But Macey, why are you doing a camp AU when it's almost fall? Because I told jaidenwashere I'd write one like a month ago and me being the terrible person I am just now finished it. Also it's almost summer vacation for the southern half of the world so that counts. But anyways I hope you enjoy, and please leave a review if you want and I'll try to get a new one up soon!
Clarke was eight years old.
She was finally old enough to go to Camp Arkadia.
Her mom pulled into the wooded area, and Clarke was bouncing with excitement. She jumped out of the car as soon as it came to a stop. It was everything she imagined: the lake, the big house in front of her, the cabins in the distance, and of course campers everywhere.
Clarke kissed her mom goodbye and ran off to join her counselor. She made fast friends with the girls in her cabin: Raven, Monroe, Emori, and Harper. Everything was going perfect until the campfire came.
That's when Clarke met Bellamy Blake for the first time.
They had been roasting marshmallows, singing along to the campfire songs with the other campers when a boy with dark hair came and stole the last piece of chocolate right when Harper was reaching for it.
The counselor assured they had more back at the Big House, but Clarke wasn't going to let him get away with it.
"Hey. Harper had that first."
The boy turned and Clarke got her first taste of the going to be the famous Bellamy Blake smirk.
He crossed his arms. "I didn't see it in her hand."
"She was obviously reaching for it," Clarke said, standing her ground.
Bellamy just shook his head and turned to walk away when Clarke stamped on his foot and grabbed the chocolate when he yelped in pain.
Clarke stuck her tongue out triumph as she held the chocolate in her hand.
"Is there something wrong?" the boys counselor asked coming over to the pair. Clarke gave him a look, daring him to tattle on her.
"Nope," Bellamy said, a grimace on his face as Clarke gave the chocolate to Harper.
It was the start of a war. The war lasted the entire month. Clarke and Bellamy competed over everything. Who could climb the kiddie rock wall the fastest. Who could swim faster to the buoy. Who could make the best necklace in arts and crafts.
The other boys in Bellamy's cabin were alright. John Murphy could be a little mean. Nathan Miller was nice enough, and so were Jasper and Monty. Bellamy was the only one that Clarke hated.
When the end of summer camp came, Clarke was sad to go. She loved her new friends and didn't want to not be able to see them for a whole year. But they exchanged addresses and promised to write over the school year.
It was the night before they were going to leave when Clarke heard something outside of the cabin. Everyone else was asleep, so Clarke tiptoed out of the cabin to investigate. She found Bellamy Blake trying to climb up their cabin roof to place a bucket of lake water above the door.
It was a pathetic attempt at a prank, but Clarke didn't stop him. Instead she waited until he had returned to his cabin to retrieve it and proceeded to put it on top of the boys cabin door.
It made it all the more sweeter when Bellamy had ran out of the cabin in the morning when he saw all the girls outside with no screaming, making him fall victim to his own prank.
Clarke left with a smile on her face.
Clarke was eleven years old.
She was still excited to pull into the woods leading to camp. She was more determined than ever to beat Bellamy at everything since last year his end of summer camp prank ended up with leaves stuck in everything she owned.
When she hopped out of the car, there were her friends and Clarke felt like home. She dragged her duffel to the eleven year old's cabin and hastily unpacked, taping pictures to the wall of her family and friends and her cat. She stepped out of the cabin, already wanting to start the camp activities when she saw Bellamy step out of the eight year old girls cabin, followed by a small black haired girl.
"Hey Bellamy!" Clarke shouted across the lawn, "Are you ready for me to crush you again this year?"
Bellamy looked up and a look of disgust crossed his face. "You wish Clarke." He beckoned for the little girl to follow, and with a fleeting glance at Clarke, she did.
Later that night at the opening bonfire, Clarke saw the girl again. She was sitting with the rest of the eight year old girls, and almost looked like she was going to cry. Bellamy was watching from the other side, a worried look on his face.
Clarke felt a pain in her chest. She hated seeing other people upset. She didn't even have to think about what she was going to do.
"Hi, I'm Clarke," she said, approaching the girl. The girl sniffed.
"Octavia."
"Do you want me to show you how to make the perfect smore?" Clarke asked. Octavia nodded slowly. So Clarke showed her where to place the marshmallow so it wouldn't catch on fire. The little girl still looked sad afterwards so Clarke asked her if she was alright.
"I miss my mom," the girl responded. Clarke put her arm around her.
"It will be ok. I miss my mom too. But you're going to have so much fun here! We get to do all sorts of stuff like canoeing and rock climbing and hiking and we learn so much about animals and other stuff! I promise you're going to love it!"
A small smile appeared on Octavia's face. "Ok, if you say so..."
"I know so," Clarke replied, "And if you ever need anything you can come ask me! Usually the eleven year olds don't want to hang out with newbies, but you seem pretty cool so you can hang out with my friends and me."
Clarke led Octavia over to where the girls that went to camp with her since she was eight were sitting and they immediately struck up a conversation with her.
The next morning, when Clarke was down at the lake getting her life jacket on to go canoeing, Bellamy approached her.
"Hey Clarke."
Clarke turned around expecting him to propose some crazy competition between the two of them with some sort of dare for the loser, but he surprised her.
"Thank you. For calming down my sister."
Clarke stared at him like he had just told her that he was actually a mermaid.
He shoved his hands into his pockets. "Our dad left this year, so she's been really scared that mom or me is gonna leave her too."
Clarke blinked. She processed what he said, and finally replied, "It was no problem. She seems really sweet."
"She wants you to think that," Bellamy laughed, and then added, "hey do you wanna be my partner for canoeing?"
Clarke nodded, trying to push away her fear that Bellamy was going to shove her in the middle of the lake and leave her there to swim to shore. He didn't, to her delight, and she actually had a really good time. It turned out that they both liked a lot of the same things: soccer, pokemon, and spider-man movies.
"I'm sorry about your dad," Clarke said as they pulled the canoe back up to the shed, "mine died when I was seven."
Bellamy's eyes widened. "I didn't know that. What...?"
"Cancer," Clarke replied.
"I'm sorry," Bellamy said.
"It seems like forever ago sometimes, and other times I feel like I can just go downstairs and he'll being making dinner at the stove."
A friendship formed that day. It lasted the rest of the summer. They were still competitive, always arguing on who won and trying to shove each other to cheat. But now it was followed by laughter and grins.
A few days before it was time to go home, Bellamy asked Clarke if she would join forces with him to create the end of camp prank he always attempted to pull because "if we put both of our minds together we can come up with something epic".
Epic it was. At least to an eleven year old, as a clothing article from every counselor sailed high up on the flagpole.
Clarke was seventeen years old.
She was half excited and half sad as she got out of her step-father's car. She closed her eyes for a second so she could take it all in. The smell of pine. The sound of old friends greeting each other. The excited chatter of the thirteen year old kids who were finally old enough to go to the "big kids" camp.
"Clarke!" She opened her eyes to see Harper and Emori running towards her. She hugged them hello, excited to see them after 11 months apart.
"It's so nice to see you again! Are you the only ones here so far?"
A sour look crossed Emori's face. "Unfortunately Ontari is here." Clarke couldn't blame her. Ontari had came last year for the first time and immediately got on everyone's nerves by acting like she was the queen of the camp.
"Dang, I was hoping she would go terrorize some other people for once."
Clarke grabbed her bag, said goodbye to Marcus, and started to head to her cabin. She hastily started to unpack her stuff when the door popped open.
"Better get going Clarke, only have four more weeks to plan our prank."
Clarke turned around, a big grin on her face. "Of course, our last year has to blow all the other's out of the water." She strode over to give him a hug. As soon as they pulled apart, the door banged open again as Octavia and Raven came in.
"Clarke! What's this I hear about you having a girlfriend?" Octavia shouted, and then added, "Oh yeah and it's good to see you again."
"Well you would of known that if you and your brother weren't such losers and actually got on social media more than once in a blue moon," Clarke responded, "and it's good to see you too."
Bellamy leaned against the railing of the bed while Raven threw her stuff on the bunk above Clarke's. "So who is this girl?" Bellamy asked, "Where she from?"
Clarke suddenly got nervous about telling them about her new girlfriend. Raven had met her once when Clarke invited her along to a party they were going to. Raven lived in the same city as Clarke, but they went to different schools. Unfortunately, the two did not get along as Clarke had hoped.
"Her name's Lexa."
"She's from the same snobby rich school as Clarke," Raven said, leaning over to look at them.
"She's not snobby," Clarke retaliated, "She's just...used to a different lifestyle than we are."
Raven rolled her eyes. "She acts like she's royalty. Her and Queen Ontari out there would get along great."
Clarke quickly changed the subject. "What about you Bellamy? I heard that you got pretty serious with a girl."
It was Bellamy's turn to shrink back. The campers didn't like to talk about their life outside of camp. It was Octavia that responded.
"Her name is Gina, and I'm apparently not special enough to meet her."
Bellamy just shoved Octavia, pushing her to the door. "I wonder why. Come on, lets go down to the lake."
So the group of friends headed down to jump off the dock in the water, happy as more of her friends showed up. It felt like home.
There was a bitter sweetness to this summer. It seemed like the last time her bizarre family that she had made would be together. Clarke had all the intentions of applying to be a counselor next year, but she knew that not everyone was going to be coming back to work.
She didn't know if Bellamy was coming back. And that made her heart sink more than she wanted to admit.
Because as much as she denied it in her head she had feelings for Bellamy Blake. She had had them since she was thirteen when she suddenly realized how happy she was when he was around. If when he made her angry, she couldn't stay that way long with that signature smirk and those eyes that were always lit in amusement when she was yelling at him.
She pushed the thought away of him again one day while they were hiking up the trails. He walked beside her as usual, occasionally trying to push her down or try to convince her that a badger was in the bushes.
"Maybe we can ditch these guys and sneak away from camp cheerio and the psycho."
Clarke grinned at the nicknames for the counselors that were leading the hike today. The girl was way too cheerful and acted like they were all seven instead of seventeen, and the guy was way to over prepared for what was supposed to be a two hour hike.
"What if her royal highness sees us?" Clarke asked, giving a side glance at Ontari.
Bellamy winked before yelling, "Reyes!" Raven moved to the back of the group to see what he wanted. "Clarke and I are bouncing, distract the guards and Ontari for us?"
Raven rolled her eyes, but still moved back up to the front.
"Hey Amy, what kind of snakes live in these hills?"
The counselor lit up. "I'm glad you asked Raven! There are 17 different species of snakes native to this area-"
"17?!" Ontari shouted, "Are any poisonous? Because I do not want to get bit by a snake."
The counselors went on to assure Ontari that nothing was going to harm her, giving Clarke and Bellamy enough distraction to slip off the path. Murphy saw them go, and grinned making a kissy face at the two of them. Bellamy flipped him off.
"So where are we going on this adventure?" Clarke asked, jumping on a fallen log and keeping her balance as she walked across. Bellamy came up next to her to push her off, but Clarke grabbed onto his arm so she could steady herself.
"I dunno, we could go skinny dipping," Bellamy said with a mischievous grin. Clarke's cheeks reddened a bit at that thought. She hoped he couldn't hear her heart thudding.
You have a girlfriend. You love your girlfriend, she told herself. He has a girlfriend. A girlfriend who sounds way cooler than you.
"As wonderful as it sounds getting lake water in places I don't want, I think it would be pretty obvious we meant to sneak off if we come back wet," she said, keeping her voice as steady as she could.
Bellamy laughed sending Clarke's heart racing again. God she could listen to that laugh for the rest of her life. Wait no.
"Come on," Bellamy said, pulling her off the log. "I bet I can get more skips than you on the lake."
Clarke's breath finally returned to her. "You're on."
As they skipped rocks across the lake, Clarke being clearly better, Bellamy asked what she thought they should do for their prank.
"It's gotta be big, you know being the last summer and all," he continued, "go out with a bang."
"Definitely," Clarke replied, "We need to cement our legacy."
"I'm glad we decided to end our differences and became friends," Bellamy said, throwing his stone. It skipped three times before disappearing below the surface. "It made camp a lot more fun to be honest."
Clarke was taken aback for a second, before she threw her stone as well. Five skips. "Agreed. The first three years was just you fueling my hatred for you."
A smile cracked on Bellamy's face. "Sorry about that. I had never met such a fiery girl before." He stayed quiet for a moment before adding, "Are you going to apply to be a counselor next year?"
"I was planning on it."
"So was I."
Clarke looked at him, excited. "Really? Think they'd let us back in after what we've done to torture our counselors?"
"Of course, they act like they get mad us but I think everyone knows they are actually sad to see us go."
Clarke agreed. Now everything was looking a lot brighter knowing that this probably wasn't going to be the last summer with Bellamy.
When they finally decided to get back to camp, the counselors from the hike were livid, especially the psycho guy. Clarke and Bellamy just claimed that Bellamy had to pee and Clarke waited for him, and they got lost trying to catch up the group. The head of camp just sighed when they were sent to her office and told them that they were going to send her to an early grave. They got off with only cleaning dishes for dinner that night.
At the end of camp, Clarke and Bellamy pulled off their last prank as campers. A mess hall of soap bubbles and their names permanently etched into the ceiling. The head of camp said she didn't even want to know how they did that. She just said that she would be happy to have them back next summer.
Clarke sadly hugged everyone apart of her camp family. Raven promised to come over several times during the school year. Everyone else promised to keep and touch and get together if they ever came to the city.
She hugged Bellamy last. She hated thinking that it would be a whole year before she saw him again.
She kept her tears under control until she got into her step-dads car.
Clarke was nineteen years old.
She was nervous as she pulled her car into camp. It was a full week before the young campers would arrive, but she knew they would be busy all week.
It was going to be her last summer at camp ever.
Next year she was going to be spending her summer in Europe, traveling with others in her art major. Afterwards who knew where she would be. But she knew that all things had to come to an end, and her camp adventure was ready to be done.
It was Bellamy's last summer too. After she had informed him, he said that it would be his as well. He didn't say a reason why.
Harper and Jasper came running over to greet her. She hugged them tightly.
They headed to drop Clarke's stuff at the eight year old cabin. She was great with the little ones. They shared how their life was going and what they had heard from their friends. Miller had gotten a new boyfriend from what Jasper had seen on instagram. Raven won some award for fixing up an old bike with just scrap parts.
As they were talking her door banged open. This time she ran to him without a word, throwing her arms around him. Jasper and Harper gave each other a knowing look.
Bellamy pressed his chin into her shoulder. "I missed you Clarke."
"Missed you too," Clarke muffled with her head buried in his shirt.
Last summer had been so much fun for them. The head of camp let them be co-counselors for the same age, so often they took their groups together to the activities. As counselors during the younger kids weeks they played along with the kids and during the older kids weeks they tormented Octavia. They even still pulled off a prank, multiple times actually. They let the kids in their cabin join in.
It was the happiest time of her life. And most of it was because she was spending it with Bellamy, and when she was Bellamy she couldn't help but be happy. It caused her to break up with Lexa after she got back. It wasn't fair to her that Clarke spent all her time dreaming of being with someone else.
They pulled apart and Clarke had to keep herself from sighing. Reminding herself again that he had Gina. He loved Gina.
"Oh shit," Jasper said suddenly, "Ontari is here."
They all went to the window. Ontari was there.
"What the heck, she hates children. And nature," Harper said. They all exited the cabin, Ontari sneered in their direction.
"Oh. You guys are still counselors here."
"Great to see you too," Clarke said, "It's been too soon." Ontari gave her a dirty look, but Clarke was paying closer attention to the way Bellamy beamed at her.
She thought how it was going to be a torturous summer with him.
And it was sometimes. A lot of times. She was in the eight year old girls cabin again, and he was in the eight year old boys. They had their moments where they were still the best friends they had been since she was eleven. Like when Clarke had her girls and his boys all help her duck tape Bellamy's bunk while he was sleeping except one slit then poked a hole in a shaving cream bottle and threw it in. When he finally got out he chased them all around with shaving cream in his hand, eventually grabbing Clarke's waist and smacking it in her face.
Ontari had come out shouting at them that they were waking up her kids. They just rolled their eyes and sprayed her with shaving cream, leading them to be scolded by the head of camp in the late hours of night like old times.
Then there were the moments that were torture to her. When they were swimming and he would come up from under her, lifting her on his shoulders. When they were sitting by the fire and he was being so sweet to one of the kids, teaching them how to properly roast a smore.
It was those moments when she remembered how much she loved him.
And then one night, the night before the last day of camp, one of Clarke's girls was tearing up at the campfire.
She went over to her and led her a little ways away from the fire to sit her down on the art building's steps.
"What's wrong Charlotte? Aren't you enjoying the campfire?"
Charlotte wiped a tear away from her cheek. "Yes. But I don't want to leave tomorrow."
Clarke wrapped her arms around the little girls shoulders. "Why is that sweetie? Don't you want to see your parents again?"
Charlotte gave a teary nod. "But I don't want to leave my friends here. I don't have any at my school, they are all mean to me there. Here they are nice."
Clarke felt a pang of sorrow for her. "It'll be ok Charlotte. I know how you feel, my camp friends have always been my family. I've never been closer than with anybody then Bellamy, and I miss him like crazy throughout the year. But I promise that next summer will come before you know it. But in the mean time, at school try to make friends just how you did in the first week. Remember how shy you were? And then when you started having fun, everything got better! So at school try to make new friends, just like you did here."
Charlotte gave a watery smile. "Thanks Clarke."
"Of course, and if you can keep a secret, Bellamy and I are going to pull a prank on the whole camp tonight. Do you wanna help?"
Charlotte lit up. "I get to be a part of your end of camp prank?!"
Clarke reached to smooth her hair. "Yep. I'll wake you up tonight and I'll explain. Now go enjoy the last campfire, you're friends are probably waiting for you."
Charlotte got up, gave Clarke one last hug, and then ran to join her friends. Clarke went to follow, but someone reached out and grabbed her arm. She looked to see Bellamy, his face lit up dimly from the light of the far away fire.
"We should go get the stuff for tonight. Harper and Jasper are watching our kids." Clarke nodded, following after him to the mess hall. As they gather up all the saran wrap as they could, Clarke's eyes drifted to the ceiling.
Their names were still there. Etched forever in black.
"We did good that night," Bellamy said, stopping to stare up at the names. "I still can't believe that you were not afraid to climb the ladder that high.
"I still can't believe that you were able to break into the shed and put it back without looking like it was ever unlocked."
Bellamy smiled at the memory, setting his armfuls of saran wrap onto the table. "You did well with Charlotte. You are always so good comforting the kids."
Clarke shrugged. "I guess I can put myself into their shoes."
"Do you really miss me like crazy during the year?"
Clarke's cheeks started to flare up. "Yeah. Of course I do. I didn't realize you were listening."
Bellamy looked down at his shoes. "That's good. Because I miss you like hell too." He looked up nervously. "Even when you hated me I missed you during the school year. Teasing you, the way your face scrunched up when you were about to shout at me. And when we became friends I started to miss you even more."
Clarke's heart starting beating faster.
"I missed your laugh," he continued, "And when you would come out of the art center covered in paint. And how you would barely eat your lunch, but then eat five brownies for dessert."
He moved closer so he could tuck a stray strand of hair out of her face. She closed her eyes softly at the action, opening to see that he was watching her every reaction.
"Clarke. It kills me being away from you for so long. Because I love everything about you."
"What about Gina?" Clarke choked out.
"As soon as you told me this was going to be your last summer I knew that I had to break up with her. Because it wasn't fair to her when I've been in love with you since I was eleven. And that's why I decided that camp wouldn't be camp without you-"
He was cut off by Clarke quickly pressing her lips to his. His immediate reaction was to grab her hips, pulling her closer so she could wrap her arms around his neck.
When they parted finally, Bellamy rested his forehead on hers.
"Eleven?" Clarke asked, slightly out of breath.
"As soon as I saw you comfort Octavia I was gone."
"Well fuck, I've been in love with you since I was thirteen," she laughed, "We're such idiots."
"Yeah you are," came a new voice. They both turned startled to see Jasper standing in the doorway grinning. "And as much as I want stop what I'm doing to call all of our friends and tell them how you two finally got together, the campfire is ending and you two have kids to get to sleep."
The rest of the summer was no longer torture for Clarke. In fact it was one of the best months of Clarke's camp experiences. The prank with the young ones was a success, and Ontari got stuck in saran wrap as she tried to exit her cabin in the morning. And again when she tried to get to the head of camps office to get Clarke and Bellamy in trouble. And then a third time when she went to the bathrooms to get ready.
When Octavia was dropped off for the older kids weeks, the first thing she saw was Bellamy and Clarke walking towards the mess holding hands. She shrieked and tackled them both.
The rest of the weeks were spent stealing kisses when none of the campers were looking and occasionally sneaking off when they were off duty to swim in the lake by themselves.
Of course they also pissed Ontari off until she eventually quit. Clarke and Bellamy swore that they did not intentionally do so.
Clarke tried to push from her mind the thought of having to leave Bellamy at the end of camp. That was until Bellamy informed her that he was going to be transferring to her school after he finished his second year at community college. Of course the year without him was going to be hard, but Clarke already planned to drive and visit him at least once a month.
On the last day, after the campers were all gone and only the counselors were left to pack up and take down the furniture Clarke and Bellamy had put on the roof of the mess, Clarke said her goodbye to Bellamy. She didn't want to let go. And although she had tears in her eyes as she got into her car, she had thoughts of seeing him soon and being in his arms once again.
Clarke was thirty-four years old.
She was hit with a wave of nostalgia as she pulled up to the familiar woods. She stepped out of the car and closed her eyes. The smell of pine. The sound of kids running around. She wanted nothing more to go and explore the place she once called home.
But that time was over for her.
The slam of the passenger door woke her from her trance, and Bellamy stepped around the car to stand next to her.
"Wow. It hasn't changed a bit."
Clarke smiled. "No. Thank god it hasn't." The backseat door opened and her eight year old son stepped out. His blonde curls looked just like his mothers, but he had the same mischievous look in his eyes that his father always had. Inside the van sat another boy, four years old and his fingers in his mouth as he stared at the movie playing on the screen. A baby was fast asleep in her car seat, sucking on her pacifier.
"Are you ready Sawyer?" Bellamy asked, as he went to grab his duffel from the trunk.
The little boy looked apprehensively around the camp. "I guess. You'll write to me, right?"
Clarke knelt down in front of her son, grabbing his hands. "Of course we will. But I have a feeling you'll be having so much fun, you'll forget about us."
Bellamy came over to stand by them. "And if anyone gives you trouble, just tell them that it's your parents names on the mess hall ceiling. You'll immediately become popular."
Clarke shook her head at her husband. "Nobody will give you trouble."
Harper, the new head of camp, came over to hug them hello. After a short conversation, Harper offered to lead Sawyer over to his cabin so he could meet his counselor. Clarke made him say goodbye to his siblings. He reluctantly crawled back in the van to hug his brother goodbye and kiss his sleeping sister on the forehead.
"Have fun kiddo," Bellamy said as he hugged his son goodbye. "Keep up the Blake legacy."
Sawyer smiled before turning to his mom and giving her a tight embrace. "Bye Mom. I'll miss you."
Clarke started to tear up. "Bye honey. I love you very much."
As they watched him walk away, Bellamy put his arm around his wife.
"He'll be ok, right?" she asked as Sawyer got farther away.
"He'll be just fine." Bellamy pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "Come on, let's get going."
Clarke got back in the van. Took one last fleeting glance at her old home. And then drove down the road, leading away from camp.