"Hey, where were you at dinner last night?" Octavia asked her brother, who was conveniently standing right next to her as they both grabbed their breakfast from the side of the mess hall. "I wanted to ask you about the next competition."

"Octavia, I don't want to be a part of your competition thing. This is my last year here, and I'm trying to enjoy it," Bellamy stated in response.

Octavia blinked, surprised. She knew that he brother wasn't as competitive as she was, but he had never flat out opposed her ideas like that. "Alright, fine. I just am worried that Echo is planning something. I didn't see her like... at all yesterday. What if she's planning payback?"

"Sounds like that's you're problem, O," Bellamy replied, giving her a pointed look, "because you organized for someone to put a frog under her blankets while she was sleeping."

"Okay, but you can't really blame me, can you?" Octavia demanded. "You know how awful she is."

"Whatever I'll see you later." Her older brother was off to sit with his buddies, and the brunette shook her head and went toward where Raven and Clarke were sitting.

"Morning," Raven greeted as the younger girl sat down. The mechanic immediately noticed that something was clouding Octavia's thoughts. "What's up?"

"Bell is being weird," she replied, furrowing her eyebrows. "I feel like there's something that he isn't telling me. But I also feel like he has a point."

"About what?" Clarke asked, raising her eyebrows before taking another bite of her breakfast.

"This whole competition thing. Am I ridiculous for taking it so seriously?"

Raven shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, it's a little intense, but this is a competition oriented camp." The two brunettes looked to Clarke, who blinked and swallowed the food in her mouth.

"Don't ask me. I don't want a part in this competition thing," she muttered.

Raven smirked and rolled her eyes, and Octavia frowned. "Why is it that I feel like everyone is keeping things from me?"

"What are you talking about?" Raven asked, and Clarke immediately picked up on the tension rising around the other seventeen year old. She tried not to roll her eyes, because Raven couldn't be more obvious about hiding something from Octavia.

The younger girl groaned. "I'm talking about everything! There's always something that I don't know about, so what is it?"

Raven let out a puff of air, and looked to Clarke, who raised her eyebrows. It wasn't the blonde's place to say anything about Raven's crush on Octavia, so if the mechanic wanted to share that piece of information with Octavia, it was totally her call. The latter girl, though, was raised an expectant eyebrow and looking pointedly at Raven, who finally let out as sigh.

"Clarke is hooking up with Lexa."

Clarke nearly choked on her food, coughing loudly and abruptly before forcing herself to swallow. "Shut up, no I'm not!" she hissed, not sure where Lexa was in the mess hall, if she was there. "And who the fuck are you to tell anyone about anything I'm doing?"

"That's what I was laughing about before Octavia asked what I was hiding!" Raven exclaimed, which on one hand was a valid reason, but on the other, was totally not. "Because you don't wanna do the whole competition thing between our pod and Pod Six, because Lexa's in it."

"Would you shut up?" Clarke growled.

Octavia had begun laughing at their bickering, but by the time Raven finally just shook her head and went back to eating, she'd stopped the laughing. "Okay, but are you hooking up? Oh my gosh, that totally means that Echo's comment about Lexa being whipped by you was legit!"

"We're not 'hooking up'," Clarke snapped back, quite irked now. "Now can we drop this please?"

The younger girl looked to Raven. "So if they're not hooking up, what are they doing?"

"Sneaking off into the woods together during dinner and being all mushy around each other and K-I-S-S -"

"Raven!" Clarke exclaimed, absolutely exasperated now. "Seriously?"

"Fine, I'll stop," Raven gave in, though a smirk seemed to be permanently stuck on her face. Clarke knew that her face was flushed red, and she honestly felt like just leaving the room, but she knew that her friends were just that – her friends. Friends teased each other, and she shouldn't really be upset by it. Though, it was slightly disheartening that Clarke was Raven's confidant, but the latter wouldn't keep Clarke's personal stuff private from Octavia.

But the blonde also knew that Raven was trying to avoid telling Octavia about her crush on the brunette, and that was the only reason she was letting it slide. Otherwise, she might've been really seriously pissed.


Clarke managed to let it go pretty much completely by the time that Octavia was dragging both her and Raven down to the lake. She claimed that she was going to take the day off from being competitive, and see if maybe she was crazy for taking the summer camp so seriously. Honestly, Clarke wanted to tell her that the over-competitiveness was a bit much, and that she should tone it down, but she couldn't bring herself to say it to her friend. Instead, she decided that staying out of it as much as possible, unlike her previous direct involvement, would be better.

When they got down to the lake, they quickly stripped down to their bikinis and waded into the refreshing water. It was actually nice to have Octavia to hang out while she wasn't obsessing over something or another regarding camp. They all just talked and laughed, splashing each other and swimming around and just enjoying the time.

It was different, and it was nice.

When they got out of the water quite a while later, they stood along the edge of it at a slightly raised portion of the beach, to dry out in the sun and look at the lake.

"Hey," Octavia said softly, once they were standing there. "I wanna apologize to you guys. I tried to become like... good friends with both of you at the beginning of the summer a few weeks back. I feel like I've become a shitty one because of me being a crazy competitive bitch."

"Bitch might be a little too far," Clarke said, smiling at the brunette. "Thanks for apologizing, though. Honestly, you were forgiven anyway."

Raven nodded in agreement. "Yeah, O. You wouldn't be you if you weren't this crazy." A grin grew on the younger girl's face.

"You know, I've never made friends so quickly before at this place," she admitted. "You guys are pretty great."

"Right back at you," Clarke replied, laughing lightly.

Raven replied only with a quiet, "Yeah." Clarke caught the friend line, but she was pretty sure that Octavia was too oblivious of Raven's crush on her to deliberately put her in the friend zone.

Suddenly, two hands poked into Clarke's side, and the blonde let out a loud squeal. "Hey!" she screeched, already knowing who it was before she turned around. She heard Lexa's loud laughter before she turned around too. Octavia and Raven were also both laughing, because apparently, Clarke getting scared half to death was just hilarious to everyone.

"It never gets old," Lexa said, once her laughs were subsiding.

"It does, actually," Clarke muttered, crossing her arms, but unable to keep a small smile from her face. Maybe she didn't actually mind it much, because it was Lexa, who was practically a fucking angel.

"Whatcha doing?" Lexa questioned, looking at all three of the girls she was speaking to but smiling sweetly at the blonde.

"Nothing," Clarke answered, before either of her friends could say something that would keep her from abandoning them for Lexa. "Why?"

"You wanna do something?"

Raven coughed, pretending like she was trying to cover her words as she also said, "Chill with the eye-fucking."

Clarke immediately turned to face the brunette, her eyes narrowed. "Could you not?"

Raven started laughing, and the blonde abruptly pushed her off of the ledge and into the water, causing her giggles to turn into a screech. When the girl came out from under the murky lake water, she was glaring at the blonde. "Seriously?"

"You've had that coming all day," Clarke called back, her face probably a stark red still from the comment.

Octavia chuckled. "We'll see you later, Clarke." She smiled quickly at Lexa, and then hopped into the water toward Raven, who squealed and dived out of the way.

Clarke looked back to the brunette, who looked thoroughly amused with the entire situation. "Please excuse my friends," Clarke said, still able to feel the warmth in her face, "they're idiots."

"Doesn't bother me." Lexa grinned.

"You were saying something about doing something?"


"Uh, I don't think this is a good idea," Clarke muttered, looking at the swords laid out in front of her. "I'll probably cut my face off."

"Doubt it," Lexa replied. "Plus, I kinda like your face, so I'll make sure it doesn't come off. Deal?"

Clarke looked at the fencer with a raised eyebrow and a blush. "Alright. But I'm pretty sure I have no fencing ability."

"You don't need to learn all of the rules," Lexa reasoned, "but it's fun to do. I promise."

"I already agreed, you don't need to convince me anymore," Clarke replied, laughing lightly as the brunette's face blushed a little. "So. I literally have no idea how to do this."

"How about you start by picking up one of the swords?" Lexa suggested, a half smile across her face.

Clarke rolled her eyes, grabbing one of them at random and holding it out in front of her like it was going to kill her just by mere contact at the hilt. Lexa was clearly trying not to laugh, but the blonde really couldn't blame her.

"Okay, but... you need to hold it like..." She paused, gave up on trying to explain it, and just grabbed Clarke's hand, adjusting the sword in her grip. Clarke wasn't sure if it was bad that all she could focus on was Lexa's hand touching hers, and how she kind of wished they were doing something else instead of fencing.

They ended up spending the better part of an hour with the activity, though, because Lexa was determined to get Clarke to at least learn something. However, Clarke caught on quickly that Lexa was a hands-on teacher, and if she messed up, the brunette didn't hesitate to guide Clarke by touch. And yeah, maybe Clarke did learn a thing or two about fencing, but she didn't implement most of them. She was too focused on Lexa and not at all on the task at hand.

"Okay, maybe you are impossible," Lexa teased, once she had officially given up. "We can stop now. I know you'd probably rather be doing anything else."

"Not true," Clarke argued. "It wasn't too boring."

"So what was so bad about it?" Lexa asked. They'd both put their swords and things down by now, and the blonde took a step closer to the taller girl.

"Well," she said, "you kept trying to show me how to do shit. And you were touching me here..." Clarke touched Lexa's hand and wrist, "and here..." She touched her shoulders, "and here." She touched Lexa's hips. She paused her talking deliberately for a moment to hear Lexa's breath hitch slightly at their closeness, and the feeling of Clarke's hands on her. "It was a bit distracting."

"I guess I can see how that would be distracting," Lexa reasoned, her green eyes glued to blue ones. "I didn't do that intentionally."

Clarke smirked. "Sure you didn't."

"You calling me a liar?" Lexa asked, her hands suddenly touching the blonde's hips, and her arms snaking around her waist. Clarke didn't answer, though, because she couldn't handle not placing her lips on the brunette's. They were immediately absorbed into one another, Lexa dominating the kiss with her tongue purposefully. Clarke hummed contently against Lexa's mouth. It just felt right to be so close to her, to kiss her and hug her body close.

They broke out of the kiss after a few, long moments, but they didn't get much further from each other. "See," Lexa murmured, "I told you your face would be okay."

Clarke instantly smiled. "I guess you did take pretty good care not to let me cut it off."

"How could I kiss you if I let you cut it off?"

"So it was your plan all along to end this fencing thing in kissing?" Clarke asked, her eyebrow quirking up as she fell into Lexa's gaze.

"You got a problem with that?" Lexa asked, suddenly dipping her head and attaching her lips to Clarke's neck, getting a hum out of the blonde.

"Mm, no."

Lexa murmured against the blonde's smooth skin, "Good."


Clarke and Lexa were sitting on one of the benches in the back parts of the camp, just talking, about half an hour later, when a flustered Octavia was suddenly bounding over to them. "Hey! Have either of you seen Echo at all today?"

"I haven't seen her since yesterday," Lexa replied. "Like midday. I don't think she slept at the cabin, now that I think about it."

"I thought you were making today a stress free day, O?" Clarke asked, looking to her friend with concern.

"This isn't about competition. At first, I thought her being MIA was about it, but you know what I just found out from Lincoln?" Octavia sounded absolutely infuriated, so Clarke braced herself. "Apparently, Bellamy didn't sleep in his cabin last night either. And this morning after I saw him grabbing food, he faked heading over to his friends and then left the mess hall with his food."

"Oh god," Clarke muttered, trying not to roll her eyes.

"Do you really think I'm crazy?" Octavia demanded. "They're totally hooking up!"

"Octavia," Clarke interrupted, "you thought Raven and I were hooking up, so I think we both know that what you first suspect might not be exactly the truth."

"She thought you and Raven were hooking up?" Lexa asked. Clarke just nodded, because Octavia was starting to talk again.

"I'm serious, Clarke," Octavia snapped. "He wouldn't side with me against Echo this morning, and he skipped dinner last night, and so did Echo. What else would they be doing? They've low key been attracted to each other forever, anyway. I just don't understand why they suddenly went from hating each other to hooking up with each other."

"Maybe they grew up," Clarke suggested.

Octavia narrowed her eyes. "Screw you, Clarke, you're not that much older than me."

"I literally said nothing about that."

"Whatever, don't believe me. I'll prove it," the girl stated surely, before turning and leaving the way she'd come.

Clarke just shook her head when her friend was gone. "I don't understand." Lexa let out a laugh. "She's always obsessing over something. I thought this was supposed to be a break from high school."

"At least you only have a year left of high school," Lexa reasoned. "I have to live with drama like that for another two years."

"Good luck with that," Clarke said, raising her eyebrows slightly.

"I just hope all the shit that high school consists of is worth it in the end."

Clarke smiled. "I guess it depends on what you make the rest of your life out to be."

"I guess one day we'll find out then," Lexa said, amused as she smiled at the blonde, who returned the expression fondly. Honestly, looking to the future seemed much less necessary when she was with Lexa. For once during this summer, she was actually just enjoying the present.