After talking
with Sparks and Natalia I continued my search for Ben. Luckily, they told me they saw him go deeper in to the deadheads earlier so, I'm on the right track.

Why did most of guys
say the deadheads were creepy? It seems like a relaxing place.

I started
to hear muffled voices as I walked farther into the deadheads. I pushed some bushes out the way and saw Ben picking some fruits and vegetables from a small garden.

He was with
another girl who seemed to be talking his ear off. I walked out from behind the bushes. Ben instantly turned around. When he realized it was me he jogged over to me.

The girl
that was talking to him walked over to us. "Greenie this is Pepper. She's a... friend of mine." He says. I waved, she smiled.

Why are you picking fruits and vegetables? I thought everyone was excused from work?

Ben looked
at the paper I was holding up then, smiled. "I didn't say everyone was excused from work I said most were excused." He says, "And the reason I'm picking fruits and vegetables is because I wanted to help with out with the celebration."

What celebration?

He looks
at the paper again then, facepalms. "We usually have a bonfire for the greenie whenever we get a new one." He says. Pepper nods. "It's really fun!" She says, enthusiastically.
I smiled.

I can't wait! Is there anything I can help out with?

Ben looks
at the paper again then, looks at Pepper. She punched him in the shoulder. He laughed. "The greenie never helps on the first day, but, I guess you.." Pepper cut him off, "You don't have to do anything. Just relax. We'll see you at the bonfire." Pepper says, while pushing me away. Ben smiles and waves.

As soon
as I walked back in the glade I instantly regretted it. The same boy who grabbed my chin earlier started to walking towards me with 4 other boys.

I started
walking the other direction, they followed. I started to feel uncomfortable so I sprinted. "Hey! Get back here, shank!" One of the boys yelled as they ran after me.

I didn't know where to go so I just kept running strait.

*wolf whistle*

"Hey, Sweetheart! Stop runnin' we just wanna have a nice lil' chat!" One of the boys yelled.

All-of-a-sudden
I tripped over a rock. I was about to get up to start sprinting again, but, a strong pair of arms hoisted me up. I looked up to see who it was, it was Danny!

He hugged
me from behind, smirking and turned my head around to face the boys who were chasing me. They were being scolded by a group of 10 other boys. I looked back at Danny he was still smirking.

To stop
him from smirking I put my hands over his face. He chuckled. "Your hands smell really good." He says. I blushed. I tried to remove my hands from his face, but, he followed one of them and took a long sniff then, blushed.

"I'm s-sorry for making you uncomfortable." He said, flustered. There was a long silence between the both of us until Danny spoke up again. "May I escort you to the bonfire?" Danny asks while holding his hand out to me.

I looked
at his hand for a moment. Then took it, he smiled as we walked over to where a few boys were holding sticks lighted with fire on the end. As I walked over one of the boy's handed me his.

"It is a tradition." He says.
I smiled, he patted my shoulder and stood behind me. Everyone holding a stick threw it at some kind of structure the made of sticks, straw, and a cattle skull, I did the same. People cheered then, the bonfire started.

There was
singing and dancing, basically, everyone was having a fun time. I sat away from everyone and sketched some of the festivities going on blank pages in my journal. I smiled at the picture I drew of Sparks and a boy dancing together.

I felt
something cold on my shoulder. I whipped my head around to see what is was.

...A cold, glass jar containing a drink?

I wrapped
my hands around it and felt someone else's. "Whoa!" The boy said, as he pulled back his hand. I caught his drink before it fell, he looked down at me. I brought my knees to my chest. He had brown and grey hair, blue eyes, and was tall.

"I'm sorry I didn't realize you were there." He said, snickering. I looked at him like he was stupid.

How in the world do you not realize yur usin' a human being as a freakin' table, lad?!

I rolled
my eyes. The other boy he was with shook his head. "You're an idiot, Evan." He grabbed Evan by the collar of his shirt and dragged him away.

I shrugged
it off and went back to drawing. I felt someone sit down beside me and drape they're hands over my shoulders. "So whatcha doing?" I looked behind me and saw the boy Evan was with. I turned around instantly and went back to drawing.

"Wow! I've never seen talent like that around here!"
He says. I looked at him, as looked at my drawing, intrigued. "...Can I add something?" He asks, shyly.

He did get Evan away from you. Also, if you don't you'll never forgive yurself.

I slowly
handed him my journal. He took it and started shading in certain areas and adding shadows. "By the way. I'm sorry about my friend he was drunk." He said, while still sketching.

I peeked
my head over his shoulder while he was sketching. I saw his his cheeks turn pink for a moment then, back to its normal hue. He handed me back the journal. The picture looked 10x better with the shading and shadows.

He stood
up and stretched. "I enjoyed our time together, but, I need to go check on, Evan." He says, as he starts to walk away. He stopped walking and looks over his shoulder, winks, then walked away.

After a
few moments of thinking about what I just witnessed. I realized I needed to get to know people if I was going to be staying here. Which might be a problem because I can't talk.

No sooner
than I thought about it, Ben walked over to me, picked me up, and carried me over to a group of people containing Natalia, Danny, Ava, Rose, and 5 other boys I don't know the name of.

Then, I realized
the boy that was sketching in my journal was in the group. His eyes turned towards me. He smiled warmly at me. "My name's, Cody by the way." I smiled and held my hand out to him shyly. He took it in his and kissed the back of my hand.

I blushed
and pulled my hand back. "Don't get too comfortable with her, Cody." Ben scolds. "Tell that to her, you know how I am." He says with a flirty voice while, grinning.

He glared at
Cody menacingly while, pressing me as close as he could against his chest. "If you lay a finger on her without my consent 2 weeks in the slammer." He says.

"How scary, 2 weeks of being secluded from society!" Cody says, sarcastically. "You want to make it two months if you're not a mile away from her?" Ben asks.
Cody shuts up, Ben smirks.

"Get wrecked, Cody!" Rose shouted. I couldn't help but laugh along with everyone else.

Wait...laugh? I'm laughing!?! My voice is back!!!

Ben looked
at me in shock. "You laughed. You actually laughed!" Ben said as he swung me around. After a while he finally placed me on the ground. "We still haven't heard her actually voice yet." Cody says.

Everyone's eyes fell on me. I was silent. "um..." "What did you say?" Natalia asked. "She said Um." Sparks says.

I furgot how quiet my voice was.

I started to become really nervous. Cody  squished my face and said, "You remind me of a bagel, a timid bagel...A tiny, timid bagel." I don't know why, but, I laughed like my life depended on it.

"Still nervous?" Cody asked. I burried my face in his chest and cried while laughing. Cody snickered. After 4 minutes of laughter I wiped my tears away and stepped away from Cody. He patted my head.

Ben smiled
"I think you two have had enough to drink." He says. "What do you mean?" I asked. Ben blushed. "Natalia, can you get her a drink please?" Ben asks. "Already on it, mate." She says.

Natalia returns
with two drinks. She hands a glass jar containing a drink to me.  "You and Ben can share." She says, winking at Ben. I look over at Ben. "If you don't want the rest of it, hand it to me." He says.

I nodded and decided to drink some. I instinctively started coughing as soon as it hit my throat. I handed the drink over to Ben. Everyone else laughed.

"I figured you were a lightweight, love, but, even Sparks can drink this." Ben said. "<through coughs> Well, then Sparks is inhuman like the rest of you guys." I said.

They all laughed. "By the way, I'd like you to meet Peter, the boy with brown hair and looks like a nerd." "Hey!" Peter shouts.

"Miles, the youngest and shortest in the glade." "Howdy!" Miles says.

"Amedeus Cho, one of the smartest people in the glade." Amedeus waves.

"And last but, not least Flash, the jock who's a sissy." "Watch it." Flash said, in a threatening tone.

I giggled.
"Its nice to meet you all." They all smiled, warmly. "I'm going back to the...." Multiple, loud, screeching, roars came from the other side of the walls that surrounded the glade.

I clutched
on to Danny. "W-W-What was t-that?" He rubbed my back. "We call them grievers. They're monsters that live inside the maze." He explains.

I fainted.

If I still have errors I'm sorry this is almost 2000 words