Chapter 11
The next morning Andes showed up bright an early. She brought the dogs in today, since she hadn’t gotten to spend much time with them, they were staying outside the fence on most days.
Raven popped in and stopped short ,”Whoa, you brought reinforcements today?”
“Yes, I’ve been missing them, hope you don’t mind.”
“No, no, but if it’s ok, I’ll stay over here,” she said from across the table. “They have really big teeth.”
“They’re quite harmless.” Raven was not convinced. “Jaks,“ and she a made motion with her hands, taking her fingers to her mouth and pointing at Raven. Jaks got up and went to Raven, put his paws on her chair, and gave her a couple of wet sloppy kisses.
Raven just froze, her hands in the air, “Oh, my, god. Ok, gross.”
“See? Harmless.“
Raven started wiping off her face, “I hope you’re a better kisser than your dog.”
“Marginally, I’m marginally better.”
“Ok, enough foreplay, come over here, goddess.”
Raven set her up for the IQ test, not telling anyone else she was giving it to her. This was just between them right now. Andes went through it, answering all the questions, and after she was done, Raven fed the results into the computer. Andes hung over her shoulder, “What does it say?”
“Hold on, hold on, it’s thinking.” When the results came up, Raven just stared at the screen. “Wait, something must have happened, this doesn’t look right, let me put your answers in again.” She re-loaded and they both watched the screen, and the result was the same, >200. “Shit, that’s immeasurable.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means you have an immeasurable IQ, like super genius, like, you broke the test. Let me see if we can get it more exact.” She tapped out a few commands, and hit enter. 240. “Holy fucking shit. I’ve never seen a number that high. I didn’t know it could even go that high.”
“Is that good?”
“I guess if you like to be considered a super genius it is. I’m like a 180, which is genius, but you’re off the charts genius.“
“How’s that possible?”
“Hell, I don’t know. You must have good genes. You’re almost like a computer. That’s why you saw that error in the code yesterday, you’re brain must be processing things at an incredibly fast speed. That’s pretty cool, actually. “
“Huh, so I ‘m smarter than you?”
“Don’t get cocky.”
Andes smiled and sat down across from Raven. “So I was listening to your music last night. I love it. Where does it come from?”
“It comes from the mainframe. There are probably over 20,000 songs downloaded here.”
“Who put them on the mainframe?”
“The engineers who built this place downloaded them. A little trivia for you, it took them 25 years to build the Ark.”
Andes nodded her head, processing the info, “so they built the Ark, and launched it into space, I remember Clarke telling me about it. She said they launched the space stations in 2055. And then in 2070, there was nuclear war, and the people up in space were considered to be the only survivors.”
“Yep, and the rest is history.”
“I like history actually.”
“You do?”
“Yep, I’ve actually read a lot of books about history.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I love to read.”
“Cool. Where did you get them, the books?”
“They’re everywhere if you know where to look . Did you know that the first nuclear weapon was detonated in New Mexico in July 1945, which was located in the United States. The next two detonations killed over 100,000 people, in the country of Japan, in August 1945, and that ended World War 2. So I guess nobody learned their lesson in 2070.”
“Very good, yes, you do know your history. And yes, we seem to never learn our lesson. History always repeats itself.”
“Same thing happens now. Same mistakes, same wars, just no nukes.” Andes said sadly.
“Yeah, well, this is conversation is starting to get a little dark, you coming tonight?”
“Yeah, we’re both coming.”
“Good, you’ll have a great time.”
Clarke and Andes made their way to the mess hall around 8pm. The place was already rocking, and they found seats near all their friends. The music was loud and the dance floor was crowded. Harper came and dragged Andes over to the bar to meet some new people. Raven pulled a chair up to Clarke, leaning into her ear, “Hey, I just wanted to let you know your future wife is a genius.”
“I thought she was your future wife. “
“I’ll take her brain, you can have her body.“
“Sounds fair.”
“Clarke, I’m serious, she’s a fucking genius.”
Clarke had no idea why Raven was bringing this up, “I know, she’s really smart.”
“No, you don’t get it. I gave her an IQ test today.”
“And?”
“She was off the charts. I had to alter it so it would keep measuring, like beyond 200.”
“I’m not real familiar with the test, so, sorry, I’m not getting this.”
“Clarke, I’m a 180, and you know that’s pretty high right?” Clarke nodded. “Well, our little hot sexy friend there came in at 240.”
“240?”
“Ya.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said. Actually, I might have said holy fucking shit. She found an error in my code one hour after she was there yesterday, her first day. I was scrolling through tons of lines of code, looking for my mistake, and she’s watching me, and she stops me, tells me to go back, and there it was, an extra character. She just said that it looked different. Do you know how fast I was scrolling? Fast. She’s probably using parts of her brain that the rest of us can only dream of using.”
Raven and Clarke watched Andes interacting with everyone, laughing and smiling, touching people on the shoulder as she spoke to them. “So, everyone is digging her.”
Clarke noticed Gomez paying a little too much attention to Andes, she was whispering in her ear, laughing with her, wrapping her hand around her bicep, writing something on her cast. Clarke got annoyed. “Some people seem to be digging her more than others.”
“What was that? Was that a little jealousy there, Clarkie?”
“What? No. Why would I be jealous? That’s ridiculous. You’re ridiculous.” Raven just stared at her. “You can stop staring, please.”
“Clarke and Andes sittin’ in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g,” Raven sang at her.
“You need to shut it, Reyes.“ Clarke said, holding back a smile.
Raven stopped and looked back at Andes, “she’s an interesting bird. Don’t you think? There’s a presence about her, like you can’t look away, and it’s not because she’s gorgeous. She holds a room. If she asked me to go to war with her, I’d follow her.”
“I’m surprised she’s this good around so many people. She’s basically been alone for years.”
“What did you guys do for six days all alone? I mean, 24/7 for six days is a long time. That’s like three months of dating in normal time.”
Clarke was saved by Monty, who came over to tell Raven they were ready for her.
“Alright, I gotta go, I’m running the show tonight.” And with that she went up to the front of the dance floor, and turned off the music for a second. “Ok, my peeps, we ready for some lip sync action tonight?” Everyone started cheering, whopping and cat calling. Raven looked back to the door leading into the kitchen, “How we doing back there Monty?” He gave a thumbs up. “Ok, our first act is ready, may I present to you, our resident repeat champion, Harper!” Everyone whistled and screamed, feeling the booze, ready for some fun.
Andes came back and sat down next to Clarke, “What’s this?”
Clarke leaned in close to her ear, “they play a song, and Harper will lip sync, meaning, she’ll act like she’s singing the song.”
The music started and Harper came out and blew the crowd away as usual. Andes was loving it, and Clarke was loving watching her, barely taking her eyes off her. Other acts followed, but Harper was once again the winner.
The party broke up after midnight, most everyone had too much to drink, weaving their way back to their rooms, some hooking up for a brief night of passion.
“That was fun. Will you teach me to dance?” Andes asked.
“You want to learn to dance?”
“Yes please.”
“Ok, how about tomorrow night, after dinner, because the next day I have to go to Polis for a week for some council business.”
Andes was seriously disappointed, no Clarke for a week? “Did you want me to come with you?”
“No, it’s best if you just stay here, keep yourself out of trouble.” She put her arm around Andes neck, pulling her close, “can’t have anybody recognizing you now, can we?” She knew she was aching to touch Andes, and this seemed like an opportunity for a little innocent contact.
“When will you be back?”
“Next Monday.”
Clarke opened their door and they both went inside. Clarke removed her arm, and went into the bathroom. Andes wanted to pull her in for a kiss, the ale and the music had her particularly wired tonight. Sleep was going to be hard. Each night it seemed to get harder, and now she faced a whole week without Clarke.
The following night after dinner Andes bugged Clarke again, “Clarke, let’s dance, c’mon, show me. Raven said you’re a great dancer.”
“She did? Well, I’m pretty good.”
“She said great.”
“Ok, ok. Give me your computer, we’ve got to find some songs. ” She scrolled through and picked a couple good tunes that had good beats. “So, first of all, it’s not really something you can teach, per se, some people have it in them and some people have no rhythm, no matter how hard they try. Like Monty.”
Andes remembered seeing Monty dance last night, thinking he looked like a fish on the end of her spear. “Do you think I’ll have rhythm?”
Clarke thought back to the night they had sex, and she was pretty sure Andes would have rhythm. The old saying good on the dance floor good in bed. “Yeah, I think you’re gonna be fine.” She started the song. “Ok, so, you gotta feel the beat, that bass beat, the thump thump, do you hear it? “ Andes nodded, “well, now you gotta feel it. Start tapping your feet. “ Andes started tapping, then her head started moving . “Ok, now your hips, get them going to the beat, like this.” Andes got a little distracted by Clarke’s hips moving. Clarke snapped her fingers, “pay attention please.”
“Sorry, but that’s distracting.”
Clarke tried not to smile, “ok, you do it, c’mon, move your hips.”
Andes started to move with the music, she was a quick study, and now it was Clarkes turn to get distracted. “Is this right?”
“What? Yes, that’s good.” Eventually they were both dancing all around the room. Clarke pulled Andes hips close and they moved in sync, in tune to each other’s movements, laughing and stealing touches. They danced for over an hour, finally worn out, they both collapsed on Clarke’s bed.
“How’d I do teacher?” Andes asked.
Clarke was catching her breath, beating back thoughts of abs and biceps. “You did good, did you like it?”
“Oh my god, yes, it’s like sex with clothes on.”
Clarke smiled, “yeah, I guess it is.”
“What about slow dancing? Do I get a lesson in that?”
Andes was only a couple inches away from her, Clarke’s heart was still beating fast, and she knew it wasn’t just the dancing. “Someone else might have to show you that.”
“Chicken.” Andes said grinning. Moving with Clarke, dancing with her, touching her, was like a drug, and she wanted more. They lay quietly for a while, an easy silence between them, both their heart rates back to normal. “We grounders do dance and have fun you know.”
“Oh yeah?”
Andes nodded. “ When I was young, Lexa and Cos and I would go to the festivals in Polis. And we would walk around and I would be between them, and I would grab their hands, “ Andes grabbing Clarke’s hand, “and they would swing me back and forth.” Andes swung their hands. “I used to love that. They would stop and I’d plead with them, ‘do it again, do it again’. They would swing me so high I felt like I was flying. Once we would get into the crowds, and there were big crowds at the festivals, Lexa would carry me on her back so I wouldn’t get lost.”
“Like piggy back, “ Clarke said, as she looked over at Andes who was still looking up at the ceiling, their hands were still clasped, neither wanting to let go.
“Yeah, piggy back. I was pretty small for my age, Lex called me ‘little one.’ And then we would dance, and sometimes Lexa would put me up on her shoulders and I was way up high, like I was queen of Polis. Or she would take my hands and spin me around, my feet flying out behind me. “ Andes now turned her head towards Clarke, “those are my happiest memories.” She closed her eyes and faced forward again. “I miss that feeling, the feeling of belonging, to a family, even to my nightblood brothers and sisters. I hated training with them, but I was still part of something, know what I mean?”
Clarke squeezed her hand and nodded. This moment between them was new. A different Andes. Not flirting, not kidding around, baring a little bit of her soul, and Clarke was affected by it.
“I miss her. Lexa. She was my hero. I worshipped her.”
“I miss her too.”
“You can talk about it if you want.” Andes gazed at Clarke, who looked at her, looked into her eyes and saw gentleness and compassion. “What did you love most about her?” Andes asked.
Clarke took a deep breath as she looked back up at the ceiling. “God, I don’t think I can pick out one thing. I loved how she was when it was just the two of us. She let her guard down then. I was always amazed at the transformation. I loved the way she looked at me when other people were around. I don’t even think she realized how she looked at me. I loved the way she understood me. I felt like she was the only one who knew what it felt like to make the hard choices. The devastating choices, the choices you carry around for the rest of your life.“ Clarke was quiet for a moment. “I have so much blood on my hands. I don’t think it will ever wash off.” Now it was Andes turn to squeeze Clarke’s hand. “Those are my demons, my nightmares, “ she said as she turned back to Andes, blue meeting gray.
“I keep my demons and nightmares locked away.”
“I haven’t learned to do that yet.”
“Sad eyes. There’s those sad eyes.”
“What do you mean?”
“When we met, you put your hand on my knee, and I looked into your eyes and they were so sad.”
“I remember that look. It felt like you crawled inside me.”
“I spent the whole week trying to erase that sadness.”
“You did?”
“Yeah, I tried to make you laugh. Cause when you laugh, your eyes get all twinkly.” Like the stars in the night sky, but she didn’t say that out loud.
Clarke looked at Andes, really looked at her. Her eyes were the softest gray, her face open, her hair a little wavier from the sweat of dancing. So beautiful. She wanted to pull her close to hold her. And be held by her. Wanted to spend the night wrapped around her. This was more dangerous than lust. The lust she could battle, and if you slipped up, if you fell off the wagon, you just got back on with minimal damage. This she wasn’t so sure, if you lost this battle, you could lose your heart. This was a slippery slope that she couldn’t go down, not now, not ever again. She released Andes hand and got up. “Guess we should get some sleep. I leave for Polis tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” Clarke went into the bathroom, and Andes covered her face with her hands. Trying to quiet these new feelings. These urges. Not sexual. Those were easy. These seemed much more complicated. The urge to soothe. The urge to comfort. The urge to love.