A/N: Thanks to all of the reviewers! I feel all warm and fuzzy inside when I read them.......

And, amazingly, I have nothing else to say. (That's a first, eh?) Except that after this chapter, I really wanted a cookie. Which is weird, because it didn't really involve cookies. But whatever.

Songs:

Thinkin' Bout You- Mario ft. Kelly Rowland

I Caught Myself- Paramore

Clary POV

Starting at a new school when they're already a fourth of the way through the year? Kinda sucks. Being surrounded by bitchy yet intimidatingly gorgeous and scarily tall girls all day? Really sucks. Listening to Isabelle talk about how she was going to take me shopping this weekend? That didn't suck. That was just really annoying.

The school was a lot smaller than my old one in New York, but the little town we lived in now was right on the outskirts of a huge city so the school had a moderate population.

Though size wasn't the only difference. Yes, in New York there were the flirts and the jocks and the few people who were complete and total bitches, but I swear that ninety percent of the girls in this school didn't even know what the word 'nice' meant.

All morning, I had to give the same speech over and over again. "Hi, I'm Clary Fray and my mom and I just moved here from West Virginia." It was getting pretty boring, having to say that.

I was a little worried about lunch in the morning, but thankfully Izzy was in my fourth hour class, which was right before my lunch hour.

"Don't worry, new kids are always worried about lunch the most. You can sit with me and my friends." I'd smiled gratefully.

I'd brought my own lunch, mainly because I was kind of afraid of what they had at the school. Izzy looked at my bagel with envy, then stared down at her own lunch.

"I'm not even sure what this is." She said, poking it with her fork.

Suddenly the table was full of people, and when I looked up Jace was sitting right next to me. "Having fun today, Annie?" He murmured to me.

"Not yet, King Asshat. But if I start, I'll be sure to tell you." He rolled his eyes as he turned to his lunch.

Izzy started introducing me to everyone. "This is Sebastian, Maia, Eric, Aline, Cait, Kyle, and of course you know Alec and Jace." I looked over next to Isabelle; I hadn't even realized Alec was here. "Everyone, this is our new neighbor, Clary." I waved to everyone. I vaguely recognized Sebastian, I was pretty sure he was in my English class. And I knew Maia and Kyle were in my Spanish class.

When I looked at Eric, though, I felt a pang of sadness. He looked like the geekiest of the group, and he incredibly reminded me of my best friend from home, Simon.

I was about to say something to them all, I felt someone pushing my chair aside and shoving in her own between mine and Jace's. I looked over at her, but all I could see was the back of her blond head. She threw her tray down on the table and immediately put her arms around Jace. He grunted and looked like he wanted to push her off. I rolled my eyes and looked away and saw Izzy doing the same thing.

"And that's Kaelie." She muttered. I nodded slowly and took a bite of my bagel and Kaelie finally released her chokehold on Jace.

She sighed happily, and whined, "Weekends are so boring without you, Jace. I always miss you." Jace rolled his eyes and muttered something unintelligible.

Kyle, who was sitting next to me, leaned over and whispered, "If you think this makes you sick, wait 'til he's in one of his bad moods. Then they're all over each other."

I looked over at him and grimaced. "Oh, joy!" I said in a sarcastically cheery voice.

He smiled, and I was surprised at how white his teeth were. Kyle had dark brown hair that was arranged messily in that 'just-woke-up-but-I-still-look-good' way, and his skin was almost as pale as mine. His eyes were a pale blue, and he was obviously tall. From his muscles, I assumed he probably played football or something.

"Who's this?" I heard someone sneer. I looked over at her. Yes, she was beautiful, but it was obvious she used a lot of makeup to get that way. She looked about the same height as Isabelle, and though I hated to admit it, it was obvious that all those vain guys would go after her. She had the figure all guys wanted, and she showed off more cleavage than necessary.

"Kaelie, this is Clary Fray. She just moved here, and she's our new neighbor." Jace explained.

She looked at me with a smirk on her face. "What, the genius twelve year old is living next door to you?"

I opened my mouth to snap a reply, but Jace beat me to it. "Actually, Kaelie, Clary's seventeen. She's a junior, just like Izzy. And yes, she's our new neighbor." He sounded annoyed, but I wasn't sure if it was because of me or Kaelie.

She stared at me for a few more seconds, then looked over at Jace. "Well, make sure you close your curtains at night. Wouldn't want little stalker girl over here to get any ideas about my merchandise."

I looked over at Izzy. Little stalker girl? I mouthed. She shrugged meekly, like she really didn't know what to say.

"I wasn't aware that I was anyone's merchandise but my own, Kaelie." Jace said coolly, looking at the wall across the cafeteria.

She rolled her eyes. "Well, of course not, silly. All of this," She said coyly, running her manicured nails down Jace's bicep and onto his chest, "Belongs to me."

I rolled my eyes and kept eating, trying not to listen to them and instead join the conversation the others were having. This girl was completely ridiculous. And it seemed like she was completely clueless, too. I was going to say something that was slightly rude to her, something along the lines of 'he's not interested you slut, so why don't you get your hands off him,' but I caught myself

I could tell Jace was trying to change the subject. He looked at me and asked, "So, did you even remotely pay attention to the Italian Rebellion today in History?"

I was confused for a moment, and he grinned. "You're in AP history, little miss genius. You're in the same class as me."

My mouth formed a silent 'Oh'. "No, I didn't really pay attention. At my old school, I learned that when I was a freshman." I was going to back to eating my bagel, but I set it back down as I remembered something. "Hey, does that mean you're in my Biology class, too?"

Jace raised an eyebrow. "That depends. Do you have Biology next hour?" I nodded and he smiled. A real, genuine smile that made my heart skip a beat. "Then yes, Annie, we do have Biology together."

Kaelie leaned over and whispered something in Jace's ear. He took her hand of his stomach, where he'd stopped it as it started to creep lower. "I don't belong to anyone." He drawled. "And I certainly don't plan on going into the woods with you after lunch."

Izzy and Sebastian burst out laughing as Kaelie turned red and leaned grumpily back in her seat. I half-smiled, and she turned to glare at me. "What exactly are you laughing at?"

"Your attempt to get yourself laid. I find it amusing how badly it went."

She glared at me again and said, "Yeah, cuz I'm sure you, little miss virgin princess, would know all about it."

I shrugged. "Better a virgin than a whore."

Gee, my first day and I'm already calling people names.

Then again, this girl obviously deserved it. And since no one else would......

She gasped, but recovered quickly. "Yeah, well at least I'm hot enough to get a guy to even look at me."

I made an angry noise, and looked around the table. My eye was immediately caught by something. I looked up and said, "Izzy, I'll buy you a new cupcake tomorrow."

Then I picked up the large blue and gold cupcake that was sitting on Isabelle's tray and promptly shoved it straight into Kaelie's face.

Then I got up and walked straight out of the cafeteria, a smirk on my face as I left behind the echoes of laughter.

Jace POV

As I watched her walk out, I couldn't help but laugh. Kaelie looked so ridiculous as she tried to scrape icing off her face, whining something about her makeup being completely messed up.

"Jace, why did you let her do that?"

"I don't have control over what other people do. Maybe if you hadn't been so rude to her, this wouldn't have happened."

"Are you actually agreeing with her?!?!" Kaelie shrieked.

I laughed a little and pretended to consider it. "Yeah. I think I am."

She glared at us all and then got up, grumbling something about getting the bitch back and how inconsiderate we all were.

Watching her storm out was not nearly as fun as watching Clary storm out, but it was still nice to be rid of the girl. She was like an annoyingly incessant fly or something. Yes, she was a good way to pass the time when I needed it, but she was getting too attached.

"Now do you guys see why we like Clary?" Isabelle asked, still laughing.

"Oh yeah. Fiery redhead, isn't she?" Sebastian said, also still laughing.

"Hey, if she does that every day, I'll love her forever." Kyle joked. Something about him saying that made me a little uncomfortable, though I'm not sure why.

As they meandered into meaningless chatter, I let my mind wander. How in the world did I get here? I went from being Jace Wayland the fearless shadowhunter to Jace Wayland, high school student. I sat with a werewolf, a faerie, and a bunch of mundanes.

I'd hated the idea at first, but after two and a half years, even mundies can begin to grow on you. When I'd first realized that I didn't consider them completely below me, I'd tried to ignore them and I acted like a total ass. (Not that I'm not an ass.) But when I realized that throwing a tantrum wasn't going to change anything, that we were stuck here for good, I figured it was probably better that I have some people to talk to instead of just being one of those pathetic friendless loners.

I couldn't help but feel a little sad that Clary had left, and I figured she was probably pretty hungry considering she'd left her lunch here.

Making a snap decision, I picked up her lunch and walked out of the cafeteria, most likely leaving curious stares behind me.

I wasn't exactly sure where she would be, but then I remembered what she'd been doing when I'd first met her. I went outside over to the sunny area of the courtyard, where I found her sitting on top of a picnic table. She didn't hear me coming, and when I set her lunch on the table she jumped a little and shut her sketchbook.

"Sorry."

She smiled a little. "It's fine. I just didn't expect anyone to come out here."

I smiled back. "Well I couldn't let my new neighbor starve on her first day, now could I?" I teased, hopping up next to her on the table.

She picked up her bagel and started eating. "Fanks." She mumbled through a mouthful of food.

We sat in silence for a few minutes while she finished eating. "So that was a pretty amusing stunt you pulled in there." I finally said.

She grimaced. "Yeah. My first day here and I already made an enemy."

"Hey." I said softly, bumping her shoulder against mine. "She deserved it."

Clary's face hardened into an angry mask. I didn't like seeing her like that. "Yeah. She did deserve it." Her voice wavered a little.

"Clary." I waited until she looked at me to continue. "Kaelie says a lot of bullshit all the time. She's just not a very nice person and she gets jealous of almost every girl. She thinks that she needs to be wanted by everyone, and she doesn't like it when people get in the way of that. What she said in there, it's not true." I took a lock of her hair into my hand and twirled it. It glimmered in the sun, with little natural highlights of blond in it. "You're beautiful. And I know a lot of the guys in that cafeteria want to do a lot more than just look at you."

She blushed and I smiled. I was really only telling her the truth, I'd heard a bunch of guys talking about her all day. And every time I'd heard them say something, I'd gotten a little bit angry. But being with Clary seemed to make me completely calm, like nothing had ever happened. I could tell what I'd said embarrassed her, so I let go of her hair as she looked away. Just as I was about to say something, the bell rang and she quickly jumped up.

"Time for Biology."

Apparently today was my lucky day, because Clary got placed as my lab partner. Her face still seemed a little pink, but I wasn't sure if that was because of the weather or because of what I'd said.

Even after Biology, I couldn't get her out of my head. This was very unusual for me, but there was something about her.....

It was obvious that she was shy and that she had no idea how beautiful she was. You could tell she cared and that she would stand up for anything she wanted. She had a scarily vulnerable side, but she also had a strong-willed and angry side that would fight if she needed to.

I swear, I think Clary is the most complicated girl I'd ever met. I didn't really believe she was from West Virginia, she always hesitated before she said that. But why would she lie? The only people who lied about where they were from were criminals and people who were in the Witness Protection Program. And I really couldn't see her in either of those situations.

But when I really thought about it, I realized I didn't know much about her. I knew a little of her personality, and I knew she liked to draw and that she was very good at it.

For some reason, that didn't seem to make a difference. I felt some uncontrollable pull towards her, like she needed my help or something.

Although from the look of what had happened at lunch that day, it didn't seem like Clary needed help from anyone. Especially when you considered the look on Kaelie's face throughout the rest of the day. If looks could kill.

As I got to my car, I heard Kaelie muttering to her friends, (Who were really her minions) "We're going to get that bitch for what she did. And I don't even know why Jace defended her. I think he feels bad for her or something, like he's taken to acting like a big brother to her."

Brotherly was the exact opposite of what I felt towards Clary.

I knew that Kaelie and her friends would be planning something, and I knew that Kaelie could have a pretty evil mind sometimes, but I wasn't particularly worried for Clary. She could take care of herself.

Just as long as Kaelie didn't get help from anyone with a smarted mind. If she did, then Clary was probably screwed.

Ah, the damage a cupcake can do.

So there you go! Clary's still pretty clueless, though maybe after that conversation with Jace, she may be realizing some things......

So someone gave me a review saying there needs to be more fluff. Don't worry, I'm getting there. But if everything happened that fast, I think it would be a little unrealistic. But review and tell me what you thought of this chapter! Pretty pretty please? And who knows, say something interesting and maybe I'll mention it in the next chapter.