A/N: Kay all I ask is for you not to sue me. First Jace and Clary and you could say I'm a bit nervous. I don't respect flames, but I DO respect criticism and suggestions. Reviews are my love…

Prologue xx

"B-But I really want to hang out with you some more." The high pitched voice pleaded. The couple was sitting on a random park bench, the entire scene was already tinting orange from the setting sun.

"My bad Kelly, I've already made plans with Aline. Possibly some other time though? Call me." With a careless toss of a small strip of paper into her lap the blond boy stood.

"Its Kaelie!" She fumed, turning red.

He shrugged, "Whatever." And without another word he calmly walked away from the gaping teenage girl.

He found Alec soon enough, that Starbucks about a block away from the park he was coming from was his brother's home away from home. He spent 90 percent of his time, awake and away from school there. And it was always very convenient for him as well, he brought almost all the girls he was with to that very park and left them alone to flee over to the familiar coffee spot very close by.

"Hey dude," he said sitting himself down onto the stool next to Alec, he nodded in acknowledgement, "could you give me a ride to the local mall? Aline will probably already be waiting."

Alec rolled his eyes and threw away his paper cup into the nearby trash can. He had already known that his younger brother was shallow, but his knowledge of the situation only increased when he got his license taken away after too many tickets. He could never understand why all the bimbos that hung on his arms all day never seemed to get tired of his attitude in the first place. "As I've said before, many times Jace, you should really just think of a freaking company name for all this crap you constantly give those girls."

"And I've already told you that all I would be able to come up with is something lewd. It may seem impossible to you, but I have some lines drawn in the sand."

"Pretty faint ones I'll bet." Alec murmured under his breath, Jace heard it though and looked at him with an arched eyebrow, "I mean you've already called Aline a "loyal customer" more than once from what I've heard." He was irritated, but he couldn't help the smirk that showed. No matter how rude his brother could be to all the girls he'd ever met (except their mother and sister Izzy on a few short occasions) he couldn't deny that Jace was his friend. They'd had some good times in their childhood, and still had good times now. But they were still brothers and did annoy the crap out of each other now and again.

Jace saw though, that this was not one of those times as he watched Alec grab his keys and motion him to come with him to his car.

Once they were on the road Jace saw Alec smirk again. "I've gotta hand it to you though. I would never be able to stand Aline as long as you have so far."

Jace chuckled lowly to himself. It was true, Aline was probably one of the most annoying little things he'd ever seen. She was a slut and everyone knew it, Jace believed that even Aline herself was aware of this but just didn't admit it. She knew what she wanted though, if he had to give her credit for one thing. And what she wanted at the current moment, was Jace. "She's a persistent little bitch its true. But she's a good enough kisser for me to keep her around."

Alec rolled his blue eyes again. "You can't seriously expect me to believe that kissing is all you've done with the girl. She's practically been draped over your arm for months."

"Believe it or not, I don't think that she is good enough to go further than that."

Alec scoffed, "Oh, I believe that. Unfortunately what I also believe is that you are way too much of an idiotic teenager to know that and actually put the information to use… Anyways, do what you want. We're here."

The car suddenly rolled to a stop at the local mall. He immediately saw Aline leaning against the wall nearby. She beamed at him. "Thanks for the ride bro'."

Alec gave one more humorless laugh. "My pleasure Jace."

With that Jace walked slowly over to the girl who was wearing a dress so short that no one could even consider that she knew the definition of 'modest'. He gave one last smile and wave to his brother before Aline wrapped her skinny tanned arms around his torso. And with one last disapproving roll of his eyes, Alec drove back onto the highway.

xx

"Clary for the Lord Almighty get it through your head!" With a playful punch to the arm Clary smiled weakly at one of her two best friends in the world.

"Sorry Maia, but I just don't see it. There is no way I could ever pull this dress off in a million years."

"You already are! God Clare. All you ever wear to school are close toed shoes, plain old jeans and a long sleeved shirt! And I love you Clary I really do, you look beautiful in that stuff alone. Trust me. - And don't you give me that look!" Maia suddenly scolded those words when her previous statement was punctuated by Clary's unconvinced eye rolling. "But," She continued, "this outfit looks perfect on you! Buy this and actually wear it for once." Clary didn't look like she was going to give, "For me? Please?" Oh dear lord. Guilt trips were Clary's weakness and Maia knew it. Now she was basically forced to wear this ridiculous outfit to school Monday. To any other girl it would probably be an insanely average outfit, what with the dark wash skinny jeans with small light blue flowers embroidered towards the bottom and a tight bright blue graphic tee shirt and black flats, but to Clary it was too… good, for lack of a better word. In fact, as Clary thought about it, it was actually the perfect word. This outfit she was just about to buy was much too good for her to wear. But she was tragically at the mercy of Maia's puppy dog eyes.

Leaving the store they were quickly met up with that last of Clary's two best friends; Simon ran up to them holding three giant soft pretzels to give out. "Finally out of that girl's store I see." He said giving a distasteful glance to the little shop they had just exited. Clary smiled in agreement and Maia just smirked at her. The smile wiped off her face and was replaced with a dull glare. Wrapping an arm around Maia's waist and taking a bite from his own pretzel Simon took in the two girl's intense stare-fest. "What happened?" He finally gave.

Maia's smirk turned triumphant. "I actually got her to wear something normal to school Monday." She gloated while she took a bite of her own snack as well.

"My regular clothes are perfectly normal Maia." She protested.

"I know that. And as I said you pull them off flawlessly." This time Maia ignored it when Clary scoffed in disagreement. "But Clary things change. You can't just stick to the same old routine forever. This is a good start to trying new things for a change."

"I guess."

"I agree with Maia, Clary."

Clary giggled. "Of course you do! She's your girlfriend you have too. It's your job."

They both smiled, but Simon then continued seriously. "You really need to have more self confidence. You're an amazing girl Clary, neither I nor Maia here can think of one fault you have other than you not giving yourself enough credit, and I for one don't think that should count." The whole time Maia was nodding vigorously by his side. "But you're too reserved, we've both known you since pre-school, but there are tons of cool people at our school you could be friends with like some of my friends Eric, or Meliorn, or Raphael." He suggested.

Maia decided to speak up too. "Or some of mine like Leigha, or Mary, or Celine. Clary you could be the most popular person in the entire state of New York if only you would show your personality! Why just us?"

Clary suddenly beamed. "You two are the ones that don't give yourself enough credit. You're all the friends I'll ever need." She hugged them both while carefully balancing her own untouched pretzel. "Now lets get out of here. We can hang out at my place?" She suggested and started walking towards the exit.

Maia and Simon followed closely behind and sighed. Maia leaned closer into him and placed a kiss on his cheek. "We can try again with her some other time." She whispered.

Suddenly a loud, animated voice called out from somewhere behind them. "Hey you! With the red hair!"

All of them froze and Clary turned around to see a tall, black haired, blue eyed girl running towards her. She looked like she had just come out of some high fashion magazine cover, but she somehow looked familiar. "Me?" Clary asked as she reached her.

The girl smiled widely, showing her white teeth. "Yes. Hi I'm Isabelle." She held out her hand and Clary took it shyly. 'Again' Maia and Simon thought in unintended unison 'she's becoming reserved again.' "Look I'm really sorry for the burden, but I need some help."

It was true that Clary was really shy and quiet around people she wasn't acquainted with, but she would gladly help when needed, even in the most ridiculous of times. "I'd be glad to. What do you need?"

Isabelle's face lit up even brighter. "Oh thank you! You're truly a saint! I promise it wont be too much trouble. You see my friend ran off with her boy toy earlier today, and we're going to this party next weekend and are in desperate need of dresses. You look about her figure, so could you please just try on some to see which ones fit?"

Clary's face turned to one of shock, but she quickly agreed. "Um… sure. But I have to warn you I don't pull off dresses very well." She turned to look at the smirking pair of Maia and Simon. "You guys can head out, I can probably catch a taxi back to my place."

Both of them shook their heads immediately. "No way." Simon said, "I may not like it usually, but seeing you in frills for the first time I've known you is way too good of a chance to pass up." Maia giggled and nodded.

"Same with me Clary. I'm staying." She turned to look at Isabelle now. "Sorry. I'm Maia, this is my boyfriend Simon. And this girl here," she placed a friendly punch on the red head's shoulder, "is Clary."

"Cool. I promise this wont take too long. I've already got it narrowed down to like ten dresses in this one store, come with me."

-Later-

Isabelle had Clary try on everything. From frills, to draped. From pastels, to bright. And from lace, to fishnet. But throughout every single dress there was at least one thing in common. Not one single dress went past her mid-thigh.

By the fifth one that her friend was feeling uncomfortably exposed in Maia had to comment with a very amused smile glued to her face. "This girl you're getting the dress for has got to be the exact opposite of Clary."

Isabelle nodded. "Yeah. Probably. Aline isn't the most innocent flower in the field, she's gotta few thorns, if you know what I mean. But Clary here," Isabelle stared at her with an almost disbelieving glance, "I'd have a hard time being convinced she's ever gone out past curfew."

"Well you see she does sometimes, but she always asks for permission. Her mom is really cool, but I've never seen her once disobey her. Clary's actually really fun to hang out with, but she has problems meeting new people."

"Really?" Isabelle only looked a couple times at the changing rooms to see if she was stepping out yet. Maia took that as a sign that she'd caught her attention. "Like how?"

"Well… she has really low self confidence. She doesn't see herself as good enough to have anymore friends. And she frequently asks us why we want to hang out with her all the time." Maia sighed. "We hate it when she does that."

Isabelle glared at the ground, but her expression still held a sort of deep in thought accent to it. "I see," she murmured. Suddenly the doors opened on the ninth dress and Clary walked out in a lot of pink, and a lot of skin, she looked more out of her skin that ever. "That's perfect for her. She'll love it… but just in case." She added last minute and looked over the racks of dresses Clary's size. She pulled a navy blue velvet one out. "Try this last one on. I'm very doubtful about it, it's probably much to simple, covering, and long for Aline, but what the hell, try it."

Clary shrugged and took the last dress into the changing room. She was very eager to shed the pink monstrosity. But once she got into the navy blue, she looked critical. To anyone else, the dress would probably look amazing on her. The dark blue made her eyes and hair more prominent, and skin look creamier and smooth. Her figure looked leaner and more elegant. But to her she looked disgusting. She appreciated that it was the most covering of all of them, but it still showed way too much skin. To her, the dark color made her skin white as a ghost and her hair looked like it was on fire… but not in a good way.

Never the less, she stepped out and all three of them smiled. Isabelle's was a smirk. "Well I must say. This one wouldn't look very good on Aline… it actually looks much better on you. How about I buy it for you? As a thank you?"

Clary stared at her incredulously. "Oh no, there's no way I could let you do that."

"But it looks amazing on you!"

"I doubt that. I'd probably never wear it anyway and it's-" she looked at the price with shock, "$175!" How could such a small simple dress cost so much? "Oh that settles it no way in hell am I letting you buy this for me."

Maia smiled widely, when Clary started using more foul of language it meant she was warming up to the person she met. It sure was quick but it was a good sign.

"Oh come on. You'll never know if you'll wear it or not. And I'm good on money $175 isn't that much for me. Pretty please? If you don't I'll feel like I wasted your time! Please, I'd really feel horrible if I don't."

Simon and Maia practically choked on their almost finished pretzels. How could she have possibly guessed Clary's weakness for guilt trips so easily? They knew one thing, despite Isabelle's slightly girly appearance she was smart, and someone who could easily befriend Clary.

Clary gave one last look down at herself in the dress and bit her lip. She didn't want anyone to feel bad because of her. "Um… okay."

Isabelle beamed and clapped once. She had both dresses paid for in record time and Clary found herself leaving with the most clothes she'd never think of herself to actually wear. All three of them decided just to head home. Even Simon was tired after the little fashion show Isabelle had forced Clary into (well not exactly forced, she did agree to it easily after all). It was already past 8 o'clock. So Clary ended up walking into her familiar home of 7 years alone.

"Hi honey." Her mother greeted her when she had set her clothes into her room and walked downstairs to help with the late dinner. "How was the mall?"

How was the mall? Clary had to run the question through her head a few times before she could even think about an answer. And even then, just one word came up into her head. She smiled at her mother.

"It was… interesting."