Thursday, May 31, 2018
Jace stepped out of his car, a large smile spreading across his face as the wind blew his hair around. The smell of the countryside was fresh, a welcomed change from the city smog he was used to inhaling all the time. Instead of gray skyscrapers and dirty sidewalks, he was now surrounded by green grass and tall trees.
"Jace!" Jon dropped his bag so that he could hug his best friend with a smile. Jace embraced his best friend with a wide smile of his own, looking over his shoulder for the person he knew would be with him.
"How was the drive?" Jace asked him when their hug ended and they had pulled away from each other.
"Good, Clary's around here somewhere," Jon said, looking over his shoulder for her before waving in a direction absentmindedly, not seeing her. "She just got in yesterday so we've still had quite a bit to catch up on, don't think there was a second of silence in the entire ride."
"As good as it is to see you, the person I really want to see is your sister."
"Course you do." Jon snorted, eyes once again looking for her. "We just got here and I can't imagine what she already got up to."
Jace turned away from him to look too, his eyes hungrily searching for a small girl with flaming hair and a smile he had not seen in person for far too long. The parking lot was full of cars and people, everyone finding their friends after a long school year away. He was lucky to live in the same city as Jon and therefore did not need to have a large reunion with him, he had seen him a little over a month ago. The two of them normally spent several days or nights together every month.
He also saw a lot of Alec and Izzy, who he had yet to see today, but he had seen them in March.
But Clary, Clary he hadn't seen since August and it was May 31 now which was far too long. So really, you couldn't blame him for almost giving himself whiplash every time he saw something remotely red.
"Oh, she found Izzy," Jon said, slinging his arm around Jace's shoulder and pointing the opposite way Jace had been looking. He saw the back of Izzy first, standing with her back to him and talking down to someone. The girl was smiling up at her, looking as cute and happy as always. "Wipe that look off your face, your feelings are showing."
"Shut up," Jace snapped, the smile on his face rather ruining the threat. Also, the fact that he didn't look away from Clary to deliver it.
Jace took off after the initial shock faded and Jon's laughter was loud as he chased after him. Clary looked up moments before he reached her, her eyes wide and bright before he enveloped her small frame in his arms.
Her arms wrapped around him tightly and he lifted her up in his arms, his smile buried in her hair as he breathed in her scent. She smelled like pomegranates and happiness.
"Hello," she said, smiling up at him after he let her slide back down to her feet.
She looked the same as when she left him, though her hair may have been a bit longer. Her skin was coated in the same dark freckles as always, her eyes just as round and bright and pretty, and her mouth as curved and full. She was barely tall enough to reach his heart which was fitting because she was the person who owned it.
"Hi." Jace reached out and took one of her long and soft curls in his fingers.
"Hello to you, too," Izzy said, smirking from where she leaned against Alec's car. "Want to feel my hair?"
"Of course," Jace said easily, stepping away from Clary to pull her into a hug, tugging on a section of her hair, too. "And Alec, how are you?" Jace asked, moving on to hug her brother and tug his hair. Alec swatted his hand away though he was smiling.
"I'd be better if it wasn't so fucking hot outside," Alec said grumpily, no real bite to his tone.
Jon laughed at his best friend's attitude, slinging his arm around Alec's broad shoulders. Jace pulled Clary into his side and looked down at her with a smile when her hand slammed onto his chest in an effort to keep her balance.
"Sorry, girl," Jace apologized.
"That's okay," she mumbled, snuggling into his side and wrapping her arms tightly around his stomach.
"Cold?" Izzy asked her, still smirking. "Cali that much warmer?"
"As a matter of a fact, yes," Clary said, making no move to back away from him, just as content to hold him as he was to hold her.
"Really? Bring enough blankets to keep warm at night or are you going to need Jace then too?"
Jace raised an eyebrow, curious to why she was pushing Clary now instead of him. He had had a crush on Clary since he was 12 and met her for the first time and Izzy had been pushing him to do something about it since she figured it out when she 14. But never had she teased Clary about it before, not like this.
"Holy shit," Alec said, rolling his eyes at his sister. "Chill."
"Just curious." Izzy shrugged, her smirk fading from her mouth slowly to be replaced with a genuine smile.
"I forgot what it was like to be surrounded by rich people," Clary said, untangling her arms from him and winding them around her best friend. "No tact at all."
"Sorry, girly." Izzy hugged her best friend back, rocking a little from side to side. "I forgot that you were normal and subtle."
"That's okay," Clary said before moving on to hug Alec and Jon, stretching up on her toes to wrap her arms around their necks. "You guys are worth it."
"Glad you think so, sister." Jon wrapped her up in a tight hug, same as Alec.
Clary fell back down on her feet before finding her way back to Jace and allowing her shoulder brushing his arm lightly. Jace tampered down the need to put his arm back around her because he wanted to touch her, and instead just leaned a little so he could feel her arm against his.
She was wearing a tank top and her shoulder reached below his sleeve so he could feel every inch of her soft skin against the hard muscles of his, a delectable contrast. She was always soft when they were hard.
Jace had met Jon when they were 11 during their first year at camp. Alec had been 12, and they had all become fast friends. They lived in a cabin together for a month and after that, there was no way they could stop being best friends. Alec was from upstate New York, only an hour from camp, but both Jon and him were from Brooklyn, three hours away from camp, two hours from Alec.
Clary, on the other hand, was 43 hours away from Brooklyn New York by car, a little under 7 hours by plane. Jace spent a lot of the school year each year on Google Maps pouring over the fastest ways to her, looking at pictures of where she lived like a full-on stalker.
Life was unfair that way, she got to spend every summer walking in the halls of his home and streets, being a New Yorker. On the other hand, Jace had been to her home only once over one Spring Break Jace's spring break matched up with Jon's. Clary always came for the summer while Jon went over Christmas break until basketball became too important to miss and he started going over spring break instead.
It had been the best Spring Break he ever had, and he had spent some on cruises or in fancy hotels in Italy, France, or Greece.
Clary lived with her mom and her mom's boyfriend out in California while Jon lived with their dad in Brooklyn, where both of them had been born seventeen years ago. They were twins, spending only their first year under the same roof before their mom left with Clary. It wasn't until Jon found a box of pictures under his dad's bed while working on a family history project that they discovered one another's existence. Valentine took Jon to California two days later to meet his mom and sister and every summer after, Clary had come. And since Jon came to camp every summer, Clary did too.
Camp Alicante was for the kids of rich mommy and daddys who didn't have the time nor the patience to watch their kids all summer. They got shipped off, but very few of the kids minded. For many, Jace included, they felt more at home in the clearing of a huge forest in Upstate New York than they ever had in their large Manors back home.
Clary, on the hand, was raised on a nice Vineyard with two parents who loved her and was surrounded by normal people with normal lives. In other words, Clary was kind and beautiful, something that was virtually unheard of at Camp Alicante. People always took a liking to her, she was so sweet and real, but the four of them had the luck to be closer to her than anyone else.
But Jace was selfish with his thoughts.
He dreamed of taking her on dates and kissing her in the rain, cuddling with her in his bed and bringing her to all the parties he was dragged to in the hopes he would manage to have fun. He dreamed of getting to tell her he loved her before they slept and then again when they woke up. But worse than that, he thought it too, all school year long while they talked, shooting each other texts and snap chats, catching up over the phone and face time before they went to bed. Jace had always been a ladies man, tall, athletic, and muscular with a handsome face and a thick wallet, but he hadn't even thought about going near another girl since before last summer.
If he was being honest with himself, he would say he was in love with her.
But he couldn't afford to be honest.
So instead he just pretended that all he did was really really like her and that it wouldn't break his heart if she didn't at least somewhat like him back.
"Did any of you guys check in yet?" Jon asked them, looking over at the registration tent.
Jace shook his head but Izzy and Alec nodded.
"We've been here for at least twenty minutes," Alec told them. "We would have gone over already but they said none of you had checked in."
"How sweet." Jon pinched Alec's cheek, dancing away from the hand Alec raised to swat him away. "Then let's go, camps not going to set itself up."
Jace threw his backpack on before picking up his large duffle bag and the garbage bag with his sheets and pillow in it. Clary was doing the same as him, though she had another smaller bag on her shoulder.
"Give me one of those," Jace told her, holding out his hand.
"Jace," she started protesting before sighing at the look on his face. The only say she had was which bag she was going to cough up. She gave him the smaller bag and he carried it by the handles, taking care to keep it from dragging on the ground.
It only took a few minutes to get them all checked in before they headed to the pathway that led them into Camp. Light poles were placed along the edges because even though it was only midday, the forest was so dense at some parts it would have been hard to see without them.
Five minutes later they were standing on the other side, staring out at their home for the entire summer. Instead of only spending one month here like they did when they were campers, they spent two months here as activity counselors. It would be their second year working at camp instead of coming as campers. They made decent money, not that any of them needed it anyway. Jon, Jace, and Clary worked as lifeguards at the pool while Alec drove boats and Izzy floated where ever she was needed.
"Damn," Jon muttered, stopping at the top of the small hill and looking out at the entire camp tucked away in the large clearing. "It feels good to be back."
"You think they finally installed AC?" Izzy asked, her nose scrunching up at the thought of their hot cabins. She had two large suitcases with her, one in each hand. She wasn't one to rough it.
"Not a chance, Iz," Clary said, slinging her arm around her best friend. Clary was the first person in their lives to touch them casually all the time and when she realized just how much it meant to them all, she did it at every opportunity. "Now let's go, I really don't want a top bunk, we'll never stay cool."
"Amen," Jon said in agreement and they started down the hill.
Lake Lynn bordered them to their left, spanning on for miles with its own set of rocks for jumping, sand for beaching, and inflatables for playing. On occasion, the boys left their stands at the pool to watch the lake instead.
Three large buildings bordered them on the right. Besides the field house, the one in the middle and on the left were the only buildings on campus that were air-conditioned. From left to right, there was the dining hall, the Club House, and the Rec Center. The Club House was a very tall building that had several lecture hall esq rooms that were used for movie nights and meetings, a computer lab, several lounges, offices for directors, and a fifth-floor ballroom for skate nights and dances. Before the field house was built, the Rec Center was the only place to play inside. It was an old white farmhouse with large doors and cement floors. There was a half basketball court that didn't get a whole lot of use anymore though the octaball (ga-ga ball) set up was always in use. In the back, there was a large art-room that Clary sometimes got relieved of being pool-side to assist Brynn, the old art lady who adored Clary.
Between his seventh and eighth grade year, the camp had built the Field House in the back of the clearing. It was huge, with two turf football fields and three indoor basketball courts. There was a second floor over the racquetball, tennis, and other racquet sports that housed the fitness center which was filled with treadmills, ellipticals, and lifting equipment.
There were three outdoor basketball courts, several sand volleyball pits, tennis courts, and a baseball diamond spread out in the clearing. A large pool with an even large water slide sat near the two circles of cabins, the girl circle and the boy circle. That was where they stayed with their senior and junior counselors back when they were campers. Now they stayed at the very back of camp where there were five mismatched cabins in a line. The only thing past the cabins was the fire pit which more like a stadium because of how large it was.
Jace envied the counselors who only had to walk to the circles, something he took advantage of when he was a camper. It was a hike to get to the back.
"I take it back," Jon panted when he set his bag down on his bunk. "Doesn't feel good to be here anymore."
"That out of shape?" Jace teased his friend, opening the garbage bag and locating his sheet to cover the mattress with.
"Coach said I had to work out when I got here, nothing before that," Jon sank to the floor and started going through his own bag.
"We running tomorrow then?" Jace asked, carefully tucking his sheet around the corners of his mattress and smoothing out the wrinkles it caused. Jace was a bit of a neat freak, living in the same space as Jon often drove him nuts, not to mention the other fifty men he shared the cabin with.
The girls split up into the much smaller cabins while the boys squeezed into the large cabin with at least twenty-five bunks. The three of them snagged three bunks in the very back corner, shifting them so that they could make their own little room. Everyone did it and last year they had made the mistake of not bringing extra sheets to make the walls and had to run to the Walmart in town to buy some. This year they had come prepared and with a plan.
Two new counselors Bat and Jordan, had been hovering around the beds looking lose when they reached them. The three of them took pity on the two and showed them the ropes. They pushed the bunks so that two of them made a square with the walls and the other one sat against one of the walls. They left a gap between the two wall beds that was just big enough for them to walk through. Jon snagged one of the box fans and one of the oscillating ones from the main part to put in their 'room' so that they blew directly on them. Jace, Jon, and Alec snagged the three lower beds while Jordan and Bat climbed into the lofted ones of the wall beds.
"You got an extra bunk?"
Jace turned to see Julian leaning between the beds with his bags and watching them all with a smile. He was a year younger than them and had been a camper last year instead of a counselor. Jace was happy to have him back all the time now, he was a cool kid.
"Julian!" Jon got to him first, pulling him in for a hug. "Yeah, the one right above me."
Jace and Alec both hugged him and introduced him to their other roommates before he started emptying his own belongings.
"This is cool," Julian said, looking around their little space. "Sebastian was trying to do this but doesn't have a corner unit so it's rather pathetic."
"It's also Sebastian," Jon pointed out, laying on his now made bed. "What a prick."
Jace laughed from where he kneeled next to his bed as he got everything in order. They had hung the sheets from the tall posts of the bed and tacked them to bottom so they wouldn't blow from the air the fans created. The sheets were thick enough that they weren't see through and despite the situation, Jace was pretty content with what they had done.
He plugged his extension cord/surge protector into the wall and used a command strip to stick it on to the post so that Jordan's cords could reach it while he laid in bed. There wasn't really a need for their phones or laptops during the days but they were nice to have on their rare early nights. Jace's phone had been dead for three days once last year and he hadn't even noticed and never would have except for he had about twenty missed calls from his dad and several angry voice messages.
"Damn, Herondale," Julian whistled from his now made bunk. "You really thought of everything, huh?"
"Last year we had come quite unprepared and had to make a run to Walmart, I just brought everything back."
"I'm just grateful I couldn't find a bed near my friends, their space isn't nearly as cool as this." Julian laid his head on his pillow and sighed loudly in content. Jace snorted at the kid and collapsed on his own bed.
It was 1:17 now and they were supposed to meet at the field at 2:00 for their first meeting with Luke. He debated between resting after the long travel day or going to see Clary and Izzy but he didn't want to bother them before they were ready. He opted for setting an alarm for ten till and closing his eyes, the familiar noises from the fan and the talking from the rest of the cabin causing him to doze in out of consciousness for about twenty minutes before Clary and Izzy walked into their room.
Thank God that they didn't have the same no boys and girls in the same cabin policy they had when they were campers.
"How many boys got the pleasure of you two walking in on them before you found ours?" Jon asked with a smirk as Izzy sat down on Alec's bed by his feet. Clary slid into Jace's bed, laying down so that her back was against his front. They were spooning. He was surprised but not complaining as he wrapped her small body in his large arms and shared his pillow with her.
"Just a couple." Clary smiled over at her brother before closing her eyes and letting out a quiet sigh that made him smile. She was so freaking cute.
"We might have just seen Sebastian naked," Izzy confessed, biting back her smile. "But God I hope that wasn't him."
Laughter morphed Clary's resting face as they both roared with laughter, joking about something they didn't seem in a hurry to let them in on.
"Not worth the hype?" Julian asked, dipping his head over the side so he could see Clary. She stood up, making Jace frown at the loss of her warmth, yelling his name and throwing her small arms around him in a hug. She had to stand on her very tippy toes but that didn't stop her.
She was so fucking cute.
And my God, that ass. He hadn't gotten a good enough look of it in her cut off jean shorts, but now he didn't think he'd ever be able to look away. They had ridden up a little and he could see her legitimate cheeks. It was round and perky and hanging out of her shorts as she stretched her perfect legs. Jace knew from several overheard conversations that he wasn't the only one who appreciated her curves and as much as he didn't want to hear it, he couldn't blame them for what they were thinking.
She was so fucking hot.
And they had as much as right as him to look at her ass, which none at all.
"Not at all." Izzy shook her head at Julian's question. "I'm no stranger to seeing soft dicks and that's got to be one of the smallest I've ever seen."
"Oh," Jon said as leaned out of his own bed so that he could point properly. "Bat and Jordan, this is my sister Clary and that's Alec's sister Izzy."
The girls both smiled and waved at them, exchanging a couple words that were completely lost on Jace because he was too busy staring at Clary.
Jace remained lost as Clary slid back into his arms and pressed that beautiful ass back into him as she snuggled into him. Her hand curled around his hand that was splayed out on her tight stomach while the other one slid under her cheek. She really was precious.
"I've missed you," she told him quietly, looking back a little so that she could see his face.
He smiled at her, squeezing her more tightly to him. "I've missed you, too, sunshine."
She grinned at the nickname, shutting her eyelids so that he couldn't see her brilliant green eyes. And so that she couldn't see the way his whole face revealed just how smitten he was with her as he watched her. Sometimes it was impossible for him to hide how he felt about her.
They talked every day during the school year and often during the school day. His friends back home teased him mercilessly for the way his face transformed when he opened her messages or snapchats. It got worse when they realized she was Jon's twin sister, someone they all saw several times a month because of how often Jon and him hung out. They didn't know a whole lot about her, just that she lived in California, was a gorgeous redhead, and that she held Jace's affection since they were 12 and he met her for the first time.
Almost all of them had never met her and Jace knew that if they ever saw the way he acted around her he would never hear the end of it. He also knew that he wouldn't care one bit.
His feelings for Clary were completely out of his control and that was something he had come to peace with a while ago.
The annoying beeps of his alarm broke their moment several minutes later and the eight of them got to their feet to walk to the field for their first meeting. All of the cabin counselors were spending the day together doing bonding exercises and things while the rest of them started getting the camp fit for people. They all got a small break for dinner at the dining hall where they all sat together with the pizza that Luke had ordered for them because the kitchen staff wasn't ready to cook for people yet.
Their day ended at the fire pit as they all sat around together, both activity counselors and camp counselors. Besides a ten minute period where he had sat with his cousin and his best friend who worked as camp counselors between their school years away at college, he spent the entire time leaning back between Clary's legs as she sat on the bench above him.
It was a good start to what he was sure would be an even better summer.