Clementine Jenkins, was one of the most cordial girls at Mulberry Elementary. She had great qualities to be a leader and while she might not be the smartest, she was definitely the most resourceful. These characteristics got her recommendations from her past teachers that got her into the leadership program at the Lawrence Middle School. She was one of the prettiest girls in her school, with her shoulder length straight blond hair, dark brown eyes, and beach tan. She was one of Clarke's best friends, and she was worried about going to middle school while leaving him behind. She was a sixth grader and he was hardly a second grader, for her it was critical that he had an ally at Jessica's favorite tormenting location. Kaitlyn was a 4th grader, Austin was in 6th grade with her, and Benjamin was a 3rd grader, which meant her diminutive and shy friend wouldn't have anyone with him for a year. One of her major traits was her ability to observe and because of this, she was the first to find out something was wrong with her friend.
The first thing she noticed was his flinching, whenever Austin or Kaitlyn became heated, he would flinch and bite his bottom lip. The second thing was how his usual sassy comments started to decline, before he would come out of his shell with his cheeky replies to whatever one of their group said but those soon diminished until he would only make one if one of them gave him a funny look. He also began to dissociate, she didn't realize that at first, but when Miss Seabrooke, her old second grade who she now shared with Clarke asked her about it. She was told he stopped answering questions in class and he was purposefully putting wrong answers on tests. She was worried his stepdad was being too rough, Kaitlyn and Benjamin had reported to her that Mr. Weisberg was rugged and rough, her Clarke was more sensitive and that would be an issue. Her fears were proven right and it became clear that the situation was worse than she had originally thought when he showed up to school with a black eye, a swollen lip, a limp and missing teeth. She knew Jessica teased him relentlessly with her little gang of high class brats, but they hadn't gotten to the point of beating on Clarke physically to the point he lost teeth and received a limp. She was the one to call a meeting at Kaitlyn's house to talk about what they could do to help Clarke.
Austin was the last to arrive, he had football practice which his mom always made him shower right after. He was the last to meet Clarke, and wasn't nearly as close to him as Clementine. Clarke's ardent behavior towards books was the opposite to Austin's vehement feeling to sports. He was much louder and enthusiastic compared to his shorter friend's quiet and soft nature. While he may not completely relate to the dork, he was his friend nevertheless. He sauntered up the cement sidewalk to the red brick steps and knocked. Instantly he was greeted with the scamper of several pairs of feet running to the oak door accompanied with arguing of who would answer it. Once the door opened, he was greeted with the faces of four of Kaitlyn's cousins: Aaron, Mia, Clara, and Sebastian. He waved at them and smiled. "Is your cousin Katie here?" he asked. The group giggled and Mia nodded, the four year old took his hand and tugged him inside.
"She's in her room, it's the second door on the left up the stairs. Clementine and Benny are already up there." Aaron, the oldest of the lot at 9 replied pointing him up the stairs. Austin bobbed his head and headed to the room. He took a seat on the brown rug of the room and gave a two finger salute to Clementine, along with the salutation of 'captain'. He waved at Kaitlyn, then at Benjamin, and finally at the four cousins who were sitting in a cluster on the bed. He liked Kaitlyn's family, five of the nine kids were on Clarke's side and really only one of them really weren't since the other three were too young to understand what it meant to be on one set side.
Clementine sat on the chair of Kaitlyn's computer desk, when Austin arrived and acknowledged her she shook her head and smiled. "Anyways, thank you Benjamin, Kaitlyn, Austin, Abigail, Samuel, Diego, and Kiara for coming to this last minute meeting. I'm sure you've realized that Clarke hasn't been himself lately. He's been moodier, quieter, he keeps dissociating, which before you ask Kiara, is when he disconnecting from reality so it's like daydreaming. Last week he had that black eye and the limp. I think Baldric is abusing him. I requested this meeting to talk about what we can do to help him." she explained making sure to make eye contact with each member of their unofficial club. Benjamin, a russian boy with light brown hair and dark brown eyes spoke up, his russian accent somewhat thick, "Being one of the higher families... I can get my parents to see if they'll take them on vacation." he suggested. Clementine gestured to Abigail, the older girl who had a shoulder length bob dyed a deep purple. Abigail jotted the idea down in her dark green notebook, her bangs falling in front of her coffee colored orbs.
"What about getting Clarke to sleepover more? We can make some excuse. Get him to come to help babysit the little ones?" Diego, the boy about nine, who looked identical to Aaron with short dark hair, caramel skin, and green eyes.
"You are a little one." Kiara, the younger girl of about 13 giggled. "I like his idea though, our second cousins are coming to stay for a while too remember Katie? Plus Sammy and Abby are going to America for a while so we'll need help. Plus almost everyone here loves Clarke." she added.
"Austin, aren't you going to hockey camp soon? And I'm going to ice skating so Begonia needs a sitter." Clementine interjected.
"This could work, he can't get beat up if he's never home." Kaitlyn replied smiling. She braided her long hair into a braid before standing up. "I need to go ask my mom and all the aunts and uncles if it's okay for him to stay to babysit." she announced before jogging down the steps. Clementine leaned back in the black office chair with a grin. She pulled out her phone to text Clarke to let him know of his babysitting schedule before sending a message to her mom about needing pickup.
I think I'll make one of these with just descriptions of the current characters, would that be helpful?
Also thank you for reading!
