Wishful Thinking | Newt [DISCONTINUED]

09 | new greenie

Newt no longer had any free time. He was constantly bouncing back and forth between jobs, helping different people with different things. He helped the Builders hammer in nails and helped Zart plant seeds or get fertiliser. He helped Frypan wash dishes and helped Anne and the other Med-jacks patch up wounds. So, by the end of the day, he sometimes ended up being more tired than anyone else.

Anne felt pretty bad for Newt as she walked into the room he was currently in. He was helping Lincoln patch up one of the Slicer's who had gotten a pretty bad cut on his arm. He was lucky he still had the appendage attached to him. Anne couldn't help but wonder how he had managed to hurt himself that badly and winced at the mental image.

Clint asked them to keep the Slicer there overnight to keep an eye on him since he had lost a lot of blood. The poor guy was mostly drowsy and they had to keep him from falling flat on his face more than once. So, after making sure he was comfortable, the two boys left the room. Newt rubbed his eyes tiredly and yawned, indicating that he was realy sleepy.

A thought occurred to Anne suddenly and she wondered why Newt didn't just go back to his old job. Yes, he was hurt and he couldn't do much heavy lifting for now but why was he juggling half a dozen different jobs at the same time when he could just go back to his old one.

"Newt?"

"Hmm?" he turned to face her.

"What was your job?" She asked. "I mean, before you got... hurt?"

"Oh," Newt said, his face falling. "I was a Runner."

Anne's eyebrows rose in mild surprise but now that she thought about it, it did make sense. No one other than the Runner's were allowed out in the Maze and she remembered Clint telling her that Newt had gotten hurt in the Maze, but that thought had completely slipped her mind.

"Do you miss it?" She asked softly after a second of silence passed between them.

"Yeah," Newt sighed. "I guess I do. I mean, runnin'... It's nice, ya know. I mean it's scary out there with the buggin' Grievers and all, but..."

He trailed off and stared blankly at the floorboards under their feet. Anne felt a pang of guilt for bringing it up. She knew anything related to his leg was a sore topic. She wished she hadn't asked him about it.

"I'm sorry," Anne finally said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Newt looked up at her and gave her a small smile. "It's okay. You didn't mean any harm."

"Dinner time!" Lincoln called from ahead. "Let's go people!"

Newt joined her and Lincoln for dinner that night and Anne watched amused and a bit wide eyed as the two boys wolfed down their portions of spaghetti - which apparently was a rare dish in the Glade - and then looked over at her still half full plate after scraping theirs clean. They looked guilty as Anne gave them both some of her food. She wasn't that hungry and the portion that Frypan had given her was more than enough.

"Tomorrow's Greenie day," Lincoln nudged her. "You excited?"

Anne frowned in confusion at the two boys. "What?"

"It's been a month since you came, buddy," Lincoln said. "Another kid's gonna come up in the box tomorrow, so you won't be the Greenie anymore."

"Oh," Anne said. Had it really been a month since she arrived in the Glade. The days had passed so quickly that she hadn't even realised it.

"You think it'll be a girl?" Lincoln asked.

"Anne hopes so," Newt said, shooting her a look.

Lincoln turned to her. "I knew she'd get bored of us at some point. She probably wants someone to have sleepovers with. If you want, we can drop a note into the box and ask the creators for some nail polish. Then we'll have ourselves an actual girly party."