Clarke's eyes flicked once again between the wall clock and the classroom door in anticipation because this was one of the few classes she shared with not only her growing best friend Maggie Sawyer but also Lexa. The school's intimately beautiful sports captain and growing source of inspiration on several of Clarke's newest art creations. The newly gained knowledge that Lexa in fact liked her back as much as Clarke was crushing on her only heightened the artist's longing.
She'd already promised herself that today, today she was going to make her own feelings more readily known to the seemingly cold-feeling commander of all things school sports.
"Hey, Clarke."
Inwardly Clarke cringed at the voice at her elbow. "Hey, Finn." She answers without moving her eyes from the steady stream of fellow students filing into the classroom. The impatient tapping of her pencil against the sketch pad signals her growing frustrations at the lack of appearance from the only two people in Clarke's personal option that make the class barrable.
"So I was thinking, you know with that Valentine's dance coming up and all…" Finn goes on not picking up on the fact Clarke wasn't paying much attention to him.
"There is? Huh, that's new." Clarke comments with a low sigh as her gaze lowers to the half-finished sketch she'd started in the margin of her class notes.
Lexa's eyes stare up at her from the page. Not as fascinating as catching sight of the real thing but for the moment the closest she had to the girl herself as Clarke traced her pencil along one of the unfinished irises darkening the shading to match the flash of it painting itself behind her unfocused eyes.
"So, what do you think?" Finn asks in prompting for an answer to a question Clarke hadn't heard.
"Huh?" Clarke asked puzzled considering she'd just noticed Raven already mimicking being sick at the sight of Finn's obvious courting attempts from two table rows over from the one Clarke was meant to be sharing with Maggie during class making Clarke snicker.
Raven and Finn's rollercoaster romance was well known around the school before the arrival of a certain Woods bombshell also known as Anya waltzing through the door of Raven and Clarke's shared shop class. Anya was a year ahead of them but also the TA for the class. A few times the teacher even allowed her to lead the class when it came to certain projects.
"The dance, for Valentine's Day. Will you go with me?" Finn repeats
"I can't. I have a…." Clarke starts off then stops her gaze flickering towards a stone-faced Raven who in turn was looking in honest surprise toward the classroom doorway. Not that she needed to with the already stage-worthy whispers sweeping the room with their teacher still absent herself at the moment.
"Is Danvers actually holding hands with that Sawyer girl?"
"Since when has Danvers been into girls?"
"This has to be some kind of prank, right? With all those guys Danvers dated over the years."
It was Lexa that quiets the buzzing questions of their fellow classmates with a truly commanding "Shut up" growl as she tosses her backpack on her chair at her shared table beside Raven before following an equally annoyed-looking Alex and Maggie over towards the table Maggie shared with Clarke during this class. "Go away, Finn." Lexa orders making Clarke nearly visibly swoon at the hard edge of the words as her crush's gaze holds Finns a few seconds longer than needed.
Alex gave a friendly "Morning Clarke" as she carefully sets Maggie's backpack down over the back of the chair never once letting go of Maggie's held hand before helping the blushing Latina into said chair.
"Hey, Alex." Clarke smiled back then gives a probing "What the heck happened to you?" towards Maggie once her best friend was settled in her seat.
"This one." Maggie says with a shrug her shoulder nudging playfully against Alex's arm "she surprised me as always but as for this…" Maggie sighed tilting her chin down to the brace around her right foot. "I wanted to twist one way and my leg wanted to go the other one and well…" she sighed
"It's just a sprain think goodness." Alex was already diagnosing making Clarke swoon just a little more when it earned one of Lexa's rare half smiles to listen to. Said smile only widening onto a full one once Lexa notices Clarke staring at her.
"Hey, Clarke."
It takes all of Clarke will power to keep from visible shuddering in pleasure at the simple sound of her name on Lexa's lips. The way her tone caresses each letter. How the 'k' seemed to be emphasized for some unknown yet not inertly unpleased reasoning.
"H-hi Lexa." Clarke smiles back praying her cheeks aren't as bright red as she fears as her crush leans a little more against her side of the shared worktable.
Trust the teacher to choose that moment to walk into the room with a pointed "Aren't you meant to be elsewhere Miss Danvers?" at Alex's presence earning a rumbling popcorned laughter from the audience of others already occupying the classroom as the final late bell sounds around them.
"Erm, yes. I was just leaving" Alex answers and neither she nor Clarke or Lexa notice the visible drooping of Maggie's shoulders at the words.
Alex sent the now saddened Latina a reassuring wink before bringing the hand she still held to her lips for a brush of a kiss against it when the teacher's back was turned earning a collective gasp of surprise from the others in the room at the action.
"Leaking tires much." Raven scoffed earning an agreeing grin and a high-five from Alex on her way out.
It will only be when Clarke moves to replace her sketchbook and tug out her needed text and note books that she'll notice the new addition to the already opened zipper pocket of her book bag.
A ziplocked baggie of pretzel rods she was positive hadn't been there when she'd first opened it "What the heck?" Clarke whispers whilst the teacher rather loudly starts the class.
"Find something interesting Grif?" Maggie asked her gaze remaining trained on the front of the class as she asked.
Quickly Clarke lifts the baggie onto the table taking care to avoid being caught by either the teacher or one of the other 'whistle-blowing' students dotting the class what with the 'no food in class' rule strictly enforced. "Any ideas?" she asked. The offering did look homemade, but a homemade what was another question.
Maggie only glances briefly at the offered evidence
"Just think of them like edible paintbrushes, or they were meant to be anyway." Maggie confesses with a conspirator's smile pulling at her lips. "it was sweet really considering she was already planning on giving them to you today but now these are just the first of your little gifts for the day. Lucky girl." Maggie snickered "Thought I did end up with Alex as my girlfriend now so really it's a win, win." She amends with a small shrug of her shoulders as she continued copying out another line from the blackboard into her notebook.
Clarke takes another closer look at the offered snack noticing each snack piece was indeed dipped with a different candied coated 'paint color' around the top.
"But who-" Clarke starts to ask only for her gaze to draw back towards the glowing shade of green she was still having trouble matching exactly no matter what combinations she attempted.
Lexa's smile was shyer than Clarke could ever remember seeing it, shyer than Clarke was sure Lexa was capable of the longer the two held gazes in the space of a single traded glance.
"Sneaky Danvers." Clarke hears when once again Alex departs another of her and Maggie's shared classes with a soft kiss to the back of Maggie's held hand.
The blonde looks over to see Maggie tugging out a small box from the pocket of her jacket. One of the ones the artist sees cluttering the shelves in the 'mini kits' section closer to the registers at a few shops. One with 'pocket skee ball' or mini 'Zoltar' so purchasers could liven up a dull day with some desktop fun. This one however wasn't either of those.
"I didn't even know they had a bonsai tree in those." Clarke cooed earning a mock glare from Maggie. "It's just so tiny."
The shadow of a fellow classmate falls over them both quieting any more attempted teasing.
That was until Clarke finds a drawstring backpack being dropped onto her desk with a "a think you gift of shared candy will be highly appreciated for this Grif" from Octavia as she drops onto her seat beside the startled blonde a half beat later. "Preferably all your chocolate." Bellamy's younger sister smiles at Clarke's puzzled glance between her and the offered bag.
Maggie stifles a giggle behind her hand as she digs through the Ziplock of oversized conversation hearts Alex had left her with this time after walking with her to her next class. Her palm was already feeling far colder the longer it wasn't held against Alex's own then Maggie has to visibly pinch herself for the over-sappy thoughts rattling around in her head "Here O, a sweet treat for an even sweeter gift drop off." the Latina offers passing over a few of her own candy pieces whilst Clarke continues eyeing the drawstring warily.
"I need to get Lincoln to pick some of these up." Octavia sighs setting one of the orange sugared hearts start to dissolve on her tongue while they waited once again for class to start.
"You know what's in this." It wasn't inertly a question.
"I take the fifth, just open it." Maggie answered then quickly stashing away her bag of sugared candies when the teacher walked into the room.
"You've already brightened my day by being in it, I hope this brightens yours just as much." The folded page of a note reads as the class around her was called to order.
Clarke's surprised gasp, once the ties had been pulled, undone was masked by the rest of the class groaning in unison at the announcement of a quiz.
The bag was filled with art supplies. Limited as it was considering the scant selection stocked by the store Clarke knew they'd been bought at. It still warmed her to no end at the thoughtful meaning behind the gift.
Different-sized sketchbooks, new packs of colored pencils, crayons, pens….
Maggie warningly jab the eraser side of her pencil into Clarke's shoulder to get her attention when the passed-back stack of test papers reached Clarke's desk.
"Test now, Grif, swoon over you almost gf after." Maggie teases making Clarke blush scarlet and almost gave the distracted girl a painful papercut in the process.