Hey guys, in this chapter, it is just going to be a series of the events and days that Clarke has spent in The Grounds. It'll have all out favorite characters, and it is something that I worked on for quite a while! Let me know what you think!
"You are the only exception." ~ The Only Exception (Paramore)
Clarke POV:
Day 6
The whole civilization showed up, I was shocked to discover that this was an activity that they did for fun around here. I thought it was ridiculously dangerous.
Bellamy told me it was one hundred percent safe, and he always won anyway. I was sitting between Octavia and Raven, who I had gone to visit almost every day for the past few days.
I was wearing my own pair of boots. They were bright blue, like my eyes. Bellamy had given them to me last night, and I was so excited. He knew how much I wanted a pair so I could ride all on my own.
I was in a pair of shorts that Octavia had let me borrow, because it was too hot out for jeans. I was also in a tank top. I don't think I had ever shown this much skin in one place. It seemed respectable though, because everyone here was in almost the same thing. I wish I had wore a hat like Octavia, rather than my tiara, because it was so sunny out, I was sure I was going to get sunburn.
Someone spoke into a microphone that the first contestant was getting ready at this moment.
"You ready for this Princess?" Raven asked nudging my shoulder.
"I just hope Bellamy knows what he's doing." I said sighing.
"Well, our boys have been doing this since they could learn to walk." Octavia said rolling her eyes.
"Why?" I asked, still not understanding the purpose of this.
"For the excitement." Raven said.
"The adrenaline." Octavia said wiggling her eyebrows.
"The rush." Raven said leaning into us with wide eyes and bobbing her head about. We all giggled and and smiled at one another. I was so happy I could have them with me.
"First up, we have Kyle Wick." the person said into the microphone. Raven shot up in her seat and screamed louder than everyone else as I watched the gate, where the bull was. Wick was up on the platform and with the help of two other people, he soon was upon the bull.
I watched with wide eyes, I knew that Bellamy did not want me to play with the bulls. He didn't mind any other creature, but I knew that he absolutely refused me to play with the bulls.
So why they were going to ride them was a complete mystery to me.
Wick hollered something and then the gate opened and the bull began bucking all about. I stood up with Raven and my mouth dropped.
"Oh my god!" I yelled at her.
"I know right?" she said with a huge grin, as Wick proceeded to go with the bull all about the arena.
"It's the toughest sport on dirt." Octavia said grinning. I watched with wide eyes, until eventually Wick jumped off as a buzzer went off. Everyone cheered, and he waved his hat in the air as some people in the arena shooed the bull back into behind the platform.
A new bull was in the arena now.
I sat down in between Raven and Octavia once more. I became entranced as I watched man after man try to conquer bull after bull. Only a few could do it.
Soon Lincoln was up, and Octavia screamed like a little school girl. I laughed and Raven was in tears as Octavia whooped and waved her hat all about like a crazy woman.
"What?" she said looking down at us in disapproval as we laughed at her.
"Sorry O, you know we love you." Raven said smiling at her. I nodded my head and rubbed her shoulder as she glared at us. She eventually rolled her eyes and began smiling again. We watched man after man, there were many close calls.
Soon Bellamy was up. I swallowed my nervousness as he strapped something onto his chest.
"Relax Princess, he's the best." Raven said rubbing my shoulder.
Everyone had soon discovered me and Bellamy, as he had a difficult time hiding it. He was constantly touching some part of my body, and his eyes were constantly on me.
He blew me a kiss and I smiled. I was still very uncomfortable with the idea of a bull hurting him. I knew that if something happened I would not be afraid to jump over the fence and wrestle the bull myself. Which I knew was very possible as we were sitting in the front row, which was as close to the arena as we could get.
The whole arena shook as people cheered and thundered their feet against the floor as their leader prepared to ride the bull.
"Oh no." Octavia said, her face falling.
"What?" I said.
"He has Ringo." Octavia said, and Raven winced at the sound of the name.
"Shit." Raven said.
"What?" I demanded, upset that neither of them were telling me what was going on.
"He's the meanest, nastiest bull. No one has ever been able to ride him for the whole time." Octavia said frowning. I whipped my head around to Bellamy who was talking to someone on the platform. Soon, Ringo was in the gate. And Bellamy was on him. Bellamy shouted something and the gate was opened.
I stood up and ran to the fence that separated us from them. I watched as Bellamy rode him with confidence. I was in a trance, he seemed to know what the bull was going to do and didn't bother backing down. I felt my mouth drop as the bull had bucked faster, harder, and higher than any of the other bulls had done. Bellamy stayed upon him though.
Soon the buzzer rang out and Bellamy jumped off the bull, and yelled. He flexed his muscles for his people and showed them his strength. I could see the veins on his neck as he punched the air and yelled for them. They all yelled and cheered back as the bull ran back behind the platform.
I screamed and jumped in the air, Octavia and Raven quickly joined me, and soon everyone was by the gate, flashing cameras and screaming. Bellamy grinned up at them and he locked eyes with me. He ran up to the fence where we were standing.
"Yeah baby!" he yelled and grabbed the back of my head and pushed his mouth onto mine. I smiled and grabbed the back of his head and locked my fingers through his hair. If the whole stadium was shaking before, it was vibrating with cheers and stomps.
Bellamy punched the air as he kissed me, this one was powerful. Full of happiness and pride. I let go and grinned.
"There's something I thought I'd never see." Octavia said, as she and Raven high fived. I grinned and Bellamy dropped down from the fence after giving me one more kiss on the cheek.
He raised one finger in the air, his pointer finger. Everyone responded and he marched back behind the platform where all the men patted him on the back and congratulated him. I was shaking with the excitement.
This was living I thought to myself.
Day 9
"Oh shit." Bellamy said looking towards the sky.
"What?" I asked looking above our heads.
"It's going to rain soon Princess." he said, and he kicked into the side of Jacks. We were out on our daily ride, and I was getting good at the reins.
"Rain?" I asked confused.
"Please tell me you've seen rain before?" he asked me. I shook my head no. There were many things that they had here that I had never even heard of back home. As we bounced back home, I heard a loud boom.
"What was that?" I asked, suddenly scared. This rain was something I had no clue of. It could be a weapon for all I knew.
"That, was thunder." Bellamy said.
"Oh." I said, still unsure of this whole ideal. We made it back into the barns, and as we were putting Jacks away, the breeze picked up. It was warm, but I knew it wouldn't be friendly.
I walked to the door where I discovered something falling from the sky. It was happening slowly, then soon it was like the sky had opened. The sun was out, but something was off. The clouds were darker.
"What is it?" I asked staring at it. Bellamy smiled at me.
"Water." he said out reaching his hand. He cupped some of it and showed me.
"What?" I asked confused. I put my hand out, and discovered it was harmless. It felt good. I grinned at him, and he looked at me with a warning look in his eyes.
"Clarke." he said raising his eyebrows at me. I threw my tiara into a pile of hay and pulled him out into the rain with me. He stumbled and tossed his crown next to mine.
"Clarke!" he yelled out. I laughed and spread my arms out and spun around as the rain fell onto me.
"Look at this!" I yelled out in delight.
"Usually, people try to avoid getting rain on them!" Bellamy yelled back grumpily.
"Why?!" I asked in disbelief and I grinned as I spun around more. Soon Bellamy was smiling and laughing at me. He picked me up and spun me around. I laughed and soon we were both dancing in the rain. As I laughed and spun around with him, in the pouring rain, I let go of all my inhibitions.
This was happiness I thought to myself.
Day 13
"No way." Raven said as she tried to steal a little black box from Octavia. "We are not watching this crap again." she said. Octavia and her wrestled over the thing that seemed to control the tv.
We were all in our sleep clothes in Octavia's room. We had spent the whole night eating good food that Ella and Joelle had brought us. They were poured over something called a magazine, it looked like one of my closet books, except it had a thinner paper, and had much more in it. We had spent the whole night laughing and telling jokes.
Eventually Raven gave up and allowed Octavia to control the tv. I soon discovered that it had moving pictures on it, and often the scenes were funny. The ones that Octavia put on however, often had scenes of boys and girls breaking each others hearts.
"So, Raven." I said smiling at her. "Will you tell us about you and Wick?" I asked trying to cheer her up. She smiled and looked down at her fingers.
"Ooo, good idea Clarkey." Octavia said nudging Ravens shoulder. Raven shoved Octavia away from her.
"You know how we are." Raven muttering focusing her attention back on the screen.
"No. I really don't." I said stretching out on Octavia's bed, looking down at Raven.
"Well. He's an annoying little shit, who thinks he knows everything." Raven said matter of factly, which had me and Octavia giggling. "But, when the work is done, he's my best friend. I couldn't live without him." she said burning.
"Aww, Rae. I didn't realize you were capable of feelings." Octavia teased.
"Shut up." Raven said whacking Octavia with a pillow, which had Octavia falling off the bed. I burst out laughing and couldn't breathe. Octavia huffed, and glared at Raven.
"Well O." Raven said tauntingly. "It's time for you to spill about you and Lincoln." Raven said smirking. Octavia lit up, and burned.
"What do you mean?" Octavia said.
"Oh please, even I can realize that. And I'm clueless." I said patting her on the back. They both giggled and Octavia sighed.
"It can't be. Bellamy would forbid it." Octavia said.
"Well Bellamy can stick that forbidden crap up his ass." I said. They both looked at me with wide eyes, as if they couldn't believe I had actually said that.
"What?" I said shrugging. "It's true. You're the Princess. You shall marry or be with or whatever with whomever you deem worthy." I said seriously to her.
"You're so right Clarkey, but Bellamy would be so mad." Octavia said sitting next to me, pulling her knees up to her chest and sighing. I rubbed her back.
"Who gives a damn." I whispered. "You two have the connection that everyone seems to have with someone around here." I said looking at her with honesty.
"Do you not have that back home?" Octavia asked looking at me quizzically. I shook my head.
"Often times, we have arranged marriages based on status." I said sadly.
"Well then why aren't you being arranged, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you and Bell have your thing, but what makes it different this time?" Octavia asked. Raven nodded her head along. I sighed and tucked my hair behind my ears.
"Ever since we split, Arkia deemed only men fit to rule. And being as I'm next in line for the throne, I am forced to pick a suitor by my eighteenth birthday, or I will be sorted into an arranged marriage. My parents are giving me a once in a lifetime chance here. I have less than three months to fall in love." I said in a hushed voice.
"Damn Princess." Raven said.
"Don't you love Bellamy?" Octavia asked with her head cocked to the side.
"I don't know. I'm pretty damn close." I said sighing.
"Well, I want you to know that if he screws up, I'll kick his ass." Octavia said with a sad smile. I burst out laughing.
"Thanks Tavia." I said shaking my head.
"Alright, enough of this dark stuff. I saw you sneaking into Bellamy's room last night. What's up with that?" Octavia said waggling her eyebrows. I gulped and whacked her with a pillow, trying to change conversation. She squeaked and fell off the bed. I burst out laughing and did the same with Raven. Soon we were in an all out pillow fight.
This was Laughter I thought to myself.
Day 15
"What is so important Bellamy?" I asked as he dragged me out of the castle in the middle of the night.
"Come on, I heard something was going on in the barn." he said as he yanked on my wrist a little harder. I groaned.
"Come on." I whined.
"We're almost there Princess." he said almost apologetically. Almost. We arrived at the barn, where we heard loud moans coming from one of the stables. I soon matched his pace as we ran to the stable where the noises were coming from. One of the horses, Biscuit, was giving birth.
"Oh my." I said as we stood there. The horse cried out in pain, and was breathing heavily. Bellamy and I looked at each other with wide eyes full of terror and confusion.
"What do we do?" Bellamy asked moving to the horse.
"I don't know, I don't even ride these things on my own, I don't know how to birthe one." I said panicking.
"We need to help her." Bellamy said. I nodded my head and knelt in front of her.
"Oh god, what do we do?" I panicked.
"I don't know. Get the baby out!" Bellamy said as he held the horse's head down. Biscuit was freaking out.
"Oh no." I panicked, every single nerve in my body was on edge. I had no clue what was going on, and I didn't want to know for that matter. Soon I saw one little horse leg, and I nearly threw up. "Bell, I can't do this." I said as the other popped out.
"Come on Clarke!" he begged. I swallowed my throw up and grabbed one leg with one hand, and another with the other. I closed my eyes and slowly but definitely surely, pulled the rest of the horse baby out. I quickly let go of the baby, and backed away. Biscuit sat up and licked her new baby clean. I was about to throw up.
"Bell." I said feeling pale. "I think I'm gonna faint." I said putting one hand against my head.
"Please don't Princess." he said quickly moving to me.
"Oh god." I said looking up.
"Come on, let's get you up to bed." he said scooping me up. I leaned against his shoulder and tried to focus on my breathing, not the fact that my stomach was churning.
"Can I stay with you?" I asked. Bellamy grinned.
"I've been waiting for you to ask that." he said. looking down at me.
"One condition." he said sternly. I looked up at him. "Once you're in. You have to stay." he said softly. I smiled and nodded my head.
Over the past two weeks, Bellamy and I had never left each others side. Everyone in the civilization knew that we were together, and everyone had grown to accept it, some even were happy. The Gophers were so happy, especially all the girls. They said that there were going to be fairytales written about us. Maybe they were right I thought to myself. As Bellamy carried me up the stairs and tucked me into his bed, and kissed my head, I had the scariest realization of all.
This is Love I thought to myself.
Day 20
"Come on Princess, we have a surprise for you." Octavia said pulling me out of the carriage. Today, we decided to go to the beach. Bellamy insisted that all our friends come.
There was Lincoln and Octavia, Wick and Raven, and then Bellamy and I. Remy and Joelle had packed us a picnic and Ella arranged for a carriage to be set up to take us to the beach and back. We would be here all day, and I was shaking with excitement.
"Well, here we are." Octavia said beaming as she and I fell to the sand. I smiled and looked up to the sky, where the sun was beaming down upon us. I raced Octavia to the water, and before we knew it, our feet were being hit over and over again by the waves. I turned my face to the sun, and closed my eyes. Taking in it's warm embrace. I smiled as I felt the rays fall upon my face. Warm hands wrapped around my middle, and I felt my smile turn into a full blown grin.
Bellamy.
"How is my princess today?" he asked.
"Perfect. Everyday is perfect with you." I said sighing. Bellamy let out a small laugh.
"Well, I think there's something that could make your perfect day even more perfect." he whispered in my ear. I turned and looked up at him confused.
Then I glanced over his shoulders to find all of my friends on the beach. I screamed and shoved him aside. They all ran to me and I ran to them. Wells met me first, wrapping me up and spinning me around. Harper followed quickly, with Maya, Monty and Jasper on her heels. I ran my fingers through Jasper's hair, I cupped Monty's cheek and I clung to Maya. I seemed to all just cling to them, as if I would lose them again if I let go.
"What are you doing here? How are you here?" I asked.
"Your boyfriend there certainly has a way with words." Harper said glancing over at Bellamy who still hadn't taken his eyes off of me.
"He convinced the whole Arkian guard to let us come to the beach!" Jasper said with his eyes popping out of his head.
"I mean it is technically on the border, so it's not like they had much of a choice." Maya said rolling her eyes.
"But still, it was very honorable for him to come to them about it." Wells said smiling at me.
"God. I missed you guys." I said before hugging them all again.
"Well! Are you gonna introduce us or will we have to just assume for the rest of the day?" Harper exclaimed. I laughed and introduced them to the rest.
"This is Octavia, Raven, Wick, Lincoln, and Bellamy." I said going around the circle. Ending with Bellamy wrapping an arm around my side. We spent the day taking pictures, playing games, talking, and eating. It was a good day.
As the sun was starting to set, and everyone was lying about the beach. Bellamy and I had sat next to each other watching the sky turn different colors. I turned to look at him. His features, were being locked away in my mind.
"How do you know exactly what to do?" I asked him. He turned to face me, with his warm brown eyes.
"Because I know exactly you." he said with a small smile. I smiled and leaned into him. He wrapped an arm around me, and rested his cheek against my head.
"Princess, in ten days you will have to go back home." he sighed.
"Unless I ask for more time." I said shrugging.
"Your friends would not be very happy with me if I kept you any longer." he said looking up to watch them. Maya and Jasper were layed about much like Bellamy and I, Harper was walking along the beach with Octavia, Lincoln and Monty were playing a game in the water with Wick and Wells, and Raven appeared to be the ref. I smiled and shook my head.
"Or I could just not go home." I said quietly. Bellamy snorted.
"Yeah, I think we'd cause a full blown war if I kept you to myself. Your people need you Clarke." he said seriously. I sighed.
"I know, I love you though. I want to spend all of my days with you." I said closing my eyes. Remembering this moment.
"Trust me Princess, I want the same." he said gently. I looked up at him and lightly kissed his lips.
This was what I wanted, I thought to myself.
As we were heading home, I smiled and leaned my head against Bellamy's shoulder. He held one of my hands and I slowly closed my eyes and fell asleep. As we drew near to the castle, I could feel Bellamy lightly shake my shoulder.
"No." I mumbled.
"Princess you must wake up." he insisted.
"No." I said more firmly this time. I could feel and hear him sigh, he was getting fed up with my antics.
"Clarke, please." he said nicely.
"Fine." I said getting up and scooting away from him.
"Don't be like that." Bellamy said sharply. I huffed and ignored him.
"Don't ignore me young lady." he said gripping my wrist. I tried to wriggle away from him, but he had intense upper body strength. I looked him dead in the eye, and this time, I could feel that it was in my eyes that the power was.
"Don't tell me what to do." I snapped. His eyes widened a little bit, but his pupils narrowed.
"You are going to regret this attitude miss." he said. I felt a course of fear shoot through my body, this wasn't like Bellamy at all. The carriage stopped at that moment and Bellamy threw me over his shoulder.
"Bellamy what the hell?" I yelled. He carried me up all the stairs leading to his bedroom. He threw me on his bed and glared at me.
"You shouldn't talk to your prince that way." he said taking his shirt off.
"Bellamy." was all I could manage to say, he had never gone this far before. I didn't even know how to react. I just laid there, while he crawled up on top of me.
"Let it happen." he whispered. Just like that, I went under. He kissed me like he never had before. I felt nerves of my body react that I hadn't even known were there.
"Bell," I whimpered. He stopped what he was doing and looked me in the eye. "I'm scared." I admitted to him. His eyes changed in that moment. They were no longer full of power and determination, there was nothing but care in them.
"Okay. We can stop." he said slowly lifting himself up off of me. I wrapped one of my hands behind his neck and made him look at me.
"I've never done anything like this Bellamy." I said softly. His body relaxed and he tucked a piece of my blonde hair behind my ear.
"I can wait for you. You are the most beautiful flower." he said smiling at me. He kissed my forehead and rolled over.
I got up out of the bed and I saw the panic in his eyes as I looked at him over my shoulder. I turned back away from him and pulled my shirt off. I then walked over to his dresser drawer. I could feel his eyes on my back. In that moment I felt something that I hadn't felt in a long time.
I felt sexy.
I pulled down my pants and then pulled one of his shirts out of the drawer and pulled it on. I turned to face him and smiled. He was laying there, staring at me.
"Scoot. You're on my side." I said smiling. He grinned and stayed put.
"You'll just have to sleep around me." he said. I rolled my eyes and hopped into bed with him. He wrapped his arms around me and I smiled.
"I love you Princess." he said.
"I love you too." I said softly.