Chapter Text
She flinches when she hears the door slam open.
"Clarke! Get your worthless ass down here!"
She sighs and heads downstairs to help her foster "father". When she finally makes it down, he's already on the couch, bags filled with beer on the ground next to the door.
"If you hurry your ass up and put up my beer I'm gonna make you sleep outside again!"
Life wasn't always like this. She used to be in a happy family, with a mother and a father who loved her.
*9 YEARS AGO*
She hears the door open and almost bursts with excitement, she rushes to the door and throws herself on her father.
"Daddy! Daddy!"
Her father chuckles
"Hey kiddo, where's your mother?"
She smiles
"I'm not telling you!"
The smile on her father's face fades into a frown.
"Daddy, what's wrong?"
"Go upstairs and hide in your closet pumpkin, okay?"
"But Daddy-"
"Just do it, okay?"
She ran to her room and into her closet when she heard it, gunshots.
Tears streaming down her face and nothing but fear coursing through her, she quickly sneaks out of her room and into her parents. She rushes to their bedside table and finds her mothers phone. She attempts to remember the numbers her parents always told her to call in an emergency. She hears footsteps coming up the stairs and runs into their closet with the phone. She finally remembers the numbers and hurridly types the numbers 911. Hiding under a pile of laundry she waits as the phone rings.
"911, what's your emergency?"
"H-hello? M-miss you h-h-have to h-help me."
The operator's tone changed when she realized she was talking to a child.
"Hi sweetheart, just tell me the problem."
"I'm hiding in my mommy and daddy's closet and there's someone here, I heard gunshots."
"Okay, do you know your address?"
"Um, n-no I don't th-think so."
" It's okay, just breath and help will be on the way."
"Ma'am, p-please hurry, my m-mommy and daddy are d-downstairs and I think th-they might be hurt."
"You're okay, just stay on the line with me, are you hidden?"
"Y-yes, I-I'm in their closet under a p-pile of l-laundry."
"Okay, that's good, stay there, okay?"
"O-okay."
"What's your name, sweety?"
"C-Clarke"
The door to the closet opens and she screams.
"Are you okay? Clarke?"
*BACK TO PRESENT*
That was the last time she saw her parents. They were shot and killed and she barely made it either. She was shot in the stomach and would've bled out if the police hadn't come.
"Clarke! Hurry up!"
She grabs the bags of beer and puts them in the fridge, grabbing one and taking it to him.
"Finally, now get out of the way, I'm tryna watch TV here!"
He smacks her ass as she walks away. She almost believes she'll make it back to her room until...
"Oh, and princess"
She sighs, hating his nickname for her.
"Yes, Cage?"
"That's daddy to you."
He looks at her expectantly and she sighs.
"Yes, daddy?"
She cringes as she says it, hating the use of the nickname she used to use for her actual father.
"Come give me a kiss."
She walks up to him, trying not to gag at his beer-stained teeth and disgusting breath and gives him a quick kiss. He grabs her chin as she pulls away and forces her to look into his eyes.
"Don't ever get an attitude with me again, you understand?"
She nods her head and when he lets go rushes to the stairs, rubbing where he touched her chin, knowing there'd be marks in the morning.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The next morning she wakes up early and goes into the kitchen to cook some breakfast when a car pulled up. Confusion etched on her face she realizes it's a DHS worker. She rushes to grab all her things, knowing the drill. Every couple of months she moves houses. Glad to finally get out of this hell hole she prepares for the next.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Her head rests on the window, hitting against it when they go over bumps. Another home, another hell. She sighs as they pull into the driveway of a small one-story house, mentally and physically preparing herself for the pain she's about to go through.
She heads inside and sighs. A woman with dark circles under her eyes and a smile that isn't quite convincing enough approaches her.
"Hi, I'm Aurora, but you can call me mom, and I'm gonna be your foster mother. I have two other children, Octavia and Bellamy. They're at school currently but they'll be home soon."
Aurora shows her to her room and she takes her small box of things and places them around the room, this isn't terrible, too bad she'll have to leave in a couple of months.
After a while, I decide to head downstairs and I find a picture of her and her kids, a girl around 6, and a boy around 8 or 9. I'm looking at the picture when I hear a car pull up, I assume it's Aurora with her kids but then I hear Aurora humming in the kitchen. I'm confused until the front door opens and two very attractive teens walk in wearing a school uniform. I realize the picture I was looking at must've been older and these were her kids. They finally notice me and the female gets an excited look.
"You must be Clarke! I'm Octavia!"
Octavia is smiling so hard I fear she's gonna break her face. I do my best attempt at a smile and give a tiny wave. I look at the other kid and my heart starts beating so hard I swear I can feel it through my shirt. He has golden skin and shaggy black hair, freckles that scatter his face like stars and eyes that I could stare in forever, he has broad shoulders and large muscles. My cheeks heat up and I look at my feet when I realize I was staring.
"Get a good look, princess?"
My face turns red at the nickname.
"Don't call me princess!"
I say with an anger I didn't know I had in me. I rush upstairs to my room, my face red with anger and embarrassment. This family would take a long time to get used to.