❝just a pain-in-the-ass, johnny cash, middle finger❞

BOYS WERE HUGE, SHUCKING IDIOTS ALL OF THE TIME. Iris honestly wondered how every single guy in the Glade had not killed themselves yet. She was bandaging Minho, the Keeper of the Runners, up because he had a huge gash on his arm.

"How did you tripping end with this big of a cut?" she questioned, shocked at the length of the bloody slit on his arm. He claimed that he fell, but it really seemed like he got into a fight with a really angry chicken. Though that sounded crazy, it had happened there before.

He sighed, and it was obviously something embarrassing from the look on his face. She was waiting for him to say that he tripped on a vine and landed on a giant Griever tooth. "I fell onto my knife."

"That'll do it," she chuckled out. As she tucked in the end of the bandage and made sure that it was firm in its place, she patted him on the shoulder, causing him to wince. "Well, I think you're set. Maybe put that knife somewhere else."

He rolled his eyes with a smile, hopping off the table in the middle of the room and heading toward the door. "Yeah, yeah. Thanks, Iris."

"Anytime," she answered, waving at him as he left. Minho was one of the people she liked more in the Glade. Most of the Keepers were like him — nice and friendly and grateful, but then, there were some people that really did not appreciate her services and were rude to her ever chance that they got.

A prime example of one of those people was Jem.

Jem was standing next to his friend and boss, Winston, as they both cut vigorously into a pig. They were Slicers, in charge of slaughtering the animals so that the Gladers could have fresh meat to eat. It was not a job for people with weak stomachs, and they constantly had Greenies throwing up all over their their little Hut.

"Are you excited for the new guy to come?" Winston asked his friend with raised eyebrows. Every month, a new kid was sent up in The Box, and it was getting pretty close to that day of the month. So, they were preparing to have the Greenie, as they called them, work with them for an hour or two to see if he was born for slicing.

"So we can have another shucking idiot to train?" Jem scoffed. Jem had a No Idiots Policy, which did not seem that odd, but he was very serious about this policy. He hated explaining things to people. He hated having to tell people how to do things. He hated even looking at people that had confused looks on their faces. "No way."

Winston rolled his eyes. He remembered when Jem first came up in the Box and had no clue what was going on. "Two years ago, you were the shucking idiot that we had to train."

"Yeah, well, I was different," Jem pointed out. He did not like to consider himself an idiot or be associated with idiots. He remembered Bering confused, but he also remembered getting the hang of the way everything worked pretty quickly, unlike some of the people that came up in that Box. It took one guy a week to even remember what a pig looked like.

The Keeper raised his eyebrows in amusement, excited to hear the reasoning for that statement. "And how is that?"

"All you shanks are ugly, and I'm not," he responded with a laugh. He winced loudly when his knife slipped and landed on the side of his finger. Blood spilled out of the cut immediately, and he muttered curses.

"But you're still an idiot," Winston chuckled out at the sight of the blood. Jem shot him a look that told him to shut up, even though he got his Karma. The cut was pretty small, and they had all definitely gotten worse. However, it was bleeding to the point that it was a safety hazard for those who would be eating the meat later. "Go see Iris. She'll patch you up."

Jem just put his finger to his mouth and shook it slightly, but it would still not stop bleeding. He insisted, "I'm all right."

"Dude, just go get a bandage before you infect all this meat with your nasty blood. That's an order," Winston told him, shaking his finger like he was actually being authoritative for once. He knew that Iris and Jem had issues with each other, even though they were pointless and stupid. They would have to get over them sooner or later.

Iris was organizing the cabinet in her Hut when he came in. Jeff and Clint were out harvesting more leaves and plants that she used for natural medicine when they were running low on supplies. The Box would be up tomorrow, so they just needed to last until then.

She frowned when she heard someone walk in and realized it was him. Sighing, she put down the things she had in her hand so that she could do her job so that he could get out of there sooner. "Oh, it's you."

"Believe me. I'm not happy about it either," he informed her with an eye roll.

She sighed, pulling out the last bit or bandage that they had left. She hated to use it on him, but she was going to have to unless Jeff and Clint came back soon. "You Slicers need to be a lot more careful. 90% of my customers are you guys."

"Blame your boyfriend," he informed her, and she assumed that he was talking about Winston, even though he was not her boyfriend. He was simply her best friend. Just because she actually talked to some of the people in the Glade where she had to live, it did not mean that she was dating them. Jem did not seem to understand that, though. "He was distracting me."

She did not feel like reminding him for the umpteenth time that she could be friends with people without being attracted to them, so she just started the bandaging. He inhaled sharply when she pulled it tight, and she scoffed, "Oh, suck it up."

"I think you're hurting me on purpose," he commented, noticing how aggressive she was being with her treatment. Before she covered the wound, she grabbed a wipe and wiped away the blood.

"Yes because that is my greatest wish in life, to cause you harm," she said sarcastically. He really thought that everything was about him. "It's a tiny cut. Minho came in here just a minute ago with a gash the size of my head on his arm, and he's out there running right now."

He looked so done with her talking, and he desperately wanted to go band his head against a wall. "Okay, just because you're dating half of the guys here, that doesn't mean that I have to hear about how awesome they are while I'm just trying to get my cut bandaged."

"You're an ass," she pointed out, though she had reminded him of this many times during their stay in the Glade. She tucker the bandage in, making sure that she poked his 'wound' while doing so. She released his arm and gestured to the door as she turned back around. "Get out."

《 ✢ 》

IRIS WAS 'HELPING' WINSTON WITH HIS JOB ON HER BREAK. She was just ranting to him while he worked and bossed people around. Every once in a while, she would kiss someone's cut or clean something up, but she was mostly just talking. At that moment, she was talking about her interaction with Jem. "I hate him. I hate him. I hate him."

"He's not that bad," he insisted. He had heard both sides of the fight, and neither of them had anything solid to back it up. Jem's argument was that she was too happy, and Iris's side was that he was an asshole that thought he was better than everyone. Winston noticed that he was an asshole to her, but he was really nice and friendly with everyone else. "He's actually a pretty good guy."

"He's a slinthead, and I hope that he trips and falls and embarasses himself in front of everyone," she told him, and a couple of the workers outside gave her weird looks because she was talking so loud. They were pretty used to her being around by then since she regularly came over to hang out with Winston and glare at Jem.

Winston's eyes widened jokingly as he chuckled because of her threat. She was too nice to say that she wanted him to die or get hurt, so she went for embarrassment instead. "Woah, way too far."

"No, it's not," she answered, clearly not understanding that he was making fun of her. She would never wish death on anyone because if they actually did die, she would feel incredibly guilty. So, she kept her threats very tame, and she knew that it would be extremely amusing if Jem embarrassed himself in front of the entire Glade. It would be a lot more satisfying than him dying. "He deserves it."

"I feel like you hate him a lot more than he hates you," Winston informed her, hoping that that might get her to calm down a bit.

She scoffed because of course it was true. He was an arrogant asshole that did not care about anyone but himself, and she was amazing. There were a good amount of people that did not like Jem, but he was the only one that seemed to have a problem with her, that she knew of, at least. "Obviously. He's an ass, and I'm funny and smart and awesome."

"Who you talking about?" an annoying voice asked, walking into the Hut. She rolled her eyes and glared at Winston because he had told her that Jem was on his break as well and would not be back for at least another twenty minutes. She was supposed to have a jerk-free discussion.

She answered, "None of your business."

"You," Winston informed him, and she slapped him on the shoulder for exposing her secret. Plus, the part that Jem must have heard was her complementing herself. So, he probably thought that she was talking about him when she said 'funny and smart and awesome.' No, he was not dumb. He knows that he's not funny and smart and awesome.

A smirk appeared on his face, and the sight of it made her blood boil. She hated when he was smug, especially when it was because of her. He raised his hands up in defense like he was getting ready to fight her off because she was fawning over him so much. "I know it's hard to contain how in love with me you are, princess, but give a guy some space."

"You wish I was in love with you," she scoffed, raising her hand so that she could flip him off. Winston smacked her hand down because he hated it when people made rude gestures in his work place, even if it was kind of funny.

"Oh, yes," he replied in the most monotone voice he could muster. The smirk remained in his face as he continued with her sarcastic comment while he went over to a bucket to clean his hands. "I can't count how many times I've thought about having someone as smart and funny and awesome as you."

She made a face and stuck her tongue out at him, and right before she grabbed a bone from the bucket and chucked it at him, Winston spoke up, putting his hands in between them so that they did not start fighting. "Okay, I think it's time for you to head back to work, Iris."