As Clarke walked down the hallway after lunch, she felt freer somehow. Her talk with Lexa had been good for her because she had been able to talk to someone about her dad who understood what it was like to lose someone, and it was nice to talk about him with someone new. Also, she felt as if she was finally making progress with Lexa, a feat which only yesterday seemed impossible. The brunette had acted completely different during lunch, and Clarke found that she actually enjoyed Lexa's company when the brunette wasn't yelling at her or behaving in some other hostile manner.

Upon arrival in her chemistry class, the only class she shared with both Octavia and Raven, she brushed past the desks to join her friends in the back. When they saw her, two curious gazes turned in her direction, and she knew exactly what they were going to ask and that they weren't going to like the answer. Raven didn't even wait a second, asking her question the minute the blonde sat down. "Where were you at lunch today? I thought you were bringing the broody bitch."

Clarke found her nose scrunching up in distaste at Raven's choice of nickname. She wished that her friends would stop hating Lexa so much, but then again, she supposed that they hadn't seen the Lexa that she had just seen today. "I tried to get her to come, but she wouldn't, so I ate lunch with her instead. The thing is, though, that once we sat down, she was actually really nice to me. It was like I was talking to a completely different person, and I think I might be able to help her act like that with all of you as well, so will you please stop calling her a bitch?"

"Are you, like, becoming friends with her or something?" Raven asked.

"That is the plan, yes," Clarke responded.

"Gross." Raven curled her lip in disgust.

Clarke sighed in exasperation. "What did she ever do to make you hate her so much?"

Raven gave Clarke an incredulous look. "Have you seen her? She mopes around all the time like she's got it so bad just because she lost her stupid girlfriend. She is rude as can be to anyone who tries to talk to her—"

"You're still mad because of what she did last year," Octavia cut her off with amusement shining in her eyes.

"What did she do last year?" Clarke asked warily, not sure that she really wanted to know.

Raven growled in frustration, but she told the story anyway. "It was a few weeks after Costia died, and I was just trying to be nice and help Anya and Emori because they were upset. They asked me to go in and check up on Lexa because she wouldn't even look at them, but when I went in there, she was extremely rude. Maybe I wasn't the nicest person ever, but she punched me in the face."

Clarke couldn't stop the shock from playing out on her face at that news. She knew that Lexa was horrible to people, but she never thought that the brunette would ever actually hurt anyone. Even when Clarke had hated Lexa's guts, she had never been afraid of the brunette. "She hit you?"

Raven nodded. "I was the first person she ever hit."

Clarke's stomach dropped, wondering exactly how many people her roommate had actually hit before now. Octavia must have noticed the look on Clarke's face because she was quick to reassure the blonde. "Raven was the first and the last. Bellamy was super mad when he found out what had happened, and although Lexa pretended his threats didn't scare her, she never hit anyone again after that."

Clarke gave Octavia a curious glance, wondering why Bellamy got so upset over the incident. It wasn't like it was Octavia that Lexa had hit. Clarke had suspected that there might be something going on between Bellamy and Raven several times, but it was never glaringly obvious, so Clarke had just assumed that she might simply be seeing more than was actually there. However, now she wasn't so sure, so she decided to tease her friend a little to test the waters. "So, Bellamy was your knight in shining armor, eh, Rae? Seems like he's got a little thing for you."

"I don't think so. Everyone knows that he likes Echo from Azgeda House." Clarke thought that she could detect a hint of glumness in the brunette's tone when she said that, and the blonde stopped her teasing. She had forgotten all about this Echo girl, but she now distinctly remembered Emori mentioning yesterday that Bellamy played for Echo's team in kickball. Clarke wanted to press farther because she could tell that Raven liked him, but she had never seen him around this Echo girl and therefore could make no assumptions about his relationship with her, or lack thereof.

"Anyways," Octavia continued their previous conversation, "if you say that Lexa's coming around, then I believe you. It's hard for me to imagine her being anything but horrible, but if anyone can help her, it's you."

Clarke couldn't stop her surprise from playing out on her face. That was honestly the last thing that she had expected Octavia to say. "You do?"

"Yeah." Octavia nodded. "If helping Lexa is really that important to you, I'm not going to criticize you for it. You do what you want to, and I hope you get the results that you're striving for."

A smile spread across Clarke's face at Octavia's words. Raven didn't look so sure, but at least one of her friends seemed to be warming up to the idea of her not hating Lexa anymore. "Thanks, O. That means a lot to me."

"I guess you can do whatever you want with Lexa, as long as you keep her away from me." Raven shrugged, and Clarke nodded in appreciation, knowing that was as good as she was going to get from the other girl.

"I'll try my best," Clarke said with a smile, and she was just about to say more when she was interrupted by the voice of her chemistry teacher, causing her to jump in her seat and forget what she had been about to say.

"Ms. Griffin, is there something you would like to share with the class?" Mrs. Dowling asked with a pointed look.

"No, ma'am," Clarke stuttered, face flushing with embarrassment.

"Then, I suggest you keep your mouth closed," the teacher said in an irritated tone before going back to the lesson.

Clarke caught sight of Raven snickering out of the corner of her eye and Octavia looking relieved that it wasn't she who had gotten called out. Clarke honestly had not even noticed that class had started because she had been so caught up in her conversation with her friends. She supposed that at some point, they had switched from talking to whispering, and that should have clued her in, but she almost hadn't even noticed it.

She brushed off her embarrassment because she didn't really care too much about the class. Raven was so good at chemistry that she could help Clarke whenever she needed it and explain things faster than the teacher would, so Clarke knew that she didn't need to pay attention. However, she did feel kind of bad for disrupting the class, so she tried her best to stay quiet and take notes.

The next day, Clarke was trying to come up with intelligent responses to her homework questions for literature class when Lexa returned to the room from her shower, toweling her hair off before dropping the pink towel into her laundry basket. Clarke found that she couldn't tear her gaze away, as she had previously planned to, and so she watched quietly as Lexa settled onto her bed, pulling out her laptop and opening it up before raising her head to look directly at Clarke with a slightly annoyed expression. "What?"

The blonde immediately looked away, hoping that she didn't blush at being caught staring. "What do you mean?"

Lexa raised an eyebrow. "I mean that you were staring at me. What do you want?"

Clarke scrambled to come up with a bullshit excuse. She looked down at the worksheet on her computer, eyes locking onto her teacher's name. "I was just wondering if you had Mrs. Tawney for literature."

Lexa nodded. "I do. And?"

Clarke tried not to let her eyes widen, wishing that Lexa would stop with the questions before Clarke dug herself into a deep hole that she could not get out of. "Have you done the homework yet?"

"I was just about to start it now." The brunette gestured to her laptop.

Clarke knew that this provided her with an out to the conversation, but she suddenly didn't want to stop talking to Lexa. "Do you want to work on it together?"

Lexa paused to consider this, and Clarke hoped that the other girl would say yes. The blonde wanted this excuse to spend time with her roommate, but she also needed help with the assignment. Even though the book that they were reading was actually pretty good, literature and writing essays had never been Clarke's strong suit.

"Yeah. I guess we can," Lexa finally said.

"Great." Clarke grabbed her laptop and moved across the room, climbing onto Lexa's bed to sit beside her.

"What the hell are you doing?" Lexa snarled, the familiar hostility springing up in her eyes.

Clarke's lips turned down in a confused frown. "I thought we were working together."

"Yes, and if I had known that you would take that as an invitation to come and invade my personal space, then I wouldn't have agreed," Lexa growled. "Get off my bed."

Clarke then realized that she had made her roommate uncomfortable, and she scolded herself for not thinking of this possibility beforehand. She had to admit though that it was sort of funny the way that Lexa had completely tensed up the minute that Clarke had climbed onto the bed. The blonde had never been one to have a problem with personal space, even after her dad's death. Then again, she didn't care about much of anything after her dad's death and was probably too drunk to notice anyway.

Although Lexa's reaction was amusing, Clarke knew better than to laugh or even smile for that matter because she could tell that her roommate was practically seething. She quickly got off of the bed, moving to sit in the chair at Lexa's vanity instead. "Better?"

Lexa instantly relaxed, and her tone sounded much less hostile than it had only moments ago. "Much."

"Okay, so the first question." Clarke began to read off of her computer. "How does the novel reflect oppression so far?"

"That's obviously shown in the way that the red-blooded people are treated by the people with the silver blood. The reds are forced to live in certain areas of town, the poor sectors, and they aren't allowed to have high-paying jobs. They fight for survival every day, while the silvers live comfortable and wealthy lives. If reds haven't been recruited for a job by the age of eighteen, they are sent to fight in the war, which shows the way that the silver people don't value red lives. The silvers think that they are better than the reds because they have magical powers that reds don't have, and this power goes to their heads, causing them to be cruel to red-blooded people and treat them like slaves."

"Of course." Clarke nodded, typing out a few ideas as she listened to Lexa's onslaught of information before looking to the next question. "Next one. What argument might the author be trying to make? That we're all equal, right? But these people aren't equal. Some have powers, and some don't."

"Yes, but think about it. The author isn't arguing that some people have magical powers, but that some group of people have power over some others, namely the majority. Discrimination is still very much at large in the world today, and this is what the author is trying to demonstrate, that the minorities are like the reds while the majority is like the silvers. The majority has all the power, and they don't really care so much about the people who aren't like them. This is why it's so important that the main character realizes that she has powers too, despite the fact that she has red blood. It shows people that just because a group is a majority doesn't mean that minorities have no power at all. The novel teaches the lesson that minorities should not stand for being denied privileges due to their race or sexuality or whatever, and the majorities better realize this before they have a revolution on their hands, which I'm guessing will be the end of the novel."

Clarke was amazed that all of this information was just rolling off the tip of Lexa's tongue when she knew that she herself would have to sit and think about it for a while to come up with that good of an answer, if she even could at all. She tried her best to keep up with everything Lexa was saying, and she thought she had the gist of it typed out when the brunette was done. "You're really good at this, you know?"

Lexa shrugged. "I guess so. I just really like reading that's all, and dystopia just so happens to be my favorite genre."

"I do have to admit that this book is good because normally the books we have to read for school are incredibly boring," Clarke said.

Lexa nodded in agreement. "That's because this book was just published last year and not in 1890."

Clarke chuckled a little at Lexa's statement because it was true. Her smile quickly faded though when she realized that she wasn't really contributing much of her own content to this homework, or any at all for that matter. "I kind of feel bad that you're basically just giving me all the answers to these homework questions. I mean, I'm supposed to be helping you."

"You're supposed to be helping me get over Costia, not with my homework. I have been feeling better lately, so this is my way of repaying the favor." Clarke shot her an incredulous look, knowing that Lexa wasn't one to feel like she owed anyone anything, and the blonde wondered what had changed.

"I'm just kidding," Lexa said in response to Clarke's look. "Repayment's not really my thing. I'll be expecting some help with my math homework later."

Clarke simply smiled and shook her head. This sounded more like the Lexa that she knew, and of course she didn't mind helping the brunette out. "I suppose I can do that."

On Monday, Clarke didn't even bother going out to the courtyard to sit with her friends, and nor did she try to catch Lexa at her locker. She simply headed out to the football field where she found Lexa already sitting under the bleachers. She hoped that Lexa wouldn't be opposed to Clarke sitting with her again since they hadn't really talked about it, but when the brunette nodded to Clarke in greeting, she was glad to see the absence of the anger that Lexa's eyes used to hold when looking upon her. Clarke sat down beside Lexa, sitting close, but not close enough to touch, not wanting to invade Lexa's personal space again.

Clarke turned to her roommate, hoping that perhaps Lexa might be more willing to take her up on her offer today, now that they were kind of friends. "Are you sure you don't want to sit with me and my friends?"

"Not yet," Lexa responded, and Clarke smiled at the fact that Lexa's eyes seemed to have an almost apologetic look in them, but even more so, that Lexa's answer indicated that she actually intended to accompany Clarke to sit with her friends one day. Clarke knew that Lexa hadn't given that answer by mistake, and she was a little surprised after her roommate had responded with a definitive no last time.

"Ok." Clarke nodded in response, not pressuring Lexa any further. "Not yet."

Silence enveloped the space underneath the bleachers, and Clarke supposed that she could start a conversation again, like she had done the week before. She decided against it though, remaining quiet and hoping that Lexa might initiate the conversation this time. Clarke simply looked out at the field, watching the clouds move slowly across the sky above it as she waited for her roommate to say something. After a few minutes had gone by, Clarke had begun to think that the two of them might just be eating their meals in silence today when Lexa finally spoke up. "So, what are we talking about today?"

"There's no set topic, LW. Anything you want," Clarke replied calmly.

Lexa scrunched up her nose at the nickname. "LW?"

Clarke mentally slapped herself for letting that slip, hoping that she hadn't upset the brunette again. "Yeah. LW. Your initials. I'm sorry. I won't call you by a nickname if you don't want me to."

"No, it's fine, roomie. Call me whatever you want." Lexa shrugged, and Clarke couldn't believe her ears. The Lexa that she was familiar with would've hated the nickname, and Clarke supposed that the brunette probably wasn't particularly fond of it, but the fact that she was willing to allow it showed that she was actually trying with the blonde.

"Anyways, I was hoping that you would talk to me today since I talked to you about my dad last week." Clarke brought the conversation back to their original topic.

"I can do that." Lexa nodded, almost as if to reassure herself, and Clarke noticed that the brunette suddenly sounded rather nervous. "So, um, what do you want to know?"

Clarke tried to keep her tone gentle and light, choosing an easy topic. "What was your childhood like?"

"It was okay, I guess. There's not really much to tell about me, Clarke." The blonde could tell that Lexa was uncomfortable, but she remained silent, hoping that once Lexa started talking, having a conversation would be easier. "My childhood was kind of boring because I was an only child. My parents tried to make up for it by spending lots of time with me, but I always wanted a sibling."

Clarke understood that, having wished for a sibling on many occasions when she was younger. She was happy how she was though. Her parents were more than enough for her, and she wondered why Lexa's might not have been. Then again, Clarke had always had quite the group of friends when she was younger. Maybe Lexa didn't. "I always wanted a sibling too, but didn't you have friends you could play with?"

Lexa gave a disinterested shrug, giving Clarke the impression that the brunette's friends were not all that important to her. "One. Luna was my best friend all my life. I wasn't really close to anyone other than her."

"So why didn't she come to boarding school with you?" Clarke asked, her curiosity creeping into her tone.

"She didn't want to go. At first, I was kind of upset by that information, but I got over it once I got here. She's the reason I came here in the first place though. Her parents had always planned to send her here, so she could get a good education, and that's where I first heard of it. Once I researched it a bit more, I decided that this was where I wanted to go. Luna decided to stay home because she didn't want to leave her family, but by that time, I had already fallen in love with the place, so I came here anyway," Lexa explained.

"I can see why you loved it so much because it is a pretty great school," Clarke admitted. "I didn't do much research on it because I didn't have a choice. I guess I just came here with no idea of what it would be like, so I'm really happy that it's even better than I thought it would be."

"Even though I was an ass?" Lexa teased with the ghost of a smile on her lips.

Clarke nodded, smiling herself. "Even though you were an ass."

"I remember when I first got here too, and I loved it. There were so many nice people, and I made more friends than I'd ever had in my life. I think I was closer to Anya than I ever was to Luna, and Costia was…she was," Lexa swallowed thickly, breaking off her speech as tears began to form in her eyes at the memory of her former girlfriend. "I'm sorry."

Lexa hung her head, avoiding Clarke's gaze, like she thought Clarke would be disappointed or something. The blonde then realized that she might have made it seem like she expected Lexa to talk about Costia when she had asked Lexa to talk about herself earlier, and she suddenly wanted nothing more than to assure the brunette that that wasn't it at all. Of course, she didn't expect her roommate to talk about Costia until she was ready to, and that clearly was not now.

Clarke reached out, gently cupping Lexa's chin to guide green eyes up to meet hers. However, the moment the blonde touched her, Lexa flinched, scrambling out of her roommate's grasp.

"I'm sorry." Clarke held up her hands in surrender, internally cursing herself. She had meant to comfort the other girl, not upset her further. "I forgot. No touching."

Lexa relaxed at the gentle tone of Clarke's voice, and she scooted closer again, an almost sheepish look on her face. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to freak out like that. Maybe I should get more comfortable with touch if I'm going to get better."

Clarke liked the reminder that Lexa actually wanted to get better because that meant that Clarke was doing something right. It might even mean that her roommate liked spending time with her. She agreed with the other girl that getting more comfortable with touch would be good for her, but she also didn't want to push Lexa to do something that she might not be ready for. "I don't want you to do anything that you're not comfortable with."

"But I want to be comfortable with it," Lexa protested. She grabbed Clarke's hand in her own, bringing it to gently rest upon her shoulder before removing her own hand. The blonde was careful not to move, keeping her hand still on Lexa's shoulder and wondering what exactly the brunette was hoping to accomplish with this. Lexa looked at Clarke with a satisfied smile. "You're touching me now."

"And it's not bothering you that I'm in your personal space?" Clarke teased.

"No, Clarke." Lexa's smile grew wider. "It's not bothering me this time."

AN: I hope you all enjoyed the new chapter! Kudos to anyone who knows the book that Clarke and Lexa were talking about ;)