𝐏𝐀𝐈𝐍 & 𝐄𝐂𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐘-𝙜𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮

EIGHT

-Gally-
God, I was so stupid. Why don't I ever think when I'm talking to her? It's like everything I think has to come out of my shuck mouth. "And you don't really have to sleep in shorts." What is wrong with me? It made her so uncomfortable. But at least now she wasn't complaining about dirty clothes and was sleeping soundly.

As soon as I had laid down, I turned my back to her and pretended like I had fallen asleep. I didn't move until I was certain that she had fallen asleep. At first, it was a small peak over my shoulder and then when I saw that she was facing me and her eyes were closed, I laid fully on my back.

Her face looked younger, eyelashes practically resting on her high cheekbones. Her pale cheek was marred with red marks from when she was sleeping on her other side, imprinted from the blanket I was sure. She liked to sleep with it close to her face.

I found myself smiling and refrained from slapping myself. She was just another Glader. Though, she wasn't really, was she? I told her she was a person to me. I would have to think of her that way. Her being the most beautiful thing I've seen ever doesn't help with my resolve. I couldn't even picture her as ugly.

She shifted and groaned and I feared she might wake up, but she just turned away from me and took most of her blanket with her. My eyes widened and I felt my cheeks grow hot as I realized, her whole backside was now uncovered. If I left it like this and pretended like I didn't see anything, she's going to wake up tomorrow and still be embarrassed, but if I was to cover her up, she wouldn't have been none-the-wiser.

Right, I'm doing this for her benefit. I got up on my knees and grabbed the blanket, pinching it between my fingers so I didn't accidentally touch her and pulled the blanket down. Once she was fully covered, I sighed. Mission accomplished.

She groaned again, turning until she was on her back. "Gally?" She gasped out my name and I was ready to spew out apologies and excuses until I realized she was still asleep. This girl knew how to give heart attacks, even while she was sleeping. And she was dreaming about me. I was glad she wasn't awake to see me blush.

I let out a breath and moved to lay back down, but the sounds of shuffling stopped me. I turned back to Florence and saw that she was actually awake this time and sitting up.

"You okay Flor?" I had heard Fry call her that and thought it was cute. Her face was pulled into a frown and I can see the tears in her eyes. They glowed as they fell down her face. I moved closer to her, wiping her tears and putting her hair behind her ear so I could see her face better. "Hey?"

She sniffled and turned her head to look at me. It was weird she had a look of happiness and sadness on her face. "I think I had a sister."

I smiled. "Hey, that's great. Do you remember his name?"

She bit her lip and frowned. "I don't."

-Florence-
A couple days passed by and I continued on with my tryouts. Med-jacks were next and I found that I had a knack for it. Clint said that he would consider me. After them was Cooks. I was good at cleaning up, but cooking itself...not so much. Frypan had sent me out, rag flapping the smoke out of the small kitchen, when I almost burnt down the whole shack. Alby sent me with the Sloppers for the rest of the day.

It was gruesome work and I didn't envy the poor shucks who found themselves with this job. It was basically the Glades maid. I knew that if the boys were able to say something, then they would definitely mock me, but thankfully they said nothing. Or at least not when I was around.

At least now I had a chance to wash my clothes.

When the box had come with the supplies, I was shocked to find that I already had a bag full of clothes waiting for me. I wouldn't have to wait for another week to get new clothes. It came with spare shorts, jeans, underwear, and even hair ties.

My hair wasn't really long, but it did get in the way when I was working. I was glad I had something to hold it back. I had many compliments about my hair being up, even some suggesting it looked better down, but I didn't mind them. Whatever kept me less hot.

There wasn't really a keeper of the Sloppers, so Newt took the liberty to show me what needed to be done. Mostly, boys took to washing their own clothes-if they even did that at all-so I didn't have to worry about that, but the restrooms and the shower had to be cleaned.

To say I was disgusted when he showed me the toilets and showers was an understatement. It was like it hadn't been clean since they were installed and no one had taken the initiative to keep them that way. I looked at Newt, silently pleading with him that I didn't have to clean them, he just gave me an apologetic smile. "You can shower afterwards."

I just nodded and he left me to work.
I grumbled the whole time about the boys being nasty shanks and spent almost the whole day cleaning them. But when I was done, I smiled in pride. It didn't smell as bad here, but when I took one whiff of my shirt, I gagged. Oh yeah, I need a shower.

I found Newt walking to dinner and asked him if he could grab me a pair of clothes. "I don't want to stink up the hut." He rolled his eyes but smiled and walked with me to Gally's hut.

I waited outside as I told him where my bag of clothes was. He grabbed it and opened Gally's trunk to pull out a towel. "How did you know he had a towel in there?" I asked him as we walked back to the showers.

"Not my first time having to grab a towel from there." He blushed and it confused me. But I didn't question it.

"So he does shower?" I joked.

Newt laughed. "On occasion I suppose."

When we got to the showers he stood outside. "You did a good job in here."

"Thank you." I walked in and put my clothes on the bench that ran in between the wall of showers and lockers.

"I'll wait out here and make sure nobody tries to come in."

"Thanks Newt." I grabbed clothes out, set them next to my bag and grabbed the towel. The water was cold when it first came out and took a couple minutes to turn warm.

I let the water run down my body and when I lathered my hands with soap, I noticed I had a pink scar that ran down from my belly button to my pubic bone. I frowned and traced it. Where did I get that from and how did I not notice it before? I guess I never had changed in the light before.

I finished washing myself and turned off the water, drying myself off. Before I changed into my clean clothes, I decided to wash my dirty ones, trying not to wet myself too much. I wrung them out and laid them flat on the bench.

I got dressed and gathered my things. Newt was still waiting for me at the door and smiled when he saw me. "Look at you, all fresh and clean."

"You should try it." I wrinkled my nose at him.

He just laughed. Then he saw I was carrying my wet clothes. "I'll take your stuff and put it away. Meet me at the Kitchens."

"Okay." He took my stuff and headed for the hut. I went to the drying area and hung my clothes on the rope they tied between two trees by the Deadheads. As I was turning to leave I heard something snap in the woods. I snapped my head towards the sound, a wave of fear coming over me.

I tried to rationalize the sound, maybe an animal, or a tree branch falling off the tree. Neither seemed likely.

As I was turning back again I bumped into someone. I apologized and looked up. It was Jackson.