Clarke is officially half way through her community service and is currently sitting in Mr. Kane's office to go over her progress. She can't believe how quickly the past month and half has gone by.
"Well Clarke, I must say, we've all been quite pleased with you and your work thus far. Lexa, in particular seems very impressed. She even tells me you've gone 'above and beyond' in other areas outside of the art room. Although, she didn't elaborate on what those were."
Clarke was smiling. The fact that Lexa had been impressed and even complimented her caused light butterflies in her stomach.
"Clarke?" Mr. Kane says snapping Clarke out of her Lexa-daze. "Oh, sorry Mr. Kane. Um, I'm glad to hear that and I'm very happy here. It's been a great experience so far."
"Glad to hear you feel that way. More and more children seem to be signing up for art and they seem to really like you. I know I've personally enjoyed seeing the colorful creations around the center." He says smiling at her.
"They've been great. Sad to say though, supplies are running thin. We may need to start painting on the walls with ketchup." She laughs lightly. Mr. Kane nods. "Yeah, unfortunately the budget is set for now and we don't have anything to put towards the art room until next fiscal year." Clarke sits up a little straighter, "With all do respect Mr. Kane, we won't have any supplies by then." Mr. Kane sits back in his chair and smiles sadly at the girl. "I understand Clarke, and I'm sorry but my hands are tied."
Clarke sits quietly for a moment. There has to be something that can be done. Suddenly, it comes to her. "What if we raised the money ourselves? Had a fundraiser?"
He smiles at the girl. "If you can put in the work and get it organized yourself, I have no objections."
Clarke stands and extends her hand to him. "I can do it, sir. Thank you." He stands and shakes her hand. "I believe you can Ms. Griffin. Keep me posted."
Clarke nods and makes her way out of the room.
Clarke gleefully enters the staff break room where she find Lexa sitting there. They've been talking a bit more the past couple weeks ever since Lexa came with her to visit Charlotte the first time. In fact, Lexa had accompanied her a few more times (much to hers and Charlotte's delight) when she didn't have to work at the cafe. Although their conversations never really got too personal, Clarke was grateful that they seemed to be making progress.
"Hey Lexa." Clarke says as she sits down and opens a bag a chips. Quickly offering the bag over to share.
"Hello Clarke. Thanks" she replies taking a chip. "How'd your review go?"
"It went really well. Thanks for saying positive things to Mr. Kane. Hopefully the judge will be happy with my progress too."
Lexa shakes her head. "You don't need to thank me, Mr. Kane asked me how you were doing and I answered honestly. You're the one who did the work."
Clarke smiled. "Well, still. I appreciate it." Lexa lightly smiles and nods. A few moments of silence passes. Not long ago, sitting in the same room, in silence with the each other had been extremely awkward. Now, they can sort of, coexist in silence comfortably and it has given Clarke courage to speak to the girl without fear of upsetting her.
"So, in my review Mr. Kane and I talked about the deplenishing art room supplies and after a short discussion on the budget I asked to put on a fundraiser to raise money." Lexa's eyes shot up from her book. "You what?" She asks.
"I want to put together a fundraiser to raise money for the art room. Mr. Kane said he'll support me if I can do the work and get it organized."
"Do you think you can do it?" Lexa asks taking another one of Clarke's chips.
"I know I can…" she then smirks at Lexa. Lexa arches her eyebrow. "What Clarke?" Clarke smiles and looks into her eyes. "I know I can get it organized, but it would be a lot easier if you would help me. You know this world better than me and I would really love to work on this together."
Lexa leans back and sighs. "I'm really busy Clarke. Between school, work at the cafe and here I don't have a lot of free time." Clarke shakes her head "Right, right. Of course. That's ok." Clarke slouches in her chair defeated. Lexa doesn't know what it is about this girl but she looks and sounds defeated Lexa can't help but want to make it better.
"Ugh. Fine, I'll help you." She can feel Clarke's smile before she sees it.
"Really?" The blonde asks hesitantly. Lexa nods. "Yeah. I'll help you Clarke." Clarke claps her hands excitedly "Yay!" Lexa giggles softly at the girl's reaction before standing up.
"I gotta get back out there. See you later." She then proceeds to knock her arm on the corner of the table. "Ow!"
Clarke stands in concern. "You ok?" She walks to stand beside the girl but the brunette quickly steps back. "I'm fine. I uh… I hit my funny bone."
Clarke rolls her eyes and places her hands on her hips. "Please stop lying to me." She says seriously. "Excuse me?" Lexa glares at her, hoping the blonde takes the hint and stops. But Clarke stands her ground. "You heard me Lexa, stop lying to me. Look, if you're hurting yourself you can tell me. I can help."
Lexa's mouth drops open. "What?! You think I'm hurting myself?!" Clarke takes a step back. She's never seen Lexa so angry. "Seriously Clarke, you have NO idea what you're talking about. I would never hurt myself. So. Back. Off."
Clarke should back off. She really should, but her concern for the girl outweighs her logic at the moment. She takes a deep breath and looks directly into the girl's eyes. "You sound a lot like someone trying to keep their self-harm a secret."
Lexa's eyes fill with angry tears. She's literally shaking while she stares at the girl. "Fuck you, princess." She turns to walk away but is stopped when Clarke grabs her arm. She winces and yanks her arm back. She stands face to face with the determined blonde, her anger boiling over, "FINE!" Lexa suddenly begins rolling up her sleeves and Clarke steps back and gasps.
That was not what she was expecting. "Lexa…" her voice is soft and concerned. She approaches the girl slowly, her finger lightly tracing over her arms. Those aren't cuts like Clarke had suspected to see. Those were burns. Perfect circular burns. "Cigarette burns?" Clarke questions quietly, not expecting an answer.
They both jump away from each other when Clarke's phone rings. Clarke grabs her phone off the table and sighs. "It's my mom." She says. Lexa quickly rolls her sleeves back down and begins to walk away when Clarke gently grabs her hand. "Wait." she pleads. Lexa nods and Clarke swipes to answer her phone.
"Hey mom, can I call you ba-..." Her mouth drops open. "What?" Clarke's voice cracks and tears are quickly forming in her eyes. Lexa moves closer to the girl, eyebrows furrowed in concern. "I'll be right there." Clarke's says quickly as she ends the call. Her hand is shaking as she places the phone in her pocket, tears are freely falling now.
"Clarke?"
Clarke takes a deep breath and her tear-ridden blue eyes meet the green ones of Lexa before speaking,
"Charlotte is gone."