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Once Clary got home she sat down on the couch. Ever since she saw that... golden boy, she couldn't think about anything else. He was like nobody she had ever met, even from silently observing people in class Clary had never seen anyone like him.
Not only was it how he acted but it was his accent, his clothes, his posture, and not to mention that smug smile. On top of all of that, he knew who she was. That was saying something. Not a lot of people knew Clary, she was invisible and the only reason Kaelie knew her name was because they had four classes with each other that year and one the year before. Even still, Clary was surprised she knew her name.
Clary was pulled from her thoughts when Camille entered the room. She sat down next to Clary seemingly unaware of the blank stare the young girl currently wore.
"I know it's not even noon but I am so tired." Camille threw her head back against the couch and then turned to look at Clary. "What's with you?"
"Huh? Nothing, why do you ask?" Clary scratched behind her ear and Camille narrowed her eyes.
"You're lying, you're doing that thing where you scratch behind your ear. It means you're lying." Camille raised an eyebrow as if to urge to Clary to go on.
"I just... there was this guy after school, I had never seen him before but he somehow knew who I was. It was so weird and he said the strangest thing." Clary paused and turned her entire body to face Camille. "He said that my entire life has been a lie."
Camille's eyes widened. "What does that mean?"
"I have no idea, it was really weird." Clary sat back on the couch and the two girls were silent for a moment.
"You're sure he wasn't somebody from your school?" Camille suddenly said and Clary shrugged.
"Here," She went into the kitchen and grabbed her backpack. After a moment Clary returned with the yearbook from that year and the year before, just in case he was a year older and if he's older than that there's no way he could've known who Clary is anyway. "We can check."
Clary goes through the entire yearbook from her junior year with Camille peering over her shoulder. She scans every single face twice but has no luck in finding the golden boy. Despite the sunglasses, Clary knew that none of these faces were his. Now she was even more freaked out.
"Well, this is aggravating." Clary threw the yearbook to the side and pulled her legs up to her chest.
"Listen, you just need to forget all about this guy and focus on Saturday. Graduation is in three days and you just need to relax until then, okay?" Camille rubbed Clary's leg sympathetically.
"You're right, I'll just touch up my speech and review it a few times." Clary took a deep breath.
"And then tomorrow you and I are going out. We'll have a girls day, it'll be fun." Camille added the last part after Clary gave her an unsure look.
"Fine." Clary gave in and Camille grinned.
"Good, now work on your speech and I'll make you some lunch." Camille stood up and Clary left to work on her graduation speech.
The next day Clary woke up strangely well rested. She got out of bed and dressed quickly to find that Camille was in the kitchen.
"Good morning, what time is it?" Clary asked with a yawn.
"It's actually only eight, you're up early for once," Camille said surprised.
"Tell me about it." Clary was slightly taken aback by how early it was.
"Well, whenever you're ready to go we can leave. The boys are going to be at the Blackwell's today so we can stay out all day."
"Great, let me grab my wallet and we'll go."
About two hours later the girls ended up at the mall. For the most part, they just wandered around and windowed shopped, though Camille did try to convince Clary to buy a new dress for her graduation. It only took another hour before Clary finally gave in and decided to try on a few dresses. The store they stopped at seemed way too fancy for Clary but Camille managed to convince her that it was fine.
"Camille, I feel weird," Clary called out of the fitting room she was in as she looked at herself in the mirror. The dress she had on now was purple and short. The bottom half of it had ruffles and the top half was glittery.
"Come out, let me see," Camille replied and reluctantly Clary opened the door. Camille took one look and had to hold back from laughing.
"See I told you this was a bad idea," Clary said but she could hardly contain her own laughter.
"No, no it's just that particular dress that's bad. Try on one of the others." Clary rolled her eyes and closed the door to try on the second dress.
This one was green. Bright green. It was a high-low with a dark green floral design all across it. Clary cocked her head as she looked at herself in the mirror and reached behind her to unlock the door. Camille entered and raised her eyebrows at the dress.
"See now this one isn't all that-"
"I look like Christmas threw up." Clary cut off Camille as she held her bright red hair against the green of the dress.
"Only slightly," Camille said and Clary glared at her.
"One more dress and then we leave," Clary said and Camille left but not before Clary saw her mocking smile.
The third dress was golden tulle with a satin belt tied around it. It seemed so simple and yet it was so beautiful. Clary opened the door for the last time and Caille stepped in.
"Okay, this one I'll admit I like," Clary said and Camille smiled.
"Thank god, I was starting to get weird looks from the sales lady for how long I'd been sitting there." Clary rolled her eyes as Camille laughed.
Soon they were buying the dress and Clary's gaze drifted to the windows that led beyond the store. People were milling about the mall, going in and out of stores. Then something caught Clary's attention. Golden hair.
Clary hardly had time to react when the people blocking her view moved and Clary saw who the hair was attached to. It was him, it was the golden boy and this time he wasn't wearing sunglasses.
The golden boy caught Clary's eye and he smirked. He watched Clary for another moment before disappearing into the crowd. Clary raced out of the store and looked around for where he went. Once again he disappeared without a trace. Clary stood there for another moment before Camille appeared at her side.
"Clary? What's wrong? Why did you just bolt?" Camille was holding the bag with the dress.
"He was there. He was right there and then he was just gone. Where did he go?" Clary stuttered and continued looking around.
"Who, sweetie?"
Clary turned to Camille aggravated. "The boy from yesterday, he was just standing here. I don't get it..."
"Clary, I think that we better go home." Camille put a hand on Clary's shoulder but she shook it off.
"No, you don't get it. He was watching me, I think he's following me. I swear to god I'm telling the truth."
"I believe you," Camille said unconvincingly. "Don't worry, I believe you. Why don't we go out for some brunch?"
"Sure," Clary said trying to act happy. It was hard though considering how obvious it was that Camille didn't believe her. But it didn't matter because Clary saw him, that was what mattered.
Saturday approached rather quickly and Clary was hardly prepared. Her speech was great, her fear of public speaking... not so much. She sat in her room in the dress that Camille had bought for her just the other day and her hair was in a heap on her head.
"Clarissa, you ready to go?" Camille popped into her room and all Clary replied with was a nod.
They went out to Camille's car where Clary found that Jonathon and Sebastian were already waiting. Clary got into the passenger seat and turned around to face the nine-year-old boys.
"Well don't you guys look adorable in your little suits." Clary teased and they both scowled.
"I know where you sleep." Jonathon threatened and Clary had to fight back a laugh. She held up her hands defensively and turned back around in her seat as the car drove off.
After getting to the school Clary immediately went off to find her seat. It didn't take too long for the ceremony to start but it did take forever when all the names were being read. Clary was nervous when her name was called but it seemed like it was all over in a split second. Then came the speech.
Clary clambered up to the podium and looked out at her fellow classmates. These were people she barely knew and yet she recognized almost every single one of them. She wondered how many actually recognized her. Suddenly as she looked out at this sea of people Clary hated her speech. It was written about hope and the future, but that's not the feeling she was getting right now. She felt fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and oddly enough over each of those feelings one denied all of them. Because Clary also felt a sort of bravery.
Clary looked back down at her speech one last time before crumbling it up in her hand. Today wasn't about hope, it was about the unknown.
"All my life I've been moved around." Clary decided to wing it. "I've gone from school to school and I'm sure you can all imagine what that does to your social life. I've always had a suitcase packed, just in preparation for the next time I have to move. But now that's over and honestly, I don't know what comes next. Everybody has been told that you can never be prepared for life after school, not until you experience it for yourself. But as I look out at all of you I feel like I already know what to expect. It'll be hard, life always is. But now, now-" Clary paused as she tried to think of what to say next. But before she could speak again the doors to the auditorium suddenly swung open and a large group of people burst in. To Clary's surprise, the golden boy was among them.
"Princess Clarissa Adelle Fairchild of Idris." The man in front of the entire group spoke loudly. Everybody had been staring at the group that walked in but now all eyes were on Clary. She was the only person at that school with the name Clarissa.
"Excuse me, who are you?" The principle stepped in front of the man who spoke.
"I am the adviser to the king and queen of our humble country. My name is Hodge Starkweather." The man answered politely. "We have come for the princess." Hodge motioned to Clary and her stomach dropped. This can't be real.
"Princess? I'm sorry, I don't understand." The principle crossed his arms.
"You Americans never seem to understand anything." The golden boy rolled his eyes and Hodge glared at him.
"Jace, manners," Hodge said and the golden boy waved his arms in the air mockingly. "Please excuse the young noble, he doesn't know the definition of polite. But I have simple proof of the princess' lineage. Her birth certificate I think should suffice." One of the men in the group stepped forward and held up a piece of paper. Clary couldn't see very well from where she stood but the reaction from the principle was enough for her to know it was real.
"I see, my apologies for any indiscretion, your highness." The principle bowed slightly.
"Please, I'm not royalty. I told you, I'm the advisor. The king and queen are waiting by the jet, I didn't think it smart for them to come." Hodge said simply.
"Of course," The principle said politely.
"Now if you don't mind we're going to take our young princess and let you all continue on with your lovely ceremony here." Hodge smiled and one of the men started walking up towards Clary with the golden boy. The other guy had pitch black hair and vividly blue eyes and looked to be about Clary's age.
"Wait, don't I get a say in this?" Clary suddenly found her words when the two boys had made it halfway up to the podium. "What if I don't want to go to this Idris place?"
Jace and the other boy paused for a moment and looked back at Hodge unsure of what to do. Hodge seemed to be taken aback himself.
"Well, I don't know. We just sort of figured that you would want to meet your parents." Hodge scratched the back of his neck.
"Plus, who's going to give up the chance to be royalty?" Jace spoke with a raised eyebrow.
"I have a family, and I don't want to leave Camille." Clary took a step back from the podium even though Jace and the other had yet to take another step forward.
Clary saw Camille stand up in the crowd and suddenly she was walking down the aisle. She strolled up to Hodge with Jonathon and Sebastian both at her side.
"Clary, don't give up this opportunity because of me. You would have been going off to college anyway." Camille called out to Clary from across the room. "Clary, you're royalty. Embrace it." The look on Camille's face made Clary feel hope. All of a sudden she couldn't wait to meet her real parents, to see her homeland.
Clary took a deep breath. "Fine, I'll go."
Hodge smiled widely. "You have made a very wise choice, my princess."
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