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Chapter Text

Clarke was bored. So unbelievable bored. It was exam time and both Raven and Octavia had talked her into going to the library to study every day this week so far. Each time, Clarke only made it about three pages through her Philosophy textbook before beginning to doodle on the Post-its that were meant for her notes.

It was the fourth day of sitting in the musky, dim library when she had decided enough was enough. She huffed loudly and closed her large book, earning a few glares from the people sitting around the other tables. “Guys”, she whined, whispering quite loudly to the girls on the other side of the table. “I can’t concentrate on Aristotle anymore.” Clarke preferred hands-on learning methods – hence her major being Visual Arts – but she needed to have credits from outside of her major as well so she chose Philosophy, assuming that the principles of being would seem interesting. Needless to say, she was wrong.

The two girls both ignored her, already attuned to the blonde’s incessant complaining.

“Seriously, I want to bash my head on this table.” She waited for a response, scowling at her friends as her arms were crossed in front of her chest. Her eyes gazed around the room, hoping to find something that would peak her interest but they had found nothing; just rows on rows of books and an unsettling amount of disinterest. She glanced at the clock on the wall, noticing that her feeling of death from boredom had come to her in all of only 20 minutes of being there. If Octavia hadn’t suggested leaving their phones back in the dorms then maybe she could have wasted time playing 1010 or Words with Friends against Bellamy – a worthy opponent. Clarke sighed and stood up from her chair; maybe a walk would help.

Slow. Oh so slow. A slow and steady pace in and out of every single isle of that floor is what she did and yet, somehow because the world hates her, the walk only lasted a total of ten minutes. “Unbelievable”, she muttered to herself as she slouched back into her uncomfortable plastic chair. This time, she decided she would survey the other students as they quietly worked and typed away furiously at keyboards. Maybe she would find some inspiration for her final piece in Professor Kane’s drawing course.

Her eyes landed on a boy with shaggy, black hair and a face with child-like features; the fact that he needs a haircut is all she can associate him to. In his hands was a textbook named Polynomials 2526; ugh, math. She moved on from him to the opposite side of the room where there was a redhead silently talking to someone through her headphones – presumably a boyfriend after Clarke eavesdropped and heard the girl claiming that the toilet seat should be put back down or else they’d have problems. Clarke glanced at the single-seat table near the window. Wow. She was beautiful. Her long, brown curly hair was down and her green eyes were focused on Northrop Frye’s The Educated Imagination. She wore jeans and combat boots along with a coral tank under her blue button up. This girl was stunning.

“Stare and harder, Clarke” chided Octavia.

She blushed slightly but tried to play it off like she hadn’t just been caught ogling the brunette. “What are you talking about? I’m looking at the clouds outside; I’m trying to find some inspiration.”

Raven looked up from her laptop and scoffed. “Oh please, you’re practically undressing her with your eyes!”

Her gaze dropped to her white Converse. She was caught.

“Just go talk to her.”

Clarke rolled her eyes. “And say what, Octavia?”

“Oh come on, Clarke. You’re hot! People drool over you at parties all the time. If I wasn’t with Wick, I’d totally do you out of total respect for your bangin’ abs”, Raven explained jokingly. Clarke, she knew, unfortunately was always nervous about approaching people, generally letting them seek her out first.

“I can’t. I should really get back to studying.”

 Five minutes had gone by and although the blonde did reopen her textbook, her brain wouldn’t cooperate when told to focus. Instead, she found herself sneaking glances at the girl by the window.

All of the sudden, the girl was getting up from her seat. Clarke quickly shifted her gaze back to her book and hoped the girl had not noticed her staring. She wanted to talk to her – she really did – she just didn’t know what to say. The blonde nervously chewed her lip as she watched the stranger disappear into one of the isles of books. An idea formed in her mind and she swiftly reached for a pen and her Post-it notes.

When her artwork was done, she looked it over to make sure everything was decent enough. On the yellow paper was a cartoon doodle of a container of French fries with a sign posted on the container saying, “Hello my name is Northrop”. She giggled to herself at her own joke and took a deep breath before adding a small speech bubble. “You look very pretty today”, she scribbled.

Within seconds, Clarke stood and made her way to the empty table. She resisted the urge to look at the girl’s open planner in an attempt to figure out what classes she took and she stuck the note on a book where she could surely see it. When Clarke returned to her table, both Raven and Octavia were widely grinning at her.

“What was that about, Griffin?” Raven asked.

“Oh shut up. I’m trying to prevent myself from embarrassment, okay? Let me work at my own pace.” Just then, she noticed the brunette walking back towards her seat. Octavia and Raven continued to stare curiously, so Clarke scolded them. “Guys, don’t make it so obvious!”

She patiently watched as the girl sat back down and began moving her books around. Her movement stuttered when she reached for the book with the Post-it and Clarke held her breath nervously. She could see the beautiful green eyes scanning the paper and suddenly the girl looked bashful. The corners of her lips turned upwards and her sun-kissed cheeks turned a slight shade of pink. Her gaze moved from the paper and she began questioningly looking around the room, causing all three girls to quickly immerse themselves back into their respective books.

The gorgeous smile that Clarke saw was more than worth her previous nervousness.

“Griffin’s got game”, Raven whispered, her eyes never leaving her laptop.

Chapter Text

The next day, Clarke was more than enthusiastic to accompany her friends to the library once again. Of course, when they accused her eagerness of being tied to the possibility of seeing the brunette again, she denied it. The library, after all, was for studying, and studying is what she would do.

As they walked through the large wooden doors, the blonde’s eyes immediately began to wander around the shadowy room. Glancing over to the table by the only window, she noticed the familiar untamed brown curls and subconsciously smiled at the peaceful nature of the girl.

“Are you going to put down your books Griffin, or would you like to study standing up?”

She reluctantly snapped out of her bubble to glare at Raven, tossing her bag a little too loudly onto the table and causing a few others to stare.

“Princess is in LaLa Land; her nerd crush is here again” Octavia pointed out.

Clarke rolled her eyes. “She’s not my “nerd crush”” she scolded, unzipping her bag and pulling out her books.

“Oh please, you were practically drooling over her yesterday.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Yes, you were.”

“No, I -”

“Children.” Octavia whispered harshly, effectively cutting through the bickering. “Are you done?”

She tried not to look. She really, truly did. Clarke was an artist though, and artists always felt the need to appreciate beauty, right? Today, she noted, the book choice of the girl was Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno. Given the choice of this story and the one from the day before, the blonde assumed she was an English major. Her gaze dropped slightly from the book to the brunette’s hands; the way they delicately gripped the book while the other hand moved gracefully with a pen from left to right across the page in front of her. Her mind began to drift, thinking of the way the girl’s long fingers would feel pressed against her skin, and how they would -.

“Ouch!”

“Clarke,” Raven scolded, “I can hear you thinking from here. Please take your pining elsewhere.”

Her shin would surely be bruised with the amount of force that Raven had used to kick her. “I am not pining!” Realizing she was being a little too loud for the silent library, she took a look around the room to see how many angry students their squabble surely disturbed. Her eyes stopped shyly once they made contact with the green eyes of the girl by the window. Clarke mentally cursed herself, a blush creeping onto her cheeks as she noticed a slight smile of amusement on the other girl’s face. She averted her eyes back to her books in hopes that the earth would swallow her whole before she could embarrass herself once again.

It wasn’t much later before the scraping noise of a chair against the floor could be heard directly across the room from the blonde. Clarke willed herself to keep her eyes on her page, slightly becoming more nervous as she saw the brunette moving close and closer. As the girl passed, she was hit with a smell that was all too intoxicating; a light perfume and a shampoo that reminded Clarke of a summer day.

She snapped herself out of the daze, her hands scrambling across the table for her sticky notes while paying no mind to her two smirking friends. Her pencil quickly flittered in all directions across the small paper, sketching out a merman wearing suit and sporting an accentuated, long beard. Adding to the doodle, she drew a “Hello, my name is …” sticker on the breast of the merman’s suit, filling in the blank space with the name “Merman Melville” before silently chuckling at her own dorky pun. Lastly, like the day before, she added a speech bubble, this time complimenting the girl on her beautiful smile.

With haste, the blonde stood and made her way to the other desk, placing the not on top of the girl’s book. Open on the table was a folder with an essay in view. Clarke chewed her lip in contemplation, wondering whether or not she should search for her name and eventually curiosity got the better of her causing her to look over the page with more focus. “Alexandria” it read. The name seemed fitting for the girl; seemingly strong, full of greatness, smart, not to mention beautiful. She was so caught up in thinking about the brunette that she hadn’t noticed the aforementioned girl round the corner from the bookshelves. A voice cleared from beside her, causing Clarke to jump in alarm, her eyes immediately widening in surprise once she saw who it was.

“Um – I was – I was just trying to get a, uh, better view of outside. I’m, um, sketching…For my art class” she stuttered in false explanation.

The brunette did a once over, examining the other girl in front of her. “You don’t have a sketchbook.”

Clarke felt the heat settle onto her cheeks once again and began anxiously playing with her hands. “I like to, um, try to visually take it all in before I put pencil to paper. Anyway, I think I’m done now”. Without giving the girl a chance to respond, she made her way back to her own table avoiding the two girls who were trying to hide their laughter.

“Griffin’s smooth points just plummeted.”

Fifteen minutes had gone by and Clarke had been successfully able to get some studying done. In an effort to calm her feeling of stupidity, she heavily immersed herself into a good pace of studying, for moments, successfully forgetting her embarrassing run-in.

“Clarke, don’t panic” Octavia suddenly announced.

She looked up from her book, confusion etched on her face. “What? Why?”

“She’s walking towards us.”

Octavia didn’t have to tell her whom she was talking about; it was plainly obvious. Clarke braced herself, pretending to focus back on her textbook. A hand cautiously touched her shoulder to grab her attention, causing her to stifle a slight gasp at the sudden contact. She turned to face the girl – arguably a girl even prettier and more distracting than she originally thought now that she had a better look.

She looked calmly at Clarke, a certain air of confidence surrounding her. “Perhaps if you would like some more inspiration I can show you a lovely conservation park not too far from here”. The girl extended her hand to place a note onto Clarke’s book, and before her mind could catch on to what was happening, the girl smiled and made her way out of the library.

The blonde looked towards her friends, silently asking to explain what had just occurred.

“Well Princess, are you going to look at the note or what?”

She shook herself out of the haze and glanced at the paper.

“I would expect mockery of great authors to seem fairly childish, but in this case I’ve surprisingly found it to be what I’ve needed. Call me if you need more inspiration. Lexa xxx-xxx-xxxx”