Before Her

Jane 9

Jane
Nightmares, I squeeze my eyes shut refusing to open them. I didn't want to open them and realise I was still dreaming. But this was a nice dream. It was warm. It took me minute to remember why I was so warm.

The blankets were thrown over me, but that wasn't what was so warm. My eyes were still shut, my cheek pressed against something hard, but warm and soft. It was rising and falling steadily. My arms were wrapped around it. My hand curled into a fist around soft fabric.

An arm was wrapped around me keeping me close, someone was playing with my hair. I inhaled, sweet, yet bitter, mixed with sweat. With a gasp I realise who it is, and sit up instantly.

Newt. He looked surprised by my sudden movement. His hand was now lightly touching my waist. Heat rushed up to my cheeks and I remember why he was here. In an instant, I am aware that we were in bed together, and that we were hugging each other, and that the only things I was wearing were his thin t-shirt and lose pants.

He was still lying down, looking up at me with his adorable brown eyes. The cool air licked my bare skin and I missed his warmth. I rubbed my arms and tried to get them to warm up.

Suddenly a horribly loud sound came out of nowhere. It was annoyingly loud and hurt my ears. I jumped while Newt didn't even react.
'What's that?'
'It's the box.'
'Someone new is coming?'
'No, it's too early, it's probably the supplies.'
'Oh.'
Newt looked at me strangely, almost worried.
'We gotta go,' he says with a sigh.
I scramble over him, falling off the bed before picking my self up and running out of the room, grabbing his jumper along the way.

~~~

Most of the gladers were already crowded around the box. I somehow managed to get to the front. The top was open and inside the box was Alby handing bags to the other boys. Then he moved to the other side, and stopped. There was a medium sized bag with a note on it.

Alby picked up the note and read aloud,
'Jane,' he said with a grin before, throwing the bag up to me. Alby like me had hoped they would send up some clothes for me. I grabbed the bag and raced back to Newt's room. Luckily he was out.

I shut the door behind me and placed the bag on the bed. Inside were clothes that most gladers had, underwear, thin shirts and pants. No jackets or jumpers, I guess you had to earn them.

I tried them on anyway, glad to have clothes that at least wouldn't be so lose and big. First the pants, they fit me perfectly. Maybe a bit too perfectly, I missed the looseness. Then I grabbed a long sleeved blue shirt. Again, it fit too well. I turned around to the door and jumped. Newt was standing there with the door open, his eyes were wide.
'How, how long have you been standing there?' I stutter.
Newt hesitated, 'Umm, I just came in,' he ran his hand through his blonde hair. 'Alby told me to tell you that you'd be working with Frypan today. '

Working with Frypan was fun and also a lot of hard work. Every plate of food was measured to exactly the same amount, except for the runners plates which had a slightly more portion than everyone else. All day I ran through the kitchen and out to the track-hoes or the slicers then back, with some other cooks, and a list that Frypan had given us.

He'd learnt to send me with the collectors, after I'd almost burned down the whole building, which wasn't exactly my fault. Who knew oil and water weren't a good combination, when the were boiling? Anyways, I'd accidentally bumped into a brown haired boy, after oil had popped up, burning my hand, and he'd been lighting a fire, which resulted in him bumping into the wall, which had rules of the kitchen stuck on it. If it wasn't for Frypan's quick thinking, I think we'd all be quite well roasted, maybe a little burnt. Since the brown haired boy had burned his hand, I had offered to take his place, since it was supposed to be his shift, that night to hand out the food.

Tonight's menu had corn soup and chicken. As the sky turned pink, people started to line up. I handed people food with a smile, most stayed back to talk to me, until there wasn't enough room for others to get in and Frypan had to 'shoo' them out. After a while, the runners started to show up. I'd been here, not long, but I was able to recognise a few since the always came through the openings of the maze and out of the map room, and also because someone pointed them out to me so that I could give them bigger plates.

All the runners ate like pigs. They were all almost as tall as Newt, none taller, with big muscles and tired expressions. Each could drink five litres of water on the spot, and immediately started eating as soon as the plate was handed to him.

Newt walked in sweaty and hungry. I handed him his food, and immediately started eating, moving aside for others, after, five bites, he slows down.
'So, how was your day today?'
'I nearly burned the building down, apart from that it was great!' Newt laughs at my statement.
'I was actually pretty good at being a cook,' he says with a smile.
'Well, we can definitely cross cooking off my list, unless you wanna die,' Newt laughed again, jingle bells.

After a while, he moved away and went to sit with the other runners on a table that was reserved for the runners. I'd never noticed it before. He'd never sat there before. I continued handing out plates of food. Everyone smiled and tried to talk to me. I looked over at Newt's table, he was glaring at them, all the gladers that were crowding around the counter. Soon enough, Frypan came along and told everyone to move. Then they started piling up again until, Frypan came, it continued like that all night.