His tie was uncomfortable, the suit was way too tight, and the shoes on his feet were definitely not waterproof- a fact he'd learned when he stepped from the car, which leaked as well, directly into a mud puddle. He stuck out like a sore thumb, but he had to be there for Octavia, who was sitting next to him in dress pants and the hoody that she refused to take off. They were at her school board hearing, the hearing that would decide if she'd be staying at Mount Weather High School, or if they'd be moving again.
"Mr. Blake, your sister vandalized a very important piece of this school. It will take weeks to clean the cafeteria, and we suspect that she is guilty of planting the illegal drugs in the school garden as well. Action must be taken. If this were her first or second offense, we may be able to look past it, but, Mr. Blake, this is her sixth offense. She should have come in front of the council weeks ago to…"
The sound of the doors opening in the gym interrupted Marcus Kane's long winded speech and Bellamy looked over to see a blonde woman rushing through the doors, her hair held up in a messy bun with paintbrushes and the dress she was wearing stained with blues and greens. There was even a smudge of pink paint across her forehead, above the startling blue left eye. Bellamy waited for her to take a seat in the gymnasium, which was only occupied by himself, Octavia, the five people on the council, and a few of Octavia's teachers. But she didn't. She marched up the center of the aisle and let out a breezy, "Hey, Octavia" before she came to a stop in front of the council table with her hands on her hips.
"You know, Marcus, I was sure this meeting was taking place on Thursday. So can you imagine my surprise when Jas came in and told me that the meeting was taking place today, a full day before you said it would. I guess I must have misheard you. I probably had paint in my ears," the woman said with a threat in her voice. "Of course you wouldn't have lied to me about a student's hearing."
"Of course not, Ms. Griffin," the dark haired man said through gritted teeth. "I'm so glad Jasper found you."
"Clarke, what do you want?" Jaha, the superintendent, cut to the chase.
"I want to know why you're planning on suspending or expelling Ms. Blake when you know damn good and well that there's another alternative that is much better for students."
"Ms. Griffin," Kane spoke again, "I thought we agreed that you would be taking the year off, not inviting anymore students to ARC since the incident."
"Funny thing, how you're confusing 'agreed' with 'you ordered me to' again, Kane. It's been eight months. You know the agreement I have with the school. If a student is in trouble and about to be expelled, I will review their case and, if I think I can help, then they will be invited to ARC, and their expulsion will be postponed on a probationary grounds," Clarke Griffin's voice was cold and hard and Bellamy's ears perked up.
"What is ARC?" he demanded. "And why hasn't anybody told me about it?"
He stood up quickly and Clarke turned to stare at him, her blue eyes appraising him for a second before she took two steps forward and extended her hand. "Clarke Griffin, art teacher here at Mount Weather and the director of the Art Rehabilitation Center in town. You must be Octavia's brother. I've heard a bit about you. If you follow me, we can talk about Octavia's options in ARC, or you can stay here and listen to Marcus ramble on about consequences."
"Ms. Griffin, we've talked about this," Jaha sighed, but it was half-hearted at best and Clarke flipped her hand over her shoulder to wave him off.
"I'm going with her," Bellamy announced. He nodded at Octavia and found her smiling at the blonde woman who led them out of the gymnasium. They followed her out into the hallway, through the school, and into the art room where a boy with goggles and a dark haired boy were painting a canvas green.
"Jasper, will you guys take my car and grab some dinner? Wherever you want tonight," Clarke ordered. "There's some money in the glove box."
The boys abandoned their canvas to grab Clarke's purse and she pressed a kiss to the forehead of the kid with goggles before they raced out the door. Bellamy commented, "He looks a little old to be your son."
"Or maybe I just look a little young to be his mom," she replied drily. "Have a seat, please. I want to talk to you about ARC, and maybe Octavia will agree as well to it."
"Ms. G, I've heard about ARC and it sounds nice and all and what you do for people is great, but I'm not a socially retarded. I haven't stabbed anyone. I never sold drugs. And I'm not some at risk teen for an early death," Octavia said bluntly.
"O, please, be quiet," Bellamy begged, expecting to see Clarke grow cold like she had on the council. But Ms. Griffin only smiled a little at her and pointed at the desks before walking over to the coffee pot in the corner.
"Mr. Blake, would you like a cup of coffee? Or tea? I think Jasper has some here still."
"No. Thank you. I'd just like to talk about how to keep Octavia in school."
"Fair enough." She poured herself a cup of coffee and joined them at the desks again. Octavia scowled, already knowing that she'd be joining the ARC program, whether she wanted to or not. Ms. Griffin explained, "Eight years ago, my father started the ARC program as a way to help the troubled youth of the community, the kids that nobody else wanted to help, because they were too much trouble or because the people around here want to find anything to blame except themselves. My father died when I was twenty, but, when I finished college the next year, I took the program over, and I've been running it for four years. When a student joins the program, they start spending weekends at my house, where the camp is run. We do art programs, like painting, music, film, drama, etcetera, but we also do college preparation, special interests, life skills, outdoor skills, and whatever else the current students want to do. Once a month we do outings to the city. Everything is paid for. There are basic rules and the idea is that, once they are in the program, they cannot be expelled without due cause. Their expulsion is put off as long as I say that they are doing well in the program, and as long as they do not break any laws."
"You let teenagers go live in your house?" Bellamy demanded, his eyes suspicious on her.
"Yes," she answered honestly. "Parents, or guardians, are welcome at any time and are invited to stay as well. I do have security, all of which have passed sensitivity training and background checks, which I have also passed. It seems strange, but it's a second chance. It's only September, Octavia. What happens if you get expelled right now?"
"We move again," Bellamy answered for her. "We got here in June. If you get expelled, we move again. Maybe back to Ohio. Maybe to Washington again. I don't know. But we have to move again."
For the first time since the entire thing began, Octavia looked guilty, for just a second, she looked like she felt bad for the hell she put her older brother through. Then, she said firmly, "I'm not painting a picture of a meadow, or singing Kumbayah in some circle."
Clarke grinned and replied, "I do pickups in the van on Friday afternoon. You can go home first, or you can leave from the school. We all have dinner together. Mr. Blake, you're welcome to come."
"Just this first weekend," he answered. "And call me Bellamy."
When he and Octavia left Clarke's art room just as Jasper and Monty were racing past with food, Bellamy promised, "This will be good for you, O. This will be good for us."
"I know, Bell. We're not going to move again," she said firmly. "We're going to make this work."
Bellamy draped his arm over his little sister's shoulders and nodded. "We can do this, O."