Chapter 1
“Come on, Bell! How the hell did you even make the team if you can't even pick the ball up with your stick?” She called, bending over so her hands met her knees.
It was surprisingly cool for it being only the beginning of September, and Clarke Griffin was annoyed. The sun was beating down on the back of her neck and the smell of barbecue was wafting through the unfortunate serenity she called suburbia. Her mother was having her yearly end-of-summer party.. She was just glad that the whole neighborhood wasn't invited this time.
“It's not my fault my stick broke, Clarke. You know I'm not used to yours!” Bellamy replied, his brow furrowed in frustration as he struggled to get the ball into the net of his lacrosse stick without the help of his feet.
“Yes it is- you didn't have to beat the shit out of that raccoon in the trash last week. I told you not to, but hey- who even listens to me?”
“Hey, shut it, O!”
Clarke laughed at her friends’ antics; the Blake siblings seemed to always be at each other's throats. When Bellamy finally managed to pick up the ball he and Clarke passed it back and forth a few times before they were called to eat by Marcus, the stepfather of Bellamy and Octavia. Marcus had come into the Blake sibling’s life quite early on, so it wasn't a surprise that Bellamy and Octavia looked up to the man like an actual father. He had created a friendship with her mother, and that made Clarke’s relationship with the Blake’s all that much stronger, despite them living next door for her entire life.
They had all sat down at the picnic table for dinner, with Clarke in the middle between Bellamy and Raven, their friend and Octavia's girlfriend. Food was passed around and laughter filled the air as questions of their summer were sprouted, and Clarke felt.. Happy. Something she hadn't really felt since her father passed away many years prior.
“Are you excited for the lacrosse season? Senior year is big- I heard that Pike’s going to be bringing in recruiters for all kinds of sports.” Marcus asked from his spot on the end, across from Bellamy.
“Oh definitely. Pike may be an asshole-”
“-language, Clarke.”
“-sorry mom. Anyways- he may be pretty hard on us all but man, I'm hoping it'll pay off. If not for lacrosse then like, another sport.” Clarke finished, munching on a chip.
“I'm hoping he’ll bring some of those recruiters to the basketball games. Lacrosse is awesome and everything, but you know it won't get you far in college.” Bellamy interjected, nudging Clarke's arm with his elbow. It led to Clarke purposely nudging him back until they were almost pushing Raven, who’s only response was to grab Clarke's earlobe to stop them.
“Hey now- okay- alright I'll stop! Geez!” Clarke huffed, rubbing her ear.
Abby shook her head as she finished chewing and looked over to the pair of girls on the other end. “What about you two? What are you hoping for this year?”
Raven smiled thankfully at Abby. With her own parents not really caring, she had found a motherly figure in both Abby and Octavia's mom, Aurora, and a fatherly figure in Marcus. “I'm hoping the robotics team goes to states. We may be underestimated, but you'd be surprised with the amount of scholarships that are handed out at the competitions.”
Octavia’s hand fell to Raven’s thigh as her girlfriend went on about her passion. She loved it when Raven would talk about the things she loved, even if Clarke and Bellamy liked to tease her about it sometimes. Deep down she knew that her friend and brother were always joking around, but she really hoped that Raven knew that too. When the eyes turned to her she snapped out of her thoughts, looking at everyone. “Don’t ask me- I have no idea.”
Marcus sighed and rested his face in his hand; he had always advised for Octavia to get her mind together and find something to do for the rest of her life but she was stubborn, never wanting to give in. It’s like she didn’t care, even though he knew that she did. She always wanted to keep to herself, though, keeping herself private instead of putting herself out into the world like Bellamy, Clarke, and Raven.
They talked and talked until the sun started to set and their stomachs hurt from laughing so much, but eventually they all settled down in the Griffin family room, having a nice movie night to really end the summer right. By the time the final Hunger Games film ended on the television, all four teenagers were passed out, their dreams being filled by potential futures, love, and hopes for the next year to come.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Clarke woke with a groggy start the next morning; her throat feeling dry and her eyes not wanting to open to meet the lights that her mother had turned on in the house. She shifted on her spot on the couch, stretching out her legs as she mentally prepared for the usual start-of-the-year rant her mother was going to give them. As her legs moved out along the couch she ended up kicking something hard and her eyes opened, only to see Bellamy asleep sitting up on the other side of the couch, fully dressed for the day already. She didn’t blame him- she wanted to go back to sleep too. She had been helping him with drills and passes for football, while he was helping her get into shape for volleyball tryouts that were set to happen halfway through the month. To sum things up, the both of them had been exhausted.
After finally managing to get herself up off the couch and into the kitchen for an apple, she caught the time on the stove and groaned aloud. She didn’t realize how late it was.. She had roughly fifteen minutes to shower and get ready before they were set to drive to school. She shoved the apple between her teeth and jogged upstairs to shower and get ready for the day, knowing that she’d probably have to do her makeup in the backseat of Bellamy’s truck. She had barely been able to get dressed before she was rushing out the door- saying a quick goodbye to her mom with only one shoe on as she hopped into the front seat.
“How the hell did you sleep so late? You were asleep before I was!” Octavia exclaimed from the backseat, buckling herself up as Bellamy pulled out of the driveway.
“You didn’t sleep because I didn’t sleep, O.” Raven piqued, plopping her bag on the floor between her feet.
“Hey- keep the lovey-dovey talk to a minimum, Rae. I don’t want to hear about what you and my sister get up to when you’re in the same room as me.”
Clarke shook her head and pulled down the visor from the roof, using the built-in mirror to her advantage. She was used to having to apply makeup in the front seat; having been best friends with the three of them for years meant things like water parks and camping and places where the only sanitary environment with a mirror was the truck itself. By the time they had pulled into the school Clarke had managed to not only apply eyeshadow, but eyeliner and mascara as well and didn’t even smudge it once.
“I’ll never get over how perfect you manage to do that in that damn truck.” Octavia stated as they exited the truck.
They met up with a few of their friends, catching up with them because they had spent most of the summer apart. Despite being on the same teams as a lot of them, Bellamy, Clarke, Octavia and Raven all really only hung out with each other. Everyone else were either purely teammates or acquaintances. Because of their appearances on the various sports teams of the school, both Bellamy and Clarke were known by almost everyone, and in turn Octavia and Raven were known as well. It was overwhelming at first, with everyone knowing their name and none of them knowing everyone’s, but they got used to it over time.
“Clarke Griffin, report to the principal’s office. Clarke Griffin, to the principle’s office.”
The intercom overhead rang out, and Clarke sighed. Of course she’d be called down on the first day. Wasn’t bad enough that she was almost late. It seemed like fate was not on her side today.
“It’s the first day of school, Clarke- what could you of possibly done to get in trouble?” Raven asked from her locker.
“I didn’t do anything this time, I swear Wallace is trying to set me up or something.” Clarke grumbled, shaking her head as she headed down towards the office. The principal, Dante Wallace, was the strictest man that Clarke knew. He was worse than the gym teacher, Pike, whom everyone hated with a burning passion.
She made her way through the hallways, easily ignoring every stare that went her way as she went. She was used to being called down, unfortunately, but most of the time it was for stupid things or things she didn’t do. One time Wallace tried to frame the vandalized gym lockers on her, purely because she had to leave gym class early due to a doctor’s appointment. If she didn’t have the paperwork, she probably would’ve been suspended for that.
“What did I do this time, Wallace?” Clarke asked as she walked past the secretary into the principal’s office. She sat down in the seat across from him and brought her foot up to rest on her knee, getting comfortable.
“It seems to be that you have a missing elective credit, Miss Griffin. You’re going to want to get that taken care of if you want to graduate.” Wallace stated plainly, avoiding eye contact with Clarke. The blonde huffed.
“I’ll just take drawing again- Mrs. G loves me.” Clarke shrugged off the statement he had said; she wasn’t worried about her electives. They were pointless most of the time and the only reason why she paid attention in any class that wasn’t drawing was because she had to keep her grades up in order to play sports.
“Then it seems we have a problem. You cannot take the same elective twice, Clarke. We encourage our students to broaden their horizons by engaging in multiple varieties- you have to pick another elective.”
“What the hell, man?! I don’t care for any other elective!”
“Calm down, Clarke.”
Clarke sighed and ran a hair through her slightly-damp hair. She wished she had brought a hat today- her hair was going to get tangled and snarled by the end of the day because she didn’t have the chance to properly style it. “What am I going to take, then?”
Wallace passed a paper over to her with a list of the available electives on it. It took all she had to not crumple the paper up and throw it at the principal- mostly because she knew if she did that she’d get a detention. The paper only held three electives; culinary (which wasn’t an option because Clarke couldn’t cook to save her life), woodshop (which- just no. If she couldn’t cook, she definitely couldn’t make things with wood), and drama. All of the options were things she had no interest in doing whatsoever, and that alone ground her gears. Why did the school think it was okay to make the students do things that they didn’t want to do? Especially as seniors when nothing really mattered but getting what you needed to graduate and having fun? She tapped her finger against her chin, pretending to be in deep thought when in reality she was wondering how many times she could bash the principal’s head against the wall without getting caught. She really hated Dante Wallace.
“I’ll just take Drama- it’s the least aggravating out of the three.” She eventually decided, standing up with a shake of the head. “Can I go now?”
Wallace nodded and took the paper back. “Yes you may.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It had taken Clarke a full twenty minutes to figure out where the drama room was. She had received her modified schedule halfway into first period; just receiving the paper was enough to make her want to skip school that day. She probably would have, if Raven wasn’t giving her the death glare from across the room, and she didn’t want to make Raven mad. She had seen the girl mad about one thing or another, and it wasn’t a force to be reckoned with. Especially since Octavia always took Raven’s side.
When she finally found the drama room she casually walked inside and took a seat in one of the variously spread out chairs, completely ignoring whatever the teacher was saying. She didn’t want to be there, but she felt like she had to be. She pulled out her phone and was mindlessly scrolling through Facebook when she heard her name being said.
“Clarke? What are you doing here?”
She looked up to see Octavia, of all people, sitting in the front row in front of the whiteboard, a pen and paper in her hands. The blonde furrowed her brow and realized that everyone was looking at her, and the teacher didn’t look happy at all.
“Uhh..”
“You must be Miss Griffin. I heard that you were going to be joining my class and I’ll admit, I wasn’t too happy to hear that.” The teacher stated as she walked over to Clarke. “If you were here for the beginning of class you would know that I have a very strict no-phone policy.” She explained as she held out her hand, and Clarke handed it over with a huff. “Who wants to inform Clarke about what she missed?”
Octavia went to speak up, but was cut off. “Anyone but Octavia.”
Clarke looked around the room, her lips forming a straight line. Students around her were raising their hands, all wanting to be called on by the teacher. Eventually, the teacher picked on a girl who sat a few seats down from Octavia.
“On top of the no-phones policy, you introduced yourself to us as Anya Forrest, but you would like to be called Anya because it makes it seem more like a friendship than a teacher/student relationship. You also asked us to copy down what was on the board, because it is the information for the required auditions for the school play this year.”
Clarke rolled her eyes. Of course she’d be put in a class full of goody-two-shoes. It made her wonder why exactly Octavia was in that class.
“Thank you. You see, Clarke? It’s Lexa’s first day here and she’s already more prepared than you are. Maybe you should stop being so focused on sports and see what was around you.” Anya finished, then walked over to her desk. Clarke shook her head and pulled out her notebook, casually writing down what she had to. If she was being forced to be there, she was going to try her hardest to at least get a B- so she could both graduate and be able to participate.
Since it was the first day they were allowed to talk amongst themselves for the last fifteen minutes of class (the first forty-five were spent playing get-to-know-me games which Clarke despised), but Clarke found herself looking around the room instead. A quarter of the room was taken up by a large platform that resembled a stage, with the walls around it being black. The walls that weren’t attached to the makeshift stage were a deep green that contrasted against the grey ceiling, that of which a few panels were painted to look like the posters of old shows that the school had put on. Various quotes from Shakespeare and other idol-worthy people were plastered along the walls, giving the room a little bit of life. If Clarke didn’t know any better, she would of thought that the room belonged to some Broadway-freak high schooler.
Her first instinct when given the freedom to talk was to go over to Octavia and see why the hell the brunette was in this class, but something stopped her. She looked back over to the stage and saw the girl who caught her up, Lexa, sitting alone. She knew she should've just walked over to her friend, that she shouldn’t do anything else, but something was drawing her towards the girl. She started to walk towards the stage, going in and out of the sporadically-placed chairs without tripping over one of them, but before she could make it to the platform where the girl was sitting she was stopped.
“You need to explain what the hell you’re doing here. Now, Clarke.”
Clarke wasn’t sure if she would ever stop sighing that day. What a way to start her senior year.