Chapter 4

Clary spent most of the class trying to get a hold of the dynamics she was suddenly a part of, which wasn't easy with Jace on one side of her and Sebastian on another. The teacher had arrived not long after Sebastian introduced himself so she hadn't had much of a chance to talk to him, which she was thankful for. After the way he had spent the entire class either staring at her or glaring at Jace it was safe to say that she felt more than a little uncomfortable around him. Jace hadn't helped the situation either, he had spent most of the class taunting Sebastian and glaring back. When the bell rang signalling the end of class Clary practically jumped out of her seat, Jace on her heels. As they left she turned and noticed Sebastian following them. Jace quickly realised what she was staring at and whipped around to the other boy. "Is there something I can help you with, Verlac?" He asked with an unmistakable edge to his voice.

"I'm good thanks, Herondale. I was just on my way to my next class" Sebastian answered before moving around them and going on. Clary pretended not to see the wink he sent her as he left.

The lunch room was ten times worse than any of her classes had been all day. As she sat down beside her brother and Simon at lunch she could feel the eyes of the entire school on them. "Have either of your classes been like this all day?" Simon asked.

"Yes, it's like a war zone" Jon replied.

"That's exactly what I thought! It's crazy here" Clary exclaimed. The three of them were sitting at a table in the centre of the lunch hall that had the perfect vantage of everyone. It just so happened that both Jace's tables and Sebastian's also had the perfect view of them, Clary could feel the weight of both their gazes on her. It took a lot of effort, and much more practice, not to react to either of them.

"And I thought St. Xaviers was bad" Simon muttered. Clary was proud of herself for having no reaction to his statement. She turned to Jon, who she hadn't seen all day due to him being a senior and her a junior.

"How have your classes been?" She asked.

"Turmoil. Half learning half fights. There's been a fight in at least three of my classes" he explained. There'd been one in one of her classes as well between someone named Raphael and another named Meliorn. Personally if she had to pick a side she'd say Raphael was right but the teacher took Meliorn's side, something about Merion never lying. Clary could have laughed.

"It was pretty much the same with me. I wonder why it's like this though?" She mused. It was definitely no ordinary school.

"Well that my dear Clary is a very complicated question" she heard someone say. She looked up to see Jace, Izzy and Alec taking seats beside them. She turned her head to Jace,.

"And why is that?"

"Well to answer first you have to understand the different groups. You already know about the jocks and rich kids. Then there's the drama and literature students over there" Clary looked at the group he was pointing at, the one she had guessed in her first class. If she were too compare them to anything it would probably be Warlocks.

"Okay, what else?"

"Well then there's the green group. They claim to love nature," like faeries she thought, "but that's a bit questionable at times. Those two groups generally get along fine, well as far as this school goes anyways, but they still pretty much hate everyone else" she could tell. The room so full of hatred that she could practically touch it.

"And where does that leave you?" and Sebastian she thought but she didn't want to bring him up in front of Jon.

"Well after all them, which we collectively call the Downworlders, there's two more groups. These are the most important two. There's the group me, Izzy and Alec are in which as you know is the student council, sometimes referred to as Shadowhunters after our school. We run the school, make sure everyone follows the rules and try stop trouble between the different groups. As you can guess everyone hates us" he looked strangely proud of this.

"So who's the last group?"

"The Circle, run by Sebastian Verlac, aka the ones who constantly challenge us. Everyone hates them too but for a good reason. They are the trouble makers: always looking down on everyone, causing fights, terrorising everyone else and in general are just creeps" he told her. She was grateful that he hadn't mentioned her already knowing Sebastian. It wasn't a big thing but her brother would over react.

"But you found that out this morning" he added. Clary groaned as Jon turned to her.

"What happened this morning Clary?" He asked in a scary calm voice.

"Nothing" she answered praying Jace would keep his mouth shut, which by some miracle he did.

"Are you lying?" He said in a voice that implied her knew she was. Great, he wouldn't let this go for the rest of the week.

"No Jonathon I'm not lying. Do you really think I'd lie to you, after everything?" Okay so it was a cheap shot and she knew it but she didn't have a choice, otherwise he'd never let it go. She felt guilty when his face fell at her words though.

"No your right, I'm sorry. You wouldn't, not after everything" either he believed her and that made her feel guilty or he knew she was lying and was guilt tripping her. She was acutely aware of the three siblings staring at them, wondering what 'everything' was. Jace turned to her.

"We've double French next. Do you have your books?" He asked. It was just then that the bell rang signalling the end of lunch. Clary only noticed as they left the hall that Jace never answered her question.

French was... interesting, to say the least. Clary sat between Simon and Jace with Izzy on Simon's other side. Sebastian was there too, sitting near her again. She was surprised to find out that he was French, from Paris. He kept staring at her for the entire class and flicking notes at her (which she ignored). About fifteen minutes before the end of class Jace finally got sick of it and turned to him. She couldn't quite hear what they were saying at first but when their voices rose she heard them arguing. In French. Now Clary was good at French, very good albeit not fluent, but even she couldn't understand everything they were saying. She did understand enough though to know that there was a lot of cursing going on. When their voices rose above the teachers she stopped teaching and took a seat at her desk, giving up. She seemed to realise that she wasn't going to get anything more done in the class. Clary, surprised at her actions, looked at Izzy.

"Does this happen often?"

"You'd be surprised. Count yourself lucky that they haven't- oh wait never mind" Izzy answered, finishing as a bang sounded throughout the classroom. Clary pivoted to see Jace and Sebastian fighting. It was hard to say who was attacking who but at a guess she'd say Sebastian had started it.

"Shouldn't we do something?" She asked turning back to Izzy.

"No point. The security will be here any second now to break it up," the other girl replied, taking out a bottle of pink nail varnish, "can I paint your nails?" Indeed as she said that the door opened and two security guards rushed in and pulled the two boys apart. Once they had both been incapacitated the teacher looked up from her work.

"I warned you both the last time that the next time you turned my classroom into a boxing ring I wouldn't be so forgiving. The Principle will be waiting for you both" Clary wasn't sure what the emphasis on both was for but it was effective on the boys none the less. They both suddenly straightened up and tried too look more mature, not that it worked. The security guards escorted them out of the classroom, pausing at the door just long enough for the teacher to add, "I'll see you both back here at lunch every day this week too help me repair the damage you've once again inflicted on my classroom". It was only then Clary noticed what a state the classroom was in. Posters were ripped and torn of the walls and two of the blinds were broken clean off the windows. She could hear Jace curse in French as the door slammed behind them.

After such an eventful French class it was disappointing how uneventful Clary's last class of the day was. As she left the school with Simon and Jon that evening she noticed that both Jace and Sebastian were still in the principal's office. Whatever was going on in there it didn't look fun.

"What happened there?" Jon asked, seeing where she was looking.

"A fight in French" probably about her, not that he needed to know that.

"That seems to be a regular thing here" Simon input.

"I know. It's weird" she commented. She stopped at the steps, looking for her mother and not seeing her.

"Tell me about it... Where is she?" Jon asked also looking for their mother. Clary was about to reply when something caught her eye. She froze.

So another chapter up. Personally I'm proud of myself: I'm actually updating pretty much on time for once. I'd like to thank anyone who reviewed the last chapter, and/or followed/favourited. The response was amazing:) I realise I may not have answered one or two questions in this chapter but that's on purpose because in answering them I believe there's a chance I might ruin the story and there's nothing worse than knowing what's going to happen before it does. The other reason is that I'm not too sure myself so I can't really answer. Sorry if that offends anyone:(

So I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter. If anyone has any questions and its not going to spoil the story (and I know the answer) I'll try my best to answer them. Once again please follow/favourite/review, it'll make me so happy:)

Liz399