**The characters of Mortal Instruments are owned by Cassandra Clare**
Clary walked through the front doors of her school; following the mad rush of the morning crowd through the endless rows of lockers.
She found her locker and opened it, grabbing her books.
Nearby Simon was trying to force his locker open, Clary glanced over and shut her locker before making her way towards him.
"Here let me help." Clary opened the locker without effort.
"Thanks." Simon mumbled. "Have any plans for the holidays?"
"Nope," Clary replied popping the p. A gaggle of girls strolled past Clary, miniskirts and all. Kaelie walked past heels clicking on the hard Lino, and shoved her into a locker.
Clary winced in pain as Kaelie walked off laughing with her gang; Simon shouted incoherently at the girls before steadying Clary.
"You okay?" Clary nodded in response. "They're just bitches."
"You got that right." Clary looked at her arm, a faint purplish bruise from her skin making contact with the combination lock; she rubbed it and looked at Simon.
"Thanks; hey I'll see you fourth period at Chem." Simon nodded in response and they made their separate ways down the hall.
Clary spotted Jace in the midst of the crowd and waved and smiled at him. Jace averted his eyes and continued to talk to his friend. Clary felt her heart sank, even though this happened every day.
Jace would never talk to her or address her at school but no matter how hard she tried; she couldn't bring herself to be mad at him.
Clary sighed, snuck a look at Jace, and walked past him.
She walked into class, as heads turned to see her. She avoided the eyes; her hair was like a beacon drawing attention to her.
When she sat down in her seat, all she could hear was whispers and snickers around her. She reached out and grabbed her sketchbook and began doodling; shutting the rest of the world out.
Clary wrapped an arm around her stomach that was producing a rumbling chorus of demands. It was nearly lunch time and she couldn't wait to get out of class.
She ignored the eyes as she walked into the cafeteria.
She sat down next to Simon who was reading comic novels under the desk. Simon looked up at Clary as she sat down.
"Hey."
"Hey," replied Clary as she took a sandwich and chewed gratefully at it.
She looked over to see Jace sitting at one of the 'popular' tables. His arm was around Kaelie, as Kaelie chatted away to him about something, he nodded repeatedly but by the looks in his eyes he wasn't really listening.
Clary felt a twang of jealousy inside her as she watched Kaelie whisper into his ear and watched Jace grinning from ear to ear.
"Your hair's starting to grow." Simon said to Clary looking up from his comic.
"Really?" Clary's hand went up to finger her hair; small curly strands were beginning to fall over the nape of her neck.
"Yeah, your hair's starting flatten out and turning into a darker shade." Simon smiled at Clary.
Clary smiled half-heartedly back, knowing her hair would never be as long and beautiful as Kaelie's.
Simon followed Clary's gaze,
"You're still trying?" Simon jerked his chin towards Jace.
"Yeah," Clary sighed.
"How are you and Maia?" Simon's eyes lit up by the sudden change of subject.
"Great! Long distance relationships are hard, but she's coming over during break. Want to catch up with her?"
"Sure," Clary replied, but her mind was still on Jace.
"Hey look." Simon placed a hand on her shoulder. "Take it easy, I think you're amazing; much better than Kaelie. He'll notice soon enough."
"I hope so," Clary shrugged.
She took an apple out of her lunch bag and bit into it, the juicy sensation spreading across her tongue as Simon continued to read.
Simon was one of Clary's friends but not as close as Jace. They met up on the first day of high school, Simon trying to get his locker open, and after all this time, he was still getting it stuck.
Clary laughed silently to herself. Simon had a girlfriend called Maia; she had talked to her before. She was a pretty girl with a brown creamy complexion and a curvy figure. Her hair was always in small thin braids and constantly talking to Simon about video games and comics.
Simon was a typical dork, loves comics and Manga, video games and movie marathons. He had dark brown hair and dark brown eyes that hid behind glasses.
Her gaze switched to Kaelie, who was deep in conversation with her friend Aline. Clary gazed jealously at Kaelie; she had pretty long-straight- blonde hair. She wore little skirts and little shorts with skimpy tank tops.
Clary rolled her eyes, it was winter and Kaelie must've been freezing; not that she would care.
Kaelie had slim figure and a flat belly. Clary looked shamefully at her own figure. She was short and a bit chubby on the side.
Clary looked back at the table meeting Jace's tawny eyes, before both deflecting their gazes.
Clary sat next to Simon in the school garden, under the big oak tree. Simon was talking as Clary sat their sketching into her sketchbook.
She caught Kaelie strutting up towards where Clary was sitting with a bunch of girls behind her.
Clary's heart beat quickened as she caught a glance of Jace not so far behind.
Kaelie rested her hands on her hips; Clary thought she was beautiful before the words started spewing out her mouth.
"Hey Ugly," The girls behind Kaelie snickered. Clary continued to draw,
"What do you want?" Clary squinted her eyes at Kaelie, and caught Jace moving closer towards the scene.
"Heard you were frolicking in the forest with my boyfriend yesterday, am I right?"
Clary stood up slowly brushing her hands on her jeans,
"Yeah, so what?"
Kaelie poked a finger at Clary's chest her face inches away from hers.
"Stay away from Jace; he's way out of your league and he would never go for a girl like you."
Tears stung behind Clary's eyes but she was determined not to be weak.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah, you think you can get him? You're so ugly; no guy would go for you." Kaelie prodding Clary with ever word she spat out.
Clary looked at Jace, her eyes pleading for back up, but he averted his eyes. Clary felt her heart drop and shatter.
Kaelie raised an eyebrow at Clary and snatched the sketchbook out of her hand, Clary stood still; frozen.
Kaelie observed the picture and ripped it out of the sketchbook with a loud noise. All eyes were on the duo.
"Look at this drawing," showing her group the picture Clary had been working on, a picture of a guy with wings arching out of his back.
"You're pathetic" Kaelie went up to Clary's face, and
Tore the picture into shreds, Clary's eyes where brimmed with tears as she looked at Jace.
Jace opened his mouth for a second before closing it again.
Clary felt that Jace had just betrayed everything they ever had, their friendship, their loyalty their love...
She stormed off tears streaming down her cheeks uncontrollably leaving the sketchbook behind to Kaelie and her friends laughing at her drawings.
Simon tried to follow her but Clary had run into the girl's bathroom and into one of the tatty cubicles.
She sat there sobbing, into her hands. Her sleeves tear stained and her t-shirt moist and wet. Emotions swelled inside Clary; anger, sadness, confusion and all directed at Jace.
She had now a reason to be mad at Jace; he had let his girlfriend rip up her last resort of escape from reality.
The bell for the last period rang; Clary grabbed her bag and dashed out before anyone could say a word to her or see her.
All around her people were hugging each other, saying their goodbyes and exchanging contact information.
She walked down the street lonely but with nothing but the company of the autumn wind and its leaves.
As she turned a corner, someone had placed their hand on her shoulder which made her stop.
She turned around to face Jace, dishevelled from running after her, Anger swelled up inside Clary.
"Look; I'm sorry about earlier today... I-"
"Sorry won't cut it." Clary snapped. "You decide to talk to me now? Yeah, just when school ends and no one is around."
"That's not it." Jace argued.
"Oh really? Then what is it? I know it Jace; you don't want to be seen at school with me because I'm ugly and fat, but you decide to talk to me after school so no one will see you with me."
"Clary-"
"Some best friend you are Jace."
"Clary; I-I know I should've said something." Jace looked down at his feet avoiding eye contact with Clary's furious emerald eyes.
"You know what Jace? Go have fun with Kaelie on your holiday." Jace looked up to meet Clary's eyes.
Clary laughed humourlessly at Jace's look of confusion upon his face.
"You're so blind Jace. Can't you see that I love you?"
"That I would sit with you in the cold just to talk to you about your girlfriends and your dates, that I would turn up at your house at eleven at night just to talk you through a break up?" Her words slicing through the air like knives.
Jace looked at Clary, mixed emotions in his eyes.
"And I have to believe that you will never love me because I'm too ugly? I don't know if I love you anymore. Good bye Jace."
Clary turned on her heel and stormed off home leaving Jace alone with her words on the street.
Clary slammed the front door shut and leaned against it, sliding to the floor crying, she curled her fingers into fists and banged her head against the door.
Jocelyn walked downstairs cautiously before wrapping an arm around Clary and guiding her into the living room and onto the sofa.
"Clare-bear what's wrong?" Jocelyn asked softly, brushing a stray orange curl away from her face.
Clary told her the events in between sobs.
Jocelyn squeezed Clary's hand and smiled sympathetically at her.
"It's okay darling."
Bringing Clary's head into her chest and gently rocking her, "finding the right one takes a long time; after thirty years I'm still looking."
Clary nodded knowing that Jocelyn had left her dad years ago and was still looking for someone.
"Don't give up hope yet." Jocelyn advised and kissed her gently on the forehead.
Clary left to go upstairs and clean herself up, each step upstairs was painful and slow like she didn't have a reason to live anymore.
She looked at her reflection; her eyes were red and puffy from the tears. She fiddled with a strand of her hair, Simon was right; it is growing and changing colour. The roots where starting to darken into a more red colour than orange and her curls where beginning to lengthen out.
She flopped down and lay on her bed and sighed, photos of her and Jace pasted onto her walls along with various posters of bands and artists.
All she could think about was Jace, his face floating in her mind. She turned towards her bedside table, a photo of her and Jace taken by Jocelyn last year.
She carefully placed the photo frame and tucked it away into a draw and turned to face to other way towards the window.
The trees were bending in the wind, leaves gliding across the street, Rain had began to drip from the sky, the drops of water beating against the window.
Across the street a small Real Estate sign was nailed to the fence, a giant red sign stapled across it that read 'SOLD'.
Clary smiled half-heartedly to herself; she was going to have new neighbours.
The sound of her doorbell sliced through her thoughts, as she lifted herself off her bed and hastily walked downstairs.
She looked out the window to spot no one outside.
She spun the lock slowly until there was a satisfying click. She opened the door slowly and cautiously until she spotted her sketchbook leaned up against the wall.
She reached out and grabbed it flipping through the pages; the ripped pages had been taped back together.
A/N: So what'd you think? Just in case your wondering; the description for my story are actually lyrics to the song Blind - Lifehouse.
Check them out; they're an awesome band.
Feel free to message me anything you want. So R & R! (: Hope you enjoyed this Chapter.
~ B.