Okay, so this has taken forever. I really wanted to get Octavia in here, most of this was like the draft for the first chapter that I scrapped in exchange for a super happy story about domestic violence :) "lol I'm the worst" (That's what that smiley face is saying)
Anywho, tell me if you like it, and if you don't... Well, I'm already well aware that I can't write.
Also, I know nothing about foster care system beyond that it sucks. I know nothing about school system shit because I've been through too many. And I know nothing about like...I don't know, I don't know about plenty of things. Just a warning.

Walking in the front door, the house was silent. Not necessarily a bad sign, but probably not a good one.

His friends were gone, but his car was in the driveway so he was still home. She walked into the kitchen, praying that he just passed out.

"Where's your car?" She jumped at the sound of his voice. She turned to find him in his recliner, facing the window, holding a bottle of something.

She cleared her throat once her heart rate went down, "I left it at the library, Maya gave me a ride home."

"So you were out with Maya then?"

"Yes." The lie was clearly the wrong move.

He got up slowly and walked over. She could tell he'd been drinking, but he was not quite drunk. Just sober enough to be calculating in his movements. Sober enough to pin her to the wall with a hand around her throat.

"See, now I think you're lying to me... because I called Jasper and he didn't know where you were. I'm pretty sure he'd know if you were with his girlfriend."

"I was just at the library with her, it wasn't a big thing." Her words came out choked, not because he had a tight grip on her throat but because this was the first time she actually feared for her life.

"Why are you lying to me? What have I done to deserve that?" Plenty. Her thoughts snarled at him.

"I'm not ly- ah!" She cuts herself off when his fingers flex a little tighter.

"You're doing it again. I just don't-" He stops short when her phone makes a noise from inside her purse. "Well, now, is that Maya? Saying how much fun she had spending time with you? I bet you it isn't."

He removes his hand, letting her fall to her knees, to walk over and grab her phone.

He pulls it out and she watches his face harden.

"Who the fuck is 'Work Hubby'? And why did he 'have a great time tonight and hope to do it again soon'? Hmm?" She didn't say anything, just focusing on breathing, but she knew it was the wrong tactic almost immediately. He raised his voice, "Huh?! Clarke! I asked you, who-!"

"My coworker, Bellamy," She gasped, her voice raspy, "Jasper labeled him in my phone. He thought it was funny."

"Yeah, it's real funny. Hi-larious." He shook his head in disgust, "I knew we were struggling but I never thought you'd cheat on me, I never thought you'd go that far."

And I never thought you'd hurt me, but I guess we were both wrong.

"I'm not cheating-"

"I can fucking read, Clarke! I'm not blind!"

"We went to dinner, Finn. We had to talk about overcrowding in the classrooms. It was work related. I told you all of this last night." She was lying but they did talk about the overcrowding issue at the restaurant.

"I don't think you did." He spoke through gritted teeth, slamming her phone down on the granite counter-top, shattering the screen. He stomped over and grabbed her hair, pulling her up off her knees and with him as he walked towards the stairs. "And I'm fucking tired of you lying to me."

Finn dragged her up the stairs, into their room and threw her onto the ground.

"Why? Huh? Why would you do this?" He gave her swift kick in the stomach, making her curl in on herself.

"Answer me!" He screamed at her, but she couldn't. She could barely breathe.

She felt like her head was collapsing in on itself when her vision went black.

Clarke jolted up when she woke up, it's clearly the wrong move. Her vision begins to darken around the edges and her head feels like it's been smashed, reconstructed, and smashed again.

It's still dark outside, so she must have time to get ready for work.

She walked into the bathroom, slowly, as her ribs protested. She looked in the mirror and found a minor bruise under her right eye, but it was nothing some concealer wouldn't hide. Her torso was a completely different story.

Every muscle in her body resisted as she pulled her shirt over her head.

Her ribs were colored with reds, blues, purples, and yellows. She noticed her neck also had traces of purple in the shape of a hand.

Looks like today is a scarf day...fuck...

She looked at her reflection and wanted to cry, but no tears would come out. She was just tired at this point, no need for tears anymore.

Getting ready is a pain, literally. But when all is said and done, she looks normal. She used makeup on her throat too, but just in case, she'll keep her scarf on unless told otherwise.

Her day is beyond boring. Days like these are when she kind of wishes her kids were more troublesome.

She's quietly singing along to 'New Rules' by Dua Lipa when someone knocks on her door.

"Clarke?" It's Bellamy. The fact that her heart-rate spikes up in fear, but she simultaneously feels safe is all kinds of concerning that she can go over later.

"Yeah, what's up?"

"Just making sure you're okay, you had to leave really fast last night."

She gives him a shy smile, "Yeah, I'm good. Promise." She lied through her teeth.

He nodded. Just as he was about to say something else, Jasper appeared behind him.

"Uh, Clarke? Oh- Sorry, are you busy?"

The blonde looked at Bellamy.

"No. We can talk later." Clarke gave a tight smile to Bellamy as he left.

She looked back to Jasper with an exasperated expression.

"I have a new student wondering what she's supposed to do. She asked if she could talk to 'someone more in charge'..." he tried to not act offended.

"Uh, sure send her in." She moved somethings on her desk and pushed her glasses back up her nose.

The girl didn't bother knocking, she just opened the door and walked in. She was wearing black ripped skinny jeans with chains, a black band tee, and black combat boots. Her dark brown hair was pulled back into a high ponytail, but she still had quite a bit on it down, parted on the right but covering the left side on her face. Her makeup wasn't heavy, but it was still noticeable. She dropped her bag to the floor with a thud, the contents spilling on the floor. Based on the items in her bag, she either didn't expect to be here, didn't care if she had her supplies, or she just didn't want to be here.

"Hi, I'm the Assistant Principal, Clarke Griffin, but you can call me Ms. Griffin." She politely introduced herself, just as she did with any other student. However, the girl stayed silent. "Alright, a couple of questions I do need answers to. Easy one first, what's your name?"

She stayed silent staring at her lap.

"Is your parent or guardian here?" The girl looked up, shook her head and went back to looking at her lap.

"Alright, how about this, "Clarke sighed verbally as she took off her glasses. She closed her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose, "If you tell me all the things I actually need to know, you can stay in here all day."

When she reopened them the girl was looking at her weird. She finally spoke, "Why would you do that?"

"Look, you're new here right?" the girl nodded. "Alright, well as stupid as it sounds, I'm going to be your friend here, okay?" She looked at the blonde weird again. "I understand what it's like being the new kid, so I'd like to help out as much as I can, okay?" The girl nodded her head, and without letting on too much, looked a bit happy.

"So, let's go back. What's your name?"

"Octavia Blake." Clarke looked her over real quick noting that, while she and Mr. Blake did have a few similarities, Blake was a common enough last name and dismissed the thought while she typed the name into the system. Nothing came up except the name of her counselor. "Uh…Alright, I have your class schedule printing out and funny enough, your counselor for the rest of your time here will be Mr. Blake."

Octavia looked rather alarmed at that.

"Are you okay?" Clarke asked.

She was zoned out, "Huh? Yeah, just funny, like you said." she said with a forced laugh.

"Ah, speak of the devil." Clarke said noticing the counselor walking by her office.

Octavia turned slightly to see him, then slouched down in the chair, covering her face with her hair. Clarke raised an eyebrow at the girl as Mr. Blake knocked, he stuck his head in to ask, "Hey, about these- oh, sorry, are you in the middle of something?"

Clarke was wondering the same thing. She looked at the girl who seemed to be trying to hide her face from the man. "Uh, yes. But just...I'll just come down to your office in a minute." He nodded his head and shut the door. She looked back at Octavia, "Are you sure you're okay?"

She left hair covering her face and didn't say anything.

"Ok, here." She said standing to shut the windows in her office, "I will be right back, just stay in here and chill. I'll even lock the door so no one else in the office can bug you."

The small brunette started to sit upright again as Clarke closed the door. She went to Bellamy's office down the hall, knocking and poking her head in. "Yeah what's up?"

He smiled at her entrance. "Hey, come in, come in. Sit down."

She rolled her eyes at his weird hospitality. "What do you want Bellamy? I have a new kid in my office."

"I just wanted to talk to you about these class size reports, we can't just move kids because we don't have the room."

"Well, what do you suggest we do? The classes are overcrowded. The teachers can't help all of the kids, there's too many. How are we supposed to fix it?"

When she looked at him, she saw that he didn't want to move the kids, but he didn't exactly have a solution to fix it.

"Look, I'm sorry, I know kids don't want to move, they have roots here now. But we just don't have enough room, I doubt the girl in my office will even be able to stay, and I feel even worse about that." He looked at her quizzically. "I pulled up her name in the system, she has an address marked down but, it's not permanent. She in foster care. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to her about it. Because the address she has is out of state, and when she got here she didn't have her foster parent or guardian with her. It's like someone just dropped her off here and told her to make it on her own."

He ran a hand over his face, "Well who's her counselor, they should be dealing with a social worker about this." She looked at him with a straight face. "Oh, yay. Well, can I talk to her? We can try to work this out?"

"Uh..."

"What?"

"I don't know. When you walked by she seemed to try her damnedest to not be seen by you."

"What? Why?"

"Well, I don't know, now do I? So I'll go talk to her and try to see if she'll come down and talk to you." He nodded and gestured at the door as she rose from her chair. When she got back to her office, the girl was on her computer.

"Excuse you." She was more than angry. She let this girl stay in her office unattended to try and be more comfortable, and she ends up going on her personal computer.

This is what I get for trying to be nice I suppose.

"Huh?" She said looking at her, "Oh, sorry. I got bored. You suck at this game."

"Ok, well go." she nudged her back into the chair on the opposite side of the desk. "Now I just talked to your counselor-"

"Oh God, did he flip out?"

"What? He'd like to know if you would talk to him about getting a social worker involved. Unfortunately, we have some overcrowding in the classes right now."

She started to sink back into the chair.

"Is there a problem with Mr. Blake? Or will you just not speak with any of the counselors?" Clarke didn't mean to sound so rude, but she needed to get answers to all the questions.

"Look- Here's the thing- I just- ugh! Look, I'm sure you already know I'm in foster care. But this morning my foster mom drove me to this school, which I am not registered at, and said my "brother worked here, so I should be his problem, not hers". And- I don't know! I do not know what to do. What do I do? Help me!"

At the exact same moment, Bellamy walked in to hand Clarke the transcripts for the students who had to be moved.

"Sorry to interrupt again, but I need- What the- Octavia?"

"You know her?"

"Yeah, she's my little sister, I haven't seen her in years..."

She stayed silent, sinking back into the chair again. "Hiya..."

After an explanation of all that happened, Octavia was now sitting in Bellamy's office and Bellamy was pleading with Clarke trying to get her enrolled.

"Please Clarke, I haven't seen her in forever, and now I have to try and get the system to let her live with me. Why can't she just fit into the classes?"

"Do you not remember our conversation earlier on why students are moving? We. Don't. Have. The. Room."

"She just a freshman, those classes are always overcrowded anyway. I need her to stay."

"I can't- it's not that simple...I can't just-" She looked in his face, seeing a silent plea, she let out a long sigh. "I'll talk to the principal. It's the best I can do. But no promises."

She could see a glint of hope in his eyes.

Clarke really didn't like the way that look made her feel; fuzzy and warm.