Not All Fun and Games

Chapter 23

Over the next few days, the camp slowly begins to become busy again. Not as many people stay hidden away in their tents, or whisper cautiously instead of talking at a regular volume. They play more outside the fence, and some brave kids have even gone hunting and have come back with squirrels or birds. Of course, Octavia and I advised them not to go far. In fact, we explained to the entire camp my theory about the grounders not liking us on their territory.

Bellamy still hasn't been able to walk, but Raven's been working on a leg brace. If she succeeds, he'll be able to move around weather his right leg wants to or not. But for now, he's staying in the dropship.

"Hey, Clarke," says Octavia, walking up to me. "So listen..." She looks around cautiously. "Actually, um, maybe we should talk in private." She grabs my arm.
"What's wrong?" I ask as she pulls me away from the loud voices. We stop under a large tree leaning over the fence.
I begin to worry that something happened. Something bad.
"Did someone else see a grounder?" I ask frantically, but am calmed down by Octavia's smile.
"No Clarke, nothing like that," she giggles. "Stop worrying so much!"
I roll my eyes at her. "So what is it then?"
Her voice drops to a whisper. "Well, it's Bell's birthday tomorrow. At least I think it is. How long's it been since we got here? We landed seventeen days ago, did we not?"
"We did," I reply, chuckling at the short conversation she just had with herself.
Finn has a system to tell which day it is. We came down from the ark on a Thursday. Every morning of a new day, he'd draw a line with a sharp rock on the dropship. I checked this morning: 16 lines. Therefor, it is now Sunday.

I turn my attention back to Octavia. "So what's your point?"
She smiles smugly, giving her an almost mischievous look. "My point is, I'm throwing him a birthday party! And not just a birthday party, but the first birthday party to be held on earth for 97 years!"
"You never know," I say. "Maybe the grounders throw birthday parties, too."
Octavia laughs, elbowing me playfully. "So?" She asks simply.
"So what?"
"So are you gonna help me plan the party?"
Wait— she's not serious, is she? "You're not kidding? You really want to throw Bellamy a party?"
Octavia frowns. "Well, yeah! I don't 'kid' about partays. Besides, camp needs some lightening up."
For a second I feel mad. Alex is gone, Bellamy is injured, Adam is dead, and her priorities are throwing a surprise party. But then it hits me. All this is going on, and Octavia wants to throw a party. But it's not because she's insensitive, or she doesn't care. It's because she wants to make the the pain, the terror, the sadness of the past events go away. She wants to stop thinking about Adam, and to make the fear that constantly lingers in our camp go away. At least for a while.
"Yeah, I'm in. Of course I'm in."
She looks at me strangely. "Really? Cause it seemed like you weren't too excited a few seconds ago."
"Well, I've changed my mind," I say, wrapping my arm around her shoulders. "We're gonna throw the best first-Earth-party-in-97-years ever."