Hellooooo!
I promised, didn't I? And here it is! The elusive Chapter 4. I hope you like it, seeing as you reviewed your butts off to get it here. You went above and beyond all my expectations, and do you know what? I LOVE YOU GUYS!!
Ok, here is something you all should know: If you're happy this chapter is up, let me tell you who to thank. Melly-O not only reviewed three times, she also got a load of her friends to review, too. I'm pretty sure she's sick of me saying thanks, but here I go again, anyway. Thank you, I am speechless at your amazingness! (And good taste =P oj)
Of course, to everyone else as well, I say:
Thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou thankyou!
Yes, I say thanks too much. Get over it. no matter how many times I say it, you should know that for me, its never an empty expression. I mean it, sincerely, everytime I say it.
Disclaimer: Ok. You get the picture. Now stop crushing my dreams...
So...
How to destroy your rep in under 6 hours
Clary walked through the classroom door with her head held high. She did a Jace, and put on her shield. God knows she'd been around him long enough to memorise how it was done. Unfortunately, she knew that hers was likely to crack under too much pressure, but she was determined that wouldn't happen. She was going to be brave, and so she swallowed her worries and acted normal. Admittedly, the laughing fit earlier had helped her calm down.
She glanced over at Isabelle, and winced. There was a clear red handprint across Isabelle's face where she had slapped her, and that was something no amount of laughing was going to get rid of. Clary blushed and began to berate herself. Internally. Isabelle would have none of her embarrassment, and was kind enough not to mention Clary's earlier breakdown. Once she had helped Clary get dressed – translation: picked out clothes for Clary and bullied her into wearing them, all the while remarking on how lucky Clary was that she didn't have many permanent runes on her arms yet, so she could wear a tank top – she had shrugged off all her attempted apologies and had simply dragged her to school. To be fair, Isabelle's clothes did seem to be drawing all attention from her face, which made Clary feel slightly better.
Isabelle was beginning to suspect she had some amount of psychic ability. She could not, she thought, have picked a better outfit for today. The simple lilac three quarter length top was plain cotton at the front, but laced up at the back with a deep violet silk ribbon. Paired with faded denim skinny jeans and lilac flip flops, the whole thing just screamed "beach party!" And judging on the amount of attention it was drawing, she had a feeling she wasn't the only one who thought so. Simon looked as if his eyes were about to pop out, which could have had something to do with the low neckline of the top. Isabelle smiled, and brushed her long hair over her shoulder. No one would be looking at her cheek today.
---
Rose hadn't been sure what to think when the girls had walked in. Sure, Isabelle looked stunning, but what was with the huge red splotch on her cheek? And the guilty looks Clary was shooting her?
Clary was acting strangely, she noticed, and when Maia had asked her what was wrong, she had said "Nothing, why?" in a panicked way. Rose decided to leave well enough alone and say nothing. She suspected this might have something to do with the recent vampire attacks and the greater demon sightings, but she wasn't positive. And it wasn't like she could ask – "Hey Clary, are you upset because there's a greater demon on the loose and vampire attacks on warlocks?" wasn't exactly the kind of thing you slipped into normal conversations.
---
By third class History, Clary was back to normal. And bored. Very, very bored. She began to sketch lightly on the edge of her book, not paying attention to what her hand was creating. Then she looked down, and stifled a laugh.
"What's that?" whispered Isabelle, following Clary's eyes to a rune scribbled on a book. Clary stifled another giggle.
"I think its"- she spluttered -"a boredom rune!"
She collapsed into silent laughter, and Isabelle's eyes lit up. She pulled out Clary's stele, which she still had safely confiscated. "Let's try it out!"
Clary nodded and let Isabelle draw it her palm, then took the stele and did the same for her. Isabelle snatched the stele back before Clary could pocket it.
"What do you want to do this evening?" asked Clary, her eyes distant. She shook her head and refocused on Isabelle.
"Let's jump in a river!" suggested Isabelle happily.
Maia, hearing this, turned around from her seat in the row in front. She was startled when she caught Clary's eyes. They seemed so… childish. She turned back to the teacher, putting it down to a lack of sleep.
"No silly! I have a much better idea. Two words, Izzy. Vamp bikes!" Clary exclaimed. "Let's go flying!"
Isabelle giggled. "Like Chitty-chitty bang-bang!"
Clary had recently shown Isabelle a lot of typical movies, in case anyone asked her about her childhood, or her favourite film. Isabelle had laughed at the time, but over the last week, it had proven useful.
"Only cooler!" Clary decided. They both began to giggle furiously.
The teacher, who had been studiously ignoring the noise in the back row, now turned to them. "Girls," he called. "Is there something funny? Maybe you'd care to share it with us."
"I'd love to, but I don't think anyone would be interested," announced Isabelle tragically. Clary nodded beside her. Maia once again shot them a look, and had to swallow her laugh. They were serious! Have they been drinking?, she wondered.
The teacher looked at her steadily and answered, "We're very interested, right class?"
Maia was now openly laughing. Mr Brady was known for being the… most interesting teacher around, and liked to mess with the students. Good times, as he put it, were fun for everyone. Except, of course, the person who was being teased – but Isabelle and Clary didn't seem to mind.
"We're going to borrow her brother's bike!" exclaimed Clary with a big grin.
Mr Brady laughed and went back to teaching. The whispering in the back row continued.
---
Cathy and Rose were already sitting in the caf when Clary and Isabelle, came in, a worried looking Maia with them. They were pointing to foods and laughing, which Rose found quite entertaining to watch. To tell the truth, she was more than a little tempted to join them. When they finally sat down, Cathy turned to Maia.
"Spill!" she whispered. "What's up with them? Have they been drinking or something?"
Clary, over hearing this, started to laugh again.
"YES!" she proclaimed. "We have drunk lots and lots of Coke!"
Isabelle started giggling too.
"I believe you. Maybe you should cut down on the sugar a little?"
Rose rolled her eyes, remembering a night not so long ago when Cathy had been high on sugar herself… well, sugar and about 10 Smirnoff's. Poor Ben had gotten the worst of that…
"Cathy? Tone down the mom thing already," I told her, and turned to the others. "You should see her hyper… or drunk. Last time, she went around slapping everyone in the face! Then this guy turned around and says 'Why'd you slap me?' and do you know what she did? She looked him up and down, turns to me and goes 'Tall, dark and handsome, meet your wifey!'"
Clary burst out laughing, and Cathy glared at Rose. Isabelle, however, had something to add.
"Personally, I like vampires best," she said, looking at Simon. Rose felt her blood run cold. He couldn't be… could he? Then she registered the shocked expressions on the faces around her.
"Mmm, me too! Give me some Edward Cullen any day," she said appreciatively.
Maia smiled at her, and looked relieved. Rose grinned back. She didn't wink, like she wanted to. Telling them she knew could wait until she got some guts. Or forever! Whichever came first… The conversation continued, on more innocent paths.
---
Maia was furious. How could they have been so stupid? Trying out a new rune on themselves was dangerous enough, but in school? Lucky she and Simon were there to cover for them! But… it was out of character, for both of them. Jace might talk Clary into something like this, but he wasn't here, so that was out. What's up with them? Maia wondered. Mad as she was, she knew there was no point in talking to them now. She'd have to wait until the rune wore off, and deal with the consequences of their stupidity in silence.
Rose had saved Isabelle at lunch, but she was going to have to make sure that Isabelle and Clary didn't have anymore slip ups. The strange thing was that Rose seemed to know exactly what she was doing when she had made Isabelle's comment seem harmless. Maia made a mental note to mention this to Clary. Later.
The first half of Spanish passed without incident, but about halfway through, Miss Dawsen made a fatal – to her eardrums, at least – mistake.
"Does anyone know any Spanish songs?" she asked the class, expecting someone to, at the most, know a few lines of Enrique Iglesias, or some other Spanish pop singer. She was in for a surprise.
"We do!" cried Clary, standing up in her excitement.
"Really? What song?" asked Miss, surprised by Clary's enthusiasm. While she had always been a good student, jumping out of her seat was not something she usually did.
Isabelle stood now too, ever willing to join in. "Um… La Cucaracha?" she asked Clary, who nodded. "La Cucaracha," Isabelle confirmed in the general direction of Miss Dawsen.
Maia groaned. One of her pack, Rocio, had been teaching the girls and Jace Spanish at the institute. Having known Raphael before his vampire days, she also knew a lot about him. Like, for instance, his absolute hatred of that song, in any of its variants. So Rocio did the natural thing, and taught them it. They crashed Raphael's birthday (or deathday, depending how you saw it) party, and sang it at the top of their voices, Jace even going as far as dancing. And now…
The girls began to sing at the top of their voices. Well, not so much sing as shout the words into imaginary microphones. Maia cringed.
"La cucaracha, la cucaracha,
Ya no puede caminar,
Porque no tiene, porque le falta,
Maríhuana que fumar!"
Most of the class was laughing at this point, and Maia just sat back and wished she were dead. Although, she reflected, not as badly as those two will tomorrow.
"And how many of you understood that?" asked Miss Dawsen, recovering quickly from the shock. Most of the class mumbled a negative, so she turned to Clary and Isabelle. "And do you know what it means?"
"Yep!" Isabelle shouted, popping the 'p' loudly.
"It means he has no marijuana," giggled Clary, and she and Isabelle collapsed back into their seats, shaking with laughter.
"Well… anyone else?" Miss Dawsen, quite wisely, went back to teaching.
---
The rest of the day went quickly, and other than a few little slips, Maia found that she could just sit back and watch while Clary and Isabelle destroyed their reputations once and for all. It was really very entertaining, and she only had to interject comments every half hour or so.
When school ended, Maia and Simon took the girls back to the Institute, dreading what chaos they would cause on the streets if let loose. But by the times they got there and handed the girls over to a gloomy Alec and a clearly amused Magnus, Clary and Isabelle seemed drained of all energy. Clary fainted away dead in the elevator, and had to be carried to her room – still left free for emergencies or if she came to visit – by Magnus. Isabelle made it to her bed.
"I'm so tired," she mumbled wonderingly to Alec.
And then she was gone.
Well... What do you think? Go on, tell me!
For reference: Yes, I do know the chorus of La Cucaracha off by heart. My mum thought it would be funny to teach it to me, and then let me repeat it to the 3yr-old daughter of her Spanish friend. Most of this stuff is based on things I have done, or would do. Only I don't need a boredom rune or any alcohol. Just sugar.
Ok, so, I'm going to be really nice. I'm setting a goal for 80 reviews, and then I'll post the next chapter by next Thursday at the latest. Which considering I'm going to a birthday party and helping out at a 4-day camp (days only, though), showing my devotion to you guys.
I know you can do it! Go on, push the green button. It will love you forever (as will I), and send you cyber cookies. And Edward Cullen, if you, like Isabelle and Rose, like vampires...
PS I realise I haven't said this yet, so thanx to my beta, who has told me that if I am Isabelle or Clary (another one of my friends being the other), then she would be Maia, sitting and laughing. Or hiding. Or both. Which is, I can tell you from experience, true.