Disclaimer: The characters below are property of Cassandra Clare.
Chapter One- The Truth "Comes Out"
I tried not to think as I slipped on a comfortable grey sweater with only two holes (one of which resided on my left shoulder, and the other, hardly visible, under the back of my neck). I pulled on an old pair of jeans, and slipped on a pair of worn out sneakers. I threw an extra pair of contacts into my navy blue backpack, along with a pack of mints, and two extra pencils (somehow I managed to lose all of my pencils by the end of the year, so these would come in handy).
Soon enough, I was at the door, a dark red apple in my hand, listening to the steady tapping of Jace's impatient feet as we waited for Isabelle. He sighed, glancing up the stairs, and I bit my lip. If Izzy took any longer, we'd be late to the bus, and have to walk to school, seeing as our parents worked until four every day as attorneys.
"Izzy!" Jace yelled, his forehead wrinkled out of sheer frustration. "We're going to be late if you don't get your ass down here in less than two minutes! Again!"
I chuckled lowly. Personally, I didn't mind walking to school, hearing the bickering of my sister and adoptive brother behind me, the simple chirping of the birds, the peaceful feeling as school seemed days away. Unfortunately, it never was, and we would reach the school in only a few minutes, then enter the world full of loud, hormonal teenagers and their incredibly whiny opinions.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," my sister groaned, making her way down the stairs. I glared at her excuse for a pair of shorts, and her low shirt, covered by a tight leather jacket.
"You call that an outfit?" Jace scoffed.
"You're not wearing that," I grimaced, "I don't care if we're late, go change."
Isabelle scowled.
"This is what people wear, Alec. May as well get over it."
She strutted out the door, and Jace followed after her, leaving me with a slightly shocked, slightly upset expression on my face. However, I just rolled my eyes and bounded outside after the two, locking the door behind me. Although the two of them could be annoying, they were still my siblings, and that meant the world to me.
We made it to the bus just in time, as the doors were about to close. Izzy called out for Church, the driver, to stop as we hopped on board, swinging our bags onto seats and sitting right next to them. I blinked twice, trying to adjust to the already noisy bunch of students. Ugh. Did they not know the meaning of the word quiet?
A stinging in my head commenced. I stared out the window at the passing houses and trees, listening to the soft music of my iPod, tuning out the voices of people that I did not know, nor care about.
I rushed away from my locker, eager to avoid the crowd of students that would soon be approaching the area. Most people hurried to lunch in order to get in line before everybody else, get a table before anybody else. I, being an unpopular but organized male, hurried to my locker instead, switched out my books, grabbed a stick of spearmint gum for later and my brown bag of food, then walked calmly to the cafeteria, taking a seat at a table with Jace and Izzy, along with their partners, Clary and Simon.
"Hey Alec," Clary welcomed, pausing her conversation with her best friend, Simon, for a moment.
"Hey," I greeted in return.
"How's the first day going? Meet any new girls?" Izzy questioned with a wink.
I choked.
"Uh, no," I replied, a tomato red blush covering my face.
"I swear, that girl Camille really seems to like you," Jace suggested. "You should talk to her."
"She's in my history class and we got partnered up for a project, I could totally introduce you! I need to get her number anyway to start on it," Simon told me, grinning.
"Nah, I'm-" I felt myself being dragged by his slender hand, and I looked back at Izzy, my eyes pleading. She laughed and shook her head, shooing me away. I was yanked over to a table occupied by giggling cheerleaders, and Simon positioned me right behind Camille, then coughed, drawing her attention to us.
"Alec!" she cried, her face lighting up.
I bit my lip.
"Hello, Camille," I drawled, my eyes darting from place to place awkwardly, fiddling with the thin chain on my wrist, a gift from my mom for my recent seventeenth birthday.
"What did you two need?" Camille questioned, hardly acknowledging Simon's presence as her eyes bored into mine.
"I was wondering if I could get your number for that project in history, and Alec was wondering if he could get it for.. well," Simon said.
I didn't know a smile could stretch so wide on somebody's face and I stared, expecting Camille's to literally rip.
"Yeah, sure! I'll write it down for both of you, you can just share the paper," she said, fumbling for a pencil as she took a notepad out of the pocket of her extremely tight magenta jeans.
Not a moment later, she thrusted her hand out and almost threw the paper at my chest, and I caught it, the corner of the paper cutting my thumb. I winced, not from the pain, but from her obvious attraction.
"Thanks," I said awkwardly, "We'll just be on our way.."
"Yeah! Call me," she yelled after me.
My face grew even redder as half of the cafeteria whipped their heads over to us, some of the guys staring daggers at me.
"Don't ever make me do that again," I whispered to Simon, and he just chuckled.
"Alec!" I heard someone shout behind me. "Wait up!"
I halted, and turned my head slightly to see the face of my sister, panting as she ran towards me, holding her jacket in her right hand, a paper in the other.
"Simon said you dropped this!"
She handed me the paper, and I saw the neat handwriting of Camille. I groaned mentally, remembering the past events, stuffing the paper in my pocket. Obviously, I wouldn't call her. I'd probably throw my jeans in the laundry and the paper would be destroyed, and I'd never have to see it again.
"Alec, why don't you want to call her?"
Isabelle fell into step with me and I dreaded the seconds that would come after my confession.
"Izzy, just don't be mad, okay?" I asked, my voice shaking slightly.
She looked up from the ground and into my eyes, concern showing on her face.
"Alec, if you really dislike her that much, you can tell me, I won't mind. I don't really care for that group, truly. Their screeching cheers annoy the crap outta me, but that might just be me," she rambled, her jacket almost blowing out of her arms from the wind of the fall season.
"It's not that, Isabelle," I responded, nervously moving my attention to the ground.
"You only call me Isabelle when it's serious. What is this really about? It's more than just disliking Camille, isn't-" Isabelle stopped, the realization causing her eyes to widen and her legs to freeze. I stopped next to her, the bus only a few feet away. Suddenly, Jace was behind us.
"What's up with you guys? The bus is leaving in like, two minutes," Jace said.
Isabelle slowly turned her gaze to me.
"Uhh, you can get on the bus, we'll be there in a sec," I told him, avoiding Isabelle's eyes.
Jace shrugged and continued to the bus, waving goodbye to Clary.
"Alec.." Isabelle started.
"Isabelle.."
"Are you gay?"
I nodded slightly, then burst into speed, running onto the bus and turning away from the rest of the people, staring out the window once again, trying not to have a nervous breakdown, and most importantly, ignoring Izzy's eyes that were positioned on the back of my head.