[EDITED 4. 2. 2019]

The news that Anne, the only girl in the Glade was now a Medjack spread around the Glade like wildfire. When Anne peeked into the room that morning, she found it packed with boys, all claiming that they needed medical attention. Every single one of the boys had their eyes on her.

She was lucky that Clint and Jeff stepped in, at least one of them hovering beside her while she worked to make sure the boys didn't get too handsy.

When examined, some of the boys only had tiny little cuts while others claimed that they had a headache one minute and a stomach ache the next. It was all a bit amusing until a boy walked in with a bleeding hand after striking it with a hammer. Gally's face was red with anger as he walked in telling Clint that the boy had done it on purpose. Clint finally broke and quickly grabbed Anne and Lincoln, another Medjack and pulled them out of the room and into another that was lined with shelves against the walls.

"Do me a favor and stay in the inventory," he told them. "Lincoln, stay with her. I'll get Nick."

Lincoln turned to her and pointed at the boxes stacked in the corner of the room trying to distract her from the boys. He could see how nervous and upset she was about the turn of events. This was her very first day at her new job and it was turning out to be a disaster. "New supplies came up. I was supposed to stock them today."

"I'll help," Anne volunteered quickly, ready to do anything that would get her mind off what was happening in the other room.

The two hadn't even finished emptying half of the first box when Lincoln groaned, unable to find where a bottle of cough syrup belonged on the shelves. "This place needs to be organised before someone accidentally drinks the wrong thing and dies."

That was definetly an exaggeration since it wasn't that bad, but even Anne was finding the current system a bit too hard to get the hang of. "Will Clint get mad if we change this?"

Lincoln smiled down at her, a mischievous glint in his eyes. "That's something I've been asking myself since day one." He turned to look towards the door. "Let's do it!"

The two of them emptied all the shelves, organised the medicine by how often it was needed and started putting them back again. Lincoln having worked as a Medjack for the past three months helped them know what was needed the most which got the job done a lot faster. They left the extra items in the boxes and even managed to find some tape and markers to finish up the job.

While Anne was putting some boxes away, she came across a smaller box filled with syringes. It had the word 'WICKED' written on it in bold.

"That's the Grief serum."

Anne looked up at Lincoln, now more curious than before. "Grief serum?"

"Uh..." Lincoln scratched the back of his head. "It's what we give anyone who gets stung by a Griever. Doesn't happen that often though. Thank God for that."

Anne nodded, placing the syringe back in place and handing the box to Lincoln. She had heard about the Grievers, the monsters that made the Maze even more terrifying than it already was.

A few minutes later, they were admiring their work with smiles on their faces when Clint poked his head into the room. "Finally found Nick," he gasped out just as they heard Nick shouting in the other room.

"You all will get out of here unless you want me to actually break something," Nick shouted. He sounded more angry than anyone had ever seen. Lincoln gulped beside her despite not even being in the same room as Nick.

Clint pressed his lips into a thin line and stepped out of the room. "I'll come get you when we get everyone out."

Lincoln turned towards Anne. "Well, that was something."

Anne just laughed nervously, feeling a little stressed out again. The reason why these boys had hurt themselves was to get to her. What kind of person did something like that?

Lincoln seemed to notice the shift in her mood and tapped her shoulder. "I think we did a pretty good job," he gestured towards the shelves.

"Guess we did," Anne answered.

"You know," he said slowly, "I've never had an inventory partner before."

"Is that a thing?"

"Is now," he closed his hands into a fist and held it to her for a fist bump. "Inventory partners forever?"

Anne laughed and bumped her fist against his. "Inventory partners."

***

Clint luckily took care of the boy with the bleeding hand while Lincoln and Anne helped Jeff clean up the two rooms before lunch time. Then, all four of them left for lunch. Lincoln stood next to Anne at all times, throwing looks at any boys who tried to come near her. She felt much safer with him around despite the fact that they didn't even know each other that well.

Jeff went to sit with Gally, and Clint was waved over by Nick and Alby, so it was only Lincoln and Anne who occupied the table they sat at. Anne was just about to take a bite of the grilled cheese sandwich Frypan had made when Alby slid into the seat across from her and next to Lincoln. Lincoln gave him a surprised look before shaking it off when Anne didn't look uncomfortable when Alby joined them. ***

"Heard you had some trouble today," Alby said. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Anne said. "I'm fine. It was pretty crazy in there."

"There was one guy who said a bug crawled into his ear," Lincoln said. "When Jeff asked him what happened a while later, he said he sprained his ankle. They couldn't even keep their stories straight."

"Don't worry. Nick took care of it. He was shouting even when he left the Homestead. No one's gonna bother you without gettin' their butts thrown in the Slammer."

Anne couldn't tell whether she felt better or worse at that sentence but one thing was for sure. She felt a lot safer around her friends.

Once lunch was over, Anne and Lincoln headed back to the Homestead to get back to work and Alby walked off. He headed towards the Deadheads where she saw Newt was also sitting. ***

Once Anne climbed up to the second floor of the Homestead, she peeked out the window and found Newt wandering towards the Deadheads leaving Alby behind. He disappeared inside the thick trees and she sighed as she went back to work. ***

×××

Lincoln is finally here! He and Anne are going to be the cutest brotp in this book. I have so much planned for them. But don't worry, I'll write happy Newt soon too. This is only a few weeks after his accident so if he's prancing around all happy, it'll be a little weird, right?

Thanks for reading!

Edit: I changed some stuff in this chapter! It's marked with ***