"Have a great day at school, sweetie." Jocelyn waved at Clary from the front seat of her Toyota. "Don't forget to make a lot of new friends!"
"Yes, Mom." Clary replied, wishing her mother would stop treating her like a six year old. She was fifteen, even though she didn't look it.
Actually, she was a very nervous fifteen year old, awaiting the first day of school at her new school.
"It's not that intimidating."
A tall, skinny, dark-haired boy with old-fashioned glasses smiled down at her.
"What?" Clary stared at him nervously.
"I can see you're new," The boy's smile widened, "And pretty nervous. What's your name?"
"Clary." She paused. "Well, my name's Clarissa, but most people just call me Clary."
"Clary it is. I'm Simon, by the way." He had a very easy, friendly smile that set her nerves at ease. This was someone she could get along with.
"Oh!" He jumped suddenly.
"What?"
"Nothing, nothing." He was blushing furiously.
"Doesn't look like nothing." Clary gestured at his face.
"It's the cool kids." He mumbled, under his breath.
Clary followed his gaze to a group of kids getting out of a Porsche Cayenne. There was a tall, blond boy and two taller kids - a girl and a boy - with dark hair.
"Are they siblings?"
"The Lightwoods are brother and sister, and their parents adopted Jace Herondale."
Clary nodded. They didn't look particularly remarkable, so she couldn't quite understand why almost every person in the vicinity had stopped what they were doing to look at them.
"We'd better go." Simon grabbed her shoulder, shepherding her inside the school.
Clary allowed herself to be tugged away by her new friend, staring into a sea of unfamiliar faces.

"Ms. Fray?"
Clary's new class teacher, Mr. Starkweather, looked up.
"I believe we have a new student this term."
Clary, seated with Simon near the back of the class, flushed as the entire front row turned to stare at her. The blond boy from the morning was there, in the middle row, chomping on a piece of gum, talking to the Lightwoods. He, too, turned to glance at her, but only briefly.
"Why don't you introduce yourself, Ms. Fray?"
This was the part Clary dreaded. It was hard enough to speak in front of people you knew, but speaking in front of a crowd of strangers was a whole different kind of ballgame.
"Uh...I'd rather not."
"Don't be silly, Ms. Fray - it's a tradition here at the Institute for new students to introduce themselves." Mr. Starkweather gestured for her to come to the front of the class.
Her heart thumping, Clary obeyed.
"Umm...my name's Clarissa Fray, but you can call me...Clary. I like, um, drawing and anime. I kinda like drawing anime."
Her face flaming, Clary ducked her head and hurried back to her seat.
The blond boy smirked at her as she passed his table, a distinct look of interest in his strangely golden eyes that Clary hoped she'd imagined.
"That sucked." Clary muttered as she sat down.
Simon, absent-mindedly doodling on his desk, shook his head. "I thought it was sweet."
"What?"
He looked a bit uncomfortable under her gaze. "Well, all the other girls are, you know, self-confident and...they act like they're it. You're not like that." He concluded. "That's interesting."
"It is?" Clary's gaze strayed to the blond's table, where the Lightwood boy gave her a glance of such concentrated hostility that she was momentarily taken aback.
"It is." Simon replied, tucking his pen back into his pocket. "Mr. Starkweather says we should turn to page 44."
Clary sighed, her attention switching to geometry.

"Don't touch the pasta."
It was recess, and Simon was guiding her round the cafeteria.
"Why?" Clary was genuinely curious.
He shrugged. "No one eats the pasta. At least, no one eats pasta now after Sebastian Verlac puked in the pot last term."
"Oh...eww."
Clary let her gaze drift over the packed cafeteria until she spotted the blond - what was his name? Jake? Jason? Jace? Yes, Jace.
He sat at a table a little way away from the one Simon was making a beeline for, the Lightwoods and a couple of other kids around him. He was talking to a pretty blonde in a sky-blue jumper, and it wouldn't be too hard an assumption to make that they were a couple.
"Who's that?"
"The blonde girl with Herondale?" Simon stared at her over his cheese-and-tuna sandwich. "That's Kaelie. Kaelie Whitewillow. His girlfriend."
"Oh." Clary felt an unreasonable pang of disappointment.
"Very couple-y." Simon commented. "You should've seen them last term. Kaelie's father nearly had a fit when Mr. Starkweather complained about his daughter's 'conduct'."
"Oh." Clary repeated. She couldn't seem to tear her gaze from Jace's table.
"Hello? Anybody in there?" Simon passed a hand in front of Clary's face. "You're staring at Herondale, you know."
"No I'm not."
Simon shrugged, his attention back on his sandwich.
Clary's eyes found their way back to Jace's table, but this time he looked up and met her gaze.
Self-conscious, Clary looked away, but not before she saw the other's smile. It wasn't a nasty smile, or 'mean-kids' sort of smile. If anything, it looked sincere.
"Why's Herondale smiling at you?" Simon had a smudge of cheese on his cheek.
"I don't know." Clary flushed under his searching gaze.
"He's coming over here."
"He is?" Clary squeaked.
"Hey there." The blond, Jace, flashed a set of pearly-whites in her direction. "You're the new girl, aren't you?"
"So what if she is?" Simon snapped.
Jace ignored him. "There's a free seat back at my table - why don't you join us, Clarissa?"
"Umm...it's Clary." Clary felt like her brain had suddenly turned to mush.
"Clary, then." Jace's smile never wavered. "Come on and join us. Kaelie's dying to get to know you. Something about your jeans. Girl-talk."
That brought Clary back down to earth. He was only asking her to join his table because his girlfriend wanted to talk about her jeans.
Clary glanced down at her jeans. Paint-stained, battered and worn-away at the knees, they were as unimpressive as she was.
"Umm...I dunno."
"It's just lunch. You can always blame me later if you don't like the company." Jace flashed her a good-natured grin. "You can even bring your little friend along." He gestured at Simon, who glowered.
Clary had to agree. She followed Jace over to his table, one hand around Simon's wrist in case he decided to bolt.
"Here's Clarissa." Jace pushed her to the head of the table, near Kaelie.
Kaelie smiled prettily, motioning for Clary to sit beside her.
"So, Clarissa is it?"
"Clary."
"Clary." Kaelie's hands immediately went to her hair. "You have such pretty hair, Clary. So fiery."
"Er...thanks?"
Kaelie beamed. "Honestly, you're such a pretty little thing. Isn't she, Jace?" She elbowed her boyfriend, who grinned widely. "In fact, I'm having this party at my house tomorrow night, and it'd be amazing if you could come." Seeing Clary's dumbstruck expression, she sought to elaborate her statement. "It's just me and a bunch of my friends - nothing too fancy. Honestly, I was planning this and I thought - what an amazing way for Clary to make some new friends."
Clary blinked at this unexpected show of friendship.
"Yeah, I guess." She replied. "I guess I could come."
Kaelie beamed widely, while Jace gave her a sudden worried glance.

"I don't know, Clary." Simon sounded uncomfortable. "She's usually a major bitch."
"Maybe she's actually a nice person inside."
"Whatever." Simon adjusted his glasses. "All I'm saying is that she's - she's...sneaky." He finished lamely.
"Hmm." Clary replied, her attention elsewhere.

"Score!" Isabelle Lightwood grinned at Kaelie. "How naive can one person possibly be?"
Kaelie smirked. "Hey - I promised you I'd spice my party up."
"You better hope she doesn't drown in the pool." Alec commented drily.
"Oh no," Kaelie laughed. "You know I won't plan anything so dull. You guys would never forgive me. Remember what happened last time? Who was she - Sally? Shelly?"
Sebastian Verlac and Aline Penhallow exchanged knowing glances before dissolving into fits of giggles.
"I think that's mean, Kaelie." Jace's voice penetrated through the laughs being thrust around the table.
"Oh, you think." His girlfriend scoffed. "You do a lot of thinking, Jace. Tell me, does it ever pay off?"
"It will." He replied softly, looking away.