No Matter What - Book 1

Chapter 4

"FAWN!" Minho yelled and the girl instantly cringed when every head at the breakfast tables snapped up from their plates of eggs and toast, looking first to Minho who had just appeared at the tables, arms open wide as if expecting Fawn to run for a hug, before all eyes glued on her.

"What happened to you not telling anyone my name?" she told Minho, trying to hold back a smile as she planted her hands on her hips.

Minho put on a fake pouting face when Fawn moved to give him no hug but rather to poke his chest playfully. "Technically I didn't tell anyone your name... I just called you by your name."

Fawn threw my hands up in exasperation but not before Minho smirked and she turned around to see what he was looking at, only for every boy in the Glade to be staring at her with wide eyes or face splitting grins. A regular band of Cheshire cats!

"So, you chose a name!" Gally said, standing up to pat Fawn on the shoulder. "Should have stuck to Spitfire though."

Fawn smirked and shoved him, earning a chuckle from the boy before she returned to her seat between Alby and Winston, tucking into her eggs. Over the next thirty minutes of eating, almost every member of the glade came over and called her name, either just to say good morning, ask her a question or merely just saying her name. Fawn finally caught onto the fact that they were all testing out how it sounded.

"I think your choice suits you," Alby told her when he gave Winston a warning look when the boy called her name for the fifth time in two minutes.

Fawn smiled at him gratefully before she felt someone nudge her foot under the table and she lifted her eyes to Zart who was giving her a mischievous look.

"What?" Fawn whispered, concerned.

"Did you know that I put six names in that jar?" he asked in a low voice so only Minho, Alby and Fawn could hear since the others were all talking to each other.

Her eyes widened, "Indeed? I think everyone put a few ideas in there."

"All but one," Zart whispered. "Newt only put one name in the jar."

Fawn frowned, tilting her head to the side, "Which one?"

Zart just gave her a grin like he had just peed his pants and was proud of it and she realized what he was hinting at. "He was the one who suggested Fawn?"

The boy nodded and she felt her cheeks heat up before Minho and Alby looked at her with knowing smirks on my face.

"Oh, shut up," Fawn muttered.

"We didn't say anything," Minho pointed out.

After finishing breakfast, she headed to the Bloodhouse to make sure the animals had feed before she herded the goats to the small stretch of forest. According to Winston, they had discovered about a year ago that when the goats trampled through the woods and ate the undergrowth, it killed the small brush growing there which then meant that the dead plants composted the earth better and with the goats trapsing around the woods, it helped beat up the hard chunks of earth.

Opening the goat pen, she gently shooed the four goats out of the pen and toward the woods. The four creatures had just begun to nibble around when Fawn sat down against a nearby tree to watch them. She heard a stick snap behind her, and she leapt up on instinct, only for a quick apology to escape a familiar person.

"Newt!" She said, sighing in relief. "You scared me!"

The boy grinned sheepishly before coming to stand over her, "I just came to grab some compost. Mind if I sit?"