Clarke POV

"Will you come over later, Clarke? We meet at the Woods-house and have a nice evening together or something." Octavia – who appeared to be a self-confident and very stubborn friend – looked at Clarke with her cute and somehow puppy-like gaze. "Please say yes or else you will miss something!" She grabbed Lincoln's hand, when he appeared next to her. To say no to Octavia was kinda impossible, but Clarke hesitated a bit. On the one hand she was really curious, above all because of the cool houses Harper told her about. The Woods – including Lincoln and his cousin Lexa – shared a big house a bit outside the city at the shore with another girl called Anya Timber and in the same street was also the house of the Blake-siblings, who shared a house with Raven and the smaller house of Harper's family. Clarke did not know what lead her friends to this unusual but kind of cool living situation, but she was unsure if she was ready for a night out, especially because she did not know Lincoln's cousin Lexa and her friend Anya. All she heard about them so far was not as nice as she hoped it would be. Unlike her friends, Lexa and Anya were more like the "it-girls" of the school, too pretty and popular to hang out with girls like Clarke. Plus the way to the houses at the shore was like 25 minutes long with the car from where Clarke lived. "Well… Octavia I don't know. My mom has to work at the hospital the whole weekend… she won't be able to drive me to your place and I don't have my own car yet."
What's wrong with me? I mean… they just wanna spend a nice evening together, why do I feel like this, hesitating? They are my friends. Griffin, you damned coward.
"Ohhh come on Clarke, we will find a solution! Somebody can pick you up or something, please!" Octavia grabbed the hand of the blonde, still teasing her with this puppy-gaze. "Please!" Lincoln shook his head in amusement and looked at Clarke. "Actually I think that Lexa might be able to pick you up later. My cousin, remember? She will be in town a bit longer after school so that you have enough time to pick up your stuff. Plus… you could for sure stay overnight, our house is big enough." His voice was calm as always and his dark eyes kind of helped Clarke to focus on what she wanted to do. Combined with the cute face of Octavia it was just not possible for Clarke to say no. Not anymore. "Fine", she finally agreed with a sigh, "tell your cousin I will be ready later for her to pick me up." While Octavia was as happy as a kid on Christmas Eve, Lincoln nodded in agreement and both of them left Clarke alone in the hallway of the school. "Damn it", Clarke whispered. Now she agreed with something she was actually not feeling comfortable with. But why not? First… She did not know Lexa and Anya. What if they were really as unfriendly as others told her? Oh come on, Griffin, lift your gaze and don't behave like an idiot. You will survive a stupid ride in Lexa's car and then you are surrounded by your good friends and don't have to talk to her at all.
But what was this strange feeling she had all the time she heard Lexa's name? As if this name was connected to something deep inside her, something she was just not able to remember right now.

Lexa POV

"Seriously? Oh Lincoln, I still do have so much to do, can't you pick her up yourself? … Yeah. So Octavia is buying the alcohol? Okay fine, I'll do it then. Just because it's you. See you later, bye." Lexa dropped her phone, started her car again and drove through the city, in the direction of the street Lincoln told her before. She never really met Clarke before, just saw her in the school but they never talked or something. All Lexa knew was that she was part of the group of friends surrounding her cousin Lincoln now, but Lexa stopped spending as much time with them as she used to after…
"Oh that's the right house", she said to herself, parked the car in front of the garage. 5 steps, then she rang the door and waited.

Clarke POV

Oh damn it. That must be Lexa already! And Clarke did neither call her mother to ask her if she was allowed to stay overnight at the Woods-house nor did she complete packing her stuff. "Hold on, I'm nearly downstairs!", she shouted, put on a pretty t-shirt she bought in her last week in Sydney and rushed downstairs to open the door. In front of her stood a beautiful girl with sea-green, bright eyes, long, wavy and brown hair and a beautiful face that showed no sign of expression right now. Clarke was unsure what was going on with her but suddenly she was unable to move. Breathless. She just stared at Lexa like an idiot, unable to look away. It was like her eyes were enchanting Clarke somehow. Lexa...

It was Lexa who broke the silence, as if she felt nothing weird like Clarke did. "Hey. Lincoln asked me to pick you up, are you ready?", she asked, her voice sounded a bit bored and stressed. Clarke swallowed twice until she finally found her voice again. "I need 2 minutes, if you don't mind. Come in and have a seat, I'll hurry, promise." Her voice sounded unfamiliar, a bit stammering and shy. Unusual to the normal Clarke, who was not the most self-comfortable person, but also never really shy. Before Lexa could even answer something, Clarke ran back upstairs and packed her things. When she came back to Lexa, the other girl was sitting on one of the kitchen chairs and looked at her with the same expressionless face like before. Clarke could not help but think about Lexa's thoughts. "There you are", Lexa said, stood up and went to the door. "Let's go, the party is waiting for us already."

The drive in the car was not as bad as Clarke imagined it to be. They barely spoke, but the silence was not something that made Clarke feel uncomfortable. Lexa was surprisingly good at being quiet with Clarke, although she seemed to be a bit interested in her life before she came here. "All this must be so boring for you. Sydney is so big compared to here. Our parties are smaller. And we do have so much nature here." The brunette took a deep breath, as if there was something else she was thinking about. "Don't you miss your old home, Clarke?" Clarke shrugged and turned her head to Lexa, whose gaze was focused on the street. Now that she looked at the other girl, she was unable to look away again. Although Clarke tended to never speak about her real feelings to somebody she barely knew, she had the weird feeling that she could trust Lexa with her thoughts.
"I do miss Sydney from time to time, yes. Above all the view we had from our flat. The lights in the middle of the night. The water… the opera house. But on the other side I start to like my life here, too. I already found so many nice friends, a place where I could feel at home. We moved very often, I never had the chance to find friends, you know?" As an answer, the brunette just nodded and kept quiet. She was probably unsure what to say to Clarke to make her feel better or something. Clarke knew that it was not easy to understand that lifestyle if you have not lived it yourself. After 5 more minutes driving on the road they finally arrived at the Woods-house. Lexa parked her car in the garage and showed Clarke the way inside. "You can drop your bag over there for now. I bet the others are next door." For some reason Lexa did not look directly at Clarke anymore and seemed to keep herself busy with something in the kitchen that was nearby. The blonde hesitated in the doorframe and watched her writing something on a paper, before she made a step forward. "Uhm…Lexa?" Hearing her name the brunette turned around, this time their eyes met again, leaving Clarke breathless for a second.
Every part of Lexa's face was really pretty, especially her bright eyes, but what somehow made Clarke worry the most was the fact that she immediately tried to find something in Lexa's emotionless gaze. Why? She did not even know Lexa that well. Why was there this strange feeling that told her that there was so much more behind the facade? Still in thoughts Clarke then swallowed before she finally said: "Thank you for driving me here. I guess I'll see you later?" – "Probably. Anya and I will join you guys later. As soon as you go down to the sea."
Even though Lexa's voice was cold and neutral as always, Clarke was more than sure that the other one hesitated for a second, before she answered. Eventually turning around Clarke left the Woods-house and went next door. She felt like she missed something. Something really important. Or maybe…someone?

"Heeeey, Clarke! Finally! We already thought Lexa forgot to pick you up or something!" Clarke was hugged by Octavia, who opened the door and guided Clarke to the big living room of the house. Actually the whole house was more than impressive. Everything was decorated with bright colors and with a designer-style and it looked like some celebrities could live here… or at least somebody who was really rich. Clarke also noticed that it had a similar decoration-style like the Woods-house. "And you really live here on your own, I mean…", Clarke started to ask, but Raven, who now stood up from the couch with a big smile, interrupted her: "Yeah, we do. The Blake parents live somewhere else and bought this big house for Bell and Octavia and I… well let's just say they kind of adopted me and begged me to move in." This sentence was followed by a chuckle – a familiar one – when Bellamy came over and sat down on the couch, next to Clarke. "Actually it was the other way around", he added, "but what would we do without our wonderful, precious, amazing and genius Raven, huh?" Clarke saw Raven sticking out her tongue and Octavia let out a sigh. "Come on guys, behave like grown-ups for once, okay?" – "Grown-ups? I thought this was Neverland! I'm definitely wrong here, help me", Harper laughed and everyone joined her.

The evening was really nice and while they drank some alcohol together, Clarke relaxed even more. Lincoln and Octavia organized a spontaneous barbecue on their private area at the shore behind the houses and when Jasper and Monty joined them, the group was almost complete. Only Lexa and Anya were not around. While Clarke was one of the more sober one's, Raven was already completely drunk and she appeared to be one of these girls, who got very clingy when they are drunk. "Oh Clarke I swear, you smell like heaven and I will never let you go. You're definitely my soulmate. I knew that the moment I first saw you in the hallway", she babbled kind of incomprehensible and came closer to Clarke to hug her even tighter. Octavia, who cuddled with Lincoln, could not help but grin and suppress a laugh, but her eyes showed some kind of compassion. "I am so sorry, I should have told you." She formed these words with her lips, although Clarke was sure that Raven – in her current situation – would not even notice if somebody started to talk about her.
"Let's just say I got used to it by now", Clarke laughed and changed her position so that Raven could place her head in her lap. "So you met my cousin today? What do you think? I bet she scared you to death", Lincoln started, focusing on Clarke now. "Lexa? Oh… well no, I think she was nice." – "Nice? Come on, Clarke, just because she's Lincoln's cousin you don't have to lie. Everyone here knows how cold Lexa can be. She's like… the ice-queen or something", Octavia interrupted and shrugged. Octavia was probably right. Lexa did not say that much… just the things that were absolutely necessary. And polite small talk, of course. "You know that she's been through a lot", Lincoln added quietly, looking at his girlfriend. For Clarke it was nearly unable to understand these words, but even without understanding, something inside Clarke told her to protect Lexa. "No, I'm serious. I like her. She was nice." Before Octavia could prove her wrong, the blonde let her gaze wander over the small area of the shore, where all her friends were sitting together, watching the sunset. It was more peaceful than everything else Clarke ever experienced. At least she thought that, until this feeling started to appear in her stomach again. Loneliness. She was surrounded by all her friends, this sunset was more than beautiful and everyone was happy but still… something was missing.