Hey! So, here's chapter two. I don't really have a set schedule for updates since my school work is a bit unpredictable and I also have to juggle babysitting, work, dance, drama club, leading GSA (Gay Straight Alliance), and soon to be possibly joining Scholastic Bowl and being the head wrestling statistician. So as you can see I am really really really busy this school year, but I'll try to write a little bit each day and update at least once a week. :) Without further ado, here's chapter 2! :D

Clary's POV

I strolled into art and habitually gathered my supplies and grabbed a blank canvas from the backroom before sitting down to begin on a new painting. I was eleven projects ahead of our class, so Mrs. Learnard had simply told me to do my own thing for awhile until everyone else had caught up.

"Hey." Izzie popped up beside me, spinning her chair around with amusement before using her heels to stop her movement and grinning at me. "How's your day been?"

"Aside from this total asshat in my study hall? Not too bad. Dierksmeyer says if I tutor one of his football players, than I can earn credits. So, over all, pretty good." I positioned all of my paintbrushes in descending order according to their size and shape as I spoke.

"Ooh, I wouldn't mind assisting, if you know what I mean." Isabelle winked playfully at me and started working on a water color pencil project involving faceless beauties in extravagant clothing and dramatic positioning.

"Izzie, give yourself some credit. At least go for the intelligent football players." I scolded her lightly as I started arranging paint blobs on my pallet neatly.

"As long as they're hot, I could care less what they're grades are. Smarts are just an added bonus." She informed me and I chuckled at her.

Unwinding my ear buds from my pocket, I drowned out the noise of our classes' chatter and lost myself in the music. I chose one song at random and placed it on repeat as I usually did to keep a constant mood for my artwork.

You would not believe your eyes

If ten million fireflies

Lit up the world as I fell asleep

'Cause they'd fill the open air

And leave teardrops everywhere

You'd thing me rude

But I would just stand and stare

I let my hand flow freely, allowing the lyrics to paint an identical image to what was displayed in my mind. As the song replayed over and over, I felt myself drifting to that point only artists could reach when they allow themselves to become a part of their work and poured all of their being into the piece.

I'd like to make myself believe

That planet Earth turns slowly

It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep

Because my dreams are bursting at the seams

I felt Izzie lightly shake my shoulder and I ripped out my headphones, turning to face her. Her desk was neatly cleared off and everyone else was rushing out the door. "Better hurry up."

I nodded a silent thanks and paused the music as I gathered the supplies, cleaning off used brushes and smeared palettes. After I had wiped down the table I looked at my canvas for the first time since I had started and blinked in surprise.

The background was a grim mixture of dark blues and purples with a hint of black. Small yellow and white orbs were sprinkled across it, omitting their own glowing light and I realized they were dozens of fireflies swarming around the main view point of the picture. It was the only part I still had to add details to, but the idea of it was clear.

A pale girl seemed to almost float in the night sky as she danced carelessly around in a shimmering green dress with a flowing mane of flames, her hand pulling at another figure. The second figure remained planted on the ground. His silhouette hinted at a lean figure who, even secured on the ground, was much taller than his partner. The only hint at his identity was a splash of golden curls framing a faceless naturally bronzed body.

I immediately recognized him as Jace and my eyes grew huge. Before I could scrutinize it any further, I snatched both the canvas and my stand and replaced them in the storage room once again. Mrs. Learnard jotted down a pass for me and I politely thanked her before leisurely walking to my locker at the opposite end of the school.

"Pretty, please?" I could hear a nasally voice plead sweetly and resisted the urge to simultaneously puke and tear out my eardrums. I tilted my head slightly as I switched out all of my belongings for a calculator, pencil bag, and my thick Pre-Calculus textbook. I could barely make out the skimpy cheerleading uniform of Kaelie Pritchett as she ran her hand flirtatiously up a guy's thigh and slipped it into his pocket with a fake innocence painted on her face.

"You're gonna make us late to class." He protested, a low groan rising in his throat as her hand continued to venture inside the zipper of his pants. I quickly recognized his voice as the last person I possibly wanted to be caught in a nearly deserted hallway with right now.

I nearly dropped my blue pencil bag as my mind processed what she was doing, in a rather public place nonetheless. I caught it before it dropped to the ground, but the zipper made a metallic pang against my open locker and I could sense both of their heads jerking up to see what the commotion was. Out of my peripheral, I could see Kaelie wrap her other arm around Jace's neck and attach herself to him as if they were Siamese twins.

"You never let me finish." She pouted and I could just imagine her overly dramatic protruding bottom lip as she batted thickly coated eyelashes at him in hopes of persuading his lack of interest.

"Not right now, Kaelie." He insisted again with more force and he pushed her away as he fixed his pants and began striding down the hall. I realized a little too late that he was going to pass me and I promptly shut my locker, holding my books tight against my chest.

I swiveled around in time to catch him look me up and down slowly before winking at me with that damn crooked grin. I refused to fangirl over his magnificence and instead rolled my eyes as we walked together briefly before turning opposite directions. I didn't bother to see how Kaelie had reacted to her most likely never before heard of rejection, instead settling for hearing her tantrum as she smacked a locker and stamped her foot loudly.

I rolled into class several minutes late and handed Miss Brooks the small slip of paper, of which she barely glanced at before nodding, and slipped into my desk in the far back corner. I had already finished all of the assignments for this week, so I slouched down in my seat and prepared myself mentally to fight boredom for the next hour. Unwanted thoughts invaded my mind and I tried to ignore them by reading motivational posters on the walls or tapping a beat with my pencil on the desktop as the teacher droned on, but eventually they stole control of my thought process and I caved.

I couldn't quite comprehend why someone I had only known for a day, half a day if we were being technical, could make my skin crawl so easily. He hadn't even done much to personally piss me off, aside from having terrible aim, and yet he had managed to climb the ladder, knocking off competition as he went, until he sat happily at the top of my shit list.

All I knew is that no matter how gorgeous and flawless he appeared no amount of god like looks could counteract that much of an egotistical jerk. I was sure of one thing, however. I would die happy if I never had to spend another waking moment of my life in his unwanted presence.

Clary's POV

"Alright, ladies, gather in!" Our sixty two year old physical education teacher hollered across the gymnasium and everyone slowly trickled out of the locker room and off of the bleachers until we formed a lopsided circle around her. Her real name was Mrs. Anderson, but everyone called her Juice, though no one seemed to know where the odd nickname had been coined. She was even shorter than me and had spiky light brown hair sprinkled with grey as well as laugh lines and a slowly aging face. I had never seen her in anything but sweat suits and gym shorts in the three years I had attended Alicante High.

"I know it's a new school year and everything, so everyone is still getting into the swing of things, but Coach Glosser and I decided an incentive might help. You will be facing off against the boys in a few rounds of dodge ball. The final victor of each round will be allowed one free day to do whatever they like." As Juice continued her rant, an idea played out in my mind. I wasn't usually one for playing dodge ball, but if there was one thing I hated, it was losing.

Everyone split off into their designated side of the room, lining up on the edges of the basketball court. I took my place in the dead center of the white line with a few of my other peers, though most of the girls pressed themselves against the padded walls pathetically. I rolled my eyes at their lack of participation and leaned forward, prepared for the whistle. As I waited for Glosser to lift the small plastic object to his mouth, I sized up my opponents with a hint of satisfaction.

A large majority of the male population in this period was pretty average in the fact that they weren't overly fit, or athletic for that matter. There were however, several boys on football and baseball. Thankfully most of them appeared to be underclassmen, so I didn't have to worry about them as much. I quickly recognized the faces of Sebastian Verlac, Jonathan Morgenstern, Magnus Bane, and Alec Lightwood. Alec caught my eye as I passed over the group and we both smiled and gave a small wave.

It was obvious that Isabelle was his sibling and most people even thought they were twins. Like his sister, his hair was straight and dark as night, his skin a smooth creamy complexion, and he stood at least six feet tall, but whereas Izzie had black eyes, his were a piercing blue. We hadn't talked a whole lot since she had introduced us, but he seemed nice, if not a bit more reserved than his social butterfly of a sister.

Alec started laughing and turned to look at someone and I shifted my eyes; curious as to whom he was talking to and groaned loudly, causing the girls to give me strange looks. Jace was hunched over beside him, laughing as well, but he hadn't seemed to notice me yet. I took a second to memorize what his face looked like with an honest smile rather than his signature smirk and couldn't help but melt a little inside. His eyes squinting slightly and a broad smile lit up his normally serious face, framed by adorably quirky dimples.

The whistle suddenly blew and I through myself forward before I could comprehend what my feet were doing. I reached the center of the room in a matter of seconds and realized I was the first one. I quickly snatched up two dodge balls in my hands, throwing one at a boy who wasn't paying a lick of attention and he glared at me before going to sit down on the bleachers. I used the other one to defend myself as I rolled the balls to our team with the help of a few other girls.

The boys seemed astonished at first, seeing as normally they dominated in this game, but they recovered quickly and charged forward to grab the remainder of the rubber balls. I spent the next few minutes stealthily dodging unexpected throws and tagging out a large portion of the boys team with Mia at my side and two other girls I recognized off the soccer team.

Finally only eight people remained; a terrified preppy girl named Katelynn, Mai, and me against Alec, Sebastian, Jace, and three other boys I didn't know. Sebastian chucked a ball at my head, which I quickly dropped to the ground to avoid as I threw a poorly aimed one in his general direction. I could hear the ball smack against the wall behind me and I scooped it up as it bounced off my leg. I scanned the room and saw I had gotten out a blonde haired boy who seemed to be pouting and I grinned at his shame of being taken out by a girl.

"Want me to create a diversion?" Mia whispered beside me, a ball raised in front of her threateningly and I shook my head slightly.

"Not yet, wait until I tell you to." She nodded and snatched up another ball from the far corner, easily avoiding Alec's attempt to get her out.

A ball whizzed at me, making contact against my shoulder and flying into the air. I jumped up to catch it, counteracting the hit, as another ball was thrown and I spread my legs midflight, narrowly missing being hit again. I immediately hurled the ball I had caught, getting out a short quiet kid as another boy walked off, apparently the one who I had caught his ball. Katelynn screamed as Jace chucked a ball at her, hitting her in the hip and she happily ran off the court to the protection of her friends.

Finally only five of us remained and we all seemed to take a moment to gather more ammunition. I looked at Mia, nodding as I picked up two balls and clenched them in my hands. "Now!"

She ran to the center of the room dropping all three of her balls and the boys seemed to go crazy. Each one of them hurled their weapons at her, leaving Mia only capable of bracing herself as they bounced off of her. At the same time I easily took out Sebastian and Alec, seeing as they were too focused on Mia. Alec laughed, seeming to have realized our plan and winked at me before taking a seat between Magnus and Ryan on the bench. Sebastian on the other hand, looked furious and I winked at him as I moved to grab more ammo.

"No boundaries!" Juice yelled, meaning we had the entire court to move. I backed up slightly, allowing more space to separate myself from Jace and we slowly started circling each other.

"Just you and me, Little Red. I gotta say, I wasn't expecting that out of you." He spoke, trying to intimidate me as our circle slowly decreased in size and I just winked at his overly developed self confidence.

"That's where you went wrong." I muttered as I flung one ball at his head, though he dodged it as he aimed one at my legs and I side stepped it. He threw another and I instinctively dropped my own to catch it. The ball hit me with a great force, causing me to stubble back slightly on impact, but I braced myself and pressed my fingernails into its rubber covering.

"I win." I smiled victoriously at his dumbfounded face and winked before blowing him a kiss and running over to Mia to celebrate.

The second game didn't go nearly as well as the first, since I had sacrificed myself shortly into it so that Mia would have a better chance of winning by jumping in front of a ball aiming for her back. She made it to the top six, but Jonathan had snuck in a hit to her side unexpectedly. She joined me at the top of the bleachers in the middle of the bench, where we had the best view of the game. Sebastian and Jace were the final two and the game dragged on until Sebastian finally tripped over a ball, leaving himself open to Jace's speeding ball.

I was determined to win twice in the final round, simply to have one over on Jace, but fate seemed to have something else in mind. I got both Magnus and a kid named Kyle, who was in my History class, out with the same hit and I grinned triumphantly, only to be struck by another ball on the ass. I spun around confused only to find Jace smirking at me with a knowing glint in his eyes and I knew he had done it on purpose. I flipped him off as I walked off the court, only to watch as a ball slammed into the side of his face.

I laughed so hard I almost had to wipe tears out of my eyes as I took my place above everyone else. To my surprise, Jace took the stairs two at a time with Alec slowly trailing behind until he plopped down next to me. "So, I think it's safe to say now that your win was just an unfortunate case of beginners luck."

"As if," I argued while still having my eyes glued to the game below. "You couldn't land a shot if your life depended on it."

"I happen to think I have excellent aim, thank you very much, and so does that ball." I rolled my eyes at his very pointed suggestion and refused to turn my head in his direction, though I'm sure he was making some sexual innuendo suggestion with his perfectly arched eyebrows or that damn smirk.

Instead I opted to refuse him a chance to rile up my emotions and leaned against the bleacher behind me to see Alec's angelic face. "Remind me again why you choose to surround yourself with such an… unfortunate choice of friends?"

Alec threw his head back to laugh and Jace shot him a death glare, causing Alec to stop midlaughter and form a small grin. "You know, I don't quite know either."

Before Jace could whip up a comeback Glosser's whistle reached a screeching octave that caused my nose to scrunch up and my hands to fly up to cover my poor ringing ears, signaling it was time to return to the locker rooms ad change before the end of class.

Alec shot out of his seat and was halfway down the stairs before I had batted an eye and I followed after him at a much slower pace. By the time I had reached the bottom step I felt smooth skin rub against my shoulder and I turned to find Jace impatiently slipping by me. I rolled my eyes at his apparent lack of patience, but stopped halfway through as I realized he was shirtless. I caught a brief glance of his abdomen, which was as disgustingly perfectly sculpted as I had imagined, and felt a faint blush color my cheeks uncontrollably before I scolded myself for reacting so easily.

I quickened my pace to avoid standing their staring at him like a sappy love struck girl, but caught his knowing smirk before I could look away fast enough. I felt my cheeks heat up even more and the red complexion spread down to my chest and across the back of my neck.

Mia waited for me at the entrance of the locker room, already dressed having probably beat the rush, with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. Being my best friend, she knew not to ask what had just happened, but danced herself around the question instead. "He's cute."

"Yeah, cute and a royal pain in my ass." I disagreed with the slight shake of my head as I stripped out of my uniform and into my regular clothes.

"He's of royal blood, then? I always wanted my own Prince Charming." She snickered, waggling her eyebrows at me as I slipped on my vans.

"That boy is anything but charming, honey, and you already have a 'Prince Charming'. Jordan, name ring a bell?" I stuffed everything into my locker and slammed the door shut.

"Ah, but you don't." She quipped and I groaned loudly, hitting my head on my locker once in frustration and she chuckled again behind me as we exited the room last.

"You love me." She claimed for the second time this morning and I wondered if she knew just how true it must be for me not to strangle her right now.

Ta da! The next chapter, or at least the first portion, will still be the first day of the story, but I really feel it's important to get a basic layout so everyone knows what's going on before I move on. If you can't tell I like to use a lot of adjective and fancy phrasing to make the sentences prettier. Anyway, most of my chapter should be around 2,500- 3,000 words, but I always make exceptions. I hope you all love this story and I swear it's going to get really interesting soon. I would love you forever if you all would pretty please write me reviews telling me what you like/dislike and what you want/ think will happen. Remember reviews equal happy ThatHippieChick, and if I'm happy then I'm probably going to be in a better mood to write. Plus I hate disappointing people.