Hey guys, it's been a while. UBER IMPORTANT A/N at the bottom.
OFFICIAL BETA'ED CHAPTER 1.
Thanks Unscenced. You're a mucho patient beta...
Disclaimer:I don't own the books. Darn.
"For the last time, Clarissa Morgenstern, you are going to the Idris Ball whether you like it or not!" The shrill voice on the intercom yelled.
Clary groaned in frustration. "Why? So you can have your stylists stuff me into an over-revealing size two dress, and then have me parade around like a corporate whore, who is just there to do your bidding? No thanks." Her voice mirrored how she felt about the person she was arguing with, her over controlling father, Valentine Morgenstern.
To the public, Valentine was known as the ruggedly handsome CEO-founder of The Circle enterprises, and the loyal widower to Jocelyn Morgenstern. But to his two children, Jonathan and Clarissa, he was an overbearing, controlling acquaintance who they rarely saw.
Jonathan was used to the public life. He didn't like it, but accepted he had to put up with it because of his future. He was eventually going to take over the company when Valentine retired, as his precious heir, and was now going through the process of getting to know everyone that there was to know in the corporate world. He acted like a respected member of that world, it was only when he snuck into my room that he told me what he really thought of them. Meanwhile, the only time that Valentine ever interacted with his daughter, was when he was forcing her to participate in some social event to 'keep up appearances'. I mean god forbid she live her own life, she had to be the perfect, silent participant in his. 'A woman's role is by a man's side.'
This was one of those times; the Idris Ball. It was one of the biggest social events in the social circle that Valentine was a part of, and him, being very high up in the commercial food chain, had to attend, and make it look like he had the support of all his family. Apparently, the two gorgeous children of the Lightwood family were supposed to be attending, and Valentine wanted Clary to seduce the male, she couldn't choose for herself, he match had to be pre-approved. At least, that was what Clary had gathered from the conversation.
"You will be attending, Clarissa. It is unacceptable for one of my children to stay at home from an even like the Idris Ball!" Valentine was furious at her irresponsibility when it came to these things.
"Do you mean that, or that it's unacceptable for one of your children to actually have a life? I promised Simon that I would hang out at his house!" This wasn't a complete lie; Clary had been planning on hanging out with Simon, she just hadn't asked him yet. He was her best friend in the entire world and she trusted him just as much, or maybe more than Jonathon, he would house her if she needed it.
"You spend too much time with that imprudent little boy, Clarissa, he's a bad influence on you." retorted Valentine, refusing to even speak Simon's name.
"He's my best friend! And he's always been there for me. Unlike you, he actually gives a damn! And just because he doesn't have famous, or important parents, that doesn't mean he's a bad person, he's a better person than you!"
"How dare you! Did your 'friend' pay for your food? Your room? The clothes that you're wearing? Stop being so childish and respect your authority!"
"I am a child! Or at least I should be allowed to be one, it's not too long until I won't be anymore and haven't you ever heard the phrase that money isn't everything?"
"Money is what pays for y-"
"Okay, okay! I get it, all you care about is how much money you make!" Clary interrupted, "I'll go to the Idris ball if you leave me alone but on one condition."
"Oh god. Kill me now." I groaned at the sight of the elaborately decorated ballroom.
"Gladly. Knife? Gun? Or maybe I'll suck out your blood like a vampire, I'm not picky."
Clary rolled her eyes. "Shut up, Si." Clary had finally agreed to attend the Idris Ball after a lot of 'convincing', as long as Simon could too. After that, it was easy convincing Simon to come along. Apparently free food and girls were the key to adolescent boys. Who knew?
As predicted, the 'ball' was just another excuse for the restless rich people of Idris to gather, share tasteless jokes, and get drunk. Exciting.
Clary had been forced into a shiny black dress that covered about half of the skin that she wanted and should be covered and matching heels two inches too small and two inches too tall. Simon had gotten off luck in an old suit of his dad's. It was a little big and faded, but looked much more comfortable than Clary's get up.
Simon frowned and looked around, "Hey, where'd Jonathan go?"
"He had my dad glided off to socialize with the rich and famous."
"Glided?"
Clary grinned. "Apparently we wealthy, sophisticated, important folk aren't supposed to just walk around like you filthy commoners. We glide gracefully."
"Gracefully?"
"You know. Like uh, swans."
"Yeah, I know what graceful means," replied Simon, grinning. "I just didn't know that word applied to you."
Clary responded by punching Simon in the arm and bursting into giggles. Angel, she loved that boy. It was like having a dorky twin brother. She didn't think she could live without him.
Their laughter didn't last long, though. It was suddenly interrupted by a high-pitched squeal from the stereotypically vain rich girl, Aline. "OH MY ANGEL! It's the Lightwoods!"
"Who are the Lightwoods?" asked Simon, turning to Clary as the rest of the party 'glided' raucously to the front door to greet them.
"Famous, super rich family. They just moved here from England. Or at least the kids did."
"Super rich, hmm? Are they…nice?"
"No idea. For some reason, 'nice' has never been that important to my dad. He's more into 'rich' and 'attractive'. But why don't we go find out? Apparently the Lightwoods brought some super-prodigy family friend. Dad said that they're all around our age."
Simon gaped toward something behind Clary. "Um, Clary? You sure about that? None of them look anywhere near us."
Clary turned to see the Lightwoods walk through the front door with their guest. The siblings were easy to spot; they were both slender and beautiful with sleek, dark hair. But even more stunning was the gorgeous male behind them. With his curly, golden locks, easy grace, and dangerous demeanour. He reminded Clary of a lion; the way he dressed, the way he sauntered in, the way he simply raised his eyebrows at all of the attention and looked down on everyone else, he was clearly full of arrogance.
Suddenly, the lion-like boy locked eyes with Clary and smirked, almost as if he could hear her admiring thoughts. They stared at each other for a millisecond before Aline latched onto his arm.
"Jace."
"What?" Clary looked at Simon in confusion.
"That's his name," her friend explained, "I heard some chick squealing it."
Clary looked back at the golden haired boy, Jace, speculatively. His name matched him; unusual, mysterious, and inexplicably attractive.
"You think he's hot, don't you?" Simon asked with a knowing glint in his eye.
Clary glared. "Of course not!" she lied.
"I know you're lying," Simon taunted with a chuckle, "You're a sucker for the over confident, bastardly type. I'm not really sure why? You always end up with jackasses."
"You're like a walking teen magazine, Si. I don't even know him!"
Honestly, Clary was slightly tempted to go and introduce herself to Jace. Maybe they would strike up a conversation. Maybe he wasn't as arrogant as he looked. Maybe he would turn out to be completely uninterested in the…twenty girls latched onto his arms. And that was why Clary planned on maintaining a good distance between her and Jace; she didn't want to find out.
The Lightwood siblings seemed nice enough. Or rather, the girl seemed pretty friendly. The brother was just distancing himself from everyone.
Clary giggled slightly as she noticed Simon staring at the female Lightwood with glazed eyes.
"I think you're drooling, Si. Just go talk to her."
Simon blushed, "Is it that obvious?" He asked not even trying to hide his ogling.
"Nooo," she muttered sarcastically.
"Will you come with me?" Simon pleaded, "I swear I'll pass out if I have to go anywhere near her alone."
Clary rolled her eyes and grabbed Simon by the elbow, dragging him towards the Lightwoods.
"Hi, I'm Clary," she introduced herself, "And this man with the drool on his chin would be my best friend Simon."
The girl's mouth turned up in a wry grin. "I'm Isabelle, but you can call me Izzy. This is my brother Alec. I love your shoes. And your hair is a gorgeous colour! It's like, red, and orange, and gold…"
"Um, nice to meet you too." Clary murmured, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the beautiful, talkative girl. Simon just looked more enamoured as he gazed at Isabelle.
The four stood and chatted for a while; Isabelle dominating most of the conversation to make up for her practically mute brother. Simon finally regained his ability to speak and surprised Izzy with his unusual humour.
As time passed, conversation dwindled and Clary's aching feet became worse. She had become pretty comfortable with Izzy and Alec, but she wasn't quite comfortable enough to just take her shoes off in front of them.
"Hey, I'm gonna go get some uh, sparkling water," she said, interrupting Izzy's story about visiting Korea. It was just an excuse to go take a break from the shoes, but Clary decided that she was, actually, thirsty enough to swallow down the strange drink.
When Clary walked over to the refreshments table, she heard a low voice speak her name. It was Alec; apparently he had migrated over to the large buffet table with Jace, she hadn't noticed him leave.
"What do you think of that Clarissa girl? Apparently she's the daughter of Valentine Morgenstern." he asked. Clary leaned towards the two boys, her curiosity sparked.
Jace snorted discouragingly. "A waste of time, Alec. That's all she is. Did you see her clothes she was wearing? Disgusting. And I swear that I just saw her walking around barefooted. She's clearly just looking for attention. The only parts of her that are not utterly revolting are her eyes. Trust me. I would stay away from her."
Clary gasped and immediately bristled. Jace and Alec turned to the sound of her gasp; the latter with a politely horrified and embarrassed expression. The former kept an unruffled look on his face, showing no concern that Clary had heard his insults. He clearly didn't care.
"Excuse me?" Clary growled.
Jace raised a poised eyebrow, making Clary hate him even more. "What's wrong, Miss Morgenstern? Can't stand to hear the truth?"
"I'm sorry, Mr Wayland. But I don't see how someone who hasn't even held a single conversation could know anything about me." How dare he judge me like that? He hadn't even spent two seconds with me.
"I can see that you look like a desperate little girl trying to be like everyone else. Begging mommy and daddy to let her come to the dance."
Rage blinded Clary for a moment. How dare he? The insults were bad enough. But mentioning her dead mother? It was too much. Without thinking about what she was doing, Clary took her cup of sparkling water and promptly dumped it on Jace's arrogant head.
"You don't know anything about me." she spat shakily and sped out of the ballroom, ignoring the scandalous looks that everyone was giving her and forcing back prickling tears.
Simon tried to stop her, grabbing her arm. "Clary, wha-"
"I'm leaving, Si." she muttered, twisting her wrist out of Simon's grasp.
"We're leaving." Simon corrected.
Despite her oncoming tears, Clary couldn't help but smile slightly at her best friend's loyalty. At least there was someone there for her. He father was going to murder her when he got home.
OK. Final Edit. I promise. Unscenced was so patient with my beta-related newbieness, so a BIG THANK YOU to her and everyone else for offering to help.
This plot is based on Pride and Prejudice. But YOU DO NOT HAVE TO HAVE READ P&P TO UNDERSTAND THIS FIC. P&P was my inspiration. But MI is what I'm writing this fic for.
I've been very tempted to write new fanfics so often since I discontinued Crossroads of Destiony(COD :O), but I've been distracted and I didn't want to start writing unless I knew I could finish. But I realized that I will never know for sure if I can finish a story or not. But I'm going to try my best with this story, so I request your help. I'm not good at writing long chapters, but again, I will try my best. If you can't beta, please review with any corrections, insults, or compliments. Any help at all is appreciated. Thanks so much to those who kept me on their author alets list.
[edit:] thanks to Viper for pointing out my Jonathan/Sebastian mistake
[edit #2] GAH sorry. I keep adding/changing stuff. I also wanted to mention that I'm on twitter (SPAGHETTIBATH), so any questions can be directed there. Thanks!