I will never criticize these writers again. It always sort of bothered me when chapters were so short, but now I realize how hard it is to write such long chapters. I'll try to make this one longer for you guys. And sorry if it's going too slow. Is it going too slow? I'm already three chapters in and I haven't gotten to the actual school scene. Well, at least I'm gettin' to it now.
ImpossibleSociety
Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah. We know. I don't own The Mortal Instruments.
JONPOV
He was worried about her. I mean, two years learning, but not actually learning, that outsider artist vibe she had, and the blunt take she had on everything and everyone; she never held anything back. Well, at least not normally. Just look at hat happened ten minutes ago! Somehow it didn't seem ethical for someone to ask another person they just met if they were gay. Well sure, everything she said had been on point, but it wasn't... the most tactical plan of attack.
He was walking with the Lightwoods, about to turn the corner in the hallway to get to his locker, when he heard a familiar tinkling laugh. Jon froze immediately, sticking his hand out to halt the others.
There it was again- the giggle. Jon wasn't sure he had ever heard that kind of laugh originate from Clary. Sure, he had heard her laugh before, hey; he was even there when she laughed so hard she started snorting uncontrollably. But this laugh, this Clary was unfamiliar to him.
Because she was flirting. The thought alone was almost enough to make him nauseous. He held his finger up to his lips, silencing the already quiet group. Tilting his head, he tried to make out the conversation amid all the other ones around him.
"...Let me see!" Guy.
"No! Wait! Give it back! Ah, stop!" Definitely Clary.
At this point Jon couldn't stand it anymore, and as casually as possible, he strode up, but stopped dead in his tracks at the sight before him.
Clary was clinging on to Marcus' back with her legs wrapped around his waist. Marcus, on the other hand, was stumbling around like an idiot trying to see, probably because Clary was using one hand to claw at his eyes. With her other hand she was reaching for a folded piece of paper in Marcus' grasp, desperation and slight amusement written on her face.
She grunted in frustration, reaching even farther and almost toppling in the process. Everyone was staring at them, including Jace.
Yeah, Jon had noticed the way that Jace stared at her, but he knew better than to act on it. He better know better than to do anything.
Jace shoved his fisted hands in his pockets while both Alec and Isabelle mumbled excuses before skirting off to who knows where. Jon, however, jumped into action.
He half power-walked over to the two and easily pried Clary off of his teammates back. She struggled in his arms until he put her down. Marcus spun around with a look of surprise, and Clary seized that as a moment of opportunity. With a final lunge, she snatched the paper out of his hand and hid it behind her back.
"What the hell is going on?"
"He tried to steal my drawing," she blurted out, just as Marcus said, "Nothing."
Jon sighed in exasperation. "That's what this was all about? One of your pictures?" Clary scowled. "Oh no. Excuse me. It's a depiction of your innermost thoughts and feelings that shouldn't be displayed for the entire world to see. Without, of course, your permission." He bowed deeply.
Clary looked around at the accumulating crowd of students. An evil glint started to grow in her eye. Jon knew that look. Before he could do anything, though, Clary had already begun. She flung her arms around Jon melodramatically, crying, "Oh, big brother! I'm so sorry! I never should've doubted you! You were right! That girl really is way out of you league!" She pointed out at random a blond girl standing to the side.
Everyone burst into laughter at this, but there were also several gasps of confusion at Clary's first statement. The news spread like a wildfire.
"Jonathan Fray has a sister?"
"...Why didn't any of us ever know about her?"
"Is she dating Marcus? She's hot..."
At that one, Jon grunted in distaste. His cheeks started to burn though, and he hated that they did.
"Alright. Clary, please stop talking. Jace, just bring her to her class; show her around. I'll catch up with you." He was making things up as he went, making split second decisions.
Jace didn't argue, he simply grabbed Clary and towed her in the opposite direction down the hallways, ignoring her cries of protest. Eventually she gave up and went limp, probably trying to make it harder for Jace, but he acted like he didn't notice; he calmly just dragged her along.
Finally Jon turned his back on them, ready to give Marcus a piece of his mind, when he realized Marcus wasn't even there any more. Realizing he must've slipped away while Clary left with Jace, he looked around at his dwindling audience. Even though the bell was about to ring in seconds, people still stayed, wondering if anything else worth gossiping about. With a dismissive wave in their general direction, he sauntered off to his first class.
Calculus. Jon's worst enemy, not to mention their devil spawn of a teacher Mr. Blackthorn, With his hunched over back, wrinkled old skin, and glasses lenses two inches thick (that one may have been exaggerated, Jon admitted), he looked like he should be in a retirement home, not teaching a rowdy group of teenagers. One thing that lessened the torture of the class is that he didn't have to suffer through it alone.
Jace was in the class too. Together they sat in the back of the class, never paying any attention but always managing to get by with passing grades.
He made it into the room just as the bell sounded. Making his way over to his usual seat, he saw a glint out of the corner of his eye.
There sat Clary at one of the desks, talking to Jace.
What the hell? Clary shouldn't've been in this class; she was a junior. He walked over. "Clary, what are you doing here?"
She held her schedule out to him with two fingers. "Compliments of our lovely legal guardians." She smiled wistfully.
He snatched the paper out of her hand and scanned his eyes over it quickly. Oh, no no no no no. This is not happening.
There were eight total blocks of time in their school day. Lunch counted as one, thank God, but their core classes were math, English, science, history, and gym. Both of the other two options for classes were open electives- classes that could be chosen based on interest.
So why was this happening? Four classes? Four classes with a junior who happened to be her sister?
He loved her. There was no doubt about that. But in all fairness, what older brother wanted to spend his time around his baby sister when he was with his friends?
Clary's scornful laugh broke him out of his reverie. "Yah, I didn't ask for it either. You couldn't at least try to pretend like you're happy?" She cocked her eyebrow at him.
"How is this even possible? You shouldn't even be able to take some of these courses." He waved his hand helplessly at her schedule.
Jace decided to speak up. "Apparently Red's a genius. Aced all the preliminary tests and decided that one of them had inaccurate information," he drawled lazily.
Clary's tiny fist slammed into his arm. "Shut up," she hissed.
"Ouch," he pouted, rubbing his arm in mock-hurt. "What did I do?"
She looked as if she was about to answer. And he didn't like that.
JPOV
Their tortoise of their teacher chose that time to hobble into the room. "Take your seats!" he barked out in his crusty British accent, lowering himself slowly onto his chair behind his desk. Jace and Jon made their way to their usual seats wordlessly as Clary turned to face the front of the room and pulled out a plain spiral notebook and a ballpoint pen.
As Mr. Blackthorn launched into another mind numbing lecture, the boys did what they normally did. They sat back and watched everything. Or rather, everyone. Namely, Clary. Her pen flew across the page, stopping every once in a while to brush her hair out of her face.
He stared. Stared so much someone would think he was a stalker. He forced himself to look away. Jon might catch on.
"Dude," he whispered loudly. "What's he talkin' about?" Jace nudged Jon with his arm.
"Are you kidding me? How the hell am I supposed to know? Just grabbed my sister's notes." He gesticulated to where Clary was sitting two desks over, still scratching into her notebook furiously.
Jace complied. Stretching his long arm across some random girl's desk he pulled Clary's notebook from underneath her hands. She whipped her head around to see Jace. Glaring at him, she mouthed angrily, "Give it back."
He smirked. Leaning back, he finally looked at the page in his hand.
It wasn't what he was expecting. Covering the entire page was a sketch of city in the distance. Close up were rows of fields and trees and countryside, but a gorgeous cluster of buildings. Old churches with understated arches could be seen.
He was stunned. In less than half an hour an amazing rendition was drawn on three hole lined paper and a simple black pen.
"What is it? Come on lemme see." Jon tugged the book out of Jace's hands, took one look at it and snorted. "Of course. Typical Clary."
She finally snapped. Pushing her chair back it made a loud scraping noise that made everyone around her wince. She stood and took a quick step to where they sat and grabbed her notebook back. Trying to sit back down without Mr. Blackthorn noticing, he edged back to her seat.
Too late.
"Who are you?" She blinked at her, finally realizing the new student in her class.
"Hi, I'm Clary. Clary Fray. I just started here today." The last sentence came out as a question.
"Fray? You wouldn't happen to be related to this bloke, would you?" He pointed his dry erase marker at Jon, who smiled angelically back at him.
Clary was looking more and more flustered. Jace found it surprisingly adorable. "Um, yes sir. That's my brother."
"Your brother, eh? So tell me- are you at least as smart as he is? I mean, it shouldn't be difficult." Mr. Blackthorn cackled.
Jace should have been surprised at how horribly he was treating one of his own students, but he wasn't. Here he was, blatantly insulting Jon, but Jon just smiled, unaffected by it all.
"Tell him, Clary," he urged her. "Show him what you can do."
She shot him a nervous look, and then glanced flittingly at all the other students that were now gawking at her.
"Well, Miss Fray, can you tell me the solution to this equation?" He stepped aside to reveal a complicated problem involving lots of x's and y's and radical signs.
Clary stared intently, here eyes flicking back and forth. It reminded him of not even an hour ago when she had looked at he and his siblings. Her gaze was entirely emotionless. Analytical. Not even five seconds passed before she replied.
"X equals one third plus or minus the square root of seventeen over nine." Utterly confident.
Old Blackthorn's eyes bugged wide and mouth opened slightly in surprise. He took a second to compose himself. "That- that's correct."
A chorus of gasps once again echoed around. Still impassive, she turned and sat down. Out of the corner of his eye, though, Jace saw a miniscule smile form at the edge of her mouth. He couldn't help but smile too.
CPOV
Just as Clary was walking out of her first class, which had gone splendidly, by the way, a guy came up to her, one that she had noticed at the front of the room. Spiky black brown hair and glittered clothes, she instantly knew he was gay, even before he opened his mouth.
She had nothing against gays. In fact, one of her best friends from before her family had moved was gay. Or at least, she thought he was. He never went out with girls, so she was so sure.
Until he asked her out, that was. She was shocked to say the least. He was her best friend. But she couldn't very well say no, could she? So they went out, if only for a few days, but they did.
Then it got awkward. They "broke up", and before they could patch things up entirely, she had left with her dad. Simon was one of her best friends, and she regretted never making things up to him.
She looked up to see the guy still smiling at her. "Hey," he said, friendly. "I'm Magnus. What you did back there? With Old Man Blackthorn? Genius!" he chortled. "Absolutely brilliant!"
Clary smiled. "Thanks. I'm Clary. You're Alec's boyfriend?"
"Uh, yeah," he said, in a sort of happy confusion. "How'd you know that?"
"Just a lucky guess." She smiled inwardly. The perks of being a psychic.
Playing up the psychic thing was something she and her brother did when they were young. Their parents always told them to cut it out, but they never listened.
Magnus and Clary started walking together to their next class. "You're gorgeous, you know. I'd kill to have that awesome hair."
She laughed. "Are you kidding me? Half of the time it looks like I just rubbed a balloon all over my heads then ran through a tornado."
They continued to banter back and forth when Clary heard a quiet gasp.
"Clary?" the voice whispered, light as a feather.
She froze and stiffened. That voice she would recognize anywhere. Her own shook with barely contained emotion as she replied. "August 18th."
If it was him, then he would know. And he did. Without hesitation he shot back, "Percy Jackson's birthday. Burnt blue pancakes and a movie marathon."
Clary shuddered, a countless amount of emotions running through her. She turned around, impossibly slow.
The eyes that stared back at her were familiar to her as her own.
"Simon?" she whispered.
Thanks for reading! Sorry about the sort-of cliffhanger. I'll try to update as soon as I can. I'm getting my stitches out tomorrow! Agh! This is what I get for washing the dishes.
Please review!
