Catch Me, I'm Falling

August Part III

Clarke had thought, coming into the year, that english was going to be her favorite class.

How could it not be?

She shared the period with two of her best friends, who amused her endlessly with their antics, and everyone with eyes had to admit that Niylah Crewe was hot. That, and she would get to spend the year reading some of her favorite books and just generally enjoying literature.

But then Lexa Woods had waltzed into her life and ruined it all.

Perhaps the statement was a bit overdramatic, but Clarke couldn't find it in herself to care.

For a person who craved routine, she'd been dealing with a lot of change recently, and Clarke didn't quite know how to cope with it. She was already under a considerable amount of stress, what with her father's passing, having to work to make ends meet, and the looming challenge of a competition for art scholarships on the horizon. She didn't need anything to make her life even more difficult.

But, alas, fate was not on her side and, for whatever reason, she'd been cursed with the company of one Lexa Woods, Arkadia's new darling superstar.

Perhaps she'd done something horrible in another life to deserve this sort of treatment.

It must have been something awful, like genocide of an entire people.

And, as though life wanted to torture Clarke even more , she'd brought Costia fucking Greene into the classroom as well, a final "fuck you" to Clarke's mental stability and happiness.

Of course, Lexa Woods, the new football superstar, would be dating Arkadia's head cheerleader, and Clarke's self-assigned archnemesis. Of course. As if she'd be dating anyone else.

Most people didn't understand the level of loathing Clarke possessed for the cheerleader, and she didn't expect them too, because sometimes she didn't even understand it herself.

It had originated in preschool, which was an odd place for a rivalry to start, because more kids in preschool were just worried about snack time and squirrelling around when they were supposed to be sleeping. But not Clarke. No, Clarke had always been an artist, throughout the entirety of her life, so she had spent ever available moment in preschool painting. In the beginning, Clarke and Costia had had a tentative friendship, bonding over their mutual appreciation for bright colors and mutual distaste for drooling little boys.

But then, Costia had committed a betrayal of the highest offense.

She'd smeared paint into Clarke's hair, and, while the blonde had been rushed off to try and clean it, the other girl had taken her painting and ripped it to pieces, effectively sabotaging Clarke's art and taking the gold star sticker for the day.

It seemed insignificant, and Costia probably didn't even remember it, but Clarke never forgot, and her burning hatred for the girl only grew from that day onward, especially after the incident freshman year that Clarke refused to speak of, because they couldn't seem to escape each other. Wherever Clarke went, Costia was bound to follow, because the universe just loved to make Clarke's life hell on earth.

So, she wasn't particularly interested in spending time with the girlfriend of the girl she hated, educational or not, especially when said girlfriend had insulted Jane Austen. Jane Austen .

What a stuck-up bitch.

"Whoa, there, who shit in your cereal this morning?" Clarke sent a withering glare in Raven's direction, causing her friend to flinch slightly, before grinning apologetically up at her friend. "Hey, Octavia and I already apologized for conveniently forgetting you were a person, but Crewe would've paired you with Lexa anyways, in the spirit of peace and unity."