Subject A250: The Fangirl (COMPLETED)

Nine: Not You, James

By the time they were halfway towards the maze entrance, Trace had run out of puns and was taking things a little more seriously.

But only a little more seriously.

"Minho, do you think the Grievers'll be nice to Ben?"

"I think the Grievers'll be happy to see the shank, if that's what you mean?"

"That's not what I meant. I mean, do you think Ben'll start living with them instead of us. Meet a nice female Griever, fall in love, start a little Griever family. Have Grievlets..."

"Grievlets?"

"Yeah, baby Grievers."

"I don't think those exist, Trace," Newt piped in.

"I think you'll find they do. How else do Grievers come into existence? They can't just suddenly appear as fully-grown, slimy slug-spider adults."

"I think you'll find they can. It's called 'invention'," Minho retorted.

"I don't think they're invented. I think they evolved. Like us."

"Trace, you've never even seen one. How could you make that conclusion? They're half made up of metal, for shuck's sake."

"Listen here, Papa MinMin. You may think you're the smartest, bravest, sassiest, most athletic, fastest person - most beautiful- person there is around here, but you sure as hell are terrible at keeping an open mind. How about you listen to my ideas for once instead of shutting them down all the time?"

"Because your ideas are stupid, Trace."

"Yeah, they are." Thomas agreed.

"I have to agree there," Newt said, siding with the other two boys.

There was a small moment of silence as Trace struggled to compose herself.

"I just- you've offended me. You've gone and offended me. I'm very offended. Maximum offence here."

"Well, I hate to think how offended you're going to be in a few moments, then," Minho replied.

"Why's that?"

"Because I'm about to go get Ben."

"Oh, well I guess that'd be maximum offence, then. I retract my previous statement and am now declaring your lack of faith in my ideas as 95% offensive."

"I'll accept that."

While Minho trudged off towards the Slammer, Trace pressed on with the argument, targeting Thomas in particular.

"Aren't you supposed to be up for new ideas? Isn't that your job?"

"I don't have a job yet."

"No, I mean... you're supposed to... Thomas, just support me!"

"No, you spat your drink on me the other day and I'm not a very forgiving person."

"Okay, well you're also not a very helpful person, Thomas. You might as well have just slapped Ben and said 'stop it' for all your effort this morning when he attacked me!"

"Hey! I tried to yank him off!"

"That's what she said."

"Chuck!"

The curly-haired boy had appeared very suddenly, now grinning as he returned to his spot at the back of the group, away from where the drama would take place.

"That was very inappropriate for a boy your age!" Trace yelled in his direction.

"You don't even know my age!"

"James says you're thirteen!"

"No, I don't!"

Apparently there was a James in the Glade.

"Not you, James. Not you."

Trace shook her head at her own stupidity, not for the first time.

"Would you shanks just slim it!" Alby yelled. "Or I'll banish the lot of ya!"

"Sorry, Aunty Alby!" Trace replied immediately.

"I thought we decided I didn't get a nickname?"

"No, we just said you couldn't be 'Father Alby'. Or 'Daddy Alby' for that matter."

Newt sniggered beside her. Trace tried very hard to contain herself.

Then Minho returned with Ben.

And the banishing pole. With the collar.

So, Ben was being banished book style. Wonderful. A more R-rated ordeal then. Great.

Minho attached the pole and collar. Alby said that klunk about him never coming back. It was weird to hear him say it in the context of Ben being a runner. It just made everything so much more difficult to predict.

And then the doors were closing. Ben was being pushed through. He screamed. He fought back. He pushed.

But he reached the other side.

And then, mere seconds before he was hidden from view, lost forever to the maze, Ben spoke. Ben said three words. And those words meant nothing to the people around Trace. They sounded like complete nonsense to everyone but her.

But to her, they triggered alarm bells in her head. They told her that something was very, inexplicably wrong. Those words were more important to her than anything she'd ever heard in her life. She vowed to hold on to them as long as she could.

"Believe James Dashner."

A/N: Nice one, Ben. You broke the fourth wall.