Chapter 3: Minho's POV

Minho looked up from what he was doing to see what the commotion was all about.

"Hey! What's going on?" he asked, running alongside some of the boys.

"Someone was stealing the animals!" one of them said. "We're chasing 'em now." He grabbed a torch and darted over to the group of boys that were going into the forest. Minho ran after them, running through all the names and who was all by the bonfire. If anyone was missing, they could have been the ones stealing some animals. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized everybody was there. Everybody was by the bonfire. So who could possibly have snuck away, and risked getting into trouble? Who would need animals, anyway?

He and a group of six other boys were walking now. They'd lost the thieves. All of a sudden, an arrow zipped out of the branches and whistled past Minho's ear. "Whoa ho!" he jerked away, rubbing his ear even though he hadn't gotten hurt. He pointed at the branches. "They must be in the trees!"

"Don't come any closer!" A voice shouted. Minho's eyes widened. "It's... It's a girl! Hey, call the others!" He motioned to a boy. He nodded and darted off into the darkness. Minho directed his gaze back to the trees. "Come down and let's talk!"

"Why should we trust you?" a different voice said, but also a girl.

"There's shucking two of you?!" Minho rubbed the back of his head. What were they supposed to do with two mystery girls that appeared in the Glade and obviously were stealing animals?

"We just want to talk!" Another boy said when Minho didn't respond.

Minho shot him a glare, but didn't say anything.

The second girl spoke again. "I have a feeling that we have different definitions of "talking". Don't we?"

Minho smirked. These girls obviously knew how to take care of themselves. "Maybe. But we promise we'll just talk."

There was a rustle and then silence. The other Gladers came crashing over and Newt stopped beside Minho.

"I heard there were bloody girls in the Glade. You sure you're not finally going mad?"

Minho pretended he hadn't said that. "No. These are girls. Aren't you?" He called the branches.

"No, we're man-eating aliens sent here to kill all of you," the first girl said. Minho saw a few Gladers pass worried looks "Of course we're girls"

Newt raised his eyebrows in surprise. "I've dealt with weirder."

"No you haven't!" The second girl taunted.

"You think so?" Newt called up.

"Very certain," the first girl responded.

Alby huffed. "I've had enough of these games. Hey! Come down and let's discuss this. You have a lot of explaining to do."

"If I have this correct," The second girl spoke again. "We're the ones up here, and you guys are the ones down here. We're the ones who know this place better than you guys do. So... I'm pretty sure you can't tell us what to do."

Alby groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Can we just talk?"

"We are," the first girl said, and a smile was evident in her voice.

"No, I mean face-to-face."

"I can see your face! Does that count?" the second girl chirped.

Alby threw his arms down in frustration. "Are you guys doing this just to see us get upset?""Not at first, but it is pretty funny watching you guys get angry." There was some chuckling from the branches. Minho couldn't help but agree. These girls were something else. In his opinion, they were funnier than any boy in the Glade. They knew how to respond, they knew how to make their opponent fed up with it all. That was what he liked.

Gally didn't seem to agree though. "Alby, just have some boys go up and push them out. I'm tired of this game."

"I'd like to see you guys try!" the first girl said and there was some smirking following the challenge, probably from the other girl. "You'd also have to catch us first," the second girl said.

I bet I could, Minho thought but kept the comment to himself.

"Okay, seriously," Alby said. It was clear he was, in fact, getting angry with the whole situation. "Stop hiding up there. I can assure you, we'll be able to catch you. We'll hurt you if we have to." Two arrows suddenly zipped out of the branches, one going through Alby's boot and one flying past his ear. Alby's eyes widened as they were glued to the arrow through his boot.

"We're not afraid to hurt you either," said the first girl. Her voice had changed from chirping to seriousness. That's when the girls surprised them all. One of them slipped out of the branches, flipped, and landed by one of the trees. This girl had dark brown hair with gold highlights, which seemed to glow in the torch's light, and silver-gray eyes. Another girl swung down, landing next to the other girl. This girl had wavy hair blacker than coal and eyes as green as the trees with fire-gold flecking the green.

Gally pointed. "What are you waiting for? Grab them!"

Alby held a hand up. "No. Not yet. You," he directed his gaze back to the girls. "Come here."

The girl with black hair shook her head. "Nope. I prefer to keep my distance from grumpy and rude dudes, thank you very much!"

Gally took a threatening step forward, but the girl smirked. "Whoa whoa, eagle-brow. Personal space here."

To be honest, Gally looked so shocked he could barely be angry. Minho put a hand over his face to smother his smirking and Newt turned away, hiding his grin.

Alby was unaffected. "Please don't insult us. This conversation hasn't gone well so far, and I want it to improve before a fight breaks out."

Minho leaned over to Newt. "Maybe step in or something...?"

Newt gave him a look but sighed and approached the girls. The one with black hair directed her attention in his direction and looked him over. "You got something coming or are you chill?"

He smirked. "I'm not gonna do anything to you."

Not what I would have gone for, Minho thought and instantly imagined what he would have said. He grinned at his own genius.

The second girl with brown hair nodded. "Good! Cause I don't wanna beat up a cute boy like you."

Newt didn't really know how to respond to that, and a lot of the boys had to comprehend what she'd just said.

Alby shook his head. "Okay okay. Are we all cool right now? I want all the Gladers to go back to the bonfire." Newt nodded, turning to Alby. "Let's talk this out."

The second girl grinned. "Whatever you say, Blondie." She reached up and tousled his hair and he gave her another look. The black-haired girl grinned and winked at the second girl.

All the Gladers had gathered and gone quiet a while ago, but not a word had been said. Minho was especially surprised that Thomas hadn't said anything while they were talking to the girls. Maybe he'd been shocked into silence. Newt glanced around at all the boys, thinking about what to say.

"We should just put them in the Slammer," Gally spoke up, catching everyone's attention. "They can't do anything bad in there."

Alby shook his head. "Even if we did, I bet they'd break out of there in at least an hour. Besides, they're much more useful outside the Slammer."

Gally's anger grew. "Have you gone mad? Did you forget what they did, what they're probably still doing? They stole from us! They've been hiding under our noses for who knows how long and you're saying we just let them be." He shook his head again. "No. They have to be punished, just like any other Glader would be."

"That doesn't sound like a very nice thing to do, especially to some pretty girls like us." Every single boy jumped and turned to the source of the voice when they spoke. It was the brown-haired girl, sitting on a stone with the black-haired girl behind her, inspecting one of her daggers. She glanced up and grinned, though, when the boys got startled.

"How long have you guys been there?" Frypan asked, shying away from them.

The brown-haired girl shrugged. "Like, here now or in the Glade?"

"Both," Gally answered sternly.

The black-haired girl answered. "Settle down, man. We've been here," she glanced up, pursing her lips as she thought about it. "Over a month? I don't know.""But here now, we followed you guys back to the bonfire, happily listening to complete silence," The brown-haired girl chirped.

Minho smirked. The more these girls talked, the more he liked having them around. What was Gally talking about, they were awesome!

"Why can't they stay?" Thomas asked, finally saying something.

Gally gave Thomas a look that was utter surprise. He laughed. "Are you serious?"

The black-haired girl stood up. "He's right. We're technically Gladers too. Anyone living here is a Glader, correct? So, we never stole anything. We were surviving. Listen to the Newbie sometime."

Alby nodded. "You can't argue with survival." "Exactly!" The brown-haired girl said. "Thank you."

But Gally wasn't finished. "They stole from us for nearly a month! We have to do something about that!"

The brown-haired girl frowned and crossed her arms. "Dude, you argued with survival. You don't do that!"

Gally looked about ready to explode with that. "I can't believe what's happening! You have all lost your shuck minds!"

The brown-haired girl put a hand on her hip. "Okay. I have a deal. I fight you. If you win, we go into the Slammer, as you call it. I win, we get to stay and get the respect we deserve as Gladers."

Gally answered immediately, not even thinking about the proposal. "Done."

"Wait, Gally. Are you sure?" Newt asked, nervous about the whole ordeal.

Minho laughed. "Oh, come on, Newt. Let them have some fun."

Soon, the boys and the other girl were in a neat circle with Gally and the brown-haired girl in the middle.

"No weapons," Alby said. "You win if the other one gives up or is sent out of the circle."

The brown-haired girl raised her chin in confidence and handed the black-haired girl her weapons. Gally balled his fists, ready to pound the girl. But the girl didn't look scared, or nervous, or even hesitant. She radiated confidence and determination, balling her own fists.

"Three, two, one, go!" Alby shouted. Gally shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then rushed forward ready to shove her out of the circle. The girl ducked his fist and punched him in the gut. He grunted slightly and whipped around. The girl backflipped as he kicked at her and she leapt at him. She grabbed his arm and used her weight to pull him to the ground, wrapping her arms around his throat and pinning his arms to his side with her legs.

The black-haired girl hollered at her friend's victory and all the other boys were silent. Gally grabbed the girl's arms and pried her off his throat, then got up on his knees and shoved her away. The girl did a backwards somersault and got to her feet, huffing hair out of her face. Her eyebrows were furrowed, zoned out of everything but her opponent. Gally grabbed at her arm, but she dodged him, then punched him in the side. He whipped around and grabbed at her hair. She didn't make a sound as he yanked. She clawed his wrist and he let go, then she kicked the side of his knee, making him collapse. The brown-haired girl darted behind him, pulling him into a chokehold again. Gally pulled at her arms but she yanked him backwards to distract him from doing that. Gally finally used his brain and shot backwards, knocking the breath out of the girl's lungs and making her let go. He got to his hands and knees, shoving her when she did too. The girl noticed how close she was to the border of the circle, then looked back at Gally. She stood up, grinned, then held out a hand and motioned for him to come at her. He ran, but she side-stepped and he fell out of the circle. Surprisingly, multiple cheers rose from some of the boys, including Minho, but the loudest was from the other girl. She walked over and patted the brown-haired girl on the back.

Minho shook his head in wonder. Gally being beaten by a girl. Who would have thought?

Alby quieted the crowd down. "The girl won. They get to stay. I expect all of you to respect this win and treat these girls the same way you would treat any other Glader, with loyalty, teamwork, cooperation, and kindness. Anyone not behaving will face consequences. Now someone put out this fire. It's getting late and I don't want everyone walking around looking like they got punched in the eyes."

Minho watched the Gladers disperse and carry out Alby's orders. He let them do it and shoved his way over to the girls. The black-haired girl noticed him first.

She put her hands on her hips. "So! What's your name?"

"Minho. I'm Keeper of-"

"The Runners, I know," she finished.

Minho's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "How did you know?""I've watched you and the other Runners in the Maze. Sometimes I perch somewhere high and count how many of you I see in a day. When I'm bored, of course, and don't know what to do."

Minho decided to leave that subject alone and moved on to something else, something he'd been wondering for a while.

"What are your names?"

The black-haired girl exchanged a look with the other, and then looked back up. "I'm Ivory. This is Mira." She smirked. "Now how about we all hit the hay? You have to get up early to go Running."