A/N: So this is an adventureland au. Unbelievable how i posted twice in two weeks like wtf get a life? I'm on spring break so rlly i'm just bored bye. If you wanna see an aesthetic i made for this fic you should go to my tumblr grounderqueenclarke and then go to /tagged/my-ff. Tell me what you think and i'll see you laaaatteeeeeeeeeer.
"So, for Europe, I miscalculated some things," Lexa says, nervously glancing at her parents. "It's going to be about 137 dollars more." She sees her mother glance at her father.
"What?" Lexa asks, heart sinking.
"Honey, we- your father had a change in function at the company," Her mother says, cautiously meeting her eyes.
"Is that- is that bad?" Her mother nods.
"We can't pay for your trip to Europe, honey."
Dread fills Lexa as her father smiles apologetically at her.
"But it was my graduation present," Lexa tries.
"I know honey, but we can't spare a penny."
"What about grad school?" She asks, already knowing the answer.
"You might have to find a job to pay for grad school."
Lexa hangs up the phone, she'd called four different places for a job, and not one of them wants to hire a kid fresh out of undergrad school with no work experience. She'd even tried the dingy restaurant, but no luck.
"The only place left is the park," Lexa tells her mother during lunch.
"You're much better than that,"
"You can do better, "Her father agrees.
And that's why Lexa's standing in the office of Adventureland the next morning, applying for a job.
"I'm here for a rides job," She says, nervously bouncing back on forth on the balls of her feet.
"You look like a games girl," the man says, looking her up an down, he's wearing a badge that reads "Jr. Manager" He grabs a file from a stack.
"I really think I'm more of a rides girl," Lexa tries hesitantly.
"I already got the games application here, so," The man says, gesturing at the file on his desk.
"Oh, okay."
"Your name?"
"Lexa Woods."
"Right, Lexa. I'm Bellamy, I run this park together with Anya here," Bellamy points at the woman at the desk, she's wearing a badge that reads "Manager".
"Rules: nobody ever wins a giant-ass panda," Lexa's eyes widen, "you'll know what I'm talking about when you see it." Bellamy hands Lexa a blue games shirt.
"Okay, let's do this," Lexa's standing in front of a girl with dark hair thrown up in a ponytail. She has her blue games shirt loosely tucked into her jeans, and a grin perpetually stuck to her face. The girl starts walking and Lexa follows her. She jogs quickly so she's walking next to her.
"I'm Raven. You're going to love this place," she grins as they walk down the main road of the park. Lexa can't tell if she's being serious or not. "Bellamy and Anya are married, just so you know." She gestures at a ride, "Never walk directly below that thing, unless you want to get puked on."
She walks Lexa to the games section, taking her through the games. "This one is great, impossible to win, very fun to watch." Raven says. "See, the objective is to knock off the hat, and you get a prize." She reaches out and grabs the hat on one of the dummies. "But it's glued on," she adds when it doesn't budge.
Lexa follows her to the next stand. Above it dangle a bunch of stuffed panda's. "This game is unwinnable. The only way to win is by cheating, and if that happens and somebody wins a giant-ass panda on your watch, you're fired." Lexa nods nervously, she really needs this job.
"Don't worry, you'll be fine. Your life must suck if you want to work here," she comments as they walk back to the office.
"I need to pay for grad school," Lexa sighs. Raven nods, but then laughs.
"Wait 'till your parents start making you pay rent."
Lexa starts at a horseracing game. "And red's closing in, aaand red wins. Good job, here's your prize." The people playing the game leave the stand, but Bellamy comes up to her. He and Anya had been watching her run the game.
"Can you try that with a bit more-" Bellamy balls up his fists, making a gesture Lexa can only describe as aggressive. Lexa nods. She can try.
So she tries again. She shouts, she jumps up and down, she gets lost in it. After she hands out the prize she suddenly feels stupid. She looks up to see Bellamy smiling proudly and walking off with Anya. But when she turns around she sees a blonde girl looking at her. She's sitting on the counter of her stand. Lexa thinks she's going to laugh at her, but then she smiles and waves, and Lexa waves back.
It's getting busy, Lexa's relocated to the giant-ass panda game. "Kid!" A man yells at her, she walks up to him.
"How many rings for a ticket?"
"Five per ticket."
"Give me five. How does one usually win here?" Lexa shrugs.
"I just started, so I-"
"I heard some lady fell off the Paratrooper a couple weeks back."
"Really? Was she okay?" Lexa notices the man's eyes are darting to something behind her. She turns to see what he's looking at, another man is holding a child over the bottles so the child can place a ring around one of the bottles. The man quickly pulls the child back.
"Hey look! My kid got it around the bottle!" The man slurs.
"Sir, I saw you holding him over the bottles. That's cheating," Lexa tries.
"What? He won fair and square!"
"I saw the kid throw it!" The other man joins.
"I could lose my job here," Lexa reasons, she looks over at her colleague. A pimply 15 year old, he just shrugs and turns away. Great.
The drunk dad leans in close. "Give the kid the fuckin' panda," his breath reeks of alcohol and Lexa winces. The man lifts his shirt a bit to reveal a knife strapped to his hip. Lexa's about to go in full blown panic, but she feels a hand on her shoulder.
She looks up to see the blonde girl from earlier, the girl nods at her and grabs a panda and hands it to the kid.
"Here you go," She says.
"Thank you, lady," the girl waits until the men leave before she turns to Lexa.
"Am I going to get in trouble? Nobody's supposed to win a giant-ass panda, I really need this job-"
"It's not worth getting knifed over. I'm Clarke," she extends her hand and Lexa shakes it.
"I'm Lexa."
"Suck you're getting fired on your first day, Lexa."
"No, shit fuck-"
"Relax, I'm kidding," Clarke grins at her.
"I'm barely making any money," Lexa sighs. She's sitting next to Raven on the counter of a stand. It's early in the morning, there are barely any people in the park, and certainly not in the games section of the park.
"You're a carny, what did you expect," Raven laughs.
"I've been working doubles!" Lexa exclaims.
"Yeah, get used to it. I've been working my butt off to be a mechanic. I can do Lincoln's job better than he can," Raven gestures at the maintenance guy that walks past. "But if I can't pay to go to school, I'm not getting that degree and without it-" She sighs and looks off into the distance.
A kid in a games shirt frantically runs around, screaming something.
"That's Jasper," Raven shakes her head. As he gets closer, it becomes clear what he's screaming.
"The other Blake is back!" He yells at one stand. He runs to the next stand. "Octavia is back!" He stops at Raven and Lexa's stand. "She's back!" He runs off when he doesn't get much of an reaction.
"Oh this is going to be fun," Raven says, grinning.
"Who's Octavia?"
"Bellamy's sister, she's incredibly hot and every loser here wants her," She pauses, grinning, "Including me, of course." Lexa nods knowingly. "She's friends with Clarke." She adds. Raven studies Lexa's reaction.
"You like her don't you?" She grins. Lexa shrugs, "I mean, she's cute,"
"Oh, you totally like her," Raven laughs. "You have a big fat crush on Clarke Griffin."
"Okay, okay, not so loud."
"Hey guys," Clarke comes walking up to Lexa and Raven. Raven nudges Lexa with a grin, but Lexa chooses to ignore it.
"My parents are gone tonight, so I'm throwing a party." Clarke smiles at Lexa. "And you're both invited," She adds without taking her eyes off of Lexa.
"We'll be there," Raven says when all Lexa can do is stare at Clarke and smile. Clarke nods at Raven and walks off.
Raven shoots Lexa a look. "What?"
"She was looking at you the whole time and you don't even say anything," Raven rolls her eyes, "you're such a dweeb."
"Says the one who's been pining after Octavia Blake for two whole summers and still hasn't gotten farther with her then a daily "good morning"." Lexa retorts.
"You weren't here last summer, you know nothing," Raven grins, causing Lexa to raise her eyebrows. They walk to the office to punch out, since they're both on break.
"So tell me."
"We made out last summer," Raven says.
"You're full of shit."
"I'm not."
"You haven't said anything to her since she came back. I don't believe you."
"Fine."
Lexa watches Raven from the corner of her eyes while she punches out, Bellamy and Anya are doing paperwork at the desk. Just as Raven opens the door to leave, Lexa turns to Bellamy and Anya.
"Hey guys," Lexa starts, Raven turns around so fast Lexa thinks she might pull a neck muscle.
"Yeah?" Bellamy asks, without looking up.
"Did Raven make out with anyone last summer?" Lexa asks, she sees Raven's jaw drop and winces when Raven pokes her in her side.
Bellamy laughs. "Why would I know that?" He looks at Anya, who quickly changes her expression from a grin to a poker face. "Yeah, why would we know that?" She says. When Bellamy turns back to Lexa and Raven, Anya mouths 'Octavia' behind his back.
"Oh y'know, just wondering," Lexa says, and she pulls Raven out of the office.
"I'm going to fucking murder you," Raven exclaims when they're out of earshot from the office.
"I thought you were lying," Lexa laughs. Raven pokes her in her side again.
"I can't wait 'till you go to New York."
"Oh shut up, if I wasn't here you'd have no friends."
"Fuck you," Raven laughs. They walk to the entrance of the park and sit down on the edge of the parking lot. Raven had told Lexa it was the best place to take a break, since no park visitors would come up to you with stupid questions, and Bellamy and Anya wouldn't be able to find you if they needed you for something.
"Hey," Octavia comes walking up to them, seemingly appearing from thin air.
"Hey," Raven answers, she quickly shoots Lexa a warning glance.
"Bellamy just asked me if I made out with anyone last summer, I don't suppose you had anything to do with that?" She asks Raven, stopping right in front of her so Raven has to crane her neck to look at Octavia's face.
"I didn't," Raven answers, stressing the first word. Octavia narrows her eyes at Lexa, Lexa raises her hands in surrender.
"Listen, I just wanted to make sure Raven wasn't lying. I didn't mention your name."
Octavia hums, she looks like she's thinking something over, before she nods at Lexa. Lexa feels like she was just pardoned from a death sentence.
"Are you coming to Clarke's party tonight?" She asks, more to Raven then to Lexa.
"Of course," Raven answers.
"Cool, see you there."
"Yeah, see you," Raven calls after Octavia.
"That was pathetic," Lexa snorts.
"You shut up, she was about to kill you," Raven retorts, "You got me off my game with your stupid excuses."
"Sure," Lexa rolls her eyes, Raven hits her arm. She tries to look offended, but starts laughing when Lexa gives her the finger.
Clarke's house is much bigger than Lexa had expected. She'd expected something like where she lived, or where Raven lived. She didn't expect someone who worked at a stupid carny park to actually live in one of the biggest houses in her town that she'd ever laid eyes on. It even has a pool.
"Why the fuck does she work at the park?" Raven asks exactly what Lexa's thinking.
"This is crazy," Lexa says as they enter the house through the back door. Raven moves to take her shoes off, but Lexa stops her. "I don't think that's something you need to do here," Raven looks around and nods.
"There aren't any other shoes here," Lexa adds, gesturing at the floor. The door to the kitchen opens and Clarke looks at them, laughing.
"You can come in, you know," Lexa follows Clarke into the house, she sees Raven quickly glance at Clarke's shoes before she follows.
"So just help yourself," Clarke says as she nods at the kitchen table that's filled with bottles. She smiles at Lexa, before she gets pulled away by some kid Lexa hasn't met. Lexa turns to Raven. Raven hands her a cup. "Drink up, you're going to talk to Clarke tonight," She pours herself a cup and downs it in one go.
"I'm going to talk to Octavia, see you later." Raven says and makes a beeline for Octavia, who's standing at the other end of the rather huge kitchen. Lexa sighs and glances around the room, she suddenly feels awkward being left all alone in a kitchen with people she doesn't or barely knows.
"Lexa," The boy Raven had called Jasper stands next to her, grinning into his cup.
"Jasper, right?"
"Yeah. So Octavia's back," Jasper says, Lexa wonders if he has anything else to talk about. The last couple of times she's seen him he's only been talking about Octavia.
"Yup, that's cool I guess," Lexa answers, awkwardly taking a sip from her cup.
"She's so hot. I think I'm going to make a move," Jasper says, his voice giddy with excitement. She's heard him mention how he's going to make a move to three different people in the last two weeks. He hadn't yet.
Lexa grins as she sees Octavia lean in to whisper something in Raven's ear, causing Raven to smirk when Octavia pulls back with a flirtatious smile. "I think you don't really have a shot there, bud," Lexa says to Jasper.
"That's nothing," Jasper insists.
"Sure," Lexa chuckles when Octavia places a hand on Raven's hip. She decides to let Jasper exist in his little dream world on his own, and she makes her way to the living room.
Clarke's standing next to the stereo, talking to a boy with shaggy hair. He grins and Clarke smiles politely but steps back a bit. Lexa decides that being awkward and talking to Clarke is better than to watch the boy try to talk to Clarke when she's obviously not interested.
"Hi," Lexa says, she glances over to the boy, whose smile falters when Clarke smiles widely at her.
"Lexa, hi," Clarke grabs her hand, "I need to show you something," Clarke exclaims excitedly, and starts pulling Lexa away from the boy. "Bye Finn." She waves at Finn and drags Lexa to the kitchen.
"You showed up at the right time," Clarke says, looking over Lexa's shoulder.
"Not a fun conversation?" Clarke's incredibly close to her, Lexa notices. Her eyes are so blue and it's so hard to actually look at her, so Lexa keeps darting her eyes away from Clarke's face.
"Not really. He dated Raven for a while but tried to get with me, and now that they're broken up he's gotten insufferable." Lexa raises her eyebrows.
"But Raven's-" She points over Clarke's shoulder to Raven and Octavia who are now kissing in the corner. She quickly glances over to the kitchen table to see Jasper sulking into his cup. Clarke turns around and laughs.
"Raven does both," Clarke says, looking back at Lexa, she watches her as Lexa's eyes dart around, only resting on Clarke's face for a millisecond. "Just like me." She grins as Lexa's eyes flash to hers and widen.
"You're kidding?"
"I'm really not."
Lexa's mind is racing with possible replies, but she can't seem to settle on something, so she just smiles.
"Let's go swimming," Clarke says, and before Lexa can answer she's being dragged through the kitchen, through the glass doors and into the garden. Clarke bends down to take off her pants and Lexa quickly looks away. She doesn't look back at Clarke until she hears a splash.
"Come on," Clarke laughs as she smoothes her hair back.
Lexa looks back at the house, nobody inside looks like they're coming outside anytime. She looks back at Clarke, who's looking at her like she's everything and anything. Fuck it. Lexa thinks as she takes off her shirt and shimmies out of her pants. She might be a little buzzed, but she doesn't care. She jumps into the pool and when she comes up Clarke is smiling at her.
"It's so cold," Lexa wheezes. Clarke grins and splashes her. They drift toward each other, until they're in the centre of the pool, where neither of them can stand.
"I didn't think this through," Clarke laughs as she struggles to keep her chin above the water. Lexa watches her, still struggling to make eye contact with Clarke for longer than a few seconds. When she does, she feels her breath leave her chest.
"I like girls," announces. Regretting is as soon as she does. Clarke's eyes soften and her lips curl up into a soft smile.
"I figured."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah, or are you always this nervous when talking to new people?"
"Not everyone. Just you," Lexa admits. Clarke puts her hands on Lexa's shoulders, and for a second Lexa thinks she's going to kiss her. But then Clarke pushes her underwater. When she comes up Clarke is smiling at her.
"That's what you get for getting sappy on me the first time we actually talk."
They get out of the pool, and Clarke leads Lexa into the garage. She opens the dryer and gets two towels out, she throws one at Lexa and uses the other one for herself.
"Come on, I'll get you some clothes to wear," Lexa follows Clarke into the house. They avoid the living room and go up the stairs, to what Lexa assumes is Clarke's bedroom. There are drawings covering one wall, posters of bands covering another, and another is covered in pictures of what Lexa assumes are Clarke's friends.
"It's not very big, but it fits a bed," Clarke says as she opens a drawer and pulls out a t-shirt and sweatpants and throws them over to Lexa. "Put that on," she grabs another shirt and sweatpants from the drawer and puts it on herself. Lexa walks over to the drawings on the wall.
"Did you do these yourself?" She lightly traces the lines on one of them.
"Yeah," Clarke answers, leaning against the other wall.
"They're really good," Lexa says, amazed.
"Thanks. I'm going to art school next year," Clarke says as Lexa turns around to face her.
"I didn't know that was a grad program," Lexa says, slightly confused.
"It is in New York."
"So you're heading to New York too? Is that why you work at the park?" Lexa asks as she walks over to the wall covered in photographs.
"My mom and her boyfriend are paying for school. I just work at the park to piss them off." Clarke says. "They're obsessed with status," she points at a tiny picture that's barely visible. "That's them." Lexa nods, the two people in the picture look like they're at some kind of gala event, they're smiling, but it looks fake to her.
"Why do you work at the park?" Clarke asks.
"My dad got transferred at work, so now I have to pay for my own grad school," Lexa sighs.
"What do you want to do?"
"Journalism."
"You should work on not being so nervous around girls then," Clarke grins.
"Only pretty girls," Lexa replies, she watches the grin on Clarke's face turn into a smile.
"She gets me," Raven says as she drives them away from the party in her pick up.
"Did you do anything other than make out?" Lexa asks sceptically.
"We talked too," Raven says, offended. "I told her I felt weird wearing shoes in a house, and she agreed with me."
"How deep," Lexa mocks.
"Shut up. I have a date tomorrow night." Raven grins as Lexa rolls her eyes. "Did you even kiss Clarke?" Raven chuckles when Lexa doesn't answer. "I thought so."
"Who says she even wants to?"
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Raven pulls into Lexa's driveway. "She's always watching you at the park, and she was practically undressing you when you took off your clothes at the pool."
"You saw that?"
"That's beside the point!" Raven exclaims, rolling her eyes. "She wants you, okay. Just get on with it."
"See you tomorrow," Lexa says, ignoring Raven's comments as she gets out of the car.
At the end of each day, they all get together at the park entrance, talking until they leave one by one. Lexa usually gets a ride from Raven. But Raven leaves early together with Octavia. Lexa watches them leave, and sighs.
"Great, there goes my ride."
"You can ride with me," Clarke says.
"I don't want to go home yet," Lexa says when they're in the car.
"Okay," Clarke answers, "I know something." She drives to the edge of town, stopping the car under the bridge, next to water. They get out and sit at the edge of the river, the streetlights from the bridge illuminating their faces.
"You know the summer is almost over right?" Clarke says, shifting so her body is facing Lexa.
"Yeah, I almost have enough money saved up for New York, if I get a job then I'll be able to actually go." Lexa says excitedly.
"That's great, Lex," Clarke smiles. Lexa studies Clarke's face, she can't get over how blue her eyes are.
"So where you going to kiss me anytime soon, or?" Clarke's question takes Lexa off guard.
"You- what?" She stutters.
"I know you like me, Octavia told me, and Raven told her." Clarke says, she places a hand on Lexa's thigh. "I don't really know what you're waiting for."
"I don't really know either," Lexa mumbles, she's not sure how to even respond to this.
"If you're worried about distance, that's crazy. Because we're literally going to be in the same city, for three years."
"You want to date?" Lexa asks. Her mind is racing. She'd had a great summer with Clarke, but she didn't know Clarke was into her? She knew what Raven had told her after the party at the beginning of the summer, but she didn't know Clarke actually wanted to date her.
"Well, yeah. " Clarke answers. When Lexa just stares at her, Clarke gets up. "You're kind of an idiot," she snaps and marches over to her car. "If you still want that ride, you better get into the car."
Lexa gets up, but instead of walking over to the passenger side of the car, she walks up to Clarke. She grabs her hips, and pushes her against the car.
"You could've kissed me too, you know," Lexa whispers, before she presses her mouth to Clarke's. Clarke places her hands in Lexa's neck and pulls her impossibly closer. When they pull apart, Clarke smiles.
"You're right. I should've." She pecks Lexa on her mouth. "Now get in the car," she grins.
"So, she's your- girlfriend?" Lexa mother mutters. Lexa rolls her eyes. Clarke honks the car horn again, and leans out of the window.
"Let's go, Lex!"
Lexa grabs the box that's standing on the porch and loads it into Clarke's car. She jogs back to her parents and grabs her bag from her mother's hands.
"Yes, mother." Lexa answers her mother's question. She watches her mother's jaw drop and her father shakes his head.
"See you at Christmas," Lexa smiles. She kisses her father on his cheek, then her mother.
"See you at Christmas, honey," her mother mutters.
Lexa skips over to the passenger seat and gets in. She kisses Clarke, and watches Clarke wave at Lexa's parents as they drive away.
"How did they take the news?" Clarke laughs.
"Pretty good. They're a little shocked," Lexa smiles. She'd never actually told her parents that she liked girls, she figured they'd find out when she started seriously dating a girl.
When they drive up the bridge, out of town, Lexa grabs Clarke's hand. Clarke smiles at her. Lexa still can't believe how blue her eyes are.
"New York here we come."