West Ark High

Theoretical Solutions

Bellamy felt mildly uncomfortable.

It was one thing to be on good terms with Clarke at school, but a few months ago he never would have pictured himself sitting in her living room with a bagel and glass of milk in hand. Then again, a lot had happened in the last few weeks that he never would have expected either.

One of those things, for example, being the reason why almost everyone from Student Council were piled on Clarke's couch so early on the day following Homecoming.

Bellamy had planned on staying in bed most of Sunday, catch up on his anime, and promptly ignore the lab report that was due on Wednesday. He was almost ready to skin Clarke alive when her phone call woke him up, but then she told him that there was a mandatory Stu-Co meeting at her house in half an hour and that there were going to be bagels.

He only ended up going because of the bagels; Bellamy figured that Clarke was just overreacting to some small mishap that happened at Homecoming or something. Imagine his surprise when he found out that the superintendent, Wells' dad, was planning on selling the school's property for a parking garage to be built.

Bellamy wiggled his way forward on the couch, shoving Miller in the side with his elbow. "Will you scoot over a bit?" he grumbled.

Miller shot him a look. "It's not my fault that Clarke's couch is so small! Tell Harper to scoot over!"

Harper growled their way from the other side of Bellamy. "I'm as far over as I can be! If you're not happy, then you can sit on the damn floor!"

"Could you guys knock it off?" Finn muttered from the recliner on the other side of the room. His eyes were heavy like he hadn't slept well and his chin rested on his fisted hand. "It's too early for all of this noise."

Bellamy regarded him with a hard stare, but Finn barely noticed. Not that Bellamy cared for Finn's well being, but he couldn't help but note that something was off with him. He had showed up to Clarke's last and had wordlessly dropped himself into the recliner over half an hour ago. Raven wasn't here either and she was always stuck to him like glue.

He shook his head, reminding himself that he didn't care, and took a massive bite out of his bagel. Clarke appeared in the doorway with Wells at her heels. Neither of them looked too good; Bellamy was pretty sure that he had never seen Clarke look so defeated.

Harper and Miller quit their squabbling when Clarke sat down on the floor, completing their circle. "Well, this totally sucks," she mumbled, pulling her knees up to her chest.

For a second, Bellamy was worried she might start bawling but she didn't. Wells cleared his throat. "So, what are we going to do about this?" He dropped the envelope on the floor in front of him.

Harper sighed, relaxing her muscles so that Bellamy could feel her arm pushing into his side. "I guess there's not much we really can do at this point. Didn't it say that it's scheduled for May of this year?"

"Right before graduation," Clarke murmured sadly. Bellamy wondered why his stomach did a somersault just by the sadness in her voice.

"That's still a long ways away," Miller traced his finger around the rim of his glass, "—there's gotta be something we can do to stop it."

"Like what?" Finn asked, perking up slightly.

"Seriously, there's no way. Do you know how many thousands of dollars we'd have to raise?" Harper shook her head.

Wells growled down at the carpet, surprising Bellamy. He wasn't used to Wells being so aggressive. Normally he just frowned when he was upset. "I can't believe my dad thinks this is a good idea."