Well, this finally happened! I had a lot of time over spring break to brainstorm new ideas for this story! This chapter combines the first chapter and part of the second.

My update schedule will be every 4-5 days, since I'm juggling both this and Hands in Iron. If I'm a little late then there's no one to blame but myself! (and life)

I hope you enjoy it, and please tell me whether you like the changes. Then I'll know how much I'll actually stray from the original with characters and stuff. Thanks for the overwhelming support for this from Guest, Guest, Guest, Guest, angelwithashotgun, TessaGraceHerondale, Cheyashton, , and lindsayhonaker!

Disclaimer: I own no songs or characters in this story, but at least I own the plot!

JACE POV

Clary Morgenstern. The most popular girl in school. Her flaming red curls and pale, milky white skin paired with designer skinny jeans and ruby red lips. And then there was me.

Hi, I'm Jace Herondale, co-captain of the Idris High School chess team. My best friend Jordan Kyle and I co-founded both the chess team and the bowling team, and before you say anything bowling is a sport, okay? Just because it doesn't require huge sports arenas doesn't mean it isn't a sport.

Sorry, just had to get that off my chest.

But yeah, Jordan and I were proud of our teams, enormously proud. But we wanted to get something more out of the high school experience, more than being pushed up against lockers and beat up because we were, and I quote, "geeks". We wanted to do something our fellow outcasts only dreamed of.

Date a popular girl.

Jordan has had a crush on Maia Roberts for as long as anyone can remember, and Simon (our other friend) has pined after Isabelle Lightwood for eons. But I, I don't want those girls. I want Clary

I know that she's out of my league and all that jazz, but Simon and Jordan made a pact at the beginning of high school that by the end of the year we would all ask our crushes.

Now we're back for senior year with abs and a misson. To date the girls of our dreams.

linebreaklineylinebreakheyimalinebreaksocoolyeahbacktothestorynow

CLARY POV

I wake up to the sound of my phone blaring "American Beauty/American Psycho" by Fall Out Boy. Who is calling at this godforsaken hour! I swear, if this is a telemarketer…

"Hello?" I sleepily whisper into the phone, rubbing my eyes to check my clock. Apparently it's 1:30. Great.

"Clary!" Isabelle burst into tears, blubbering. "Meliorn- h-he cheated on me! I went over to surprise him because he's been sick and we had to cancel our date and I found him making out with that skank Seelie Queen on his bed!"

I shake my head. "Izzy, I told you he was a cheater. I called it the moment I met him."

"I just thought that we were special, that I wouldn't just be a fling to him!" she sniffles into the phone.

"I know, I know." I say soothingly. "How about you go to sleep and tomorrow we'll go and snag you another man, huh? You deserve better than that creep, and we DO have our pick of eligible bachelors in Idris High School. Wait, you broke up with him right?" I question her. If she hadn't then all of my sympathy had been wasted.

"Of course! I may be forgiving, but not THAT forgiving. I just- I'm gonna go to bed, kay?"

"Night Izzy," I murmur.

"Goodnight Clary. Thanks for being there."

"Anytime."

The phone line goes dead as I fall into a dreamless sleep

woohooitsanotherlinebreakmyfavoritepartofthestorythatnoonereads

(still CLARY POV)

I wake up again to "Mr. Brightside" by The Killers at 6 am on the dot. Ugh, school. It seems like just yesterday I was ending this torture and welcoming the warm idleness of summer. I'm out by 7:20 nevertheless, driving my red Maserati convertible to school with the top down. Long story short, the Morgensterns (my family) are one of the oldest and richest families in Wayland. The only family that even remotely close to us in wealth is the Herondales. I think they have a kid my age, Jace, who I used to play with when I was younger. That was before material things started to matter, before Izzy and Maia, before Sebastian…

I zip into the school parking lot, grabbing my Gucci bag and mentally prepare for the long, boring day ahead.