author's note: *crawls out of barrel* hi! does anyone remember me? well i'm back here after falling off the face of this archive for a year, and well... here i am with this new story :'D
enjoy!
wildflower
...
Clary Fray shoved the last of her stuff into her suitcase before standing back to glance at herself in the full-body mirror. She was short, pale and freckled, her wildfire curls scraped up in a ponytail, a feat she was surprised that she had managed to accomplish.
She wasn't gorgeous. She wasn't even pretty. But she knew that she was going to rock her last year at Lake Lyn. After so many fake faces, makeup-caked skanks, and failed first talent show auditions, she knew she would nail it this time.
It was also the last time she would see Jace Herondale, her frenemy.
Her heart… no… insides squeezed together, for some part of her still cared whether or not he was still dating that annoying blonde hor from cabin five, Kaelie Whitewillow. Today would mark one year, if he still did.
Maia walked into the room, her lips spreading into a wide smile. "You ready, Clary?"
The redhead took a deep breath and returned her friend's enthusiastic grin with one of her own. "Yes."
"You look kinda nervous," Her best friend said, sidling up to her. "Calm your nerves, Fray. But I understand. It's your last time to try make up with Jace after years and years of sexual tension, right?"
Clary made a grossed-out face and turned to playfully slap Maia. "Ew, where did that come from, May? No!"
Maia giggled. "You see, Clary, all the girls of cabin three have this bet where..."
Promptly a call from downstairs, whose voice Clary recognized as her mother's, cut Maia off. Part of her was relieved that she wouldn't have to listen to the rest of what Maia had to say, because frankly she didn't want to hear it. "Girls! Picture time!"
There was nothing between herself and Jace Herondale. He was a total dick.
Clary smiled weakly before turning to Maia, offering her her arm. "Leggo!"
...
After their annual pre-camp photo was snapped, Clary kissed both Jocelyn and Luke on their cheeks before lugging her suitcase onto the trunk of Simon's van. After assisting May with hers, Clary kicked back into the front seat of the van before announcing, "Shotgun!"
Simon, her other best friend, was already in the driver's seat. "Hey, May, Fray." He grinned. "We ready?"
Clary smiled at his greeting. It always made her smile, for she always thought that it was something that would interlink them no matter what. "Yup."
"You got all your panties?"
Clary rolled her eyes and dug her elbow into his ribs. "Yes."
"May?" He looked up at the rearview mirror. "Your fake blood?"
She snorted. "Yep. Drive."
Simon drove for three hours with a pee break in-between, and after that they were there. They were then standing in front of the painted entrance of Camp Lake Lyn, the sunglass-wearing sun on the sign smiling bright. Clary grinned. She was at home away from home.
The trio ran in like giddy children pouncing for the free sample candy they gave out at M&S, dragging their suitcases after them. They signed up and parted ways with Simon, who headed in the opposite direction to the boys' bunks. Clary and Maia began making their way towards the girls' side, passing Lake Lyn in the process.
People were sitting cross-legged on the large meadow beside Lake Lyn, which they called the Green. One of them, Clary spotted, was Izzy Lightwood. Stylish as always, she had a floppy-yet-adorable sunhat placed atop her inky black hair, the look pulled together with a printed sundress.
"Izzy!" Clary called out, stopping in her tracks. Isabelle turned, looked up, and lifted her sunglasses from her face.
It was then did she crash fullspeed into Clary and Maia, her long arms wrapping around them both. "Hi! I missed you guys!"
"It's so good to be back!" Relieved and happy to see her seemingly long-lost friends again, Clary sat down onto the Green, inviting them for a long catch-up over the months they had missed together.
Isabelle straightened once Maia finished speaking of her failed date with Eric, one of Simon's weird bandmates. "Speaking of boys, Clary," a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "Do you have any new boy toys we don't know of back home?"
Clary pinched her eyebrows together, shaking her head vigorously. "Nope. I'm an independent woman who needs no man."
"Well," She spoke, "Come on, Clary! Still we better find you one, because you're the only gal around here who hasn't dated somebody."
Clary flushed red. "What do you mean?"
"Well, we all know that you've got your eyes on—" Izzy was cut off when another familiar voice, obviously masculine, interrupted their girls' bonding time. "Hey, ladies."
Jace Herondale, 5'11 foot tall with a newly acquired tan, sauntered into the scene, proceeding to fold his hands on top of Clary's head. "Am I interrupting?"
Thawing from her second-long freeze, Clary jerked her head to get his hands off her curls. Her green eyes then flashed up to look at him from the ground. "Yeah. So go away."
"Where's Alec?" Isabelle asked her brother.
She heard Maia mumble something along the lines of "speak of the Devil and he shall appear" before Jace responded to her demand. "Alec's somewhere else, probably with that Magnus dude." He rolled his eyes. "And good day to you too, Carrottop."
"Your nickname game has weakened considerably," Clary pointed out, seething over Carrottop. "That's one of the worse you've got."
She could feel Jace grin without looking at him. "Okay, then. How about Raggedy Ann?"
Clary closed her eyes. "Go away, Jace Herondale! Nobody likes you!"
"Deal settled," He grinned, settling next to her on the grass. "Raggedy Ann."
She was about to slap him across the face when she decided to take the time to study him instead, thoroughly taking in all his curly-haired, amber-eyed glory with her hand poised mid-air.
Briefly she wondered if he was doing the same too. Her thoughts were interrupted when he spoke, "You look kinda different, shorty. You've grown."
"Only grandmas say that," She responded with a quip. "But is it a good different or a bad different?"
Whoa. Where'd that come from?
"A good different," He announced, taking on a much gentler tone. "But always the same."
With that, she was momentarily left for no words, for her mind was abruptly lapsed in an incoherent daze. What the hell was that?
Soon she was shook out of her reverie when Jace spoke again, saying, "You have drool running out of your mouth, Raggedy Ann. Charming."
Promptly Clary shut her mouth, her cheeks bright red, and scowled at Jace Herondale's retreating back as he called out, "Bye, ladies, and shorty!"
"Prick!" She shouted at him in return, reacting two seconds too late. When she realized that both her friends were still there, legs folded on the grass, eyes fixed on her, her gaze returned meekly to the two before she apologized. "Did I ignore you guys?"
They were smiling. "Nah. It's fine, Clare," Maia offered. "Now why don't we actually go unpack?"
With a nod, Clary stood up from the grass, her face still the color of her hair, and brushed the green bits off of her butt. She grabbed her suitcase and left the Green, following her two companions as they headed straight to cabin three of Camp Lake Lyn.
a/n: shoutout to raph, who was the inspiration for maia's fake blood! :'D
whew! and i'm done with this first short-ass introductory chapter.
any thoughts, suggestions, comments? put those in your reviews! more lil' clace moments will definitely happen in the next chapter ;)
until then!
-nicole