Catch Me, I'm Falling

Finale

The final weeks of school rushed forward much quicker than Clarke could have ever imagined.

It seemed that, just days previous, she had walked into the halls of Arkadia for the first time as a wide-eyed freshman, accompanied by Octavia and Bellamy as Wells, a sophomore at the time, expertly cajoled them around campus. And now, she was on the brink of graduation, ready to plunge into the metaphorical deep end of life, travel across the country to pursue the career she'd dreamed about since childhood, and set off on her own little journey. It was only natural that she'd be filled with nostalgia.

The bell rang, as loud and annoying as it had always been, signaling the end of class, and, by the extension, the end of her finals. From thereon, it would be smooth sailing.

Same as every day since freshman year, Clarke walked to the cafeteria where the delinkru were situated, though now her hand was laced in another, soft, oh-so-perfect hand, and she leaned into Lexa as the two of them walked, side-by-side, soaking up each other's presence. Clarke had been more touchy than usual with the other girl, which was saying a lot, but if it bothered the football player she didn't say anything.

The thought of not being able to be besides Lexa all the time caused Clarke physical pain, so she was initiating as much physical contact as she could, never eager to leave her girlfriend's side.

"See?" Lexa whispered to her as they walked, still easily heard regardless of the cacophony of chatter provided full-time by the student population of Arkadia. "I told you Kane's final would be easy."

"Who said it was easy?" Clarke responded, and Lexa rolled her eyes fondly at the artist.

"You wouldn't have finished it with twenty minutes to spare if it was hard, love."

"How do you know? I could've just randomly circled answers or left half of the questions blank."

"I'm his aide, niron , remember that," Lexa laughed, squeezing Clarke's hand slightly, "besides, I know you. You're too smart to be stumped by a Kane final."

"I'm glad you have so much faith in me," Clarke grinned, pressing a quick kiss to Lexa's cheek as they rounded the final turn to the lunch table they'd all grown to call theirs, taking her place between Lexa and Murphy, the latter of whom was hanging off of his chair, head resting on the floor.

"Comfortable?" she quipped, and he looked up at her expressionlessly.

"Very," he responded dryly.

"It's weird to think we're done with finals," Raven said, arriving at the table with a huff and a graceful dump of her belongings on the floor, "like. That's it. We're pretty much done."

"Graduation is in three days," Anya pointed out, "what did you expect? To stay in high school forever?"

"God I hope not," Raven laughed, "I'm ready to hightail the fuck out of this hellhole." Her words held little truth to them, though. While the classes and the homework weren't exactly ideal, over the four years at their stay, the delinquents, at least, had made the school grounds their home away from home, their empire, their kingdom.

Countless days had been spent at that very lunch table, complaining about Trikru and rushing through forgotten homework and discussing Bellamy and Raven's new flings. To think that in a few days, it would all be over, was almost sad.

"Not as much as Bell, though," Octavia chimed in, "he's practically dying to leave for Europe, fancies himself a world explorer."

"I'll be able to learn so many things!" he interjected. "All that history, it's so rich and entrancing―"