Ineffable | Newt

5.

Katie rushed around the kitchen. It was her day to make the lunches for the runners, and she may have slept in a bit by accident. Other than the patter of her feet and the bubbling of the oatmeal for breakfast, the Glade was silent. The sun had not yet risen, and the runners hadn't come for their sandwiches yet.

Frypan and the other kitchen helpers were still fast asleep; tomorrow would be Fred's day to make the lunches, then Dart, then Frypan.

She mentally repeated the Runners' preferences and arranged the sandwiches in an order she could remember.Although Katie had been in the glade for three weeks now, she should have remembered their orders by now.

When Katie finished, the sun was just barely kissing the ground as it rose, the glade was coated with an orange tint, and shadows became giants along the grass. Katie stacked the sandwiches like a tower, all wrapped in paper and tied, then placed her hands underneath and her chin on top to balance them. She moved towards the counter and placed them down in order.

Minho... Brian... Jorge... she went through all the boys and smiled to herself when she thought she had it all figured out.

Then Katie grabbed the pot of oatmeal and some bowls for the runners and poured one bowl for each sandwich.

A few minutes later, the runners started approaching, placing things on their vests and rubbing sleep out of their eyes. They all greeted Katie at the kitchens with a tired smile as she handed them their breakfasts and lunches, which they ate surprisingly quickly.

"Hey, Princess of the Glade." Minho rustled his hair and walked up to the counter. "Is my sandwich chicken today?"

Katie giggled a little at Minho and handed him the sandwich and bowl designated for him. He took it and placed it in a compartment on his back, then began eating his oatmeal.

Katie nodded proudly and gave the last sandwich to the last runner. Minho smiled at her and looked around the glade.

"There's still a bit until Fry comes to start breakfast," he said to Katie, setting down his empty bowl."Wanna come see us off?"

Katie thought the runners had already finished their breakfast and were ready. To be honest, Katie had never been to the maze entrance; it scared her like so many other things in the Glade. But she didn't want to disappoint Minho, so she nodded her head.

Minho beamed and gathered up the boys as they walked—and Katie jogged—toward the maze entrance. It was still closed, but they all knew it would open soon, and that's when everyone would start to wake up. By the time they reached the doors, Katie was panting slightly, both from being out of breath and at the thought of the maze.

"We should be opening any second now." Minho addressed the runners as they all began to prepare. "Remember your routes and partners, and split off sections."

A low moan could be heard in the ground a few seconds later.The dirt around them rumbled, and Katie, like usual, grabbed onto the nearest person. Minho laughed and yanked Katie away from him; everyone had grown accustomed to her fearful tendencies by this point.The door slowly parted, leaving a pathway that split into two a long way down.

Katie's mouth gaped open; she'd never seen the maze before—it was an actual maze! Her eyes travelled to Minho, who winked at her.

"See you at dinner." He began jogging into the maze, and the other runners followed suit, waving her goodbye.

A minute later, they were all out of sight, and Katie's astonishment was replaced by worry as she realized she was alone. Katie didn't like being alone. The last time she was alone... well, she couldn't remember, but she ended up in the glade. Katie's heart raced very quickly over the next few seconds, and she turned on her heels and started running back towards the kitchens.

Frypan was waiting for her He was cleaning up the bowls Katie and the Runners had left, and a small feeling of guilt washed over her for making him clean up.

"Where've you been?" Frypan raised an eyebrow at Katie as she stopped, placed her hands on her knees, and caught her breath.

Katie caught her breath before pointing towards the open maze doors, then started helping out Frypan. The two cleaned the bowls and then started making breakfast for the other Gladers that were starting to wake.

~*~

Dart poked his head around the corner to where Katie was working, her head lifted from the bread she was kneading."Fry needs you to get some more cucumber."

Katie wiped the hair from her brow, a speck of dough getting caught in her brow.She moved over, her hands covered in flour, and knitted her eyebrows together.

Katie frowned and moved towards the cleaning bucket, then pointed to the half-kneaded dough.

Dart nodded his head and rolled up his sleeves to his elbows. He moved over to the bucket next to Katie and started washing his hands.

Katie side-eyed the boy beside her; he was shorter than most of the boys but still taller than Katie. He had blue eyes and platinum blonde hair. She shrugged her shoulders with palms open to the sky, a questioning look on her face, then pointed at herself.

"The boys don't say no to you." He laughs and shrugs.

Katie hummed in annoyance and dried her hands. She didn't like going places by herself, and the guys in the kitchen knew that, even if she was just going to see more people.

She sighed and moved past the chuckling Dart.

"Have fun!" He called out to her.

Katie huffed and continued on her way out. She passed the builders on her way towards the tree groves and avoided every piece of debris on the ground. She didn't want to upset them. Katie walked the entire glade in the blazing heat towards her destination.

Katie noticed a pair of feet underneath one of the walls of vegetables and walked towards them.

She shyly wrung her hands in front of her, waiting for the boy to show himself. The figure behind the wall moved towards the end, and a head of dirty blonde hair popped out with a smile.

"Hello to you too, love." Newt said.

Katie's cheeks turned pink, and she fiddled with the cuffs of her shirt, rubbing a bit of dried dough on them. She looked up at him.

She held a confused expression and shifted her weight from one foot to the other, then back again.

Newt shrugged and moved fully into Katie's sight. He wore the same thing every day: a cream long sleeve over a brown tank top. But today he just had the tank top on with his pants.

"I didn't like Shank or Greenie." He called it simple.

Katie sighed and pointed down the vines to the cucumbers.

"Cucumbers." He said that and disappeared behind the veggie wall again.

Katie walked to the other side of the wall, where Newt was. He had a basket and was walking down towards the cucumbers. Katie noticed that his limp was getting better; almost four months had passed since whatever happened. If he was still limping now, Katie guessed he would probably be limping for the rest of his life.

Katie walked up towards Newt, who was kneeling down and picking cucumbers for her. When she was standing next to him, he looked up, closing one of his eyes because of the bright sun.

"You've got a little something," Newt said, motioning to his brow, and Katie reached up to her mirror brow.Bread dough. She wiped it off and looked back down at Newt.

"This enough?" He asked and stood up with the basket.

Katie inspected the contents and thought that it was suitable for Frypan. She nodded and took the heavy basket from him. Newt then walked past Katie and back to where he was originally and kneeled back down, but Katie didn't want that; instead, she walked back up to him and stood beside him. After a few minutes, Newt looked up at her.

"Yes?" He asked, and Katie thought he sounded annoyed, but really he was simply confused.

She made an eating motion before pointing back and forth between Newt and herself.Her gaze dropped back to the ground.

Newt furrowed his eyebrows; that was an odd question. He wasn't going to say no.He didn't know why Katie would ask, but he's picked up on the fact that she has a different way of communicating with people.

"Alright." Newt said, smiling up at her, but her gaze was still fixed on the basket.She nodded once.

Katie then turned around and walked away.

Newt chuckled at her retreating figure before shaking his head and getting back to work.