Bellamy Blake was late to school.

He sighed as he parked his bike, thankful as always that he didn't have to fight with other cars for a parking space, then tucked his helmet under one arm and hurried into the building. Let's see, it was 9:35, which meant – wait, his schedule had changed, so that meant he had study hall now.

Some of the kids looked up as he snuck into study hall, and he realized he was starting to recognize several faces. One in particular caught his eye, and he groaned inwardly when he saw that the only seat left was next to her.

Oh well, he thought, nothing like a little condescension to start your Friday off right.

"Hey," he said as he slumped into the chair, ignoring a glare from the teacher.

She quirked an eyebrow at him. "No 'Princess' today? Or are you just saving it for when you yell something at me and storm out?"

Bellamy sighed. "Guess I just don't have it in me today." He dug through his bag for his bio homework and knocked a book out. Spencer picked it up and handed it to him. "Meditations, huh? Do you agree with Descartes?"

Bellamy shrugged. "Until I read that, I thought I was the one who came up with the theory of Radical Doubt." Spencer grinned, and he felt encouraged to continue: "Of course, I also thought I came up with 'It's not you, it's me,' so…" He shrugged again, flashed her a smile and finished digging out his bio stuff.

After a minute, Spencer said, "So, why were you late?" Before Bellamy could answer, she went on: "And why are you in this study hall? This is the first time I've seen you in here."

He focused on her with some difficulty – when he was tired, it was hard to split his attention between things like homework and talking to girls he was mildly fascinated with – and said, "I had to shift some things around in my schedule so I could take biology this semester. Meant I couldn't stay in my other study hall. And speaking of – aren't we supposed to, I don't know, study in here?"

"You didn't answer my question," Spencer said.

"You are relentless! Okay, okay," Bellamy said. "It's a stupid story though. You're going to be sorry you were so persistent." He shot a glance at the teacher, who was thoroughly engrossed in his smartphone. "So my sister – Octavia, you met her at field hockey the other day?" Spencer shot him a look. "She didn't have a ride home after school yesterday, her one friend got a job and her other friend had a date."

Spencer said, "Oh yeah! Clarke and Emily! I'll have to ask Em how that went."

Bellamy waved her off. "Don't care. Anyway, you know O won't ride on my bike, so I went home and borrowed my buddy Monty's car and came back to get her. We got most of the way home when Monty's piece of shit car broke down, so we were stranded."

He broke off and looked at her. "I told you it was a stupid story!" But she looked interested, and gestured for him to continue. "I texted another friend of mine to come pick O up, and then I stayed with Monty's car until the tow truck got there, and then this morning I brought Monty to the towing place, but it didn't open until 8:30, so…here we are."

Spencer said, "So basically, you were late to school because you were being an awesome brother and friend?"

Bellamy looked around, acting paranoid. "Shhh! They'll hear you. I can't let my secret get out!"

Spencer smiled at that. "What about your parents? Can't they pick you guys up sometimes?"

Bellamy's own smile fell. "My dad's not in the picture," he said. "And my mom works two jobs, so she can't just be at our beck and call. You wouldn't understand."

"No, I get it," said Spencer. "My parents are in the middle of a divorce, and even before that they weren't around much. It's just me and my mom at home, and it's like we're living in two separate worlds. I mostly just do my own thing."

He looked at her, a little surprised. "Did we just have a moment?" he said, pretending to clap his hand to his heart. "I'm feeling more like a princess already!" She whacked him on the shoulder.

"Knock it off!" said the teacher from the front of the room.

After a minute, Spencer whispered, "I think it's cool that you and your sister get along."

Bellamy wasn't sure what to make of that. "Do you have any siblings?" he said.

"Yes, one sister," said Spencer. "But we're not exactly close." She paused, then seemed to make a decision. "I have an unfortunate habit of kissing her boyfriends."

Bellamy's eyes widened at that. "Hmm, I should give that a try sometime," he said, winking at her. "Then maybe O wouldn't want to lean on me as much."

She grinned, and he thought he saw her flush a little at the wink. Finally, he thought. He leaned a little closer. "Hey – there's a party tomorrow night," he said. "Grounder party. This guy Lincoln I met from Polis told me about it."

Spencer looked at him coolly. "And?"

Oh, she's going to make me work for it, he thought. He was liking this girl more and more. "And you should come," he said. "Bring your friends if you want." He grinned. "From what I can tell, you only have three, and it's not the kind of party where you're going to mess up the head count for hors d'oeuvres."

She actually burst out laughing at that. Her laugh was throaty and unselfconscious, although she reined it in pretty quickly and tried to cover it up with a cough when the teacher looked up and shot daggers at them.

It was the first time he'd ever made her laugh. He decided right then that he would do it as much as possible.

She grabbed his hand and wrote on his palm. He looked at it. It said "Spencer" in an elegant script (of course), with her phone number beneath it. YES, thought Bellamy.

She was looking at him. "I'm Spencer, by the way." She smiled.

"I know," he said. "I'm Bellamy."

"I know." The silence got a little awkward until Spencer broke the tension, saying, "So, text me the details and my three friends and I will swing by if we can."

Bellamy said, "Okay," and decided not to ruin their temporary truce by talking any more. He got out his bio homework and got to work.

At lunch, he ate out on the courtyard for the first time. The rest of the week, he'd preferred staying apart, eating at a table in the corner of the cafeteria. Lincoln and his friend Lexa had joined him a couple of times. But today, Bellamy just felt like being outside. Maybe it was the weather.

He glanced over at Spencer's table for only the 80th time, and she was glancing over at him just then, and he quickly looked away. Smooth, he kicked himself, real smooth.

He noticed that Clarke was sitting with Spencer and her friends – interesting. Wait, didn't Spencer say something about her dating that Emily girl? He thought about it for a second, then got out his phone and typed in the number on his hand.

We talked about this. You're only allowed to bring 3 friends.

My god, woman, think of the canapes!

When Spencer's phone buzzed, he noticed that the four Rosewood girls tensed up instantly. That was weird. But as she read it and smiled, they all relaxed visibly. Spencer looked at him and shook her head.

His phone buzzed a few seconds later.

Will the canapes be upset if Clarke comes with Emily?

He texted her back:

The canape gods smile upon this pairing.

By the way, here's the address. 8pmish tonight?

Instead of texting him back, she looked right at him, smiled, and gave him a little nod.

For the first time all week, Bellamy thought he could get used to this place.

He caught up with Octavia after lunch. "Hey – you good to get home after school today?"

"Yeah," she said. "Raven's working an afternoon shift, so Clarke's mom is going to drop us off at home and then Raven will swing by and take us to that party later. You're going to that, right?" Bellamy nodded. Then Octavia took his arm. "Hey, sorry about yesterday. I know all that stuff with Monty's car was because you were trying to take care of me."

"It didn't matter," said Bellamy, waving it away. "That's kind of my job."

She grinned at him. "You're getting to be such a cheeseball in your old age." He took a swing at her as she danced away. "See you at the party, big brother!"

When Bellamy pulled up outside the address Lincoln had given him, there were a handful of cars parked out front. He got off his bike and knocked on the front door.

Lincoln answered. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," said Bellamy. "How's it going?" Lincoln moved aside to let him in. "Not bad," he said. "Few people here already. Let me introduce you around."

He pointed out people around the room. "You know Lexa." Bellamy nodded to Lexa where she sat on a chair in the corner of the room. From the way she sat, relaxed yet ready to spring into action, he had the impression that this was her kingdom.

"That's Anya," Lincoln was saying, indicating a fierce-looking woman in the kitchen. "This is her place."

"Nice place," said Bellamy.

"Oh, shove it," said Anya. Bellamy grinned at Lincoln. "I like her."

Lincoln pointed out a handful of other people. "That's Nyko, Echo, and that little guy there is Artigas."

"This little guy can take you!" muttered Artigas, and everyone laughed.

Bellamy took a seat on the couch and settled in. This felt like a crew he could hang with. Everyone was relaxed, but he had the feeling they could all get in some serious trouble if they felt like it.

He and Lincoln got into a debate about the benefits of boxing vs street hockey, and Bellamy was pretty sure he was winning when there was a knock on the door.

Lexa nodded at Lincoln, who got up to answer the door again.

It was Spencer and her blonde friend – Anna? Bellamy thought. He didn't care, though, because for once Spencer didn't look like she'd been horseback riding, or yachting, or whatever she did outside of school. She was wearing a simple gray tank top and skinny jeans. Her hair was down.

He was screwed.

Spencer's eyes found him, then, and she smiled.

Lincoln introduced them around – he was a gracious host, especially considering that this wasn't his place – and Bellamy learned that the blonde girl's name was Hanna. (She seemed to be into Lincoln, but he was as stoic as ever. Bellamy decided he'd have to give Lincoln a hard time about that at some point.)

As Hanna threaded her arm through Lincoln's (earning an arched eyebrow from Lexa), Spencer made her way over to the couch. "Is this seat taken?" she asked.

"Well, I'm not sure," said Bellamy, putting his feet up on the coffee table. "Down, boy!" yelled Anya from the kitchen, and Bellamy hastily put them down. Spencer snorted.

"You see, this girl I was talking to said she'd bring three friends, and I only see one," Bellamy continued, ignoring the Anya-scolding.

"Ah, I see why you're confused," Spencer said, sitting down next to him. "Hanna over there –" she indicated the blonde, who had just whispered something in Artigas's ear, making him laugh, as she maintained her grip on Lincoln. "-she's as much trouble as three girls combined. So I consider her a three-fer."

"Hmm," said Bellamy, raising his eyebrows. "Maybe I'm talking to the wrong friend here!" He pretended to get up and Spencer grabbed his hand, pulling him back down. "I think you're in the right spot," she said in that low voice of hers.

"Well, maybe," Bellamy grinned. She was still holding his hand. As he settled back down, he angled his body so he was facing Spencer at a bit of an angle, their knees touching. "I'm not sure I can get over the pretentious rich-girl name, though…"

She whacked him with her free hand. "Says the guy whose sister was named for a Roman emperor!"

"For the sister of a Roman emperor, which makes me – wait for it – hail, Bellamy!"

"God, you're so full of yourself," Spencer said. They were smiling at each other now. Bellamy leaned his head against the back of the couch. "I am," he said thoughtfully. "But tell me this – why is someone like you giving the time of day to a working-class guy like me?"

She looked at him as if she were thinking hard about how to respond. "I keep telling you, there's a lot you don't know about me." She leaned close to him, then, and Bellamy could smell her perfume. (Sandalwood? Was that a thing? That didn't sound like a real word, but it popped into his head all of a sudden.) "My last boyfriend," Spencer murmured right in his ear, "was Rosewood's foremost teen carpenter."

He looked at her. "A what now?"

Spencer said, "Teenage carpenter. There's a niche market for that here, apparently." She shrugged. "Is that working class enough for you? Or do you have some kind of weird hangup about carpenters?"

Bellamy inched a little closer. "Not that I know of." He paused. "Do you?" Spencer opened her mouth to reply, but just then there was a knock on the door.

As Lincoln went to answer it, Hanna came over and plunked down next to Spencer, bouncing them both on the couch. "I thought this was supposed to be a party!" she whispered. "There are like 6 people here."

Bellamy looked a little sheepish. "Um…I might have oversold it a little," he said. Both girls whirled on him. "Hey, hey – are you having fun, though? Even if it's less a Grounder rager and more an intimate family gathering?"

"I guess," Hanna shrugged. "I'm kind of into that Lincoln guy – hey, you're friends with him, right? Can you talk to him for me?"

"What? No way," said Bellamy. "I'm terrible at that kind of stuff."

"Yeah, so is Spencer. I'll just leave you two to being perfect for each other, then!" and she bounced away to sit by Artigas again.

Emily and Clarke were at the door, standing in that awkward "we just started dating and we both want to touch each other but we don't know if it's too soon" kind of way.

Spencer said "Clarke! Emily!" and stood up to go say hi. She noticed Bellamy looking at her, leaned down and put a hand to his face as she whispered, "I'm going to go talk to my friends now. Maybe if you're lucky, we'll find each other at this raging party later." Then she walked over to Clarke and Emily, as Lincoln made the usual introductions.

Bellamy knew Clarke pretty well – she'd been best friends with his sister for years now. He wasn't surprised to see her dating a girl, and to be honest he didn't care. They looked happy, and the way Emily looked he couldn't imagine anyone (guy or girl) not wanting to date her.

But he did think it was weird that as Clarke's gaze fell on Lexa, she took a quick little breath and seemed to freeze in place for a second.

Then Clarke saw him and waved. Now she did take Emily's hand and pulled her over, Spencer following them. Bellamy stood up and gave Clarke a hug. "Hey, Bell!" Clarke said happily. "Feels like I've hardly seen you this year. Have you met Emily?"

"Any friend of Spencer's and Clarke's is a friend of mine," he said, flashing her one of his best smiles. Then, to Clarke: "Where's O?"

"She's with Raven, parking the car," said Emily. "They should be here any second."

Bellamy saw the way Spencer tensed at that. He stood close beside her and nudged her with his shoulder. "Aw, are you scared of little Octavia?" he joked.

"Who you callin' little?" said Octavia, who had just appeared in the doorway, Raven right behind her.

Then she noticed how close Bellamy and Spencer were standing to one another. "Aw, really?" she said loudly enough for everyone to hear.

That made everyone laugh (except the ever-stoic Lincoln and Lexa, who at least cracked a smile), and when Octavia and Raven had made the rounds to meet everyone, the atmosphere was pretty relaxed considering the three groups that were coming together.

It definitely wouldn't go down as one of the great ragers of Bellamy's life, but it was a pretty fun night. He enjoyed watching Lincoln squirm as Hanna ramped up her level of flirting. He couldn't quite figure out Lexa's deal, but he found it interesting how she maintained a distance, yet seemed to be aware of everything that was happening around her.

The one embarrassing moment of the evening was when he walked out on the back patio to get some air and accidentally interrupted Clarke and Emily mid-makeout. Clarke had Emily pressed against the house, and when Bellamy cleared his throat awkwardly it took them a second to come up for air. "Oh HI, Bellamy!" Clarke said. "Did you need something? Right this very minute?" "Sorry!" Bellamy practically squeaked, and he got back inside in a hurry.

He could tell that Raven was preoccupied with something – probably the new job, or the fact that she was at what was (except for Anya) a high school party. And Octavia was Octavia – she pretty much just messed with people, hustling Nyko at cards and occasionally he could have sworn he saw her checking Lincoln out. That might have been his overprotective big brother deal, though.

And when he offered Spencer a ride home on his bike, and she actually said yes, and he felt her arms tight around his abs, her warm body pressed against his back all the way home…when she shook her long hair out of his spare helmet, and looked at him with that knowing smirk, and kissed him on the cheek and whispered "Thanks for the ride…Princess" before sauntering into her house…well, in that moment Bellamy Blake had never been so grateful for study hall in his life.

Next chapter: Abby! (She's not going to do, like, principal-type stuff. Don't worry.)