Chapter Text
Clarke was nervous but confident as she walked down the halls of Polis High School. It has been almost 8 months since her dad’s death. Jake was everything to Clarke, he was the reason Clarke was so fascinated by astronomy. He used to take Clarke to work with him during her off season. They always joked that she would become the Deputy Administrator of NASA, and take over space. Sadly, his work got him killed. On May 17, 2016, Jake was on his way to a conference in Paris when his plane hit massive turbulence, which caused the plane to crash. The NTSB deemed the crash an unfortunate accident. All thirteen passengers died on impact, including Clarke’s father.
Clarke was brought out of her trance by a slamming locker followed by arguing. The bickering came from a medium height Latina, with long, brown hair and a taller girl with long, brown hair with blonde highlights. Her sharp jaw line and high cheekbones gave her an intimidating appearance. The shorter girl did not seemed as phased as Clarke by the taller girls piercing gaze, because she kept arguing her point; what that point was, Clarke was still unsure.
She kept her head down and thought it best not to interfere, granted it is her first day and she would like to keep her head on her shoulders. But damn, she really did need help finding her first class. This school was shaped like a crop circle, with two levels. A freshman had to tell her an easy way to remember the buildings, but she has already forgotten it; all except for A Building, because “A” stands for art.
Clarke was again brought back to reality by a loud sound, but this time it involved her. She felt like she had run into a brick wall and dropped her books. What she did not expect was for the brick wall to have forest green eyes and a blinding, white smile. Clarke instantly sized the other girl up, forgetting about her recently dropped stuff. The green eyed beauty was a few inches taller than Clarke with perfectly tan skin and a hint of a tattoo, which had a tribal look to it, on her right bicep. She had a body that all females could only dream of, her legs seemed to stretch for days and they match her torso perfectly. She had long, strong arms that were connected to flawless hands and fingers. Clarke’s imagination got the best of her and she started wondering what those fingers were good for.
“Hey, are you in there?” the other girl said with a small laugh.
Shit! Shit! Shit! She’s talking! C’mon Clarke, don’t sound like an idiot.
“Who me?” way to go numb nuts, who else would she be talking to.
“Yes you.”
“Uh, yeah, right…” why can you not make a full sentence? Okay, just pick up your things and go die in a hole.
“Here, let me help you with that.” The other girl leaned over and handed Clarke her binder with her schedule in it. “I’m actually headed to Jaha’s class myself, want to walk with me?”
“Yeah…yes, I’ll do that.” God! What is happening to you Clarke, get it together woman!
“I haven’t seen you around, are you new?” The other girl asked without making eye contact.
“I just moved here, this semester.” Clarke said, shyly.
“Ah, I see. That explains why you were headed in the wrong direction.” She said with a small smirk playing at her lips.
“Right. A freshman told me an easy way to remember the buildings, but the only one I remember is “A for Art.” Clarke admitted.
“Do you like art?”
“Yeah, that’s how I spend most of my past time. Well that and practice.” Why is it so easy to talk to this girl? I don’t even know her name…Clarke thinks to herself.
“Here we are, Dual Enrollment Biology 1010. So what do you like to paint?” The brunette was walking in front of Clarke and heading to an empty lab table in the middle of the class. Clarke followed without hesitation.
“Well my dad and I shared a fascination with stars and the sky, so I like to paint pretty much anything to do with the sky. And landscape, that’s a lot of fun too.” Clarke says, without skipping a beat.
“That sounds interesting. Where does your dad work? Oh and I’m Lexa by the way.” She said with an outstretched hand.
“Clarke…” she shook her hand in response, “Well, he used to work for NASA. He passed back in May.” Clarke started to feel uncomfortable, not because the topic of conversation, well kind of. She never talks about her dad’s death, especially to someone she’s only known for a few minutes.
***
Lexa just sat there with this dumb look on her face. Clarke, a girl that she just met, just told Lexa that her dad died in the same month as her parents. Not only was it the same month, but her parents and Clarke’s dad worked for NASA…
“Uh, Clarke?” Lexa said, almost afraid to ask.
“I’m sorry, I don’t normally talk to people about my dad. Just forget I said anything.” Clarke said, and her gaze instantly dropped to the floor.
“What? No, no…that’s not what I meant” Lexa said, starting to panic a little, “uhm, my parents…”
“Alright, alright. Settle down you ungrateful misfits. Christmas break is over, school is back in session, and I am back in hell.” Mr. Jaha said, with a playful, but oddly serious smile.
“He seems like he loves his job.” Clarke offered playfully, and probably as an escape from the previous conversation.
Lexa responded with a simple smile, still too in shock to say anything further about her parents. She didn’t know this Clarke girl well enough to divulge something so serious.
“The seats you are sitting in now will be your seats for the rest of the year, unless you decide to do something stupid, inevitably forcing me to find new arrangements for you. Now…”
Lexa ignored the rest of his spill and turned to Clarke, “Looks like we’ll be getting to know each other pretty well, Clarke.” She was silently thanking whatever deity looking over her right now.
“I guess we will.” Clarke said with a smile.
The rest of class consisted of small get to know you activities, it seemed a little childish at first but Lexa learned that Clarke’s favorite genre of books is sci-fi. And a get to know you activity is better than working and getting nowhere; although, after about twenty minutes, everyone had separated and was talking amongst themselves.
Lexa’s second class was Criminal Justice II, with Luna Rivers. Lucky for Lexa, Clarke’s next class was sociology, with Ms. Nia Nation, which is right next door to Lexa. They made small talk on the way to their second block classes and eventually part ways. Lexa was a little disappointed to see the blonde go, but she knew she needed to get to class. Lexa walked Mrs. Rivers’ class and takes her seat next Octavia Blake.
Octavia and Lexa have been friends since freshman year after both making the varsity softball team as freshman. Lexa even likes to give herself credit for getting her cousin, Lincoln Pine, and Octavia together. When in reality all she did was invite Lincoln to one her softball games after seeing Octavia drool over him at the homecoming football game, sophomore year.
“Hey O, how was Christmas at the Blake household?” Lexa said, taking a seat to the left of Octavia.
“Oh, ya know. Same as always, plus two.” O said, rolling her eyes.
“Two? I know Lincoln is one, but who’s the second?”
“Bell brought Echo.” She rolled her eyes again.
“Echo? Haven’t they been dating for like…a month, maybe less?”
“Yep, but apparently he’s in love with her so whatever.” O said, slumping back in her chair.
Bellamy is Octavia’s bushy haired brother that could pass off as a model if he tried. Lexa met Bell a little after meeting Octavia and they became instant friends, once he figured out she was into girls that is. He could be a pain in the ass when he got his head stuck on something, because he almost always gets what he wants, but he’s not that bad. He is number 70 on the football team and is Lincoln’s most trusted wide receiver. In the end, Bellamy is a good guy and is always willing to take one for the team.
***
Clarke walked into Ms. Nation’s room and immediately recognized a particular brunette sitting in the off to the left. She didn’t notice this morning, but the Latina was rocking a really cool red leather jacket. She had to admit, it made her look like a complete badass.
“Hey! I remember you from this morning! You and Lexa ran into each other and then you got speechless and started sizing her up.”
Wow, this chick spoke her mind with little filter.
“Uh, yeah. That was me.” Clarke said shyly.
“Don’t be ashamed, everyone has the hots for Lexa Woods. She’s the best softball player this town has seen since it started the softball program back in ’86. She’s the best damn catcher I’ve ever seen.” Raven said, sounding thoroughly impressed.
“Really? I was actually looking for someone to talk to about possibly trying out.”
“Well Lexa is your girl. We’ve kind of dubbed her the team captain, even though softball teams don’t normally have captains. What’s your name?” Raven asked, with a
cocked brow.
“Clarke Griffin.”
At that, Raven’s jaw dropped. “Like, the Clarke Griffin? Like, the all-district, all-region, all-state, and all-tournament player? Arguably the best shortstop within the continental United States, Clarke Griffin?”
“Yes? I didn’t know I was that big of a deal.” Clarke said, getting a little confused on her newly found fame.
“Dude! Lexa has been praying that she can get you on the team since like, freshman year! She tried to convince Coach Kane to recruit you on multiple occasions, but Coach never would go through with it.”
“So I take it you play also?”
“Hell no, I play basketball. Needless to say, I am you, but in basketball form. I have started every year since 9th grade. And if I may brag, I am also an all-district and all-tournament player.” She said with a smirk playing at her lips and her arms crossed.
“Well congratulations,” she said with a smile, “but how do you know so much about softball?”
“Alright class, sit down and shut up. Open your books to page three and read silently until I say stop, then we’ll discuss what was read.” The way Ms. Nation said it, made everyone in the class cringe.
“Guess we’ll talk about that later…” Clarke said and she started to read.
The class went by fairly slow, the class did not review until ten minutes before the bell rang. Even then, time seemed to creep by very slowly.
After class was over, she and Raven walked out and met Lexa (who Clarke secretly thinks was waiting on her) and they walked to lunch together. Once they all got in the lunchroom, Lexa and Raven practically ran past everyone else to claim their seats for the rest of the year and Clarke just followed behind. Once they settled down, others started to pile in next to them.
“Clarke, I want you to meet Octavia, Bellamy, Lincoln, Anya…”
“Hey Lex, how was break?” Lexa was cut off by Costia Greene.
“…And Costia,” she Clarke an exasperated look, “what do you want Costia, and don’t call me Lex.”
“Wow there tiger, what’s gotten into you, other than me.” She said with a wink.
“No, you don’t get to talk to her anymore, Costia.” Anya said, looking at her with a glass cutting glare.
“Yeah, you need to get Lostia, am I right?” Raven was sitting there waiting for everyone else to approve but she only got looks of disappointment.
“What do you want Costia?” Lexa finally said.
“I just wanted to check up on my girl and see how she’s doing.”
“I’m not your girl anymore, and I haven’t been for almost a year now. So do me a favor and don’t call me that.”
“I don’t understand what has gotten into you, babe.” Costia said innocently.
“Fuck off Costia, oh wait. You already did, with Ontari.” Raven chipped in again, this time getting a little bit of approval but not a lot.
“Why don’t you calm your little pooch down, Lex.” Costia said with a smirk.
“Why don’t you crawl back into whatever dark abyss you came from and back the fuck off of her?” Clarke snapped.
“Oh so you have a new trophy. Got to say, I bet she isn’t as good as me in bed.”
“Yeah she does,” Clarke said wrapping her arm around Lexa’s waist, enjoying this position a little too much, “and I didn’t know vampires could come out this early, I thought they would like, disintegrate or something?”
“For your information, I am not a vampire.” Costia said between grit teeth.
“Could’ve fooled me.” Clarke said with a shrug.
***
Lexa just sat there with her jaw on the floor. Here she is, arguing with her ex one minute and listening to her new friend make fun of her ex the next. What the fuck was happening?
“Mhm.” Then Costia rolled her eyes, turned on her heels, and left.
“Holy shit Clarke. That was fucking amazing! Why couldn’t I think of that?” Raven said with a pouty face.
“I was just being honest.” Clarke didn’t realize it, but she still had her arm wrapped around Lexa’s waist.
“Clarke…” Lexa said looking down at her waist.
“Oh yeah…” Clarke said sheepishly, feeling her cheeks burn a little.
The rest of the crowd just smiled and talked with their eyes. Anya gave Lexa a knowing smile and a head bob in Clarke’s direction who was talking to Raven. Lexa just sat there in silence for the rest of lunch.
The remaining two blocks went by at a fairly quick pace. Especially third block, which was Dual Enrollment Psychology, with Mr. Pike. The only reason this class was of any significance to Lexa, was a certain blonde with ocean, blue eyes.
Lexa didn’t say much the whole class, she didn’t need to. Clarke had this way about her that was beyond words, beyond anything the brunette had ever known to exist. Clarke was nice, funny, outgoing, and absolutely gorgeous. She wasn’t the typical stick figure that Lexa normally went for; Clarke had curves, and beautiful curves at that. They were located in all of the right places, places that Lexa was dying to explore.
“Hey, are you in there?” Clarke said, using Lexa’s line from this morning.
“Who me?” Lexa responded playfully.
“Yeah you, I asked you a question.” She said with a small smile.
“Care to repeat?”
“I guess,” Clarke said while rolling her eyes, “I asked you what you had planned for after school.”
“Uhm,” you got this Lexa, play it cool and don’t let your heart beat too loud, “I was just going to head to the batting cages and hit a few rounds.”
“Care if I join?”
“You play softball?” Lexa asked quizzically.
“Yeah dumbass, she’s Clarke Griffin.” Raven added like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Like, the Clarke Griffin. The all-state, all-district…”
“Yes, that’s me,” Clarke cut her off, “you’re not going to flip out on me are you?”
“Yeah probably.” Lexa offered in complete and utter awe, but she kept her “commander face” on.
“Alright, see you after school?”
“Yeah, see you then.” Lexa was going to have to go full “commander mode” if she was to get anything finished at practice, or the rest of the day for that matter.
The day ended with Clarke parting for Art, with Ms. Niylah and Lexa heading to wellness, with Coach Kane.