Thank you for deciding to try out my story. I wasn't very happy with my first one so I decided to try again. I really hope you like it. This is one of the shorter chapters so don't be discouraged by the size. Every person who reviews, favorites, or follows this story get to ask for a little scene, or a maybe the brief inclusion of a character from another book, or something like that. I am a semi slow typer, but I will try my best to make constant updates.

Anyways enjoy.

-Darkling Princess

Arrival Day

I can't move.

I'm in my bedroom. My alarm had gone off signaling another day of psychological torture also know as school. I had groaned inwardly and tried to reach to shut off my alarm, only-my arm seemed to have a different idea. I tried to sit up, but my body wouldn't obey my commands, and I could only lie, as inanimate as rock, while my alarm screeched into my ear.

That wasn't the first time it had happened, but that didn't make it any less terrifying. It felt like my body just decide to take a smoke break or something without notice and forgot to come back in time. It wasn't pleasant.

Usually my brother or my mother would hear my alarm and come to check on me, or I would be back to normal before they had the chance, but this time neither happened, and I just laid there helpless. After about ten minutes I regained control of my body and climbed out of bed, and immediately shutting off my alarm. I didn't know why my mother and brother didn't come to help me, they usually come immediately. I hurriedly pull on some clothes before racing out my room in search of them, but I don't have to go very far because I found them in the living room.

I spot my mom first. Her red hair stands out starkly against the white walls of our living room. She's talking to...a boy? I've never seen him before, and then it hits me.

Today's arrival day.

Let me explain.

My mother is an extremely giving person, give her a hairless cat while she's homeless that you found half dead in the garbage, and she'll nurse it back to health, and put it's every need above her own. My brother John and I often joke that as soon as we leave for college she'll start an orphanage in our absence, and I wouldn't be surprised if we were right. A few months ago my mother decided she wanted to try fostering children, mostly kids near John's and my age. I was against the idea from the start. My mom has enough on her plate with me, she didn't need to add another kid to the mix, but she was so inspired by her best friend Maryse, who adopted a kid and he grew to become part of their family. She totally ignored my protests.

Not to mention this stranger is going to have to learn to deal with my condition. I was diagnosed as narcoleptic. I'm prone to sleep paralysis, sometimes my muscles stop working properly, and occasionally I hallucinate, although one thing separating me from a typical narcoleptic is the fact that I simply pass out without warning. I could be doing literally anything, showering, eating, going downstairs and I'll just faint right then and there. My brother has all of my classes, and he with me almost all the time in school, and I also have practically no independence, I can't go anywhere alone or drive ever, and now enter this stranger who will living with me-us for an undisclosed amount of time.

Do you understand why this is a bad idea?

I realize my clothes are extremely wrinkled, my hair is unruly, and I may or may not have slobber on my arm, so I turn to discreetly walk away. Before I can attempt this, the boy and I lock eyes. I finally look at him while my face colors itself red. He has slicked back dyed white hair, he seems tall, even sitting down, but what's unnerving about him is his black eyes. I'm not joking. They're black. Otherwise he's cute. I guess.

He smiles at me. I half-smile back. He turns back to my mom, and motions towards me. "This must be your daughter." He nods at me. "Clarissa is it?" He speaks with a slight French accent.

I reluctantly take a seat on the sofa next to my mom before answering. "Yeah, but I go by Clary. Clarissa's too formal."

He smiles. "I think it's a beautiful name."

I blush a deeper shade of red.

I dip my head in acknowledgement of the compliment. "What's your name?" My voice comes out croaky from sleep, but I immediately clear my throat and repeat the question.

"Sebastian," He says.

"Looking forward to getting to know you Sebastian."

"And I you."

My mom seems satisfied with this interaction, and stands up. "Well nice to meet you Sebastian, help yourself to the kitchen, if you get hungry..." She walks to the door to grab her purse. It's then that I notice she's fully dressed. She's probably headed to work, but I still haven't seen John. My mom turns her attention to me. "Clary it snowed last night so school is canceled. I'm headed across the street to grab some groceries-"

"Mom, where's John?" Jonathon is my older brother, he looks out for me, when my mom is gone. She must hear the confusion in my voice, because she stops to answer me.

"He's almost finished shoveling the driveway, he'll be inside in a few minutes. Alright? Bye." She then unlocks the door and heads out, some of the heat following her too. I stand and turn to head back to my room.

Sebastian follows. "Do you think you could show me to my room?" He motions towards a couple of duffel bags by the door. "I need to unpack."

"Sure, come on." We both grab a bag or two and I lead the way down the hall, and upstairs.

My mother spent weeks preparing the room, she made it gender neutral, because she didn't know who we would be taking in. My room is downstairs, it used to be upstairs, but when I sprained my wrist falling asleep while going downstairs we decided I should relocate. Sebastian is actually getting my old room.

We reach his room, and toss his bags onto the bed. He glances around the room. It's relatively large, centered by a full sized bed with nightstands on each side. The walls are cream colored, and the rug, comforter, and curtains are all varying shades of green. One of my mother's paintings adorn a wall, and a green vase of flowers sits on a corner desk on the opposite end of the room.

I watch him. "What do you think?"

He looks at me and smiles softly. "It's lovely." I smile back. Right at that moment I hear the door open and shut. I turn and head out of the room to go help my brother. He's pretty sensitive to the cold so, whenever he has to shovel the driveway, as soon as he gets inside I make him hot cocoa. It's a little tradition we have, although we haven't been following it lately because of the lack of snow, and his frequent absence. I distantly wonder if he's met Sebastian yet, but if not he can meet him now.

I reach the bottom of the stairs, and head into the kitchen. "Mini marshmallows or large?" I call out.

"I think you know the answer to that question Clare." I smile to myself and open one of our wooden cabinets to reach for the large ones. I turn to Sebastian, who followed me downstairs. He's preparing some ramen noodles from the cupboard. "Do you want-"

"Any?"

I blink, and sit up. I'm lying down on the couch with my head in John's lap. The TV is on and John looks down at me with his big forest green eyes, realizing I'm awake. "You fell asleep."

I nod slowly, and turn in his direction a bit. "Did I hit my head?"

He shakes his head. "Sebastian caught you."

I nod again, and lay my head back down, placing my hand on my forehead and shutting my eyes, waiting for the initial wave of dizziness to fade off. Sebastian is gone, he probably went to finish unpacking. God. I meet him looking like I woke from the dead, and then pass out for no apparent reason, I really need to work on first impressions. I now turn my attention to the TV, curious as to what John is watching, only to find him watching Now You See Me 2 for what must be the 600th time.

"I swear, if you keep watching this, I'm just going to buy you a deck of cards for your birthday, and tell you they're the original ones from the movie."

He shakes his head, half of his focus still on the movie. "You'd be better off getting me a bottle of water. Daniel is my favorite, not Jack."

"Oh."

I start to notice John's appearance. He has a red nose and a serious case of the sniffles, I regret not having made him hot chocolate. I also feel pretty resentful about the fact this would have been the first day in weeks we've had together, and I missed out because of this condition. We watch the movie in silence for a few more minutes before John decides to speak up again. "He didn't know."

I look up at him. "Who didn't know what?"

He inhales, sniffs, and pauses the movie. "Sebastian didn't know about your condition."

I frown and sit up to be at eye level with him, or close to it. He's a couple inches taller than me, although we're both abnormally short. The dizziness has thankfully faded away, so I turn towards him. "Mom didn't tell him? And just say it; He didn't know I have narcolepsy."

John winces at my bluntness, but continues. "No she didn't tell him, I had to, and afterwards he said he needed to go unpack. He's been in his room since."

When I don't say anything for a moment, he resumes the movie. I sit for a minute, imagining how Sebastian must feel. Being in a new home because his parents are gone, finding out that his (foster sister...I guess?) has narcolepsy. I wonder if he feels like I'm his responsibility now, because that wouldn't be true...right?

I stand up, and start heading towards the stairwell. John tears his attention away from the screen to glance at me. "Were are you going?"

I send him a look. "To Japan."

He rolls his eyes.

"No, I'm going to check on Sebs, he-"

John cuts me off. "Whoa. First, why do you think you should be going off to strangers bedrooms at night. Second...Sebs?"

Now it's my turn to roll my eyes. "Hey, Sebastian is really long and..." The smile teasing the corners of my mouth dissipates. I trail off, "It's night?" I demand, shocked.

The playful glint in his eyes fades, and he nods. "You've been out a while."

I shake my head, trying to clear it. "Where's mom?"

He frowns, as if he hadn't thought of her for a while. "She left this morning, she hasn't come back yet." He says.

I gape at him. "And you never thought to call her?" I exclaim disbelieving. That was a mistake. John hates being yelled at. His gaze darkens, but I don't have time to worry about him. I glance around frantically, is there not a single clock in this house?

"What time is it?" I ask him, fear mixing with my voice.

He glances down at his watch. "It's 9:47"

I shake my head stunned. I'm about to race back into my room to get my phone to call her, when I hear a key turn in the lock. We both turn to face the door as it opens. I tense with anticipation.

The moment I see a flash of red hair, I sprint towards the door, tackling my mom with a hug, and she stumbles back, chuckling. I lock my arms around her, and squeeze. I bury my face in her sweater. "Where were you? You said you just going across the street!" I pull away to look at her, also because she smells strange like eucalyptus...and something else.

My mom smiles at me. "I'm so sorry Clary, I just lost track of time. I walked in to get a couple items, and when I walked out, it was night." She shakes her head puzzled. "I don't know where the time went."

I raise my eyebrows and step back. "Mom, you were gone over twelve hours and you just...lost track of time?" My voice comes out harsher than meant it, and my Mom notices and gives me one of those warning looks only moms can give.

She cocks her head as if daring me to snap at her again. "Yes, I did." She lowers her voice. "I haven't told Sebastian about you yet, so-"

"I know." A voice cuts in from behind me, causing me to jump. We all turn to see Sebastian standing in the doorway to the kitchen, hands in his pockets leaning casually against the doorframe. "Jonathon told me." He says so casually I wonder if it phased him at all. My mom glances at Jonathon who is blowing his nose, appreciation written across her face. She opens her mouth to say something, probably to thank him, but I cut in.

"Mom you really scared me." I say.

She turns to me, apologetic. "I'm sorry sweetheart." She says sincerely. Then she turns to John. "Come, I need your help getting the groceries inside." He nods, and they head outside.

I turn to Sebastian to find him staring intently at me. Just staring. Not checking me out, or even judging me, just...staring. I offer a nervous laugh. "So, John told you about the whole...narcolepsy thing."

He looks away, turning his attention to the window. "Yes." Is all he says.

I look down, twiddling my thumbs. "I want you to know that I'm not-" I look up to find him watching me. "I'm not your responsibility or anything, my mom and John take care of me, not to mention my friends, so don't think it's your job to...I don't know, look after me or something, because It's not." I try to gauge his reaction, looking for...relief, appreciation, or something, but his expression is unreadable.

"Okay...thanks."

I nod once in acknowledgement, and turn to head to my room, but I stop, and turn around to face Sebastian again. "Thanks." I say.

He frowns in confusion. "For what?"

I smile. "For catching me, when I fell this morning."

He smiles, and dips his head towards me. "You're welcome."

I turn, and head to my room, but not to sleep. I've done enough of that.

I hoped you like this little chapter. I'll try to post once a week. And whoever wasn't confused when Clary passed out leave a comment, and I'll totally shout you out, if you're a writer I'll shout out your story too. Don't lie...I'll know. PM me any questions or crituques you have. Thanks a gazillion for reading, and until next week.

-Darkling Princess