Clarissa Fray (or Clary, as she preferred to be called) walked down the halls of Alicante High School after her older brother, Jonathan, dropped her off. He wasn't very happy about it, as Idris University was five miles in the other direction, but Clary didn't really want to take the bus, and so Luke told Jon to drive her to school before his first class. She trudged down the hallway to her locker sleepily, wishing she had a cup of hot coffee in her hand (and that she hadn't stayed up last night to play Call of Duty with Simon). She finally made her way through the cheerleaders (how were they so awake in the mornings?) and opened her locker. It wouldn't open, no matter how hard she tried.

"Hey, Fray!"

Clary turned around to see her best friend, Simon Lewis, who was carrying a cup of much needed coffee, which Clary immediately grabbed from his hand and carefully took a sip. "Thanks, Si."

He chuckled. "How did you know that wasn't mine?"

"You don't drink coffee. You drink tea, because you're weird."

Simon raised his hands in surrender. "Hey, I just don't like the bitterness, and coffee makes me way too jittery."

Clary rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I said you're weird." She turned back to her locker, and tried to open it again. It failed. "I'll walk with you to Physics, as soon as I get this thing open."

Simon seemed to be trying not to laugh. "Um… Clary?"

"What?" Her locker still wouldn't open.

"Today's the start of a new semester. You know, new classes, new classmates, new lockers…"

She facepalmed. "Ughhhhh…. I blame being coffee deprived for forgetting."

"You'd think by your senior year, you'd be better at this." Simon laughed. He continued as he fished around in his backpack. "Luckily for you, I've dropped by the counselor's and I've already gotten your class schedule and your locker number, along with my stuff and a coffee for you."

"Simon Lewis, you are a godsend. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"You're welcome."

Clary looked over her new information. English first period, Spanish second, Physics third… "Where the heck is my locker?"

"It's down the hall in that direction. C'mon, I'll walk you to it. My locker's only a few away from yours, anyways."

They maneuvered down the hall to their new lockers, arguing about comics along the way. Simon was being an idiot and saying that Ares (the Greek god) would win in a fight against the Hulk. Clary very passionately disagreed. "Are you insane? When was the last time you read a Greek myth? Or a Hulk comic? Ares would lose, hands down!" She continued on, until she ran into a wall. Her papers were knocked out of her hand, but she managed to save the coffee. "Ow."

The wall made a sound, as if it were surprised. That was when Clary realized that she hadn't actually run into a wall, but had instead run into the very toned torso of a person. She looked up to see who she had run into, and was met with the amber eyes of Jace Herondale, who was on her brother's soccer team last year. Clary wished she had a pencil, so she could make a quick sketch. She felt herself blushing, and she knew that her entire face was red. "Hey there, Little Red Riding Hood. Where're you going in such a hurry, little girl?" He bent down and got her papers for her. It was clear that even though she knew him (or at least, knew of him), he didn't recognize her.

She muttered a quick thank you and continued down the hall. It was rude, but even though he'd picked up her papers (and had great eyes), she was still extremely annoyed by nicknames. "So, as I was saying, Hulk would pulverize Ares…"

They got to their lockers, and their argument continued. (Simon argued that Ares would win, since he was a god, and therefore the other gods would support him in this epic battle.) Simon ran off to Calculus, which left Clary fighting a sea of people to get to English. She barely made it to the classroom on time, and the bell rang immediately after she entered the classroom. Mrs. Smith, the English teacher looked up. "Hello Clary. Glad you could make it just in time for class. Take a seat."

Clary looked around. Thankfully, there was a seat left somewhere in the middle of the classroom, and she headed towards it and plunked her possessions onto her desk. She was flipping her notebook open when a soft chuckle sounded next to her. She looked over to the person who was sitting next to her, and groaned. It was Jace.

"Hey there, Red."

"Stop calling me that."

"Why not, little girl?"

"My name isn't little girl."

Mrs. Smith cleared her throat. "Attention, everybody. I hope you're fairly pleased with who you're sitting next to right now, as these will be your seats for the next two months while we do our Shakespearean unit." The room filled with a mixture of cheers and groans. "Settle down, everyone," Mrs. Smith continued. "I know it's senior year and you don't really have seating charts anymore, but I need you to sit where you are now for the next two months because we're having discussion groups this quarter, and you'll probably be in these groups for a while. This means no sneaky changing behind my back or when a substitute is here. Let me just copy down where everyone's sitting…" With that, Mrs. Smith sat down at her desk, and everyone started chatting.

"So, Clary, was it?" The confusion must have shown, because he smiled at her. (It was a very nice smile, Clary noted. It also showed the slight chip in his tooth, which was the only imperfection she could find in his otherwise flawless face.) "Mrs. Smith called your name at the beginning of the class."

"Oh." She didn't know what to do next, so she started working on her sketch of Detective Conan in her notebook.

"C'mon, be nice. What're you drawing?" Clary continued to look at her sketchbook, hoping that Jace would stop talking or her cheeks would stop blushing. Screw my cheeks. Why does he have to be so hot? "Why're you so mad at me?"

She put down her pencil. Ugh, why am I so awkward? "I'm not mad at you."

"That's cool." He smiled again. "Why don't we introduce ourselves properly so I don't seem like an absolute creep?"

"Sounds good to me. Clarissa Fray. But you can call me Clary."

"Jace Herondale."

"Nice to meet you."

At the front of the classroom, Mrs. Smith cleared her throat. "Alright, I've finished copying down everyone's seats. Now, our first Shakespearean play…."

…

Jace was just about to find his new locker when someone crashed into him. Looking down, he saw that it was a short redheaded girl, who was blushing so hard her face almost blended into her hair. "Hey there, Little Red Riding Hood. Where're you going in such a hurry, little girl?" If possible, the girl blushed even harder, even though her expression told Jace that she was annoyed. He bent down and retrieved her papers for her, hiding his amusement at her expression. When he stood up, she murmured something and shuffled away awkwardly, continuing her conversation with the nerdy boy she was walking with.

He smiled at the adorable awkwardness she possessed. As he watched the girl walk away, there was a tickle in the back of his mind, as if he knew her somewhere. He couldn't really remember, but she was somewhat familiar to him. He knew that hair colour, he knew those emerald eyes, but how did he know them?

He shook his head, headed to his locker, and went to his first class. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop thinking about the redhead and wondering how he knew her.