And there's a storm you're starting now
"No! I am not walking into that school. Going to a christian school is. Not. An. Option!"
"Calm down Clarke. It's a prestigeous school and you forget about all this 'bisexual' rubbish soon enough. Just give it a chance, please. For me."
"Being bisexual is not a phase! It's who I am. If you can't accept that, you can't accept me, and I don't owe you jack shit!"
"Clarke! Do not speak to your mother like that!"
"If you won't accept me, you aren't my mother."
The room is deadly quiet as Clarke stares down her mother, both refusing to back down.
Eventually Abby sighs and walks away, high heels clicking on the wooden floor of their new house.
Clarke shakes her head, blinking back tears as she grabs her school bag and walks out the door. Even if she had to go to the damn school, she sure as hell wasn't going to sit in the car with her mother for any amount of time.
~~~
The cold enveloped her as she stepped outside, her uniform doing nothing to fend off the chilly wind. Somebody really needed to rethink the idea of sticking girls in tights in the middle of winter; wearing a long sleeve shirt, jumper and jacket did absolutely nothing to warm up legs.
Fighting off the cold, Clarke hurried towards the train station as tears started to fall. She was sick of her mother pretending that she was straight or acting as if she just didn't exist. It was high time that Abby pulled her head out of her ass, or she was going to loose a daughter before she could even notice.
Regardless of her opinion of her mother, Clarke wasn't about to abandon her education. Dropping out of school or getting expelled was simply not an option, but she was not going down without a fight.
A bus trip later, Clarke had several half-formed plans of how to get revenge, but each and every one had a fatal flaw. Okay, maybe not fatal, but Clarke certainly didn't want to see the fallout.
Hoping off the bus and walking into her new school with nothing but a few half-hearted plans, Clarke felt defeated. In front of her was an old fashioned building, at least three stories high and made almost entirely of stone. It was an intimidating sight, seeing what could only be classified as a mansion, with windows upon windows showing hundreds of girls walking around the halls inside.
Having only ever been to co-ed public schools, Clarke had no idea what to expect from a private all-girls school. Holding her head high and trying to fake as much confidence as she could, Clarke walked into the office and introduced herself to the lady behind the desk.
A quick conversation later, Clarke was holding a map and some papers that varied from school rules and code of conduct to the prayers she would have to memorise. Clarke paid no mind to them as she dumped everything in her newly assigned locker, keeping only her bag, laptop, a timetable and a few books out as she clicked the lock shut.
Getting to class proved to be difficult without a map, and she arrived almost twenty minutes late. Clarke groaned as she walked in, standing in front of the class was none other than her childhood best friend's father. Standing in the open door, Clarke smirked as the other girls noticed her but stayed quiet.
Ten minutes. It took ten minutes for Jaha to notice her presence.
"Clarke, what are- Clarke?" The response had come on autopilot, and when the man noticed what he was saying he almost fell to the floor.
"I'm here to see Wells." Clarke bit out. "I'm the transfer kid, jesus."
The realisation seems to sink in, and Jaha closes his eyes briefly as if he was accepting his fate.
"Clarke, you can not use that language here. You are twenty minutes late to class. Your shoes are undone, you tie is loose, you shirt needs to be buttoned up, your tights are already rip-"
"I'm perfectly aware Jaha. Write home to Abby, I don't care. Just tell me where to sit and get on with it."
Several of the girls look like they are about to applaud Clarke as Jaha points out a seat next to a girl with dark brown hair tied in a high pony tail, drawing little butterflies on the page Clarke assumes is supposed to be for her notes. She looks up at Clarke's approach and grins.
"Hi. I'm Octavia."
"Clarke."
The two continue talking throughout Jaha's class, discussing everything from the butterflies that Octavia draws absentmindedly to the girls at the school. Octavia avoids the topic of how Clarke knows Jaha, and Clarke begins to think that maybe the school isn't completely full of snobs.
~~~
After class, Octavia introduces Clarke to Raven, a girl who sits sprawled out in the middle of the hall. Grease is smudged all over her uniform and her school laptop is spread around her in pieces. Octavia slids down against the wall across from Raven, grabbing Clarke's hand and tugging her down too.
"Raeraeraeraerae-"
"Yes, 'Tavia?"
"Look up."
Raven does as Octavia says, and her eyes widen comically as she sees Clarke.
"Newbie! Welcome to hell."
Clarke chuckles slightly and smirks.
"You got that right."
Octavia starts babbling about the stupidity of classes and picks up some of the screws lying on the ground, only to be slapped away by Raven.
"Don't mess up my order, O."
Octavia grins and flicks her foot, sending a few pieces flying.
"You know you love me."
"Nope. Remind me, why do I?"
Octavia lists off about nine reasons why she is amazing before Clarke interrupts.
"Hey, um, how many girls here are gay?"
Clarke curses inwardly at her question when Raven laughs.
"A lot. I'm bi, O is pan. Uhh, out of the girls we know, there's Munroe and Harper, they're dating, Anya, Nova, Hadley... Oh and Lexa."
Clarke sighs in relief, niether girl seems fazed at the question, and conversation returns to normal instantly. If Raven or Octavia notice how tense Clarke had been, neither commented and Clarke had never been more grateful.
~~~
By the end of the day, Clarke felt like she had known Raven and Octavia for years. The school itself, while it boasted rather extensive religious practises, was fairly laid back. All participation in relgious activities was optional, and everyone seemed to have a fairly open mind considering girls walked down the halls holding hands and stood in corners making out.
Octavia and Raven had left by the time Clarke got to her locker at the end of the day, and she cursed when she realised that she didn't know the code to her lock. She had left the note inside the locker during lunch, not thinking about what she was grabbing for classes. Groaning, Clarke hit her head against the locker. Honestly, of all the stupid things for her to do. Admittedly, she had her phone and her bag, but she really wasn't in the mood to carry all her books home.
"You need help with that?"
Clarke blushed as she realised there was someone else in the hall, someone with a very pretty voice.
"Yes please."
Clarke turned around and just about had to physically restrain her jaw from dropping. The girl not only had a pretty voice, she was gorgeous.
"Don't worry, everyone has forgotten their code at one point. You get really good at picking them open after a while."
Clarke nods weakly as she watches the girl produce a bobby pin and flip the lock upside down, making quick work of opening it. The girl's hair curls down her back effortlessly, small braids pulling the front strands out of her face. She's wearing the uniform almost perfectly, sans the woolen jumper that is supposed to be under the jacket.
Green eyes meet hers with a smirk and Clarke jumps slightly, not expecting her to be done so quickly. Knowing she's been caught checking the other girl out, Clarke doesn't bother making excuses and settles for smirking slightly.
"That was fast."
"I have talented fingers, what can I say?"
Clarke just about chokes on her tongue as the girl dissapears, that was not the response she was expecting. Putting her books away quickly in exchange for the mess of papers she intends to put in the bin, Clarke makes sure she grabs the piece of paper with the lock combination on it before closing it again. Not that she would mind seeing that girl again, she would just prefer it to be in more dignified circumstances.
~~~
The school has emptied by the time Clarke walks out, having been delayed by a trip to the office to get an ID card that had not been ready in the morning. She's missed the bus, so she finds herself walking down the twisting roads in the general direction of her new house.
Dusk has fallen when Clarke gets home, and her mother is furious. Well, Clarke assumes she is by the note left on the bench. Skimming the short essay her mother has left, Clarke notices grimmly that Jaha did indeed call her mother. Ignoring the rest of the lecture, she find the point where her mother explains were she is- work.
Clarke rolls her eyes at the excuse, her mother is clearly just avoiding her. With another 5 hours before her mother is home, Clarke takes a plate of cold pizza up to her room and goes up to her room, searching among the boxes for where she left her guitar.
When her father was alive, Clarke had made an effort to make her realtionship with her mother work. Now, having been uprooted from her entire life, boxed up and shipped away with out so much as being asked her opinion? No. She was done. If her mother wasn't going to accept who she was, Clarke was done.