"Hey! HEY!"

I jerked, alarm shocking me awake and I instinctively punched upwards. A grunt of pain made me open my eyes and I stared, startled, at a shocked Minho with his hand over his cheek.

"Oh god - sorry Minho - did I punch you?" I babbled as Minho removed his hand to reveal a dark purplish-red bruise. "Shit, I'm sorry," I said again.

"That's alright." Minho winced, rubbing his newly formed bruise. "Not bad for a newbie."

I huffed. "Need I remind you that I have been living in the Glade for almost three years? I'm NOT a newbie. Now, what did you wake me up for?"

"Gathering of the Keepers," said Minho, his smile slowly fading. "Go style your hair or whatever girls do and meet me at the Homestead."

As he jogged off, I yawned and reluctantly stood up. The bathrooms were more crowded than I was used to and I had to shove my way through.

After brushing my teeth, I limped as quickly as I could to the Homestead where Minho was already waiting. He opened the door and went in, clearly meaning for me to follow him.

I wondered what had Minho so serious and a feeling of unease bubbled up in my stomach. Back in 'my Glade', we only had Keeper meetings for urgent matters, and judging from the similarities, the boys wouldn't do it much differently here.

Minho led me past the rooms closer to the entrance of the Homestead and into a larger one that I hadn't noticed before. He opened the door and I walked in, immediately coughing from the dust in the air.

A clump of boys were organizing chairs around the room into a semicircle arranged so they were surrounding two chairs in the center. Minho pointed to one, looking at me, and I sat down. This was insane. What was I doing here? I wasn't a Keeper, at least not here.

Another boy sat down next to me, but I didn't look at him. Instead, I started fiddling with the hem of my shirt, avoiding everyone's eyes, only looking up when Alby started talking.

He was seated in the middle of the semicircle with Newt right next to it and Keepers on either side of him. "As first-in-command, I declare this Gathering started," he said wearily, rubbing his eyes from sleep. "Right. First off, Greenbean here appeared outa nowhere and he ain't tellin' us how he got 'ere. Second, he breaks Gally's nose 'bout ten seconds in, but he didn't know about the rules here. Has anyone gotten a chance to tell him them?" All the boys shook their heads and Alby sighed. "Fine. Anyway, we gotta figure out what to do with him."

Do with me? What did that mean?

"And according to Newt here, he saw some funny klunk when he went through the Changing. You mind telling us it?"

"'Mind?" Gally snorted. "There isn't any 'mind' here. He's gonna tell us everything whether he likes it or not."

"Shut your hole," said Alby coolly. "You'll get your say later, but not now. Greenie?"

I took a deep breath and stared at the ceiling, trying to think of something to say.

"Okay," I started, "Um, I remember four things. There might have been more that I don't remember, but whatever. The first two aren't that important -"

"Tell us anyway," Alby insisted. "You never know."

And so I did. I kept my eyes on the floor, studying my cast, but it was better than looking directly at the Keepers. I skipped through the first two memories pretty quickly, but when I got to the third one, I could feel my voice getting scratchy as I explained.

"I saw this girl with big blue eyes and black hair that ended around her shoulders, I think. Then another boy - Thomas - came in and he said 'Hey Teresa' so I'm assuming the girl's name is Teresa. Anyway, when I tried to get up - hey, why do you guys look so pale?" I stopped mid-sentence to stare at the boys. "What's wrong with you -"

I turned and suddenly realized who was sitting next to me, looking deathly pale. Thomas. He looked at me and I looked at him, examining the differences from my memories. His hair was a bit shorter, and his facial features sharper, but other than that, there wasn't much. He looked away, staring at Newt.

"Guys, for real! What's wrong?" I asked, starting to get nervous.

Alby cleared his throat. "Uh, we'll tell you after this meeting. Go on."

I sighed, frustrated, but knew that pressing him wouldn't help me. I continued reluctantly, coughing a bit to clear my throat from the dust.

I didn't leave anything out. I didn't bother to, with all the Keepers examining me for lies. As I finished, Alby tapped his knee thoughtfully.

"Alright. Opinions?" No one spoke and Alby sighed. "No opinions then. So what do we do with the Greenie? Lee?" Lee, a dark-haired boy, looked up.

"What? Oh, uh, like you said, he did break Gally's nose but he didn't know our rules so. . ." Lee shrugged helplessly.

"So basically," Alby summed up, "You don't know what to do." Lee looked glumly at his shoes.

"Right. Clint?" Clint, one of the Med-Jacks, stood up.

"Greenie didn't know nothin' when he came 'ere, just like the other Greenbeans. I say we treat him like a regular one," he said and Alby nodded in approval, writing it down. "Gally? What do you think?"

"Slammer for a whole shuck week for breaking my nose," the blonde-haired boy said immediately and protests immediately surged up from all the boys.

"SLIM IT!" Alby bellowed over the rest of the boys. "All suggestions are open, good or bad." He wrote it down but rolled his eyes as if he didn't think it was a particularly good one. When Gally wasn't looking, Newt made a face behind his back and I had to bite my tongue to hold back a smile.

It went on like that for a while. Some Keepers wanted to treat me normally, some wanted me in the 'Slammer', whatever that was. Alby made notes and listened to every one carefully, no matter how outrageous their idea was. After everyone had gotten a turn, Alby scanned his notes.

"Right, looks like the Greenie's getting an afternoon in the Slammer. After that, he's dead clean. As first-in-command, I declare this Gathering over." He crumpled the paper up and tossed it into a small bin overflowing with other pieces of paper.

There seemed to be a collective relieved sigh and boys started standing up, pushing chairs up against the walls and opening the door to leave. I copied them and squeezed out of the Homestead, wondering what to do next.

I turned to the Deadheads, remembering all the times I had climbed them back at my Glade just to get away from everything. I started toward the trees "Um, hi?" I turned to see Thomas awkwardly standing a couple feet behind me. I half-smiled at him and he smiled back.

"Yeah?'

"So, uh," he said, shuffling his feet, "Are you really my cousin?"

"S'pose so," I said, slapping away a mosquito. "Why?"

"Nothing," he said, but his smile was much more genuine now. "It's just. . . cool. I have a cousin. It's just kinda nice knowing someone from my own family ."

"Thomas!" a voice called from the Gardens. Thomas sighed and said, "That'll be one of them Gardeners. Probably want me for weeding or something." He waved goodbye as he started jogging, then flat-out sprinting.

I watched as he left, thinking that he would be a good Mapper when I noticed Newt.

"Hi," I said, turning to face him. "That reminds me; what was wrong with you guys when I told you about Teresa?"

Newt sighed. "Might as well buggin' tell you," he said in that English accent. "C'mon, follow me." He started limping back to the Homestead and I followed him.

We didn't speak for a moment, then Newt asked, "What's your name?"

"My what?" I asked, startled. "You mean I haven't even told you my name yet?"

Newt chuckled and shook his head. "Shuck, really? Neil. My name's Neil," I said, suddenly realizing that I hadn't told them.

"Neil." He tried out the name. "I like it." I smiled at him and he smiled back, his long hair swaying slightly from the breeze.

We walked on, a comfortable silence between us. I couldn't keep the smile off my face for some reason, but it faded away when Newt asked, "Who d'you think Genevieve is? You know, from your memory?"

I frowned slightly. "I dunno. . . a sister maybe? Or another relative like Thomas?"

"Or a girlfriend," said Newt with a hint of bitterness clear in his voice. I glanced at him, surprised at his statement. His eyes were staring straight ahead and had hardened.

"Probably not," I said. "I mean, do I seem like the kind of boy to have a girlfriend? Come on, Newt, I'm like, sixteen! I might've had a girlfriend, but I don't remember her! So what's the big deal anyway?"

Newt smiled, but it was so forced that I couldn't believe he was bothering anyway. "They wiped your memories. You could've thought differently before."

A sudden surge of anger welled up in me. "What's your problem?" I demanded. "Wiping memories is one thing and changing a personality is entirely another. Anyway, how is that your concern? So what if I had a girlfriend?"

Newt's face reddened with anger but wisely chose to stay silent. We didn't speak until we reached the Homestead, where Newt shoved open the door and muttered, "Med-Jacks' room."

I strode past Newt, determined not to look at him, and found the Med-Jacks' healing room. I heard the Homestead door close a tad bit too forcefully and the wall shook next to me. Newt swore from outside the Homestead and I felt a rush of sick satisfaction as I opened the door to the Med-Jacks.

***

WORD COUNT: 1768

***

From Wikipedia:

"Charles Lee is a computer scientist, best known as the creator of Litecoin. He serves as the managing director of the Litecoin Foundation. As of July 2013, he also worked for Coinbase."

***

Sooooooo WattPad did delete my entire story except for the first hundred words. So I had to rewrite it from my memory, and my memory sucks. And it's missing a lot of parts that I JUST CAN'T REMEMBER!!!

Vote, Comment, Like, Share