AN: Enjoy!
Clarke followed her housemates out onto the kickball field for their last class of the day. They had just finished changing into their gym clothes and were now walking out onto the field as a house before anyone switched teams. The two other houses that had gym at the same time as Arkadia, Azgeda and Mount Weather, were already waiting beside the field.
Clarke was slightly disappointed that Lexa hadn't shown up today. The blonde knew that her roommate always ditched gym class, but Clarke had hoped that, after Octavia had invited her, the brunette might have actually decided to show up. It seemed that the blonde had been mistaken. When she had asked Lexa about it last night, the brunette had responded with a maybe, and Clarke hadn't wanted to beg her again after her roommate had already gone to dinner with the house for her and had continued to go each night.
Clarke would have certainly had more fun today if her roommate had shown up, but she knew that she would just have to make do with spending time with the rest of the team. Besides, this was her first kickball tournament, since she had spent the last one taking care of a sick Lexa, and she couldn't deny that she was excited about it, especially with Octavia trying to pump everyone up.
"Alright, Arkadia, the other houses better get ready because we are gonna kick some ass today!"
"Definitely. We are going to destroy them." Jasper added his agreement.
Bellamy just smiled smugly at them, although it seemed that the look was mainly meant for his sister and Raven. "Good luck, guys, but you're never going to beat us."
Octavia slapped him on the arm. "You are such a traitor."
While the two of them began to argue, Anya turned to Clarke with a hopeful look in her eyes. "So, Clarke, is Lexa coming today?"
Clarke simply shrugged. "I honestly don't know. She wouldn't give me a straight answer."
"You'll never get a straight answer out of Lexa." Emori snorted, and Anya snickered beside her. Clarke couldn't help but laugh along.
"Tis true," Anya added with a goofy grin. "She loves her ladies."
Clarke couldn't help but smile at the other girl, and she had to admit that everyone in Arkadia House was so fun to be around. She realized that she had gotten really lucky with her house assignment because she honestly loved spending time with every single person there. Even though she had hated it at first, Clarke was also really lucky with her roommate assignment. If she hadn't been forced to share a room with Lexa, then she would have never gotten to know the Lexa that she was slowly discovering now, and as the days went by, Clarke was finding it harder and harder to imagine a world without the other girl in it.
When the members of Arkadia House finally reached the field, Emori turned to give her older sister a quick hug before turning to address the rest of the team. "I'll see you guys after the match."
"After you lose," Bellamy added with a grin.
The two of them then wandered over to where the members of Azgeda House were gathered, going over to speak to a boy and a girl who Clarke could only guess were John Murphy and Echo. The blonde watched as Emori leaned up to kiss her boyfriend, but she noted that the interactions between Bellamy and Echo didn't seem to be anything more than friendship on both ends.
Clarke was pulled out of her reverie when she heard Octavia scoff at her brother, and the blonde turned to see that Raven had crossed her arms, and Octavia was wearing a displeased frown. Octavia perked back up though when Lincoln pulled her into him, placing a kiss on top of her head, and suddenly she didn't seem to care what her brother was doing anymore. However, Raven was still glaring in Bellamy's direction, and Clarke couldn't help but notice the jealousy that was prominent in the brunette's eyes. The blonde thought about saying something to her friend, maybe even teasing her, but she was distracted by two girls heading over to the Arkadia team from the direction of where the Mount Weather residents were hanging out. She figured that these must be Jasper and Monty's girlfriends, and she quickly found that she was correct when Jasper introduced them to her.
"Clarke, this is Maya and Harper." Jasper pointed to each girl in turn. "Guys, this is Clarke, the newest edition to our house."
"It's really nice to meet you," Clarke said sweetly, shaking each of their hands in turn. "I started at Polis at the beginning of this term, but I missed the first tournament because my roommate was sick, so this will be my first time playing. I apologize if I'm kind of awful. I haven't played kickball since elementary school."
"It's okay. I wasn't very good when I first started either, but you'll get the hang of it soon." Maya chuckled. "So you're rooming with Lexa then?"
Clarke was a little surprised that the other girl had known about Lexa, but then again, Maya had probably known Lexa freshman year because of the Mount Weather girl's relationship with Jasper. Besides, the whole school probably knew about what had happened to Costia. If Maya had known Lexa before that, then of course she would know that the brunette was the only one at Arkadia House who needed a new roommate.
Clarke simply nodded. "Yeah."
Harper made a face. "Yikes. I'm sorry."
It became clear to Clarke in that moment that these two were not aware of the fact that Lexa was getting better, which made sense, considering her own house hadn't known until this week, but the blonde found that she didn't like the way that Harper had reacted. No matter what Lexa had done before, Clarke considered it a privilege to be paired with the brunette as her roommate, and she was going to make sure that these two knew it.
"She's great, actually. I mean, we got off to a rocky start because of the way she was acting at first, but she's starting to open up, and she and I are really good friends now."
"Really? That's great," Maya said with a smile. "She's been in a dark place for a very long time now, and it's good to hear that she's doing better."
"I agree. She used to be pretty fun freshman year," Harper added. "Will she be joining us today?"
"I have no idea. Octavia invited her, and I think everyone wants her to come, but when I tried asking her about it last night, she wouldn't give me a definitive answer." Clarke made sure to revise her response this time, even though she was pretty sure that these girls wouldn't have made a joke of it like Anya and Emori had. Clarke found that she really liked Maya and Harper already because they both seemed to be very sweet.
"Looks like she decided to come," Harper remarked, and Clarke snapped to attention.
She followed the other blonde's line of sight to see Lexa, dressed in her gym clothes, making her way over to join the others. Clarke was so excited to see the other girl that she didn't even bother to be embarrassed about how quickly she had turned at the mention of her roommate. A huge smile broke out on Clarke's face when Lexa met her eyes, and she only smiled wider when the brunette shot her a small smile in return.
When Lexa reached the group, Clarke was on her way to greet the brunette when Anya rushed in front of her, pulling her best friend into a tight hug. Clarke noticed the slight discomfort that entered Lexa's eyes at the contact, and the blonde thought that it was more due to the force behind Anya's hug than the actual hug itself. However, Lexa dutifully returned it, features relaxing a bit when Anya let go.
"Glad to see you made it." Anya grinned widely.
Octavia nodded at the other girl. "We could definitely use another teammate. It's really good to see you here, Lexa."
"I almost didn't come, but I figured that I would help you guys out. Only here's how we're going to do it. I know that Azgeda is an easy win almost all of the time, even with Bellamy and Emori playing for them, and you know that that's exactly how all of the other teams see them when we get to the actual tournament. Nobody tries hard against Azgeda because they know that they're going to win. Arkadia, even though we've never won an actual tournament, has always been seen as a toss-up, but this time, we're going to be the easy win. We can still take these mini tournaments as serious practice rounds, but even if we are doing good for a while, we need to purposely throw each and every game, but discreetly of course so that the other houses don't catch on. If word spreads around the school that we're losing to Azgeda, then nobody is going to take us seriously in the tournament. They'll view us as an easy win, and they'll get overconfident, so when we pull ahead and beat them, they won't even know what hit them. We make ourselves look weak so that the other houses don't know how strong we really are." Lexa finished with a pleased smile.
Octavia nodded slowly in agreement. "Yeah. That could work. We act like we suck, and then we bring our A-game in the tournament. I like that idea."
Clarke nodded her own approval, extremely proud of Lexa for having come up with such a great plan of action. It made the blonde so happy to see Lexa acting like a real member of the house again. She wasn't alienated this time. She was right in the middle of things. People were talking to her about the plan, and she was conversing nicely back. Clarke could almost imagine that this was what it had been like before Costia had died. What Lexa had been like.
"It is brilliant," Raven mused. "I don't know how I didn't think of it first. But guys, the two chicks from Mount Weather House, the reigning champions, are standing right here. How do you know that they won't narc on us to one of our biggest competitors?"
Raven brought up a good point, but from what Clarke had seen so far, Maya and Harper seemed to be really nice, and she honestly couldn't see the two of them doing something like that. Jasper seemed to have the same idea. "They would never do that."
Monty seemed a little less sure. "You won't narc on us, right?"
Harper shook her head with an amused smile. "We won't narc on you."
Lexa smiled brightly. "Great. Then, that's what we'll do. To Arkadia's impending victory." Lexa stuck her hand out in front of her, and Clarke caught on quickly to what her roommate wanted everyone to do. She placed her hand gently over the brunette's, trying not to think about the tingles that ran up her arm at the contact, a feeling that was getting harder to ignore each day. She looked expectantly up at the other members of the house, and Lexa smiled even wider when all of their teammates added their hands to the pile in front of them. The blonde was glad that Lexa was starting to feel like she belonged again, and she was extremely grateful to her housemates for making it so easy for the other girl to fit in, even though they didn't owe her forgiveness of any sort.
Clarke smiled as well as the team yelled, "Arkadia!" on the count of three, and she liked the amicable feeling that had settled over the teammates as they headed over to begin the first round.
Octavia stepped up to the plate first, and Clarke had to admit that she was pretty good. She kicked the ball nice and far, and she got to second base before stopping. Clarke stepped up next, thinking that this could not be too difficult, but she soon found out that it was a lot harder than she had previously thought, especially since she was not a sporty person, and she was out before she even reached first base. She was slightly embarrassed as she trudged back to her teammates, but they were all very nice about it, telling her that it had been a good first try, even though she knew it hadn't.
When it was Lexa's turn, Clarke was kind of in awe. The other members of their team had been pretty good, but Lexa was amazing. Her kick went farther than anyone's, soaring right over people's heads into an open portion of the field, and the brunette was fast, clearing all the bases before the other team could get her out. Clarke almost couldn't believe her eyes, and the rest of the team cheered for her roommate, congratulating her before the next person stepped up.
When Lexa reached Clarke, the blonde found herself leaning up to kiss Lexa on the cheek, unable to stop herself. Her eyes widened when she realized what she had done, and she quickly pulled away. She hadn't meant to do that. She had just been so proud of the brunette, and her feelings for her roommate had accidentally escaped, just like they had when Lexa had cried in her arms under the bleachers two weeks ago.
There was no denying the way she felt about Lexa now.
This time, she couldn't hide behind the pretense that she had simply been trying to comfort the brunette with her kiss. The fact that she liked Lexa as more than a friend, something she had tried so hard to suppress, had finally burst free, and she hoped that she hadn't just screwed everything up with her roommate.
Lexa had blushed a deep shade of red, and she was looking around to see if anyone saw. No one had of course because everyone's attention was on the game that was going on in front of them, but Clarke wasn't sure why it mattered. It wasn't as if people didn't know that Lexa was a lesbian. Unless…Lexa didn't return Clarke's feelings. It was certainly possible, but Clarke had been pretty sure that the brunette liked her as well. She had almost kissed Clarke that day under the bleachers. Or maybe that's just what Clarke had wanted her to do. Maybe the blonde had been misreading this all along.
She waited for Lexa to say something, anything, but the brunette said nothing at all. Clarke supposed it was good that her roommate hadn't yelled at her, but it was weird because from that moment forth, through the entire rest of the kickball game, Lexa didn't say a word to her. Clarke finally realized that she might have just overstepped her roommate's boundaries, and she didn't know what to do.
After the tournament, Octavia seemed to be satisfied with the team's progress, especially now that they had Lexa back. Even though Lexa tried not to do too well after that first hit, causing the other teams to think it a stroke of luck, and even though they made sure to lose every single game, Clarke could already feel herself improving since her first attempt.
Octavia suggested that they go out to Jaha's, an ice cream shop that was across the street from Polis, to celebrate their victory. Bellamy, Emori, and her boyfriend, who introduced himself to the rest of them as Murphy, decided to come along as well. Clarke fell into an amicable chatter with her housemates as they walked to their destination, but Lexa still hadn't said a word to her, choosing to talk with Octavia instead. Clarke pushed away her obvious hurt in favor of having fun with her friends, deciding that she could talk to Lexa later.
Upon arriving at the shop, everyone ordered their ice cream from the shop owner, an older man named Thelonius Jaha, who seemed thrilled to have such a big group of customers. Like everyone else that she had met so far, Clarke found Jaha to be extremely sweet, and she made a mental note to come here more often, which was only seconded once she tasted the delicious flavor of her mint chocolate chip ice cream.
The thirteen of them pushed a few tables together to create one long table in the middle of the shop, and Clarke sat down in between Octavia and Raven, caught up in the talk that was flying around about the kickball tournament today. That was, until Raven started to create some drama, to no one's surprise. Like Lexa, the girl seemed to have a flare for the dramatic, and she wondered why it was that the two of them didn't get along better.
"So, how about our new plan today? I think this is going to work pretty well. Azgeda House has already started to get kind of cocky." Raven was met with ten murmurs of agreement and three confused stares.
"What new plan?" Bellamy was the first to speak up.
"Oh, that's right, you don't know about the plan," Raven said with exaggerated surprise, letting everyone know that she was doing this on purpose. "If you had stuck with your own teammates, then you would know, but since you are a traitor who insists on playing for the enemy, we can't tell you."
"Raven, I'm your teammate," Bellamy protested. "Don't you think I should know?"
"No," Raven huffed. "You don't even need to because you'll be playing for the other team anyway. We can't risk you telling your little girlfriend."
Bellamy sighed in exasperation. "Okay, I get why Octavia is annoyed with me for not playing with you guys because I'm her brother and all, and she gets really serious about these kickball games, but why the hell are you getting so worked up over this?"
"I'm not getting worked up. I just wish you wouldn't play for another team like this when it's so obvious that Echo is just using you. I'm your friend, and I don't want to see you get hurt when you finally realize that."
Bellamy took a deep breath, his attention solely focused on Raven, oblivious to the fact that everyone had quieted down and was watching them curiously. "Raven, I'm not still pining over Echo. I promise. I did have feelings for her, but I finally told her how I felt last year, and when she told me that she didn't return my feelings, that was that. I play for her team because we're still pretty good friends, and I don't get to see her every day like I see you guys, but I promise you I'm not into her anymore. I've moved on."
A relieved and pleased look washed over Raven's features, and she smiled up at the older boy. "And who are you into now?"
Bellamy didn't even hesitate, not breaking her gaze. "I think you know."
Raven crashed her lips into Bellamy's, and he didn't pull back, confirming her assumption that he had been talking about her. Clarke smiled at her two friends, allowing them to have their moment that had been long in the making. She was happy that they had finally stopped skirting around their feelings for each other. When Bellamy pulled away, the entire table burst into cheers, and Clarke added hers to the mix, smiling warmly at her friends.
Octavia reached across Clarke to get Raven's attention, pulling the other brunette out of her kiss-induced daze. "Finally."
"You're not mad then?" Raven asked.
Octavia's brows furrowed in confusion. "Why would I be mad?"
"Because he's your brother," Raven stated, as if this should have been obvious.
"I know some people think it's awkward for their best friend to date their brother, but I don't, Rae. I just want you two to be with someone who makes you happy, and if that is each other, then so be it," Octavia explained.
"Thanks, O." Raven paused before adding, "We were not that obvious though."
Octavia pinched Raven's cheek lightly between her fingers. "Whatever you say, Rae."
As Raven shrugged her best friend away, Clarke couldn't help an unwanted feeling from springing up within her. While she had initially felt excited for her friends, she now felt the slightest twinge of jealousy burning inside of her due to what had just happened between Bellamy and Raven, and she knew it was because she wished that she could do the same thing with Lexa. However, after the way the brunette had reacted after Clarke had kissed her cheek, she knew that her roommate would not take too kindly to it and that she had been seriously misguided when she had thought that the brunette might have feelings for her too.
Lexa still had not said a word to Clarke, and the blonde could not deny the fact that it hurt like hell. In fact, Lexa was sitting at the other end of the table with Emori and Anya, and that stung even more. Lexa had previously never left Clarke's side when she was in the presence of others, and now it seemed as if the blonde's roommate didn't want anything more to do with her.
Clarke tried to tell herself that maybe she was completely wrong. Maybe Lexa wasn't upset at all. Maybe she had been embarrassed by the cheek kiss because she returned the blonde's feelings, and maybe she hadn't said anything more to her roommate throughout the rest of the game because she was so focused on making sure that their teammates carried out her plan. Maybe she was sitting with Emori and Anya now because they had been her best friends once, and she wanted to spend more time with them. Clarke knew that none of this was true, but it made her feel better nonetheless.
She tried her best to hang on to these false beliefs, telling herself that they were one hundred percent true as she started conversing with her friends again, but she could never fully push away her doubts. She couldn't focus on anything other than the distance that had suddenly sprung up between her and her roommate, and she couldn't take it anymore, needing to know right now where she stood with the brunette, so she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. "So, Lexa, since it's Friday, and the both of us never do homework on Fridays, do you want to watch a movie? You can pick."
Lexa looked extremely uncomfortable at the thought of spending time with Clarke, and the blonde knew that her roommate was going to refuse before she even opened her mouth. "I don't know, Clarke. I think I might hang out with Emori and Anya tonight."
Anya and Emori looked thrilled at the news, but hurt exploded through Clarke. This was clearly the first time that the sisters were hearing of this, so it wasn't like Lexa had already committed to spending time with them. She simply wanted to avoid spending time with the blonde. Clarke blinked back the tears that began to sting at her eyes at the thought that Lexa was mad at her. Or at the very least uncomfortable around her. It was like they were right back to square one, and Clarke had no idea how to fix it.
No one seemed to notice that anything was amiss between the two roommates, except for Lincoln, who shot Clarke a questioning look. Clarke simply shook her head at him to reassure him that it was fine or, at the very least, that there was nothing he could do about it. He gave her a wary look, but he didn't say anything, turning back to the conversation he had been holding with Monty and Harper. However, Clarke knew that nothing was fine for her at the moment, and she wished more than anything else that she could just go back in time and stop herself from placing that stupid kiss on Lexa's cheek.