A/N: So... don't be mad! (hides from tomatoes being thrown) I had this chapter written for quite a while, but my loverly beta was not available for the longest time. Atimahs is so mean... Anyway here it is! Oh, and some people asked me why I didn't make Maia biracial...well I kinda forgot...so yeah... whatver
Disclaimer: I'm not Cassie Clare. Damn it!
Clothes were flying everywhere from across the dorm room as Clary just watched in amusement from the safety of her bed. Her roommate was in her closet, and periodically felt the need to throw her clothing out of the closet when she deemed it unfit to wear that day. Clary heard muttering and complaining coming from the other girl. Clary was amazed that there were any more clothes for her roommate to throw, yet they just kept coming. She had been at Winchester two days, and she still didn't know her roommates name, but one thing she learned very quickly was that the other girl had a lot of clothes. You could make a second Mount Rushmore with the piles of clothes this girl had on the closet floor alone.
The craziness ensued for another few minutes before Clary's roommate's cell phone rang. Suddenly, the dark-haired girl came bounding into the room, scooped up the phone, and put the call on speaker, oblivious to Clary.
"Heyyyyyy Kaelie!" Her roommate screeched into the receiver.
"Aline! Hey girl, hey!" Clay finally learned her roommate's name. Not that it would help her connect with the girl at all.
"So Kaelie, did you hear about me and Wayland? Haw-tie!" Clary didn't really want to hear Aline, as she was now known as, go on about some guy, so she quietly grabbed her bag and made towards the door.
She made her way out and could hear Kaelie squeal something along the lines of "Break me off a piece of that!' Clary just rolled her eyes and shut the door behind her.
She left her building and meandered around campus. She was starting to learn how to distinguish one stone building from another, yet the faces of the actual students were still all just a blur. She wasn't even sure if she planned on getting to know anyone well enough to pick him or her out from a crowd anyway. She made friends, or at least acquaintances, with the Lightwood's and Maia from lunch the other day, but even that was strictly accidental.
Clary was still unsure of how she felt about that. Normally the conversations at lunch yesterday would have been way out of her comfort zone with anyone other than Simon, but something about Isabelle's welcoming smile and Maia's inquisitive nature made Clary feel alright about it.
Not that she was making friends. She assured herself that would just be silly. Clary Fray didn't make friends. She knew people, but she didn't make friends. For as long as she could remember, that was just how she was. She was comfortable with being an introvert and she intended to remain one.
Thinking about that made her miss Simon even more than she already was. They had been attached at the hip for so long, and Clary was surprised they didn't have to be surgically detached. No one got her the way Simon did, and she couldn't imagine anyone ever replacing him. It had been too long for her to go without seeing him. Clary even thought she was starting to see things. She kept imaging the dark brown flecked with light in his hair. She could picture his well-worn brown converse.
Sure enough, her subconscious was drawing him up right there in front of her. Same glasses she had been urging him to get rid of since they were 12. Same "Proud 2 B Gamer" t-shirt she bought him for his birthday last year. Even the same freckly skin and eyes. As the boy approached, Clary was worried her imagination was going crazy this time. She missed him so much that her mind had conjured up a fake Simon to appease her.
Her eyes followed the boy until he was right in front of her, and before she knew it she was crushed in the arms of a very solid, very real, Simon Lewis.
"Wha-what? Simon? What are you doing here?" Clary stammered. The boy she ran into- she still didn't believe it was Simon- took her by the elbow and moved her through a bed of dry pine needles to the nearest bench. Clary felt like some joke was being played on her and couldn't do anything bud fidget around with her hands in her lap.
He scrunched up his nose in laughter like he always had done when Clary was being irrational. "I knew you weren't getting my emails! I just enrolled also! It's been a long time coming. My mom is the dean. Actually, she has been for about nine years. Come on, Clary. You knew that."
Clary thought long and hard about the millions of times she'd talked to Simon. They shared everything. They would hunker down in her den with a movie and popcorn, but never actually watched the movie because they got so wrapped up in talking to each other. She could only remember that Mrs. Lewis was the dean at a fancy school, but nothing more than that. Clary assumed that after knowing someone since you were three years old, you'd know where his or her mom worked. This embarrassing realization just caused her to fidget even more. She avoided looking at him as she spoke. "Well, I mean, I guess. I just never made the connection. But, um… how's it, I mean, what're-"
"Seriously Clary?" Simon interrupted. He laughed and it resulted in his signature snort. His next words were a little hurt, yet gentle. Just like the usual Simon… "After almost fifteen years of friendship and you're acting as if you hardly know me! You haven't even given me a hug."
Clary looked at her friend for a moment, and she realized how much Simon had been her rock over the years. He was the one who was there when she broke her leg a few summers back. He was the one she called when she needed to talk about things. And now, finally, she could see him for more than just summers and school breaks. She was so overcome with emotion and appreciation for all he'd done for her, she practically tackled him in a massive bear hug. "Simon Lewis, I've missed you so much!"
Simon just chuckled ad patted her head. "Now that's the Clary I usually see. So, have you made any friends yet?" He pulled back to watch as she responded.
That was the question Simon always asked that Clary never had a good answer to. He was always trying to get her to make new friends and to come out of her shell, but in Clary's world she had Simon so what else did she need? "Well, I guess you could say-"
"Hi Clary!" A girl's voice echoed across the courtyard and Clary snapped her head around to see Isabel waving at her before she skipped towards them. Geez, that girl was just so damn bouncy.
Simon looked at Clary questioningly. "Did my little gaming geek make a friend in as little as two days? I think that's unheard of." He joked.
Clary ducked her head and tried to find a way to explain to him that she made a few "accidental friends" without sounding like a mental patient. Thankfully Isabelle appearing in front of them spared her of that lovely task.
"Clary! So glad I caught you." She panted. That's one thing Clary noticed about Isabelle, she always seemed to be in a hurry. Her hair and scarf were windswept and Clary noticed the shoelace on her very high-heeled boot was left undone. Isabelle turned to Simon and looked at him for a moment. "Simon right? Dean Lewis's kid?"
"Yep, the one and only." Simon leaned back and stretched his hands behind his head. He looked extremely smug that Isabelle knew who he was. Clary knew he was going to use that as an ego boost for a while. She laughed and shoved his shoulder. He was so full of it.
"Oh I thought so," Isabelle said. "I was coming to invite Clary to have some dinner with my brother and me. You're welcome to come if you want." She seemed hopeful that Simon would say yes.
Simon looked over to Clary for her opinion. She merely shrugged her shoulders. She didn't have a problem with Isabelle, and Alec could be a little distant but he didn't seem too bad. Clary had no real reason to say no, and now that she was with Simon she was feeling slightly more confident.
"Sure, why not?" Simon answered, smiling so that you could just see the tips of his pointy white teeth.
Why did she always seem to get the short straw? Clary wondered this as she tried to find her way back to Bassett while balancing about four bags worth of take-out boxes. Clary, Simon, Isabelle and Alec were all sitting in Alec's room while his roommate was off campus when they realized the Chinese they ordered should be ready. The group got so caught up in talking and hanging out. Clary found it hilarious to see Simon switch in to "gamer mode" when he saw Alec's new TV and gaming system. They ended up drawing straws to see who would have to go pick up the food, and, of course, the newbie got the short straw.
She finally found the right building, even though there was no way she could pick it out from a distance among all the other gray on the Winchester campus. Clary got lucky when she reached the door, because someone was just leaving and the door didn't fully close. She didn't even want to contemplate trying to get her key card out of her pocket.
She managed to get to the elevator without too many complications, although when she tried to press the button there was almost a Great Crab Rangoon Massacre of 2010. The entire tower of foam boxes started to wobble and the crab rangoons had nearly hit the floor before Clary caught them. Other than the near decapitation of Chinese appetizers all was well until she reached the fourth floor.
Clary turned left out of the elevator and slammed right into a very muscular and very solid someone. The food went up and came down like rain all around her as she landed flat on her but, and tripping up her person-meets-obstacle in the process. She just froze for an instant until the person sat up and she found him to be a very, no really, no extremely good looking guy. He had tawny eyes that the artist in her could get lost in and gold hair that looked as if it were just waiting for fingers to be run through it. Sure enough his thrust his left hand through it in frustration. Her eyes traveled down and she noticed the edges of a swirled tattoo peeking out from the hem of his sleeve.
"Hey!" He started to stand up. "Watch out! I can't believe you just did that to me of all people!"
"Oh….um… I-I'm sorry." She hurried to pick everything up. She really didn't want to deal with this stranger. She planned on just retreating to her room and becoming the mouse she was used to being.
"God, this is just ridiculous!" The stranger lamented. He was picking stray rice off his shirt with a disgusted look on his face.
"I'm really sorry. I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm so sorry! It was a total mistake." Clary vehemently apologized while she attempted to get all the food off of the floor. "I'll just-"
"Seriously!" He cut her off. "You really should try and put one foot in front of another. I didn't think it required that much effort, but I hear it helps with the whole walking thing."
Clary stood up. "Well now…." She quietly interjected.
"I have a date tonight and I can't show up smelling like the inside of a Chinese restaurant!"
Clary was starting to get irritated with this guy. He clenched her jaw trying to ignore it, but she had heard enough. "Well you didn't smell much better before!" She froze and instantly started backtracking. "What I meant was…I'm sure th-that you would-"
"Do I know you?" The stranger was looking her up and down in an appraising manner that made Clary blush even more than she already was.
"No, I really don't think so." She managed to mumble under her breath.
"Well I think we might have to change that…" He looked her up and down again. "So you're definitely knew. I'd remember if I met someone like you before."
Clary muttered something like "slim chances" and "sorry" as she bent down to pick up the food, somehow managing to hold it all in just her two hands. "Now if you'll excuse me. It won't happen again." She practically scurried off, and got halfway down the hall before she froze. She turned on her heel and, mortified, walked down the hall in the other direction. She passed the boy, who was just watching her, and continued the other way.
She heard distant laughing and knows he must have figured out she left in the wrong direction.
REVIEW NOW! YOU GET A NICE DIGITAL COOKIE!
