The 100 Academy

Chapter 9

I should be studying right now, but I feel like writing so...thanks for reading!  

Raven

My hands were shaking.  It was so bad now that the tremors were actually visible.  I could feel Wick's eyes on me, watching as I unsuccessfully tried to fix my watch.  What normally would have been a quick and easy one minute fix had turned into a days long project.  This wasn't right, it wasn't me.  I was the best engineering prodigy in Skaikru, even better than Wick, my mentor.  I belonged at the Academy, but Jaha had told me that they needed me too much here at Skaikru.

Well, fuck Skaikru!  They took Finn away from me when he was all I had.  I never knew my parents, since they had given me up for adoption when I was born.  Finn, the love of my life, was all I had, until they shipped him off to the stupid Academy.  Right before he left, he gave me a necklace.  It had a thick black string, holding a pendant of folded metal.  In the shape of a raven.  It was the only thing that kept me connected to him.  Now, I know I sound cheesy and dramatic, but I am the complete opposite of that, I promise.

"Why don't you take the day off?" Wick asked.  He had been working on a way to fix an old air conditioning unit in the B wing of Skaikru.  The past few days had been devoted to this 'serious problem.'  Wick's blonde hair was messy and stubble was visible along his jaw and right under his nose.

"I already took yesterday off.  I'm fine." I said, pointedly, rolling my eyes.  I hated when people underestimated me, when they thought I was just a girl who couldn't hold the burden of the world on her shoulders.  But I was Raven Reyes.  I have struggled through more than anyone would think, and it's just made me stronger.

"Are you sure you're oka-"

"I'm fine, Wick!" I pretty much yelled, cutting him off.  I looked down at my hands, which were now in my lap.  I didn't feel like crying, not at all, I just felt like throwing something threw the window.  Like a certain large air conditioner in the room that kept making annoying clicking noises.  I needed to get out of here before I lost control in front of Wick.  I respected him and he respected me, I couldn't lose that.

I stood up quickly, me leg brace buckling.  The brace was needed because I had no feeling in my left leg, due to a car accident a few months back.  Thank you, drunk teenager, for this useless leg that just got in the way of everything.  The brace was wrapped tight around my black skinny jeans and red converse.  I wore my usual red bomber jacket and gray t-shirt.  Once my brace was no longer stuck, I took a step forward, just to find my path blocked by Wick.  He must have walked around the table as I was getting my brace unstuck.  I looked up into Wick's eyes, two blue seas.  Wick had always liked me as more than a friend, I could tell, but I never liked him that way back.

Wick placed his hands on both of my arms in a calming gesture, as if he were trying to tame an angry horse.

"I know you're ok, Raven, but I think you should leave before your hands fall off from working so hard." Wick said, smirking.

"Work?  I haven't done any work!  I'm useless, Wick!" I yelled, brushing off his hands.  I didn't want his affection, his pity, his sarcasm.  I just wanted to be left alone in my dorm, where I could throw things as much as I pleased without anyone seeing.  I walked out of the room as fast as I could with that shitty brace on me, pulling me down, telling me to give up.  I wouldn't.  

Wick didn't stop me as I walked down the hallway, through the maze of corridors, past the cafeteria, and into my dorm.  He didn't stop me or question me and I knew that he had finally figured out what I wanted.  

As soon as I was in my room, I slammed my door closed.  I ran to my wall and ripped off all of the pictures taped up of Finn and I, smiling and together.  I threw the tub of pencils I kept on my desk across my room, my desktop keyboard going soon after.  I ripped the bed covers off my bed, punched the wall, making a surprising dent in it, kicked around the trash can.  I took my anger out on pretty much everything in the room.  After a few minutes of this, I fell to my knees on the floor, my brace clunking against the carpet.  Life was unfair.  First my parents, then my leg, and now Finn.  Not even Wick could make me smile for the past week.  And not once have I cried or even let my eyes water.  I've just taken taken out my anger on my dorm.  I even shouted at secretary Griffin and Vice-principal Kane on the first day that they were taken.  I still remember the memory of their faces when I shouted.  Surprised.  Angry.  But most of all, they showed pity.  And I never let anyone show me pity.  Pity was one of the only things that could make me truly angry.  Like it would make me feel better if people gave me pity.  I didn't want anybody's pity!  Especially now that Finn was gone.

Finn had always been the one I vented to, the one that never gave me his pity.  He loved that I was an engineer and went through every step with me.  He helped me out with walking after I lost feeling in my left leg.  He even took the blame for me a few months ago when they caught us skipping school to go to NASA.  I had been offered a scholarship, which is why Finn had driven me there to check out the place.  However, when Jaha found out we had skipped, Finn took the blame.  Because I was 18 already, they would have kicked me out of Skaikru and there would go my education, but since he was 17, he just got a referral.  

Suddenly, I heard a noise outside my window.  I looked outside and saw a big white bus coming into the school driveway.  Jaha, Kane, and Griffin were all there, along with bundles of food that were probably being delivered to the Academy.  Wait a minute.  

I quickly grabbed an empty backpack from my closet and threw in a few pairs of clothes, a toothbrush, brush, small pillow, and my toolkit.  I zipped it up and headed out of my dorm, down the hallway, and out the front doors.  I saw Griffin sitting there with the food while Kane and Jaha went inside the school through the garage entrance, where they kept a few buses.  The bus driver was busy loading supplies into the back of the bus and Griffin wasn't looking towards the open doors at the front of the bus.  This was my chance.  I made a run for it, as fast as I could go with my brace.  I got to the bus just in time and was climbing the stairs when-

I felt a tug on my backpack, not hard enough to pull me down but enough to get my attention.  I turned around, scared of what I would see, and saw Griffin behind me, looking surprised.

"Raven, what are you doing?" she asked, acting like she cared.  I knew she didn't.  None of them did.

"I'm going to see my boyfriend.  Will you let me go or will you just drag me back to my dorm?" I rolled my eyes at her.  Griffin, well, Abby, looked at me with curiosity and confusion as she thought over what I said.  She seemed at odds with herself, unsure of what to do.

"Tell my daughter, Clarke, that I love her." And then Abby let go of my backpack, walking away, back towards the school.  I shook my head and climbed the rest of the steps onto the bus.  I sat down on one of the middle seats, laying down so the bus driver wouldn't see me, and I closed my eyes, hoping that when I opened them again, I would see Finn.