i. Clarke.

Thirteen hours. Her shift on the ward had ended up being thirteen hours long. The brutality of that reality was substantial and unmistakable. All semester long she had fought to find a balance between the endless shifts on the wards and her consistent stream of papers, lab write ups, projects, and exams. Getting straight A's in this time was nothing short of miraculous if you were anyone but Clarke Griffin. For Clarke, it was so normal that it was honestly kind of boring. Truthfully though, Clarke wasn't sure how she had survived thus far, but she had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with copious amounts of coffee and the sacrifice of both sleep and her social life.

All good things must come to an end though. It was finals season, the one time of year that brought even the great Clarke Griffin to her knees. Very few students were able to escape finals week unscathed, and that was when they were focused on nothing but exams. It was entirely possible that adding in a fulltime schedule at the hospital to the mix of finals and papers would be enough to kill her. Initially, Clarke had been confident that she could make all her schedules work together, but the reality had been very different. This may have been the worst idea she had ever had, a thought she became well aware of as she struggled to stay awake long enough to even get to the library. She had been lucky to find a spot in the parking lot on campus, and even luckier to have dragged her feet all the way to the library.

It was already ten, and she was sure that her luck was about to run out. Any other time of the year and Clarke wouldn't be worried about how late she was getting to the library; she had spent many late nights in the library and she had made it to the library even later than this plenty of times. That was during the normal semester though, when only the most dedicated of students could be found in the library at this time of night. Finals week was an entirely different situation, and the importance of these exams was enough to drive even the biggest slackers to the stacks. The chances were high that there was going to be no space left by the time Clarke made it. The lack of a desk or chair wouldn't be the end of the world, but she needed an outlet, and there was never enough of them to go around.

As Clarke trudged into the library, her feet aching and her eyes already bleary, there was a fleeting moment when she was sure she was about to burst into tears. Every single student enrolled in classes must have been in this library right now. How could this school even have this many students!? Did the kids by the computer lab even go here?

No, no, no no…This could not be happening. There had to be at least one spot. Clarke would gladly sit in a closet for the rest of the night – she just needed an outlet. Clarke lapped the library half a dozen times, panic welling up in her gut with each pass, but to no avail. The library was full. She couldn't go back to the dorm, not a chance. The dorms were always full of people who clearly didn't care about their own, or anyone else's, education. Finals week to them meant party week, and Clarke couldn't take another night of listening to it. She really had to study.

Perhaps if she hadn't been as exhausted as she was, Clarke may have thought to text one of her friends. It was widely known in her group of friends that they pretty much all lived in the library during finals season. It would have saved her a lot of stress and even more time if she'd had the brain capacity at the time to pull out her cell phone. Later, she would realize that this was probably one of many, many clues that she should have just gone home that night. One night less of studying wasn't going to kill her.

Right now, though, Clarke was sure that one night less of studying would absolutely kill her, are you crazy? She had a very exact schedule drawn up for her finals week. Seriously. It was written out and colour-coded. Her whole life was scheduled. There was a time slot for everything, but it didn't allow for any flexibility. By the end of tonight she needed to have finished her research paper, completed her study guide for bio-chem, read the last four chapters in her medical history text, and re-do her last lab write-up, because it was a nightmare. Clarke honestly didn't know what she would do if she wasn't productive tonight.

She was honestly starting to feel sick and starting wracking her brain for any back-up plan it could come up with. Out of the corner of her eye, Clarke saw some movement. Someone was putting a book into their bag!

"Are you leaving?" Clarke whispered, her eyes wide with hope.

The guy looked up at her and shook her head, "not for a while, no. Sorry."

"I will give you fifty bucks for that desk." She was desperate.

"Uh…I don't think so."

"A hundred? Two?"

He shook his head, "look I really gotta get back to studying. I hope you find a seat."

Clarke was beyond desperate at this point. She wasn't thinking logically and all she knew was that if she wanted to pass her exams, she needed to study. Her sleep deprivation was getting the best of her and before her brain had caught up, her mouth was speaking.

"Five hundred dollars, c'mon man. Help me out here."

"Clarke?"

A worn-out smile found its way onto her lips at the sound of a familiar voice from behind. Even in a whisper, Bellamy's voice was gruff and gravelly and inexplicably comforting. She turned to face where the voice had come from.

"Did I just hear you offer him five hundred bucks?"

Clarke grinned sheepishly, but Bellamy didn't miss the panic in her eyes as she nodded her head.

"Miller took off already so you can take his spot in the group room," Bellamy pointed his thumb back over his shoulder.

With a sly grin Clarke looked over at the other guy, "you just lost out on five hundred bucks."

Clarke followed Bellamy, glad to see that her luck had returned.