Free (Maze Runner fanfic Newtmas Newt x Thomas)

Chapter 30

Five weeks later

Exam time. Newt had to take a maths, English, and some sort of general IQ test, but there wasn't much elaboration as to what was on any of them. He didn't really study for them, he didn't know how, but he tried looking into things at the library because the things he needed to buy were so expensive. If he made it in it was going to be hard to afford uniform, especially after Thomas walked out.

A couple of the boys tried to find him, but in over a month nobody had managed to cross paths with him. They didn't know if he was living on the streets by himself, or if he'd already found himself somewhere else to live, in which would mean he didn't plan on coming back. Newt regretted the argument only a few days after it happened and helped the others trying to find him, but nobody knew where his work was either, not even a company name.

Newt arrived at the school with just a pen and pencil, he didn't know what else he should bring. He sat in the headmaster's office and they gave him the missing tools like a calculator, but the actual exam was set earlier in the year but they made an exception for him thanks to the story. Newt hoped to get a summer job now that he had free time, but he didn't know how much catching up there was to do.

The exams took all morning and slightly into the afternoon, but Newt was leaving just as the other students were coming outside for their lunch break. They hadn't been hard in the slightest, Newt remembered doing this stuff back at WICKED. Thomas had said they were chosen for certain reasons, but Newt was there on accident, so was he special like everyone else? The others were all child prodigies, and Newt had kept up with the work, so was he prodigy too? Then again, Thomas and Teresa were on top of the food chain, so just how smart were those two?

He was slowly making his way back to the flat, a little over a half hour walk since public transport wasn't worth the expense; not yet, anyway. He looked up, about to check where he was going but saw someone coming out of a shop just ahead instead; they were wearing sunglasses, a tee that had a few stains on it, and skinny jeans with some simple trainers. "Thomas?" He called and the person spun around, stopping their walking. "Wow, you look different."

"And you look the same." Thomas said through gritted teeth, clearly wanting to leave. "What do you want?"

"I-I.. I want to talk to you, if anything. Where have you been!? Everyone is worried about you! Are you on the streets? Why do you have sunglasses? What are those stains? Why are you still mad at me?"

Thomas sighed. "I'm on my lunch break, I don't have time to answer your questions."

"Then I'll walk back with you."

"No visitors."

"Then we can meet up! Thomas started walking away. "Tommy, please!" He stopped again, waiting for Newt to jog up beside him. "I just want to talk, please, let me do that if nothing else."

Thomas sighed, looking him up and down then seeing the pen and pencil in his hand. "Where have you been?"

"My school exam. Really easy."

"Hm. Good to hear.. Okay, fine. Meet me in our alley at 5:30, we can talk there."

"Why not just come back?"

"Do you want to talk or not?" Newt didn't answer. "I'll see you then."

~*~

Newt told everyone that he bumped into him, and they all wanted to go with him and bombard him with questions again, but Newt had to warn them that if anybody went with him then Thomas would probably just turn and leave, so they all gave him questions to ask in their places, but Newt planned to ask most of them anyway.