Greenie?
The boy stretched out a large hand. "I'm Alby. Leader of this place."
I didn't know how to respond to that. Leader? The Glade? Greenie? What is this kid talking about? Should I trust him? My thoughts kept turning back to the other boys, calling dibs on me and debating whether I was "hot". For all I knew, these kids could have kidnapped hundreds of other girls. My eyes flickered to the boy's outstretched hand. Should I shake it? After a moment of hesitation, I ignored it and looked him in the face, matching his stony expression. "Where the hell am I?"
The boy, Alby, retracted his hand with a look of annoyance. "Well," he said, "it's our home."
"Then why am I here?" I started breathing hard, panic threading its way to the surface of my mind. "How did I--"
"Slim it, Greenie." This time, it was the other boy who spoke, the one with golden-brown hair. He was at least a few inches taller than Alby, although he looked about a year younger, and had a slight smile on his youthful face. "We've all been through it. Waking up in the Box with bloody amnesia. It'll be fine."
Bloody amnesia, I thought, refusing to calm down. What an accurate way to describe the hell I'm going through. It was worse than that. Yes, I'd woken up with no memory, but none of these boys had been surrounded by all girls. And what was it with all these strange words and phrases? Shuck. Shank. I turned back to Alby. "Why can't I remember anything?"
He sighed. "It was the same for all of us. Woke up in the Box, couldn't remember a shucking thing. Every month, a new boy shows up." He ran an observant eye over my face, frowning. "Except... We ain't never had a girl show up in the Box before. We don't know why you're here."
"Maybe the Creators sent her so we can repopulate the Glade!" some idiot shouted.
His words were met by laughter. I clenched and unclenched my fists at my sides, aching to bash the boy's teeth down his stupid throat. "Shut up!" I snarled. "I'm not repopulating for you dickheads."
More laughter. The boy who had spoken raised his extremely angular eyebrows mockingly. "Why else would they have sent you here?" he challenged. "For decoration?"
Without thinking, I walked over to him, furious at his sexism, and punched him in the face. Eyebrows cried out and stumbled backwards, clutching his large nose. I fumed and stepped towards him. All I wanted right now was to kick his balls into his throat. And I would have done just that if Alby hadn't grabbed my shoulders. I struggled to break free, to get rid of the only obstacle between me and killing that boy's manhood, but as I'd expected, I was no match for Alby and his giant muscles. He glared at me, breathing through his nose.
"We have three rules," he said. "One of them is to never harm another Glader. If you accidentally kill someone, I'll throw ya off the Cliff myself."
I didn't particularly care what the Cliff was right now. Eyebrows had pissed me off."Oh, yeah?" I spit. "What if one of these morons tries to--"
"Then they'll be Banished," Alby hissed. "Now promise you won't break the rule! No more punching other Gladers like that!"
"I--"
"Promise!"
Sighing angrily, I ripped myself free from his iron grip. I didn't want to promise that I wouldn't kill one of these guys, but if I didn't... An empty promise, then, I told myself. I didn't have to keep it if one of these idiots made a move on me. I glared at Alby. "I promise, okay? Now give me some answers!" I stopped, then asked, "What are the other rules?"
