Everything's Changed

1

Clarke sat at a table in the back of the cafeteria. She was alone as usual. No one sat in the back of the cafeteria but her. She hadn't had lunch. She never ate lunch. She barely ate at all. She didn't really have time to eat, not when Cage Wallace existed. 

Cage Wallace was the school's pride and joy. He was the team captain of the boy's football, basketball, and tennis team. He was basically praised by the other students. Clarke on the other hand despised him. He looked like a replica of James Dean and his attitude towards other people was shitty. 

"What do you want?" Clarke demanded as she looked Cage right in the eye. 

The boy looked at his friends and grinned at Clarke. "We don't want anything." He said a bit dryly, chuckling under his breath. His friends smiled at her.

The boy grabbed Clarke's wrist and pulled her up. Clarke refused and struggled out of his grip but he tightened his grip. "Stay still and it'll make it easier for both you and us." He gave a small evil grin.

Clarke stopped struggling and stayed still for the boy and his gang to beat her up. She knew what they wanted. She couldn't get out of their sights. She couldn't escape. She had tried it before and she paid for it. 

"Hold her still!" The boy commanded. Two of his friends held her by her wrists. The boy delivered a punch in the guts first. Then he kicked her right shin, making her lean on her left side. The boy kicked her left shin, making her fall to the ground. "Get up!" He demanded.

Clarke couldn't stand. He kicked her hard. "Cage! A teacher is coming." One of his friends said, keeping watch for teachers. "Move out." Cage said. They walked off and left Clarke sitting on the ground, immobile.

She lifted up her sweatpants, checking her shins. They were bruised as expected. The teacher walked towards Clarke, getting closer and closer.  "Are you okay?" The teacher asked in a concerned tone. Clarke nodded her head. With that, the teacher walked away.

Clarke struggled to get up. She has struggled to get up every lunch. Her shins were already purple but now they were black. Clarke rolled down her sweatpants and got up slowly. She walked to the bathroom to check her waist to see what Cage had done.

Clarke stood in front of the mirror and lifted her shirt slightly to see an almost purple stomach. She then saw the scars on her upper stomach and put her shirt down quickly. She had a hard time getting back to class as the flashbacks kept coming to her from what she had seen from her scars.

Flashback:

Clarke was sitting in the backseat of her father's F150 Ford Truck. They were driving home from bowling night. Clarke sat in her car seat, almost asleep. Her parents were talking about the strike she had hit without the bumpers. When Abby turned around to check on Clarke, finding the young girl asleep.

They stopped at a stoplight and waited patiently for it to change. As the light changed, a drunk driver was speeding from the left side. He hit only the left side, ramming straight through Jake's body. His body was crushed on impact. Clarke and Abby had been stroked by a few pieces of glass but nothing major. It would definitely leave scars though.

Clarke and her mother, Abby, were safe but yet hurt by the glass shards and the crash. After her father's death, her mother started working crazy hours at the hospital like she did before she met Clarke's father. Clarke started to worry about her mother. But that worry went away when she was getting bullied at school because of her father's death.

Soon after Clarke had gotten into eighth grade, she found some illegal drugs in the cabinet above the fridge. Was this how her mother was coping? Clarke wanted no part in it. Clarke was disappointed in her mother. Clarke knew that Abby was a respected doctor and to know that she was ruining her life even more made Clarke angry.

Clarke stopped seeing her mother, distancing herself. She couldn't handle it. She couldn't handle her mother's remarks or Abby lashing out at her. It was already bad enough at school. So in the meantime, Clarke started listening to music and drawing to pass the time.

Clarke sat in her room that evening after school

"Clarke!" She heard someone say. She heard footsteps coming to the attic. "Clarke, I just enrolled you at Arkadia Girls Boarding School just five hours out of state."

Clarke rolled her eyes. "You're seriously that sick and tired of having me here?" Is it because you want free rein to do whatever you want? To bring another man home?"

Her mother looked at her differently. "It's so you wouldn't get bullied. It'd be a fresh start." She said trying to get Clarke to forget her remark but she was wrong.

"I know about your drug addiction," Clarke said. "You can't deny it."

"Clarke, It was to get over your father." She protested. "I was in love with him since I could remember."

"A doctor taking drugs. Makes so much sense." Clarke scoffed. "Are you still taking them?"

"I'm not. And I'm not getting drunk and bringing random men home." She said in an angry tone but calmed down. "I just want the best for you."

"You could have done better these past few years," Clarke said lifting up her sweatpants first and then her shirt. Her mother gasped.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know it was that bad." She cried. "Who was it?"

Clarke avoided the question and let her mother hug her. She smelled like cigarettes but Clarke didn't care. It wasn't the weed or cocaine Abby used to snort. Clarke knew her mother was trying to quit and if resorting to cigarettes for a while would help, Clarke would be fine with that.