"Why the hell do you keep playing that song?" Raven practically screamed at top of her lungs as Bellamy plowed over the grassy trails of the Christmas tree farm he was currently trying to navigate.

Clarke winced, not only at the decibel level of her best friend who was seated in the bucket seat just to her right, but also at the rough-riding jeep that Bellamy seemed to be jumping over small mountains. She checked her phone for the time. 11:38 on a Friday night. She rubbed at her eyes as she fought a yawn. It had been nearly forty hours since that quick nap she got a couple of days ago.

"We're driving through Christmas trees," Bellamy finally answered after making a sharp left. His deep voice brought Clarke out of the haze she had fallen in. "And it's classic Carol of the Bells. Why would I play anything else?"

"Makes sense," Octavia nodded her head. Clarke glanced at her other best friend while she was thumping the numbers of her cell phone and lifting it just out the passenger side window.

"Only to Blakes," Raven whispered to Clarke.

"I guess so," Clarke agreed. She leaned forward and looked out past Raven at the rows of trees that seemed to go on forever. "It's pretty out here, though."

Murphy let out an almost offended sounding guffaw from her left.

"What, Murphy?" she asked him.

"Nothing," he answered as he licked the leftover chocolate off a foil wrapper. "I didn't say shit."

Raven craned her neck around Clarke to give him a once over, "Did you bring space cakes out here?"

"Nope," Murphy giggled and then made an exaggerated show of eating the last tiny bit of brownie crumb. "Definitely not."

"Fucking idiot," Raven sighed and slammed back down into her seat. "This was fucking stupid."

"Lincoln! Lincoln, can you hear me?" Octavia shouted at the phone while hanging her head out of the window. "Hello?"

"Oh my god." Raven rolled her eyes. "One of those tree branches is going to knock you out if you crawl out any further."

"Okay, reception in the forest sucks," Octavia complained and slunk back into the jeep. "Aren't trees supposed to give off good signals?"

"Um, oxygen," Raven said. She kicked the back of the seat for good measure. "Basic biology. Trees give off oxygen. To breathe. And live."

"And decorate," Murphy added. "It's Christmasy."

"And this is hardly a forest, O," Raven continued. "Have you ever been in a forest?"

"I know a guy named Forrest," Octavia offered weakly.

Clarke closed her eyes tightly and ran through the list of things she had to do at home. Her homework was piling up as the end of the school year was rolling ever so near. She had to complete the paperwork for White House internship that she definitely had no chance at getting. There was a monthly dinner with her mother that was way overdue and she just knew that a lecture was coming. She needed to clean her apartment before the 'Mom dinner' to avoid that lecture, as well. And, most importantly, she needed to sleep. She needed to sleep for at least two days. Maybe three. She'd spent the last two nights finishing a paper on foreign policy and all day today trying to keep her eyes open through class. She was daydreaming about sleeping at this point.

"Stop," she heard Raven say after a nudge to her ribs.

"Stop, what?"

"Making lists in your head while you're supposed to be having fun."

"Technically, I'm not sure the fun has started yet."

Raven tapped on the cooler that was placed behind their seats, "but it's slated to begin soon, my friend."

"Okay, seriously," Octavia finally gave up with her call and manually rolled up the window. "Why the hell are we out here again?"

"It's Monty," Bellamy said. "C'mon."

It had really seemed like the perfect place when Lincoln had suggested it a couple of weeks ago. Monty would never, ever, guess that they'd throw his 21st birthday party on the backlot of a Christmas tree farm in TinyAssVille, Maryland at midnight. And Bellamy was right. It's Monty. He's literally everybody's third favorite person in the world. Monty. He's the guy that nobody would pick first at kickball, but everybody would have on their list of three people to be stranded on a deserted island with.

"Wait," Clarke suddenly had a thought, "somebody did think to invite Monty, didn't they?"

"Uh..." Raven tapped her chin. "I did not, soo..."

"I barely know the guy," Murphy said as he rested his forehead against the window.

"You've known the guy since high school, John," Clarke thumped him on the head. "You're such an asshole."

"There's Lincoln!" Octavia shouted suddenly as headlights came into view up ahead. "This is the spot."

"Finally," Raven seethed. "My ass hurts."

"Monty, people," Clarke reminded them. "Somebody invited him to his birthday party, right?"

"Yes," Bellamy answered as he pressed on the brake a little too hard and they all finally rolled to a stop. "Jasper's bringing him out."

"Good." Clarke was relieved. She was also feeling slightly guilty about the fact that if nobody had invited him that she could just hitch a ride back into DC and take a nap.

"With Harper," Octavia added. "And I think Maya."

"Oh..." Bellamy turned and looked between Raven and Clarke. "And Finn."

"Super!" Raven said sarcastically as she aggressively popped open the door of the jeep and jumped out. "Can't fucking wait for that dick to show up."

The door slamming caused everyone left in the jeep to jump in their seats. "Well, this is going to be a great night!" Clarke clapped. "Happy effing birthday, Monty."

"It's not like I even care," Clarke slurred as she crossed and uncrossed her legs in the lawn chair that was precariously balanced on Lincoln's truck bed. Clarke had decided at some point that she should man the cooler. And to do it right, she needed to be sitting beside it in her pink lawn chair. She finished another can of beer and tossed the can behind her, listening to it rattle harmlessly with the others. That was a satisfying sound. So much so, that she immediately opened the cooler for a replacement. "He just made it so awkward for me and Raven, you know?"

"Yeah," Monty nodded sympathetically as he waited to see if the next beer she got of out of the cooler would finally be his or she'd open and down that one, too.

"Who does that?"

"I don't know," Monty shrugged. "Finn, I guess."

"Yeah," Clarke agreed. She opened the beer and just nearly got it to her lips when she stopped abruptly, "That's exactly who. God! Right?"

"Right!" Monty pumped his fist in solidarity.

"He better stay over there," Clarke hooked her thumb in the opposite direction of where Finn actually was. "Or I'll shank his ass."

"He's a douche," Raven shouted.

Clarke's eyes went wide. She had totally forgotten that Raven was lying just under her chair on the truck liner. "Rae? Is that you?" she called toward the sky.

"I'm down here," Raven said as she tapped Clarke's foot. "And we're fine! Aren't we?"

"We are, yes." Clarke smiled a giant sloppy smile and handed Monty the beer. "Happy birthday, little buddy."

She waited until Monty had gotten a few yards away before cupping her hands around her mouth and yelling, "Birthday Boy, right there! Great guy!"

"Well, look who's finally having a little fun," Octavia pointed out as she casually lifted herself onto the truck and settled between Clarke's legs. "It's about time."

"It was," Clarke agreed, dropping her chin onto Octavia's head. "I've been so stressed lately."

"We've all been pretty stressed. This was good for us."

Raven pushed her way all the way under Clarke's chair so that she could make her arms circle around Clarke's legs and Octavia's waist. "I love you."

"Which one of us?" Clarke asked.

"O," Raven answered.

"Of course," Clarke said, laughing.

"Always, me," Octavia cheered.

"Platonically," Raven went on. "You, too, Clarke."

"Thanks."

"And your mom."

"Rae, don't start," Clarke warned.

"Not so platonically."

"Nope," Clarke clamped her hands over her ears. "Not hearing it."

"Clarrrrke," Raven moaned. "Hook me up!"

Something colorful caught Clarke's eye before she could get into that very old argument yet again. "Ohh, what's that?"

"I think Harper brought sparklers or something," Octavia told her.

"I want!" Clarke squealed before suddenly standing up and leaping off the truck. She miraculously landed on her feet even after four or five stumbling steps forward. She celebrated the feat by throwing her arms over her head in victory.

"Three for the dismount," Octavia said.

"But ten for the landing," Raven shouted. "Very impressive stick, Miss Griffin."

"Whoo!" Clarke shrieked as she took off toward the other group.

Octavia and Raven both watched as she jogged over to Harper and seemed to be enthusiastically watching them light the sparklers. They watched as Harper handed over a bundle of said sparklers and Bellamy tossed her a lighter. The continued to watch as Clarke very determinedly lit all the sparklers in her hand and began to spin in a delirious beer-induced circle. And finally, they witnessed the exact moment when Clarke, in all her drunken glory, tossed the handful of sparklers into the air and they landed on a very beautiful, but very flammable Blue Spruce.

"Oh, shit," Raven chuckled.

"Not good," Octavia followed. "Not good at all."

Lexa opened one eye when she heard the shrill ring of her phone. She still wasn't sure why she picked the most obnoxious ringtone ever. Well, okay, probably because every time she changed it, it would just get changed back anyway. That's what little brothers were for.

She took a second to take stock of her surroundings. She was still on the couch, of course. She was still wearing the jeans that she had worked in all day. There was still one red Converse adorning her left foot, but the other one had migrated to the space between the couch cushions just under her butt. She raised up just enough to pull it out from under her and drop it on the floor. She kicked off the blanket that had tangled around her knees and looked around for the cell.

The flickering light of the television was illuminating the room just enough for her to see around. Lexa squinted at the blurry images and realized that the movie playing was Saw. Aha, she thought. That explains the dream that she was locked in a dirty bathroom with two dudes chained to the walls. Although, why the kicking a knife to each other, she would never know.

She finally found her phone after pushing aside an empty container of what used to be fruit cocktail. She brought the screen close to her face and studied it.

Lincoln calling.

"Fu-uck," she said to herself before tapping the button. "Yeah, Linc."

"Lexa, hey," Lincoln said over the line. "Sorry to call...you know, so late and all..."

She could already tell something was wrong. Hell, just the call itself signaled that. And honestly, she really wasn't in the mood for any bullshit. "Lincoln, just tell me what's going on."

"Well, uh, there's a problem."

"What kind of problem?"

"Like, m-maybe a slight f-fire problem," Lincoln stuttered out.

There was a second, possibly two seconds, of silence before Lincoln heard her take a deep, annoyed breath. "A fire problem?"

"Slight."

"Fire and slight don't often occupy the same space, Lincoln. I'm inclined to believe that you're not being completely truthful right now."

"Okay," Lincoln acknowledged. "I'm not sure how much we lost yet."

"Where?"

"The farm," he said slowly. He then rushed to, "but nobody's hurt and the fire's been contained, and the Fire Department is already here, and it's the back lot, so mainly some saplings and just a few that would have ready next season and-"

"I'm on my way," she said as she flicked what looked like a dried pineapple off her knee. "Just. don't. move."

Lexa often surprised herself at how calm she was in the face of most catastrophes. A slight, maybe bigger, fire problem wasn't going to get her all riled up. At least not yet anyway. She took a look at herself. Not terrible. She slipped her shoe back on and found her glasses lying on the end table. Not her usual look, but it would work for a 2am fire.

She looked at her phone briefly wondering if a text was in order. Nah, it might do more harm than good right now. Instead, she briefly scribbled a note and anchored it to the fridge with a baseball magnet. She studied the wording. Nothing too alarming, right? Don't want him to worry. She took a deep breath and slipped her phone in pocket. It would have to do for now.