The New Girl
(Possible Part One)

The first time Clarke noticed the new girl was the day cheerleading tryouts began. Clarke, being a junior and having already reserved her spot on the team, had watched her walk onto the field, wearing baggy sweats and a camisole, her gym bag slung over her shoulder. Her hair was up in a ponytail and her face was completely devoid of makeup. But those weren't the things that Clarke first noticed about her.

Instead, Clarke noticed that: 1) The new girl was tall; tall and muscular, around the arms, her bare shoulders broader than she'd ever seen on such a thin girl and 2) Instead of walking towards the track, where the cross country team had their tryouts, or the left side of the field, where Clarke and the other girls on the team, along with their coach and new recruits, were having theirs, she was heading towards the right side of the field, where the boys were having football tryouts.

At Arcadia High, they were not allowed to divide sports by gender, especially since the small size of their high school (which had about 100 students, give or take) meant that their budget was rather low and resources were limited. But some things were just left unsaid. Such as only the boys tried out for football and baseball, and only the girls tried out for cheerleading and softball. Very few students had actually gone against the status quo and even fewer had been successful in their endeavors.

Watching the thin, muscular new girl walk up to where the boys were gathering, Clarke couldn't help but shake her head at her. Obviously that girl was just fooling herself. No female had ever gotten a spot on the football team. Not even Bellamy Blake, the quarterback's, sister, Octavia, who'd tried out for Kicker the previous year. Even though she was probably the best one Clarke had ever seen.

It was unfair, she knew, but that's how things worked at Arcadia High.

Still, she watched. Even as she danced and jumped and clapped her hands and cheered. Even as they called her forth to take her place as a base. Every single girl who tried out that year got a spot on the team (they only needed nine and eleven had tried out, leaving two alternates in case of emergency) and they all finished before the football team, allowing them to sit on the bleachers and observe.

By this time, Lexa had slipped pads onto her shoulders and a helmet onto her head, as well as a practice jersey given to her by the coach, Titus. Next to the other boys trying out, she looked tiny and frail, waiting for her turn to do drills. Clarke seemed to be the only one paying attention to her as the other girls cooed over the guys—some of whom were their boyfriends. Bellamy's girlfriend, Harper, was a flyer and cheered for him as he ran a drill, clapping her hands and jumping up and down. Clarke rolled her eyes and leaned back, watching as the girl went after him.

She moved with a grace that Clarke hadn't expected, what with the way her shoulders had hunched before as she walked onto the field. Now, with the pads on her shoulders, and her feet encased in cleats, the pigskin in hand, the girl's legs moved with such ease it was almost like she was floating, dodging the players that Coach Titus had instructed to block her. Clarke found herself on the edge of her seat, watching her get closer and closer to the end zone, where the other tryouts cheered for her, encouraging her, clapping and whooping for her.

It surprised her that they were all just as excited at the prospect of adding their first girl to the team. She'd never seen this at any of the tryouts before—even last year, when Octavia had gotten through with next to no trouble. The only person that seemed to have any problem with it was Bellamy, who had his arms crossed over his chest, as if refusing to support her. The girl didn't care, though, and did a graceful leap into the end zone, throwing her ball down while the boys cheered and high-fived her.

Clarke found herself jumping out of her own seat and shouting "YES!" at the top of her voice, which echoed in the following silence. She blushed bright red as she looked around at her team, who all stared at her. "What?" she asked. "Aren't you guys excited? This is, like, history in the making."

"Coach isn't going to let her on the team," Harper scoffed.

"What makes you say that?"

"They have more than enough boys to fill the slots," Harper pointed out. "Most of them were on the team last year. You really think he's going to replace somebody like Lincoln for…whatever her name is."

"Lexa," somebody supplied. It was Indra, a back spot. "Her name is Lexa. She's in Ethics with me."

"She's a senior already?" Clarke asked.

Indra shook her head. "No, but she was taking the class at her old high school, in TonDC, so they allowed her to finish it up here. She's smart. And tough. I'm sure Coach Titus will see that."

"He may see it, but that doesn't mean he'll act on it. Football is a total boy's club. She can't even be in the locker room with them, so how's she going to be in on their strategizing or whatever? I'm telling you; she won't make it. If she does, then all hell will break loose."

Harper was right about one thing: all hell did break loose.

The entire village was abuzz with the news that Arcadia High had welcomed its very first female football player; a city girl from TonDC, which lay about a hundred miles to the North. The local newspapers and a few from other nearby towns and outside counties came to interview her. Clarke learned her real name, Alexandria Woods, from the Arcadia Tribune. She also learned that Lexa—as she preferred to be called—was recently orphaned and had moved to Arcadia with her elder sister, Anya, who had taken over guardianship of her and their younger brother, Aden. Lexa didn't talk much about the accident that had taken her parents from her, but Clarke noticed that she avoided taking the bus at all costs and often flinched when crossing the street. Clarke had seen her walking home while she drove her father's old beat-up Chevy.

Lexa Woods was an odd sort of person, she decided, when she witnessed the girl sitting alone at lunch one day, eating on the front lawn, instead of at the picnic tables with all the other kids. Many of her teammates ate outside and had often requested that she join them, but Lexa always declined. Instead, she sat alone on the grass, reading or listening to music, or just staring at the road that stretched in either direction and barely saw any cars at all during the school day. Clarke wanted to join her more than once, but didn't know what to say.

So instead she settled for seeing Lexa at practice. Cheering for her as the football team ran drills and practiced for upcoming games. She played it off as getting herself hyped up for homecoming, and practicing new cheers. Harper, who was the lead, just rolled her eyes and kept calling out formation orders to the rest of the girls.

Clarke cheered a little louder whenever Lexa scored a touchdown or wormed her way out of a tackle, her agility carrying her across the field with little to no effort. She seemed annoyed, however, when she noticed that a few of the boys were being purposefully light with her, not blocking her as fiercely as they would any of their other teammates. Lexa would yell at them, right in the middle of practice, and throw down the ball. It took a few soft words from Coach Titus to calm her down, but Clarke could see her still seething as she walked off the field after practice every day.

Again, she found herself wanting to talk to Lexa, drawn to her for some odd reason, but she didn't know what to say. "Sorry that the guys won't treat you fairly"? She could do nothing about it, especially since Coach Titus didn't even seem to be chastising them, either.

So she just watched, every day, as Lexa fought to be recognized as a member of the team, and not just some breakable girl. Clarke found herself getting mad for her, incensed that they would have cheered so much about finally having a girl on their team and then treating her like a china doll or something. She made an effort to cheer the loudest for Lexa, calling her out by name. Once, the girl had turned her head in Clarke's direction and got knocked down for not paying attention.

This was the first time that Clarke actually talked to Lexa. Feeling guilty for distracting her, Clarke had thrown down her pom-poms and ran toward the field, dropping to her knees next to Lexa, who lay prone on the field.

"Are you okay?!" she asked, slightly panicked at the dazed look in Lexa's eyes.

Lexa blinked up at her for a moment, as if allowing her vision to clear, then gave Clarke a slightly dopey grin and said, "Hi," in the dreamiest voice the blonde had ever heard. It made her snort.

"Hey," she replied, smiling down at Lexa. "Are you okay? Can you remember your name?"

She could see the slight blush on Lexa's cheeks as she answered, shaking her head a little to remove the fuzz from her brain. "L-Lexa?"

"Is that a question?" Clarke teased, helping Lexa to sit up. She undid the strap under her chin and removed Lexa's helmet, releasing her messy ponytail, which was half undone by her headgear. Immediately, Clarke started running her fingers over her scalp, feeling for a bump like her mother had done so many times to her as a child when she would get herself into all kinds of trouble. "Does your head hurt?" she asked, softly. Lexa shook her head, mutely, her face growing even redder. "That's good. Can you stand up?"

"I-I think so," Lexa murmured and Clarke stood, holding out her hands to help her up. Once Lexa was on her feet, Clarke noticed their height difference. It was only a few inches, but she'd never noticed it before. Perhaps because she'd never been this close to Lexa Woods before.

"Does anything hurt?" Lexa asked, looking around at the boys surrounding them, observing them quietly. The boy who tackled Lexa, Lincoln, looked apologetic. He was one of the only boys not scared of hurting her, but Clarke could tell he was worried about the fact that he'd tackled his teammate when she wasn't even looking; possibly injuring her.

Lexa tried out her limbs and twisted her body a little, then shook her head, smiling shyly at Clarke. "I think I'm okay," she said. "Thanks."

Clarke gave her a small smile and then reached down to pluck her helmet off the ground, handing it to the footballer. "No problem," she said. "It's nice to know that, despite what they think"—she gestured to the guys standing around them—"you're not actually breakable." Lexa smirked at that and Clarke giggled. "Just, uh, pay attention next time. Okay?"

"Might be easier to do," Lexa replied, "if I didn't think you were calling out for me." She lifted one eyebrow when Clarke flushed, biting her lip.

"I was cheering for you," she said, defensively. "It was supposed to be encouraging. I didn't mean to get you hurt." She looked down at her shoes, her shoulders slumping.

Lexa surprised her when her long fingers wrapped around Clarke's hand. "You didn't get me hurt," she assured her. "I just…I should've been paying attention." She squeezed Clarke's hand and Clarke looked up. "Thanks for cheering for me," Lexa said. "It helps."

Clarke gave her a big smile, her cheeks pink and warm. "Anytime," she said, her voice a little breathy. They shared a long look, green eyes locked on blue, before a cleared throat broke the connection and they both turned to see Bellamy Blake looking at them in annoyance.

"Mind if we get back to practice now?" he asked, one eyebrow raised. "It's starting to get dark."

"You scared, Blake?" Clarke teased and Bellamy gave her a glare. Clarke rolled her eyes and turned back to Lexa, softening slightly. "I'll see you later?" She didn't know why she made it a question, but she felt something inside her flutter when Lexa nodded.

"Of course," she said. "See you later…uh, I'm sorry, what's your name?"

Clarke laughed, even as a flush came over her cheeks. "Clarke Griffin," she said. "We have Chemistry." At Lexa's widened eyes, Clarke realized what she'd said. "As in the class. With Dr. Jaha?" She felt her face turn to flames and her mouth go dry in retaliation. "I…I sit next to Raven Reyes."

"Is that the girl who always blows things up?" Lexa asked and Clarke laughed out loud at that.

"Yeah, that's her. I'm pretty sure she spends more time in the nurse's office with my mother than she does in her actual classes, though."

"Your mother is the nurse?"

"Of for god's sake!" another boy, named Murphy, exclaimed. "Yes! Clarke's mom is the nurse. Raven makes things go boom. You two will have time to talk later! Please just go back to your squad so we can continuing knocking each other's brains out!"

Both Clarke and Lexa turned the full force of their glares to him, but he didn't care, glaring back at them with his arms crossed over his chest. Clarke rolled her eyes and looked up at Lexa. "I'll see you later," she said, this time with pointed decisiveness. Lexa nodded with a small grin, then released the hand that neither of them had even realized she was still holding, and let her go.

When she got back to the squad, they were all waiting for her with tiny grins on their faces, especially Indra, who gave her a knowing look. "What?" Clarke grumbled, picking up her pom-poms.

"Nothing," Indra said, getting back into formation. But that look never left her face as they finished out their cheer.

Thank you all for reading! Let me know if you're interested in more because I am definitely interested in writing more of this. I've had this idea for a while now. Review and let me know!