Born Again

Chapter sixteen

"Wake up," said a familiar voice.

Minho.

Thomas pretended not to hear him. It was way too early to be up. Maybe if he pretended to stay asleep, Minho would leave him alone.

He thought it had worked until a voice, much too close to his ear, yelled, "Wake up!"

Thomas jumped back in alarm, whacking his head against the wall in the process. Minho snickered.

Thomas sighed, rubbing his head. "There's this thing called privacy," he told his friend. "Ever heard of it?"

"Nope," Minho answered, making himself comfortable on Thomas' bed. At least he had the decency to take his shoes off first. "But Newt talks about it all the time."

Thomas snorted. "I wonder why. So what do you want now?"

"We're supposed to go running this morning," he answered, taking the pillow from under Thomas' head and using it for himself. "I came to wake you."

"We are?"

   "Yup," his friend answered, sitting up. "If you're going to make it on the team you have to be willing to push yourself. That includes running before school."

   Thomas had a strange, familiar feeling again. He didn't want to be on the track team. It seemed like a lot of work. He recalled not wanting to be a Runner for a brief period in his dreams. Though that was after he ran the Maze for the first time. He wondered why this feeling came early.

   "I don't know," Thomas said at last. "What if I don't want to be a Runner?"

   Minho looked so crestfallen Thomas immediately wanted to take back his words. Instead, he waited to see what his friend's reaction would be before he made an permanent decisions.

"Just try it once?" He begged, jutting out his bottom lip and clasping his hands. "Please?"

Thomas sighed. Minho's expression was not convincing but he was a runner in his dreams. Plus, there was nothing wrong with trying. "I guess," he said at last. "Just once."

Minho beamed. "It's going to be great. I promise."

~~~

It wasn't great.

"You," Thomas gasped after nearly an hour of running. "Do this . . . every morning?"

"Except weekends," Minho answered, still keeping up a steady pace as Thomas was flailing behind. "And holidays."

"I need a break," Thomas called, sweat drenching him from head to toe.

Minho immediately stopped, making Thomas run into him and fall back on to the ground. He decided to stay on the floor as he caught his breath. Minho stood over him with a sympathetic smile.

"I guess you won't be joining the track team, huh?"

"What?" Thomas asked, sitting up. "Are you kidding? This is great! Exhausting, yes, but great! I'll join if you guys will still take me."

Minho sympathetic smile turned into a genuine one. "Awesome! I'll talk to Alby about getting you on the team in such short notice but you're so in." He reached out a hand to help Thomas up. "What made you change your mind?"

Thomas accepted the hand, pulling himself to his feet. "I dunno. Just the feeling of it, I guess. It's exhausting but it feels right somehow. Like I was born to do it."

"That you were," Minho agreed. "Anyway we should get going. Alby asked us to come put up his posters before class starts."

"Oh," Thomas said. "Is that why you woke me up at 5:00?"

"Yup," he answered. "Now, come on." He took off back down the street, in the direction of school.

Thomas took a deep breath, mentally apologizing to his lungs and legs and pretty much every other part of his body before taking off after his friend.

At their pace, it only took a few minutes to get to school. Since it was still early, barely anybody was inside. ("Except for those nerds in the library," Minho added to which Thomas rolled his eyes. He used to be one of those library nerds. Or he still was. But he didn't tell Minho that.)

After walking around inside, the boys found a line of Alby's posters on the lockers. They followed them until they found a young blonde girl taping them up.

The girl looked familiar but Thomas couldn't place who she was. "Who is—"

"Sonya!" Minho said happily, cutting him off. "How's my favorite sister of Newt's?"

Sonya rolled her eyes. "Only sister," she said with the same British accent as Newt. "And she's fine. Thank you very much. Anyway, aren't you going to introduce me to your friend?"

"Sonya, Thomas," Minho introduced. "Thomas, Sonya."

Thomas shook her hand. "Nice to meet you."

"You too," she smiled genuinely. "Anyway, Newt probably needs help. He's on the other side of the school with a huge stack of posters. My brother claimed he could carry them all. I'd be shocked if he hasn't dropped them yet."

Minho laughed. "Thomas can go. I'll help Sonya."

"Oh, joy," she said sarcastically, returning to her poster hanging. "Quality time with The Big-Headed Minho."

"At least I'm a not a loud mouth," Minho teased back. He turned and elbowed Thomas with a grin. "She's like a little sister to me. It's great, I can tease her whenever I like and she doesn't mind."

"Yes, I do," she said, shooting him a glare.

Minho just laughed as Thomas shared an eye roll with Sonya. At least they both had the annoying Minho problem in common.

"Alright," Thomas agreed. "I'll see you guys later." He took off with a wave over his shoulder.

~~~

Thomas found Newt on the floor, trying to clean up the pile of papers he spilled.

Thomas grinned. Sonya was right.

"Need any help?" He asked.

Newt looked up, slightly startled until he saw who it was. He nodded before looking down again. "Yeah. Thanks, Tommy."

"No problem."

The two finished stacking the papers before divided them into two piles. One for each boy to carry.

Newt handed Thomas a roll of tape as he began hanging up the posters. "Sonya even told me not to take so many," he admitted. "Should've listened to her."

Thomas snickered. "Yeah probably."

Newt rolled his eyes slightly. "Anyway, about your dreams again. I was wondering—"

"It doesn't always have to be all about my dreams," Thomas interrupted, feeling slightly exasperated. He almost wished he hadn't told Newt about them. "We can talk about other things, you know."

"Yeah?" Newt said. "Like what?"

"I don't know. School?"

"You really want to talk about school?" Newt asked with an amused grin.

Thomas sighed. "I guess not."

The blonde chuckled. "That's what I thought. Anyway, I was wondering if you've seen any similarities recently. Ya know, since the thing with Minho was different."

Thomas shrugged. "Sort of."

Newt arched an eyebrow at Thomas, implying for him to continue.

Thomas pointed to the poster he'd just hung up. "Well, for one thing, I know Alby's going to win."

Newt smiled, taping another paper in place. "I could've told you that, Tommy. No futuristic dreams required."