A/N: Okay, okay, I know I've been updating every single day. I'm taking advantage of the creativity I've been feeling and have been wanting to write this story, so I hope you guys don't mind that.

I'll be saying this with every update if I need to and that is that I just wanna say thank you to those review, alert and favorite! Sincerely means the world to me, it's providing me serious motivation to keep on writing new chapters. There's flashbacks and history explained in this chapter, not everything, but I hope it's enough. Please keep it coming, I love any feedback and would love to know what you guys are thinking.

Clary stared out the passenger window while she and Sebastian waited.

"Who are we waiting for?" Clary asked.

"Jace and Alec," Sebastian told her. "Jace is always late."

"Ah," Clary said. A moment later, someone slammed their hands into her window, his face pressed up against it, and she jumped out of her seat in fear. She looked at Sebastian in shocked confusion.

"Yeah, that's Jace," He told her and she looked back at the window. He was still there, with his face pressed right against the glass and she wondered if he could see her. If he could, why was he still there? What a weirdo. 'Hm', Clary thought. 'Good looking'.

She looked forward when he finally departed and opened the back door. He got in, with his friend following in after him. Clary slowly looked over her shoulder and they made eye contact, she could see the realization and slight humiliation on his face. It left as quickly as it came.

"Jace, Alec, this is Clary," Sebastian introduced.

Alec and Jace both gave her a nod and a smirk while they said in unison, "Hi, Clary."

"Hey," Clary responded, then turned back around. She didn't talk to them for the rest of the night.

Jace stared at Clary. He found himself doing it often with her, often shamelessly. He was across from her on the ice and she was talking to Raphael and a guy he was introduced to named Bat. Jace was very aware that Clary was always with someone. She would skate away from them, then find another group, and, after that, do her rounds again. It was only obvious to Jace because he was trying to nonchalantly strike up conversation while skating but it felt like she was literally running away from him.

"Hm," Jace made a noise out loud, finally peeling his eyes away from her.

Jace remembered the first day he met Clary very well. He had embarrassingly pressed his face against Sebastian's car window thinking that it was only Sebastian in there. He was wrong. He remembered Clary looking back at him and after he cursed himself for being weird, he was drawn to her eyes immediately. He looked away very quickly. He saw Alec looking down too.

Sebastian had been raving about Clary since she moved to Arizona and everyone already knew everything about her. They also knew that Clary was his and since Sebastian was a somewhat leader and best friend to every guy in the group, she was most definitely off limits.

"This is Clary," he remembered Sebastian saying. To be kind, he and Alec said their "Hi, Clary", smiling a little. Jace remembered looking at Clary, distinctly thinking, 'Cute'.

Clary stood with Helen, the two of them being the quiet ones in the group. They were waiting for reservations into a restaurant and weresitting on the side. She enjoyed that Helen could sit in silence with her. She was the only one she really trusted in the group - other than Sebastian, and that was only because he was the one to befriend her first. He always picked her up since she didn't have a car or a license yet, bringing her wherever he went, taking her wherever she wanted to go, even though she never had any suggestions.

Jocelyn told her that morning that Sebastian must've liked her. Clary had diffused the observation and told her that Sebastian was just nice.

Clary looked to her left and made eye contact with Jace, who was side eyeing her. He stood with Alec and Isabelle. It had been two weeks since she met him and she thought he was weird. Clary knew she herself was weird but Jace was a kind of weird she hadn't encountered yet. He never really talked to her other than "hello" but he always stared. Sometimes he looked concerned, angry or like he was trying to figure out something about her. He very rarely turned away when she would make eye contact back with him, making her be the one to turn away, uncomfortably. This time, she was feeling annoyed. She stared right back at him and his face didn't budge. Today, he looked as if he was trying to examine her. After a few seconds that felt like minutes, Clary narrowed her eyes, feeling the annoyance build while her heart was beating fast. His eyes got wide, as if he realized he was staring and finally looked away.

Clary huffed, finally averting her gaze. Now she was just mad. Who the hell was this guy? Why did he stare all the time? She didn't get it. 'What a freakin' weirdo,' Clary thought. She looked over again as Aline walked up to him, grinning. That was another thing. Why did he keep staring when it was obvious that something was going on with him and Aline?

Clary could feel his gaze on her. It made her bother her friends more, she had drove Magnus and Simon to the point that they shooed at her when she passed by. She didn't bother going to them anymore. She was even willing to deal with the awkwardness of being the third wheel in Maia and Jordan's obvious love fest. Raphael and Bat seemed to be in deep conversation and Clary felt bad bothering them every time she made her way around the rink. She could skate by herself but she wanted an excuse to not talk to Jace in case he decided to skate up beside her. Every time she passed him, she zoomed by. He was the only other one who knew how to skate, making rounds around the rink like she was, while Magnus and Simon were just trying to get to the exit so they could hang out at the side, their feet firmly planted on the ground.

Clary felt the familiar annoyance from his stares begin to blend into her feelings of nervousness. It was making her extremely fidgety. She couldn't stop her mind from remembering memories that she had tried so hard to block or forget.

She remembered the time when Jace finally stopped staring without talking a word to her. He continued to still stare of course, but at least he was talking, too. It was after she glared at him for the first time, so when he decided to talk to her that same night, she wasn't the nicest. Until she realized she could have a real conversation with him. It was refreshing, she hadn't been able to comfortably talk to anyone since she moved there. 'Maybe staring boy isn't so bad,' she thought to herself that night. That thought quickly turned into feelings of interest, which she knew should be pushed away and never acknowledged.

It wasn't until he began his cycle of talking to Aline and her friends, then once they walked away he would go talk to her and Helen - that is when she couldn't help but wonder if he felt that same thing between them. Clary was very confused and Helen was catching on. She could see it in Helen's eyes that she was wondering if something was happening between them. She even asked and Clary denied. Helen shrugged telling her that she and Jace would be cuter than him and Aline. Clary's jaw dropped and the two laughed together.

Interrupting her thoughts, Clary looked down at two little boys that had pushed her.

"Move it, red head!" They screamed. Clary gasped and, obviously not being in the right state of mind, she pushed one of them. They looked back and glared at her while Clary's eyes got wide. Why did you do that? Oh God, you're so stupid Clary. They glared at her. Fuck.

"We'll get you back for that," one of them hissed like a little demon.

Clary's shoulder slumped and she slowed down a stop. You just started an argument with two little boys who are terrorizing the whole rink. Clary looked around, she needed some type of help or protection. She was embarrassed and a little concerned on what the two boys would actually do to her. She looked around and skated towards Bat and Raphael. With Bat's back turned towards her, Raphael saw her approaching and shook his head very slightly. Bat's shoulders were tense, Clary could see from afar and she snapped her fingers in defeat. Simon and Magnus were already sitting down. Clary continued to skate and almost fell over seeing Maia and Jordan kissing on the ice. She laughed to herself but the joy was short lived, since the two monsters screamed at her while they passed. Clary frowned. She didn't want to stop skating on account of two little bastards who seemed dedicated on pushing her over.

Clary sighed. There was only one person left that she could ask some help from. He was skating all alone for the past hour and a half. She felt bad. Nobody was talking to him either; it felt like that was their way of forcing them to talk. She glided through the ice, gathering up all her courage and constantly telling herself that maybe this time, they could be good friends. Just as she was about to tap him on the shoulder, matching his speed of skating, the two demons made their round and called her 'Merida' loud and clear as they passed. Her planned light tap on the shoulder turned into grabbing his arm and he looked down at her, surprise on his face.

He was grinning at her. "Well, hello."

"Hi," she said, immediately letting go of his arm. She saw a little bit of flattery in his eyes and she definitely didn't want him thinking that holding onto him to be an action of flirting. "I pissed off these two little kids, could you help me?"

He laughed. "Sure, how can I help? Should I find them?" He made an action of punching.

She couldn't help but laugh back. "No, no. Just skate beside me?"

He smiled. "Sure."

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