A.N- This one's a bit longer, but there was a lot I wanted to cover with it. Sorry if it's a bit boring at times- I promise things will pick up in the next chapter.

Also, I apologise if I've got anything wrong or just a bit inaccurate here. I suspect I probably have, and for now, I'm just going to call it artistic license.

Chapter Three

Magnus

It turned out a lot of teachers were running late that day, as Magnus discovered when he entered his third period Media class. It was probably just because it was the first day of school. He grabbed a seat near the front, realising at that point that Clary from Drama was sitting next to him. That could be interesting. To pass the time, he pulled out his phone. After typing his password in- he'd been putting passwords on all his devices since freshman year, just to be on the safe side- he noticed a text from Raphael.

(text) Raphael: Houston, we have a problem.

Magnus quickly typed a response, wanting to know what had happened.

(text) Magnus: What's the problem?

The reply was almost instant.

(text) R: There's this guy in my math class. I think he was trying to hit on me.

(text) M: Do you like him?

(text) R: Maybe? I don't know. It's too early to say. It probably won't work out either way. He's not gonna want the same kind of relationship I do, after all.

(text) M: He might surprise you. Look, I'll talk to you more at lunchtime, alright? We can discuss all this properly then.

(text) R: Alright.

Magnus put his phone away just as the door opened. As soon as he saw who came in, his heart sank. This was not going to end well.

The problem with ending a bad relationship in freshman year, at least in Magnus's experience, was that you ended up still having to see that person every day for another three and a half years. Every year, he hoped something would happen to prevent Camille Belcourt from returning to their school, and every year nothing did. To make matters worse, they were in the same homeroom. Their school had an alphabetizing system when it came to homerooms. This sucked, because it meant that no matter what the cut-off was, he wouldn't be able to avoid having to see her every day.

Still, he'd at least hoped they wouldn't be sharing any classes this year, and until now they hadn't. Count your blessings, he thought. At least Alec's not in this class- she'd have a field day with that.

It was to his great relief that Camille and a few of her friends sauntered over to the far end of the room, away from him. However, his relief didn't last very long as she looked over at him, perhaps registering for the first time that he was in the room. Despite all his silent wishes, she still stood up and made her way over to him.

"Bane," she said, in place of a more normal greeting. "Outside, now. We need to talk." Clary looked at the two of them for a moment.

"There's no need to speak to him like that." She stood up, and although she was clearly the shortest one out of all three of them, something about her still gave off the impression she wasn't to be messed with. She might even be intimidating, if she wasn't so small.

"Who are you, then? His new girlfriend?"

"No," Clary smiled at him. "I'm his friend, and I don't appreciate people talking to my friends like that." Magnus blinked at her. They'd never even spoken before today, and yet she was coming to his aid and claiming they were friends?

"Whatever. Just come with me, Magnus. We don't have all day." He hated himself for standing up and following her- even after all this time, after everything she'd done, he still found it difficult to say no to her.

As soon as they were out into the corridor, she pushed him against the wall.

"Alright, Bane. I'm only going to say this once," she hissed, poking him hard in the chest with her finger. "Don't give me any trouble this year. This is our last year in this place, and if I have to spend it anywhere but here because you can't keep your mouth shut about something that happened almost three years ago, so help me, you will regret it. You broke that promise once, don't let it happen again. Are we clear?" He nodded. Who was he going to tell anyway? It wasn't like he trusted anyone enough for that. Seemingly satisfied, she stepped back and walked back into the classroom. Taking a minute or two to compose himself, he followed her.

"What was that all about?" Clary said as soon as he sat down.

"Long story, Ginger Spice. I'd rather not go into it." She nodded, then frowned.

"Ginger Spice? Really?"

"Hey, there are worse things I could call you." She sighed.

"Alright. But I'm calling you McFly, as long as you call me Ginger Spice. Two can play at that game." Magnus frowned at her in confusion.

"Why McFly?"

"Because you've always got all these colours in your hair." He nodded, seeing the connection.

"I've never had as many as five, though, but I see where you get that from." He only had two at the moment- black, which was his natural colour, and some gold highlights. After a moment, he shrugged. "Okay, I'll stop calling you Ginger Spice." She nodded.

At that point, the teacher came in. Magnus had had this teacher last year, for English. He was the kind of English teacher that got enthusiastic about Shakespeare, and he always had a quote of the month on his board.

For the first Media lesson, the teacher went over what the course would entail and started teaching them about movie trailers, in preparation for their first assessment. They would have a practice run before that, comparing two trailers in a group, and then they'd have the assessment itself.

When the bell rang, Magnus decided to speak to Clary again. He had geography next, which was in the same corridor as her next class, Religious, so it made sense to walk down together.

"So," he said as they headed out into the corridor. "We're friends, are we?" She blushed.

"Sorry." She was quiet for a moment, then she spoke again. "I've never been able to stand seeing people getting bullied, so I had to step in."

"I wasn't being bullied. I know that's what it looked like, but that wasn't what was happening."

"Still, I had to do something." She sighed. "Sorry if I was too forward."

"Don't worry about it, honestly." They started to descend the stairs to the ground floor.

"This day is going kind of surprisingly," she said. "I'm talking to people I've never talked to before- you, Maia, I even spoke to Alec Lightwood today in Math." That caught Magnus's attention.

"You had a class with Alec?" He hadn't had any classes with Alec this year, apart from Drama.

"Yeah. He was pretty quiet, though we talked a little at the end of the class." She smiled. "I think he thinks I have a crush on his sister."

"Do you?"

"Maybe, I don't know." She shrugged. By now they were coming into the corridor that their classes were in.

"Well, I'll see you around," Magnus said once they reached Clary's class. He waved once, before heading down the corridor to Geography.

Clary

There were only about ten people in the Religious class this year, including Simon. Clary took a seat next to him.

"Was that seriously Magnus Bane you were just talking to?" She nodded.

"We were in Media, and he had Geography, so we decided to walk down together. He's alright, actually. He called me Ginger Spice, and I think he and Camille Belcourt still have some problems or something, but he's not that bad."

"So, you're friends with Magnus Bane and you have a crush on Isabelle Lightwood. I almost feel jealous, Fray."

"Neither of those are true." Okay, maybe the second part was a little bit true. But that was beside the point. "Anyway," she said, trying to change the subject. "How've you been? I saw you talking to that guy you were sitting beside in Math."

"You mean Raphael? Yeah, he's cool. You know, he's never seen any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? We're meeting up at some point so I can show him some. He's going to show me some of this cartoon he watched growing up, too. I think it was called Grizzly Tales."

"I'm pretty sure I saw an episode of that once. It was kinda creepy. This guy tortured his pet spider, then told a story about these two kids who were basically the most obnoxious kids in their year, until a new barber showed up and cut parts of their tongues out. I never watched it again."

"Great," Simon muttered. "Now I feel so much better."

"I'm sure you'll be fine."

The lesson once again consisted of a lesson plan- they would do a section on Buddhism, a section on the origins of life and the universe, then finally a section on crime and punishment. Then they started learning about Buddhism.

Clary had to admit, the work for this class was actually pretty interesting. To start with, they were learning about the origins of Buddhism, and Clary found she was actually enjoying taking notes. It was almost a shame when the bell rang and it was time for lunch.

Lunchtime itself flew by. Clary bought her lunch then sat outside with Simon, enjoying the last of the sunshine. At one point she spotted Isabelle with her brother and Jace, and she smiled at her but didn't say hello. Other than that, nothing happened.

After lunch, she had study hall. Spotting Alec near the back and not recognising anyone else, she sat down beside him.

"Hey," she said, and he nodded in response. Setting her bag down, she got out her Buddhism notes, her coloured pens and her second notebook. She'd take this opportunity to start rewriting her notes. As she was doing this, she noticed Alec had gotten out his math homework and was having a look at it. "Wow, you're keen. We just got that today, didn't we?" she whispered, conscious that the teacher was at the front of the room.

"Honestly, I hate math. I just want to get it out the road." Alec's voice was more of a stage whisper. It was less a whisper and more the idea of one.

"Me too. I'm horrible at math, art's more my thing." She was surprised to find they had something in common.

"I just don't like it." Clary noticed the teacher glaring at them, so she ended the conversation there.

The final class of the day was a volunteering class Clary had signed up for to get extra credit. For one period a day, they would be bussed to the nearby middle school and help out in the classes there. Clary had been assigned to a seventh-grade art class Monday to Thursday, and a sixth grade English class on Fridays. She'd be sharing that class with Magnus, which she wasn't sure how to take. On the one hand, it might be fun. On the other hand, though, it said something about the class if it needed two people to help out in it. Still, she could cross that bridge when she got to it.

It turned out they wouldn't start the actual volunteering for a few days at least- they had to be trained a little first, so that they knew what they were doing. This was pretty boring, and Clary was glad when the bell rang and it was finally time to go home. It had been a long day, and it was a relief to leave the school building and get into her mother's car. First days were always the worst, so hopefully, things would only get better from here.