Two Months Earlier

"Who's that?" Inquired Jem Carstairs, my best friend since fourth grade. He was pointing at the drawing that I had stuck up onto my locker a few days ago.

"Oh, him." I said, eyeing the drawing of the boy I had drawn. He had black hair, gorgeous dark blue eyes, high cheekbones, full lips, and a book lover, everything my dream boyfriend was. "I just found him on the internet as a drawing and tried to draw him."

Well, that was untrue. I didn't actually look for a hot guy up on the internet and tried to draw it. I had made him up myself in my mind and drew him.

I grabbed my books out from my locker, fishing A Tale of Two Cities out from the pile and placing it on top.

"Well, you did a pretty good job. Any particular names?" Jem asked me, obviously joking.

"You wouldn't believe it, but I've thought of that. Will."

He raised his eyebrows. "Will?"

"Yep. Will. Short for William."

"Really, Tessa? William? That's so clichéd. You could have chosen something like, Xander, or Damon or something-"

"At least it's better than John Smith."

Jem started to laugh. "Only we understand that."

He stopped laughing after a few moments and plucked the piece of paper off my locker door. "Hey!" I protested.

Jem pretended to be our art teacher, Ms. Ashdown when she was examining a piece of art. "Verrrrry nice, verrrrry detailed, you poot a loooot of effort in." He drawled.

"Stop it, Jem." I said between gasps of laughter. Jem gave me a lopsided smile, flung the paper back into my locker and shut it. He then turned around and made a beeline for his locker, his violin case bumping against the small of his back.

I had almost bumped into Jessamine Lovelace. She didn't seem to notice, as she was too busy gazing wistfully at my brother, Nate. I tried hard not to roll my eyes.

"I'm not up for prom." Jem grumbled as he eyed a poster next to his locker, since he had gotten the last one in his row.

"Me neither. Let's just stay home and rent a flick or something." I muttered as he placed his violin case gently into his locker. I turned my eyes toward Jessamine. "Unrequited love. It hurts, doesn't it?"

Jem gave me a sideways glance. I knew it meant "You don't say?"

I laughed.

•••

"Are you done with drawing William yet?" Asked Jem in a bored voice as he leaned over to look at my notes during third period English.

Before I could turn my head to reply to him, Mr. Mortmain spoke up. "James Carstairs! Are you talking during my class?"

"I most certainly am not, Mr. Mortmain." Jem replied to him in a cheerful tone, which pretty much infuriates a lot of the teachers.

"If I catch you talking again, James, you will have detention. Do you understand me?"

"Yes." Jem said, unable to hide his smile as he went back to working. I started shading on Will's curling dark hair as I leaned on my right hand, my chocolate brown curls starting to block my field of vision. I tucked it behind my ear.

Who knew I would spend the next two months daydreaming and drawing Will every time there was a piece of paper and a pencil?

•••

Present Day

"I doubt I would like this stuff." I wrinkled my nose at the book Jem held in his outstretched hand. "The Hunger Games?"

"You can't always read those." He replied, rolling his eyes as he tapped on the book in my hand.

"I see nothing wrong with that." I snapped. I have to say, I'm pretty sensitive when it comes to talking about my 'taste' in books.

"Sorry, sorry."

I nodded and went back to reading for a few moments before Jem spoke.

"You've got gym next, right?" He asked, although he perfectly knew I had math next and was, unsurprisingly trying to break the silence.

"No." I said darkly. "I'm not looking forward to gym, anyway. I forgot to bring any clothes, and I might have to go to gym in this." I gestured to my grey cobweb sweater and denim shorts.

"Pity."

I then stood up, closed the book and started out the library without waiting for Jem. "I'll see you later!"

"Wait for me!"

Before he could catch up with me, I had dashed down two flights of stairs to my math classroom in less than thirty seconds. "Sorry, James!" I called up, not expecting Jem to answer.

"Tessa!" Came Jessamine Lovelace's high-pitched, squeaky and plain annoying voice. She'd been bothering me for quite a while after she had found out that I was Nate's sister, always asking me where Nate went after school, how Nate was like at home, Nate this and Nate that.

"Hey, Jessamine." I mumbled as I turned away from her, trying to ignore her as she bombarded me with her usual questions.

"No, Nate's not been doing anything special lately. No, no, and nope." I was still pondering on how I would survive gym wearing denim shorts when a thought struck into my head.

"Jessamine?"

Her eyes shone. "Yeees?"

"I was wondering, you know, if you had a spare set of clothes. Like, a gym shirt and shorts I could borrow? I forgot to bring mine, and yeah."

"Okay, but you promise to help me check Nate's phone!"

I tried hard not to roll my eyes. Jessamine was turning into a total stalker. "Sure, of course."

Jessamine pulled a hot pink t-shirt with a fluffy white kitten printed on it and a pair of black sports shorts. She handed it to me, her cheeks pink. "Anything if you help me check on Nate!"

"Uh, Jessamine? Do you have anything else other than, uh, this?" I said, holding up the hot pink shirt.

"No, unless you want to wear this!" She said and pulled out a baby blue tube top. "Which, I think is worse than your shirt."

"Never mind, then. Thanks a lot, Jessamine."

"Please don't forget, Tessa! Thanks to you too!" She grinned and walked into the classroom. At least I didn't need to sit next to Jessamine, and it was sad that Jem wasn't in this class.

Of course, maths was boring. I used to enjoy English with Mrs. Branwell last year, but I had gotten the devil, AKA Mr. Mortmain this year.

I spent most of the lesson drawing Will. This time, he was holding A Tale of Two Cities in his hand, reading it thoroughly. He was enjoying it, unlike Jem.

I smiled down at Will, even though I knew he was not real. Before I knew it, it was gym.

And this time, we had rugby.

I stood there, glaring at all the girls who giggled, whispered to each other and pointed at my shirt.

"Here, kitty kitty! I never knew hot pink and white would suit you so much, Gray!" Gabriel Lightwood called out while everyone started laughing. I shot him daggers and almost gave him the finger.

I should have stuck to my Hollister shirt, but I didn't want to get it dirty and soggy with sweat or anything.

Rugby was a nightmare. I was stuck with most of the girls who were scared of balls, like Jessamine, and of course we lost every single game played against us.

I emerged from the gym one hour later, sweaty, and smelling of the gym's rubber mats, hair pasted to the nape of my neck. Unfortunately, the school had chosen this time of the year to have their showers out of order, so I had to spent the rest of the five periods like this.

As I reached my next class, which thankfully had Jem in it, I was ordered out by the teacher and was told that I was to report to the office immediately to meet this new student that had moved in recently from Wales so I could give him a tour of the school.

Why me? Why couldn't they have picked somebody else?

And Wales. Wales reminded me of Will. I had made Will a Welshman.

I wasn't in the mood to do this, right after rugby and with me drenched with sweat and in a ridiculous pink cat shirt (Yes, I had left my damn clothes in the locker). But of course, no one could argue with a teacher. I shot Jem a look saying that I would meet him during lunch and walked out of the classroom, annoyed, making a beeline for the office.

I walked over to the counter to meet the eyes of Ms. Fairchild. "Tessa, is it? Yes, please knock on the door of Mr. Starkweather's office."

I did as I was told, walking over to the principal's office and knocking on the door. The door swung open, Mr. Starkweather smiling down at me. "Ah, Tessa. Mr. Herondale's over there. We've been waiting for you for quite a while.

I smiled and nodded, and turned my head to look at Mr. Herondale.

There he was, sitting on the couch, wearing a white button down shirt, examining his fingernails. He had black hair, fair skin, and high cheekbones. I couldn't see his eyes.

My mouth dropped open, and my eyes flew wide. He seemed to notice that somebody was staring at him, and so he looked up.

Startlingly beautiful dark blue eyes gazed right into my own blue-gray ones.

"This is William Herondale, and he's Alicante Academy's new student. Tessa, I would like you to give him a tour of this school."

I could only stare, in astonishment at William Herondale.


Okay so I have adopted this story from nicoleherondale. The first five chapters belong solely to her. I hope I can do her story justice. I am working on a chapter update now. :)