Random update! So I was dreaming of this story last night when this scene came to mind and well, I just had to! Jace was enticing me to do it, so blame him! And on a sidenote: I FINISHED A PERSONAL STORY FOR ANYONE WHO IS A FAN OF MY WRITING! THE FIRST FIVE CHAPTERS AND PROLOGUE IS UP ON A WEBSITE CALLED INKPOP(dot)COM AND THE LINK IS ON MY PROFILE SO PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE READ IT AND LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ON THE SITE! THE MORE VIEWS AND COMMENTS I GET, THE MORE LIKELY IT'LL BE A BOOK AND THEN YOU ALL GET TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS TO AUTUMN AND LIAM! Thank you for taking the time to read that. Your reward? This chapter :)

Songs for this chapter:

Obsession-Sky Ferreira (Izzy & Clary singing it; I honestly can't get this song stuck out of my head. It's been in there for about two months now.)

The One-Black Mustang (Jace singing; Such a dirty song but I can't help thinking that this is what Jace could sound like…but somewhat different, y'know?)

For the full effect of thoroughly enjoying this chapter, I highly recommend reading it while listening to the songs during their proper sections, m'kay?

"Oh come on, Clary!" Izzy trilled as they entered the club. It had been the first day of shore excursions on St. Thomas and Clary spent the day with her family and the Lightwoods–a family that she met while on the excursion–as the group for that day went ashore to tour the Caribbean Island.

Clary and Izzy immediately clicked from the start while Alec Lightwood and the youngest, Max, trailed behind the girls making small talk to fill the awkward void. Clary was pleased to see that Jocelyn and Luke were friendly with Maryse and Robert and couldn't help but scream in delight when she found out that they too lived in the city.

After the shore excursion, Clary and Izzy went back to their own cabins–which, were also a room away from each other–to get washed up for dinner and the night activities.

Tonight's activity was Karaoke night, which set Clary on edge. She was convinced she couldn't carry a note to save the life of her, but when Izzy forced her to sing a line from a song, Izzy begged to differ.

"You have an amazing voice!" Izzy had exclaimed, but Clary was sure she just wanted to convince Clary to come with her to flirt with the older boys. That was also another thing that offset her; the fact that she was only sixteen and her parents said it was fine to sneak in since she was going to be with the Lightwoods and Alec was already eighteen. Simon was delighted; Clary, was, well…the feeling was unrequited.

"I'm nervous," Clary admitted as she was half-dragged into the club. The bouncer didn't even ask for ID; all Izzy did was flash him a smile and wink, and they were in. Clary wondered how often this happened with Izzy and shuddered. At least the cruise was now guaranteed to be fun–Izzy didn't seem to give off the "meek and reserved" impression.

"Don't be," Izzy giggled loudly enough for a few boys to hear and turn to ogle at her. Tossing her hair over her shoulder so that it almost whipped the boys in the face, she grinned wickedly. "We're going to have fun. Tons of it. So much, you'll thank me for it later."

Clary gulped audibly and was glad that the music overhead was loud enough to make any noise softer than screaming mute. The dizzying lights threw crazy neon patterns over her arms and she smiled, recalling the time she went laser tagging with Simon and they got into a dispute over whether or not he had tagged her since he had a "spazzy gun" according to him.

Thinking of Simon, she spun around, wondering where he was. She couldn't see well through the dry fog, but when she squinted, she was almost sure she spotted him talking to a brunette. She half-smiled; even Simon was having more fun than her, the King of all Party-poopers.

"All right," she smiled at Izzy. "I want to have funs. Tons of it. Make me thank you for it later!"

"That's my girl," Izzy cackled, throwing her hair over her shoulder as they moved towards the dance floor.


So apparently, the Karaoke session of the night wasn't going to happen until midnight, when more than third fourths of the club was inebriated since the drinking age in the Caribbean was eighteen. When Izzy dragged Clary up to the bar, Clary took advantage of the dancing break and plopped down in a stool in front of the bar. While Izzy ordered two Cokes for them, Clary glanced up at the digital clock mounted above the bar and gasped. Midnight was just five minutes away.

"I'll have the same that she's having," a boy shouted from behind her. She turned around in her chair to see a cute brunette standing behind me with his hands over his head, desperately attempting to flag down the bartender who was too preoccupied ogling at Izzy.

"Two more Cokes, please," she leaned in and shouted at the bartender. He shot her a dirty look, but detached himself from Izzy long enough to pour out two more Cokes and slide them Clary's way.

"On the house," he grumbled, leaning in again to flirt with Izzy.

"Here you go," Clary smiled, feeling her cheeks burn as she took in the high cheekbones, strong jaw line, straight nose and long eyelashes that framed his dark brown eyes. He smiled back at her and turned around to reveal a similar-looking girl donning too much makeup and scant clothing that was ripped in very suggestive places.

"Thanks," he laughed. "I was waiting forever to get his attention. Jeez, maybe I should consider getting myself a pair of boobs to use to my advantage."

"And a prettier face," the girl smirked. "You can have nice tits all you want, but you have to be nice on the eyes too. That's key." When the girl noticed Clary, her eyes widened and she grinned. "I'm Aline Penhallow." Gesturing to the boy with her thumb, she added, "This is my cousin, Sebastian Verlac."

"Clary Garroway," Clary replied, sticking out her hand. Aline grabbed it and shook it once.

"Oh, so you're Simon's sister!" she exclaimed. "He's really cute, but not my type. No offense."

"Uh...none taken?"

"Girl is more her type," Sebastian eye-rolled while Aline giggled.

"Oh uh, well, um," Clary said tentatively. What was a normal reaction to that kind of comment? You can't really blame her, since she had no gay friends or anything–not that she was homophobic. "I like the penis, sorry."

"No problem with that," Aline shrugged. "We all got our preferences, right?"

But before Clary could reply, her face already burning with mortification, she was saved by the abrupt pause in blaring music and had to cup her hands over her ears to keep them from ringing. Had the music really been that loud?

"All right, all right, all righty then!" a short man with spiky frosted blond hair and bronze skin yelled into the microphone, so that his irritating high-pitched voice resounded from all over the room. "Now as I'm sure all of you are aware–or not, who knows at this point? Better yet, who cares? We got an unlimited bar over here!"

He paused for a few chuckles at his poorly attempted joke before continuing. "Anyway, tonight is Karaoke night! And you know what that means?" An overwhelming amount of groans and protests, but none seemed to faze the man. Clary had to give him credit for being able to maintain that irritating smile on his face when it was clear no one seemed to care.

"Sing-offs!" the man said in a sing-song tone. "And here's the catch: if you win any of the three places, you earn–wait for it–a chance to be nominated for the surprise grand prize! And let me tell you folks, it's totally worth it–literally. It involves cash, and a lot of it."

The club-goers all roared with approval and before Clary knew it, Karaoke night was in high gear. The activities director–his name was Paul–had explained that while having a good voice would be beneficial to both yours and everyone else's ears, how you won the contest was simple: you had to have the highest approval rate. This meant the club-goers had to like you the most, and while Clary would've preferred the "good voice" way, though she had to admit it was quite entertaining to see the most enthusiastic people were the ones with the worst voices because they were desperate to win.

"Are you ready?" Izzy whispered to Clary from beside her. She turned to face Izzy and gave her a questioning look. "We're up next, duh." She pointed at the glowing screen next to the stage that she hadn't noticed was there and gasped in horror when she saw what it said:

Up Next:

Dynamic Duo-Lightwood, Izzy and Garroway, Clary

"Dynamic Duo?"

Izzy shrugged. "Alec gave me the idea and since I couldn't come up with anything else, well, it seemed to fit."

Lovely, Clary mused. Not only will I make a complete idiot out of myself, but I also have a weird nickname to go along with it.

As the drunkard up stage wrapped up his act, Clary took several deep yoga breaths to steady herself before walking upstage beside Izzy. Izzy winked at her before signaling a countdown to the DJ.

As the music started up, Clary closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around the microphone stand to keep herself from puking. Don't worry, you'll do fine. What's the worst that could happen?

Izzy started up the song:

"Listen up I'm gonna tell bit about myself,

I got a situation ain't concerning nobody else…"

Upon opening her eyes, Clary's gaze fixated on a certain blond boy's smirk directly below her and she immediately choked up. Izzy shot her a desperate look as she went into the second-to-last line in the first verse and Clary immediately zoned out, closing her eyes again to channel only the music.

"So here's my confession,

This time, this time,

Don't just want you to love me.

I want to be your attention,

This time, this time,

Want my name on the Marquee…"

As Clary gained confidence by singing through the chorus, she opened up her eyes again and focused on anything but the boy below her. This seemed to help as she eased her way through the second verse and by the time they sang the hook and chorus again, Clary was comfortably shimmying her hips besides Izzy.

"Ain't nothing wrong with OCD

Long as it's for me, long as it's for me…"

Izzy went back-to-back with Clary as they lifted up their microphones, belting out the final chorus like no other:

"I want you to want me,

I want you to need me,

I want you to hear my confession

I want to be your obsession…"

As the music came to a halt, the audience erupted into cheers and Clary felt her face flame up while Izzy bowed, accepting the cat-calls and hooting as appraise. Clary kept her eyes fixed on the ground as she made her way down the stage until she felt someone brush against her.

Looking up, her face flushed all over again and Clary mentally swore against it when she realized it was the boy. He was even more gorgeous in person–if that was even humanly possible–a few inches away from her.

"Good performance," the boy smirked, but the message seemed sincere enough.

"Thanks," she blushed.

"Too bad it wasn't good enough to win the competition," he laughed, a beautiful sound that would've been sweet if it hadn't been for him taunting her. Clary openly gaped as he took the stage–which was now set up with just one microphone, a stool, and a blue-and-white Fender Stratocaster electric guitar.

"What was that all about?" Izzy asked, her eyes shooting daggers at the boy as he set up.

"I don't know," Clary admitted, her eyes glued onto the monitor that announced the contestants. But she missed his name because it only stated who was going up after him. Clary sighed in frustration and stared up at the boy as he tuned up his guitar.

Much to her dismay of not knowing his name, she couldn't quell the excitement that bloomed inside of her, already knowing that he would sound amazing regardless of the song. She had, after all, heard him last night.

Since Clary had never been to a concert before, hearing the drums start up startled her. Glancing around, she saw no drummer and figured that the boy was just playing the guitar part of a song that surprisingly had a catchy rhythm to it. Sneaking a peek from her periphery, she noticed Izzy was even swaying to the music.

Then, he started to sing.

"Hey suga, you're so hard to please,

The way you lookin' got me weak at the knees,

And I could be your boy so easy,

And you could be the girl to please me…"

Clary felt an unfamiliar warmth course throughout her body, one that wasn't uncomfortable, but was actually nice. It made her keep her eyes trained on the boy, made her keep it there even when he trained his eyes on hers and gave her a sly grin as he kept singing.

"She's the one you need no other,

She's the one, her love generator…"

As he continued to play and sing, he started to shake his hips to the music but never once removed his gaze from her. It felt all too personal, too intimate that everyone around them faded to the background. It was only him and her, him singing his emotions right out to her.

"Now I feel like never before,

Got the devil knocking on my door…"

The girl, Clary, swayed to the music, unable to stop herself, which caused Jace's coy smile to grow. As much as he didn't like to admit it, the way she reacted to him was incredible. He fed off of it like she was his only energy source and because he wielded some sort of power over her, he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

He wanted to test his theory out on her while she was performing, to see how much of an influence he had on her, so he weaved his way towards the front for her to see him. And when she spotted him, she immediately turned a color so bright, so vibrant, her red hair looked pale in comparison.

When the song came to an end, he grinned in arrogance as the cheers–much louder than the ones Clary received–shook up the entire place. He set the guitar down on its stand and sauntered off stage towards his brother, Jonathan, when a familiar redhead crossed his path. But whereas she'd look like she enjoyed herself while he was on stage, she had a stance of defiance before him.

"Told you so," he teased, reveling the blush that spread across her cheekbones.

"You won't win," she countered. She was acting on the defense instead of ogling at him, which in Jace's mind, was an extreme turn-on. He loved the chase, but only when he was the one running while being in charge simultaneously. He never had this happen before, and the novelty of it all excited him.

"Oh? That so?" he asked innocuously. "And how do you know?" Braving a step forward, he leaned in so that his lips were a mere inch away from her ear. "I believe it's up to the audience, not up to you."

Letting her go, he sidestepped her and walked right up to his brother, not even sparing a glance towards Clary's direction. He knew he had royally pissed her off, but at the same time, turned her onto him even more. As much as girls didn't admit to it, they were helpless when it came to a boy who knew all the right things to say, rude or kind. That's where his honesty policy came in; telling the truth almost 90% of the time worked for them, but they didn't have to know the other 10% so long as it wasn't another girl.

"Can't we go away somewhere without you hitting on at least one girl?" Jonathan scoffed, shaking his head.

"In my defense, they initiate it and while I try to politely talk them out of it, they throw themselves at me," Jace shrugged. "I guess it comes with the curse of being stunningly attractive."

"You're impossible," Jonathan chided, but the wicked glint in his eyes said otherwise.

So what do you all think? I sure enjoyed it :)

Clary: Did I really blush that much that night?

Jace: You sort of looked like you were suffering from a severe case of rosacea...

Izzy: Either that or maybe an allergic reaction. Do you even have allergies?

Simon: Nah, but she has a tendency to turn really bright red like she is now whenever she's mortified, which happens a lot.

Jace: That's kind of kinky, if you think about it.

*Silence*

Jace: What? At least I'm being honest.

Izzy: Do I even want to know what you think is 'kinky' and what isn't?

Jace: No, but Clary does.

Clary: Ugh, shut up. All of you. Really.

Simon *horrified*: That's not a denial! Oh c'mon! Gross...

Jace: Man up, Simon. Your sister isn't five anymore. Human reproduction is–

Everyone except Jace: SHUT. UP.