"I can't believe you made us come to this. I could be sleeping! Or studying! Or eating or even doing my laundry," Raven said, exasperated as she slumped into the bleachers, crossing her arms at Octavia.

"If I recall correctly, you wanted to come, because, 'We get to see them get hit in the face with balls!'" Octavia snipped back in a poor impersonation of Raven. It still made Clarke snicker though, which earned her a glare from her roommate.

"You did say that."

"You're supposed to be on my side, Clarke!"

"Sorry, can't argue with facts."

"I'm not saying that I didn't say that. I did. But that doesn't change the fact that this is simply-" Raven waved her hand to encompass the entirety of the gymnasium, "-atrocious! What are they even doing?!"

"They are making posters and flags," Harper said levelly, which of course, attracted Raven's glare like a magnet.

"This is a dodgeball tournament, not arts and crafts at Christian summer camp! They are meant to play dodgeball."

"Woah, Christian summer camp, sounds like there is a story behind that one." Octavia leaned forward, intrigued. Raven huffed at her and mumbled,

"I went there once. One time. And they made us do arts and flippin' crafts for hours. Every day."

Octavia cackled. "I was too poor to go to summer camp, I always wanted to know what it was like."

"Well you dodged a bullet. Consider yourself lucky," Raven said scornfully.

"It's not that bad, Raven." Clarke placed her hands on the girl's shoulders. "At least we're not just sitting around the dorm."

"We're sitting around this gym instead." Raven slumped into Clarke's knees instead, dropping her head into her lap.

"You'd think you were being tortured," Octavia muttered, the humor leaving quickly.

"I'd rather have my fingernails ripped out one by one. Might liven this up a bit."

Clarke shook her head at Raven, gazing out over the gym to where Bellamy and the other boys were kneeling on the floor before a large poster board and an array of paints and markers. She had to admit that it was rather boring, especially since they had been forbidden to help The Delinquents make their poster. It was some kind of precursor competition, before the actual tournament started. There were about three dozen teams scattered throughout the space, coloring and drawing and painting. It was sort of comical, watching these nearly grown men crouch on the floor with paint brushes.

"Look," Octavia said, standing up. They glanced over to where Monty was waving them over to their corner.

Clarke hauled an unwilling Raven to her feet, pulling her down the bleachers and across the gym floor by her wrist.

"Ta dah!" Jasper said, stepping back proudly, revealing the completed poster. Clarke tilted her head to the side, trying to figure out what the conglomeration of shapes and colors were. She guessed the other girls' reactions were similar, based on Jasper's disgruntled huff. He snatched the poster off the floor and pointed to a large shape on the side, his gaze imploring.

"What is it?" Harper asked softly.

"It's a spaceship!" He proclaimed as if repulsed by the thought that none of them got it.

"Why?" Octavia asked harshly.

"Because spaceships are awesome," Jasper said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

'You're not wrong," Raven agreed and Jasper nodded approvingly at her.

"Thank you."

"What's this other stuff?"

"Oh, that's each of our handprints, and those are supposed to be dodgeballs with flames on them, because you know, we're going to throw them so fast they will be liable to catching fire," Monty explained.

Clarke could sort of make out what he was describing, but it mostly looked like a bucket of paint had been dumped onto the poster, then someone had mushed their hands into it, before writing 'The Delinquents' haphazardly across the top in Sharpie marker.

"It's nice," she said, smiling at the boys. In reality, it almost physically pained her to look at it. Her artistic side was cringing away from the monstrosity that was this poster.

"I said less glitter but Jasper insisted," Miller said.

"Now we probably look like a bunch of fairies," Murphy was more gruff.

"Hey now," Bellamy warned.

A voice on a loudspeaker over the gym announced that the tournament would be starting in ten minutes, right after the posters were judged so the initial matchups could be made.

"Let's get this party started!" Raven whooped, pushing Monty towards the rest of the team from where he had been slinking away, seemingly gunshy now that it was time to actually take part in the sport.

"Wait, I want to take a picture! Hold up your poster." Harper shuffled them together, arranging them from behind her phone's camera whilst Murphy muttered,

"Dear God, I didn't know my mother followed me to college."

"You'll be glad to have it in ten years," Clarke defended Harper, catching Bellamy's eye from where he stood with an arm slung over Miller's shoulder. He flashed a bright, cheeky grin at Clarke and Harper snapped the photo.

"What? For my scrapbook?" Murphy retorted and then Raven rounded on him.

"Listen here you, you cockroach! Harper is just trying to do something nice for all of you so shut up about it or get out."

Murphy threw up his hands in mock surrender and ducked away from her. Raven, satiated now by her reprimanding of Murphy, made her way back to the girl's spot on the bleachers.

"Good luck," Clarke said over her shoulder.

Bellamy was the only one to respond from where he was bringing up the rear of his team. "Thanks, Princess. You too."

The Delinquents got 17th place out of 36 teams for their poster. Clearly, teenage boys and art supplies weren't the greatest combination.

The tournament commenced and they proved to be halfway decent at the sport at least. Well, Bellamy, Miller, and Murphy were good. They crushed their first match, and then their second. It was actually pretty exciting to watch once they got going. Clarke was sort of impressed with how athletic and competitive Bellamy was. Of course she knew that he was muscular and well built, but he seemed to be having such a great time, grinning while he leapt and ducked around, taunting the other team and clapping his teammates on the back.

Jasper and Monty were a bit more reluctant to join in, especially after seeing some of the opponents. They lingered behind the three other guys, only coming forward when the others would get out. Jasper was a gangly kid, but he could rifle a ball with the best of them. And, he was less cumbersome on the floor. Whereas Bellamy and Miller had to rely mostly on catching or blocking any ball thrown at them, Jasper could shimmy out of the way like he was made of rubber.

In the third game, Murphy nearly got into a fistfight with the referee over his near headshot. The ball had hit him in the neck, and he was called out. Despite the ruling, he was determined to make a case for himself, that he had, in fact, been hit in the head. He was yelling and stomping around the referee, who was no more than another college kid who clearly had no idea what to do about the situation.

Eventually, Bellamy and Miller talked him down, and they still scraped out the win with a fantastic catch by Monty that had all of the girls cheering from the bleachers. The other four boys rushed Monty and hoisted him up on their shoulders, much to Monty's bewilderment. He perched precariously there and smiled widely as they paraded him across the gym.

Then, The Delinquents were in the quarterfinals after nearly three hours of dodgeball, facing The Grounders. Bellamy stepped forward to shake hands with an enormously muscled guy before the match started. He looked far older than college aged, but then again, Bellamy was… how old was Bellamy? Clarke made a mental note to ask him that. Anyway, Bellamy was older than the typical incoming freshman but there he was, playing intramural dodgeball.

"Jeez, look at that guy," Harper commented.

"Yeah…" Octavia sighed.

The other three girls shared a look behind Octavia's head. She wouldn't have noticed anyway, what with the eyes she was making at the other man. Clarke watched as he then glanced up at where they were sitting and gave a barely perceptible nod. Clarke noticed though and got the feeling that something was not quite as it seemed.

The game commenced and The Delinquents were quickly outmatched by The Grounders. Murphy got out almost instantly, nailed right in the stomach. He looked as if he was about to argue again, but a glare from Bellamy banished him quietly to the sidelines. A ball ricocheted off of Miller and Monty scrambled to catched it, but it slipped through his hands and fell to the floor, getting both boys out.

Jasper, sensing their impending doom at 5 vs 2, flew forward from the back line where he had been hovering with a strangled sort of battle cry, a ball in each hand. He launched one high, trying to entice the opponent to catch it as a distraction, and misled the other one towards the huge guy. The distraction worked, but on the wrong person. Bellamy was so surprised by Jasper's outburst, that he was hit with a weakly thrown ball in the leg. Both of Jasper's balls were caught, and the game was over.

Clarke followed the girls down to the floor, where both teams were gathering on the side of the court to get out of the way for the second quarterfinal game.

"-throw you got there, kid." Clarke caught the end of what the big guy said, patting Jasper on the shoulder. Jasper was gaping at him, looking starstruck over the intramural dodgeball player.

"Go on and introduce yourself then," Raven nudged Octavia forward.

Octavia poorly feigned surprise. "Huh? Introduce myself?"

Raven scoffed, nodding at the man. Octavia drew herself back as if insulted. Clarke chuckled at Octavia as she ducked away, her eyes never leaving him though. They approached and Clarke watched the two people make eye contact for a bit longer than normal for a first meeting.

"Good game," Clarke said, making herself known with a friendly wave.

"Yeah, it was great," Bellamy said, coming up alongside her. He smelled of sweat and exertion, which was strangely not totally repulsive.

"It was. Nice to meet you all, I'm Lincoln," the guy said, glancing behind him as if to introduce the rest of his team, but they had scattered behind him, chatting with more people. "Hmm."

"I'm Octavia. It's nice to meet you, Lincoln."

"You too, Octavia," he replied, again his gaze lingered a touch too long. The whole exchange was terribly formal and completely weird to Clarke.

They were interrupted before anyone else seemed to notice though, by a tall girl coming up behind Lincoln, her gaze intent on Bellamy.

"Hey you," she said, sounding as if she already knew him. Knew him quite well. Clarke was a bit taken aback, but she was careful to ensure it didn't show on her face. "Did you get to where you needed to go on, oh, what night was that?" She said breezily.

"Uh, yeah. I did," Bellamy said with a glance down at Clarke. She returned his gaze levelly, feeling like she was missing something.

"That's good. I was watching you play, because, well how could I not!" She laughed lightly before continuing, "And I thought you looked familiar, but I couldn't remember where I knew you from."

"Hmm," Bellamy said without returning any of the playful inflection in this girl's voice.

"And then you ran off so fast that night, I didn't even get your name."

"It's Bellamy."

"Oh! Well, I'm Echo. Nice to see you again." Clarke was confused by this exchange as well, but she couldn't back away so these two could talk to each other. Raven was right behind her, engrossed in conversation with Miller and Murphy in a tight circle that Clarke couldn't just slip into. She was stuck between this awkward conversation and the awkward looks between Octavia and this Lincoln guy.

"Yeah," Bellamy said.

"You were great out there. Don't tell the rest of the team, but you definitely carried," Echo leaned into Bellamy, as if telling him a secret, except she didn't lower her voice so she was still heard loud and clear.

"Thanks. But it's a team sport, so not really."

Clarke was a bit surprised at how cold and reserved Bellamy was being. She really didn't know him all that well, but the side of him she did know was amiable and warm.

"Anyway, I think we're heading to Hodge's Bend after the championship game if you want to stick around and join us?" Echo asked.

"Uh, no, but thanks. We've got plans, don't we, Clarke?"

Her name coming from Bellamy's mouth startled Clarke from her musings about where she had heard of that place before. "Hmm?" She looked up, not having heard the beginning of the question. Echo was looking at her in an unsettling way and Clarke shifted away. Bellamy was looking at her intently as he asked again,

"We've got plans, don't we?"

Clarke was confused. She didn't have plans with Bellamy… "Oh! You mean bingo?"

"Bingo?" Echo started to laugh.

"Yeah. Bingo," Clarke said flatly. She wasn't sure she was too fond of this Echo chick.

"C'mon. We'd better get going if we want to make it on time," Bellamy said, laying a hand on Clarke's shoulder and turning her away from Echo. Clarke could feel the other girl's gaze on her back as she retreated, guided by Bellamy.

"Well, see you around."

"Sure," Bellamy waved goodbye with his free hand without turning around.

Bellamy rounded up the rest of the group, and Miller and Murphy decided to go along with them on the pretense of free food.

Once outside, Clarke realized how late it had gotten. The lack of windows in the gymnasious had hidden the passing of time, so it was a bit of a surprise to walk out into the near dusk.

Bellamy noticed when Clarke gave pause in the doorway, hesitating on the threshold. Her stomach seized up and some invisible force was holding her back, like the dark air had formed into a solid, impenetrable mass. Bellamy held the door for her and turned a soft gaze back. The rest of the group had gone out ahead of them, laughing about the bruise forming on Murphy's neck. Their voices rang out in the night, competing with the traffic noises playing over the air.

"I'm alright," Clarke said quickly, darting outside, trying to avoid Bellamy's concerned eyes. It was making her skin crawl for some reason right now, probably just because she didn't know what had come over her.

"What's wrong Clarke?" He asked, jogging a few paces to catch up with her. She wrapped her arms tightly about herself, looking down at the pavement.

"Nothin," she said offhandedly.

"Okay."

Clarke was glad that he didn't pry. She wanted to say something to get the feeling out of the air, and the first thing that came out of her mouth was, "I miss the sounds of the crickets. Haven't got any of those in Minneapolis."

It was just random enough to take Bellamy aback.

"Guess not. Not down town anyway, but there are plenty here."

"Yeah?"

"Definitely. And cicadas and frogs and aphids. All kinds of singing things. Sometime we'll go on a road trip and listen. Maybe once the leaves change," Bellamy mused and Clarke felt her anxiety start to dissipate with the wistful tone of Bellamy's voice.

She chuckled and he glanced down. "Have you got a car?"

"Well, no. We can take the bus."

"Sounds like a plan." Bellamy held out his hand and Clarke shook it, letting her tightly wrapped arms come undone. "Maybe we can ask Raven to borrow her Jeep."

Bellamy nodded. "I know just the place."

"Yeah?"

"But it's a secret. I can't have you looking it up ahead of time and spoiling the view for yourself."

"Oh really? So it has a view. What makes you think I can't find it on my own?" Clarke raised a brow at Bellamy with a teasing smile.

"You wouldn't," he glowered.

"Never know."

They were interrupted by Jasper and Murphy shouting ahead. The group had paused at the corner, waiting for the light to turn.

"It is not, 'Hey there Delilah, what's it like in New York City'," Jasper said.

"Yes! It is!" Murphy was standing in front of him, glaring.

"No! It's "How's it like in New York City.'"

"Dear God," Raven muttered.

"Listen to yourself! How's it like? That doesn't even make sense!"

"It doesn't have to make sense to be right!" Jasper retorted indignantly, not backing down. Murphy looked around at the assembled crowd as if unable to believe they were listening to blasphemy this without speaking up. Clarke and Bellamy shared a look before they both started struggling to conceal their laughter.

"Uh, Jasper," Monty spoke up, pulling Jasper's attention away from staring Murphy down. "He's right."

"Haha real funny, Monty."

"No, I'm not joking, Jasper."

"Finally, someone with some sense!" Murphy exclaimed, snatching Monty's phone out of his hands and jabbing his finger at the screen where the boy had pulled up the lyrics to Hey There Delilah.

"Look! Open you peasant eyes and behold! 'Hey there Delilah, what's it like in New York City'!" Murphy yelled. "What's! What's it like!"

"I refuse to believe lies." Jasper stood tall and turned his face away.

"Dude, it's right there. You're wrong," Miller said sensibly. Jasper only hoisted his nose higher into the air. Clarke was just an observer as everyone else dissolved into trying to convince Jasper to concede and admit that he was wrong, because Murphy wasn't going to relent until he said the words.

"Just admit it dude," Bellamy said, fed up with the whole bit.

"Yeah, we're late now," Octavia grumbled. Jasper looked lost, his resolve fading as he glanced around at the irritated faces. Clarke was still trying to figure out why he was so dead set on not apologizing and admitting his mistake.

"Okay, okay! I was wrong," he muttered, barely audible.

"What was that?" Murphy leaned forward with a hand cupped to his ear.

Miller pulled him upright. "Leave it."

"Fine. Only because I'm trying to be the bigger person."

Octavia and Raven made identical scoffs and started off down the street.

"Get outta here," Miller shoved Murphy and they started jogging to catch up. Clarke was nervous for a moment that this stupid argument was going to lead to a whole dispute with punches thrown and newly foraged friendships jepordized. She quickly realized that wasn't the MO of this group, as not two minutes later, they were skipping into the Hall, singing Hey There Delilah at the top of their lungs.

"Ohhh, it's what you do to meeee! It's what you do to meee!"

It was one of those moments when Clarke felt like she was on top of the world and totally in control. She was confident and content and surrounded by a whole group of friends. Even if she had only made them over the past couple of weeks, she knew they were the stuff lifelong companions were made of. The whole year was ahead of her, and nothing was going to prevent her from experiencing all college had to offer.