Lexa sighs as she stands in front of the restaurant. Her first day at work. Her first ever day of working and instead of feeling happy about the whole growing up thing, she can only feel a tight knot in her stomach. Lincoln said it'd be like this.
She exhales, squares her shoulders and strides inside. She smiles at the people behind the counter as she walks past the toilets to the employee entrance, until she realises she doesn't actually know the entrance code. Great.
She walks back to the counter and smiles tightly when one of the girls comes up to her.
"Hi, i'm new here and I was going to just go in, but then realised I don't actually know the code, so-" The girl behind the counter smiles at her. She has a mischievous sparkle in her eyes as she extends her hand over the counter. Lexa takes it and shakes it.
"I'm Raven,"
"Lexa,"
"Nice to meet you Lexa, you're probably going to -"
"Love it here!" A boy in a blue shirt steps up behind Raven and puts his hand on her shoulder. He looks friendly even as he shoves Raven aside.
"I'm Wells, the code is 1234," He smiles at her and Lexa smiles back but doesn't respond before walking back to the employee entrance. She grins at herself when she realises how incredibly simple the code is. You'd think they'd come up with something that provides a bit more security, but then again, this is probably easiest to remember.
She makes her way through the back of the kitchen, ending up in front of the tiny office she had her job interview in. Wells comes up to her.
"You can get changed in there," he points back over his shoulder to a door with the little female icon on it. "You did get your clothes already right?" Lexa nods.
"Great, and then after that you can go in there," he points at the door to his left. "I'll send Monty in there to start your training." Lexa nods again, trying to process the new information as fast as she can. Wells smiles at her before he stalks off, yelling something at Raven Lexa can't quite make out. She hears loud laughter before she closes the changing room door behind her.
She smooths out the apron and sighs as she looks into the mirror mounted on the door. She looks like an idiot. She shakes her head, at least she'll earn some extra money. She doesn't know what to do with her bag, so she opts to just leave it in the changing room, hoping she doesn't work with a bunch of thieves.
She goes through the door Wells pointed at, and ends up in a small room with a seating area, a wall of lockers, and a microwave. A boy is seated on one of the chairs, already in his working clothes. He gets up as soon as Lexa walks in and enthusiastically extends his hand for Lexa to shake.
"I'm Monty, you must be Lexa. I'll be training you today."
Lexa smiles at him and he beams back at her, it crosses Lexa's mind that he looks way too happy to be working where he works. He guides her back to the tiny office and starts up a training module on the computer.
"This covers the basics, you need to get a 100% on the test." Lexa raises her eyebrows but Monty chuckles. "It's not very hard," He assures her.
She finishes the training module quickly, amazed at how simple the whole thing is. While she waits for Monty to return she looks through the window into the kitchen. It's not busy at 2 in the afternoon, so not only are there 5 employees at work, they're not doing anything either.
Raven's in the kitchen, leaning against a dressing table, talking to some boy. She's wearing a headset now, every once in awhile she'll push a button on the side and say something into the microphone. Lexa briefly wonders who she's talking to, until she sees another girl with blonde hair walk past the window with a headset on. The girl flips Raven off as she walks by, causing Raven to laugh loudly.
"You're done?" Monty asks, snapping Lexa away from her observations. Lexa nods and then follows Monty to the frying station. He shows her where everything is, but stays with her the first half hour of her working.
"Have you had a tour yet?" Monty asks suddenly. When Lexa shakes her head, Monty sighs. "Sorry, I forgot completely." He looks around, searching for someone or something. His eyes light up in recognition and he waves someone over.
"Sup?"
"I'm off in a couple of minutes but Lexa still needs a tour, so how about we switch until the next shift arrives so I can go home on time for once," Monty says.
"Yeah sure." Lexa looks up as the girl gives her headset to Monty. Lexa's heart almost stops, it's the same blonde girl that flipped off Raven, but she hadn't seen her face yet. She's absolutely breathtaking. She smiles at Lexa as Monty walks off.
"I'm Clarke, let's start your tour, it's going to be amazing," she draws out the last word, making Lexa believe she doesn't really enjoy her job, but she discards that thought as fast as she can. If the first people she meets don't even like this job then how is she ever going to enjoy this.
"What about the-"
"Don't worry about it, I'll make Raven do it." Clarke smiles before walking off, Lexa scurries to follow her.
"What am I doing?" Raven yells from the kitchen.
"Fries, Raven!" Clarke yells back.
"Fuck you!"
Clarke turns back to Lexa and smiles. Clarke shows her around the kitchen first, then takes her in the back to the garbage disposal and the stockroom. Before going back to work, Clarke stops and looks Lexa over. Lexa shifts back and forth, uneasy under Clarke's inspection.
"That's a cool bracelet," Clarke says, nodding at Lexa's wrist.
"Thanks," Lexa mumbles, subconsciously twisting the strings on her rainbow bracelet.
"But you can't wear it during work."
"Oh," Lexa sighs. She figured this would happen, she got teacher's complaining about her rainbow bracelet. They worried it might cause trouble with other students. She probably can't wear it at work seeing it might upset customers. Clarke seems to sense what Lexa's thinking, because she quickly shakes her head.
"Oh no, it's because of food safety. It has nothing to do with it being a rainbow. You can't wear your earrings, or rings, or those piercings either." Clarke gestures at Lexa's ears. Lexa mentally slaps herself for thinking she could wear those working in a fast food restaurant, but then again, no one actually told her that before she started working. If anything she should be glad Clarke told her before a manager yelled at her.
"Thanks."
"I have a rainbow tattoo," Clarke says, rolling up the sleeve on her left hand. She exposes a tiny rainbow tattoo just above the inside of her elbow. "I can't roll my sleeves up any farther because we're not allowed to have tattoos." Clarke smiles. "But most people here have one, same goes for piercings. We just hide them."
Lexa doesn't know why Clarke's telling her all this, but she's thankful knowing that more people have to remove the things that they use to express themselves for a work opportunity.
The tattoo Clarke is now covering up with her sleeve makes Lexa wonder if Clarke might be gay. She thinks it might be weird to just flat out ask.
"Why do you have that?" She asks instead.
"Why do you have that bracelet?" Clarke counters, raising her eyebrows and smirking.
"I'm gay," Lexa shrugs, "it helps me with being proud of who I am." Clarke nods and smiles.
"Me too, I mean, I'm bi, but," she shrugs and this time Lexa nods.
"It's kind of become a blanket term anyway," Lexa offers. Clarke smiles at her and Lexa blushes.
"Are you gays done bonding?" A voice says from behind Lexa, she turns around to find Raven grinning at them. "It's getting busy, c'mon." Raven walks off again. Lexa glances at Clarke nervously.
"Don't worry, Raven's bi too. She's going to call you 'a gay' from now on though." Clarke chuckles and Lexa follows her back to her station.
Lexa flops down on her sister's bed and groans.
"How was your first day at work sunshine?" Anya asks teasingly without looking up from her college books.
"It was fine, and there's this cute girl," Lexa sighs.
"Straight?"
"Nope."
"Then what's the problem." Anya turns in her swivel chair and pokes at Lexa with her feet.
"She's just really cute."
"I still don't see a problem."
"I guess there isn't." Lexa sits up.
"That's the spirit, now go shower, you're stinking up our room with your gross frying scent." Lexa hits Anya over the head on her way out of their room.
The next shift Lexa has, nothing happens. Clarke isn't even at work, and Lexa can't help but feel disappointed. Raven is at work though, and they have their break at the same time. So that's why at 8 pm when Raven's cursing into her burger in the crewroom, Lexa sitting across from her.
"She's just such a pile of shit, I don't get how she ever got the manager position," Raven grumbles. Lexa struggles to say anything, since she doesn't really have anything to add.
"Arrogant piece of-" the door to the crewroom opens and the manager Raven was talking about pokes her head through the door. "When you're done you can clean up outside." By the expression on her face Lexa feels as though she knows exactly what Raven had been talking about just before she opened the door.
"Yeah sure Ontari."
"Great, thanks," Ontari smiles the most fake smile Lexa thinks she's ever seen, before closing the door and walking off.
"Did you see that?" Raven exclaims. When Lexa nods, Raven offers her the last half of her fries, she accepts it gratefully. She knows Raven doesn't share food with just anyone.
Just before her fourth shift when Lexa walks into the crewroom to dump her stuff in a locker, she runs into Clarke. She looks like she's packing up.
"Hi, you're just getting started?" Clarke asks.
"Yeah, five to nine shift." Lexa nods, immediately feeling awkward.
"I had twelve to four but it got busy, so y'know," Clarke sighs. Lexa does know, everybody she ran into had been complaining about overworking. It's rare to go home on the time you're scheduled in.
"That sucks," Lexa offers, unsure of what else to say.
"Well, good luck," Clarke smiles at Lexa before leaving the crewroom and leaving Lexa feeling hopeful yet disappointed. When she leaves the crewroom, Raven's waiting for her.
"You're with me today, counter training." Raven grins.
Lexa spends every shift she has with Clarke watching her from the corner of her eye. It doesn't matter what she's doing, Clarke is usually on drive thru, and since Lexa is usually on either frying or counter, she always has a great view of Clarke. She does this thing where when she needs to pass behind Lexa and she doesn't want her to suddenly step back and walk into her, she puts her hands on Lexa's shoulder. Lexa assumes it's purely friendly, besides, Clarke isn't the only one who does that. Some of her other colleagues would even say something akin to 'watch out sweetie' when passing behind her, even though she assumes they're only a few years older than her.
She stops assuming it's purely friendly when Clarke starts putting her hands on her waist and her lower back when she passes behind her.
Multiple times Clarke would have nothing to do on drive thru, so she'd come help the others at the counter, and more often than not, she'd end up helping Lexa. The first few times this happened Lexa just took it for her being new and not being as fast as the others. But she realises Clarke is only ever helping her, nobody else. And when Clarke comments on how fast she always handles her orders when they're in the crewroom after their shift, she thinks Clarke might just be helping her because she really wants to help only her. She later dismisses it as wishful thinking.
Anya says she's being overly hopeful. Lincoln shakes his head at Anya and assures Lexa she can't be imagining all this, but she might be slightly influenced with what she wants to see. Aden says she should just keep working and see what happens. Lexa knows they're all basically saying the same thing in different wording.
It's on a Thursday night when she's working with a small group of colleagues that she helps a man with shaggy hair at the counter and Clarke comes skipping over, and starts talking to Lexa's customer. Lexa is torn between listening to the conversation- she doesn't know if it might concern her- and actually gathering the order. She opts for finishing the order, while keeping an eye on Clarke. She's talking excitedly, laughing loudly when the man says something. Lexa can't help but feel slightly jealous. She doesn't know what this man did to deserve so much of Clarke's attention. When she finishes the order and slides the serving tray towards the man, he thanks her with a smile, and Clarke says goodbye with a "see you tonight." Lexa can't help the sinking feeling in her stomach. Clarke must see her staring, she turns to Lexa and smiles before walking off.
Later when she's cleaning trays in the back, Raven comes up to her to clean some kind of grill spatula.
"That was Bellamy," Raven says.
"Okay."
"He's our best friend's brother, he's like twenty five," Raven chuckles.
"Right," Lexa answers, unsure of why Raven's even telling her this. Raven puts down the spatula and turns toward Lexa.
"I know you have the hots for Clarke," Raven says, crossing her arms triumphantly when Lexa's eyes widen.
"I-"
"Don't worry about it, just wanted you to know that she's free," Raven grins at Lexa before walking off, abandoning the spatula in the sink.
"What d'you reckon that means?" Lexa asks Anya later that night.
"Probably that she's free, and that Raven knows you like her and probably wants you to make some kind of move," Anya shrugs.
"Okay but-"
"I'm trying to study here, Lex," Anya sighs, looking up from her books and glaring at Lexa.
"If you'd moved out like Lincoln, you'd have your own space to study," Lexa retorts.
"I'm not moving out a week before summer break," Anya rolls her eyes and turns back to her books. Lexa huffs, but doesn't say anything else.
When the summer break starts, the amount of shifts Lexa has doubles, and she sees more of Clarke and Raven in one week than she does her own parents. She kind of loves it. Especially when she gets put on drive thru together with them. A couple of times they're having too much fun laughing at customers that Ontari puts Lexa on toilet duty, but Raven blames that on Ontari being an absolute bitch. The best days are the ones where Wells, Harper or Jasper are on shift.
On a Monday night, Lexa's put on first window, while Raven and Clarke are on second. She's wearing a headset, and so is Clarke.
"Did you hear that?" Lexa says after taking a ridiculous order.
"You mean did I hear that order with three changes to an already perfect burger that's going to take forever to make and will definitely result in this customer being on hold for at least 15 minutes?" Clarke says before chuckling. "He has a weird voice too."
When it's almost 11 pm, and the toll of working for 6 hours is starting to weigh on them, Clarke starts singing along to the radio. There are barely any customers left in the restaurant, and most of the crew members are either cleaning or doing nothing. They're with about five other people. Lexa hears her singing through the headset and can't help a smile spread across her face. She doubts Clarke knows she still has the microphone on, but she keeps quiet for as long as she can. When Clarke stops singing Lexa can't help but comment.
"That was really good."
"Oh fuck, I didn't know it was on," Clarke laughs.
"I'm sorry, I should've said something."
"No, it's fine. I'm glad you enjoyed that."
Just past midnight, the restaurant is closed but the drive thru is still open, and a man with a rather large order comes through the drive thru. Lexa hears Clarke curse and offers to help her with the order. It's when they're both standing at the second window, waiting for the fries to be done, that the door behind them opens.
"What the hell is taking so long?" They turn around to find the customer standing in the restaurant, looking furious. "I've been waiting a goddamn long time, give me my food!" The man yells.
"It's coming sir, it takes a while to actually cook the food," Clarke tries.
"Isn't this supposed to be fast food? There's nothing fast about your service! You're just standing here!"
"We're not actually in charge of production," Clarke tries again. The man keeps stepping closer to them, so Lexa presses the button on her headset and asks Jasper if he can come quickly. She knows he's not going to be quick, he never is. He doesn't care about his job at all.
"I need to speak to your manager, where is he?" The man yells again, now way too close to Clarke for Lexa's liking. Clarke takes a step back, but Lexa sees her eyes shooting fire.
"Sir, you need to step back," Lexa says, the man turns his attention toward Lexa now. Lexa immediately regrets saying anything, now he's stepping closer to her. "Really sir, you're food is coming, if you could please get out of my personal space," Lexa tries. She notices Clarke is no longer standing next to her. The man is glaring at her, and for a second she fears she's going to have to punch him.
"Here you go sir!" Clarke exclaims, handing the man a brown paper bag. "Enjoy your meal, sorry for the delay. Short on staffing this late at night." The man takes the bag and with one last glare at the both of them, he leaves through the same door. Clarke quickly locks the door behind him and exhales.
"That was intense," Lexa comments, wiping her forehead with her sleeve.
"I forgot to lock the door, always lock the door at night, I'm so-"
"No, this wasn't your fault. Don't worry about it," Lexa hurries.
"It kind of was though," Clarke laughs. Lexa frowns before Clarke looks at her, grinning. "I'm such an idiot," she chuckles, causing Lexa to laugh too.
"Only a little bit," Lexa laughs.
"What are you laughing about?" Jasper says from behind them. "Was there a problem?"
"Nope, don't worry about it Jas," Clarke says, smiling at Jasper until he turns around and walks back to the office.
"Now that's an idiot," Lexa mutters. The sound of Clarke's laugh causes her cheeks to flush.
"We're having a crew outing next week Saturday," Clarke says during their lunch break the next week.
"That's cool."
"You should definitely come too."
"Yeah?" Lexa asks, unable to keep her excitement at being asked hidden.
"Yeah," Clarke grins.
"Everyone's invited and coming," Wells adds. Lexa had almost forgotten he was even there. "The other location is sending over employees so we can all go. It'll be fun." He shuts the crew room door behind him, leaving Clarke and Lexa alone.
"But they're not all as fun as you are," Clarke says, and Lexa's heart swells at the smile Clarke gives her.
"I mean, they're all going. Everybody's invited." Lexa tells Lincoln, who's lounging on the couch.
"Yeah, but she made a point of inviting you personally. Instead of just the standard facebook message that everybody gets, right?"
"She did." Lincoln sits up to look Lexa in the eyes.
"Well then she obviously really wants you to come." He doesn't lie back down until Lexa nods. A smile spreading across his face when he does. "Look at you all grown up."
"Oh shut up."
"You should make out with her," Anya says as she walks into the living room and plops down on the chair next to the couch.
"Yeah, I'll just walk up to her and just make out," Lexa rolls her eyes.
"Works for me." Lincoln laughs.
"Everytime," Anya chuckles.
"Well you obviously take after mom," Lexa huffs. Lincoln and Anya exchange a look before a smirk spreads across Anya's face. Lincoln sits up and takes Lexa's hand, suddenly serious.
"Lex, I don't know how to tell you this but- we're all adopted." Lexa rolls her eyes again when Anya and Lincoln both start laughing.
"That joke was funny the first fifty times," Aden interjects from the other side of the room, without looking up from his video game.
"It's still funny," Anya says.
"It is," Lincoln agrees, high fiving Anya.
"Thanks for picking me up," Lexa says as she sits down in the passenger seat next to Raven.
"No problem," Raven answers as she drives away from Lexa's house.
"Now you can't drink though."
"Technically none of us can," Raven winks at Lexa, "But I'm on meds for my leg so I can't anyway." Lexa nods, Raven had told her about the car crash she'd been in when she was younger, injuring her leg so that she had to have multiple surgeries. "Last surgery in a month though, after that I can do whatever I want."
Raven pulls up at a large house with the biggest gate Lexa has ever seen. "Wow," Lexa breathes out, taking it in. It could probably easily fit her house three times.
"Clarke lives here," Raven sighs, "rich bitch."
Sure enough, Clarke comes through the gate closing it behind her and waving at the front door. Lexa assumes it's a parent.
"Hey," Clarke greets them as she gets in the back.
"How's Doc?" Raven asks as she puts the car in drive.
"Which one?" Clarke chuckles. "My mom's at work and the dog can't handle being home alone so I'm kind of scared of what I'll find when I get home tonight."
"You were waving at your dog?" Lexa asks.
"Yeah, c'mon let's put on some music," Clarke practically launches her body into the front of the car, fiddling with the radio and almost giving Lexa a heart attack at her sudden proximity. When Clarke sits back down Lexa turns around and frowns at her.
"Why do you work at a fastfood restaurant when you-" she suddenly trails off, afraid what she wants to say might come off as rude.
"When I what?"
"Uhh, when you-" Lexa struggles.
"When you're fucking rich," Raven laughs.
"Oh right," Clarke laughs. "I want to move out when I go to college and I need to save up. Plus, if it's my money I can do whatever I want with it." Lexa nods, she feels the same way.
"I just love money," Raven laughs.
"You're both going to college next year?" Lexa asks, suddenly realising they're all eighteen and they probably finished high school already.
"Yup, I'm going to be a teacher." Lexa can hear the smile in Clarke's voice.
"You're not going to college?" Raven asks Lexa. There's no accusation in her tone, just curiosity.
"No, I still have a year of high school left."
"I thought you were eighteen," Clarke mumbles.
"I am. It's just- my parents forgot to sign me up on time for elementary so I started a year late." Lexa shrugs, she tries not to be bothered by it.
"How do your parents forget something like that?" Raven laughs.
"They're busy people, plus they adopted four children at the same time, so y'know." Raven just smiles at her and nods. She pulls up to the bar and they get out of the car.
Soon after they get in and are greeted by their other colleagues Lexa loses sight of Raven and Clarke. She can't help but feel disappointed, but sits down at a table with Wells and starts talking to him. A few drinks later Wells staggers off, mumbling something about having to talk to Harper about shift schedules. Lexa wonders if Wells ever takes a day off.
She's content with sitting alone and watching the others mingle. She laughs when Murphy stumbles and almost falls over. He glares at her but gives her a thumbs up when she asks him if he's okay.
Lexa doesn't have to sit alone for long though, suddenly Clarke appears out of nowhere and sits down next to her.
"Hi." Clarke smiles at her, and it might just be the drinks she's had, but Lexa feels warmth spread across her chest.
"Hey."
"So what Hogwarts house are you?" Clarke asks, taking Lexa by surprise.
"Ravenclaw," Lexa answers.
"I'm a Slytherin, but also a Gryffindor," Clarke says, grinning. Lexa starts to wonder how sober Clarke still is. But when Clarke starts rambling about her Hogwarts house and Harry Potter in general, Lexa just joins her. She beams at Clarke and Clarke puts her hand on her arm. She thinks for a second Clarke might kiss her. It's like Clarke can read her mind because she grins and whispers, "not here, not now." Clarke takes her hand off of her arm and walks off, Lexa debates following her for a good minute, before deciding she should get up anyway.
She walks around looking for the bathroom until she finally finds it, when she goes in she finds Clarke leaning against the sink, staring up at the ceiling.
"Are you okay?" Lexa asks, slowly walking towards Clarke. Clarke's eyes snap open but she visibly relaxes when she sees who it is.
"Yeah, just had to calm down a bit."
"What's up?" Lexa leans against the sink next to Clarke.
"Murphy's a shit, that's all."
"What did he do?" Lexa's overcome with a sudden sense she needs to help Clarke, protect her, even though she knows Clarke can take care of herself.
"Just some comment about slutty bisexuals, it's not a big deal." Clarke waves it away, she closes her eyes and inhales. When she opens her eyes, Lexa's still staring at her.
"Want me to beat him up for you?" Lexa asks, standing up straight. Clarke eyes her for a second before chuckling. "You can do that?"
"My sister teaches martial arts, I know stuff." Lexa puffs out her chest, causing Clarke to laugh. She reaches out and grabs Lexa's hand.
"You don't have to beat him up, he's just a drunk asshole."
"Just say the word and I'll do it." Clarke smiles fondly at Lexa and she pulls Lexa's arm to get her to stand closer to her. Their thighs are touching now, Clarke still leaning against the sink, still holding Lexa's hand.
"I can take care of myself you know," Clarke says suddenly. "I'm not- I don't-" she struggles.
"I know," Lexa assures her. At that, Clarke stands up, causing her to be so close to Lexa they can feel each other's breathing.
"I'm going to kiss you now," Clarke whispers. She's still holding Lexa's hand as she closes the gap between them. Lexa doesn't know how long they stand there kissing, but when the bathroom door opens she's reluctant to break away from Clarke.
"I knew this was going to happen." Lexa turns around just in time to see Raven roll her eyes before stalking over to a stall and locking the door behind her. Clarke grins at Lexa and steps back. They don't say anything but just keep smiling at each other until Raven's done washing her hands and leaves the bathroom while shaking her head. As soon as the door closes behind her, Lexa steps closer to Clarke and kisses her again. When they finally break away Lexa can't help smiling.
"Do you want to go on a date with me?" She asks Clarke.
"God yes," Clarke breathes.
Their first date consists of watching a movie at Clarke's house and making out more than actually watching the movie. Their second date Lexa takes Clarke to her favourite art museum and Clarke asks her if she wants to be her girlfriend about halfway through the first exhibition.
Lexa meets Clarke's friends and she can't believe how great this group of people is she found through working at a fast food restaurant. She meets Bellamy and his sister Octavia. At first she thinks Octavia might hate her, but Raven explains Octavia is just being protective of Clarke.
The summer ends with a trip to an amusement park with Clarke's friends.
"No see, the real reason the Roman Empire fell-" Bellamy's mid History rant with Lexa when Clarke turns around from walking next to Raven and Octavia and takes Lexa's hand.
"Nerds," Clarke comments fondly. Bellamy smiles at them before speeding up his pace slightly to walk next to Raven while Octavia breaks into a sprint to get to the rollercoaster first.
"This was the best summer." Lexa smiles at Clarke.
"I know."
"And this year I can tell all those losers about my amazing girlfriend that goes to college." Clarke beams at Lexa and kisses her cheek.
"I'll race you to the rollercoaster." Clarke grins as she lets go of Lexa's hand and starts running. She giggles as Lexa chases after her.