Chapter Four: Let's Make a Deal
As Bellamy bolted from the classroom, he tried not to be too upset about the project.
There were a few pros to his predicament, first of which being that he was partners with Harper; she was cute to look at, always had an extra granola bar, and she was smart enough to carry her own weight for the project.
Not that the last part mattered all too much—Bellamy prefered doing partner work himself; that way, he knew he was going to get a good grade on the assignment. Everyone in the school may have viewed him as lazy with nothing to live up too, but Bellamy had plans.
Plans that didn't involve staying in Edison, New Jersey all of his life. Plans that required higher than a 2.0 GPA.
When Bellamy got to room 221 where the student-council meeting was set to be held, he was barely fazed by the blonde at the front of the room. Clarke was always first. Bellamy suspected that her apt to be first in the class was her subtle way of proclaiming to everyone else that she was in charge and no one had better cross her.
"You're here early," Clarke said without looking up from her book. The desks were neatly arranged in a circle with Clarke's podium at the head.
Bellamy snorted, settling into a desk on the opposite side of the circle as Clarke. "I could say the same about you, but I don't think it really constitutes to you any more."
Clarke's eyes narrowed but she didn't look up from her page. "And the barbarian does have a brain. I'd never have guessed it."
"Impressed by my vocabulary skills, huh? News flash, Princess: I'm not as dumb as you and everyone else takes me for."
"I don't think you're dumb; I just think that you lack a decent personality."
Her eyes remained glued to whatever novel she was reading, and Bellamy ignored her right back. It was just like Clarke to leave an insult hanging that he wasn't even sure how to respond too. So instead, he fished around in his bag for the half-empty Dr. Pepper he had stashed and pulled out his notebook.
When he started jotting down different notes about the Crusades, out of the corner of his eye, Bellamy noticed that Clarke had raised an eyebrow though she didn't say anything. He redirected his attention back on his notes. That's right. Let the princess be impressed.
Less than ten minutes had passed when the flow of student council members had made it's peak. Harper came in, only to take a seat near Clarke and engage in a conversation.
Fine, he thought. Go sit with her highness instead of sitting with your history partner.
Sterling and Fox filtered in a minute later holding hands. Then a pile of books slammed down to Bellamy's left and suddenly Miller was there. "Hey, dude."
"Hey." Bellamy ignored the unamused glare that Clarke and Harper were shooting in their direction. "I was wondering when you were going to show up."
Miller shrugged. "I didn't realize you were going to be here so— " he sat down on the desktop and glanced briefly at Clarke before turning back to Bellamy. "—early. Oh, I got you bro. The princess is quite the catch."
Bellamy rolled his eyes. "As if I'd ever have feelings for Clarke."
Miller laughed, "Yeah, that's true. I don't think that'll ever happen. Especially with Wells in the way."
Bellamy grinned along, but he wasn't so sure about where Wells stood in the Clarke equation anymore. They hadn't seemed too close from what he had observed over the last few weeks, but it was possible that he was mistaken. He hadn't been paying that much attention. "Where's Monroe?"
"She should be here in a few." Miller waved a dismissive hand. "Probably had to pee or something. Maybe fix her hair. It sucks that Murphy didn't want to do stu-co this year."
Bellamy shrugged. "This never really was his thing though. Murphy would rather kick someone's ass on the street than this."
Monroe made it to the room three minutes before the meeting was due to start. What surprised everyone, however, was that the golden boy, Wells Jaha, who had been student-council president for three years running and was known for being punctual, was two minutes late.
Bellamy noted that the younger boy was out of breath when he stumbled into the room and was walking funny on his ankle. "Sorry I'm late," Wells breathed, hands clamped over his knees. "I was on—"
"—it's fine," Clarke cut in coldly. Another prime example in which Clarke's relations with Wells seemed to be over, in Bellamy's opinion. Her eyes focused in on Wells, daring him to challenge her. "Take a seat."
Wells slouched into a seat two down from Monroe. "What's going on with them?" she whispered to Bellamy and he could only shrug in response.
"First project on the table is going to be organizing homecoming—" Clarke paused for the collective groans, "—which gives us about six weeks of preparation. So we can't waste any time during meetings." She grabbed a marker from off the whiteboard ledge. "I think—"
"Clarke?" Sterling interrupted. Clarke recapped her marker and turned toward him. "Don't you think it would be a good idea to get student council president out of the way real fast?"
Clarke rolled her eyes, which Bellamy found somewhat obnoxious. "Is it really necessary?" she asked slightly annoyed.
"Yeah," Bellamy agreed gruffly, "we all know Wells is going to snowball the competition anyway."
Clarke stiffened suddenly, like the thought of Wells being in charge made her skin crawl. Wells slumped down in his seat slightly. "Okay," she relented, "we can pick this year's president real quick."
Bellamy pretended to be occupied by his phone while Clarke passed out blank sheets of recycled paper. He still thought it was a stupid idea since Wells was going to win regardless. When a blank note was placed on his desk, Bellamy quickly scribbled Wells on the blank space, folded it up, then gave it to Monroe who was getting up to give hers to Clarke.
When Clarke had all eight paper slips back in her hand, she handed them to Harper to read off.
"First one is for Wells," Harper read and Bellamy set his head down on his desk. He was expecting as much. With a disdainful scowl, Clarke wrote Wells's name on the board and added a tally point beneath it.
"One for Clarke."
That wasn't a surprise either. The princess was the only real competition that stood in Wells's four year wrote her name on the board and added a point.
"Another one for Clarke. Another one for Wells. One for Bellamy."
Bellamy's head shot up, eyes wide. He couldn't have heard that right—someone had voted him as president? Over Clarke and Wells?
Sure enough, Clarke had written Bellamy's name on the board in swooping letters and—wait, was she smiling as she gave him a tally point below his name?
He couldn't be sure if he had seen it right because Miller was clapping him on the back saying, "Yeah, Bellamy!" while Monroe gave him a playful shove in the arm. Bellamy grinned, slightly embarrassed.
Harper continued, "Another one for Bellamy. Another one for Bellamy." She raised her eyebrows, nodding like she was impressed by the turn-out. Bellamy couldn't find it in himself to be offended even in the slightest because he was surprised too. "And another one for Clarke."
"Damn," Sterling muttered.
"Final standing is that Clarke and Bellamy are tied with three votes each and Wells is in second with two." Harper pitched the paper slips into the trash, then sat down.
Bellamy glanced over at Wells, expecting the mini-superintendent to be furious by his loss but he just sat silently with his fingers steepled together. In fact, he looked like he had been expecting this turn out all along and welcomed it calmly like one might welcome death.
The thought made Bellamy scowl.
"Well, what now?" Miller's demand broke Bellamy from his thoughts.
"Is there going to be a tie-breaker?" Fox asked meekly.
Clarked scowled. "We really don't have time for that. This was only supposed to be a half hour meeting and we've already accomplished less than I would have prefered too."
"What you would have prefered too," Bellamy repeated. Clarke gave him a look, but Bellamy's gut swelled with annoyance. "Look, Princess, you weren't elected as the superior authority, okay? We need to settle this now."
"We don't have time for—"
"Then who's going to run this thing? Make the rules? You?"
"Both of us," Clarke responded sharply, taking Bellamy back. The tension in the room spiked and everyone held their breath. "We were both elected, alright? From now on, we can work together as co-leaders until we find a time to settle it out. Deal?"
Bellamy reconsidered the proposal. It was better to share partial authority than being demoted right on the spot.
Locking eyes with Clarke, Bellamy nodded once. "Deal."
…
For once, soccer didn't relax Jasper. The run in with Wells and the promise he'd made was making him jumpy.
Already he had missed two goals that should have been easy shots and his passes were off by at least a foot every time, if not more. The team was already down a few players who had to skip for student council which meant everyone on the team was supposed to up their game.
Instead, Jasper was on a downward spiral. He passed the ball to a girl named Charlotte, but it skimmed right past, missing her by several inches.
"Jordan!" He winced as the coach yelled at him for who knew what time that day. "PASS the ball! You're playing with other people, not the benches and trees! Lock it up!"
Practice ended less than fifteen minutes later, but it was still an extra few minutes for him to embarrass himself further. Not only did he miss another goal, but the ball he kicked bounced off the goal post and hit one of his teammates in the head. Luckily she had been fine, but Jasper still felt horrible.
"What happened out there?" Monty asked as Jasper approached the benches on the sidelines. "You haven't played that bad since the sixth grade."
He hesitated momentarily. "Wells came and talked to me right before practice and it's been bugging me."
Monty's eyebrows immediately shot up, then narrowed just as quickly. "What did he want?"
"He wants me to get him a list of Clarke's after-school activities and stuff so he can join them and make her fall in love with him again."
"You didn't agree to that did you?"
"Uh—"
"Jasper, you didn't." It was more of statement than question.
Jasper scratched at the mark his socks had left around his calves. "She was really happy when she was with him, so if he can win her over maybe she'll be happy again."
"You really think that Clarke is going to kiss and make-up with him? After what he did?" Monty shook his head in disbelief.
"You seem pretty quick to shut the idea down."
"Only because I know how Clarke will react to it and you do too. If she ever found out you gave him a list like that, she'd be livid."
"That thought did cross my mind." Jasper searched Monty's face, looking for an answer but came up empty. "What should I do?"
"Not give Clarke's schedule to Wells for one thing. We both know she'd never sell you out so it's not fair if you did that to her."
"I guess you're—" Octavia sprinted in their direction and Jasper choked his words back down as she approached them. "O-oh, hey there, Octavia."
Octavia grinned. Her hair was pulled back in a knot of braids and a single ponytail holding it all together. "Hey, Jasper. Monty." She nodded and Monty nodded back.
"What brings you over?" Jasper leaned up against the fence, hoping he looked cool. He ignored the huff from Monty.
"A bunch of us are going to Dairy Queen after the game on Friday just to hang out." She cocked her head to the side and smiled. "I was just wondering if maybe you and Monty would wanna tag along?"
"I don't know," Monty started and Jasper knew he had to think fast before Monty ruined everything. "Clarke is usually our ride so—"
"—of course we'll come!" Jasper interrupted, sidestepping in front of Monty. He could already feel the storm of wrath building up behind him, but Jasper forced himself not to show it. "We'll totally see you there!"
Octavia's smile faltered slightly, and Jasper figured she must have been picking up on the tension between him and Monty. "Great. It'll be really fun." She turned like she was ready to jog off, but peered over her shoulder and said, "Clarke is welcome too, so. No biggie if she needs to tag along." Then she was on the other side of the field again.
Jasper sighed deeply, a dopey love-struck smile on his face. But he barely had time to replay the event in his mind before Monty was hitting him in the arm. "Ow! What the—"
"Are you crazy?" Monty demanded.
"No. Don't you see? This is the perfect time for me to make a connection with Octavia!" He sighed again, staring out to where Octavia was packing up her soccer bag.
"Clarke will flip if she knows you're going out with Octavia. Her and Bellamy are like, sworn enemies."
This time it was Jasper's turn to be indignant. He knew Clarke had a rivalry with Bellamy that extended back to the eighth grade over some argument about gun control policies which eventually gave way to their great dislike for each other throughout high school; however, Jasper didn't really get the point of it all.
In his mind, it's like, yeah sure —have your disagreements. But Bellamy was actually a pretty cool, stand up guy and Jasper admired him a lot. And Clarke hating anything to do with Bellamy Blake made things harder for Jasper and his crush on Octavia Blake because obviously Octavia had a lot to do with Bellamy as his sister and all.
Of course, only Monty knew his feelings on the subject.
"Clarke won't have to find out. I overheard her talking to Abby and she has to meet-up with some guy named Finn for a project Friday so she'll be gone all night. It's perfect and when will something as perfect as this going to work out again?"
Monty pursed his lips. "What are you gonna tell Abby and your dad then?"
"I'll tell them I'm going to hang out with you at your house and you can tell your parents that you're going to my house for the night."
"All of this just to hang out with Octavia?"
"I'm a man in love, Monty. Men do crazy things for love."
Monty clenched the top of the fence until his palms had indentations. "I'm in, but on one condition."
"Name it."
"You promise not to give Wells that list."
"Deal."
...
How are you guys liking it so far? I'd love for some more feedback about what you like and don't like. I'm open for some suggestions too.
Is everyone excited for season three tonight!? I'm so happy I could cry lol
also, regarding an updating schedule...i really don't have one. I just write when I find time and I've had alot of down-time lately which is why I've gotten so many chapters up so fast.
1/21/16
