A/N: Hey everyone, back again with Chapter 6. In today's chapter, Clary and Jace will discuss their newfound feelings for one another, and Clary will get an exciting message at the end of the chapter. Magnus will continue to chase after Alec and Simon will start bonding with Isabelle, *hint, hint*.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Mortal Instrument series.
Chapter 6
Clary POV
The whole night Clary stayed awake, thinking about the kiss between her and Jace. No one had ever kissed her like Jace did. He filled it with such passion and intensity that when it was over, Clary had to resist the urge to fling herself back at him. Now that they had kissed, what did it mean for them?
She turned around under the sheets and squinted at the time shown on her alarm clock. 6:27 am, it read. Might as well get up now, she thought, kicking her blankets off and pushing herself up off the mattress.
In the bathroom, Clary found herself eyeing her rarely touched makeup bag. She had this sudden impulse to use it, and also find something in her closet that wasn't a plain pair of worn out jeans and her green hoodie.
Come on, Clary, she chided herself. You don't need a tube of eyeliner and concealer to make yourself look pretty. Jace likes you the way you are.
On her way to school, Clary's thoughts were running through her mind anxiously. Normally, if she was worried about something, she could just turn to Simon for advice, but Simon currently wasn't speaking to her at the moment.
I haven't seen or talked to him for the past two days...Clary thought, biting her lip. He must be wondering what happened.
She walked up the steps to her school and immediately her eyes began scanning the crowd of students, searching for Jace's golden hair. She didn't spot him, and a part of her relaxed.
"Clary?" someone asked from behind her. Clary turned around and came face to face with Simon. Her lips parted slightly and she stared at him, trying to find the courage to say hi.
"You're back...what happened...I mean, where were you the past two days?" He asked.
"I, uh..." Clary racked her brain for an excuse. "I was sick."
"I went by your apartment the other day, but no one answered the door," Simon frowned.
Clary's heart panged sadly. "You went by the apartment? I—I thought you didn't want to see me again."
"I know, a part of me didn't...but you're still my best friend, Clary," Simon gave a faint smile. "Whether you have feelings for me or not."
Clary nodded. "I'm really sorry, Simon. I've always seen you as a brother..."
"Yeah, I realize that now," Simon squared his shoulders. "We can just forget this entire thing happened."
"So...friends?" Clary asked.
"Friends."
"I'm sure the right girl for you will come along sooner than you think." Clary smiled brighter. "Do you wanna walk to homeroom with me?"
"Sure," Simon said wearily, falling into step with her.
"So what did I miss?" Clary asked, glancing sideways at his profile. He seemed...older...than they had last met, even though it had only been two days.
"Not much," Simon said truthfully. "School's been the same old, same old."
"Awesome," Clary sighed and entered her homeroom class. Jace and Isabelle hadn't arrived yet, and Clary tried to make sure that Simon didn't notice her longing glances at the door. Their teacher was sitting at their desk, snoring away, oblivious to the fact that class was going to start in a few minutes.
Jace POV
As Alec was driving Jace and Isabelle to school in his car, Jace had only one thing in his mind—Clary. She was unlike any other girl he had met. When Jace had kissed her yesterday, half of his mind was screaming at him to make sure he didn't break Clary—she seemed so petite and fragile. Yet she was extremely beautiful, in her own way. Like an angel.
Alec parked the car and the three Shadowhunters hopped out, walking fast inside the building so that they wouldn't be late. Jace and Isabelle walked down a different hall than Alec since he had a different homeroom than them. While Jace and Isabelle neared their classroom, they bumped into a tall girl with blond hair and a green tint. Jace had seen her before—on his first day, when he was getting his schedule from his office. He had only gotten a glance at her, but something had seemed off about her appearance.
Looking at her more closely this time, Jace suddenly realized what it was. He exchanged a look with Isabelle and realized that she had also figured out what it was about Kaelie. She was a pixie.
"Jace!" The girl smiled a bright smile. "Hi. I'm Kaelie. Kaelie Whitewillow." She extended her arm out. "It's really nice to meet you."
Jace smirked and shook her hand slowly. "Tell me, what business do the Fair Folk have here in St. Xavier's?" Jace asked, staring Kaelie in the eye.
Kaelie stiffened and nervously looked back and forth from Jace and Isabelle. "I have no idea what you're talking about..."
"Don't play dumb with us," Isabelle placed her hands on her hips and gave an indignant look at Kaelie. "It's not hard to distinguish a pixie."
Kaelie held Isabelle's gaze for another minute before letting out a small 'huff'. "Why are you asking what business I have here, when you two yourselves are Nephilim?"
Jace gave Isabelle another look and turned back to the pixie. "Just send the Seelie Quest my well wishes." He pushed past her, Isabelle right on his tail, and walked to the door of their classroom.
"And I to your Clave. It must be so stressful to have rumors floating around saying that Valentine's back," Kaelie gave a superior grin and crossed her arms.
Jace whirled around and stared Kaelie dead in the eye. "How do you know about that?"
"What can I say? Gossip is gossip. You might want to tell your people to keep their voices low when discussing Clave matters," She started to back away. "Goodbye Jace Wayland and Isabelle Lightwood."
Jace watched her leave as Isabelle tugged on his sleeve.
"Never mind her, Jace. Come on—we'll be late."
He turned and followed her to the classroom. His eyes fell on Clary and he immediately veered over to her, only to have his steps falter when he saw her talking to Simon.
"Clary," he said, his tone sharp, clearly because of Simon's presence.
"Jace!" Clary beamed and Jace noticed Simon's expression turn sour. Clary's eyes followed Jace as he plopped down in the desk next to hers.
Isabelle sat down gracefully in the seat next to Simon, and crossed one leg over the other.
"Hi Simon," Isabelle flashed him a small smile and Simon's cheeks immediately turned red as he greeted her back. Clary raised her eyebrows and looked back and forth between the two.
Jace watched the entire scene unfold with a look of amusement sparkling in his eyes.
"Okay..." Clary said slowly, giving them a weird look. "I'll leave you two to it then." She turned back to Jace. "I wonder what that was all about," she said, frowning.
The bell rang, signaling the start of class, but the teacher still slept on. Jace leaned forward and balanced his elbow on the desk. "I wouldn't worry about them," he smirked. Turning back into his serious mode, he studied Clary, and asked, "How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay," Clary replied.
"I wasn't talking about the demon mark, I was talking about the whole thing with Valentine," Jace said, trying to keep the guilt out of his voice. "I heard your mom telling you the entire story yesterday."
"Oh," Clary bit her lip. "Yeah...I guess I'm doing okay with that too—surprisingly." She looked up and he met her green eyes. "Look, I just want to tell you that I'm sorry that Valentine killed your parents—"
"Don't be," Jace interrupted. "It wasn't your fault, you don't need to apologize."
"I'm apologizing on behalf of Valentine," Clary said hurriedly. "He's a sick, twisted, pyschopath, and honestly I want him gone as much as you do."
Jace nodded and changed the subject. He reached forward, taking Clary's hand in his. "Are you going to come by the Institute today?" He took a small breath as he felt her cool hand touch his callused one.
"Yeah," Clary nodded, smiling. "I thought I'd take a closer look at what I'm about to get myself into."
Alec POV
Alec trudged through the halls of St. Xavier's, making his way to his homeroom class. So far, he hadn't enjoyed a single bit of this mundane school, and he honestly had no idea why he had to even be here. He understood why Jace was interested, as he was trying to score a date with Clary, and Isabelle was there because she was bored of sitting in the Institute being the only girl her age. But Alec had no interest in Clary's problems whatsoever.
Grumbling to himself, he ducked into his homeroom class and chose a seat in the back of the room. Their teacher was gone and in place was a sub, who was facing away from the class, scrawling his name up on the board. Alec didn't pay any attention to him, and started staring out the window with boredom.
It was only when the substitute started speaking in a familiar voice did Alec whip his head back to the board in surprise.
"Good morning class. Your teacher is out, so I'll be taking over for today," the substitute said, running a hand through his perfectly spiked, gelled hair and inspecting the class with his glittery blue cat eyes.
"Magnus?" Alec said incredulously.
Simon POV
Simon swallowed hard as Clary looked back and forth between him and Isabelle. It was too late to stop her from assuming anything now, otherwise he'd look suspicious.
"Okay..." Clary said, turning away from the two. "I'll leave you two to it then."
Simon pressed his lips together and faced Isabelle, who was still smirking. "So," she said, relaxing against her seat. "You're still not going to tell anyone about what happened two nights ago?"
"No," he pressed, giving her a pointed look. "No one can know."
"Why not?" Isabelle frowned. "Is that humiliating to you—the fact that we—"
"Of course not," Simon said hurriedly. In fact, it was probably one of his greatest achievements. He was still pretty shocked that he was able to score something with Isabelle, Isabelle, out of all people. The tall, slender beauty with long jet black hair and dark brown gold flecked eyes. She was gorgeous, and Simon tried not to take his luck for granted. "It's just that...if Clary finds out, she'll judge me forever-"
"I thought you didn't care what Clary thought of you anymore," Isabelle crossed her arms over her chest.
"I—I don't," Simon said, more to himself than to Isabelle. He looked up to her, with a new sense of confidence to him. "I don't. You can tell anyone—I don't care." He stood up, his voice growing louder and louder. "You can tell everyone that I slept with Isabelle Lightwood!"
"You what?!" Jace and Clary whirled around and stared at him and Isabelle.
Simon suddenly realized that he was standing with his fist in the air and entire class was looking at him, mouths gape wide open. He looked down at Isabelle who was grinning, then Clary, who was looking at him with a very, very, shocked face. And then Jace, who was trying to suppress his laughter behind his hand.
"Uh..." Simon quickly sat back down and gave Isabelle a What am I supposed to do now? look.
"Is this true?" Clary demanded to Isabelle, who gave a small nod. Clary's eyes grew wide. "Are you serious? Simon, I can't believe—"
"Clary, I'm sorry if you don't approve, but you can't erase what happened," Isabelle cut in.
"No, no, I don't disapprove at all, I—" Clary closed her mouth and sighed. "It's great, really. I'm, uh...happy...for you...I guess."
Simon nodded and faced the front of the class, as their teacher had suddenly woken up and was giving the class a tired look.
"Flip to page 394 in your textbooks please," she said, yawning. Isabelle took Simon's hand and squeezed it, giving him a wink.
Alec POV
Alec continued to stare at Magnus, who gave off an expression saying that he found the entire situation to be quite hilarious. Magnus Bane is standing in my classroom. And he's my sub for today, Alec thought to himself. Could things get any weirder?
"I recognize some of you here," Magnus said, wiggling his fingers in Alec's direction."All right then. Let's get started." Alec just covered his face with his hands and slumped down in his chair.
The class went on fairly well, and Alec discovered that Magnus was a surprisingly good teacher. Excepting the fact that he called only on Alec to answer his questions, the class seemed to love him.
After Magnus asked Alec yet again to explain to him how the attendance sheet should be filled out, the girl sitting on Alec's left leaned across the aisle and whispered to him, "Is the sub like, into you, or something?"
Alec blushed a deep scarlet and shook his head furiously. He turned back to Magnus who was watching the conversation with a smile tugging at his lips.
When the bell rang for the end of class, the students all filed out of the classroom, not giving a second glance at Magnus. Alec stayed behind and stomped up to the desk where Magnus was sitting.
"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded, staring down at the warlock, enraged.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" Magnus said, half ignoring Alec while inspecting his nails. He was lounging in his chair, feet up on the desk.
Alec seethed and balled his hands into his fists. He hated it when people answered his questions with questions. "Whatever, I have to go."
"Me too," Magnus leaped to his feet and picked up the small brown satchel he was carrying with him.
"Where else would you possibly have to be?" Alec asked, backing out of the room.
"I'm subbing for another class," Magnus followed Alec out into the hallway, which was filled with students.
"Which teacher?" Alec narrowed his eyes.
"Drew, English Honors," Magnus recited.
"You can't be serious," Alec stopped in the middle of the hall. "That's my next class!"
"What a coincidence," Magnus purred and swept his right arm wide. "By all means, lead the way."
"Why are you doing this?" Alec asked instead. "If you think that this is some form of making up for our argument yesterday, I'll tell you right now that it's not working."
Magnus stopped and his eyes fluttered to the floor and he took a step back, visibly hurt. "I see...Well, if that's what you say." He turned back and walked in the opposite direction.
Alec groaned and chased after him. "Magnus, I'm sorry. I didn't mean—"
"No, you meant exactly what you intended to," Magnus turned to face him. "I was wrong to mix with the Nephilim. I should have known that you people don't embrace Downworlders as your equals."
"Don't think that," Alec said, taking Magnus arm to stop him from leaving. "We're not all bad people."
"Oh, I sure hope not," Magnus scoffed, crossing his arms. "Otherwise the only reason I would have to ask you out is because you're hot."
Alec blinked, surprised at the words that just came out of Magnus's mouth. Then, acting only on a sudden whim, he leaned forward and kissed Magnus, who grinned against his lips.
Clary POV
As the bell rang for the end of homeroom, Clary walked out of her class, still a bit reeled at what Simon had declared about his time with Isabelle. Jace, who was walking next to her, noticed her expression.
"Don't worry about Simon," he said. Clary blushed at the fact that he knew exactly what she was thinking. "Isabelle will be good for him," Jace took Clary's arm and guided her through the throng of students.
Clary nodded as they made their way to their next class. She lifted her head up and stopped suddenly when she saw a pair of students—scratch that—a student and an adult—locking lips in the middle of the hallway.
"Jace..." she said, pulling on his jacket sleeve and nodding her head in the direction of the couple.
Jace lifted his head, looking at where Clary was gesturing to. "Huh. Well, would you look at that."
Clary slowly started walking towards the pair and cleared her throat when they were close enough to them. "Alec," she said. The couple jumped apart and the Shadowhunter looked at Jace and Clary with sheepish eyes.
"Jace! Clary!" Alec rubbed the back of his neck and his face turned as red as a tomato. "We were just—" he looked at Magnus helplessly. Magnus just shrugged, not miffed at all.
"What are you even doing here?" Clary gestured to the warlock.
"It's a long story," Magnus waved his arm dismissively.
"No need to explain," Jace put his hands on Clary's shoulders and steered her away. "You guys can...continue." Clary stifled a laugh as she and Jace left the pair.
Later that day, when school was over, Clary and Jace were waiting on the sidewalk, by the front gate. Simon and Isabelle came up to them, all smiles.
"Hey, I gotta go," Simon said, giving Isabelle a peck on the cheek. "We have a gig tonight at Java Jones. See you tomorrow, okay?" He paused and added, "Bye Clary."
"Bye," Clary smiled as Simon left. She heard a car approach and saw Jocelyn's car pull up to the curb. "Mom? What are you doing here?" she asked, walking over to the car and bending down to the open window.
"I thought I'd give you a ride to the Institute," Jocelyn smiled, patting the seat next to her. She craned her head up and spotted Jace and Isabelle standing on the sidewalk behind he daughter. "Do Jace and Isabelle need a ride?"
Clary turned to face the two with a questioning look. "Do you guys want a lift?"
"Alec brought his car today, so—" Jace started.
"Actually he texted me that he already left," Isabelle admitted. "He didn't look too happy for some reason, and I think he just wants to be left alone."
"I wonder why," Clary and Jace shared a grin. "Come on, you guys can ride with us."
The three teens got into the car and Jocelyn drove off. "Oh, Clary, something came in the mail for you today," she reached into the glove compartment and pulled out an envelope. "I brought it for you to read."
Clary took the envelope and brought out the letter inside. "It's from the school," she murmured, her eyes scanning the heading. "Dear Miss Fray, it is St. Francis Xavier School's greatest pleasure to tell you that you have been chosen to accompany 19 other students in this year's foreign exchange student program. Because of your outstanding grades, you will be traveling to Paris to live with a family for three weeks. The departure date is on Saturday, December 12th. Our flight will leave at 8 in the morning and the reporting time is 5:30 at the JFK airport. You will be dismissed from any school work during your time in France. All expenses will be paid except luggage and souvenirs. If you wish to travel to Paris, please have a parent guardian sign the permission slip attached. Medical forms and other release papers will be handed out tomorrow. We hope you will join us on our exciting journey to Europe. Have a nice day. Sincerely, The St. Francis Xavier School Administrator Staff."
Clary looked up from the paper and turned to her mom. "This is awesome. Can I go?"
"Let me see that," Jace snatched the paper out of her hands.
"I don't know, Clary," Jocelyn said. "With everything that's going on—Valentine and all, I don't know if that's a good idea."
"But, Mom!" Clary pleaded. "This is such an amazing opportunity! It's a once in a lifetime chance, and I don't want to miss out." She added on, "I promise I'll be extra careful. I won't go anywhere alone, and I'll call you every hour with updates—"
"Your mom's right," Jace cut in. "It's not safe. We can't risk it."
"This isn't any of your business," Clary gave him a pointed look.
"Of course it's my business," Jace said. "I'm a Shadowhunter and you're a soon-to-be Shadowhunter. And I care about you. If anything happened—"
"I'm sorry, what did you say?" Jocelyn looked up in the rear view mirror. "Are you guys dating or something?"
"That's not the point," Clary shook her head at her mom and looked at Isabelle. "Well, what do you think?"
"I think that you should be able to go," Isabelle nodded. "We have three months, if you train with us, you'll be able to take care of yourself."
Clary smiled and turned to Jace. "See?"
"Well, that's two against two," Jace protested. "We're not making any decisions yet."
"We'll see what Maryse has to say then," Jocelyn interrupted. Clary turned back in her seat and looked glumly out the window as her mom pulled up in front of the Institute.
A/N: El Fin. Hope you guys liked reading that—this was a really fun chapter to write, I have no idea why...And I wrote it in, like, 2 days, so I'm really proud.
Thanks for all your kind comments! Some shoutouts:
pinkpanther6412: Thank you and I hope you liked this chapter just as much :)
Megan5202: Ahaha yes, don't worry, there will be more to come :) Thanks for reviewing!
AnnieBea: I don't want to spoil anything, but I'll tell you right now that Clary is definitely going to be facing danger soon :)
Taty98: Hey :) I'm glad you're enjoying the story, I hope you liked today's chapter. Thanks for the review!
Guest: Haha, I'm happy you liked it :)
Guest: Don't worry, Valentine isn't leaving Clary and Jocelyn alone any time soon ;) Thanks for your kind words, and I hoped you enjoyed this chapter!
Anyways, so tell me what you guys thought of today's chapter! Did you like the Sizzy and the Malec? What about Clary's decision to go to France? Do you think she should go or not? The fun's just beginning!Leave a REVIEW! You guys did a good job last time, keep up the good work :)
Also remember to FOLLOW/FAVORITE please :)
In Chapter 7, Clary will figure out if she's able to go to France or not, and she'll start training with Jace, Isabelle, and Alec. Until then, have an awesome day, and I'll see you all soon :) Bye!
~bookwormbullet