Arcadia Academy

Chapter 4

Before Clarke knew it the weekend was over and it was Monday. The military school aspect really kicked in when Lexa banged on their door at 5:00 in the morning. She groaned as she pulled herself out of bed and started getting dressed along all the other girls except for Raven who was still curled up in her bed. After Octavia finished getting dressed she kicked Raven's bed causing her to groan loudly and roll out of bed lazily to get dressed looking incredibly grumpy.

By 5:15am they were all dressed, teeth-brushed, and beds-made standing by for Lexa's inspection. Lexa walked through the room quickly looking everything over before nodding and motioning for them all to follow her without saying a word.

Clarke was impressed, Lexa had a strong authoritative presence and she barely said anything at all. She lead them on a run a lot like the Saturday one but actually a little bit slower which Clarke was grateful for. She wondered if Lexa was going easy on her or if she was challenging her over the weekend.

Lexa ended the run back at the barracks and led them into the gym on the first floor. "Octavia, Luna, and Raven continue the same workout we did on Friday, I am going to get Clarke caught up on everything." Clarke dismissed the other three to do the workout. She turned to Clarke and handed her a pair of five pound dumbbells.

Clarke smirked at the dumbbells in her hands. "I think I can do more than five pounds, do you think I'm that weak?"

Lexa grinned for a second at Clarke before her face went back to its usual serious expression. "Believe me, it will be harder than you think, most people can only do 2.5 pound plates the first time they do it. The five pounds was a compliment to your strength."

Clarke blushed, unable to hide it as she had to watch Lexa instruct her through the exercises. She did a lot of different lifting techniques that were much harder than she thought they would be. Lexa was right five pounds was more than she thought it would be. She was still grateful that Lexa had thought she could skip the 2.5 pound phase. It showed she thought she was strong despite how much she struggled on their Saturday run.

The rest of the workout went smoothly. Lexa would instruct Clarke how to do an exercise and then watch her do it often giving her critiques on her form. She definitely was particular. She managed to get a workout in while she walked Clarke through everything and Clarke was impressed. She was a lot stronger than she looked.

"That was good for your first day." Lexa said to Clarke.

"Wow, for my first day? So it wasn't actually good then?" Clarke asked feigning disappointment.

Lexa's expression didn't falter for a second. "You definitely have a good starting point, but your form could use work which is to be expected at this stage. So good for the first day, but it will get better the longer you are here." Lexa said to Clarke before directing her attention to the others who were goofing off by the dumbbells.

"Good work, let's finish cleaning up so we can go to breakfast." Lexa instructed getting enthusiastic nods from everyone else. On the way to breakfast they ran into Bellamy and all the guys from the unit coming from the other side of the divider in their half of the gym. They were all very sweaty.

Finn walked over to Clarke with a grin on his face. "You know what that smell is Griffin?" he asked.

"Gross?" Clarke scrunched up her nose as she pushed him away from her.

"That's hard work princess." Finn corrected her. Clarke laughed at him as they entered the dining hall. They all filled their plates and sat down at the Delta table. Clarke sat at the end of the table next to Bellamy with Finn across from her, Octavia next to her, and Raven diagonal from her.

"How was your first workout Clarke?" Bellamy asked.

"It was harder than I thought it would be." Clarke admitted.

"I tried to get Lexa to go easy on you, but she doesn't think that is productive." Bellamy shrugged.

"She's probably right." Clarked laughed.

"I know, she always is. She's the one who I owe this spot to actually. I was a mess before she started helping me our freshman year. She said she couldn't just sit by and watch my potential go to waste because I had a tendency to be an idiot and not try." Bellamy laughed thinking back.

"That's pretty harsh." Clarke commented taking a bite of her food.

"Believe me, he deserved it." Octavia agreed. "He was a disaster."

"At least he pulled it together, who knows if Raven ever will." Finn nudged Raven playfully.

"I am so pulled together it isn't even funny. Who can hotwire a car? Me, not you, so I think I win!" Raven got up in Finn's face.

"I don't think that is considered winning here because it's kind of a crime." Finn pointed out.

"Shit. Well I can do a ton of other shit and I'm awesome so, pulled together, point proven, case closed." Raven drew her hands to a close dramatically making everybody laugh.

The first class of the day was hand-to-hand combat with Indra. Clarke was not at all mentally or physically prepared for this. Immediately she saw that this was going to be a rough time. Everybody was a decent way ahead of her ability-wise. Raven wasn't amazing, but mostly because she goofed off too much and was easily distracted. Octavia was down-right dirty, but she did get in trouble for what Indra referred to as 'being out of control of her limbs at times'. From what Clarke could see it seemed like pure skill but when she saw Lexa and Luna fight she could see the difference. They were both in clear control at all times. Luna gave Lexa a good fight but it seemed that nobody was going to be able to beat Lexa. She anticipated moves often and had some unpredictable ones of her own.

Clarke was called up to fight Lexa and she looked at Indra shock in her eyes. "What?" she blurted out before she could stop herself.

"Calm down Clarke, she will be dummy fighting while you learn the techniques." Indra explained. "Everybody else pair up!" Indra called out as the Zulu unit entered the room. Everybody else paired up and Lexa started working with Clarke.

"Don't forget to keep your hands up for protection Clarke." Lexa reminded her again as she stopped a punch just short of Clarke's face.

"Yeah, right." Clarke put her hands up and waited for Lexa's attack. It was the predictable one they had been working with, straight on. She quickly blocked it and surprised herself when she switched from her usual jab to an undercut that actually connected to Lexa's ribs. Lexa let out a surprised ooph but didn't show any other signs of just getting punched in the ribs.

"Are you okay?" Clarke asked worried that she had hurt her.

"You should punch harder, placement was good." Lexa commented before getting back to work as if nothing could happen.

Lexa was always very serious when she trained Clarke, but every once in a while she would smile. Clarke noticed this over the first week when they always worked together as Lexa caught her up on the techniques and everything. She settled in with the unit well and before she new it her new normal started to feel less chaotic and more normal.