged into the forest. The sticks and pinecones crushed beneath her feet making the sound of crunching fly through the air. If Thomas was really hiding out in the woods, then he would somebody was looking for him. That also meant that he really didn't want to be found, since Chuck must've come the same way and made the same exact noise she was.

"Thomas?" She spoke in almost a questioning tone. To her it felt kind of stupid to be searching the woods for somebody who didn't want to be seen, but here she was.

The sun was starting to set, dipping past the walls. On estimate, she most likely had around thirty more minutes to look before it would be too dark for her to make out the shadow of a human without any source of light. A light breeze rustled the leaves along with blowing the front strands of hair out of her face.

Evony continued to search, calling out the greenie's name ever so often in hopes of a response. It was then that she heard the faint sound of breathing coming from her left. She followed the sound which took her down another carved out path back towards where the pond was.

There, laying with his back against a tree, was Thomas. His hands were in his hair as he shook his head in obvious pain. She wasn't close enough to hear complete words, but she could make out small murmurs as he struggled to compose himself.

Instantly she rushed towards him, bending down so she could match his height. "Thomas, hey." She kicked at his foot, but the boy didn't barge. This time she scooted closer-it was clear he was dreaming and needed to be woken up. Gripping his shoulder, she attempted to shake the boy awake. "Come on, Thomas. Wake up."

Then in a split second the boy sat up, gasping for breath. His hands reached forward like he was trying to grab something, and he seemed disappointed when he was met with nothing less air. She leaned back, allowing herself to take a seat next to him. Usually when one of her friends would have a nightmare, she would comfort them by providing some sort of physical touch; however, she just met the boy yesterday. She figured it might make matters worse if she tried to console him in the way she did with the others. So she ended up sitting there, desperately hoping her presence didn't make him aggravated.

He took about two minutes to fully calm down. When he finally stopped panting, he glanced over at her with wide eyes. Immediately sitting up straighter, he ran a hand through his hair in a measly attempt to fix the sweaty mess. "Evony, hi. I didn't know you were here."

"Yeah, I woke you up," She clarified, "You were having a nightmare."

She wanted to ask him what his dream was about, but at the same time was afraid of pushing it too far. So far he appeared nice; she had decided she wanted to try to be his friend.

His face reddened as he went to fiddle with his fingers. Evony didn't realize that while he was doing so, she had been watching. "I was asleep?" He asked in a loud whisper. When she nodded her head in response, Thomas frantically pulled himself off the ground and brushed the dirt off of his pants. "I was supposed to get fertilizer. Newts going to be so mad."

Evony stepped in front of him, stopping him from taking back off to the glade. "Mad? No. Annoyed? Probably."

A hand ran over his face until it was back in his hair. He was clearly stressed out from his first day of job testing, and Evony could tell he was also quite tired. She saw where his hammock had been set up-right next to Minho's and Chucks. The former was quite possibly the loudest snorer out of all roughly fifty boys. The latter talked everybody's ear off until he passed out from exhaustion.

The poor greenie definitely didn't get much sleep.

"Hey, I'm sure it'll be fine. Just tell him you needed a break." She offered. Her gaze trailed down to where the bucket and shovel was laying on the ground next to his feet. "Did you get any?"

Thomas tilted his head in confusion. "Any what?"

"Fertilizer!" Evony snapped at his obliviousness She took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut to stop herself from saying anything else.

A moment went by of silence before the boy spoke up in a low, guilt filled voice. "No, I didn't." She opened her eyes to see his head dropped down, him staring blankly at the ground. "And -uh-im sorry, I didn't mean to upset you."

Now she felt bad because the greenie felt bad about making her feel bad when in reality it was her fault that both of them felt bad.

She let out a dry laugh, "Oh my god, no. You're fine, Thomas. Im the one who should be saying sorry." With a nod of the head she gave a dramatic bow. "So...Im sorry."

Thomas just nodded his head, unsure of what he was supposed to say back. He was well aware that she was the only girl here, and he felt the need to make a good impression on her. Having her annoyed over something he said made him feel guilty; he didn't want to risk saying anything worse.

The two stood there in awkward silence, both not wanting to say or do anything to irritate the other. Neither knew how long they would have stood there staring at the ground if Aaron hadn't come and found them.

He stepped in between the two, making Thomas jump back and her to step off to the side. "Newt said he wanted to see you at dinner." The older boy then gripped the hem of the brunette's shirt and proceeded to drag him out of the woods.

"Aaron, what the hell?" She scolded, chasing after the two. Evony watched from behind as Thomas attempted to wiggle free of the raven haired boy's grip. He elbowed the guy in the back of the head. It was perhaps the only mode of defense he could manage at the moment.

"Hey man, let me go."

The builder scoffed out a laugh, "Ha, that's funny. How about no, you useless greenbean."

"Put him down, it wasn't his fault." She tried again. Now she was walking right along with the two boys.

"Wasn't his fault?" Aaron challenged her statement, glaring over to where she was, "It wasn't his fault that he abandoned his post to go take a nap with the birds and the bees."

"He was tired, okay? You were the same way after your first full day of work."

"W-what she said."

"Shut up, greenie." Aaron made his grip around his neck tighter.

"Stop being stupid, Aaron." She pulled at the arm that was around Thomas' neck. "Cut him some slack, it's his first day. Also why are you being so weird, usually you just ignore greenies until you're forced to speak to them."

Apparently that was what it took to make the builder release his grip. Thomas stumbled out of his grasp, bumping into Evony who had been behind him. Aaron eyed the two and rolled his eyes. Then without another word he marched down the hill and out of sight, leaving the younger teens to follow after him towards the dining area.

The dining area wasn't anything fancy. It consisted of a circle of picnic tables that were handbuilt by the builders back when they first entered up the box. Each group of friends had a designated table, some having even gone to certain measures to carve their names into the spots they liked to sit in. Beyond the seating was Frypans kitchen, where there was a makeshift counter that displayed all of the food options for that meal.

She led Thomas over to the mini buffet where she handed him a wooden plate. Telling him her opinions on the different selections, the two scooped on the selected items and headed back to one of the picnic tables. Aaron, per usual, was sitting over with Gally and the other builders. She, however, was heading towards the table where her closest friends sat.

Not realizing that Thomas had slowed down, she took a seat next to Max and across from Ben. It was when she patted the empty space next to her that she realized that he wasn't with her. She swirled around to find the missing boy.

"Something wrong?" Minho asked through a mouthful of food. She held out a finger in indication to give her a second.

It took a bit but eventually she found the brunette standing in the midst of the crowd of boys. Hastily she stood up and ran over to him, grabbing his wrist and dragging him back over to her table. He stumbled on behind her, not sure of where he was going.

She plopped back down in her seat and motioned over to the greenie. "Alright-everyone if you haven't already-meet Thomas. Thomas, meet-well, my friends."

The four boys all wave simultaneously back to him. Thomas offered a small wave of his own, a light smile painted his lips. He took a seat beside her, taking in all of the faces around him.

"Well, Thomas. Nice to meet you, let me introduce you to our group of ugly shanks." Minho then ranted about each of the people around the table. Starting with the boy to his left and finishing with himself.

"Starting off, we have Benicles, though I guess he likes to go by Ben. He's extremely stupid and the slowest replacement runner i've ever seen. Definitely don't recommend being his friend."

Evony rolled her eyes. She should've known that Minho couldn't take anything seriously-even basic introductions. The confusion was clear on Thomas' face, but he didnt question it and instead let the other boy keep talking.

Minho then pointed to the boy across from him. "This is Max. He's a pretty sweet dude, and I'm like a hundred eighty- nine percent sure he's gay and in love with me. He also loves drama and picking his nose. Again, don't recommend befriending him."

"I don't pick my nose!"

"So you admit you're gay?'

"I like girls!" Max attested.

"And apparently guys." Evony chimed in. That earned her a look of disapproval to which she shrugged off.

"Next is Evy, surprisingly enough I actually like her. Dont have too much to say except that she's kind of bossy and likes to trip people for the fun of it. Oh and she also finds too much joy when others accidently hurt themselves. You can be her friend, just if you ever hurt her I'm going to snap your neck like a twig, got it Thomas?"

Thomas gulped and nodded.

"Good," Minho now turned to the blonde on his right. "Ah of course, good old Blondie over here. Newt is also a pretty chill guy, but be warned he likes to take showers in the middle of the night. Like sometimes I wake up to take a piss and he'll scare the klunk out of me with his naked body and his thing just hanging out for-"

"Min!" She cut off, motioning with her hand for him to stop his detailed description. Newt also elbowed him hard in the side; that just made him smirk.

"Right sorry," He winked at the greenie, "Probably didn't want to hear that-unless, of course, you're into guys. Then I could give you a length or-"

Evony let her head fall into her hands, pressing her lips tightly shut. Minho started laughing at her reaction, but she didn't care, it had gotten him to stop his nonsense rambling. Newt dismissed the other boys, at least the ones who were giggling annoyingly at the Asians joke. He waved his hand to grab Thomas' attention. "Okay, now that you've met everyone, let me tell ya about-

"You traitor!" Minho gasped, holding a hand to his heart as if he had been wounded. "You didn't let me introduce myself yet."

"I think he has a pretty clear idea." She mumbled under her breath. A sharp laugh sounded from the brunette next to her which brought a smile to her face.

Thankfully he didn't hear her highly directed comment. "Well, anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted. My name is Minho. I'm the coolest, sexiest, funniest, and best in all ways glader. If you ever have an identity crisis come to me, because I'm the most perfect human you'll ever meet."

Max coughed, "That's a lie."

"No it is not!"

"Kind of is," Ben added.

Evony and Newt nodded in agreement.

Minho looked around the table, a revolting expression on his face. He shook his head in denial before turning to Thomas. "You see, these shanks are all slintheads. The only one I tolerate is Frypan. And that's because he makes some delicious meals."

"Hey, Fry!" Minho yelled, catching the boy's attention. "Come join us."

Frypan rushed to finish passing out the remainder of the food and took his spot on the bench next to Newt. At his arrival the boys began to indulge in friendly conversation, most of the time speaking over each other so that they could be heard.

Thomas observed the way everyone acted. How they laughed at each other's jokes, made funny faces when someone said something they didn't like, or even just who talked more than others. He noticed that Evony didn't say as much as the rest of them, but when she did they all stopped talking to pay attention to her. He noticed how the conversation jumped from one to the next, them being the most random topics he'd never dare think up. He also surprised himself by speaking up when the chat would diverge onto a subject he had input on. What shocked him even more was that they all listened to him and even sometimes added onto what he was saying.

After the meal he walked with the group of kids towards their hammocks. Sure the beginning of the day had been a train wreck for him, but now, after experiencing what it felt like to laugh along with others, he couldn't be more happy.

And he knew exactly why.

Thomas had friends.

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Teresa watched from the monitor as Thomas attempted to sprinkle plant seeds onto the dirt. She bit back a smile when he ended up spilling the entire bag onto the ground, the containments dispersing into thick clumps on the soil. She smiled before clicking out of the past footage.

The sound of footsteps interrupted the happy moment, her breaking concentration to look at who had arrived. It was Janson. He came over and took a seat next to her, immediately starting to click through the different cameras that were placed throughout the maze. "How's Thomas." He asked, straight to the point.

Teresa forced the guilty swallow down her throat. "He's good. He remembered his name last night."

"Good. Has he talked to anyone?"

"Yes sir-several people. They welcomed him pretty easily." She stated. Her mouth began to feel dry-she knew the answer the man really wanted.

"Hmm. And what about Evony? How is she reacting to the new boy?"

"Nothing unexpected."

Janson leaned over the girl's shoulder, putting his hand on her back and whispering into her ear. "Come on, Teresa. Tell me the real answer."

Her gaze dropped back to the screen. More specifically the one monitor that was showing footage of Evony saying goodnight to Thomas before the two split to go to their hammocks. Both teens had a smile on their face as they waved eachother off.

Janson caught sight of where she was looking and studied the screen displayed in the corner of the computer. Teresa expected him to lash out, scream or shout something about the interaction. Instead, he just nodded and walked back out of the room, but not before giving her a clear instruction.

"Teresa," He commanded, "Don't let them get any closer."

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MAE's FUN NOTES
-I'm here I'm back but OMG
story time me and my cousins
watched maze runner right?
Well APPARENTLY they have
no clue what's going on so they
asked like more questions then
Thomas could ever ✋
but it's fine bc my cousin loves
Dylan now so it was worth it