I'm feeling pretty inspired with this story right now, so I'm going to run with it a while and then get back to AWF and BTDT feeling nice and refreshed :P Anyway, I'm pretty happy with this chapter and the fact that somehow Jem managed to sneak a POV into it in the middle there because I didn't think he was going to have one at all in this story.

Well, let me know what you think!


.Move Along


Seventh grade, Will decides, couldn't possibly be more exciting than sixth. He's already got his friends this time, and while yes, it is a new school again, he isn't switching part way through the year like he'd had to last time. He's already established that Jessamine is by no means his friend but that he should remain as civil as possible with her when in the presence of her foster brother, due to Jem's extreme dislike of any conflict whatsoever. He's got it all figured out, there's really nothing left to be all that excited about.

Tessa doesn't seem to think so, though, practically bouncing out of her skin as they near the wide double doors at the entrance to the school. She keeps looking back at him and Jem, a wide grin spread across her bright face before she whips around again, brown hair flying over her shoulder as she goes. Beside him, Jem shakes his head with a soft laugh that sends something just a little bit warm throughout Will's body and follows after her slowly, sliding his hand over the railing as they mount the stairs. If Will finds that a small bit strange, that his friend seems to be using the railing for more support than he should need, he doesn't give it much thought.

"Well, she's excited," he notes to his friend, watching as Tessa, a good two hundred meters ahead of them now, swings the doors open and races inside like a cheetah on the run. Will almost laughs out loud at the sight, but resolves to merely smile and roll his eyes at her.

"Of course she is, Nate's here," Jem replies, nodding his head to the older boy currently swooping the grey-eyed girl up in a tight hug. They look alike, the two of them, both with a wavy mass of wild brown hair and stormy eyes that still remind Will of the rainclouds that were present the first time he'd met his now best friends. "You know how much she loves him," Jem adds after another beat of comfortable silence.

Will shakes his head at them. "Cecy didn't do that to me last year when we were going to the same school."

"That's because she hates you," Jem teases, bumping shoulders with him as they reach the doors. It's an easy joke that always makes an appearance one way or another; some member of Will's family despising him. Of course, they both now that's far from the case being that his family takes every opportunity to dote on him in any way they can. Somehow, both Tessa and Jem have found a small amount of humour in how much they seem to fret over him at any given moment. Cecy, Will's younger sister by two years, is the only one of them who absolutely refuses to do so, much to his odd pleasure. At least someone in his family's normal.

"She does not! Everybody loves me." He throws in a wink at the end for good measure, taking satisfaction in the quirk of Jem's eyebrow that comes as a response. He'd missed this over the summer, more than he'd ever really noticed. He wonders briefly over the fact that Jem couldn't hang out even just once, while Tessa had been over nearly every day and refused to say a word about him. It's strange, he knows, but Jem's always been a little odd. They all have; it's what's made them such good friends.

"Will, Will! Come meet my brother!" Tessa calls from down the hall where she stands glued to the older boy's side, her hands waving excitedly through the air as she beckons him over. Shooting Jem a reproachful look, he heads off to his own private torture for the day.

Seventh grade, Will decides, definitely won't be as good as sixth.


Tessa sinks into the chair beside her best friend with a groan, slamming her head into her folded arms on top of the desk. The bell sounds in the background, an irritating ringing that couldn't end soon enough signaling the start of their last class of the day. Giving the girl next to him a concerned look full of things he doesn't need to say, Jem carefully slides his binder into the desk he's sitting at and turns in his chair to face her. She, on the other hand, doesn't move an inch, not even when he taps at her shoulder to get her attention.

"Tessa?" he says gently, rubbing at her back to try to provide some sort of comfort. Jem's always been good at this, has never had any trouble calming Jessie down in the middle of a tantrum, but somehow this feels different. Maybe it's the dread unfurling it's razor sharp claws in his stomach or the uncertainty grasping at his heart with an iron fist. "What's happened?" he asks, though something in him tells him he already knows.

"Will's an idiot," she grumbles into her arms before throwing herself back in her chair to turn pained eyes to the patterned ceiling of the classroom. And he knows, he does, but he can't bring himself to accept it, despite the fact that everything in him tells him he's going to have to eventually.

"You're just realizing this now?" Jem asks with feigned disbelief, an attempt to lighten the mood and perhaps just slightly shift the topic over to something that doesn't make his head feel like it's going to explode. She smiles over at him softly, an expression that dies before reaching her eyes, and then heaves a great sigh like the world's just found it's way onto her shoulders and she can't bear it no matter how hard she tries.

"Is he really that blind?" Tessa whispers softly, just as the teacher shuffles into the room with a thick binder full of lesson plans clutched tightly against his side. Jem's eyes widen in surprise at her words, his hand stopping it's soothing motion on the small of her back, because he really is going to have to just accept it.

"Blind to…" He hesitates, feeling like the world on her shoulders is the one that's starting to fall out from underneath him. "Your feelings for him?"

Tessa makes a frustrated noise in the back of her throat. "Of course, you idiot. What else?"

Jem frowns but doesn't reply, turning to focus on the messy scrawl of their English teacher swirling across the blackboard instead. It's only when he goes to copy down the note that he realizes his hands are shaking and there's a heavy feeling in his chest that makes his breath come in shallow gasps.

And, yes, maybe he does know what it is. Maybe he is fully aware that he's developing a ridiculous crush on one of his best friends. Maybe he's conscious of the fact that this is a horrible thing, that it will bring him nothing but more trouble than he already has, that he's an awful person for this, that he's going to ruin everything if he doesn't stop it right now. Maybe he knows exactly what's happening and that really, there's no stopping it apart from simply waiting for it to pass, like any phase should. Maybe he knows it never will.

That doesn't mean he has to acknowledge it.


They're sitting at lunch one day in the middle of October— him, Jem, Tessa, Sophie and the Lightwood boys —when Will notices both his best friends watching him carefully from across the table. There's something frustrated in Tessa's eyes, something flickering just short of anger and full of desperation for a thing that he can't even begin to comprehend, and it makes him frown in confusion and concern.

It's when he looks over at Jem, though, that he feels something scratch the filed tip of a sharp nail over his heart ever so softly. Because there, deep in silver eyes like the moonlight that spills through Will's open window in the dead of night, there is something so very sad that it almost makes him flinch back, away from the shadows flickering there like beasts in steel barred cages. There's something else too, stashed away even deeper, something that will claw at him restlessly for the rest of the day with an itch of wary familiarity, but it's buried too far down for Will to decipher its meaning and he'll forget it by the time morning comes, even though he knows somewhere in him that he shouldn't. That he should hold onto this with everything in him.

Frown deepening, he turns back to the conversation at hand; an animated discussion on the horrors of math tests such as the one Gabriel's going to be writing right after lunch for Mrs. Wilson; a punishment for having missed the last assignment's deadline. Will snickers at him relentlessly, sticking out his tongue like the child he shouldn't be and teasing him for his misfortune. Of course, he doesn't mention that he'll be writing a math test the next day as well. It's not like it really matters, when it comes down to it.

From over on Will's right, Sophie comments tonelessly about how competitive boys are, her dark hazel eyes trained all the while on a point just shy of the Lightwood boy beside her, far enough away that she isn't staring directly at Gideon but close enough that she can obviously still see him out of the corner of her eye. Gideon, on the other hand, isn't so subtle. His gaze stays unmoving on the side of the young girl's face, the one with the scar marring part of it's beauty, though Gideon doesn't even seem to register that it's there.

Rolling his eyes at their dancing around each other, Will shoots a glance back over at the other side of the table to try to catch Jem's eye and make a silent remark on their friends' utter ridiculousness. When his gaze falls on the other boy, though, and he quirks an eyebrow with a playful smirk twisting his lips, Jem doesn't laugh or shake his head or roll his eyes like he's supposed to do, like he always does. Instead, he stares blankly back at Will for a moment before pursing his lips and turning away.

And yeah, Will's lying if he says that doesn't hit him like a ton of bricks to the gut because Jem is his best friend and what on earth is going on? What the hell has he done to end up on the receiving end of this odd behaviour? Or, maybe, what hasn't he done? What's going on?

Something in him tells him that he won't be getting an answer for a very, very, long time.


So writing young characters like this is not my forte but their 'childhood' will pass pretty quickly and I'm fairly happy with how this turned out so I think it'll be fine. I'm having a lot of fun with this :)

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