Arcadia Academy

Chapter 13

Clarke woke up to the sound of her alarm clock on Monday morning, groaning as she rolled out of bed to turn it off. She got ready quickly anxious to see if Lexa would show up for morning inspection in ten minutes.

Lexa had been absent since the haunted house. Bellamy had done evening inspections alone all weekend and nobody had seen her which made Clarke think that she had left for the weekend. She had considered going to her room to see if she was there a few times but decided against it. She was worried but didn't want to push Lexa to talk about something she knew she probably wished Clarke had never seen.

Clarke's weekend had mostly consisted of her replaying the haunted house through her head. She knew the screaming had to have been the trigger, she just couldn't imagine why. What had happened to Lexa in the past that would make her have such an extreme reaction?

The door to the room opened and Lexa walked in looking even more exhausted than she had the day Clarke kicked her in the face. Her eye wasn't swollen shut anymore but it still didn't look good. She avoided eye contact with Clarke as she did her inspection.

"Looks good, morning training with Bellamy starts in five minutes, he's already downstairs if you want to go meet him." Lexa informed them after completing inspection, still unable to participate in active training as a precaution because of her eye.

Raven, Octavia, and Luna headed out to meet Bellamy. Clarke hung back hoping to have a moment to talk to Lexa alone. She walked out into the common area and saw Lexa reaching for her door handle, about to return to her room.

"Will I see you later, in the library?" Clarke asked.

Lexa paused her hand on the doorknob. "I can't, sorry." Her voice sounded hollow as she spoke facing the door, never turning to look at Clarke.

Clarke didn't have a chance to respond before Lexa disappeared into her room. In a way she was glad Lexa hadn't been looking at her because she knew the disappointment had been clear on her face.

That afternoon Clarke finished her late work. She realized that she actually worked faster without Lexa's help, but she missed having the company. She pulled the now finished stack of papers off the table and packed them into her backpack. It was ten past six and she was late for dinner. Lexa was early to everything so she had never had to watch the time before when they studied.

When Clarke entered the dining hall everyone was already seated around the table eating their food. She rushed over to the serving section and got a plate full of food.

"Look who decided to join us." Raven teased pulling the empty chair next to her out for Clarke.

"I lost track of time, I finished my late work though." Clarke glanced over at Lexa to see if she had any reaction but she wasn't looking at Clarke, she was talking to Monty too quietly for Clarke to know what they were talking about despite only being three seats away from them. She slumped down feeling disappointed and started eating her food.

The next two weeks passed incredibly slow for Clarke. At first, she thought Lexa just needed some space after what happened at the haunted house. As the days went on though she felt more and more like Lexa was avoiding her. When Lexa returned to combat training she reassigned all of the partners meaning they weren't paired anymore. Clarke had tried not to read too much into this choice because she knew partners were reassigned often.

However, as the week went on she noticed that Lexa never even looked at her anymore. She avoided eye contact when she had to talk to her and that was always about official school stuff. The days of having real conversations with Lexa seemed to be over which disappointed her more than she had expected.