*twenty-six months later*

The blaring alarm of the box wakes me. Great, a new Greenie.

There are twenty-seven of us now, although I'm still the only girl. Greenies are what we started calling the newbies that come up from the box, I don't really know why.

I jog to the box, grabbing the ladder and rope on the way.

"What's up." I say to Newt, my best friend and the guy I've been in love with for months.

"Hey," he says in his funny British accent, giving me a friendly smile. Newt's smile is one of the best things in this goddam maze.

I fasten my ladder to the hinge and poke my head over the edge of the box, taking a look at the Greenie.

"Where am I?" He asks.

"Welcome to the Glade," I say, "I am (Y/N)."

"Right," he says, "my name is Chuck."

Chuck looks to be the youngest Greenie we've ever had, probably around 12-13

"Can I have a hand getting out of here?" he asks, and I realise I was staring at him.

"Right, yes, sorry." I say, tossing one end of the rope down, "you'll need to help us get the supplies up first, it's easiest this way. Just tie that end around them and we'll pull them up."

He does so and we all work to pull the supplies up. When we're done I let the ladder unravel and Newt climbs up it, taking my hand when I offer to help him up. I give him a firm hand shake and he returns it.

"Before you say anything," Alby says, "(Y/N) is our great leader and her word is law."

"Alby I'm not-"

"Shhhhhhh you are." Grins Minho and I roll my eyes.

"Just go do your jobs, I'll show him round."

"So," I say as we walk towards the barn, "This is the Glade." He nods, "This is where we eat, sleep, work and basically just live. As you can see we are surrounded by walls, which lead to a giant Maze. At the moment-"

"Wait," Chuck interrupts me, "did you say a giant maze?"

"That I did, now anyway,"

"No wait," he says and I turn to where he's stopped, a little line wrinkling his forehead, "how big are we talking?"

"Thousands of kilometres. I will explain if you let me."

"Woah." He whispers, and I find that despite  myself, I already find that I really like this guy.

"Um yes, right, giant maze. We're surrounded, but some of the less-sane shanks in here explore it during the day." I grin and Chuck smiles tentatively too. "We all have jobs, that's how this thing works. For example, I do the gardens."

Chuck nods, and we come to the gardens.

"These are the gardens, we grow all our food here, nice and fresh."

"Did you grow all this?" Chuck asks, and I shake my head.

"Nah, it was all here when I came up."

"Huh, that's cool."

"Yeah," I say, "and we can write down stuff we want on a bit of paper when the box goes down and it's in the next week's supplies. Once," I grin, "when I first got here I asked for a fridge for the milk, egg, meat you know, but I just got an eksy which isn't too bad. Minho wanted a television too, but they didn't give us that."

Chuck laughs and I keep going.

"Right, bloodhouse next." We walk to the barn and I show him the animals, we have some new piglets which is good.

"This is where all the animals are, so it takes a bit of a stomach since you're constantly cleaning up. Sometimes we kill a chicken, but we mainly use them for eggs. We sheer the sheep too, so we can use the wool."

We continue the tour until I've shown Chuck everything, but by then it's lunchtime anyway so we head to the kitchen. It's Gally's turn to cook, so we've got some chill time. I grab Chuck a glass of water, and he thanks me.

Gally made sandwiches for lunch which are some of my favourite food.

As we sit around on the grass, Minho plops down next to where I'm sitting with Chuck.

"So," he says around a mouthful of food, "what do you think Greenie? (Y/N) not talking your ears off?"

Newt looks from me to Minho, but I pretend that my sandwich is the most fascinating thing I've ever come across, trying to hold in a laugh.

"Uh," says Chuck, obviously not entirely sure what to say.

"It's ok," I say though my laughter, "Minho's just being a slinthead." I wack the back of his head with my plate as I say it and, Minho being the dramatic piece of klunk that he is, falls onto the ground and lies there, clutching his head and moaning.

"Ow... (Y/N) what the shuck!"

"It's a bendy plastic plate it isn't going to hurt you." I say, completely remorseless. Minho sits up and nods to Chuck.

"You see Greenie," he says, "don't cross (Y/N). Bloody violent shank she is."

I feign hurt.

"Wouldn't dream of it." Chuck says, taking another bite of his sandwich. We manage to keep straight faces for about five seconds before we all burst out laughing.

The rest of the day goes quickly, with Chuck working in the gardens with me since he doesn't really have an assigned job yet.

It's my turn on dinner so I just fry some vegetables, but everyone seems to be ok with that.

A while ago, we worked out how to make alcohol. It tastes pretty bad but we all drink it anyway, and tonight we pass a bottle of the stuff around.

The fire that used to be a pile of sticks in a ring of stones is now a bonfire, and we all stand or sit around it or on the logs near it.

I slide down next to Newt and pass him a cup of moonshine.

"What's the new Greenie like?" he asks, and I lean back against the log behind us, tilting my head to see the stars.

"To be honest, really sweet. But like, in a little kid way. He talks a lot and is kind of annoying, but I like him, he's ok."

"Hmm," Newt says in response and I sit up, turning to face him.

"Newt what's wrong?"

"Nothing, why?"

"Newt, I know when you're lying, what's up?"

He sighs, then turns so we're sitting opposite each other. "How do you stay so happy and upbeat in here? I mean we're stuck in a bloody maze with monsters outside the walls and mysterious creators who watch our every move, I mean why are we here? What did we do?"

"Hey," I say gently, resting a hand on his shoulder, "we're going to find a way out of this, I promise. And the Grievers suck, and it's annoying that someone's watching us, but there are good things too! Like here," I gesture to the bonfire, "with all these idiots."

Newt looks me in the eyes then his eyes flicker down to my lips. He moves closer to me and puts one hand on the side of my face, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. My heart's beating almost as fast as when I first woke up in the box, and I lean forward, his warm breath tickling my face. Our lips meet, and I pull closer, the hand that I have on his shoulder going around the back of his neck. My other hand presses into the soft ground, steadying me as I kiss him.

A whoop from the fire interrupts us and I jump back, looking to see who it is. Minho and Alby stand there clapping slowly, grinning from ear to ear.

"Finally (Y/N)!" Alby shouts, "we were waiting for that to happen!"

"Go find something better to do with yourselves!" I yell back, hoping the fire will hide how red my face is.

"If you say so," Minho laughs and turns away, giving me a mocking salute.

I slide down behind the log, pulling my shirt up to cover my face and groaning.

"(Y/N) listen I-" Newt starts, then stops and swallows. "I'm sorry I wasn't thinking properly I just kinda..." he trails off.

"Hey, it's ok," I say through my shirt, "I have absolutely zero problems with it."

"Really?" asks dryly, "because that's not how it looks from here." I glance at him, but he's smiling. I pull my shirt away from my face and smile tentatively back. My back's hurting where I'm sitting now so I pull myself up into a proper position.

I swirl my drink around in the cup and take another small sip, trying not to look at Newt. I fail, glancing sideways to see that he's already looking at me. I look down again quickly, but can't resist peaking at him again. He catches my eye and we smile at each other. I look away again.

"This is so awkward." I mutter, and he laughs, making me smile.

"Can't disagree with you there."

I jump up, grabbing his almost empty cup and downing the last mouthful. "We need more alcohol." I announce.

"Well now that you've just drunk the last of mine we do!"

I grin and go find the bottle.

Gally has it, so I make my way over to him and take it out of his hands with a wink.

"Gotta admit (Y/N), never thought you two were going to get together." He says as I pour the cups full.

"What do you mean?" I ask, trying to avoid his eyes. Gally laughs.

"Have you any idea how annoying it is when two people obviously like each other but they just skirting around each other like a pair of opposing magnets!"

"Wow," I say, handing back the bottle, "you're so poetic. Now, if you'll excuse me." I make my back to where Newt is watching and smile.

I take a seat next to him raise my cup.

"To plastic cups and crappy alcohol!" I say, and he laughs.

"I'll drink to that."

As I take a sip, I have a thought.

"You know," I say, "we're probably not even over the legal drinking age." He shrugs.

"Shuck the rules, we don't even know how old we are!"

"We can guess though, I recon you look about 17." Newt considers me carefully.

"I's say you're 16-17, either way." I shrug.

"What does it matter anyway, like you said, shuck the rules!" I take another mouthful of my drink then put down the cup. I look up at the stars, twinkling brightly in the sky. It's a new moon, just like it is whenever a newbie comes up in the box. I drink the rest of my cup then set it down next to me.

Newt does the same and I turn my head to look at him.

"What?" he asks.

"You're beautiful." I tell him, then move close to him and kiss him on the forehead. He puts a hand around the back of my head in my slightly knotty hair and kisses my lips, softly at first then more forcefully. I kiss him back, just as hard. His hands move from my hair down my back and around my waist, pulling me closer. I don't resist. I pull back for air then kiss him again. He loses his balance and falls over backwards but neither of us care much. I place a hand on his chest, moving upwards to his neck and in his soft blond hair. He runs his hand up my side and around my shoulders, holding my body close to his. We break apart and I look at him, the firelight catching his hair and making it look like a halo.

I yawn, I'm so tired. I rest my head on his chest, right over his heart where I can hear it beating. He strokes my hair, an arm still around my shoulders. The other Gladers continue to shout and talk pretty late, and combined with the fire they almost mask the sounds of the Grievers out in the maze.

Nice long one this time xo