So this is chapter 2. I've got a lot of the story pre-written, so updates shouldn't be a problem.
Please review and let me know what you think.
Also check out my other mortal instruments fanfics (Red and Gold, If I Die Young, A Night To Remember, Pretty Far From Brooklyn and Five In the Shadows)
The first thing Clary thought of as Luke drove up the Driveway of Lightwood Manor was that is was, well, a manor. The house was enormous, so much larger than the London home she shared with her family, and far larger than the cramp two-bedroom flat she had been living in with Luke for the past six months.
The house itself was huge, half red brick, half white panelled wood. The windows were all taller than she was and sat in pristine white wooden frames, each one decorated with a beautifully arranged flower box. The lawn was trimmed to perfection, not a stray blade or a daisy in sight. Small rose bushes lined the drive way and the patio outside of the house, each one ranging in colour from red to white to yellow to pink. Wide decked steps leg up to the roomy porch, two benches sat on either side of the white front door.
The next thing that hit Clary's mind were the people who were welcoming her with bright, smiling faces – some of them at least. There was a woman, she couldn't have been older than thirty-five, with black hair tied in a sophisticated bun, warm blue eyes hidden behind strict looking makeup to match her black pencil skirt, low heels and white blouse. That, however, was the only strict looking thing about her. Her smile was warm, emitting a maternal heat that tried desperately to wrap Clary in its clutches.
Next to the woman was a girl, a girl who looked exactly like her, but younger. The daughter, Clary presumed had long, inky black hair to her waist and was as tall as she was slender, curving in all the places that counted. Despite the cold, she wore a floating light blue dress to her mid thigh, high heeled boots on her feet that looked lethal and a large red pendant around her throat. It struck Clary that the only difference between the two girls were their eyes. Where the mothers were crystal blue, the girls were so dark they almost looked black. Just like Jonathon's were.
The other occupants were three boys. Two of which, much older than her, stood behind the mother, one with a welcoming smile, the other looked bored and half asleep. The taller of the boys had dark hair and blue eyes, just like his mother, but the other boy, he was, gold. Everything about him was, from his mussed hair, to his tired eyes, even his smooth skin. His face was angular and beautiful, the kind that made Clary's fingers itch for her sketchbook, but she resisted.
The final boy was young, a lot younger than her, with a scruffy mass of black hair and large blue-grey eyes, that gazed up at her adorningly, their size accentuated by the thick glasses he wore balanced on his nose. She noticed, with a pang of grief, that he looked like Simon did when he was younger. All knees and elbows, long gangly limbs and glasses too big for his face.
"Clarissa" the older woman said, descending the steps and holding her arms out wide, not as if she was asking for a hug, more in a welcome to our home, kind of way. "You look so much like your mother" she said kindly as she lowered her arms to her sides.
"Thank you" Clary mumbled shyly, feeling unbelievably out of place at this beautiful house with this beautiful family. "But call me Clary, please, everyone else does" she said with a smile, wincing slightly at her own British accent.
"Well then, Clary" she said with another warm smile that made Clary long for the warm arms of her own mother "My name is Maryse, I'd like you to meet Isabelle, my daughter" she said gesturing to the beautiful girl who half flew down the steps, her dress floating around her long legs as she went. When she reached Clary she wrapped her in a hug, not seeming to notice the surprised squeak Clary involuntarily made.
"This is going to be great" Isabelle squealed excitedly "Call me Izzy by the way" she said before bounding over to her mother.
"My eldest son, Alec" and the tall boy with the dark hair was in front of her almost instantly, holding a hand out towards her with a smile.
"I've heard a lot about you, Clary" he said, shaking her hand strongly.
"You have?" she replied cautiously, her mind reeling about all the things he could possibly know. Did he know about the time she was taken to hospital after being dared by Simon to eat glue when she was seven? That sounded like something you'd put on an adoption form.
"Well, mums been going on non-stop about you" he said, and walked to stand by his mother and sister.
"This is my youngest, Max" she said and the gangly little boy slowly walked towards her, clutching a book that Clary couldn't read the title of to his chest as he made a shy greeting before scurrying off to hide. So that left one. "And this is my adoptive son, Jace Herondale" she said proudly and the golden boy walked grudgingly down the stairs.
"Nice to meet you" he said forcedly, giving her a quick, false smiled before walking back over to Alec. Something told Clary that this boy wasn't someone who enjoyed new company.
"Well then, now we're all acquainted-" Maryse started before she was interrupted by a voice from the front door.
"So this is Clarissa?" the voice said. Clary followed the sound and was met by the gold-green eyes - curved slightly by what Clary assumed to be Asian heritage - of a very sparkly looking young man with spiked black hair and an almost see through shirt over black leather trousers, rings winking on each of his slim fingers. "I'm Magnus" he said walking elegantly down the steps, reaching for Clary's hand and kissing her knuckle. She blushed slightly, more at the contact than the person himself, but either way, he seemed like a very forward, very likable man. "I'm Alexander's boyfriend" he said with a wink and he straightened up.
"Oh" Clary replied, not shocked, everyone knew that, Magnus seemed like that kind of guy, it was Alex that shocked her. He just didn't come across that way, he seemed to serious, traditional even, the kind of boy who had to ask out the girl or feel Emasculated, but Clary was happy to know he was accepted.
There had been a girl two years above her at her London secondary school, Jessica her name was. She came out to her parents when she fifteen and they rejected her, so she moved out and went to live with a girl she'd met at a club. Now she's doing well for herself, she published her first self-help book at seventeen and it's all been getting better from there.
Clary hadn't realised that Luke had entered the group until she heard him and Maryse talking.
"So are you here long?" Maryse asked kindly, clearly familiar with Luke.
"No, 'fraid not, I've got to go pick up my niece, Maia, and take her back to England with me" he said back, his accent suddenly obvious to Clary now he was talking to well spoken Maryse. Is that how she sounded? Was her English accent that obvious? "I'd best be off now, Clary" Luke said, and Clary was overwhelmed by a sudden fear of being alone with strangers.
"Do you have to?" she said, trying not to sound like a child. She was pretty sure she heard one of the boys, probably the cold, gold one, scoffing at her.
"I'm sorry, Clary, but Maia needs me, I've got to pick her up in-" he stopped to check his watch "-forty-three minutes" he finished and gave her an apologetic look. Clary didn't waste another second, she threw herself at Luke, wrapping her slim arms around his shoulders, trying to kept he tears at bay as she hid her face in the crook of his neck.
"Hey" he said kindly, the voice she'd associated with a father-figure for the past six months "I'm only a phone call away" he said jokingly "If you need me, just ring me" he said, his grip on her tightening for a second, just one encouraging second, but it was enough to give Clary a burst of bravery. "Besides, I'm not due back in England for another week or two" If Luke could survive after leaving his family, Clary could do the same.
"I love you, Luke" she said and he smiled down at her, his blue eyes sad behind his square glasses.
"I love you too, Clary" he replied, planting a kiss on her forehead, smoothing some of her escaped ringlets out of the way. With one last smile, he climbed behind the wheel of his rented car and reversed out of the driveway. Clary didn't take her eye's off of that spot until the sound of the engine with inaudible from the distance.
"And this is your room" Isabelle said with a smile. She'd just shown Clary every room of the house, from the dinning room, to the games room, to the lounge and the ball room. Isabelle didn't quite know why it was they had a ballroom, but they did. The tour finally ended at the bedrooms.
All the bedrooms were on a singular corridor up the first fight of stairs. The first door was plain white, next to that was a door with 'Izzy' written on it in black, cursive writing. The next door was covered in manga pictures with Max written in untidy bubble writing. There were two doors opposite to Isabelle's, one belonging to Alec, one belonging to Jace. Every other door on this floor led either to another bedroom or a closet.
"Alec and Jace are bringing your things up" she pressed again, trying to gauge any kind of a reaction from the new girl as she could. She wasn't what Isabelle had been expecting from someone with a name like Clarissa. She'd expected a tall, British girl, with long blonde hair that curled perfectly in to delicate ringlets, with blue eyes that shone like the ocean in the summer. A girl who she could talk to about fashion and boys. Instead, Clary was short and slim, with bright emerald eyes and a curling mass of red hair with a soft, round and freckled face.
She didn't dress how Isabelle had expected either. She wore skinny jeans with a rip in both knees, the blue denim fraying to white, with a grass green blouse under a denim jacket, red converse on her feet.
Just as Isabelle opened her mouth to speak again, there were three consecutive thuds, and Isabelle turned to see Alec and Jace, three black suitcases at their feet.
"Here you go, Clary" Alec said with a smile, a warm brotherly smile that Isabelle saw an awful lot. "I hope you settle in okay" and then he headed off towards his own room, Jace just trudged back downstairs, not sparing a glance at Clary, or even smiling to Isabelle.
"I get the feeling he doesn't like me" Clary's quiet voice spoke out.
"Who-Jace?" she said and laughed a sweet, melodic laugh "Jace doesn't really like anyone." She said, but she said it kindly. "Anyway, I should leave you to settle in, I'll come and get you again when dinners ready though, okay?" she said eagerly, a bright happy look in her dark eyes, Clary nodded, not trusting herself to talk again, and then Isabelle went bounding down the hall and disappeared out of sight, leaving Clary to settle inot her new home alone.
Clary's new room was enormous, easily twice the size of her old family home, and maybe even three times the size of the room she had in Luke's tiny flat. There was a large floor to ceiling window with a plush green velvet window seat. Two floor-to-ceiling book shelves flanked the seat, but both were empty of any books, making them look bare and unfamiliar. The carpet was light beige, the walls a pale green, black flowers painted over some area's in soft, curling patterns.
There was a large double bed made of dark wood against the middle of the wall, the covers were white with a black flowered pattern over the top, green pillows adorning the top of the headboard. There was a dark wood vanity table empty of anything at all, a large empty wardrobe sat next to a similar empty chest of drawers. In one of the back corners was a door, presumably leading into a bathroom that Clary would check out later, and in the last corner a writing desk big enough for her to do any work she might find necessary.
She sighed, as beautiful as this house was – and it was extremely beautiful – it just wasn't home. Home was with her mother and her father in England, living in their sweet, moderately size family home with her older brother.
Not knowing what else to do, and longing to be with someone who she knew and trusted, Clary reached into her pocket, pulling out her slightly scratched and battered old phone, a present for her thirteenth birthday. She didn't even need to dial the number, his number was always saved.
After she pressed the call button it only took two rings for him to pick up, his soft, caring voice so familiar, and so far away.
"Hello" he said his voice half fuzzed by the distance and the not-so-great phone signal.
"It's me" Clary half whispered back, tears threatening to crack her voice.
"Hey, Clary what's up? Are you okay? Are you in America?" his voice sounded calm, but Clary knew the undertone of panic that carried in his voice.
"I'm fine, Jon, really, I just needed someone to talk to" she said with a sniffle. And she could hear Jonathon's pained sigh at the other end of the crackling connection.
"Well you know me, I'm all ears" and Clary poured out very single problem, every single worry, everything that could possible need to be told. She vented it all to her brother, pleading with him understand. She knew he was over a forty two hour drive away, but she needed her big brother more than ever now, she needed someone to help her through this, she didn't want to do anything else on her own.
It was seven o'clock when Isabelle went back up to Clary's room. She knocked on the wooden door, but no one replied. Taking this as a sign, she cautiously let the door creek open. Her bags were still stacked neatly at the end of her bed, not one of them opened. Clary herself was curled up on her bed atop the covers, asleep with a phone grasped in her hands.
Not wanting to disturb the girl while she slept, Isabelle crept back down the hall way before jumping down the stairs.
"She's asleep" she said to her mother who was stood by the stove, her hair now tied in a loose ponytail as she cooked for her family. Maryse loved to cook. She always finished work early at least once a week so she could came home and prepare a meal for her family. At least that way she knew they were eating something healthy and not just take-out food.
"Well then we'll leave her be, if she gets hungry she'll come down and find one of us" Maryse said with a smile. "Has anyone seen Jace?" she asked, locking eyes with everyone in the room.
"Asleep too" Alec said from his place at the kitchen island, Magnus by his side
"Well, we'll leave them both" she said, and began serving the food to her children. "It can't be easy for either of them" she said solemnly, knowing how hard it was when Jace joined a new family.
