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Bellamy is tired and hungover.
He’s tired, hungover, and really thinks they should stop holding these back to school celebrations the night before their first day of classes.
Pulling himself out of bed, he groans, and throws a pillow at Miller’s head. He’s learned not to do it to Murphy. The one time he did was a grave, grave mistake.
“Get up. First period starts in an hour.”
The only response he gets is a faint ‘go float yourself’ from Miller. He rolls his eyes and fumbles for his glasses, before grabbing his towel to head to the bathroom block.
Exiting the room, he bumps into Monty in the corridor, who gives him a faint smile. They walk down the corridor together.
“I’m on a breakfast run. Jas is refusing to get out of bed,” he explains.
Bellamy chuckles. “Sounds like Jasper. You want any help?”
“It’s cool, go shower. I can grab you something if you want?”
“I don’t think I could eat anything right now, if I’m honest,” he runs a hand through his hair, and Monty nods in understanding.
“I get that. I’ll see you in Calc?”
“I’m missing first period. Touring the new student around,” he replies, heading in the direction of the showers.
“Lucky you,” he hears Monty murmur bitterly, and he smiles to himself.
After washing in the school’s frankly alarming showers – the petitions to have them redone have so far been unsuccessful – Bellamy heads back down the corridor to his room. Miller throws him the little packet of painkillers before he even has a chance to say anything.
He grunts his thanks and heads out again, fumbling for his phone.
Chat: octavia blake and the criminals
octavia: YOOOOOO
jasper: why are u subjecting me to this noise my mind cant read that out loud
octavia: NEW GIRL IS HERE AND SHE IS
octavia: HOT
jasper: YASS GOTTA GET ME SOME OF THAT
raven: oh jas… honey
raven: shes not your type
jasper: ????
jasper: also monty where r u with breakfast
monty: who do you think i am, sonic?
murphy: monty is princess peach idk who the fuck jasper is trying to kid I’m going back to bed
Bellamy snorts and puts his phone back in his pocket. He’s apprehensive about the new girl, especially when he’s already so tight-knit with his classmates already, but it’s worth it to miss registration and Calculus. He plods down the stairs, not bothering to jump the two creaky ones like he normally does, because his head is still pounding. He must look like an absolute mess, but at this point, he doesn’t really care what the new girl thinks of him.
He more or less stumbles into the Reception where he greets Mr Wallace with a smile.
“I’m here to see Jaha? I’m the guide for the new student,” he says.
“Go right on through, Bellamy,” he responds.
Bellamy nods, approaching the door of Jaha’s office. He attempts to smooth down his shirt and hair one more time, before giving up. He resigns himself to looking vaguely tired and messy for the rest of the day.
He knocks on the door, hears Jaha’s faint “come on in”, and enters.
“Ah, Mr Blake,” Jaha says, giving him a once over. Bellamy knows he knows. There’s not so much they can do about that: being one of the Principal’s son’s best friends comes with downsides. “Thank you for agreeing to tour Miss Griffin around this morning.”
“No problem,” he says, putting on his most charming smile. Before he turns around, however, something clicks. “Wait, Griffin?”
“I’m Nurse Griffin's daughter,” the girl says, before Jaha can speak. “Clarke.”
Bellamy turns, and immediately his mouth goes dry. He forgets where he is for a second, eyes widening, palms sweating.
God, he’s worse than Miller when he sees Jackson.
He manages out a brief, albeit jumbled hello before turning back to Jaha. “Just the usual tour around, right?”
“Of course. Just because she’s Nurse Griffin’s daughter doesn’t mean she isn’t a regular student,” Jaha responds. Bellamy can hear the scolding tilt to his voice.
“I apologise, sir. Will do,” he smiles awkwardly before gesturing at the door. “After you, Clarke.”
She raises her eyebrows at him and exits. He swears under his breath, following her into the lobby. He thinks he should really be the one in front.
“Have you visited the school before? Because of your mom?”
She looks back at him and he notices how blue her eyes are. Fuck, he thinks.
“A few times, when I was younger.” She sounds like she’s on guard. “It’s different though.”
He grins now. This is easier territory. “Yeah, the lobby got redone. The rest of the school looks the same, to be honest.”
Clarke rolls her eyes. “Education cuts. You, uh, never actually told me your name?”
“Bellamy! Blake. Bellamy Blake.” Thank god his friends aren’t here to witness this.
Her eyes go wide. “Oh, you’re ‘Bellamy FUCKING Blake’”.
“Uh, I guess?”
“My mom says you’re always in first aid. You or one of your friends.”
Great. Day One meeting this new girl, who is sharp and political and really damn pretty, and she already knows him as ‘Bellamy FUCKING Blake’.
“Well,” he says defensively. “It’s not usually me that’s hurt.”
At this moment, Monty appears with plates in both hands and cartons of juice balanced in the crooks of his elbows. He makes for the stairs and nearly goes flying before just regaining his balance.
Clarke looks a little startled, and Bellamy thinks this may be as good an opportunity for introductions as he’s gonna get.
“You may as well meet everyone first,” he shrugs. “Come on.”
“Everyone?” Clarke sounds alarmed now, and Bellamy laughs.
“Okay there, Monty?” he calls. “Need any help?”
Monty turns around slowly in a great effort not to drop anything.
“Yes please,” he says, grinning sheepishly. “Is this the new girl?”
“Clarke,” Bellamy says simply, grabbing a plate and a carton of juice off the boy. “Nurse Griffin’s daughter.”
“Oh God,” Monty whispers. “I assume you’ve heard of Jasper then?”
“The infamous Jasper Jordan,” Clarke whistles. “I have indeed. Apparently he likes to blow shit up.”
Bellamy can’t help but grin at this, and he leads the way up the stairs to the dormitories. He’s careful to avoid the dent in the floor that Raven made in their third year, pushing open the double doors with his back to talk to Clarke as he does so.
“If something’s broken, it was probably Raven. Or Jasper. You get used to it,” Bellamy says, continuing to walk down the corridor. He hears Clarke murmur something about ‘weird boarding school kids’. Monty snorts.
“I promise, some of us are normal,” he says. “I like to think I balance out some of the weird pretty well.”
Clarke laughs, and Bellamy swears he’s never heard anything like it. He sighs a little, getting a suspicious look from Monty.
He ignores him and quickly turns back to Clarke. “Welcome to the dormitories. Do you know who you’re sharing with?”
“Uh,” Clarke looks at a slip of paper that Belly assumes has her room details and her schedule on it. “It just says 205.”
“Oh, with Raven then,” Monty says, before taking the plate and juice carton off of Bellamy. “Godspeed.”
He’s gone in an instant, into the room he shares with Jasper, and Bellamy sighs. A few seconds later there’s a whooping from their room and Bellamy thinks he can hear thinly veiled proclamations of love. He looks over at Clarke, expecting to see her looking irritated at the racket, but she’s smiling.
“His boyfriend?”
Bellamy laughs, because if even strangers are getting it, Jasper and Monty’s complete obliviousness is really going too far.
“No, but it’s gonna happen one day.” He is suddenly cautious. “Does it bother you?”
Clarke’s eyes widen and she shakes her head and starts to shrug off her jacket. Bellamy is a little confused until she points at the bisexual pride button on her shirt.
“I’m actually glad to know I’m not the only one! Is there a society?” she asks, eyes bright.
“Well, technically no, but it’s essentially our friendship group.”
“Ah. I’ll set one up next week or something. We should have something official.” She waves a hand dismissively. Bellamy’s mouth drops open.
The dorms are starting to fill with people headed to their first classes now – again, thank you Clarke for getting him out of the excruciating first lesson back rules recaps. The two of them are getting some curious looks. Jasper and Monty wave as they head past, Miller nods and raises an eyebrow. Murphy just gives them a weird look and a smirk.
“We can head upstairs to the girls’ rooms now if you want to put your stuff down?” Bellamy says.
Clarke frowns. “Is it only boys on this floor? I thought I saw a girl leave that room.” She points at Monroe’s door.
“Monroe’s room is technically on the girls’ floor. They swapped with Lincoln, because they’re not a girl, and also so Lincoln can share with Octavia – his girlfriend and my sister.” He pauses before continuing. “The school doesn’t know though, so shhh.”
Clarke winks in response, and Bellamy’s brain chooses that moment to short-circuit. He’s saved by the continuous beeping of his phone.
“One minute,” he says to Clarke, fishing it out of his pocket.
Chat: octavia blake and the criminals
raven: WHERE IS SHE I WANNA MEET MY ROOMMATE
bellamy: shouldn’t you be in class
raven: i am
raven: but I am too start to waste brainpower on school rules and all my teachers agree
bellamy: so you’re texting under the table
raven: exactly
raven: now send me a photo
Bellamy looks up at Clarke. “Your roommate wants a photo of you.”
Clarke raises her eyebrows a little, but willingly smiles a little for the camera. Bellamy takes a photo quickly and sends it to the chat.
Chat: octavia blake and the criminals
bellamy: [clarke.jpeg]
raven: holy shit she is beautiful
raven: tell her i’m looking forward to meeting her
bellamy: stop hitting on your roommate through me jfc
bellamy: you’ll meet her at break now pay attention
raven: okay mr grumpy jesus
Bellamy rolls his eyes and puts his phone away. “Okay, tour.”
Clarke falls into step beside him, and he tries not to let what he’s pretty sure is full blown infatuation with this girl show on his face.
“So,” she says. “Tell me about your friends. They seem cool.”
“At the risk of sounding sappy, we’re more like a family,” he admits. “There’s me and my sister Octavia, as I mentioned. Her boyfriend Lincoln – I wouldn’t cross him. He’s hench as fuck.”
Clarke laughs. “And Jasper and Monty?”
“Friends since birth, and both smarter than they seem upon first glance. They adore each other and everyone but them knows they’re going to get together at some point. There’s a betting pool going, which you’re welcome to join.”
“I’m totally in,” Clarke says quickly.
Bellamy grins. “Cool. Then there’s Raven, engineering extraordinaire and your roommate. She’ll probably flirt with you, just warning you now. She and Monty are usually working on some project and it usually causes things to explode. We’ve stopped trying to understand them, they're too clever for us.”
“And yet Monty was trying to carry all those plates up the stairs by himself earlier?”
“Smarter than he looks – I told you that. Okay, so then there are my roommates Miller and Murphy. You’re only supposed to have one roommate but we just sort of ended up that way. Miller’s pretty quiet and kinda sarcastic, but he’ll warm up to you. Murphy is a snarky little shit, so if you need a favour, make sure his girlfriend Emori is there. That’s sort of the core group, but everyone here is pretty friendly. Harper and Monroe are around sometimes, so is Wells.”
“Oh, I know Wells,” Clarke nods. “We used to be best friends.” She looks down for a moment before smiling again. “That’s everyone?”
“Those are the people who are gonna bother you over text every morning. You’re going to get to know Jackson very well too. He’s the assistant nurse.” Bellamy opens a door, gesturing for Clarke to go through.
“Do you seriously get hurt as much as my mom makes out? You’re not being attacked, are you?”
“No, it’s usually accidents or allergic reactions. And oh – don’t eat the food on Student Takeover Day unless it’s Murphy in the kitchen.”
“Got it. Can we head to my room now? My bag is getting kinda heavy.”
Bellamy nods and leads her up the stairs. The room is, predictably, a mess.
He reels off the scripted nonsense about the cosy but spacious rooms whilst Clarke stares at the huge singe mark across the floor. He doesn’t come up to these rooms very often, but he remembers that the side of the room belonging to Raven’s old roommate was definitely not this tidy before. At least she’s being helpful, even if her room is the most terrifying thing Bellamy has seen in a long time. Clarke drops her bags onto her bed and sighs.
“Anywhere else I should see?”
“There’s still the grounds, the halls and the classrooms, but there’s not really enough time before we’re expected in our second class. What do you have?”
Clarke fishes around in her bag for the slip of paper with her printed timetable and scans it. “History with M Kane,” she reads. “He any good?”
“The best,” Bellamy supplies. “I have him too. So does the whole gang, actually.”
“Well, that should make things interesting,” Clarke says quietly, and Bellamy can sense a nervous edge to her voice.
“Hey,” he says, sitting down next to her on the bed. “We may be intimidating at first, but everyone is really friendly. I promise. I’m not so bad, right?”
“You’re not so bad at all, Blake,” she smiles a little, returning his gaze, and he feels a little bit lost for a few seconds. The moment is broken when she looks away and grabs her backpack.
“So,” she says. “Show me to History?”
Bellamy nods, taking a deep breath. “Let me just grab my stuff from downstairs. We’ve got time to get a coffee from the mess hall if you want one.”
“That would be great. I’ve been up since 4,” she admits, and Bellamy grimaces.
“Jesus, that’s early.”
She follows him downstairs and into his room, which he knows is somehow more of a mess than Raven’s, but there’s nothing he can do about it now. He grabs his backpack from where he managed to pack it before the festivities begun the night before, and throws it over his shoulder. He looks up to see Clarke taking in the room.
“Nice,” she says, deadpan. She’s staring at Murphy’s model skeleton, balanced haphazardly against the wall near his bed. He appears to be swearing at the door, wearing a coat, hat, and ridiculously large sunglasses.
“That’s Sammy,” Bellamy sighs. “I’ve tried getting Murph to get rid of him. To no avail.”
Clarke just snorts, before turning around and heading out the door. Bellamy curses Murphy inwardly, making a mental note to tell him to be less weird. He doesn’t want to scare Clarke off before she’s even met the rest of his friends.
They each grab a coffee quickly, Bellamy adding sugar and cream to his, which Clarke wrinkles her nose at in disgust. He rolls his eyes and starts to head to the main building.
“Okay, so the main academic building is across the courtyard from the dorms. Each floor is a different department. Languages, including Lit classes, are on the top floor, for instance,” he explains as they walk.
“That seems simple enough,” Clarke responds. She’s gripping the strap to her backpack tightly.
As they approach the doors to the building, Bellamy hears the faint bell that signals second period is about to start. “We better hurry.”
“Lead the way,” she gestures for him to go ahead.
He takes the familiar route up the stairs and through the double doors to the first floor. It’s like breathing by this point, and he never thought he’d call a place like this home, but there you have it.
He stops in front of room 415, turning to Clarke.
“Ready for your first taste of a regular day here at Ark?” he asks, grinning.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she responds, and Bellamy opens the door.
The classroom is, as he had expected, a bizarre form of organised chaos. Miller has his face down on the desk as Murphy carefully inks a drawing of a cat onto the back of his head. Monty is standing in front of them, holding up a terribly drawn cat picture and grinning like a madman. The others are all ether languishing about in chairs, waiting for class to start, or chatting, but the room goes silent as Bellamy and Clarke enter.
Or, at least, it goes silent for about five seconds before Raven shouts.
“New girl!” she yells and makes her way over as fast as someone who can barely move one leg can manage (still faster than Jasper, Bellamy notes). “I’m Raven, you’re Clarke, and I’m very sorry about our room.”
Clarke grins. “I’m sure I’ll get used to it.”
Before anyone else can introduce themselves, Kane walks in with a sigh. Everyone takes their seats. Miller quickly sits up, and Monty slides into his chair in front of him and tucks the drawing into his rucksack.
“Hello everyone, and welcome back. Miller, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but for this lesson only you are allowed to wear your hat.” Miller smirks and puts his beanie on. “Okay, as I’m sure you’re all aware, we have a new student: Clarke Griffin. Clarke, you can take a seat next to Jasper – Jasper, head off the desk, I don’t care if you’re hungover.”
“Kane has no time for nonsense,” Bellamy murmurs, before sliding into his seat next to Murphy and gesturing for her to go and sit down. Clarke smiles in response before following Kane’s instructions.
“I don’t want to waste time recapping obvious rules, so let’s run over what’s specific to this class. Bellamy, presentations stay under five minutes. Jasper and Monty cannot sit next to each other, and Murphy, the skeleton is not a student in this class, nor does it have a human right to education. All clear?”
Murmurs of “yes, Mr Kane” fill the room, with a quiet “Justice for Sammy” which Bellamy assumes comes from Murphy. He catches Clarke’s eye and smiles.
“Alright. I assume none of you have looked at the specification except Bellamy?” Kane begins, and upon the lack of response, merely sighs. “As expected. Bellamy, do you want to summarise?”
Bellamy clears his throat. “We’re starting with the American Revolution, I think?”
“Yep, so cast your minds back, guys. We did this, albeit in less detail, a couple of years ago. See what you can remember.”
The class follows roughly the same pattern for the entire three quarters of an hour, and somehow Bellamy feels more awake afterwards. He can’t say the same for Jasper, though, who follows him about the door grumbling about his headache.
Clarke approaches him in the corridor. “Do we have a break now?”
Bellamy grimaces. “Yep. Time for you to meet the gang in all their glorious chaos.”
“From what I’ve seen, I think I’m going to love them,” she says. “They seem to mean a lot to you, Bellamy.”
“They do,” he smiles fondly. “I’ll walk you to the mess hall.”
When they arrive, Bellamy’s friends have somehow managed to squeeze themselves all into their regular table in the corner. He senses the need for more space and drags two chairs from another table with him as they approach.
“Hey everyone,” he says. “I’ve brought Clarke with me. Jasper, move the fuck up.”
Jasper flips him off, but moves over begrudgingly, allowing Bellamy to fit two more chairs in the limited space there is around the table.
“So, Clarke,” Raven says as she sits down. “How’d you find your first class?”
“Eventful,” she responds, laughing a little. “Kane looked like he was going to have a breakdown at one point.”
“That’s his permanent expression,” Miller says, taking a bite out of an apple.
“Wait until you see a presentation lesson. He smiles through Bellamy’s, starts to lose hope at Miller’s and then understands true fear by Murphy’s,” Octavia tells her, squishing into a seat with Lincoln. “Then it’s just blank confusion when the doofus twins have their turns. I’m Octavia, by the way.”
Clarke smiles in greeting and Jasper gasps exaggeratedly. It’s mostly for the purpose of letting Clarke know that he is one of the doofus twins. “Our recreation of the Battle of the Somme was both accurate and iconic.”
“Never again,” Monty says earnestly. “I have goals this year. Academic ones. If I piss off Kane, it’s all over and I go back to South Korea to live with my weird great uncle and make money from music and Jasper dies because he can’t live without me.”
“Sounds great, please go.” Murphy deadpans from his corner of the table. Clarke frowns at him and he winks back at her. She shoots him an exaggerated wink back. Bellamy is glad she can notice a joke, because if she took things too seriously, their whole group was going to end up in therapy. Or possibly the morgue.
“So how come you’re only coming here now if your mom works here?” Raven asks.
Clarke sighs. “She didn’t want me to be influenced by having a mom at the school. I wasn’t supposed to come here at all, but my old school was kind of shit. There’s no exciting story there, sorry.”
“Damn,” Raven frowns. “I was hoping for drama. Lots of boarding school kids have dark pasts. Skeletons in the cupboard, and all that jazz.”
“Or skeletons leaning against your bed and falling over in the night,” Bellamy adds, thinking of Sammy’s broken foot and tendency to fall over at 3am.
“Hashtag Leave Sammy Alone 2k17,” Murphy says loudly, banging on the table. “He’s a worthy member of the group.”
Bellamy rolls his eyes. He can see Clarke laughing, and he’s glad everyone seems to like her. It’s often difficult for them to let new people in, especially due to the protective natures of most of the group.
Raven catches his eye from across the table. He raises an eyebrow at her and she smirks knowingly. Oh boy, he thinks. He is so fucked.
The bell for third period goes and the group all peel off to head to their various classes. He leaves Clarke in the capable hands of Monty, as they have Biology together, and heads to English Lit with Raven.
“So,” he can hear the smirk in her voice. “Clarke, hey?”
“Oh fuck off, Reyes,” he rolls his eyes and she laughs.
“So dramatic,” she grins, and follows him up the stairs.
The rest of the day is roughly the same, and Bellamy can feel the beginnings of routine begin to sink back into his bones. He loves it.
That evening, he’s sat in his dorm room finishing his Spanish homework before the dinner bell goes when his phone vibrates.
Chat: octavia blake and the criminals
octavia has added clarke
octavia: welcome new girl
raven: WELCOME
jasper: omg clarke hi
murphy: could you not im trying to do homework I don’t want detention two days in
monty: murphy???? Turning over a new leaf????
murphy: shut the fuck up green can u get over here its geometry and I’m already stuck
monty: omw
raven: ….i still don’t get this weird alliance
murphy: theres nothing to get he helps me with math
jasper: be careful monty you might end up like sammy (also come back soon ur warm and the dorm is fucking freezing)
monty: will do jas
raven: someone might be owing me money soon @ octavia @ miller
miller: as if, reyes
jasper: ….im lost
raven: don’t worry about it young one
jasper: ok well does anyone wanna get me a hot chocolate from the mess hall
octavia: yes if u buy me lunch tomorrow
jasper: done
bellamy: welcome to the weirdness, clarke
clarke: happy to be here
Bellamy smiles to himself, turning the page of his textbook. It’s going to be a good year.