Work Text:
Raven Reyes
Prediction: February 2018
Ballot Submitted: 2003
By the time Clarke and Bellamy get engaged, the pool includes almost everyone on Team USA, most of the staff in Canton, a third of Skate Canada, and nearly every ranked ice dance team in the Grand Prix circuit.
The pool money amounts to nearly a thousand dollars.
Raven supposes it's a bit unfair to start a pool that she knows she's going to win, but in her defense, she wasn't even their coach when she came up with the idea: she was their biggest rival.
The year is 2003 when the idea strikes. She and Finn are having a particularly difficult practice when she really sees it for the first time. Finn is distracted by being rejected by one of the older singles skaters, and he keeps tripping up on their twizzles as a result. Raven's patience is wearing thin. Junior Worlds are fast approaching, and Bellamy and Clarke have beaten them at every turn.
"Take a break," Abby finally sighs after their fourth attempt to make it through their original dance stalls. "We're not getting anywhere right now." She skates to the boards, and Raven shoots a frustrated glance Finn's way.
He slinks off, wisely giving her some space. She looks over at Bellamy and Clarke, who are working through their free, absolutely fixated on each other. They're spinning around together, eyes locked and wide smiles on their faces.
She corners Clarke while they're all eating lunch.
"Do you like Bellamy?" she asks bluntly. Clarke coughs on her energy bar and turns to her in surprise.
"Um. You mean like, do I have a crush on him?" she asks. Raven nods. "Um, no, he's like my brother."
She starts the pool that day.
She asks Clarke again, in 2006, after they all fail to make their respective Olympic teams. By then, she and Bellamy have everyone in Canton wondering what the hell is going on between them. They whisper to each other at the boards, and Bellamy seems to be holding her hand constantly.
Clarke says no, but she wears a small smile.
The next year, Bellamy starts to date. In earnest. He brings girls to the rink constantly, a new one each month, it seems. Clarke gives all of them friendly smiles and tells them how lucky they are, but when she turns away, Raven notices the annoyance in her eyes, the hurt.
"Does it bother you?" she asks Clarke when Bellamy announces that his girlfriend will be in the crowd for Skate America. Clarke blinks.
"Why should it?" she asks. "I'll be around longer than them, anyways."
Those words echo in Raven's head as she and Finn continue to chase their old rivals. After Vancouver, when they finally catch up and begin to, Raven thinks, surpass them, she tries looking for cracks in the partnership. She's seen them break before: Clarke's surgery, not qualifying for Turin… but she knows that they always considered themselves the best.
"I'll be around," Clarke had said.
She's shocked when that sticks after Sochi. After Bellamy sleeps with her.
When Raven's career ends, she somehow finds herself drunk on Clarke's couch, holding a bottle of Jack Daniels while her old rival sits next to her with a woeful expression on her face.
"Have you told Finn?" Clarke asks awkwardly.
"We were gon'keep dancing," Raven slurs, glaring determinedly at Clarke's wall, adorned with candids of her and Bellamy, intermingled with a few portraits with Lexa. "W'aven't t-talked outside of skating stuff buy I thought we could move on and skate."
Clarke tries to keep her face as blank as possible, but Raven can see the guilt flash across her face.
"You deserve better than this," Clarke says finally.
Raven thinks that could apply to so much in her life. But she appreciates the sentiment.
"You too," she says after a while, and is surprised when she realizes that she truly means it. "Be honest," she requests, looking at Clarke seriously. "What's the deal with you and Bell'my? Could never peg it down."
Clarke has a girlfriend, Raven knows, and she even likes Lexa a lot. She's a singles skater who is poised to peak right in time for 2018, someone whose dedication and ambition matches Clarke's perfectly. But Raven's known Clarke for longer than any other skater not named Bellamy Blake. And she knows there's always questions when it comes to him.
Clarke bites her bottom lip. "So, um, this is obviously just between us, right?" she asks. Raven nods instantly. "There was one time, in 2010. Right after we won. We um…went pretty far. Not all the way, of course, but…yeah. That's the only time. We decided just to remain friends."
"Do you regret it?" Raven asks.
"The moment or staying friends?"
"Both."
Clarke hesitates, then finally says, "No and sometimes." She reaches and takes the Jack Daniels from her grasp and takes a swig. "It comes and goes. Sometimes, I'm content just being friends with him. That stuff is easy, and I value his friendship more than anything."
"Only sometimes?" Raven asks.
"Every once in a while, he'll do something that reminds me why I've fallen in love with him," Clarke admits softly. "He'll drop everything to help me out, or show up at my doorstep with tickets to a hockey game I wanted to see out of nowhere. He'll tell me I matter to him, and he'll be so sweet and open and sincere that I fall right back in."
"And then?"
Clarke smiles sadly. "And then he'll get a new girlfriend. He'll tell her something before he tells me. He'll shut me out, and I can't tell him exactly why it hurts so much because I'm not ready for him to know. I can't tell him the stupid part of me that so desperately wants to be the most important girl in his life. The walls go up, and I have to move on…until the next time I fall in love with him, and the cycle continues."
"Is that healthy?" Raven asks skeptically. Clarke snorts.
"There's no simple answer," she admits. "Sometimes, our friendship is really good for both of us. He makes me the best version of myself as an athlete, and he's there for me as a friend. And then it's bad, and I'm confused, and it wears at me. I see the other girls and I'm jealous and I can't stop myself. And then I get smart and I'm fine again. It's not just one thing or another, and that's both a blessing and a curse."
There's a long pause, and then Raven asks one more question:
"How do you see your story ending?"
There's a long moment, Clarke sitting there deep in thought, eyes distant and a bit unfocused.
"Together."
She's doesn't specify how, and Raven knows better than to ask. And despite all of the complications, despite their dumb rivalry and their dumb drama, something in her chest releases, and all of the bitterness melts away as she really looks at Clarke for the first time.
"I hope you work it out," she says, and for the first time, the sentence is completely honest.
Finn Collins
Prediction: December 2025
Ballot Submitted: 2003
In all honesty, Finn should have seen it coming.
He remembers arriving in Canton with Raven by his side and immediately noticing the tight bond between their training mates. Raven comes up with the idea for the pool roughly two weeks into their time together. He's the first to join it.
He misses those days, back when everything was uncomplicated and easy. He and Raven were thick as thieves, and he hadn't yet complicated everything by starting a secret relationship with her. They worked hard to catch up with Bellamy and Clarke, who seemed to be leaps and bounds ahead of everyone from the moment they arrived.
Everything got harder when he and Raven actually did catch up. They worked for years on their technical ability, mastering difficult lifts. Sochi was the icing on a two-year stretch when he and Raven were on top of the world. That is, until the night they won gold.
Raven had wanted to go public with their relationship. "We have nothing to hide, Finn!" she'd insisted. But Finn had everything to hide: uncertainty over how much he really wanted a real relationship with Raven, pressure over what to do when they retired, and a growing crush on the very woman whose dreams he and Raven just crushed.
Everyone at the rink has had a crush on Clarke at some point, he knows that much. Raven once made out with her at a party when they were seventeen as he and Bellamy watched slack-jawed. But he's drawn to her like a magnet, still is, even after the weeks of clandestine encounters in her hotel rooms, of awkward excuses to Raven, of seeing his face on TMZ and having to turn off notifications on his Twitter because everyone is calling him a dirtbag.
(They're right.)
Clarke hasn't talked to him since the story broke. Raven treats him like a body, only necessary for dancing.
(And he deserves it, he knows he does.)
But God, he misses Clarke. Wants to see her, to have her tell him that she still wants him, even after everything.
At their final Stars On Ice Show in Osaka in 2014, he lingers behind a few stacked tables, hoping to corner Clarke and force her to at least talk to him. He sees her and Bellamy walk by in stilted silence. Bellamy murmurs something low to her, and then only one set of footsteps exits the hall. It's his chance.
When he emerges from the shadows, however, it's Bellamy waiting for him, not Clarke, face dark with fury. Finn swallows.
"Were you waiting for her?" Bellamy almost growls, taking a menacing step forward. Finn stumbles back.
"I just wanted to talk-" he stammers.
"You've done enough," Bellamy interrupts. "Stay the fuck away from her." That sparks something in Finn, something protective and maybe a bit petty, but he doesn't care at this point.
"I've done more for her than you," he snaps defiantly. "Where were you in Sochi, huh? Off with Gina?"
Bellamy surges forward, pinning Finn against the wall. "I broke things off with her before Sochi, not that that's any of your business," he hisses. "And you don't know shit about what I have done for Clarke."
"I know that you make her feel forgotten every time you find a new girl to fuck," Finn says, shoving Bellamy off of him. "Little, sweet Clarke is supposed to wait for you to get your shit together, isn't that right? Well guess what: she got tired of waiting for your ass and found someone who lo-"
Bellamy's fist connects with his jaw before he can finish, sending him careening to the floor unceremoniously. He's in Finn's face before he can collect himself, gripping the collar of his jacket in a vice grip.
"You know nothing about loving Clarke Griffin," he whispers menacingly. "You made her the other woman. You lied to Raven. And if you try to approach Clarke again, I'll make sure that pretty face of yours looks like the piece of shit that you are, got it?"
Finn nods.
And does as he's told.
Wells Jaha
Prediction: September 2016
Ballot Submitted: 2005
They're touring in 2015, the year after the Olympics, when Wells decides that his best friend and Bellamy Blake are inevitable.
Everyone is debuting their new programs for the tour, and when it's time for Bellamy and Clarke to take the ice, Ed Sheeran's "Give Me Love" plays on the arena speakers.
Wells watches from the boards with Lexa and Monty. She looks fairly calm, though there is a slight, unwelcome clench to her jaw as Clarke and Bellamy ease into a deeply sensual, intimate routine. The other skaters in the cast whistle as they go into their signature lift, where Clarke basically wraps her thighs around Bellamy's face as he hoists her on his shoulders.
But what he sees in Clarke's face says more than any pre-choreographed lift can communicate. There's a desperation to her skating, to the way she reaches for Bellamy and clings to him as they move over the ice in a dance as tumultuous and achingly romantic as their own relationship.
When it comes to Clarke and Bellamy, Wells is often torn between appreciating the comfort Bellamy has always brought her, the solidness he provides, and worrying about how it will affect Clarke's own sanity. Their bond is so uniquely strong that it has led to incredible success for them both. But he's also seen the lows for them, seen how it affects Clarke when Bellamy closes himself off to her or when she tries to rationalize his insecurities on her own. He worries that they don't know how to exist without each other.
He worries that they'll never figure their shit out and end up miserable.
When they finish their routine, everyone claps, and Clarke skates over to their little group. She goes straight to Lexa, kissing her on the cheek sweetly. Bellamy skates to the other side of the rink.
Wells looks after him, curious, but doesn't pry.
He finds Clarke during their lunch break.
"I love the new dance," he says in greeting, sitting beside her at her table. Bellamy is over talking to Murphy and Echo, so he figures now is as good a time as any. "Your mom didn't choreograph it, did she?"
"Nope," Clarke confirms. "We worked a bit with this choreographer Bellamy's sister introduced us to and did the rest ourselves." Wells smiles, impressed.
"You did a great job. How'd you find the music?"
Clarke smiles dryly. "Things have been kind of weird since Sochi," she confesses. "I mean, I'm happy and I think he is too, but still, it's been different. He actually suggested the song. Crowd pleaser and all."
Wells studies her. "Are things weird because you're both seeing other people?" he asks bluntly. Bellamy began dating Gina in earnest earlier that year, and Clarke has been with Lexa since late 2014. It's odd for everyone who's known them for a while. Even Raven, who's done with skating after her leg injury, once commented to him about it.
He can see that she's tempted to put on her press conference face and say that everything is just peachy, but the impulse in her eyes quickly fades.
"Maybe," Clarke admits. "I guess the balance is a bit out of whack. But we'll get there. Everything's easier when we're skating together, you know? It's when I feel most like myself."
There's something to be said, Wells thinks, about Clarke feeling most at home when she's "pretending" to be in love with Bellamy Blake, but he digresses.
Bellamy goes out with Murphy and Monty that night, so Clarke asks Wells if he'd like to go bowling with her, since Lexa is too tired to go out and she's feeling bored at the hotel. He agrees, and the next thing he knows Clarke is three beers in and won't shut up about Bellamy Blake.
"It's like, I spend all of my time with him, and I'm also in love'ith him, but I need'oo get over him," she slurs. "But I can't get over him because I'm always seeing him!" She pouts. "I love Lexa. But Bellamy won't go away."
"You know it's not fair to Lexa to stay with her if you're in love with someone else," Wells points out gently.
"I love her too," Clarke says in a small voice. "But Bellamy…"
Yes, always that.
"I always feel like there's an implied 'someday' with you two," he observes. "Is that still the case?"
Clarke shrugs helplessly. "I wish I knew."
Octavia Blake
Prediction: August 2019
Ballot Submitted: 2004
Octavia can count the amount of real fights she's had with her brother on a single hand. Oh sure, they've butted heads countless times throughout the years over miniscule things, but their big fights are truly something to behold. Things are broken, voices blown out, and usually, Octavia gets a call from Clarke the next day asking what happened.
Their Fights are so rare that Octavia has a mental name for each one:
The Mom is a Deadbeat fight.
The I'm Playing Hockey and You Can't Stop Me fight.
The I'm Dating an Older Dancer, Try and Stop Us fight.
It takes years and years of watching her brother slowly lose his mind over Clarke Griffin for her to finally instigate what will be known as the Clarke fight.
"Clarke and I are returning to competitive skating," Bellamy tells her in January of 2016. "We're shooting for the Olympics."
The Clarke fight consists of three major arguments.
First, Bellamy is convinced that he wants to return to skating for career reasons. And she's sure that is, in fact, the case, but only to a certain extent.
Second, Bellamy thinks that he's over Clarke. Which is absolutely hilarious.
Third, Octavia is convinced that returning to competition is a horrible idea.
"You cannot bullshit your way out of this, Bell!" she screams about an hour in. "You say you're fine, but in three months I'm gonna get a fucking call from you drunk off your ass, whining about just how in love with her you are!"
"I don't know how else to tell you that we're just friends!" Bellamy yells back.
"Oh, and I suppose you broke up with Gina so you and Clarke could be 'just friends' forever?" Octavia snorts. "Likely story, asshole."
Bellamy rolls his eyes. "I thought you liked Clarke!"
"Of course I do!" Octavia says, exasperated. "But this back-and-forth mystery shit is so unhealthy, Bellamy. Get it together. Figure out what the fuck you two are before it drives you and the rest of us crazy!"
A few nights later, and Clarke shows up at Octavia's doorstep with ingredients for lasagna and a sheepish request to crash on her couch. Octavia wonders if her brother knows she's here, in Minnesota, but decides not to ask. They haven't talked since the fight.
Clarke sets her bag of groceries down on Octavia's counter and turns to her with a determined expression.
"We're cooking, and we're talking," she declares. Octavia arches an eyebrow, but nods.
They talk about miniscule things for the first few minutes. Clarke asks about Lincoln's upcoming performances and recitals, and Octavia laughs at a story about Raven and Roan's first date. But once the lasagna is baking in the oven, her expression shifts and she sits down next to Octavia on her couch.
"Bellamy told me about your fight," she says gently. Octavia's eyebrows shoot up in interest.
"What did he tell you?" she asks.
"He said you're worried about the comeback," Clarke says. "But there's more, isn't there?"
Octavia gives her a searching look. Her face is earnest, but there's unease there as well. "I do have my concerns," she says carefully. "But they're not necessarily about the comeback." Clarke beckons her to continue. "Are you in love with Bellamy?" she asks bluntly.
Clarke doesn't hesitate. "Yes."
Octavia blinks, shocked that it was so easy. "Does Bellamy know?"
"Not that I know of," Clarke admits. "I hope you know that I'm doing everything in my power to get things right this time. We want gold."
"…And the whole being in love thing?" Octavia demands. "What are you doing about that?" Clarke smiles, something wise and beyond her years.
"I'm just going to be the best partner I can be," she replies. "And what happens…happens."
Marcus Kane
Prediction: June 2018
Ballot Submitted: 2017
Marcus sees so much of Abby in her daughter when he begins to coach her and Bellamy. Clarke has the same incomparable work ethic and eye for technical elements, and she works very similarly. She accepts critiques with a cold kind of ease that comes from years in a judging-based sport, and always has input on choreography.
In that same vein, he also sees so much of himself in Bellamy Blake. He moves with practiced confidence on the ice, and can usually self-correct mistakes before Marcus even has the chance to point them out. Most like Marcus, however, is his open adoration for his partner.
Marcus Kane spent his entire career completely in love with Abby Griffin, even after she met Jake and eventually married him. She was like the sun, and he was caught in her orbit. It's what eventually led him to break up their partnership and retire, though he never actually told her why.
Bellamy looks at Clarke with the same hopeless expression he used to wear. On one hand, this makes for some stunning performances from the pair. He doesn't have to coach up chemistry where they're concerned. They have a connection on the ice unlike any team he's ever seen in his life. On the other, he worries, because the emotional weight of a love so consuming can break even the strongest bonds eventually.
It broke his, after all.
He keeps their bond in mind when he choreographs their free skate for their return season. Bellamy and Clarke approach him with am achingly sweet love ballad, and he edits it together with a piano piece to create the exact feeling of wistful romance he imagines when he sees them.
"No one is questioning your technical skill," he says to them at one of their early sessions. "But your biggest strength is making the judges believe in your love story. That's where the little things come in."
He skates to Clarke and takes her in a waltz hold. She smiles at the familiarity of it.
"I feel like a kid," she says. Marcus releases her and motions for Bellamy to take his spot, which he does.
"So the beginning of the program is about uncertainty, right?" he prompts. "Uncertainty and longing. How do we communicate that through touch?"
"Do I have to raise my hand?" Bellamy asks wryly. Clarke pokes him in the side.
"It's all in how you hold each other," Marcus says. "Lean into the barest touches. When you separate, reach for each other. Communicate the desperation of missed timing, right?" Clarke and Bellamy nod dutifully. "Go."
The program seems to find its magic with the small changes Bellamy and Clarke make. It captures the tenderness and tension of their partnership, so much steadier now than it had been during Sochi. In between elements, Bellamy brings their faces close and just breathes in time with her. They hold hands gently, not the vice-like grip they used to have, a desperate clinging as if they had feared they would shatter.
Marcus wonders what sort of things Bellamy whispers to Clarke as they work through their routine. She's smiling constantly, and Bellamy grows a little taller with each laugh he draws from her.
He takes Bellamy out for drinks after practice, at a small hockey bar he knows Bellamy loves. Once they're a beer in, he finally decides to bring it up.
"So, you and Clarke."
Bellamy takes a sip. "What about us?"
"You've told me about your…history," Kane begins. It was one of the first things they discussed, in fact, when they approached him about staging an Olympic comeback. He knows about Vancouver, knows about Sochi, knows how they've broken and repaired each other countless times over twenty years. And intuitively, he knows that Bellamy has always held onto the hope that someday, somehow, they'd figure it all out. "I just want to know, as your friend, not your coach, do you love her?"
Bellamy, to his credit, gives real thought to his answer.
"You know, in Vancouver, when we, um, well you know," he stammers a bit, cheeks reddening. "I pictured it. Being with Clarke. Starting a life with her. And I could see it so clearly, it felt inevitable. It felt like forever."
"And you weren't ready for forever."
"I was 22," Bellamy snorts. "I was an idiot. Cocky. I thought that love stories were something big and dramatic and flashy."
"But now…?" Kane ventures.
"Now….I'm older," Bellamy says quietly. "I'm ready for forever. The quiet, understated kind."
Kane nods, expecting such an answer. "Does Clarke know?" he asks. Bellamy laughs dryly.
"I have no idea where we stand," he admits. "But wherever we are…whatever this is…it's working. I don't want to mess it up. I just want to skate with her."
Kane smiles. "I know the feeling." Bellamy nods.
"I think I'm becoming the kind of man who deserves her," he murmurs. "I'm trying. So maybe… maybe someday."
Marcus leans forward, eyes suddenly serious. "Bellamy, I'm going to give you some unsolicited advice."
"Alright."
"Don't wait too long. Don't wait until she's marrying someone else," he says.
Abby Griffin
Prediction: March 2018
Ballot Submitted: March 2015
Abby Griffin likes to think that she knows her daughter and Bellamy Blake better than anyone else in the world. She's certainly watched their partnership the longest. She watched her daughter moon after Bellamy until their teen years, then reluctantly choreographed sensual, heated routines that emphasized the magnetic chemistry that's always been between them. She's watched Bellamy's dismay when Clarke finally grew into a woman, the inevitable attraction she knew would follow blossom into a complex, confusing romantic game of cat and mouse.
It's funny, she thinks, to watch your daughter grow up with her soulmate.
Jake always found it endearing. "He looks at her with stars in his eyes, honey," he would say. "I'm telling you, one of these days he's gonna ask me for her hand." Abby had brushed his comments aside. She's had front and center seats studying and analyzing every imperfection in their partnership since they were children. She knows how Clarke compartmentalizes every seed of negativity until she explodes, and how Bellamy internalizes every mistake he makes because of his nagging inferiority complex.
And going into Sochi, she thinks she knows that their partnership has always been doomed to fail.
As a mother, she'd always been concerned about their codependency. Clarke relied on Bellamy so intensely, loved him so unconditionally. It scared her. But as a coach, she fed off of it, had to use it to the fullest to enrapture judges and woo sponsors. She encouraged their bond, and looked the other way when she could feel them growing closer before Vancouver.
She choreographs their exhibition dance to "Apologize," half an apology to her increasingly estranged daughter, and half an ode to a friendship she is actively watching sink before her eyes. Failure, even if it means a spot on an Olympic podium, is too much for their already complicated almost-romance. It breaks her heart to watch them perform that number. As they run through it before the Grand Prix Finals, Raven approaches her, frowning.
"They won't make it past this season, will they?" she asks. Abby shakes her head helplessly.
"I don't know."
It's for the best that Clarke breaks off their professional relationship after Sochi. Being a coach is too much when she's struggling with widowhood and motherhood. Her relationship with Clarke improves, and perhaps someday it will be where it once was before Olympic dreams swept them both away.
The first time she sees them perform again post-comeback is at Skate Canada. Her newest team, John and Emori, are up against them, coached by her old partner Marcus. She doesn't get to see their short or free in too much detail, having her own students to focus on, but their scores are miles above everyone's. She isn't surprised. Clarke told her she's never felt more in love with skating, and that enthusiasm translates onto the ice.
She finds Marcus at rinkside during the exhibition gala. He gives her a warm smile as Bellamy and Clarke take the ice. There's something in his eyes, something she hasn't seen in decades, and it tugs at her heart a little, but she pushes that aside to deal with later. Preferably over a glass of wine.
"How are they?" she asks him softly, and she doesn't mean skating. He understands.
"Look at their faces," is all he says as the upbeat guitar riff of Maroon 5's "Misery" starts up.
A part of Abby wants to be scandalized that her daughter is on the ice in ripped jeans and a low-cut tank top, hands wandering over her similarly dressed partner in a fast-paced, flirty skate. But when she looks at their faces, like Marcus said, something in her chest lifts.
They look so happy.
Bellamy's eyes crinkle as he grins openly at Clarke, throwing in winks and teasing expressions as they cycle through Marcus' choreography. Clarke looks like she's in a state of bliss, smiling freely at Bellamy with the same wide-eyed joy that she had as a teenager.
"You stole my lift," she says primly when Clarke leaps onto Bellamy's shoulders in a lift that was definitely awkward for Abby to teach to her own daughter. Marcus gives her a soft smile.
"Clarke's idea," he replies.
They watch the program in comfortable silence, and when it ends, Abby smiles as Bellamy lifts her daughter in a spinning hug. Then, she turns to Kane and lifts up on her toes to press a quick kiss on his cheek. He turns to her in surprise.
"What was that for?" he asks.
She takes his hand, so familiar even after all of these years, and squeezes.
Clarke Griffin
Prediction: Are you kidding me, Raven?
Ballot Submitted: My goddamn wedding day
In hindsight, maybe allowing Raven to make a toast was a bad idea.
Clarke narrows her eyes at the smug expression on her friend's face as she stands up, glass of champagne in hand and smirk on her red-painted lips.
"I told these two idiots that I wouldn't get sappy," Raven says, winking at Clarke. "And I keep my promises, so don't worry. But Bellamy. Clarke. I do have a confession to make." She looks around at the other guests. "I think a lot of us here do."
Clarke shoots a glance at Bellamy, who shrugs. He has the luxury of being pleasantly buzzed.
Raven pulls a slip of paper out of her clutch. It's old, wrinkled from being folded multiple times. There's a coffee stain on it and it's torn in multiple places. Clarke peers at it curiously before she notices dozens of guests pulling out similar sheets of paper, all in various states of wear and tear.
Raven clears her throat, and speaks: "I started a betting pool in 2003 when we were training together about how long it would take for you idiots to work your issues out and be a couple. It was originally a joke between a few of the skaters, but over the years, I collected dozens of entries. Some people who weighed in aren't even here."
Clarke's jaw drops. Her own mother is holding up a ballot.
She looks at Wells, the traitor, holding up his own ballot with a sheepish smile. Monty, Jasper, Harper, Nate, oh god, even Marcus? Their own coach?
Raven gestures around the room at all of the ballots people are holding up. "I'm telling you now because first, I won. But also because I want you to know that your love for each other has inspired so many of us. And even when you two didn't know you belonged together, we did. That's how powerful you two are. And all of us are so, so happy to be here today, and happier still for you."
Clarke's eyes feel misty.
"You weren't supposed to make me cry!" she accuses tearily. The guests all laugh. She feels Bellamy's hand take hers, warm and familiar, and she looks to see him looking similarly emotional.
Raven shrugs, raising her glass.
"Here's to Bellamy and Clarke, and the biggest betting pool in figure skating history. We love you guys. Cheers!"
"Cheers!" everyone echoes.
Raven actually puts all of the ballots into a scrapbook as a wedding gift, including competition photos and handwritten notes from everyone.
Clarke, you have always been family. I'm just glad Bell made it official. Cannot wait to see your amazing life together. –O
Bellamy, you made me realize what being a real man looked like. Clarke you changed my life. It's always been the two of you, and everyone has always known. I am so happy for you two. I hope to someday make amends for the past, and be as positive an influence in your lives as you were in mine. –Finn
Your father would be so thrilled at the woman you have become, Clarke. And Bellamy, I know that there is no other man he'd rather have holding his angel's hand for the rest of her life. Congratulations, you two. I love you both. –Mom
Working with you, seeing you grow together, will always be one of my proudest achievements. Congratulations. –Marcus
You both deserve the most wonderful life. I'm lucky to have been a small part of it so far. –Lexa
Honestly, I'm just relieved you won't be sad at our wine nights anymore. –Wells
Bellamy, remember the time when we were sixteen and you came to my house in a panic because you realized Clarke was beautiful? I just want to make sure you do. Hi Clarke, if you're reading this, feel free to ask your husband about it. –Nate
You make each other the best versions of yourselves. I'm so honored to call myself your friend. –Harper
Fucking finally, Jesus Christ. –John Murphy
Murphy's only being rude because he hasn't had the balls to propose yet. Congrats, you two. –Emori
Well, if you disasters can get it together, maybe there's hope for the rest of us! –Jasper
The final page of the scrapbook is a bit longer, and when Clarke reads it, she gasps.
Clarke,
This is very hard to write. It's 2006, and you and Bellamy are watching the Olympics in the den right now. I can hear you laughing, even though I know it hurts to not be there.
Your mother and I have both written this letter, just in case something were to happen to keep one of us from your special day. I hope I can tell you all of this in person, but just in case, here goes, honey. I have a generic version of this letter stashed away just in case, one that I wrote when you were a baby. But I hope that this is the letter you read.
I'm pretty confident in my gut feelings. I had a gut feeling about your mother, I had a gut feeling when I saw you dance for the first time, and I have a gut feeling now as I watch you lean on Bellamy. You're so young, but when I see you two together, I see the same completeness that I felt when I met your mom.
I've had a lot of man to man talks with Bellamy. He's trying so hard in very difficult circumstances. There is so much instability in his life, but you are and always have been his touchstone. When he talks about you, I can feel it. He loves you. You inspire him to grow into the kind of man I hope he becomes.
You deserve the best, Clarke. You've grown into such an intelligent, driven woman. I am lucky to be your father, and I am so proud of you.
I trust my gut, kid. And my gut tells me that the two of you, no matter what, will be there for each other forever. You will be so, so happy. You will accomplish all of your dreams. And since I'm not there to hold your hand through it, I am glad that Bellamy is.
Love you forever, little angel
–Dad
P.S. I'm sorry for entering your friend's pool. But I can't help it- I'm rooting for you kids! And if I win from the grave, tell your friends that winning just runs in the family.