West Ark High

Just How Fast The Night Changes

The fact that they decided to hold their impromptu meeting in a Burger King parking lot seemed rather fitting to Bellamy; after all, when had anything they'd ever done been considered normal? Their school was going to be torn down, half of the student council members were always missing during meetings, the Clarke-Finn-Raven soap opera, not to mention the mini superintendent being shipped to France all of a sudden. At this point, the Burger King parking lot seemed like the least weird thing that's happened in the last three months.

Bellamy flipped his water bottle in his hand, leaning against the door of his car. Everyone was circled up and looking exhausted, borderline defeated. Raven and Finn seemed like they had made up despite the sullen looks and Monty, who had settled to Bellamy's right, informed him that Jasper was in the backseat of Clarke's car across the lot.

Clarke's face looked duller and he wished there was something he could say to cheer her up. Instead, when she walked over to stand next him, he offered her a small smile which she returned briefly.

Wells sat on the back hood of his car, his legs criss-crossed and elbows pinned on his knees to support his face. "It's all my fault," he muttered.

"What else is new," Monty murmured. Bellamy withheld a laugh; if Monty hadn't been standing right next to him, Bellamy would have missed the gibe.

Finn crossed one ankle over the other, shifting himself as he leaned against Raven's car. "Just start at the beginning."

Wells gripped his hair, then sat up straight. Clasped his hands together and inhaled deeply. "Back when Clarke was ignoring me, I felt pretty dejected."

"Naturally," Finn supplied. Clarke chewed down on her lower lip, as if ashamed. Bellamy suddenly wanted to punch Wells for guilt tripping her, accidental or not.

"My cousin," Wells continued, eyes following Clarke, "and I had been in touch pretty regularly since she had been visiting us from France for the summer. So one night we were Skyping and she suggested that I apply to go to her school with her."

"So your cousin wants you to move halfway around the world to go to school with her?" Raven said. "She doesn't have a crush on you or something weird, right?"

Wells scoffed at that. "No, she does not have a crush on me. She thought..." He paused. Bellamy slipped his cold fingertips into his back pockets. "She thought it would be a good change in scenery for me. To move on and not dwell on things."

And by things, it was pretty obvious that Wells meant Clarke.

"If this was back i before school started then how did you end up staying here for the first quarter?" Monty asked.

Wells rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I told her that it sounded interesting, so later that night we introduced the idea to my dad and her parents at dinner. My dad didn't need any convincing and he emailed the school about it within the hour. But it turned out, since it's a prestigious prep school type," a collective groan followed that, everyone being reminded of Mount Weather scum, but Wells continued, "and they were already full for the school year. My dad put me on the waiting list, but we kind of thought that was the end of it. Until —"

"Someone left the school and you were next on the waiting list," Bellamy finished. "Never thought there'd be something where the only thing the superintendent could do was get on a waiting list."

Wells shot him a dirty look. Bellamy smirked. "I thought we were past this, Bellamy," Wells said.

"Oh, come on," Bellamy laughed softly, "I'm just messing with you. You're going to be leaving soon so think of it as old time's sake."