A/N: Hey guys, it's Brittany. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Growing Up. It's been fun for me to go back and explore these characters in a new way. I'm having fun and I hope you are too.

Disclaimer: The story is mine, the characters are not and any similarities to the book or TV Show are not claimed by me.

I truly am interested in your opinions. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but please remember I am a human being too and I do make mistakes.

Thanks again for reading my story, here's chapter two.

Chapter 2:

- Octavia –

It's probably about 5 in the morning and I'm still wide awake. I hear Clarke's haggard breathing from across the room. She's having a nightmare. I wish I knew her well enough to feel comfortable in waking her up. Instead, I continue to stare out the window. Our window faces the South and it overlooks a greenspace. It's quite beautiful. It's almost dawn, and I can see the sky slowly becoming brighter as the sun rises.

I've always been plagued by insomnia, ever since I was a little girl. I would be kept up by my father yelling at my mom. It was always like that when he was drinking. He would become abusive, mostly verbally, but sometimes he would hit mom. On those nights, Bell would always come into my room and make sure I was okay and he usually fell asleep there. I remember one night was particularly bad and my father came into my room, mom was screaming at him to stop, but he came in and found Bellamy standing in front of my bed. Mom looked relieved to see him there, but it just enraged my father further. He hit Bell over and over and over again, until he was unconscious.

It was utterly terrifying. But that was the last night I ever saw my father.

Bellamy had always been my protector and I was always his, whenever he got into fights, I was the one who cleaned him up. Whenever he was sick, I took care of him. We were a team, Bell and I.

But something feels different now. I'm in this unfamiliar place and he's so comfortable here. He has friends, he has traditions and he's known all around campus. And I'm not. Back home, we had always been a package deal. Everyone knew that if you became friends with Bellamy, I would come along. If you became friends with me, Bell would be there. That's not the case anymore.

Especially with Clarke. I'm not saying Clarke and I are going to become best friends, but it's a good possibility. I laugh, remembering last night. "Rage quit" I mutter softly to myself, shaking my head at our stupidity. It was fun, but stupid fun.

I'm not stupid. I know that Clarke is extremely well off. She drives a BMW convertible for God's sake. That car is worth more than my house. But, knowing that, I still can't help but sense that her family might be just as broken as ours, which is really quite tragic. But what's that saying? Money doesn't buy happiness. But it's sure as hell more comfortable to cry alone in a BMW than it is on a bicycle.

I look back at the subject of my thoughts. She's obviously still having her nightmare. Her nose is scrunched up and her eyelids are fluttering like crazy. Again, I feel the urge to wake her up. I don't know what is stopping me. Is it the fact that I'm almost scared to get close to her because of what it would me in my relationship with my brother? Or is it simply that I don't know her well enough and I don't want to scare her off. Damn, this is hard. Are all life decisions this hard?

I think back to when I was little and Bell would comfort me when I was scared. He would hold me as I cried and made everything seem okay. Does she have an older brother who comforted her when she was scared? Or maybe she is the older sibling, coming in and making everything okay again. I laugh softly, because even thinking about Bellamy and Clarke in the same type of situation is funny. I can't even begin to imagine what happened that could make these two amazingly nice and awesome people hate each other with such passion.

I don't have much time to think on the subject because at that exact moment a piercing sound comes from Clarke's phone. "Fuck!" I scream, startled out of my wits. Clarke bolts straight upright, blearily rubs her eyes.

"Sorry if I woke you up," Then she's looking, confused between me, sitting on the window sill, and my bed. "You couldn't sleep?" She asks me.

"Not really. New place. New mattress. Have you noticed how soft they are?" I laugh nervously.

"You could've woken me up." She states matter of factly, as she gets out of bed and starts collecting things to start her morning. "I would've sat with you."

Clarke has this funny way of making all your problems seem really small. I don't mean that in a bad way. She's the kind of person who just makes everything seem easier than it really is. I respect that about her, about anyone, if we're being technical here.

"It's fine. I've always had insomnia, it's just extra rough being in a new place. My sleep schedule will probably once I get used to the room and campus." And you, I don't add. I've never had to share a room with anyone, other than the occasional sleepover. Those only lasted one night. This will last 9 months. I haven't told anyone about how nervous I was to have a roommate for college. Not even Bell knows the full extent, because obviously I couldn't hide all of my nervousness from him. He knows me better than anyone. I'm not too worried about Clarke, though. So far, she's been a great roommate. "Anyway, why such an early alarm? You do realize it's only 5:30 in the morning, right?"

"Tell that to my dance instructor." The weariness in her voice is being overpowered by irritation. "6 am workouts 6 days a week, with practices at 7pm 4 days a week." She sighed. "I'm pulling for Captain this year, so that maybe I can work on rescheduling workouts. They kill the team." Clarke glances down at her watch, "Shoot, I'm going to be late. I can meet you back here at 7:30, if you want, for breakfast?" She's halfway out the door now.

"Sure, I'll be here." I give a halfhearted wave as she rushes out the door.

I'm finishing some of the organizing that I didn't do yesterday when there's a knock on my door. I open it to find a young woman I don't recognize. She wasn't a part of the group last night and they didn't say they were missing anyone. She was stunning, though, in a rough cut, kind of way. She looked like she could punch through a wall and make the wall cry.

"Is Clarke here?" She asked, her tone clipped.

I shook my head. "She has dance or something. Do you want me to tell her you stopped by?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Tell her that Raven really wants to talk to her. It's urgent." With that, Raven turned on her heel and walked away down the hallway. That was weird, I thought to myself.

About five minutes after Raven leaves, I get a text from Clarke saying she's on her way back to the dorm for breakfast. Then it hit me. Last night, Clarke mentioned a Raven. I think she said that she was her roommate last year and that— my thoughts stopped dead. Raven was Finn's ex-girlfriend. The same Finn who we rage quit last night. Oh God. Is Raven pissed that we did that? Is she going to hurt us? Oh crap. What did I do? What did we do?

"Crap, crap, crap…" I sitting on my bed, muttering to myself when Clarke walks in. She talking about breakfast options, but she takes one look at me and falls silent, eyebrows knit together. She walks over and sits on my bed and puts an arm around me.

"What's wrong, O?" She asks, I can hear the concern in her voice. "You can tell me, it's okay."

I tell her about Raven showing up and about my concerns about Finn and that she's going to murder us in our sleep. After I'm done, and I'm looking up at Clarke, waiting for her to confirm or deny that any of this will or will not happen, she does something I didn't see coming.

She laughs. She laughs and hugs me closer. "O, Raven is one of my best friends. Yeah, we had a tense couple of months after the Finn incident, but we're still close. Did you really think she was going to beat you up?" Clarke laughed again when I nodded. "Raven Reis might be an intimidating person, but she wouldn't hurt a fly. Unless that fly had a penis and was a dick. Then she might hurt the fly." I busted out laughing at that. "You good?"

"Yeah, I'm good. I guess I'm just not used to college life yet." I sigh. "I come from a neighborhood where you assume everyone wants to hurt you. Because they most likely are." Clarke nods with understanding.

"Would you mind if I invited Raven to breakfast?" She asks. "It would be nice to see her again, and I feel like you should get to know her. She's pretty awesome."

I hesitate. As absolutely amazing as last night was, it would be nice to get to know Clarke as Clarke and not Clarke with all these other people around. I have no idea where she's from, or what her parents are like or anything else. I also don't want to be a third wheel as Clarke catches up with her old roommate. I can tell that Clarke could sense my hesitation. I didn't want her to think less of me since she was really nice.

"We don't have to," She said, not offended at all. "I can catch up with her at lunch or something." She looked slightly upset, but the look was gone in an instant. She isn't the kind of girl to show weakness. I start to feel bad. I don't want to stand between Clarke and her friends, but I don't really know anyone else and I don't know how comfortable I am around Raven.

The silence that follows is deafening, and I realize what a brat I'm being. "You can invite her." I say, shyly. "I mean, if you really want to." Clarke starts to brush it off, but I insist. "You want to hang out with your friend. That's completely understandable." I can tell that Clarke isn't completely sold that I want to do this, and honestly I'm not sure why I'm pushing it. I don't understand it and I'm probably not showing a lot of confidence, either.

"Are you sure?" She asks me. "I don't want to do anything that makes you uncomfortable."

I think for a moment, then say "Of course I'm sure. Now what did you say was for breakfast?

"By this time she's literally spewing chocolate milk out her nose" I'm barely containing my laughter at this point of Raven's story. "I'm trying to keep a straight face since I'm standing in front of the Dean of Students of the entire university. And here's Clarke with chocolate milk all over her. I'm composed and collected and professional. Two weeks later, the two of us run into him again. Guess who he remembers. I'll give you a hint," Clarke giggles at this. "It wasn't me, I'll tell you that much." Raven didn't sound upset about it, more proud instead.

"Wow." That's all I could manage. Over the course of the past hour, Raven and Clarke had been telling me stories of their freshman year and they are honestly pretty remarkable. I lean back in my chair and rub my stomach. "I am so stuffed full of food, right now."

"Oh believe me," Raven laughs. "As good as the food tastes now, you'll be tired of it by the end of the year."

"I can't look at baked beans without wincing." Clarke added.

"She ate baked beans at least twice a day for five months." Raven clarified when I looked confused. "She really liked baked beans and now she won't even look at them." She laughed again, "It's hilarious."

"Yeah, I'm sure it was positively riveting." A voice said behind me and I saw Clarke's face fall so fast, I didn't think it was humanly possible. I turned around, ready to rip my brother a new one when he said "I need to talk to O." He sounded harsh, but his voice had an edge to it that I'd never heard before. I was a little worried, if I was being honest. I spared Clarke a parting glance. She waved me off, but she looked like she was going to explode with anger.

"What is it?" I ask when Bellamy pulls me off to the side of the dining center. "I would ask if your cat died, but I know you don't have a cat." I laugh at my own joke, but he doesn't even crack a smile, which is so unlike him.

"Octavia," Now I know it's serious, "Why the hell are you getting so chummy with Clarke and Goth girl?" The anger in his voice scared me. I mean I've seen him this angry, I just don't think he'd ever directed that anger at me. I cross my arms, prepared for a fight.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I could tell that my voice was louder than it probably should have been, but I was angry.

"It means that they're not good for you. They're from a different world than us. They don't understand what it's like to be on the bottom." He runs a hand through his hair, successfully messing it up. He takes a deep breath and I raise my eyebrows at him, waiting for a valid excuse. "Don't look at me like that, O." I just glare at him. "I can't explain it. I just don't want you to hang out with them. You'll thank me later."

I take a moment to consider my thoughts before I speak. I don't want to speak rashly, like my brother is fond of doing. "I honestly don't understand why their being different is a bad thing. You're friends are different and yet you still hang out with them. And they're nice to me. Unlike your friends."

"You don't know Clarke like I do." He said harshly. "You don't know the stories that are told about her. And what happened with Goth girl's boyfriend? People are still talking about that." Bell looked me directly in the eyes. "Clarke is not the saint you make her out to be. She's nasty and cruel and spoiled. She's not the girl next door. She's not the good girl. She's someone you should stay away from."

"She may not be a saint. But neither am I. She may be all those things, but she's not hiding herself from me. She's never pretended to be perfect. And she isn't. I trust her, even though I only met her yesterday." I sighed. "Believe me, I'm not ignoring your warnings. I'm just not going to outright give up on this opportunity to make a friend because you don't want me to." I pinned him with my stare. "Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm not choosing sides, unless you push me to. Don't make me chose, because you may not like my choice." I didn't even wait for his response before turning on my heels and going back to Raven and Clarke and finishing my breakfast.

A/N: Octavia is surprisingly hard to write for. She's such a complex character and she's stuck in a hard spot. I don't know how often I'll write from her POV, it'll probably be mostly Clarke with a few Bellamy thrown in there.

So I was completely ignoring doing my Chemistry and Psychology homework because I was totally on a roll with this chapter. I'm sorry it's taken me this long to post chapter two. I've been busy moving in to college and acclimating to a new environment.

As always, I want to hear from you. Let me know what you think of the chapter. You're opinions matter to me.

Thanks, Brittany.