Author's Note: So yeah, I've gotten a beta reader and I am really excited about this. Her name is... *intense drum solo* BrittzandTana! She is an amazing author and i would recommend checking out her stories, more specifically "Come With Me" and its sequel "Stay With Me". Also i can recommend "Cheap Thrills" and her story "Cross Rivalry Romance - Summer Camp Style". Also this is the updated version of the story :)
A shout. A loud noise. A scream.
The eight year old blonde had heard something else in the house at first. She had shrugged it off as the monster in the basement making its regular noises, but as time went on, she became more and more aware of the sound. It sounded like shuffling. Footsteps. The only sound the monster would make was a deep roar that could be felt against the door to the basement. It actually kind of sounded like a washing machine. Shrugging the monster out of her thoughts, the girl had stepped out of her room, tiptoeing towards the room which belonged to her parents.
Her mother was one of the leading doctors in some kind of hospital. Her father was a chief engineer in a private company. They were trying to improve space ships. The girl had giggled when he had tried to explain how things worked in space. All she had gotten out of that conversation was that in space, things would float. If you jumped, you would fly. She had always wanted to fly. Not on a plane, but real actual, flying. She wanted to feel like the birds. Chirp like them. See everything from the sky.
Her mother had laughed at her silliness and told her that she really shouldn't concern her with such fantasies, and Clarke did as she was told. Kind of. She still talked with her father about it sometimes, but since she didn't want her mom finding out, she had made her dad make a promise to not tell her mother. Her mother was very success-minded, and from time to time the girl had been restricted from doing certain things because of it. Treading onward toward the master bedroom, the girl stopped, tilting her head slightly to get an idea of what she had just heard. It sounded a bit metallic. As pieces of metal being shook together. The girl's eyes widened as she realized something. Someone, or something, was downstairs stealing her collection. The girl's heart clenched as she thought of her small miniature swords being taken away from her and a tear, of either anger or fear, trickled down her left cheek. Raising her chin, she slowly but steadily turned around towards the stairs and began sneaking down the corridor.
Feet were slowly placed one in front of the other as the girl ever so slowly moved through the kitchen. The pans and knives reflected the moonlight in strips onto the floor, some of them cascading onto the blonde girl. The sounds of the trees scratching at the house made the small hairs on the girl's neck rise like small needles. Her eyes were wide open, despite the hour she was awake at and her, and her ears were searching for each and every sound indicating where the person stealing her collection might be. Her heart jumped into her throat as a rough hand grabbed around her mouth, blocking the scream she was about to release. She brought her hands up to claw at the hand and she heard a small voice. Fear clouded her senses as she continued clawing away at the hands. The girl was roughly turned around and her fearful eyes looked up at the eyes of her supposed attacker. The tensed muscles of the girl eased as she realized that the rough hands belonged to a skilled engineer, her dad. He slowly released her mouth as he pointed to a cabinet in the kitchen.
"Hide," he mouthed silently, and opened the door to the cabinet.
She nodded as she looked at him with wide eyes, slowly moving towards the cabinet she knew to be empty. This was her secret hiding place for when her mother was mad at her, and only she and her father knew of it. Slowly scooping herself into the small space, the girl began shutting the door. It was completely black in the cabinet, and she reached for the small lights, which were no more than old Christmas lights, that she had hidden in the corner. She flicked them on. As the cabinet was lit by a soft yellow light, the girl gasped. Shouts reached the girl's ears and her eyes were peeled open even wider. The girl had caught none of the words spoken, but the hostility and anger in the voice were clear as the day. She heard her father, clearly trying to reason with the other person, but the girl already knew that it was useless. Something in the man's voice had told her. She put her hands against the cabinet door and tried pushing. As expected, it didn't budge. More shouts were heard and the girl's efforts grew in power. Still, the door held strong.
She heard a shout, followed by a loud noise that made her ears ring, and then a scream so piercing that it broke through the ringing sound. The girl managed a last, manic push and she tumbled head first out onto the floor. She heard a splash and felt her hand touching something wet and warm. As she looked to where her hand had landed, her stomach curled into a small knot. Her father. On the floor. Staring her dead in the eyes, with not only two eyes, but a third eye. A black one weeping red. She heard her mother scream as she looked up to find her in the doorway.
"Clarke, no" her mother broke into tears and ran over to scoop her up. Silent sobs escaped the girl's mouth, as she stared into the cold eyes of her father. A couple of tears slowly trickled down her face as her mother hurriedly ran out of the house with her to call the police.
"That's amazing, Clarke! I can't believe you got all A's!" Raven chirped with a proud smirk. "Now, are you going to resume your pointless studying or come over to Monty's party and celebrate? You've been missing out on some on-point parties the last couple of months."
Raven was a natural born engineer. Her teachers had noticed within the first couple of weeks of her being in school, and had send her to some kind of special school for talented engineers. Raven had quickly made friends with her overly enthusiastic and cocky attitude. Sometimes it surprised Clarke that anyone but her could even stand the brunette. When someone asked Clarke about her, she just told them that after 16 years of Raven, you learned how to handle the girl.
"Of course I'm going," Clarke agreed. "Although, I'm sure that I haven't missed that much. You would never let me skip that much fun." She was exhausted after her exams, and all she wanted was a hot shower, a pizza and a couple of movies, but she didn't feel like letting Raven down again.
"Amazing. I'll text the others so you can't escape this time. Oh, you are going to get so fucking wasted!" Raven squealed, her eyes displaying her devious intentions, making Clarke slightly uncomfortable. She continued, "What are we waiting for then? Let's get going, I'm sure Abby will be proud of how you did in your exams. But, well, we all know she is going to be a bit more impressed with me. It is me after all."
Clarke couldn't help but smile at the familiar cockiness in the brunette's voice. Raven was basically her sister. They were roommates, and the closest thing Raven had to a mother was Clarke's own mom. As Raven began to walk towards Clarke's car, an old thing far past it's best age, Clarke spoke up, "Wait, Raven. How is the leg doing today? No pain or annoyances?"
Raven had been in an accident in her second year of engineering school, leaving her with a leg brace she had to constantly wear to walk around. It had caused her pain the first year, but it had slowly toned down until it was but a slight annoyance. A sigh left Raven as she rolled her eyes. "The only annoyance I have concerning my leg is a specific blondie trying to ward me from every hole in the road, as if it could suddenly grow arms and mug me." Clarke nodded, muttering an apology while trying to hide the smile she knew Raven wouldn't be fond of.
"Hmm. So this is it Clarke. Flight 203." Raven stopped in front of a big sign labeled with the number of the flight. A deep, nervous sigh escaped Clarke as she looked around. She had gotten a job offer as an aspiring doctor in a city called Polis. Neither Raven nor Clarke had ever heard of the city, but soon after Clarke had received the letter, Raven had gotten an email from the exact same city.
She had been offered a position as engineer in a company called Tondisci A/S, some kind of company concerning itself with coming up with ideas that could help the everyday citizen. They had been a bit startled when they had seen where both offers had come from, but they quickly shrugged it off at the sight of even more years with their respective best friend.
"Well, we should get our asses onto that plane. I'm already looking forward to that fucking bed I saw a picture of," Clarke admitted with a sigh. She was drained by the packing and the last hour in the airport. Turning her head to glance at Raven, she smiled and gestured towards the queue that was beginning to form at the entrance to the plane. Clarke's best friend smiled and nodded.
"Yeah let's go start a new life. And, by the way, it's going to kick fucking ass!" She grinned. Shaking her head at Raven's addiction to curses, Clarke tried to hide the small smile that was claiming a place on her face. She motioned for Raven to follow her as she began walking to the line, remembering her mom's words about being cautious. She was moving to a new city after all.
A sleepy grunt laced with irritation escaped Clarke as Raven prodded her in the side. As Clarke slowly awoke from her slumber, she opened one eye to glare at Raven, who was looking at her intently.
"Clarke, wake up. Quickly, it's important, I promise. Seriously get the fuck up blondie," Raven whispered loudly in her ear. Clarke opened her other eye slowly, staring down the brunette who had woken her, death threats emanating from her intense gaze.
"You better have a good excuse for this, Miss I-will-be-dead-before-we-land. One does not wake this," she gestured to herself as she said it, "from its beauty sleep. Especially when it's in a damned airplane."
Raven smirked at her. "You wouldn't last a day without me, Clarke. You would, literally, drown in your work." She smiled, proud of her metaphor, before realizing that Clarke was just smiling at her.
"Raven, that isn't how the word literally works. Literally means that it actually happens, and I am quite sure that you can't drown in an abstract term such as work," Clarke chided, engaging in the game her and Raven were both far too familiar with. It had been a thing they had been doing since third grade or so. Raven would use a term or word in a wrong way, and Clarke would show off how she actually paid attention during classes by correcting her.
Raven knew she was going to get bad grades in those classes, so she didn't mind doing it in front of the teachers to better Clarke's grades. Raven smiled shortly at the thought of Abby's face when they had told her about the trick. That was a couple of weeks after they had graduated high school, though, so she couldn't really do anything about it.
"Clarke, pay attention. You are on an airplane. What is the primary use of an airplane?" Raven asked Clarke, as if the answer was obvious.
"Well, flying I suppose. Or transport," she answered, well aware that Raven was looking for something she would never be able to guess.
"Well let me tell you, sweetheart. A gorgeous newly acquainted lesbian blondie, such as you, finds herself at an airplane with more than 60 passengers, and we can agree that about 50 percent of these passengers are female. And let's say that around 20 percent of these are hot females. And to dig deeper, let's say that the hottest brunette on the ship – me, obviously – had found the second-hottest brunette on the ship. I'd say, there are no reasons at all as to why you should not go talk to her." Raven smiled in that cocky way that Clarke both loved and hated with all her heart.
Clarke looked at Raven with an annoyed look. "Raven, come on. Seriously, we've talked about this. You need to stop trying to set me up with legitimately random people. I don't even know if she is interested in women." Clarke's friend smirked at her.
"Well, my dear friend, I have concluded that she is. And if I may refer to what I am basing my conclusion on, she has been sitting fucking drooling over you the last hour. Honestly, it seems as if she is thirsting for water after a couple of days in the desert. You should totally get on that."
Clarke scoffed. "Not interested, sorry." She raised one eyebrow at the brunette that sat beside her, her expression one of annoyance and disappointment.
"Fine. You're boring." Raven threw her hands up in surrender, leaning her head back to get some sleep.
A couple of minutes later, Clarke slowly began scanning the seats. Her eyes quickly finding the woman in question, she immediately blushed. She had been sitting, eyes focused on Clarke's face while slowly sipping her coffee. Raven had been right. She was absolutely gorgeous, no doubt. And she was looking at Clarke. Clarke noticed the girl's eyes. They were a pure green color, contrasting with Clarke's own light blue ones. Clarke quickly shook the girl out of her head, resting her head on Raven's shoulder to continue the slumber she had been so rudely awoken from.