Clary woke up early this morning. She was especially nervous. Her and Jonathan would be visiting the Institute today. They were to start training to become shadowhunters. Her mom had explained that they were to train with the other three children that lived at the Institute. There was Alexander and Isabelle Lightwood, there parents had been close to her mother when they were younger. And her father. She reminded herself. Her and Jonathan's father, Valentine Morgenstern, had died in a war. The same war that Stephen an Celine Herondale had died in. That brings me to the next resident of the Institute. Jace Herondale. He was born days before his parents had been killed.

I am so nervous to meet these new people I can barely even move. The only people I had very known my entire lives have been Luke, Jon, and my mom. I have never played with other kids or so much as known other kids names. Jon will probably become good friends with them because her is all around their age. I am the youngest of the bunch. Always the loner.

But maybe things will change now. Maybe I will actually have...friends.

I wonder what these people will look like. Hmmmmm. I wonder if they will be tall or short. What color hair will they have. Ooohh what color eyes. I love eyes. My eyes are green. My brother's are almost black. And I have fiery red hair, or at least that's the color my mom says it is. My brothers hair is almost white. We have very rare features.

Another reason why I completely suck at making friends is my utter lack of self confidence. It is practically unexistant. While my brother is just so good at making friends. Everybody notices him instead of me.

"Clary, Earth to Clare-Bear."

"What do you want Jon?"

"You have been staring at the ceiling for like 20 minutes."

"Oh. Must have been lost in thought."

"Be ready to leave in five minutes."

Wait. What. Oh dang. Five minutes. People. Institute. Loner. Outshined. People.

Five minutes later , Jon and I were in the car. Going to the Institute. To see people. Different people. People I don't know. People that might make fun of me. My height. My hair. My eyes. My clothes. My clumsiness. Loner.

As we passed through the city, I stared out of the window in awe. The only things I have seen New York City are the alleys behind our apartment, and the block buildings on our street. I saw all of the sky scrapers in the distance. It was beautiful. Industrial, but beautiful. The glass panes reflecting the sun light. I was almost calm. I had almost forgotten about the terrifying feat ahead of me. Almost.

"Clary, come on, we're here."

"Mom, do I have to go in?"

"Sorry Clary, I know how you feel about meeting new people. But unless you wan to stay on the street for the next month while I am in Idris, I don't think you have a choice."

"I know. I'm just nervous. They're all older than me."

"Don't worry Clary, if they give you any trouble, I will kick their butts into next year."

"Thanks, Jon."

"Of course you're my little sister. And if anybody wants to hurt you, they go through me first."

"Ok kids, grad your suitcases out of the truck, it's time to meet Robert, Maryse, Alec, Isabelle, and Jace."

"Okay Mom," Jon and I said in sink.

My suitcase was gold. My favorite color. Almost everything I owned was gold. My stele was gold. I owned gold pants. I owned gold shirts. I owned gold skirts. I owned gold paints. I owned gold shoes. I owned gold blankets. I owned gold dressers. I owned gold jewelry. I owned gold everything.

Jon's suit case was just a mash of colors. He could never decide on anything. I mean anything. He couldn't decide what to wear. He couldn't decide what color to paint he room. Who his best friend was. What to eat for breakfast. The only thing that his mind was always set in was protecting me. That's all he ever cared about. He would let me sleep in his room if I got scared. He would follow me around at school like my personal body guard. Sometimes it got a little annoying though.

As we approached the Institute, a man stepped out with three children. The man was fairly tall, with jet black hair and unique blue eyes. The tallest child had dark black hair and blue eyes, just like the man. I assumed that they were father and son. Robert and...Alexander. The girl standing by Alexander was pretty tall, with dark black, long, long hair and charcoal eyes. Almost like Jon's. I assumed that this was Isabelle. Alexander's sister. Next was a boy, he had golden, blonde hair. But that's not what got me, it was his eyes, as I said before, I love eyes. They were golden. Not yellow, but a gold. They were fairly interesting. He was fairly tall. He also had quite a few scars, for someone so young. He must train a lot. He was also standing away from the group. I wonder why?

"Robert, these are my children. Clarissa and Jonathan."

"Nice to meet you Clarissa, Jonathan. Theses are my children, Alexander, Isabelle, and Jace. Kids, say hello."

"Hello, Clarissa, Jonathan. My name is Alexander, but I prefer Alec. It is very nice to meet you."

Alec said this much as if he had rehearsed it. He also looked fairly bored as he said it. I had a sudden feeling of loathing towards him.

"Hello my name is Jace, welcome. It is very nice to meet new kids that seem interesting, unlike these two."

"Jace, what the heck. That was so rude." said Alec.

"What? It's the truth."

"Whatever."

I was getting tired of this bickering.

"Can you two just shut up, I want to meet Isabelle. I would feel very bad if I hadn't met the only other person here. The only one that is a girl anyways."

"Okay, hello, I am Isabelle, but I prefer Izzy or Iz. And Clarissa, I think that we are going to be the best of friends."

She then came forwards and looped her arm threw mine. She dragged me after he into the house.

"Oh, and Izzy," I said, "please call me Clary."

I figured that this wasn't going to be as bad as I thought. Maybe I would make a few friends.