Chapter One
Summer 21 pt 1
A/N- Hey! I'm so happy with the response that the prologue got! This chapter is four years in the future, and Clarke and Bellamy have only seen each other in passing during those years. SOO, in this chapter, we see them have to interact with each other for the first time since the prologue. They've both changed ….a lot. Also, I refuse to write the new jasper that is in season 3. SO I'm going back to season 1 Jasper! Happy times! And I made some harry potter references, but they're nothing important so you could skip them if you want…
Work Text:
She was going back. She never thought she would, but Octavia had finally convinced her. She was going back to the exact place where her entire life had changed in under 74 hours. Even if it was four years ago, she still didn't exactly want to go back.
Another reason she didn't want to go back was him. This was the longest that she had ever gone without seeing him, and, despite all that happened, she missed him. He'd been in her life for ten years before the thing happened, and these past four years had epically sucked. She missed his witty humor, his brotherly, over-protective nature, she missed him like hell.
She had never really gotten over him though, and she hated herself for it, after what he'd done. She had tried, hard, but she just never could. But, she had at least gotten it down to a dull ache, it wasn't as close to the burning passion she had felt for him before.
She was driving along the road that led to the camp in her father's old truck, she had taken as many detours as humanly possible, but that wouldn't make her late. If she timed it right, and nothing went wrong, she would be getting there about ten minutes before campers started showing up, so she could get her assignment and head to her cabin to settle before her cabin mates arrived.
She turned the final turn into the camps long stretch of driveway. She knew Octavia was waiting 'patiently' for her arrival, she'd texted about five times in the last hour. So she would have to talk to her, which was fine. They hadn't seen each other in a month, their junior year of college finals had kicked their butts and they hadn't found the time to hang out. Clarke's medical classes were hell on earth, and Octavia's teaching courses were going to be the death of her.
She pulled into the employee parking lot, and could already see Octavia, Jasper, and Monty waiting on her. She rolled her eyes, she had the best friends in the world.
She had hung out with Jasper and Monty quite a lot, they had been the ones who'd gotten Octavia and Clarke their fake IDs before they had turned 21, and Clarke had and apartment where they could hang out and smoke without anyone noticing because it was in a rich apartment building so the air conditioners blew scented air into the rooms.
She got out of her car and grabbed her bag out of the bed, turning around and opening her arms to the dorks she loved so very much.
"Clarke!" Jasper hugged her first.
"Jasper, you saw me two months ago."
"Yeah, but that was two months ago!"
She rolled her eyes at that statement and hugged Monty, "Hey Monty."
"Hey Clarke! I've missed you!"
"I've missed you too."
"I'll tell you who she missed the most though!" She turned her head and winked at Octavia.
The boys rolled their eyes, "Yeah, but you two are married!"
Octavia laughed, "Yeah, but not as married as I'm going to be!" She held up her left hand, which had a sparkling diamond ring on it. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, Clarke. I wanted to tell you in person and we've both been booked with exams and-."
She was cut off by Clarke wrapping her in a second bear hug, "I'm so excited for you! It's about time that Lincoln finally asked! If he didn't soon I was going to for him." They all laughed at that and walked up the path that led to the pavilion.
Everything looked the same, there was a fresh coat of paint on all of the buildings, but other than that, it looked straight out of her memory. She saw the path that led to the lake. She could see the walking trail that her and Finn had walked on after the picking all those years ago, the jerk. She shook the thoughts out of her head and tuned back into the conversation that Octavia was having with the boys.
"No, the best one is obviously the second." Octavia argued.
Jasper was frantically shaking his head, "No, no, no. The best book of the best series is most definitely the sixth."
"Really? You're going with the Snape centered over the Ginny centered?" O shot back.
Monty chuckled, "Octavia, Ginny was only in that book for a total of, like, a hundred pages. It wasn't exactly Ginny centered, it was more Young Voldemort centered."
"Still, Snape? Ugh."
Clarke barged in on the conversation "Well in the end Snape did end up a good guy, Octavia."
"No. No he didn't! Some of his actions may have been justified in the end, but that by no means makes him a good guy. The only this that came out of him loving Lily was tell us that even if Snape hated the James part of Harry, he still loved the Lily part of him, so he would help to keep Harry alive. But, in the, I think it's the second or third, Draco had cursed Hermione with a teeth growing charm, and Snape reduced her to tears when he didn't help because, and I quote, "I can't see a difference."" Octavia crossed her arms defiantly.
Clarke chuckled and continued down the path while the others continued bickering behind her. She felt like skipping, she was so elated to finally be back. Despite her terrible experience, she knew that she would have had fun here, and she was determined to set things right this year and have a kick-ass summer with her friends.
She wanted to skip, so she did. She stopped walking for a few moments to wait for Octavia to catch up, and slid her arm into hers and started to skip, dragging Octavia along with her.
It wasn't long before they reached the pavilion, and Clarke saw that a group of people, all in the same blue councilor t-shirt, had formed. They were all milling around, just talking to each other in little groups. She recognized Raven in the group from the brief meeting they'd had the last time she was here. She gave her a quick smile as they walked up which Raven returned, and turned to follow Octavia and the boys.
Octavia headed straight for the very back of the pavilion, which Clarke was totally okay with. Because Bellamy was head councilor this year, and would be speaking at the front. And it wasn't that she didn't want to talk to Bellamy, she knew that they would eventually have the inevitable talk about what had happened, but she was going to hold out and make that 'eventually' last as long as possible.
They weren't gathered there for long though, as Bellamy jumped up of stage, she didn't know how she hadn't seen him when they walked up, because holy hell, he was certainly treated well during those four years. His hair had gotten longer, so that you could actually see his hair curling and it was almost in his eyes. He had tanned gloriously, as he usually did during the summer. And he was a lot more buff than she ever remembered him being.
She shook those thoughts out of her head and listened as he started to speak, "Hey everyone, and welcome to another year at The Skybox. This year will be like most of the previous years, in that some of you will be team leaders, some of you will have certain activities that you will be doing with the kids, like hiking, kayaking, arts, and things like that." He trailed off, "But there is going to be one major change this year, we will be having a speaker come in and talk to the kids hallway through the summer, so that should be pretty fun. Her name is Maya and she is a veterinarian, so she should be bringing some animals with her."
"Um, Instead of doing the whole auction thing this year, we kind of knew what all of you either like to do, or were comfortable doing, so we gave each of you an assignment, I'll just read them off now," He pulled his phone out of his pocket, "Okay, the team leaders are as follows: Monty Green, Jasper Jordan, Octavia Blake, Gina Martin, Lincoln Woods, and Raven Reyes. The activity directors are: Arts and Crafts- Clarke Griffin,-"
She stopped listening, she had tried to catch his eye when he hadn't announced her as a team leader, it was what she had applied to do, but now she understood. She loved art, had for as long as she could remember, and him remembering that shot a pain straight through her gut, just like being shot by an arrow, damn cupid.
She smiled through the rest of his speech and clapped along with everyone else when he was done. She turned to Octavia and they congratulated each other on their roles, then went to find Bellamy, they wanted to thank him as well, and Clarke wanted to talk to him, she needed to get it over with.
They found him as he got off the stage, he turned around to face the crowd and that new Gina girl was there, probably just thanking him as well, or at least that's what Clarke thought before Gina raised up onto her toes and pressed a kiss to Bellamy's lips, a kiss that he reciprocated as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
Clarke stopped in her tracks, Octavia running into her before finally seeing what Clarke was seeing. "Oh, About that…" Octavia trailed off.
Clarke whirled around to face her, "You knew?"
Octavia wouldn't meet her eyes, "Yeah. I had meant to tell you, but…"
Clarke shook her head, slamming her walls back up, "Why would I care?"
Octavia's face changed into a look of annoyance, "Okay… so it doesn't bother you in the slightest that Bellamy has been in a steady relationship for the past year and a half?"
A year and a half. They had been dating that fucking long and Octavia had just forgotten to mention it. Not a single mention of 'my brother's girlfriend' or 'the guy you're hopelessly in love with's girlfriend.' Nothing. In the entire year and a half. Clarke smiled, two could play at this game, she smiled "No, not at all. Why would it?" Then turned back around to walk towards the happy couple.
As they got closer, Bellamy finally became aware of their presence. (he had thankfully stopped sucking face with his girlfriend. His fucking girlfriend) He smiled at them, "Hey guys!" He pulled them both into a hug. Clarke guessed that meant that meant there were no hard feelings about four summers ago. That he didn't feel anything about it. That he wasn't constantly about how much he fucking missed her, like she was for him. Which was fine, he had a girlfriend to constantly think about.
"Hey, Bell."
"Hi, Bellamy."
"Clarke, this is Gina." He gestures awkwardly to the girl tucked into his side, who doesn't apparently notice the tension, and sticks her hand out to shake Clarkes, "I've heard a lot about you."
Clarke just smiles as she shakes this Gina girl's hand, glancing over to Octavia who is looking guiltily at Bellamy, who is looking at Octavia with a questioning glance, who in turn shakes her head, which makes Bellamy sigh, "Apparently my idiotic sister forgot to mention you to Clarke, so this is the first she's heard of you."
Gina laughs. And it's a nice, sweet, adorable laugh that makes Bellamy smile and Clarke feel sick. "Well, from what I've heard about you, I think we'll be fast friends. Bell mentioned you liked art?" She called him Bell. The only two people Bellamy allowed to call him Bell were Clarke and Octavia.
Clarke plastered a smile on her face and talked to Gina about the different art mediums and famous painters.
She really liked Gina. She hated her by principle, but…
She was great, she loved art, and history, and she was caring and sweet and seemingly never did a damn thing wrong. She was great with kids and wanted a big family someday. She believed the world was a happy place, but knew it had its burdens. So, in theory, she was fucking perfect for Bellamy.
Clarke had just finished her hour long conversation with her, and was now walking over to the arts building.
She opened the door and walked in. There were six tables that were still folded up leaning against one of the walls. There was a big long table at the front of the room, with a rolling chair behind it. There were stacks of multicolored chairs in the corner.
Clarke took a deep breath and got to work. Unfolding them and putting them in a two by three formation in the room, putting four chairs around each of the tables, being sure that none of the tables had matching chairs at them.
She went over to the supply closet, and opened it. There were seemingly endless amounts of supplies in there. She would be able to do whatever craft she wanted to do for the entire summer.
She smiled and got out some paint and glitter and pipe cleaners and feathers and sequins and any other decoration thing a child could think of. She laid down some plastic throw-away table cloths on all of the table, and then she was finished.
She went to the door of the room and looked over her handiwork, she smiled and turned off the light, shutting and locking the door as she went to greet the campers who had come early.
All of the campers showed up within the next few hours. They were all gathered around the campfire, granted, it wasn't lit, but the fire wasn't lit until around seven thirty.
Clarke was standing with O, Jasper, and Monty, at the edge of the group. She wasn't really listening to their conversation, but instead roaming her eyes around the campers. She would sometimes catch they eyes of some of them, but they were usually boys and would look away as soon as they made eye contact and blush furiously. Boys.
But the girls would smile and wave and turn back to their friends. She kept roaming the group until she felt another pair of eyes on her, she looked around until she locked eyes with Bellamy. Whose eyes were raking up and down her form, making her feel as though she was naked, even while his arm was draped around his girlfriends' shoulders, who was chatting away with a few campers, oblivious.
She straightened her back and turned back to O, glancing once more at Bellamy just in time to see him take a drink of his cup, with his eyes still locked on her. He licked his lips and she took a sharp intake of breath, turning back to O to see that she was looking at Clarke with a curious expression. She smiled at Octavia and turned fully to them, about to get invested in the conversation.
She wasn't able to though, because Bellamy got up on a chair and started to yell for everyone to head over to the pavilion. The crowd started slowly moving over and regrouping.
Bellamy clambered up onto the stage and clapped his hands together once, silencing everyone and drawing all of their attention to them.
"So, my name is Bellamy, and I'm the activity's director here at the Skybox. I'm going to announce this years' team captains, as well as whose team you're on." A collective hum of excitement went through the crowd.
He looked down at the paper in his hands and started naming team captains. "Gina, Octavia, Lincoln, Monty, Jasper, and Raven." He folded the paper and returned it to the back pocket of his jeans. As each of their names had been called, they had each put an arm in the air and given a little wave.
"Earlier today. Each of the captains were given your questionnaires that you had to turn in with your camp applications, and they know who they want. We also drew straws, and Octavia gets to choose first, so if everyone could stand up," they did. "When you're chosen for a team, sit back down, thanks."
All of the team captains filed onto the stage and they each had papers in their hands, Clarke assumed that it was their choices.
Octavia's voice filled the auditorium with the first pick, "Emma Jacobs."
And the choosing began.
After the choosing ceremony ended, all of the teams and team captains went off to do their team bonding activities. Clarke was just planning on going back to her and O's shared cabin and unpacking and getting settled in, but apparently Bellamy had different plans, he called her name as she stared to walk away. "Clarke."
She pretended to not notice, "Hey- Clarke, wait up."
She kept walking.
Bellamy grabbed her arm, "Clarke? Can…. Can we talk?"
She shot daggers at him again, "I don't think that's a good idea."
He gave an exasperated sigh, "Clarke… please."
She rolled her eyes and gestured for him to get on with it.
He shuffled his feet nervously, "Clarke. I wanted to apologize for four years ago. I don't know what was contained in that letter you read, but I need you to know something. When I was packing up that summer, I-uh. I found the letter that I had intended to give to you in my bag. I don't know who wrote the one that you received, and I don't know what it contained. But I'm sorry for the mix-up. And I was just wondering, well, I was hoping that we could put it all behind us and forget about it?"
She took a step back in shock, "What?"
He looked at his feet, she was making Bellamy nervous, that was new. "It's just- uh. I don't want you to hate me. And I don't want this summer to be awkward," Clarke thought of Gina, and from the look on Bellamy's face, he did to, "well, more awkward, than it has to be. So, can we maybe just, start over? For olds time sake?" He gave her a shy smile, and he wouldn't quite meet her eyes fully. Damn him and his adorable self.
She shook her head slightly, "Yeah, fine. But, if we do this. We're starting over fully. Yes, I understand that Gina is here now. That you have someone else, but Octavia and I have always been your girls, and O still is. And I'm going to fight for my place back. I don't really want anything romantic, but you were my best friend, except for O. And we haven't talked in four fucking years and I'm gaining my spot back." She crossed her arms defiantly and looked to him, not expressing how she hoped her new spot would be in a romantic sense.
He was looking at her with an odd expression, almost as if he heard her unspoken words. But he nodded and said "Okay, Clarke. Whatever the hell you want." Then he finally released her arm and started backing away slowly before turning around fully and walking away.
BELLAMY POV
He was laying on his bed.
He didn't know how to react. He didn't want to lose Gina, but he knew that if Clarke started being his friend again, started to be around him and act like they used to, he knew he'd fall for her all over again.
Not that he'd ever gotten over her in the first place. But she'd broken his heart for a solid two weeks before he found his actual letter. And he hadn't let anyone have that amount of a hold over his heart since, no one except for Octavia. He hadn't even allowed Gina to have a hold on his heart. He hadn't said I love you yet.
She had, multiple times, and he would always nod or say 'you too' or something like that, but he'd never actually said the words. And he could see the disappointment in her eyes every time he didn't say it back.
It was one of the many arguments that they'd had, how he couldn't let her have his heart. How she knew that there was someone in his past that had broken him so that he couldn't trust again. He never said much in those fights, just sat there and took it. And when it was over, he thoroughly ravished her so she forgot why she was mad in the first place.
And he did love her. He really, really did. But it was different, he loved her like how you'd love a pet. But when he had loved Clarke, and admitted to himself he was in love with Clarke, it had been consuming. He thought of her constantly, and thought up numerous ways to tell her, and he just felt…
Full.
Full of life, full of love, full of happiness. And he felt more content than he had in his entire life. But, then he almost kissed her on that dock, but he got scared and was a prick and pissed her off. Then the letter mishap happened, and Finn's girlfriend showed up (the douche), then her father passed, it wasn't right. She was so full of emotion that when she got that horrible letter (Which Octavia had given to him to read. He HATED whoever wrote that.) it caused her to scream at him and say things he hadn't thought to be true. But when he went back and thought about it he could understand that she didn't like him in that way. Sure, she loved him like a brother, but… that's not what he had thought. He had been so sure, but, oh well.
And she had changed so much these past four years. She had changed from a child, a seventeen year old who hadn't finished filling out and maturing, into a beautiful, sexy, wonderful woman. She caught him staring at him and instead of smile and look away like a normal person, he did something that a man in a relationship shouldn't be caught doing. He lusted after her. Someone that wasn't his to lust after, he had another for that. But he had forgotten about her in that moment, even as she was under his arm, talking to some camper who had come to them asking questions. He was so scared for falling for her again, she had broken him the first time. Even if she thought it was his fault, and that he didn't love her.
He ran a hand over his face and got up, going to the bathroom to splash water on his face. He could be friends with Clarke Griffin, but he didn't know if he could not fall back in love with her along the way.
CLARKE POV
She ate dinner with Octavia and Lincoln and Jasper and Monty that night. She was a determined woman. Bellamy's confession opened her eyes to a lot of things, and she had a lot of things she wanted to accomplish this summer.
One, she wanted to figure out who'd written the letter that she'd gotten.
Two, she wanted to at the very least become best friends with Bellamy again, if not make him fall in love with her, but that could very well be postponed until next summer.
Three, she wanted to figure out what Bellamy had said in his letter that he'd actually written to her.
Four, she wanted to reattach with O, she missed her like hell.
And Five, she wanted to have the most kick-ass summer ever, she wanted to give these kids a summer they'd remember.
Because she knew that she would.
A/N: Sorry this took so long! I love you guys and stay tuned! Don't forget to leave a comment and like/fav!