She-bean Genius

Track-hoe or Track-HOE?

Inside a large grey room, children ran around shouting at each other as they played. Against the corner of one of the walls Elliot sat under the watchful eyes of a guard, the word WICKED sewn into his red and black uniform. A hanayama hourglass gripped tightly in her small, pale hands. Tongue stuck out the corner of her mouth in concentration, eyebrows furrowing as she huffed her frustration into the cool room.

"Do you think you'll find a solution bringing it apart with your hands wound so tightly around it?" An amused female voice asked. Elliot turned to face the older women, whose blonde hair was pulled back in a neat bun, dressed in all white. Crystalline blue eyes stared intently down into her silver ones, clearly waiting for a response.

"Sorry," muttering, her face turned down, staring blankly at the pieces of connected metal in her hands.

"Come Elliot, you can return to your puzzle after our session, yes?" The women didn't wait for a response this time, white heels clicking on the concrete tiles. Elliot shot up, quick to follow as she was told only to trip over the metal brace wound tightly 'round her ankle, she braced herself, arms sprawled out to cushion her fall..

Thump

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Elliot jerked awake, wincing, her right hand brought up to cradle the side of her head, her left brushing over her ankle. It took a minute to get her bearings before she realized she was no longer on her comfy hammock, but rather on the hard dirt floor underneath, having fallen out at some point. She was quick to stand, gripping the rope holding her hammock up as her head throbbed, a headache setting in, an obvious rebuke for banging it against the floor in her sleep riddled haze.

The dream she had, quickly slipping from her mind, trying to hold on to pieces of it only made her head throb even worse.

Elliot stumbled over a pile of blankets left hazardously in the middle of the space between her and Zarts empty hammocks. The Keeper no where in sight. Neither was Aron.

The redhead greeted Frypan, a brief conversation taking place as she scarfed down the eggs, bacon and biscuit he had given her, before setting of the garden. She greeted Eden as he passed by in a rush, holding several grease covered plates, a little surprised by how strong the boy actually was seeing as he was pretty scrawny lookin'.

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Finally making it to the gardens she wasted no time grabbing an empty bucket and settling down next to Newt, Zart sitting a ways away. The two boys had already been conversing when she got there so she simply greeted both of them before getting to work. About halfway through peeling her 12th potato she realized newt was trying to get her attention.

"Such focus peeling potatoes, you didn't even hear me. You sure made yourself comfortable here pretty quickly, might not even need a buggin' Keepers gathering at this rate," he teased.

"What else can I do," the girl questioned, staring intently at the boy as if his face would offer some sort of alternate solution to just settling the hell down there and making the best of what she was given. "Not much else, I know that. I gotta keep myself busy or I'll go crazy, pretty sure cryin' myself to sleep every night won't give us girls a good rep. Gotta make sure you boys know I won't freak the hell out and whine the whole time or i'm done for."

Zart stopped weeding his area to look up at the girl, seeming as taken aback as Newt did.

"They're not like that, you know. You ain't got nothin' to be worried 'bout, half of us where that exact way when we got here. Cryin our eyes out and nightmares where a reoccurring thing around here. Only the jacked slintheads would bug ya' for your whinin." Zart said, pointedly motioning to the builders at the last bit as Newt nodded his head in agreement.

"Shanks right, I've been here as long as any. Builders will probably give you the most klunk but they where the whiniest ones of 'em' all. They give you klunk for it, i'll happily tell you what there first few weeks here were like, that'll make them slim it nice n' quick," he huffed, grinning at Elliot in a way that made her think he would probably be happy telling her about it regardless. She smiled nonetheless, appreciation filling her for both males.

"Hey, sorry for being all out of it before," she hastily apologized, looking at Newt, who cocked his head, brow raising in confusion. "When you where showing me around.." she awkwardly trailed off at the end, shifting uncomfortably. Something in her mind told her she wasn't very good at apologizing, but Newt only waved her off,

"All done and forgotten She-bean."

Elliot left it at that, not gonna push for more if it wasn't needed, and with that the three of them got back to work, small talk starting up as a nice breeze swept through the Glade, cool on her sweat covered skin.

They worked well into the afternoon before joining Aron, Winston, Eden, Fry and a young boy named Chuck, who she  figured was probably the youngest Glader, for lunch. Newt and a pretty, whiskey eyed boy named Thomas(whose face just screamed 'i'm a walking disaster dressed as a human puppy') or in Newts case Tommy, joining them near the end of there meals. Elliot silently wondered if he was the 'Thomas' that girl had been mumbling about.

The large concrete doors creaked shut as they had the night before and the day quickly came to an end. Newt dragged her off before bed to a section of one of the walls to carve her name into it, having forgotten to before. She didn't know why as he was pretty hush-hush about it, but she did hear 'bloody Tommy' more than a few times amidst his half-assed excuses.

That marked the night she went to sleep, for the first time feeling like a true Glader.