Chapter 1: December 23

Clarke Griffin was not a morning person.

This morning, she woke to the sound of her alarm going off at 7:00. A groan fell from her lips as she slams her hand down on the snooze button, not even bothering to open her eyes to look at the time before rolling over and curling herself back into her blankets. It wasn't until fifteen minutes later that she decided to roll herself out of bed and face the rest of the world, despite her longing to just cuddle up in her bed and sleep until the new year.

It was the day before Christmas Eve and the last day of the work week for Clarke before she had the long weekend to go off to her parents' house to celebrate the holidays. 'Good grief,' she thought as her bare feet made contact with the cold tiles that covered the floor of her bathroom. She made quick work of fixing up her hair to make herself look presentable before heading back out to the main area of her studio apartment.

She drowsily tore open the curtains to let the light shine in and squinted her eyes at the bright sunlight. This was a day just like all the rest. Clarke would wake up, get dressed, go to work, then come home and sleep – rinse and repeat.

As Clarke was just finishing up getting dressed, her phone rings from its place on the counter in the kitchen and she saunters out of her bedroom to answer it.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Clarke! It's your dad."

"Hey dad," she answered.

"Your mother and I are up at the cabin right now, making sure that everything is in order. You have directions to get up here, right?" her father, Jake, asks and Clarke hears her mother muttering something to her father in the background.

"I do," Clarke confirms.

"Well, your mother just wanted to make sure that you were still bringing Finn. She's making up seating arrangements for dinner and wanted to double check with you. You know how she can get."

Clarke heard her mother make an unintelligible comment to her father.

"Yes, I'm still bringing Finn."

"Okey doke. She also wanted me to make sure that you're here by six o'clock. Sharp."

"Alright, alright. I've got it. Six o'clock."

"Your mother is really excited to meet Finn, I am too." Another shout directed at the man on the other end of the line in the background. "Your mother wants me to ask if you think he could be the one?"

"I don't know," Clarke answers honestly before hearing her mother sigh on the other end of the phone. "Can we not talk about this right now, I've got to get ready for that interview down at the hospital that Mom set up and if I don't leave soon, I'm going to be late!"

"Alright, see you soon kiddo," Jake chuckles before she disconnects the call.

She quickly finishes getting ready before she grabs her phone and wallet, throwing them into her bag, and then grabs her keys and locks the door before heading outside into the cold.

{Faking it} - {Faking it} - {Faking it}

When she arrives at the hospital, its 8:37 and she was supposed to be here at 8:30. Clarke wasn't typically one to be late to things. Maybe the stress of the upcoming holiday was finally getting to her and totally frying her brain. She wasn't sure how she was going to survive the weekend.

"Excuse me," she says the receptionist at the front desk. "I'm Clarke Griffin. I'm here for an interview with Thelonious Jaha."

"You're late," the woman behind the desk sneers.

"I know I'm a little bit late but my parents and Mr. Jaha are neighbors and my mom set up this appointment so it's important that I see him.

"No, I can't let you in. If it was so important, you should have showed up on time. He's in an interview with his next appointment."

Angry tears formed on the brims of Clarke's eyes. "I can't miss this interview!" she tells the woman sternly. She looks over at the solid window door to Jaha's office, which was a couple rooms down the hall from her current position. An idea forms in her head as her eyes dart from the door to the secretary and back to the door a couple of times before the woman in front of her finally catches on.

"Don't even think about it."

The woman barely even spits out her last word before Clarke darts for the office door, pounding on the glass to get the attention of the older, dark-skinned man inside. When the man saw her, he moved to pull the shade that covered the door and Clarke sank to the floor. 'I thought maybe just one time I could actually have things go my way,' she thought.

AN: Took me longer than I thought to get this posted and I'm super sorry for making you all wait. I wasn't really sure how I felt about this chapter so I looked over it a few times before finally deciding to post it. Thanks to the lovely elvenprincess21 for looking it over, you're amazing! If you haven't read any of her work before, you should go and read her series of one shots and check out our co-written OC story that we're working on. Thanks!

- Mal