I wake up around 6 A.M. to my cell phone blaring. "Isabelle, what is wrong with you? I have another hour until I need to wake up! What's your deal?!"

"Clary, shut up! I just got a text from Camille about a facebook status about a tweet about a picture on instagram and apparently we have a new guy coming to school today! He is supposed to be INSANELY hot but I heard he was kind of a player too, but then again so are we! Anyway, he's single and ready to mingle! You want him or should I take him?"

I groan and reply back into the phone, "Well I want to see what makes him so hot before we make any drastic decisions." A smile plays on my lips and Isabelle says,

"Do I sense a slut in our midst?"

I scoff and say in my defense, "NO! You know I never go that far!"

She giggles and says, "Haha, yeah I know, but we still gotta get the info on mister hotty with the gorgeous body!"

"Alright Iz, I gotta shower and get ready. Meet you at school?" She says yes and I crawl out of my warm bed and into the freezing shower. I never take warm showers because they put me back to sleep. Once I get dried off, I blow-dry my hair and straighten it out of its stubborn curls. I apply dark eye shadow, black mascara, and black eyeliner to make my green eyes more mysterious and dramatic. I slip on a dark grey tank top, dark skinny jeans, black combat boots, and a red leather jacket. I grab my bag and head out of the door. Once I get downstairs I notice that dad already left. He leaves me a note on the counter but I don't read it. Instead I just crumble it up and throw it away. I have hardly seen my dad for three days. He is always at the office but when he isn't he's at the bar or working on some 'out of town' business. I also have a brother that is 18 now. He looks just like our father with the same strong facial features and the same blonde hair and dark eyes.

My mom left us when I was 10. Dad never talks about her but I heard him mention once when he was drunk something about another guy. Valentine can be cruel at times though, so I don't blame her if she wanted to leave him- but I do blame her for not taking Jonathan and I with her. So since then I kind of shut everyone out. I grab an apple and my motorcycle helmet. I take a couple bites of the sour apple and throw it on the grass. I stuff my bag into the compartment in the seat of my motorcycle and put my helmet on. I start the black bike and flip down the face guard on my helmet and speed off. I am almost at school when I am stopped at a red light. I look to my left and see a stranger in a red mustang. His windows are down so I can lightly hear the music he has blaring on the radio. I recognize the song as Demons by Imagine Dragons.

The stranger notices that I have my attention turned towards him. He looks me up and down as though he is checking me out. I smirk though I know he can't see it. He must notice that I not have guy legs so he smirks a little. I take a little time to notice how good looking he is. He has golden hair that curls just the right way, strong and defined cheek bones and jaw bone, and a very sexy smirk if I don't say so myself. I can't see his eyes though because he has them concealed by a pair of Ray-Ban glasses. I nap my head back towards the road and wait for the light to turn green. When it does I speed off as fast as I can but it seems as though Goldie wants to race. I smirk again under my helmet and twist the throttle farther back, sending me farther down the road. He increases the gas as well and this little game just became a competition that I refuse to lose. I twist the throttle even farther and I speed past him. I am arriving at the school first and park my motorcycle. I get off of the motorcycle just as the golden stranger pulls up near me. He hops out of his car- not looking too happy over his loss- and spots me getting my bag out of the seat. He takes off his sunglasses, revealing a pair of golden eyes and walks over to me.

"You know, if you wanted to get my attention you could of just waited for me here like all the other girls." He gestures behind him to a crowd of 16-18 year old girls that are holding their purses and wearing miniskirts and tank tops. I roll my eyes and he says, "Well, are you going to say something? You aren't even going to let me see your face?"

I smirk and take off my helmet, my hair swinging free in the wind. He grins like a Cheshire cat and holds out his hand in a hand shake and says, "Well, hello there. I'm Jace Herondale."

I glare at him then give him a smirk and reply to him without shaking his hand, "And I'm out of your league." With that I throw my helmet into the compartment in the seat of the bike and waltz past him. I can tell he is shocked that I didn't react to his charm so I grin when he can't see me but I can feel his gaze burning holes in my back. I see Izzy and she is staring at me with her eyebrows arched and tells me, "That was the new guy and he was TOTALLY checking out your butt when you walked away from him!"

I smirk and she asks, "So you want me to take this one?" and to that I reply, "Actually, I think I may want this one." I begin to think of all the fun that I could have with this idiot.

She smiles and says, "Well I guess you will play him a lot better than me… I don't know if I would be able to let him go, I mean… LOOK AT HIM! He's positively sexy!" I laugh at her and her brother, Alec, comes over to greet us with my brother Jonathan who spent the night over at their house last night. He and Alec have been friends since they were in diapers.

"Hey Clare," Alec greets me. I wave at him and look at Jonathan who makes his way next to me and puts his elbow on my shoulder.

I shrug him off and say, "Yeah Jonathan, I know I'm short." He laughs at me and asks, "Have you seen a guy about my height with blonde hair and goldish eyes? He's muscular… goes by the name of Jace?"

I gape at him and ask, "You know that tool? Yeah I saw him and right now he is being attacked by all those girls over there. How do you know him?"

"Well, we met about a month ago. Last month at our game against Idris High school, he was there playing on the other team. He said he was transferring here." I nod my head and he asks again, "So, you think you could show me and Alec towards him? I don't see him."

I roll my eyes and say, "Yeah, sure." I start to walk towards the army of skanks. "Get out of the way!" I order the girls and they silence themselves quickly and part themselves like the red sea. I walk through the crowd towards the cause of the commotion. Jace turns around and sees me first and asks, "Come back for me, Red?" I roll my eyes and say, "Jonathan, are you sure you want to hang around this tool?"

Jace gasps dramatically and exclaims, "Me, a tool? What a judgmental thing to say to someone you hardly know!" I turn my attention towards him and say, "You are far too immature to make a statement like that." He scoffs and says, "Whatever you say, shortcake."

I turn around and leave the boys to their talking and grab Isabelle's arm. We walk over to her car and sit on the hood while Sebastian, Simon, Jordan, Maia, and a couple guys from the basketball, football, baseball, and soccer team come over to us. "Hey sexy," says Daniel- goalie for our soccer team. I take a deep breath and say back to him in a low voice, "Hey you," I brush my hand up and down his arm slowly, making him shiver a bit.

Sebastian groans and shouts out, "Is this really the place? I mean, we could all be a little classy and do this behind the bleachers." I see Isabelle turn her attention towards him and ask, "What is it Seb, afraid of ruining your 'perfect' reputation?" I snicker but become more aware of things when the bell rings. I feel Daniel slouch in disappointment and I smirk and get off the hood of the car with Izzy and walk to first period.

Our first block is art- one of my favorites. Mrs. Drakeyard walks in wearing her usual black pencil skirt and ruffled white blouse, her hair in a tight bun on top of her head, and a coat of 50 cent red lip stick. She begins to lecture us on the importance of symmetry and movement in a painting but I just tune her out and begin to swirl the oil pastels onto the white canvas. About twenty minutes after I have started, I hear someone clear their throat next to me. I look to my right and see that it is that arrogant, Jace Herondale sitting there with that sexy smirk on his face. "Very nice painting," he says with a wink. I roll my eyes and turn my attention back to the canvas but say to him, "So tell me Herondale, exactly how many times are you planning on seducing me?"

He raises his eyebrow and says, "How many times will it take?"

I scoff and continue swirling the oil paint onto the canvas and say to him, "Get in line Goldie Locks."

"It seems as though you have many guys willing to engage in some form of… pleasure. So why put your attention on me?"

I look at him with a straight face and say without any emotion, "Because it's just that easy."

He looks taken aback but quickly recovers and says in a low voice, "You know I can't help but believe that somewhere way, way, way, WAY deep down, there is a part of you that is vulnerable enough to do anything I say. So tell me Clary, what happened to you that made you become so secluded? I know you weren't always like this," I stop painting and stare at the canvas as he continues, "So tell me, was it a bad breakup, a fight with your BFF, oh no don't tell me… daddy issues?" he says in a sarcastic voice.

I tense up but unfortunately he notices. "Oh, I see. It is daddy issues. What happened, he didn't by you that designer cashmere that you were just DYING for? Oh you poor thing, how have you survived this long?"

I take a deep breath and look back at him- forcing tears back. "I don't know you, you don't know me, but for whatever reason you feel like you have the power to manipulate me. News flash buddy, you don't control me and you DEFINITELY don't know me, so stop pretending you do!" I turn back to my canvas, leaving a shocked Jace in his seat. He tries to get my attention throughout the rest of class but I put my headphones in and tune him out. He even grabs my arm but learns that was a mistake as I twist his wrist. He reels back and puts his attention on his pathetic drawing of a river in the Nile.

I finish my painting and am thoroughly proud of the outcome-bare tree with a gorgeous sunset behind it. The yellow, orange, and blue mix so smoothly… I get lost looking at it and don't notice the bell going off. I pull out my headphones and stuff my phone back into my bag and grab my painting to turn in. I am exiting the room when I hear, "Clary, WAIT!" I turn around and see Jace racing towards me. I groan and spin back around but he grabs my shoulder.

Everyone in the hallway is starring at us- because everyone knows that you don't touch Clary Morgenstern- and I grab his hand and say, "Oh Herondale, don't you recall the last time you chose to lay your hand on me?"

"Yeah I know but I want to say something to you… in private." I smirk at all the people starring- even a few teacher- and wink at one of the guys.

I mummer back to him, "You've said enough," and shake my shoulder from his grasp and walk away.

JPOV:

I realized that I may have gone a little far after the whole 'art incident' but I still wanted to know why it hit her so hard, so I go talk to the person that knows her best- Jonathan.

"Hey Jon, I got to talk to you!" He stops in the hall and turns towards me. I walk to him and begin speaking, "Your sister-Clary- what's her deal? Why is she so stubborn and mean?"

He rolls his eyes and asks, "You mean why is she the way she is?" I nod.

He says, "Well don't tell her I said this to you, but when we were younger, our mom left us. Our dad never told us why but since he left he got into the alcohol pretty bad. Drinking all the time, never around, Clary has never trusted anyone since then. But there was this one night… I wasn't there, I was at some dumb party- but when I came home vases were broken on the floor, picture frames of us and our mom were smashed, broken beer bottles and alcohol puddles were everywhere, and there was a little bit of blood on the wall. I go to ask Clary what happened and if she was okay, but all she did was yell at me- 'Jonathan just go to sleep! I don't want to talk about this ever again, don't mention it ever again!' so I never did."

I scrunch my eyebrows up in confusion and ask, "So what happened?"

He shrugs and says, "I'm not sure. She came out that morning with a bloody lip and a big bruise on her collar bone. I didn't ask her what happened, but ever since then she has been this intimidating, stubborn, ass-hole. But she's my baby sister and I will do anything to protect her, including beating the shit out of you if you even think about playing with her."

I nod and stare at the floor, thinking of all the mistakes I've made with this girl when all along- she was probably crumbling inside that harden shell. I need to find her, apologize and I need to find out what happened that night- I want to make thing right with this girl and I don't know why.

A/N: Thank you for reading! For all of you who read my other Clace fic- Unexpected Love- here is that story I promised you all! Thank you for reading! R&R!