The Reason

Just Joking

Newt was the second one to learn her name followed by Frypan, but otherwise she kept it to herself. Even when it had circulated the glade and most everyone knew she'd remembered her name, she was still mostly called 'Girly' still. Newt had gotten accustomed to calling her Greenie but caught himself every time he slipped up. Frypan still called her any manner of nickname he could come up with in the moment, just friendly teasing. She didn't mind it since that was just how they got along. But Gally never messed it up, even when she would overhear him talking to other boys. 'Nikola has the hammer.' 'Take that to Nikola.' 'Tell Nikola to hurry the shuck up.'

He seemed to have calmed down significantly and she thought they might even become friends in time. The only thing she didn't understand was why he still let boys make whatever comments they wanted around her, something Newt and Frypan didn't tolerate. There was one day where she didn't feel as thick skinned as usual, and to make matters worse, the boys were in rare form when she reported for builder duty. By the end of the day, she'd had more than she could take. She knew she couldn't let them see her cry so she walked toward the maze doors since no one really went over there. There was a patch of tall grass and she sat down in it, making sure it could hide her from view before she broke down into tears.

Her weeks there had caught up to her. She was exhausted from being on guard all the time. Newt and Fry were almost good enough at emotional support, but they were still boys who just couldn't grasp what she was going through even when they tried their best. She felt like some kind of alien. Once she'd run out of heavy, shoulder shaking sobs, she tried to compose herself again, wiping her face and trying to breathe normally even as she sniffled slightly. Then she heard the footsteps. She figured it would be Newt coming to check on her.

"What are you doing?" Gally's voice was not the one she'd been expecting to hear and she couldn't help how quickly she jerked her head to look up at him. His confused expression went slack in shock when he saw that she'd been crying. He uncrossed his arms and knelt by her side as she tried to hide her face from him again, making him dip his head to the side to try and peer at her. "What happened?" he asked her, his voice softer than she'd ever heard it before.

She felt finger tips gently settle on her shoulder, the slightest touch feeling like a thousand pounds since she wasn't often touched at all. It brought some comfort to her.

"Hey, hey, look at me," He coaxed her. She turned to him but wouldn't hold his gaze for more than a second at a time. "What happened?" That time he sounded a bit more like his demanding self, wanting to know who he needed to go punch in the face. "Did someone hurt you?"

"No, nothing happened," she shook her head with a sniffle and wiped her nose, wishing he of all people hadn't seen her in her moment of weakness.

"You don't have to lie to me. If someone did something to you, you can tell me," He pressed.

She was surprised to hear him talking like Newt- like he actually gave a shuck about her, and felt like he wasn't going to drop this without some kind of explanation. So, she decided to open up a bit.

"It wasn't any one thing that happened, it wasn't any one person's fault," she began, fiddling with a blade of grass in her hands to distract her from his intense gaze on her. "I can usually put up with the comments the boys make about me, but today it was just harder for some reason."

"They're just being idiots, I thought it didn't bother you," he stated which earned him a sharp look from those usually doll like eyes of hers. It was startling.

"Gally, it's terrifying!" She informed him, her emotions finally getting the better of her. "Every single boy here is stronger than me, any one of them could force me to do any one of those disgusting things they threaten me with on a daily basis. You know how nobody can beat you in that stupid circle? What if everyone was bigger and stronger than you and there wasn't a single one you could beat, then imagine they're all cannibals 'joking' everyday about how they're going to eat you. How safe would you feel?"

His eyebrows shot up at that. He hadn't thought of it that way before, but it certainly got the point across.
"Nikola, I had no idea that's what it was like for you," He admitted. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, well," she shrugged. "Not much I can do about it."

He stayed there with her in silence for a few more minutes, her words running through his mind as he put it all together. He hadn't given it a lot of thought at the time, but he realized just how much verbal abuse she really was going through.

"And it happens when you're working the kitchen and the gardens too? Everywhere?" he asked.

She shook her head. "Newt and Frypan told them to knock it off so much at first that the boys don't try it when they're around. Which is why I try to keep them around as much as possible."

That's when Gally realized that he had let her down. As the Keeper of the builders he could have been keeping them in line, but instead he let them run loose at her expense. He was the reason she was crying today.

"Why don't you tell them off yourself?" he asked her as he felt the guilt settle in his bones. That earned a downright disbelieving look from her.

"Yeah, you've heard what they want to do to me when I haven't done anything to them, I imagine it'll only get better if I upset them," She rolled her eyes. Usually she forced herself to be more patient with the boys, Gally especially, but she couldn't quite hold it in right then.

Gally was finally understanding what life was like for her now and it didn't sit well with him at all. When she finally felt well enough to get up and go get dinner, Gally followed closely, sticking by her as he'd seen Newt do so often. When they got close to the kitchen some boys noticed them and chuckled.

"Wow. Gally and the Girly huh? Did he make you cry? Was it from too much, or not enough?" One asked before they fell into a fit of laughter and high fives. And then suddenly Gally was there, looming over them.

"Shut your shucking mouths," He warned them in a low voice.

"Awe, come on man!" Their laughter now carried a nervous edge to it. "We're just joking around."

"Joking?" Gally raised his eyebrows, his shoulders rolling back as he shrugged at them. "Just joking, alright. Look at her. Is she laughing?"

The whole Glade had fallen silent as everyone tuned into the show Gally was putting on.

When the boy barely glanced at her and didn't say anything Gally bent down to look him in the eye. "Is she laughing?" he repeated.

"No," the boy finally answered quietly.

"No," Gally confirmed. "She's not laughing, so it's not funny." His eyes roamed over the other boys in the group.

"What's the big deal, you never cared what we said before-"

"Yeah, and?" Gally nodded as he crossed his arms, eyeing the boy. "I'm telling you now, you're done."

After that, the harassment virtually stopped altogether. Of course, a new set of problems came from that, though. Everyone seemed to think Nikola had some kind of arrangement with Gally, that he was receiving something in exchange for protecting her. Some of the boys seemed upset at the thought of her being unavailable. The fact that Gally now regularly sat at her table during meals seemed to just confirm their suspicions.

While she hated their implications, she didn't mind having Gally become her friend. Newt would even get him to tell stories about the good times they'd managed to have, or crazy stories about adding on to the homestead. She liked listening to them talk, especially this softer, friendlier side of Gally. They made her laugh for the first time, a real, loud, uncontrollable laugh, and they both stopped in their tracks to listen to her do it. Of course, they had to ham it up to get her to continue to laugh. When Gally cracked a smile for the first time she felt her breath hitch in her throat. She was so used to his scowls and displeased faces that she had no idea how well a smile suited him. She wanted to figure out how she could make him do that more often.