Chapter Text
Clarke took one look at the familiar double doors in front of her and sighed.
The day she graduated, she told herself that that was the last time she would ever step foot inside Ark High School. Yet, here she was.
The last thing she expected to be doing after college was teaching, especially at her old high school. Clarke dreamed of getting her degree in art and working her way up to becoming a world famous artist. Instead, she wound up flipping burgers at McDonald's for a year.
Her mom had warned her the day that she told her what she was majoring in. "Clarke, do you know how hard it is to get a job with an art degree?" she had repeated over and over again, but art was her passion. She'd known that it was all she wanted to do with her life since the day that her dad bought her her first set of colored pencils.
After a year of being paid minimum wage and living with her mom, Clarke finally gave in and went back to school. Now, here she was, Ark High's newest art teacher.
Even after she'd decided to get her teaching license, she never intended to return to her old alma mater. It was her mom that had heard of the opening and, being close friends with two of school district's board members, had managed to get her the job without even an interview.
Clarke pulled her phone out of her pocket to glance at the clock. It read 6:54 AM. "Shit! I'm late!" Ignoring the curious glances of the students that had arrived early, Clarke walked into the building as quickly as she could while trying to maintain some air of professionalism.
She power-walked through the halls, trying to remember the path she had taken when she had come in over the summer to set up her classroom. When she finally spotted the doorway labelled "162", she let out a sigh of relief. "Why'd they have to rearrange this stupid fucking school after I graduated," she muttered quietly, trying to jam her key into the locked door.
"Need some help there?" a voice sounded from behind Clarke, causing her to jump.
Clarke turned to find a woman not much older than her leaning against the doorway of a classroom across the hall.
"Uh, no I think I got it," she said, finally managing to twist the key in the door. She pushed the door open and stepped inside her classroom. My classroom. The room was exactly how she had left it, but with the official start of the school year, it felt all the more real.
"So you're the new art teacher, huh?" The woman from across the hallway now standing in her doorway, watching her. "First teaching gig?"
"Um, yeah," Clarke said, shaking off her fear about the situation. She turned around and extended her hand. "I'm Clarke Griffin."
The other woman glanced down at her hand for a moment before reaching out to shake it. "Raven Reyes, I teach a couple of tech classes across the hall."
"Tech? I thought this was the art wing."
Raven snorted and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, the art wing, the music wing, and the tech wing. When the new principal moved around all the rooms she decided to stick every single underfunded class in the same area."
"Isn't that kind of distracting? How am I supposed to teach with people playing instruments and operating saws right next door?"
"See, that's what I said! I'm teaching the future engineers of America over here. It's rough getting a room full of sixteen year olds to concentrate when all they can hear is fucking Mozart. But just try and tell that to Commander Bitch."
Clarke's eyes widened at Raven's words. "I'm sorry, but who?"
"Principal. Total bitch, but I'm sure you know that from your interview. Listen, I gotta go set up shop before the kiddos start coming in. Good luck!" Raven walked out and back into her room across the hall.
Clarke took a glance at the clock hanging above her doorway, seeing that it read 7:15 AM. Her first class was going to start coming in in five minutes. She walked over to the office chair behind her desk and sat down, taking in a deep breath. "It's gonna be okay, Clarke. Breathe."
She set the new briefcase that her mother had gifted her down on her desk and dug through it, searching for the copies of the syllabus she had made beforehand. Just as she pulled them out and placed them in front of her, the first bell of the school year rang out.
Clarke took one last deep breath as she heard the students start filling the halls near her room. As the first student walked in and took a seat, she welcomed them with a bright smile. "Welcome to art!"
Only receiving a blank, tired stare back, Clarke's bright smile faltered. This was going to be a long day.
--
"This year should be a lot of fun for all of us! Come talk to me if you need somethi-" the loud sound of the bell ringing cut off Clarke's words, all of the students in the room quickly rising from their seats and shuffling out.
"Something. Come to me if you need something." Clarke sighed out to the now empty classroom. This wasn't what she had imagined at all. She'd tried to be as chipper and fun as she could, asking all the kids to talk about themselves and what they did over summer, but every time she called on someone to speak, they would groan and roll their eyes.
No one in either of the two classes she'd already spoken to had even seemed remotely interested in art. Clarke knew that art was a mandatory class that had to be taken at least once in the students' four years of high school, but she never expected everyone to be so bored by her and her class.
She glanced down at the class schedule she had laying on her desk and sighed happily, seeing that she now had a planning period. She leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling.
"Rough morning?" came a voice from the doorway. Clarke nearly fell out of her chair from the sudden noise, causing Raven to chuckle.
"Are you gonna make it a habit to sneak up on me, because I don't think I'm going to make it very long if you do." Clarke got up out of her chair and walked over to the dark-haired teacher. "But to answer your question, god yes."
"Yeah, I figured. Those kids, they'll eat you alive if you let them." Raven glanced around at the empty room and then up at the clock. "You have a planning period this period?" At Clarke's nod she turned and started walking towards the door. "Me too. C'mon I'll introduce you to some of the others."
Clarke let out a defeated sounding "Alright." before following Raven out into the hallway. The halls were deserted, as all the students were in class.
Raven looked at Clarke's sullen, defeated appearance. "Don't look so down. I swear, it gets easier. Ask anyone here."
"But this isn't even what I wanted to do. What if I'm just not supposed to be a teacher?" Clarke's eyes were glued to the floor.
Raven smiled. "That's the first sign that you're cut out to be one. If you actually thought you knew what you were doing on the first day, there's no way you could be a good teacher. I've been here for two years and I have no clue what I'm doing." She stopped in front of a door labelled "teacher's room". "This is it! The only safe place from the little demons."
She pushed the door open to reveal a couple of tables surrounded by chairs. Clarke walked into the room and glanced around. A small counter stemmed from the right wall, and on it sat a very abused looking microwave and coffee maker. Next to the counter stood a small fridge. "You know, when I was in high school I always imagined this place to look more...amazing?"
"Trust me, the more time you spend in this place the more it seems like a palace." Raven said, before waving at a younger looking woman sitting at one of the tables. "Now come on already." She said, walking over and taking a seat next to the woman.
Clarke nervously walked over the table. "Uh, hi. I'm Clarke. Miss Griffin, I guess," she stuttered out, tentatively taking a seat across from the two teachers.
From a distance, the woman in front of her didn't look old enough to be out of high school, let alone a teacher in a high school. Now sitting across from her, Clarke could see that despite her young looks, she carried a certain confidence that made her look much older. The woman smiled cheerfully and reached out to shake Clarke's hand. "I'm Octavia! Octavia Blake, actually. You're the new art teacher, right? Thank god, Mrs. Daniels, the old art teacher that retired, was such a pain in the ass."
"She's one of the gym teachers, which you can probably tell by how wired she is at ten in the morning." Raven said, playfully elbowing Octava in the ribs.
Octavia rolled her eyes and grinned. "Whatever she told you is probably a lie. Raven's just determined to make sure everyone thinks she hates her job so she doesn't have to admit how much she loves her kids."
Clarke sat watching the exchange, feeling a small smile form on her face. "I knew the attitude was just an act."
"Both of you, shut up," Raven shot both of them a glare.
Octavia ignored her. "Too early for lunch, so I'm going to guess you're on your planning period?" Clarke nodded. "Wow, first day on the job and Raven's already given you a death wish. Good work, Reyes."
"What?" Clarke gave Raven a look of confusion.
"If she was going to kill us, Octavia, she'd have to leave her office and actually come to the teacher's room. We're safe." She looked over at Clarke. "We're talking about Principal Grounds, aka the source of all evil. She thinks that sitting in the teacher's lounge during your planning period is a waste of time. Thinks you need to be doing some actual planning or something," she said with a snort.
Clarke looked at both of them skeptically. "Why does everyone seem to hate her so much?"
At Clarke's words, Octavia choked on the coffee she was taking a sip of. "Have you met the woman?"
"No, actually. The district board got me the job, so I've never really even seen her." Clarke was met with wide-eyed stares and silence from both Raven and Octavia. "Is that bad?"
"Well you're sure in for a treat at the meeting today. Don't worry, she's hard to miss. Walks like she's got something shoved up her ass, will kill you with a look, and her eyeliner...oh my god. It's like she tries to look like a raccoon." Raven said, sitting up straight in her chair and shooting Clarke a deadly glare. Octavia burst into a fit of giggles at her impression.
She was met with a blank stare from Clarke. "Um...meeting?" Clarke let out after a second of staring at Raven, who then shot her an exasperated look.
Octavia smacked Raven on the shoulder. "Give her a break, she's new!" She took another sip of her coffee before continuing. "Weekly after school faculty meeting. Totally mandatory. Don't miss it unless you're dying or Commander Bitch will make sure you are dying." At Clarke's terrified expression, she continued. "It's no big deal, really. We just talk about boring stuff, get bitched at, then go home. Every Monday, same deal."
Just as Clarke opened her mouth to ask her more about this meeting, the bell rang out, signalling the end of that period. "Oh god, I have a class this period. I gotta go, bye!" Clarke said, jumping up from her chair and racing out the door, the closing door cutting off the sounds of Octavia and Raven's laughter behind her.
--
As the last student made their way out of the room, Clarke let her head fall forward onto the desk. Being the only art teacher in the school, her class load was fairly large in comparison to the other teachers. After meeting all five of her classes today, she was completely exhausted.
She could barely remember what she had planned to say to each of the classes, let alone take in a single name that the students told her. They were all so similar, and after the third class, all the faces started blending together.
Collecting the few things that she'd taken out over the course of her day, Clarke was ready to go home and take a long nap.
Raven's head popped into the doorway, "Staff meeting, five minutes, don't forget!", before quickly popping back out. Smacking her head on her briefcase, Clarke groaned at her words. So much for her nap.
She quickly grabbed her things and made her way out to the hallway, determined to be on time for this meeting. The last thing she wanted was for the principal's first impression of her to be that she was late.
Once she stepped out in the hallway, Clarke was hitting with a crushing realization. She had no idea where the staff meetings took place. There were a number of places in the school big enough to fit all of the staff, and she only had five minutes before the meeting started.
After fifteen minutes and trips to the auditorium, the cafeterias, and the teacher's lounge, Clarke made her way to the large group instruction room. The closer she got to it, the more she heard the voices coming from inside of it. "You've gotta be kidding me," she muttered before pushing the door to the room open.
The room went silent as dozens of pairs of eyes turned to look at her. She spotted Octavia and Raven sitting with a few others, an empty chair for you next to them.
"How nice of you to join us, Miss Griffin," said a short, brown-haired woman from the front of the room. "This meeting began ten minutes ago and I expect you to be on time, no matter the circumstances. I expect to see you in my office as soon as this meeting has concluded, understood?"
While the woman herself looked harmless, the glare on her face sent a chill down Clarke's spine. She stood frozen in the doorway for a few seconds before rapidly nodding her head and scurrying off to the open seat by Raven as quickly as possible. Once she had sat down, the woman in the front of the room continued where she had left off.
Raven turned in her seat to whisper to Clarke, "What did I tell you?"
"It would have been nice if you told me where the meeting was, thank you very much!" Clarke aggressively whispered back. The room once again went silent as the principal stopped speaking.
"Miss Griffin, am I going to have to ask you to leave this room. Because I assure you, once you do, you will not step foot back into this school." Although her voice was quiet, the anger in her tone was obvious, as was the harsh look she was giving her.
"No ma'am, I apologize." Clarke tried to keep the fear out of her voice. It was clear to her from the looks she was getting from the staff members around her that she had something to fear.
The meeting continued on, and Clarke adamantly tried to pay attention, but Octavia wasn't kidding when she said that the meetings were boring. Clarke found herself completely zoning out of the principal's words and instead looking her over.
She had had a lot of guesses about what this "Commander Bitch" would look like, and she was completely wrong. When she thought of her, she'd pictures an older, heavyset woman with glasses and mole on her face. Principal Grounds was actually gorgeous.
Sitting near the front, Clarke was able to get a great view of her. What startled her the most was her eyes. They were a beautiful shade of green that made her think that she wouldn't mind looking at them if she didn't think that they could turn her to stone. It wasn't till she turned around to write something on the board that Clarke noticed her hair, which was done in a series of intricate braids going down her back.
From appearance alone, Principal Grounds looked nothing like the horrifying monster that Raven and Octavia had described her has. She looked so young, Clarke was shocked that she had managed to get to such a high position in the school. She couldn't have been more than a year or two older than herself.
Despite knowing she was about to get chewed out by her, Clarke couldn't help but admire the woman. She could see what Raven meant about the way she walked, but it made her look more threatening, like you shouldn't test your luck with her.
Clarke was startled out of her staring by the sound of chairs scratching across the floor all over the room. She had spent the entire meeting staring blankly at the principal.
"Go straight to her office. Do not look her in directly in the eyes and just grovel. Beg for mercy. You can do this, Clarke!" Octavia gripped Clarke by both shoulders and practically yelled in her face. "You do know where her office is...right?"
Clarke shook Octavia's hands off of her. "Yeah, I went in there to get my keys from the secretary. She seems reasonably. If I just explain to her that I got lost maybe she'll-"
Octavia's eyes widened at her words "No! Do not argue! Just accept your punishment!"
"She's right, just accept whatever she tells you. Trust me, you're not getting out of this," said a man sitting next to Raven. His long hair was tied back and his eyes shone with pity.
Clarke shook her head at them. "Alright, alright, now let me go before I'm late to her office."
She hurried out of the room and made the short walk down the hallway to where the main offices were located. She walked inside and spotted the secretary that had given her her keys before. "Principal Grounds wanted to see me?"
The woman at the desk smiled at her before pointing her to a door located to the left of her desk. On the door was written Lexa Grounds, Executive Principal. Clarke braced herself before knocking.
Almost immediately a "Come in" sounded from the other side of the door. Clarke let herself in, shutting it behind her.
"Miss Griffin, have a seat." Seated behind her large wooden desk, Principal Grounds looked even more intimidating. Clarke shuffled herself forward and took a seat in the uncomfortably small chair located in front of the large desk. "Tardiness will not be tolerated in my meeting, and neither will disruptions."
"Principal Grounds, if you would just let me explain-" Clarke started before being cut off.
"I will have no excuses. You are either on time or you may not be a part of my faculty. Now, as for your punishment-"
Clarke stood up from her seat, "I was late because I'm new! No one told me how to get to the staff meetings, no one even told me there were staff meetings! Today was my first day! Don't I deserve some leniency?"
A fire lit up behind Principal Grounds' eyes. "I will not stand to be interrupted, Miss Griffin. Do you think I'm beyond firing you on your first day here? Now sit down!"
"No! If you're going to fire me, then fire me." Silence filled the room as the two women stared each other down. Though her eyes were filled with anger at Clarke's defiance, she could have sworn that she saw a tinge of something else in them.
After what felt like an hour of silence, the Principal spoke. "This is your one and only warning. Show up on time, or don't bother showing up. Originally, I intended for your punishment to be spending one of your planning periods in charge of the in school suspension room. Thanks to your outburst, however, you will be spending the first week of school in charge of after school detention alongside me. You are dismissed."
The Principal's gaze dropped to the papers on her desk as she picked up a pen laying next to the. Clarke stared blankly at her. Noticing that Clarke still hadn't moved, Principal Grounds looked up. "I said you're dismissed. Now go home and get some rest."
Shocked, Clarke nodded dumbly before slowly turning and exiting the room. She had been sure that she would be fired after she let her temper get the better of her. It shocked her that the Principal known for being so cold hearted backed down so quickly.
It was only when she started her car that her punishment really set in. One week of spending an hour after school. An hour that'll be spent with the kids doing poorly enough to get detention on the first week of school and the boss that she was sure hated her right now.
She groaned and smacked her head against her steering wheel. She could already tell that this was going to be the longest school year of her life.