Chapter 1
If Clarke Griffin could describe today in one single word, it would be finally. Today marks the day where a new page of her life will be filled, today she’s letting behind pain, sorrow, guilt, her stupid stepmother. Or at least that’s what she was trying to tell herself. “It’ll be great. New city, new friends, new place. You’ll be just fine.” Clarke was saying the words in front of the mirror like a damn mantra when her father yelled from downstairs.
“Clarke, let’s go! You're gonna be late for your first day.”
Groaning Clarke left her room, but not before checking to see if everything was packed in the boxes. Today.
“Okay, I’m here, let’s go!” the blonde girl said as she entered the kitchen, where her brother were already looking up at her with tears in his eyes. “Come here, little one.” Aden got up from the chair and engulfed his big sister in the greatest hug that he could muster. He coulnd’t believe that the only person that still mattered to him was leaving town.
“I’ll miss you, Clarke!” Aden said while sobbing.
“I’ll text you everyday, and I promise I’ll call whenever I can. You don’t have to be sad.” She cooed in her brother’s ears. Yeah, today wouldn’t be as great as she thought. Leaving her baby brother was the last thing she wanted to do.
“Okay, Jake. Take her away already so I can finally have peace.” Her horror of a stepmother said while rolling her eyes.
“C’mon kiddo. It’s time”
“Are you still giving Octavia a ride?” Clarke asked her father. Her best friend would also be attending to the same college as her, Octavia was the only thing keeping her from leaving the whole college thing behind and staying in this hell of a city, where all the ghosts of her past still haunted her.
“Sure! So, do you have everything packed? You sure you’re not forgetting anything?” Her father asked.
“Yeah I have everything. Chill a bit, I know you’re looking forward to this but you could pretend you’re sad about the fact that your daugther is moving away.” Clarke said with a poison to her words. Their father and daugther relationship were broken after all the things that happened to the family.
“I won’t argue with you, Clarke. Not now. I am, in fact, sad for letting you go away like this, but I know it’ll be for the best. For you, for Aden, for everyone.” Jake said with a stern voice but his eyes gave away how sad he really was.
“Yeah, whatever, let’s go.”
Today.
“Remember, school comes first, the company comes first. I don’t care about experiencing the college and all that talk. You have one goal. You will achieve that goal. Am I clear, Alexandria?”
“Yes, father. Clear as water. Can I go now?” Lexa asked her father. All the demands he was making were something usual to the girl. He was always talking about how she was the future of his company, how she wasn’t some regular girl, it was kind of tiring for the most part of the time, but if that was the only way she would get her father’s attention, she sure as hell would make him proud. Even if making him proud consisted in staying locked up in a room studying while a whole new world was out there, waiting for her.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay living by yourself and that friend of yours? The gay one, should I be concerned? He might be bad company, Alexandria!” Titus asked. ‘the gay one’ he was talking about is one of her best friends, John Murphy. They’ve been friends since 5th grade. Murphy came out when he was 15, shocking the whole school and consequently the parents. Lexa only grew closer with the boy, because he was brave enough to do something she was yet to achieve. Her parents gone crazy, saying they didn’t want her daugther being friends with a gay child. If only they knew.
“Dad, there is no such thing as gay people turning straight people into gay as well.” The fun fact here is: i am the gayest gay around the block. She thought to herself. “I’ll be fine. Besides, Monty was needing someone to room with and it’ll save money.”
“You don’t need to save any money, Alexandria. You can have an apartment to yourself if you want to. You shouldn’t even be moving to Polis. Your mother and I both went to college here, in New York, I don’t know why you are so pent up in moving out just for college.” Her father sighed. It almost looked like he was really sad that she was leaving, but Lexa knew that he just wanted her close to keep an eye on her, to make sure she wasn’t doing anything reckless, like, living as the 18 year old that she was. It still bums her that alchool is something that all the kids around 15 do but she was the only damn exception.
“Yes, I know, but it’s the best place for me. ” Lexa sighed and rolled her eyes. She just wanted to leave, as soon as possible, but today of all days, her father decided to talk.
“You should go now otherwise you’ll loose your flight. I’ll tell your mother to call you when she gets home. ” Titus said. Her mother was always busy, travellig around the world, making conferences in the office she set up in their house, ,but she was also worse than her father, so she didn’t really cared about her abscense.
“Okay, let’s go then. ”
”Where is that boyfriend of yours, Clarke? I swear to god, I don’t get why you still keep that thing around” Octavia was kind of mad about the fact that Finn was supposed to meet them at the front gate, so they could go to auditorium together, where it would be having a welcome lecture. The girls weren’t rooming together, because as Octavia liked to put ‘Luck likes us the same way the world likes Donald Trump’.
“I don’t know, O. He should be here by now, I don’t exactly keep a track on Finn’s life. I’ll text him again.” Clarke said while looking at the map on her hands. The place was huge. She was amazed. The library was so organized and big. The campus was really well divided, the class buildings were close too one another so that would definetly be helpful, there was a fountain right in front of the main building, there was so many trees. She was in love with the university already.
Just when Octavia was about to complaing once again. Clarke felt arms around her, turning her face she saw her boyfriend. His hair was longer than it was when he left arkadia. He was wearing a varsity jacket and had sweat all over his body. “Hey, babe! I missed you so fucking much. I can’t believe the day has come. I’ll introduce you to al-“
“Okay, romeo, I get that you missed her and whatever, but can you please, for the love of everything that’s holy, take us to the main room? My legs can’t support my weight anymore Finn, and I’m a damn lightweigth. You can shove your tongue down Clarke’s throat some other time. Let’s go, move!” Octavia said in one single breath and started walking towards the main room, leaving Finn and Clarke behind.
“We should go with Octavia, she doesn’t know the campus, she’ll get lost.” Clarke said to her boyfriend that at some point got too busy with his phone.
“Yeah, we should do that. But first...”
“First wha-” Clarkes swallowed her words because Finn caught her off guard and kissed her. It was supposedto be a chaste kiss, but Finn cleary didn’t mind that they were in the middle of the campus and things got heated.
“OH MY GOD PLEASE YOU CAN DO IT SOME OTHER TIME, WE ARE FUCKING LATE!” Octavia yelled making the couple break the kiss.
“I can wait to kiss you again. Some other time.” Finn said winking at Clarke and tooking her by the hand so they could go to the main room.
“Yeah, me too.”
“Does your parents already know about you?” Murphy asked as he hugged his best friend, who looked the epitome of the homossexuality. Lexa was wearing an oversized black t-shirt with a flannel around her waist, combat boots and her glasses were on the top of her head.
“Why are you asking me this now?” Lexa asked with wided eyes, she was already feeling her soul leave her body, just the mention that her parents might know about her, made her heart stop.
“You just look really gay, that’s all. You can breathe again” Murphy laughed at his friend who was currently trying to gain her posture back. “It’s just that you don’t even try to hide it anymore. You know I am not one for pointing stereotypes, but your look today screams ‘I am out and proud’ ”.
“This is nonsense, shut up.” Lexa said with a hint of smile on her face. “Where is Bellamy? Is he already aware that he’s in a commited relationship?” Bellamy Blake was Murphy’s boyfriend. Bellamy just didn’t know about that, yet.
“Hey, if I see you making any of these comments in front of him, I’ll throw your ass out of my apartment before you even move in.” Murphy said looking around, worried thay Bellamy might have heard her, even though the boy wasn’t in the room.
“As if you would be enough of a man to do that.” Lexa said, narrowing her eyes, “this time around, you’re the one who needs me, hun.” She said huffling the boy’s hair, knowing how much he hated it.
“Fuck off, Woods.”
“Alright, students, please welcome the dean Thelonious Jaha.” All the students raised from their seats and clapped as the tall, dark skinned man, started to talk.
“And here we go...” Murphy sighed rolling his eyes, knowing how much Jaha liked to talk.
“Finn, stop.” Clarke said to her boyfriend who was now kissing her neck in the middle of the room, where the dean was giving a lecture.
“I missed you.” Finn said but didn’t stopped his actions.
“Can you two just stop? We’re in public for god’s sake!” Octavia whispered to the couple.
“If you had spent a year without someone you love, you would know how I feel, Blake.” Going back to kiss Clarke’s neck. Who was clearly unconfortable.
“Okay, Finn, that’s enough, stop!” Clarke whispered and elbowed her boyfriend.
“- I hope you all enjoy the beginning of your academic life. Polis university welcomes you all. Thank you.” Jaha finished his speech much to everybody’s happiness.
“Hey, babe, what’s you roommate’s name?” Finn asked wrapping his arms around Clarke’s waist.
“Hum, Raven Reyes, I haven’t met her, but my father did, when he came here to bring the heavy stuff, he said she seems nice enough. You know her?”
Something passed through Finn’s eyes that Clarke couldn’t describe but it went away before she could figure out. “Yeah, I thing I’ve seen her around.”
“Okay, cool. I guess I’ll go meet her then.” Clarke said, giving him a kiss goodbye and going off to find Octavia, who was already talking to some tall and broody guy. “Hey, O. I’m gonna go to my room, meet the roommate and stuff.”
“Oh, okay. I’ll go find Bell, and maybe we can all go explore the city later?” Octavia asked, impacient, wanting to go back to her previous conversation.
“Yeah, sounds nice. See ya!”
The first thing Clarke noticed when she entered the room, was the smell. Something was burning. The second thing she noticed was the young brunnete, who was kneeled by the floor, with a bunch of tools, messing with the minibar. Her minibar. “What the fuck is going on here? Who are you? Why the hell are you messing with my minibar? ” Clarke asked in one breath, not giving the time for the girl to answer any of the questions.
“Oh, hi! You must be Clarke. I’m Raven. Man, you really look like your father, you both have the same eyes, anyone ever told you that?” Raven said cleaning her hands on her pants who were smudged in something Clarke didn’t know what was.
“Answer my questions, please!”
“Well, I’m Raven, your roommate, but I think you’ve discovered that on your own by now. Your father had mentioned to me when he came by that your minibar was kind of broken. And since I’m majoring in engeneer, I told him I would help.” Raven said while looking to the minibar like the thing had personally insulted her.
“Then, why the fuck is burning?” Clarke asked carefully because the other girl had this look on her face that couldn’t be good.
“I DON’T KNOW, CLARKE! DON’T JUDGE ALRIGHT?” Raven yelled at her and went back to her actions and Clarke smiled.
For a moment, Clarke forgot about her mother, about being the reason her family were shattered, she forgot about her middle brother, about pills, about depression, she forgot about all the shit life have been throwing at her for the past three years.
For a moment, she thought she could be a normal, regular college girl.
But she was sure that it was just a moment.