Clarke's alarm rang loudly, signaling that it was time for her to get up and ready for school. She groggily opened her eyes and looked around. Same old room. Same old boring posters on the wall. Same old clothes in the laundry basket. Same old rainbow alarm clock.

Clarke froze and looked back at her alarm clock. It was rainbow. There were colors. She ran over to her desk, where she kept her color chart. The color chart was used to determine how much the colors have changed when you are approaching the time when you will meet your soulmate. Clarke kept the color chart close to her, and had always seen it in shades of gray, but now as she looked upon the chart, she saw a variety of colors she had never seen before. Which could only mean one thing: her soulmate was getting closer.

Clarke's mind started racing. Why would the colors just randomly show up one day? Shouldn't it be that they would change while she's travelling to some other place? She had never given a significant amount of thought about finding her soulmate. There were some people who constantly travelled all around the world, waiting until their eyes began to see colors, and used it as a sort of tracking system so as to find their soulmate. But Clarke had never thought about doing any of that. She figured she would meet her soulmate whenever she was meant to meet her soulmate.

As Clarke took a closer look at the color chart, she noticed that it indicated that she was only seeing colors in a faded form, which meant that her soulmate was close, but not close enough that she would meet him when she walked outside the door of her house. Maybe her soulmate had recently moved to her city, and hadn't even necessarily been looking for her. Maybe he was going to go to her school.

Suddenly Clarke couldn't wait to get to school. She just knew today would be the day that she would meet him.

Today is going to be the first day of the rest of my life, she thought. Clarke laughed quietly to herself. She was such a cliché.

She ran downstairs to grab a quick breakfast before she went to school. Her mom was sitting at the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee, and looked up in surprise when Clarke ran into the room.

"What's got you so excited?" She asked.

Clarke smiled to her mom. "Your mug is blue."

Abby Griffin's eyes widened. "You can see the colors?"

Clarke nodded, smiling widely. "I mean, they're still pretty faded, but yes, I can see the colors!"

Abby stood up and hugged Clarke. "Oh, I'm so happy for you! I remember the day I met your father. It was like the entire world had woken up from an endless sleep. Suddenly everything was colorful and lively and beautiful. And then of course I saw your father, and I knew everything was right in the world. Everything was perfect."

Clarke pulled away from her mom and saw tears forming in her eyes. She wanted to roll her eyes at her mom's cheesiness, but hadn't she been just as bad a few minutes ago? And she hadn't even seen her soulmate yet. She also felt bad, because she knew how hard her father's death had been for her mom. It had been many years, but Clarke wasn't sure losing your soulmate was something you'd every truly get over.

Clarke said goodbye to her mom and left for school.

Just as Clarke was reaching her locker, her best friend Raven came out of nowhere and started squealing.

"Have you seen the new guy? He's gorgeous! I mean, he's obviously not my soul mate, but that doesn't mean I can't have some fun in the meantime right?"

Clarke's eyes widened. The new guy. There was a new guy. And Clarke's soul mate was nearby. He was even closer now than when she'd been at home, which meant he was likely in the school. This new guy must be the one.

"What's wrong?" Raven asked.

Clarke opened her mouth, but words seemed to fail her for a moment. "I think he's my soul mate."

Raven screamed. For real, out loud, screamed. Clarke winced at the sound, and several students walking by turned their heads to see what was going on. When they saw that Raven was not dying, they just gave her an annoyed look and continued walking.

"You can see colors now? That's insane! Like, when did it happen? When did you know for sure?"

"When I woke up this morning, I could see colors, but they were kind of faded. But they've gotten a lot brighter now since I've been at school," Clarke explained.

Raven squealed again. "Oh my god, I can't wait until you see him. Seriously, I am so jealous. But honestly I think you two will be such a cute couple."

Clarke just had to nod and agree, she didn't know how else to respond.

Clarke's heart was pounding all through her morning classes, and she was barely able to concentrate. The new guy hadn't been in any of her classes so far, and she was wondering when she was going to see him, and if it was even going to be today. What if they just missed each other all day? What if they weren't going to meet? What if one of the other girls had noticed him like Raven, and decided to ask him out. What if he said yes? What if, when he finally saw Clarke, he didn't want to be with her?

These questions were swarming in Clarke's mind as she walked into the cafeteria for lunch. She didn't even notice that the colors of the world around her were getting brighter and brighter.

She opened the doors of the cafeteria and looked up. She felt as though the world froze around her.

There he was.

He had tan skin and curly dark hair, and was the most attractive guy Clarke had ever seen. He was staring right back at her, and it was like they were the only two people in the entire world, let alone the cafeteria. The two of them stood frozen in shock for a few moments, before slowly walking toward each other.

Clarke couldn't believe what she was seeing. She almost didn't care about the colors of the world now, they all paled in comparison to the sight in front of her. But she did care about the colors. She could see every bit of color that made up the guy in front of her. There were hundreds of shades of browns in his hair and his eyes, and Clarke itched to paint them. His shirt was the brightest and most beautiful red she had ever seen, which would seem obvious, since she'd only ever seen color for one day. The entire being of him—and, Clarke supposed, not that she was paying any attention—the entire world was just… vibrant. And it was nothing that Clarke ever could have imagined.

"Hi," he said, with the biggest smile on his face. "I'm Bellamy."