𝐁𝐄𝐂𝐀𝐔𝐒𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 - 𝘔𝘈𝘡𝘌 𝘙𝘜𝘕𝘕𝘌𝘙

16 ~ 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜

Lottie

 A few days later, Minho shook me awake at the crack of dawn. "What?" I grumbled, stuffing my face into my pillow.

"Training starts today, shank," he said.

"Can't it start later? Like... in an hour?" I whined.

"Nope. Get up, or I'll flip your hammock."

I sighed, ignoring him, snuggling back into my blanket. I felt a lurch from my left, and I fell out of the hammock, landing hard on the ground. I stumbled to my feet, spitting dirt out of my mouth, and looked incredulously up at Minho. "What the-"

"I warned you," he said smugly. "C'mon. We'll be first in line for breakfast."

"Yeah. That makes up for everything," I muttered, but I followed him to the kitchen.

"You're never up this early!" Frypan said in shock when he saw me walk in.

"I know!" I exclaimed, yawning. "But this slinthead pushed me out of my hammock!" I poked Minho in the back and caught the apple Frypan tossed me with my other hand.

"No big breakfasts anymore," Minho explained. "If you eat too much then it gives you a stomachache when you run."

I huffed and took a large bite out of my apple. "Guess I'm going to have to starve. Who knew that I would have to do that to be a Runner?"

"Don't even start," Minho warned. "You're the one who annoyed us all for weeks until we let you be a Runner."

"What are you going to do about it?" I fired back. "Anyway. Are we going out into the Maze today?" I looked up at the stone walls.

"Nah, not yet. I'll have you start with running a few laps around the Glade." Minho replied. I raised my eyebrows. "Don't look at me like that," he said. "We know you're fast, but we have to see if you have good stamina."

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

After breakfast, we met in front of the Maze Door. "Alright. Take a few laps around the Glade. Run as long as you can, and I'll see what you're made of," Minho said. "Whenever you're ready."

I took a deep breath, rolled up my sleeves, and took off at a pace halfway between a run and a jog. I passed the Gardens, where the Track-hoes were still trying to wake up. Many of them waved to me as I passed, yawning widely and rubbing their eyes. Newt was helping Zart reach a cucumber that was too high up for him to reach. Newt laughed as he handed Zart the cucumber. Zart scowled; he hated being the short one. I giggled silently.

I passed the Builders' corner. Most of them didn't look up, but Alex did, and waved at me with a hammer. He whistled his support, eccentric, as always. Julian, who had been assigned to be a Builder a few weeks ago, looked up from his work to see what Alex was waving at. When he spotted me, he gave a thumbs up and a cheer. I grinned back.

I jogged past the Bloodhouse. Mitch spotted me and ducked outside to watch. Bark slipped between his legs and raced towards me. I paused for a second to pet him, and then continued to run. I soon arrived back where I started. "Keep it up, you're doing good," Minho told me as I ran past him. I barely spared him a glance as I kept going. I ended up doing three exhausting laps around the Glade before Minho told me to stop.

"You're doing good, but you'll have to get a lot better if we're gonna let you in the Maze." He said, and tossed me a full water bottle. I caught it gratefully but rolled my eyes. "But now we'll test your acceleration. We have to make sure that you'll be able to get away from a Griever if you're attacked. Ready?" I stood up, putting down the water I'd just chugged. "When I say "go", you increase your speed."