CLEXA - Revelations

Chapter 6: Romance in the Darkroom

Clarke POV

I'd been putting off the landscape assignment for my Drawing 101 class for almost a week, but I was finally almost done with it. I had woken up at 11 a.m. and been scribbling away in my notepad ever since. Raven had soccer practice on Saturdays so she left around 1 to head over to the field. 

A knock at the door startled me. Thinking it must be Raven back early from practice, I hopped up from my bed and unlocked the deadbolt before plopping back down to continue working. The knocking persisted though, which aggravated me.

"Are you arms broken?" I yelled, absentmindedly.

"No, but I think your clock is," said a voice.

It was Lexa, not Raven, standing in the doorway, looking rather beautiful even in jeans, boots, and a New Haven U hoodie. Meanwhile, I looked like a complete mess in my dirty sweatpants and charcoal-stained hands.

"Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. I thought you were Raven. What time is it?" I grabbed my phone to check the time.

"3:42," Lexa looked amused at my flustered state.

"Shit. I must have lost track of time. I can be ready in two minutes," I jumped up and began rummaging through my wardrobe for a clean pair of pants. "Just hold on."

"I can wait outside," Lexa offered.

"No, come in. You can sit on Raven's bed," I said, realizing mine was covered in art supplies.  

While Lexa browsed around my side of the room, I collected a pair of jeans and a sweater and headed into the bathroom to change. 

"What's this?" she asked, holding up a white, pencil-shaped tool.

"It's a blending stump," I answered, peeking my head out of the open bathroom door. "It's for shading with pastels or charcoal."

"Interesting. It's like a whole other world in here."

Lexa found a drawing pad on my desk and flipped through it. I kept expecting her to steal a glance over her shoulder at me changing, but she kept her eyes on my notebook.

What a gentleman, I thought.

"I see you're not just a painter," she called. "I like this self portrait you did. The one in the very front? It looks just like you."

Pulling on my blue Columbia jacket, I came up behind Lexa and examined the drawing.

"That's not me," I began, charmed by her mistake. "That's my mother."

A shocked expression crossed Lexa's face. She glanced back and forth several times between my face and the portrait. "Whoa! You guys look scary alike."

"Yeah, I get that a lot. Now stop shrugging your responsibilities, missy. You have homework to do. Let's get going."

When we reached the lobby, I was begged Lexa to tell me what we were going to be doing exactly.

"It's a surprise," she kept saying.

"How can homework be a surprise? It's either boring or really boring."

"You're so impatient, Clarke!" she laughed, rolling her eyes.

Outside, Lexa led the way toward the media department, which made me even more curious.

"What's your major anyway?"

"Photojournalism. I'd rather be studying photography in art, but photojournalism just seemed more practical."

"I noticed the pictures on the wall in your dorm. Did you take those?"

"Yeah, but they're not my best work."