guys…Guys - that mid-season finale... Just… Woah. Shocking to the core. Man I love these writers and gosh I hope this show isn't cancelled. Also, my apologies for the late update, I don't even have a good excuse. I've been binge watching Hart of Dixie – I'm halfway through season 3 (more or less).

~o.O.o~

Clarke smiled when she saw Finn. She'd been keeping herself happy by talking to Tahlia and Glass for the last little while but she'd eventually left the main group to look for Finn because she hadn't seen him yet. She didn't have her phone to text about her arrival either, so she was pleased to see him now.

She made a beeline for him, and as she moved into his line of sight his face lit. He was pleased to see her – but then he always was. Clarke knew the Finn loved her – he'd never expressly said it but he'd hinted at those three little words more than once. She suspected the reason he hadn't said anything to her was because he didn't know how she would react. Clarke didn't blame him for that – she didn't even know she would react.

"Hey Finn," Clarke yelled over the music which seemed to be loudest where they were. Finn leaned forward and kissed her hello.

"Hey Clarke, I missed you," he said after breaking away.

"Hey Clarke," Octavia said over Finn's shoulder. Clarke was taken aback for a moment by Octavia's sudden appearance but she smiled.

"Hi Octavia, thanks for finding him,"

"Anytime," Octavia replied with a smile. "I'm going to find some of my friends – did you want me to introduce you?" Octavia was leaning closer so they could hear each other.

"Maybe later?" Clarke asked. She wanted to meet Octavia's friends, sort of, but she wanted to spend some time with the boyfriend she had just been reunited with. Octavia grinned and shook her head.

"You can make a good impression on Finn anytime of the week, but the best time to make a good impression on my lot is when they're drunk. They think just about anything is great."

"Gee, thanks," Clarke couldn't help being a little bit offended. Octavia shrugged, she wasn't the type to apologize for saying the truth. Clarke wasn't cool, at least not in the normal sense.

"Suck it up," Octavia grabbed Clarke's hand, whispered something in Finn's ear that Clarke didn't hear and before the blonde knew what was happening she was being pulled from Finn's side into the hubbub.

"This is Monroe," Octavia introduced Clarke to a friend, "She loves drinking games."

Clarke could see that. The girl had been pulled away from a ping-pong table briefly for the introduction. It seemed a group of people were playing Beer Pong. Monroe was a girl that Clarke knew from school but had never spoken too. The blonde didn't know much about Monroe except that she was in Octavia's group, but now as the three of them stood in front of the ping-pong table Clarke couldn't help but think maybe she should be a little more social this year. If Octavia, who over the last couple of the hours had seemed slightly sensible, liked these people then they couldn't be too bad.

"Hi Clarke," Monroe said politely before turning back to the table because it was her turn.

Monroe concentrated, as much as possible while inebriated, and bounced the ping-pong ball straight into a cup on the table.

"Bam Bitach!" Monroe yelled in delight as her opponent backed out. Monroe performed a drunken victory dance, which elicited a chuckle from Octavia.

"Is anyone else up for a challenge?" Monroe spun and looked at the crowd, and feeling a surge of bravery Clarke stepped forward before anyone else could.

"I'll give it a go," she smiled.

The room gave a collective 'Oooooh' and shouts, giggles and laugher followed quickly. Octavia raised an eyebrow at Clarke, clearly thinking it wasn't the best idea but interested to see the results of the upcoming battle.

Monroe grinned at Clarke and handed her the ping-pong ball.

"The aim is to bounce the ball on the table and get it into one of the cups on the second bounce. If you miss, you drink. If you land in a cup, I drink."

Clarke nodded, happy not give away the fact that she had played this game many times with Lincoln, and her own friends. Lincoln had wanted someone to practice with and Clarke had been interested enough to play with him.

"You can go first," Monroe offered shooting Octavia a sly smile. Clearly both girls thought Clarke was going to be a push over. Clarke smiled to herself; she was going to have fun proving them wrong.

"Thanks," she said and approached the table. The onlookers fell silent for a moment while she took stock of the cups on the table. Clarke picked one of the larger ones and bounced the ping-pong ball neatly into the cup.

There was a chorus of surprised voices as the ball landed. Monroe looked impressed, though not quite as impressed as Octavia.

"What was that about drinking?" Clarke raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"That's some impressive sass you've got girl," Octavia spoke up and Clarke turned to face her while Monroe fetched her drink, "Would you mind swapping opponents?"

"Sure, if you think you can take me," Clarke replied. She suspected that the couple of drinks she'd had earlier with her group had made her a little tipsy which was making her a little more sassy than she normally was but who cared. She was having fun.

"Oh that's it," Octavia walked up to the table much to the delight of onlookers. There were some catcalls from the crowd, which she ignored. Clarke noticed Finn and Tahlia appear on the other side of the room and she waved them over.

"What? You have your supporters," Clarke said in reply to a look Octavia gave her. Octavia shrugged and said "They can't help you now,"

"Who said I needed help?" Clarke responded, noticing her friend Tahlia's smile. Tahlia knew how skilled Clarke was at this game, even tipsy Clarke was one coordinated girl.

Octavia took the ping-pong ball that Monroe now had and took up the challenge. It was a hole-in-one when she bounced the ball. She was good, Clarke acknowledged.

"Come on Clarke, you can beat her," Tahlia called from the sidelines. It was nice to have a supporter Clarke thought as she lined her next shot, especially since everyone else seemed to be cheering for Octavia.

The two girls continued their game for at least another half an hour, until finally they were both missing their shots - in part because they were now rather drunk, and in part because they were both in fits of giggles. Clarke couldn't remember what had caused her to start laughing, but Octavia had followed suit and now they were both holding their sides in pain. A couple of boys kicked them off when the two girls didn't look like they were going to continue.

Finn led Clarke to a couch while Monroe, who had stayed to watch, led Octavia.

"I'll get you some water, I'd hate for you to have a killer headache tomorrow," Finn smiled down at his girlfriend. "You stay here, I'll be back in a moment."

"Okaay," Clarke whined a little.

"Hey Clarke, I have to go now – my ride is with Luke and Glass and they're heading off. They just sent me a text. Will you be alright?" Tahlia looked a little sad. She was a good friend, Clarke thought.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Hope you get home safe - don't let Luke drive if he's been drinking," Clarke warned, she didn't want her friend getting hurt.

Tahlia said a polite goodbye to Octavia and Monroe and then left.

"Who'd have thought Clarke Griffin could be fun?" Monroe grinned at the girl sitting in the sofa.

"Finn did," Clarke pointed out. Octavia looked like she was about to say something when Finn appeared, water in hand.

"Thanks Finn," Clarke smiled.

A couple more of Octavia's friends drifted over, and Clarke was promptly introduced to them.

"This is John Murphy," Octavia pointed out one of the older boys, "He's good friends with Bellamy and Miller."

Clarke smiled politely, she'd heard about John Murphy from Finn. The two of them were semi-friends. They didn't spend a whole lot of time together but when they did the two of them appeared to have fun. Finn was one of the few people Murphy spent time around when he wasn't drunk. He wasn't a bad guy; he just wasn't… warm and fluffy.

"This here is Roma, she's Monroe's cousin." Octavia gestured to the girl who had approached, "and this is Myles – who I think you may have met."

"Hi Myles," Clarke smiled a proper smile and waved at the boy. He wasn't her favourite person in her grade but he was nice. He spent a fair bit of time with Sterling, which was how Clarke had met him.

The group chatted for a several minutes until suddenly the music cut out. Everyone looked around, surprised by the lack of music. It didn't take long for the reason to reveal itself.

"If everyone isn't out of the house in five minutes, I 'm calling the police," yelled an adult voice, an angry adult voice.

Finn suddenly looked horrified. Clarke looked over at Octavia and the two girls exchanged an equally horrified chuckle.

Octavia knew whom the voice belonged to since she had lived next to Finn for such a long time, and Clarke knew because she was Finns' girlfriend.

"It's my dad!" Finn said to the people in the group.

"Bye O," John Murphy gave Octavia a hand out of the chair and a hug before bolting for the door – joining the mass exodus. Clarke decided that she didn't want to stick around for this argument.

"They weren't supposed to be back until this Friday!" Finn said to Clarke.

"Sucks to be you then," Octavia grabbed Clarke's hand and dragged her towards the door.

"Bye Finn, talk later," Clarke waved before turning her attention on getting out the door without being seen by Finn's parents.

"I don't want to get caught!" Clarke giggled to Octavia – still feeling the effects of her Beer Pong. They managed to make their escape without being seen by Finn's parents by hiding amongst the crowd.

"He is going to be in so much trouble!" Clarke said once they were outside, a little worried for her boyfriend.

"He'll be fine, come on, lets go stand over here," Octavia pulled Clarke to the front of the house next door.

"Is this where you used to live?" Clarke asked looking at the house.

"No, it's the house on the other side. I didn't want to stand there, I thought I might accidentally try to go inside," Octavia answered. Clarke could understand that, she missed her old house too. After all, they had only moved that morning.

"I like you, but I think I'm going to miss it just being my family," Clarke said, over-sharing a little more than she might in a sober state.

"Yeah, me too," Octavia sighed. "It's good for Bellamy though, it means that he doesn't have to look after us as much. Now he can have more time with his friends and to study,"

"Did he have to do that often? Look after you I mean," Clarke wondered.

"Yeah, Mum has to travel sometimes, and she's always working late. As soon as Bell could drive he was driving us around. Mum doesn't earn heaps of money either. We're not poor but we're definitely not as rich as you guys, so it's nice that Bellamy and Mum don't have to work as hard now. I know Raven and Jasper secretly hope that they'll see more of Mum now."

Clarke thought about this for a moment.

"I'm glad that at least something good can come out of our living together," Clarke smiled at Octavia. "Just so long as you don't hook up with Lincoln, I think we might all eventually learn to get along."

Octavia looked mildly affronted.

"Are you telling me I can't hook up with someone?"

"Yeah, I suppose so," Clarke responded and Octavia frowned, clearly ready to argue. Clarke sighed. She didn't want to argue with Octavia because they had only just started to build a friendship. "Can you blame me? He's my brother, how would you feel if I started hooking up with Bellamy?"

Octavia burst out laughing, any anger she may have been feeling seemed to vanish.

"You and Bellamy? I seriously doubt that would ever happen,"

"I doubt it too," Clarke agreed. Bellamy Blake may be good-looking, but a romantic relationship between the two of them was… well doubtful. "That's not my point though, wouldn't you feel weird if he and I started hooking up living under the same roof?"

Octavia groaned and bobbed her head side to side in non-committal agreement.

"I suppose," she acknowledged.

"It's the same for me," Clarke continued.

"You make a compelling argument little Princess," Octavia caved, but Clarke suspected from her body language that their talk wouldn't be the end of this topic. Maybe she was reading to much into the situation, Octavia and Lincoln had barely spent any time together and Lincoln was going away in a couple of months. It was unlikely anything would happen.

They had been standing quietly for a little while, listening to the hubbub caused by the rest of the partygoers when Clarke jumped in surprise as Octavia's phone started ringing loudly.

"Speaking of my brother…"Octavia murmured as she answered. "Hi Bellamy,"

Clarke only half listened as Octavia arraigned their collection.

"He should be here in about five minutes," Octavia said as she hung up. Clarke smiled and nodded.

"So…" Clarke said a little awkwardly, trying to think of a topic of conversation, "Your friends seemed nice,"

Octavia laughed. "Yeah they are, we're not all book smart like you and your friends, but they're great fun."

Clarke paused thoughtfully, thinking about the first week back at school.

"Hey Octavia, you know how we have that camp first week back – the one with the older grade designed to enhance our team work by having us all compete…" Clarke voiced her thoughts.

"Yeah,"

"What if we joined forces? I know you're pretty competitive – everyone knows that. I also know that Lexa is all set to win cause she's got Anya and Indra on her team, and they win every year but everyone knows that their weakness is the Trivia Night."

Octavia nodded slowly.

"If you have someone like Wells and I on your team, your team would sail through the Trivia Night and you and your friends are great at sporting events – we might actually have a chance to beat them," Clarke continued.

She'd only thought of it because of Octavia's book smart comment, but if they all worked together, they might win. Clarke wasn't a big fan of Lexa, or Anya for that matter – especially since Anya was Lincoln's ex-girlfriend, but she reserved most of her resentment for Indra. When Indra had heard about Clarke's mother's death, all she had done was insult and berate her. Clarke had been waiting to get back at Indra for a while now, but the opportunity had never presented itself, until now.

Octavia looked pensive.

"We're only allowed teams of six, and Bellamy wanted me to be in his team this year, so I'm not even with most of my friends. He's already asked Murphy and Miller and they said yes, and I asked Monroe if she'd join – there wouldn't be room for you and Wells. Plus, Bellamy has been holding team meetings once a week these holidays for training. He absolutely hates Cage Wallace, who is on a different team with that Tsing girl – you know, the one who walks around claiming that she's the bees knees. I think even Dax is on his team,"

"Oh yeah, I know her," Clarke grimaced. Now that she thought about it, it would probably be just as satisfying winning against Cage than it would be winning against Indra.

"I'm not sure that Bellamy would want to give up either of his guys, and Monroe is great at this stuff but you're right that we're not so good with the Trivia. I might be able to persuade Bell to let you join the team, but you'd have to be by yourself. It would be like me being stuck with your friends for the week, might be kinda weird for you, not bad but you might feel out of place,"

"I don't mind, I want to beat Indra. She's a bitch," Clarke thought about the nasty things that Indra had said and done to her.

"Woah girl," Octavia gasped. "That sort of language isn't pretty on a Princess,"

"Oh stuff you," Clarke said good-naturedly.

"But you're right, Indra is a cow, apparently most of her grade is scared of her. I heard that she's a red belt in karate and that she punched a guy who broke up with her."

Clarke pulled a face. "Hopefully she won't punch anyone if she looses."

"Oh look there is our ride," Octavia waved at a car that was coming down the street.

"I think it's not a bad idea, but it's late and I think you should sleep on it. Don't forget that if you do get accepted onto the team then you'd have to go to all Bellamy's training sessions and he'd probably make you do extra ones to make up for the fact that you're not coordinated and he doesn't want a weak link." Octavia finished the discussion as the car pulled up.

Clarke thought about arguing against the uncoordinated comment, especially given her accuracy at the beer pong she had displayed not half an hour before but decided to leave the topic alone, since the car had pulled into the curb.

As she stepped into the car after Octavia she realized just how tired she was. The thought of going to bed was incredibly appealing. It had been a long day. Clarke admitted to herself that she probably shouldn't have gone out, given that tomorrow was probably going to be just as busy.

"How was the party?" Bellamy asked his sister.

"It was great! Clarke turned out to be heaps of fun, she even killed me in Beer Pong," Octavia told her brother excitedly – still feeling the effects of the alcohol she'd drunk during the aforementioned game. Clarke still felt giggly but was shy around the older Blake. She didn't want to embarrass herself, especially if she was going to try and persuade him later to let her join his team on the ARK Camp.

Bellamy grunted, seemingly impressed but said little on the drive back. Octavia chatted for most of the car trip. Octavia occasionally asked Clarke questions but to Clarke's delight she didn't have to make much of the conversation. They arrived at the house in good time – it wasn't like much traffic was on the road at half past one in the morning.

"Oh, I'll go unlock the front door," Octavia took the new house key from her brother before he could say anything. She was out of the passenger door almost before the car had stopped. Bellamy shook his head in loving frustration.

"That girl needs to slow down," he said. Clarke wasn't sure what to say, so she decided that silence was a good bet. Drunken Clarke was known for saying strange things, Finn could attest to that.

She followed Octavia out of the car and to the front door, Bellamy trailing far enough behind that they didn't have to speak.

Octavia seemed to have left the door wide open and vanished upstairs which left her and Bellamy alone as the entered the house.

"Why don't you like me?" Clarke asked, and cursed herself immediately. Bellamy looked surprised that Clarke was speaking to him, but he answered the question.

"Because everything comes easy for you, you've never had to work hard for anything. You just snap your fingers and get whatever you want. You're a spoilt little princess," Bellamy said matter-of-factly.

"That isn't true," Clarke hissed grumpily, placing a hand on her hip. Bellamy raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"I've had to fight for plenty of things. Besides, if what you say is true and I get whatever I want if I snap my fingers, then I wouldn't be here living with you," Clarke defended herself.

Bellamy nodded to himself in agreement; it wasn't a point that could easily be refuted before saying, "What could you possibly have had to fight for?"

Clarke was affronted; clearly Bellamy had no idea how difficult it was to get admission into the top universities.

"A better future, among other things," Clarke realized that she sounded a little bit snobbish but she didn't mind. Bellamy could go get stuffed, she didn't have to tell him how she had fought, and was still fighting, her grief. That was her business. She turned away from the older boy and made her way to the stairs. Even though she didn't have to prove to Bellamy Blake that she wasn't a snob, she found that she wanted too. Clarke wanted to earn Bellamy's respect; if she could earn his respect then her life would be much easier, especially if she was going to join his camp group.

"But if you need proof that I can fight then just you wait Bellamy Blake," Clarke paused on the staircase and looked down at Bellamy, a small smile on her face. Much to Clarke's surprise, Bellamy returned the smile albeit more of a smirk.

"I'll look forward to your crash and burn Griffin," he replied and with that Clarke walked away. She passed Octavia emerging from the bathroom, which explained her sudden disappearance. Octavia wished Clarke goodnight, and vanished into her room leaving Clarke to quickly brush her teeth and get ready for bed. She was soon lying in her bed, in the strange new room and even though she was worried that the change of scenery might keep her awake, she was asleep within minutes.