Hi, I'm Clarke
The car ride was... interesting so far to say the least. Aden was bouncing all over the car, a smile never leaving his face.
“Look mom! Llamas! Why do they have llamas?”
“Well s-”
“Are they alpacas?”
“I do-”
“They look the same”
Lexa took a deep breath before speeding through her next sentence. “WellAdenIcouldansweryouifyoustoppedinterruptingme” Aden’s smiled turned shy as he looked at his mom, “Sorry mom” Lexa smiled and nodded, knowing her son was really excited and probably a little nervous. Her son couldn’t decide on one book to bring to the signing and instead narrowed it down to five, only choosing three to bring. “You look like you ate a bucket of sugar” Lexa chuckled seeing Aden pressing his face against the window trying to get a better view of the buildings they were passing. “Well I tried but you walked in” Aden’s voice came muffled through the glass, a smile evident still.
“Are you excited?”
“The MOST!”
Lexa cocked her eyebrow and smiled when she felt Aden’s seat bouncing through the whole car. It was less that around ten minutes before they pulled up to the building and Lexa parked. She looked over at Aden as she reached for her seat belt, wiggling her eyebrows, causing Aden to throw his head back in a fit of giggles. They were taking their time walking side by side into the building, Aden holding one book in both hands and Lexa, two books in one hand with her other hand around her sons shoulder.
“Hey mom?”
“Hm?”
“Thank you, you know. For bringing me here to meet Clarke.. and supporting my obsession with the books. It means a lot to me.. even if you’re only doing this because you feel guilty about mom dying”
Lexa stopped walking abruptly and looked down at her son. Aden looking down at the book in his hands standing completely still. She felt her eyes start to water up. She blinked the tears away and she got down on her knee to be able to look at Aden directly.
“Hey.. Hey buddy, look at me please” Lexa lifted Aden’s chin and saw his cheeks slightly red.
“You know I’ll support you in whatever, always, it’s not.. this is not a guilt thing Aden. Sure I wish your mom could’ve been around longer and sometimes I feel bad that you don’t have her, but I’m not. This isn’t me on a guilt trip, you deserve everything I give you. You’re a good kid Aden. You’ve just had a rough couple of years okay? I’m your mom, I’ll do anything for you. We both would have.”
Aden gave his mom a slight smile and hugged her.
“I love you mom”
“I love you too Aden”
Aden sniffled and swiped his arm under his nose to stop any tears or mucus running down. He turned back to his mom and took her hand, smiling, and started once more for the building.
Lexa wasn’t sure what she expected when they entered. Sure she enjoyed reading and read often, but she never liked one specific author enough to go to a signing. Much less an author who was just as hard or even harder to get tickets for than J.K Rowling, and she loved the “Harry Potter” series immensely. She sure wasn’t expecting the place completely packed with other giddy kids and their soccer moms on the phone (which by the way, update, Tina got a roommate).
“Come on mom! Let’s get in line!”
“Clarke you ready?”
“Yep, come on, I don’t want to leave them waiting anymore”
Raven and Octavia followed behind Clarke out of the room that they had been getting ready in. As soon as one kid saw them and started yelling, it’s no surprise that basically every kid started yelling. She eagerly stopped by each kid she could and gave them a hug, waving at those she couldn’t reach.
“Hi guys thank you all for coming! My name’s Clarke, and I can’t wait to get to know each one of you today!” Clarke waved but didn’t sit yet, she continued to walk and hug people.
“Clarke, sweetie, this isn’t a hug-a-thon, maybe you could sign books?”
“Fine fine O,” She turned to the group she was in front of and sheepishly shrugged.
Clarke smiled and nodded at everyone who came up to her and told her they loved her book, usually taking pictures with them. Raven and Octavia walking through the room and occasionally stopping to tell a group of kids funny stories of Clarke. Holy shit, are they thanking me for writing?, Clarke was more than grateful. She had started writing for her highschool’s newspaper at first but she got more wind after posting short stories on tumblr. Until she was finally published. Clarke couldn’t have ever pictured this, she was still waiting to wake up from a dream.
She looked up from the marker in her hand, a smile plastered on her face. She was met with a young woman in a flower sweater on top of a button up, holding two books. Needless to say, Clarke was a little surprised to see just an older woman in line, most were moms and they were next to the coffee and on their phones. (And bloody hell was this woman cute).
“Uh, Hi, Clarke, me, wait no I mean, I’m Clarke”
Lexa gave a light chuckle. “Hm really? Clarke you say? I don’t think I had caught your name before” She said glancing at the large sign that said "Clarke Griffin"
“And you are?”
“Not the person you’re looking for” Lexa smiled and chuckled slightly then looked behind her. Aden had become nervous and decided that he couldn’t meet his favorite author so opted to getting behind his mom, hiding, and gripping onto her sweater.
“Hey Aden, buddy, there’s someone who wants to meet you”
Clarke leaned far enough in her seat to catch a glimpse of blond hair and a hand holding onto the woman’s sweater. She smiled and stood up, grabbing a piece of paper and her marker, walking over to the side the boy wasn’t facing. She kneeled and tapped his shoulder who immediately turned and became flushed.
“Hii, my name is Clarke! I’m a big fan of yours Aden, mind giving me an autograph?” Clarke excitedly held up the paper and marker then turned up to look at the woman who mouthed, ‘thank you’, she flashed a large smiled and nodded.
Aden’s mouth had dropped by now as he looked between the author then paper and marker.
“Here, you can sign it on this table over here”
Clarke took Aden’s hand and brought him to the table, setting down the paper. She kneeled once more and handed him the marker. Aden took it and poked his tongue out as he concentrated on writing his name. Clarke turned to look at Lexa.
“Not much of a talker is he?” They both gave a small laugh as Lexa ruffled his hair.
“He’s just a little nervous meeting his idol”
Clarke turned to Aden.
“Hey Aden, can you tell me what your favorite book is?”
“ooOOOO”
“-here we go” Lexa muttered with amusement.
“I LIKE UH THIS ONE” Aden held up the book in his hand.
“Why?”
“I like how, how you show that death isn’t the end” He stated shyly.
Clarke cocked her eyebrow and smiled as Aden handed her the paper with his name. The ‘e’ in his name backwards but the ‘e’ in her name facing the correct way. Lexa smiled as she watched Aden flailing his arms around everywhere while he was describing something in the book, Clarke also starting to making exaggerated motions.
“Hey pal? I think maybe you should let Ms. Clarke here sign your books, other kids want to say hi. Plus you can talk to her at the meet and greet”
“Yes mom” The disappointment in Aden’s voice evident as he looked down so Clarke stood up, putting up a finger signaling for him to wait. She went over to a table near by and picked up a toy from one of her books and motioned Raven over.
“Go pay for this please?”
“I expect a tip”
Clarke smiled and turned back to the boy. She handed him the toy and watched him jump up and down, pulling her mom’s sleeve.
“MOM, MOM, DID YOU SEE, LOOK, LOOKIE, CLARKIE GAVE ME A TOY”
Lexa laughed.
“I see Aden, what do you say?”
“Thank you Clarke”
“It’s no problem Aden, but you know what you could give me in return?”
Aden shook his head.
“A hug, and also a proper introduction”
Of course, Aden had no problem jumping Clarke with a hug while muttering excitedly, “mynameisAdenandthisismymomhernameisLexathankyouclarkiehi”
“He’s obviously Aden, and I’m Lexa”
Clarke stuck out her hand to shake Lexa’s hand despite being in a hug.
She heard Raven and Octavia snickering in the background, “Clarkie”
Aden pulled away and looked at them and whispered to himself. “Octaven..”
Both of the girls head’s shot up, their faces clearly flushed. Clarke standing next to Lexa with her arms crossed and smirking.
“Smart kid Lexa.” She scanned her once more, before continuing.
“Nice sweater by the way, two green thumbs up”
Lexa looked down to check what she was wearing, flower sweater great, and looked at Clarke to find her eyebrow cocked and smirking. Lexa didn’t break the eye contact, she maintained it but didn’t say anything. She only looked away when an excited Aden tugged her arm and started to go on and on about how he managed to get “Octaven’s” autograph’s also.
Clarke picked up Aden and talked to him for a few more minutes, arguing about what her last book’s ending meant. Surprisingly, it hadn’t been nearly as long as Lexa had thought. Only about 15 minutes. Clarke set Aden down and handed him two books, handing one to Lexa.
“I’ll talk to you more tomorrow Lexa” it came out as more of a question than anything
Lexa nodded.
They said their goodbye’s and as Lexa shook Clarke’s hand, she leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Thank you for helping my son”. Clarke wanted to ask about it, but they walked away with no more than a few backwards glances from jumpy Aden.
“Lexa..” Clarke whispered to herself as she watched them walk away, only to be pulled back into reality by a new child talking to her.
“That was AWESOME! Mom did you see, Clarke hugged me! Look at this cool toy!”
“I see Aden, I see, calm down. Are you hungry?”
“Yep!” The boy nodded eagerly but never moving his gaze from the toy.
“Here, hand me the books and wash up, we’ll get you some food.”
Aden left scurrying into the restroom trying to come down from the high he got by meeting his idol. Lexa laughed and leaned against the wall. Okay she’s seen picture of Clarke before but in person, holy shit, Lexa thought to herself before she opened the books to look at the noted Clarke had written. The first one for Aden,wishing him the best and thanking him, the next one wishing him a happy birthday and signed, “Your #1 fan, Clarke Griffin”. The last, the one Clarke had handed her,
“Can’t wait to see you two tomorrow!
P.s.
Lexa, you have beautiful eyes.x”