Arcadia Academy

Chapter 1

"We love you so much." Those were the last words that her parents had said to her before putting her on the plane. Clarke kept replaying them over in her head. She already missed them so much. Both of them had been deployed a couple of times during her life, but it had never been at the same time. She'd always had one of them home with her to support her while the other was gone.

She was nervous about going to Arcadia Academy. It was mid-September, so school hadn't begun that long ago, but most people started there as freshmen. She was going in as a sophomore. She knew that she would be behind and it would take time to learn the routines.

As soon as the plane landed Clarke found her way to baggage claim. Her trunk came through and she lugged it off the conveyor belt. There were people waiting outside of the baggage claim section with signs. She quickly scanned until she saw the sign that said Clarke Griffin. She recognized the man holding it as Theloneus Jaha. He was the headmaster of Arcadia Academy and a personal friend of her parents. She had grown up seeing him and his son Wells a couple of times a year.

"Clarke, how are you?" Jaha quickly pulled her into a hug.

"I'm doing okay, it's an adjustment." Clarke admitted.

"It definitely is, but you are going to do great. Why don't we head over to the school and get you settled." Jaha took Clarke's trunk from her and lead her towards the exit.

During the car ride Jaha explained many things to Clarke about her new accommodations. Arcadia ran on a system of units. Each dormitory was split into units that housed ten students each. Within the units there were five boys and five girls. There was one leader of each gender who had a single. The other four girls live in a room while the four boys live in the other. There is a common area with couches, a table, a small fridge, sink, and microwave. The rooms and bathrooms are situated on either side of the common area. Boys on one side, girls on the other. The rules were strict that no boys were allowed on the girls side and vice versa. Class schedules rotated by the day. Units did training exercises together regardless of grade level.

Arcadia Academy was beautiful. The campus was very beautiful and large. Students were roaming here and there, there was a group in the distance that was going for a run. Clarke looked at it all in awe. She had been here to visit once when she was younger, but it was so long ago that she had forgotten.

For years she had kind of feared her parents sending her here because she had known that it would probably be because of the current circumstances.

Jaha led her into his office and printed out her class schedule. He went over a few administration things and caught up with her a bit before calling someone in.

A beautiful green-eyed girl with dark hair walked into the room. Clarke stared for a second before realizing she should get up to introduce herself.

"Clarke this is Lexa Woods, she is your unit's female lead." Jaha introduced the green-eyed girl.

Clarke stood up and held out her hand, "Hi I'm Clarke Griffin." She introduced herself.

Lexa shook her hand. "Welcome to Arcadia Academy."

"Thank you." Clarke replied.

"I have to go into a meeting, Lexa if you could show Clarke to the unit, I had her trunk taken there already." Jaha requested.

Lexa nodded before turning and heading for the door. She paused at the door and looked back at Clarke who realized that she should be following. Clarke quickly caught up with Lexa and followed her out of Jaha's office. They left the admin building and started heading for the dormitory. Lexa didn't talk for the whole walk.

"This is the first floor, on the right we have a game room with TVs, pool tables, ping pong, board games, and some video games. People spend a lot of their time in there. On the left is a study room, there are textbook reserves, computers, and study rooms for group sessions. In the back of this floor there is a gym, we do some of our morning training in there, but we do our teacher-taught fitness in the fitness center. This floor is open from 5AM until 9PM. You have to be in the unit by 9PM every week night. On Friday and Saturday nights this floor is open until 11PM. That is curfew on those days." Lexa explained as she led Clarke up the staircase to the third floor. She turned right down the hall and swiped her student ID at two double doors. A click sounded and she pushed them open revealing a common area. It was empty at the moment.

"Boys are on the left, girls are on the right. You are not allowed to go on the left side in the boys' zone." Lexa explained further. "My room is that middle door right there," she pointed at a door on the right wall. "You can come knock if you ever need anything. Common areas should be vacant by 11 on school nights and 12 on weekends. Do you have any questions?" Lexa finally turned to look at Clarke.

Clarke stared at her for a second processing all the information that Lexa had just so efficiently thrown her way.

"I don't think so, no." Clarke answered.

"Okay, excellent. You can go get settled your stuff has been left by your bed, it is the one closest to the door. I need to do some homework I will be in my room studying, I will come get you when it is time for dinner. We eat as a unit so you will meet everyone else then." Lexa gestured towards the third door and walked quickly into her own room leaving Clarke alone in the common area.

Clarke walked into her new room. There were two beds on each wall with trunks at the end of each bet and a nightstand on the side. There were built-in drawers underneath each bed. The one on the right already had her trunk at the end and her backpack on the unmade bed. There was a set of sheets and blankets on the nightstand next to the bed. Clarke quickly got to work, first making the bed before unpacking her clothes.

After all of her stuff was unpacked Clarke sat on her bed and looked around. There were three other beds in the room. There were small bulletin boards next to each bed where students could put up personal photos. The one across from hers had pictures of the ocean and a family on a houseboat pinned to it. The one next to that one was covered with pictures of cars and planes. The third bed that was next to Clarke's was the least populated board of the three. It had a picture of a teenage girl, a slightly older teenage boy who looked like her brother, and a woman who must've been their mother. Aside from that it just had a few polaroids of the girl with other girls.

Clarke decided to pin a few pictures of her parents up on her board before being done with her side. She flipped open one of the books that had been left for her. On the list left with the books it said it was for her science class. She flipped through that book hoping to pass the time until dinner.