Wow I'm delighted with the response i've gotten so far with this story :D seriously thank you :D Since I uploaded it first like 24 hours ago I've gotten loads of hits and visitors so thank you :D And also thank you to those of you who added my story to your alerts :D was really nice to see so many emails regarding feedback on my story :D Because I got such a good response I spent most of the day putting the finishing touches to this chapter :D I'm trying to write two at a time before updating so that you don't have to wait too long for the next chapter :D Anyways here's chapter 3 which is a bit longer then the other 2 so let me know what you think :)
Disclaimer: Again as before, I don't own any of the Mortal Instruments Characters :( they belong to Cassandra Clare :)
However, I do own Laurie and some of the other random characters i've thrown in :)
Chapter 3:
Before I knew it was being woken up by Laurie bouncing up and down on my bed telling me to wake up. I groaned and tried turning over, but this just made her more impatient.
"Clary wake up! Your friend is on the phone and she telled me you're late." This instantly woke me up. Crap! I must have forgotten to set my alarm last night! Looking over at my bedside clock I saw that it was 8.05. God this girl really does expect people to be exactly on time.
"Ok ok baby give me the phone. And quit jumping on my bed or you'll fall off!" Taking the phone from Laurie I took a deep breath before putting it to my ear and beginning my apologies.
"Isabelle I'm soo sorry I forgot to set my alarm and…well yeah I'm going to be late. Also I have no idea where this place is we're meant to be meeting…" I trailed off waiting for her to reply.
"Ah Clary don't worry about it. Getting to talk to whoever that adorable sounding little girl is makes up for it."
She then proceeded to tell me how to get to Taki's and told me not to bother about doing my hair and makeup but to "get my butt" down there now. With a sigh I clicked off and hopped out of bed. I threw on the first thing I could find, which turned out to be my favourite pair of black skinny jeans and oversized jumper.
Running down the stairs I said a quick goodbye to my Mom and Luke who were eating breakfast and gave Laurie a quick kiss and ran out the door to my car. This better not be a sign of how bad today's going to go I thought to myself while following the directions Isabelle had given me.
Taki's turned out to only be a five minute drive from my house which surprised me.
As I walked towards the place I almost turned around and walked back to my car. Sitting in a booth by the window was Isabelle with not only Alec and Magnus, but Jace was there sitting with his back to me.
Before I could debate the pro's and con's of going back to my car and coming up with an excuse for missing breakfast, Isabelle saw me through the window and waved frantically at me. Great, she's seen me. No fear of getting the chance to run away so…
Putting a smile on my face I squared my shoulders and walked into the café and sat down in the only available seat which was facing Jace.
"Morning sleepyhead. You found Taki's ok I see." I smiled at Isabelle and apologised again for being late.
"Ahh don't worry about it. But who on earth was the cutie I was talking to on the phone. Even by the sounds of her voice I can tell she's a little doll."
I smiled to myself and explained to her and everyone else, while avoiding Jace's eyes that she was my little sister, and although she sounded cute she could be a little terror sometimes.
Just then a girl not much older then us came and took our orders. Everyone else knew exactly what they wanted without even looking at the menu. I picked the first thing I saw which happened to be pancakes and a strong black coffee.
As I described my little sister and answered Isabelle's million and one questions about her, I could feel Jace's eyes on me the whole time and I tried with all my might not to look across the table and meet his gaze. Eventually, when the girl came back with our orders, Isabelle remembered that I didn't know Jace.
"God Clary I totally forgot, this here is my adoptive brother Jace. Jace this is Clary…"
Jace smirked and replied simply "I know who she is Izz, she's the first person to not have accepted my friend request…ever."
I was momentarily stunned at this. But gathered myself quickly and replied "Friend request? Oh on Facebook…sorry but I wasn't really on it last night. I have more important things to be doing then spending my time on it to see who does and doesn't accept my requests right away."
This boy was going to learn pretty quickly that I could be just as sarcastic as him and that unlike most girls I wouldn't be jumping for joy that he possibly had or hadn't taken an interest in me…at least not publically anyways, in the safety of my own room when alone…maybe.
Isabelle, Alec and Magnus simply laughed at our exchange and we paid for our breakfast and left. I followed Isabelle to school as I still wasn't 100% sure how to get there from Taki's. That will be all I need to get lost on my way to school and give Jace another reason to make another sarcastic remark.
Once at school I pulled up in the space beside Isabelle's van, which all four of them bundled out of. We still had a few minutes before the bell so we strolled over to the main building to go to our first class, not in any hurry.
Isabelle was in the middle of attempting to beg me to let her stage what she called "a necessary intervention" relating to my dress sense and general appearance when I suddenly tripped and landed on my backside on the tiled floor. Looking up dazed I saw the same girl who yesterday had been drapped all over Jace, smirk at me and say "You need to be more careful when you walk sweetie. I don't know how things were done in your old school, but here you need to be careful, there's all sorts of…things which could trip you up."
With that she winked at me and strutted over to Jace who was looking at me with a frown on his face like he had wanted to help me up but thought better of it.
Isabelle bent down and helped me up. "Come on Clary lets go to the bathroom and sort you out before class, we still have a few minutes." I simply nodded and followed her to the girls bathrooms wondering what on earth I had done to the girl that she'd trip me up and then warn me to be careful.
"That Nikki is a total bitch! Who does she think she is picking on you like that! And for everyone to see as well!" Isabelle exploded as soon as the bathroom door was closed and she had checked we were alone.
"Isabelle don't worry about it. There was two girls exactly like that back home and my best friend Ellie and I just totally ignored them and they eventually got bored of us."
No need to tell her that the same two girls now appeared to be becoming best friends with Ellie. At that thought I was reminded of the uneasy feeling I got whenever I thought of Ellie and me. How is our friendship going to survive when already it looks like she's changed and it's awkward between us?
But before I could despair too much, the bell rang and Isabelle dragged me from the bathroom and down the hallway to our first period which thankfully was Math and meant I wouldn't be in the same class as Jace or the girl who seemed to hate me even though she didn't know me and had never had a conversation with me.
The morning passed by in a blur that thankfully had no more incidents like the one this morning. From our chats in between classes I learned that Isabelle lived in a country house not too far from mine, with her brother Alec, Jace and younger brother Max. Her parents travelled a lot so weren't home that often, so they had a live in tutor who they called Hodge.
When I asked her how Jace came to end up living with them she shrugged and said simply that his parents had died when he was younger and he had lived with them most his life. I sensed there was more to the story then that but that Isabelle wasn't comfortable telling it to me.
By lunch time I knew most of Isabelle's life story and had filled her in on some bits about me.
I still hadn't told her exactly why we had moved around so much. Only one person knew the real reason why and that was Ellie. It had taken me the best part of a year to trust her enough to be able to tell her all about it, but there was something about Isabelle that made me know I could trust her right away.
Thinking of Ellie I decided to give her a call and see how she was. Excusing myself from the group I moved to the end of the table and dialled her number. While waiting for her to pick up I could feel Jace's gaze on me. What's his problem and why does he keep staring at me? But before I could delve too much into possible reasons for his staring Ellie picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hi Ells it's Clary! Just thought I'd give you a ring and see how you were while I was on my lunch."
"…Oh hi Clary, sorry I thought u were Abbs or Shanice calling me…I'm waiting on them to come pick me up so we can go to the mall and go shopping."
Since when did she call Abbey "abbs"? and since when did she go shopping with them! I frowned to myself and decided to bite the bullet and ask outright why she was hanging round with them now.
"I'm sorry but did you say Abbey and Shanice? What happened to hating them and claiming we'd never be friends with them?" I was greeted with silence on the other end of the phone.
"Look Clary I don't know what the hell your problem is! But in case you forgot you just upped and left! What did you think I was going to do? You clearly haven't wasted any time in making friends…telling me all about some Isabelle girl that was 'oh so nice'…Sorry but no way…"
For a moment I was stunned but as soon as she mentioned my making friends with Isabelle, it instantly got my back up and I exploded…
"Hold up a second Ellie that's not what I meant! I just wondered why all of a sudden you were hanging round with girls who not too long ago you said you hated. And as for Isabelle…what did you think I wasn't going to make friends and be stuck on my own for however long I last at this place?"
By the end of this I was shouting down the phone at Ellie and had attracted the attention of everyone at the table, including Jace who had been engrossed in discussion with Alec about something.
"…well tell you what you can do Clary, you can go be friends with whoever the dork is you've found…meanwhile I'm heading out now with Abbs and Shanice…I'll talk to you later." With that she hung up on me.
Feeling the familiar pricky sensation that was tears building up at the back of my eyes I stood up from where I was sitting and fled the canteen. I ran to the nearest girls bathroom and locked myself in a cubicle.
What the hell just happened? Ellie was supposed to be my best friend and promised she'd be there for me. Before I could begin a full on crying session, Isabelle came into the bathroom and banged on the door.
"Clary…Clary! Come on, come out and tell me why you ran off like that!" taking a deep breath and attempting to dry the tears which had managed to escape I came out of the cubicle and found an extremely worried Isabelle facing me.
"I'm…I'm sorry Isabelle, I had a bit of an argument with Ellie on the phone…"
At that I began to cry again. Isabelle bundled me into her arms and stood there hugging me, while I tried to get a grip on myself. Once I had calmed down enough she took a step back and said simply "Ok you are coming to stay at mine tonight…no arguments! And you can tell me everything and I mean everything." I simply nodded and gave her a watery smile and again wondered how after little over a day I already trusted her a lot more then I did other people.
Isabelle gave me a glowing smile of her own and dragged me to the sink where she began to empty the contents of her bag onto the counter in search of something.
"Ok close your eyes and face me. We can't have you going round looking like you've been crying your eyes out for the rest of the day and this gives me the perfect excuse to FINALLY get some make up on that perfect skin of yours."
I didn't even have the energy to argue and let Isabelle work her magic while I tried to decide whether or not I'd tell her the whole story from Ellie acting all weird to my crazy father.
After what felt like forever(even though it was only a few minutes), Isabelle let me open my eyes and look in the mirror to admire her work. My face looked flawless. You couldn't see any of my freckles which were scattered across my nose and no one would have any idea that a few minutes previous I had been crying.
"Wow Isabelle I look…I look great." At this Isabelle laughed and shook her head at me.
"Of course you do. Some girls are good at drawing or writing, but my talents lie with a make up brush and various potions designed to give you flawless skin." I laughed at this and headed back to the canteen to enjoy what was left of my lunch hour.
Thankfully no one mentioned what had happened on the phone before I had fled the table.
Again I noticed Jace watching me while appearing to be in conversation with Alec. Maybe I should go and ask him what his problem is, I thought to myself.
In the middle of weighing up the pro's and con's of doing just this, the girl, Nikki, from this morning stalked up to Jace and proceeded to slap him across the side of the face. I flinched as her hand connected with his cheek and for a moment had the irrational urge to go up to her and hit her back. But before anyone could really react, she turned on her heel and left the canteen just as quick as she had entered without a word.
Alec looked back and forth between the retreating figure of Nikki and a stunned Jace and said simply "So another one bites the dust eh?"
Upon hearing this Jace seemed to unfreeze and proceeded to elbow Alec in the ribs, which earned him a punch on the arm from Magnus who was sitting on the other side of Jace.
Before Jace could give a sarcastic response, which I'm sure he was about to, the bell went signalling the end of lunch.
It was then I remembered I had History next with Jace, who just so happened to sit next to me. Maybe today he'll actually speak to me…or at least not catch me if my eyes happen to wander to his amazing hair or golden eyes…I shook my head and wondered what had happened to me? I never used to even give guys like Jace a second thought, never mind hope he would talk to me or didn't catch me looking at him.
With a deep breath I entered the classroom and took my seat down the back beside the current vacant one which Jace would be filling, as soon as he had finished talking to some guy who had called him over to the other side of the class.
While in the middle of rooting in my bag for my pencil case and notepad I heard Jace sit down beside me.
I glanced up without thinking and met his gaze. I noticed that the cheek which Nikki had slapped was slightly red, but Jace didn't seem too bothered by it and made no attempt to hide it. In fact he appeared to be quite proud of it. Before either of us could say anything Mr O'Neill called the class to order and began to outline what we would be studying this term. I reluctantly turned around to face him and began to take notes.
Before I had a chance to take down more then one line of notes a piece of paper was slid onto my table by a slender hand. Frowning to myself I opened it and read its contents…
So Izzy tells me you're sleeping over tonight…tut tut and on a school night as well!
Shaking my head in disbelief I wrote a quick reply before passing it back over…
So what you're actually acknowledging I exist and speaking to me? Yeah she told me we need 'girl time' *rolls eyes*
Before I could concentrate enough to take any more notes on the topic being discussed the paper was slid back onto my desk…
I always acknowledged you exist…didn't I add you on Facebook? A request I might add you have yet to except. Ahh 'girl time' a.k.a Izzy shall be torturing you with that gunk she puts on her face and hair. You need saving I'll be in the room across from Iizzy's ;)
Laughing to myself and thinking "Ahh the Facebook thing again" and I will admit shuddering slightly at the thoughts of Isabelle forcing a makeover on me I wrote back, after first attempting to catch up on the notes Mr O'Neill was currently writing up.
Well now I just cannot wait…wonder will she believe me if I tell her I fell down the stairs and broke my leg? Thanks for offering to be my knight in shining armour but I think I can handle myself…how bad can she be? Anyways I need to take these notes down so I'll ttyl
The rest of the class passed by in a blur as I tried to make sense of Jace's sudden interest in me and attempting to prepare myself for what was going to be no doubt an evening filled with Isabelle attacking me with all sorts of "gunk" as Jace had called it.
I also decided that I would tell Isabelle whatever she wanted to know about me seeing as how she had been totally open with me and invited me to stay in her house, even though she only knew me 48 hours.
Tonight is going to be interesting that's for sure…
So what do you guys think? You like it? Sorry if I rambled on a bit...this chapter had a bit more going on in it then the other 2 did though, hence why it's longer :D Anyways please review and let me know what you guys think...I'm starting to understand why other people love receiving reviews so much :)
xx
