CHAPTER ONE

Clarke

Her life was on the right track, she had everything planned out and her life as a student seemed like it would be coming to an end very soon. You wouldn't find her comparing about that one, after spending three years at Arkadia she was anxious to get out of there and continue on with the rest of her life. Clarke was a fourth year art student, with an emphasis in modern and realistic art. Clarke liked to draw people and nature, and tended to stay away from more modern or abstract works. For the past three years it had worked out well for her, all of her classes were going by smoothly and she seemed to be on track for having work after getting out of there. She still remembered her mothers face whens he had told her about art school, not disappointment but maybe worry? Her mother had been under the impression she was going to continue onto medical school, and until her senior year that had been her plan. That is until she got a brochure from Arkadia School for the Arts and her plans shifted. She knew she had made the right choice, this made her happy.

"Earth to Clarke", a jarring voice pulled her from her thoughts as her eyes focused on the feisty brunette in front of her.

"For a second there it looked like you were lost to space forever" her roommate joked. Clarke rolled her eyes before reading forward grasping her morning cup of coffee and taking a rather large sip.

"I was just thinking about how different things would be now if I had gone to Med School like my mom had wanted" she said before setting her cup down once more and glancing at the doodle sitting in the top corner of the newspaper she was browsing, a spaceship … go figure, maybe O was right and she was lost in space.

"Well A. you would never have met me, your best friend and downright amazing roommate" she started, "Subtle" Clarke muttered under her breath with a grin, "I'm kidding!", she shouted at the girls pouting face.

"B. you would probably be completely stressed out and unhappy"she said before reaching forward to swipe a piece of toast off of Clarke's plate.

"Besides your mom has Marcus now to keep her busy. Now she's off your back and I'm sure she has gotten into some pretty interesting positions on her own with Marcus" Octavia said before falling into a fit of laughter. Clarke groaned and tossed a balled up napkin at the girls head before curling back up into her chair.

"So I heard from a friend of mine in your realism class that your next assignment was going to be with nude models" she said after finally settling down in the seat in front of her at their tiny dining room table.

Both her and O were college students, so while they dreamed of double beds and extravagant kitchens, the reality was a little harsh. Their two bedroom apartment wasn't bad by any means, just a little lacking in space sometimes. Not to mention the outrageously thin walls separating all of the rooms. If she had a dime for every time O and Lincoln had kept her up all night with their, 'fun time', as O liked to put it, well she could afford some thicker walls.

Clarke groaned into her coffee and ran a hand back through her unbrushed hair, "I was hoping they would forget about that assignment this year" she said shaking her head.

"Why?" O prodded the blonde as Clarke starred off towards one of their only windows.

"It's just so awkward, being paired up with total strangers and having to draw them naked" she said before shuddering, "I mean what if you run into them at school later on, talk about awkward eye contact" she said before standing up to rinse her plate and cup.

"I suppose, but c'mon, what if you get paired with a total hottie!" She said her eyes lighting up.

"It's an assignment O, we're expected to be professional. I can't really go around screwing the subject of my assignment now can I?' She said turning her back to her.

"It would certainly put a new meaning to the whole assignment, when has on hand experience ever really been a bad thing" she said before grinning.

"When you're a university student, and your teacher expects you to be smart enough to not fuck the models" she said before rolling her eyes.

"I'm just saying, it would make it a whole lot more fun" she said as Clarke walked over to their bathroom to get ready for class.

"I'm getting a shower" she said, clipping off the conversation as she closed the door behind her.

Standing in the small space she looked in the mirror and sighed a little. Maybe the assignment would be so bad, and even if it was she needed this grade. This class would be the crowning achievement for her portfolio. She had examples and teacher recommendations for all her other classes, and they all lead up to this one.

If she wanted to move on and start illustrating her future employers were going to want to look at people and figures, and as of the moment her portfolio was looking a little sparse in that region.

She shook off her worries and slipped out of her sweat pants and crop tops before turning on the shower. As per routine she let the shower run for a few minutes before getting in. Their building basically refused to change the pipes or water systems, so it always took a little while for everything to heat up. Sometimes she wished she would have known in the beginning because well, she suffered through many many cold showers.

After washing out her hair and shaving her legs, Clarke stepped out of the shower and tucked a towel around her torso and tied another around her hair. She walked back to her room after noticing O was missing from her previous position in the kitchen, she didn't think much of it, the girl had probably just gone off to class early or something.

It didn't take her long to pull together something to wear, she never worried too much about how she looked, it wasn't like anyone was going to notice or anything. She grabbed her hair and twisted it up on top of her head before reaching over to grab an elastic, after coming up empty she silently cursed Octavia for stealing all of her things and grabbed a clean paint brush. She used it to secure her hair in place, leaving the whole look a lot messier then she was planning, but really what the hell? She threw her books and supplies into her bag before grabbing her phone and heading off.

The one thing Clarke did like about their apartment, was its proximity to the school. She only had a five minute walk on flat ground and she was in the heart of campus. At this stage in the game her feet were on auto pilot as they directed her towards her classes, giving her mind some time to wander.

She had three other classes apart from the one she was heading to now, and all three had very large final projects. Classes seemed to stop focusing on smaller and frequent pieces, and started assigning bigger ones worth much more. She had to paint a piece of scenery in all four seasons for her Naturalism class, still life mirror pieces for her Objects class and not to mention her special topics class who was letting them work on whatever they want. The las thing she needed was yet another big end of term project thrown onto her.

As she rounded the final corner towards her class, she walked in and took her usual seat near the front. She crossed her legs and pulled out her sketch pad and her pencil case as she starred up at the teacher.

A few minutes behind schedule the class finally started going, and the teacher handed out papers around the room. Taking one Clarke started to read it, and had to stop herself from almost cursing out loud.

"Alright class, so today I wanted to talk to you about your final project, and as I'm sure you've heard, this one is sort of a tradition" he explained, Clarke looked down and sighed 'of fucking course it is' she thought to herself as she took notes in the margins of the assignment sheet.

"However, this year we are going to be switching things up a little bit" he said before clasping his hands together, Clarke's head rose at this, a little hope returning to her eyes, 'like maybe they stay clothed the entire time?', she thought to herself with a soft grin.

"This year instead of having you work with the model in class and draw the entire person in one go, we are going to split it up" her teacher explained, Clarke's eyes widened, 'of course they would change the fucking assignment in my year' she grumbled to herself before looking down again.

"You each will get assigned a model who you will be working closely with over the next couple of weeks. You will start with some of the easiest pieces, before gradually they become harder. The order you will submit the pieces are hand and feet, neck and shoulders, legs, torso, back and head and face. The final piece will be an entire drawing of the models body and I will expecting to see progress as you go along and learn your models body and features more intimately" he explained.

Clarke gritted her teeth as he wrapped up his final thought on the assignment and the class continued along as normal. She couldn't even focus on what he was saying, her mind was swimming with the thought of having to stare at someones naked body for so long.

When the class was finally over she grabbed her things and quickly made her way outside before picking up her phone. She called Octavia her heart racing, when she picked up on the third ring.

"Do you think it's too late to switch out of the class?" she groaned as she heard a chorus of laughter on the other line.

"Why what happened?" She heard O ask, Clarke set her things down at a table in the cafeteria resting her head on the cool surface.

"They changed the assignment this year. We are now working with the models for multiple weeks and focusing on one body part at a time" she said before sighing,"Fuck me" she complained.

"Who knows maybe by the end of this you'll be saying that to them" O said, she could practically hear the smirk emanating from her.

"Shit I gotta go Clarke my TA is looking at me like he wants to either fuck me or murder me, but since he's like 40 I'm going to go with murder on that one" O said before the phone line cut off.

She sighed and raised her head up off of the table before she swallowed and started to prepare for her next lecture.