❝I don't do regrets. Regrets are pointless. It's too late for regrets. You've already done it, haven't you? No point wishing you could change it.❞
Elissa Bardot-Gray was never the one to be classified as a "rule breaker". She had a high-rankin...
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FOR THE NEXT couple of hours, Elissa silently trailed after Bellamy and Charlotte with Atom having wandered off to do his own thing. She watched with peaking interest and slight confusion as he easily interacted with the younger girl; crouching down in front of different plants and pointing out the different animal trails that they came across. Charlotte seemed to absorb all the information like a sponge.
The longer the two of them chatted, the more at ease Bellamy seemed to appear. And after a while, she was sure that they didn't even remember that she was there, they were so enthralled in their own little world.
She didn't know why she was so surprised that he was good with the younger girl. After all, he'd probably spent his entire life taking care of Octavia, keeping her safe and hidden from the rest of the Ark. It was just such a stark contrast to how he dealt with the rest of the delinquents—keeping everyone at an arm's length—giving everyone the same aggressive attitude, that she found the warm smiles and casual posture hard to process.
Elissa was also reluctantly impressed by his knowledge. He was clearly someone else who—like Finn and Wells—had done extremely well during Earth Skills. He knew most of the plants that were edible, which were poisonous and he also seemed to have the general idea of what tracks belong to which animal, easily pointing out which were the best to pursue.
Trudging along behind them, she grumbled to herself, feeling slightly jealous of his knowledge. Should have paid more attention during class. Although she did have to admit that listening to him, she was learning just as much as Charlotte. He's a good teacher, she reluctantly admitted. While she knew plenty about plants and weapons—hunting and tracking would never be something that she would be able to grasp.
Wait, how old is he? He hadn't been in school while she was there, so he had to be at least a few years older than even the oldest of the delinquents. The guard uniform should have been a giveaway. He'd either been training to be a Guard, or he'd stolen the uniform to get on the dropship in his plan to be with Octavia. If she had to guess, she would have said that he'd stolen it, but by his arrogance and 'follow me or else' attitude, maybe she was wrong. Maybe he'd need part of the Guard. She was glad that Jupiter hadn't allowed all the other assholes in the Guard to influence how he behaved.
Quickly growing bored and beginning to feel like a tag-along, she almost cheered when he suddenly screwed up. He told Charlotte that the berry in front of them was edible, when it most definitely was not. She found herself filling with smug satisfaction—now she knew he wasn't always right.
Stepping forward, she came to stand behind them and pointedly cleared her throat. Both of them glanced up, looking slightly startled. She was right and nearly huffed in annoyance. They'd forgotten about her entirely.
