greygirl2358: I'm glad you are enjoying my book. I will do my best to keep the writing good.

And you have my condolences.

Clary woke up to the sound of firemail. It must have been at least two hours earlier than she usually woke up, because the sky looked slightly grayer out her window. About eight, she guessed.

She opened the letter...

Clarissa Adele Morgenstern,

You are cordially invited to celebrate Jocelyn Fairchild-Morgenstern and Valentine Morgenstern's 20th wedding anniversary celebration...

Clary gained a smile as she read on. Valentine and Jocelyn had talked about this constantly. For their twentieth wedding anniversary, they were going to host a ball- and according to the letter, they were renting out a ball room in Alicante- and they talked about how all of their friends would be there. She read on, and after the uniform letter that was probably sent to everyone, there was a section hand written in her mother's handwriting, telling her that she wanted her to come and stay with them the week before the party, and that her friends could stay with them, too.

Clary lept out of bed, got dressed, and ran down to the dining room.

Everyone was in the kitchen. Maryse was cooking something wonderful smelling on the stove, and heads turned and eyes widened when they saw her.

"So, you're awake on your own and before ten in one day?" said Jace. "That's a record."

Clary was panting a little from running through the house at top speed.

Maryse looked away from the stove and at her. She smiled and held up an open envelope. "I haven't told them yet," she said. "I left those honors to you."

Clary held up the envelope. "Event of the season, and we're all invited."

One week later...

Clary woke up from a knock on her door. "Clary?" Isabelle's voice called through the door. "Clary, it's eight. We're leaving in one hour."

"I'm up!" Clary threw off her covers and rolled off her bed. Today was the day that Jocelyn and Valentine had told them to come to stay at their house. Clary was excited and nervous.

"You better be!" she heard Isabelle walk away. Clary briefly wondered why Isabelle had always just knocked, and Jace had always come in...

Clary changed into fitted black velvet pants, lace up black boots and a green, fitted button down silk blouse with ruffles, a collar and short sleeves.

One of her suitcases from her luggage set had been packed the night before, and was sitting next to her vanity.

She joined everyone in the dining room, where everyone was eating toast- Since Maryse had gone, no one was cooking, and meals were simple. Clary had also noticed that her towels had stopped being restocked, and her bed stopped being made.

"Morning," She sat down next to Jace.

"Morning," he said. "How'd you sleep?"

"Well, thank you."

"Are you looking forward to seeing your family again, Clary?" Asked Isabelle.

Clary nodded, smiling. "I am."

Maryse had organized what was happening with Valentine and Jocelyn. Jace, Isabelle, Clary and Alec were to stay with the Morgensterns for the week before the anniversary party, then they would return to the institute.

Clary took a bite of toast.

They were all waiting in front of the institute, luggage in hand. They were waiting for Magnus Bane to arrive, to open the portal to Idris, but he was late.

"Since when is Magnus late?" Said Isabelle.

"He said he'd come as soon as possible," said Alec. "He'll be here."

Isabelle sighed.

Jace leaned over to whisper to Clary. "How much do you want to bet he's late because he's putting in hair gel?"

Clary giggled. "Five bucks."

"Your on."

"Sorry I'm late!" They all turned to see Magnus approaching. "I was caring for a wounded werewolf. Metuenda demon attack."

Jace pulled five bucks out of his pocket and handed it to Clary.

She took it and grinned.

Magnus was in a green velvet military jacket and tight leather pants. His hair was spiked out in all directions, and he had glitter on his face. He nodded at Alec. "Alexander."

Alec was looking at him.

Magnus turned away from Alec and toward Clary. "Clarissa. Ready to go home?"

Clary nodded.

Magnus aimed his hands at the wall, and blue sparks began to fly. The portal opened, the image showing Clary's home.

"Clarissa, you may step through the portal," said Magnus.

Clary took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then stepped through.

Clary felt the strange sensation of walking through a portal. She took a deep breath of fresh, flower scented Idris air. She opened her eyes, and saw her family standing several feet away. "Jonathan!" Clary's bag fell from her hand, and she ran forward, grinning from ear to ear.

Jonathan ran towards her, too.

She leapt into his arms, and he locked her in an embrace, spinning her around once, making her laugh.

"I missed you so much," he whispered into her ear.

"I missed you, too," she was crying tears of joy. It hadn't actually been that long since she'd seen him, but it felt like an eternity. She'd never been away from him that long before.

He loosened his grip and her toes touched the ground again.

She wiped the tears from her face.

"Clary," Jocelyn walked up next to Jonathan.

"Mom!" Clary ran into Jocelyn's arms. Clary embraced Valentine next. "Father."

"Clarissa."

Clary turned. Jace and Isabelle were in front of the portal, and Alec just arrived. The portal closed behind them.

"Mom, Father, Jonathan, I'd like you to meet Alec Lightwood, Isabelle Lightwood, and Jace Herondale," Clary gestured to each one of them as she introduced them.

Jace stepped forward. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

Valentine stepped forward and shook Jace's hand. "Jason. You look just like Celine."

"I was told you introduced my mother and father. I thank you."

Valentine smirked at Jace's humor. So did Jace.

Isabelle and Alec stepped forward, too.

"My. You two look just like Maryse," said Jocelyn.

"I'll take that as a compliment," said Isabelle.

"As you should. Please, come in," Jocelyn gestured to their house, which was a couple dozen feet away.

Isabelle looked over it, wide eyed. The house was wide- about twice as wide as the institute- and tall. It resembled a castle. It was white with gold detail, and there were designs of shooting stars in various places.

"Wow," Isabelle whispered.

They were lead inside the large double doors into the front room. The floors were made of white marble, and there was a large staircase leading up to a second floor, and a large crystal chandelier hung from the tall ceiling- which was painted like Versaille.

"Woah," said Alec, looking around.

"You have a lovely home," said Jace.

"Thank you," said Jocelyn. "We'll show you to your rooms."

They went up the marble staircase, and to the second floor. The walls were white marble here, but the floor was a thin red carpet, and portraits of their family lined the walls. There were dark wood doors with crystal door knobs along most of the hall.

Jocelyn opened one of the doors and stepped aside. "This is Isabelle's room."

Isabelle walked in and looked around. "Wow..."

Valentine opened the door to the left of it- which was several feet away-. "This is Alexander's room."

Alec walked in and stared, wide eyed. "Whoa."

Jocelyn walked across the hall from Isabelle's room and opened the door. "And this is Jason's room."

Jace walked in. "How you have a chandelier in the guest room?"

Clary giggled. This wasn't exactly how she'd expected them to act. She'd never thought of her house as that impressive before.

They had been brought down to the living room- which had white walls, marble statues, a fireplace, a red rug, three red velvet couches, dark wood coffee tables and a dark wood table for playing cards. Jocelyn had gotten them tea and cookies, and then her and Valentine had left, to let the teenagers have some social time.

"Your house is... Beautiful," said Isabelle, looking around the room.

Alec seemed slightly stunned.

Clary was sitting next to Jonathan on one of the velvet loveseats.

"So, you're Isabelle?" Asked Jonathan, looking at Izzy.

"That's me," she said, taking a sip of her tea out of a china cup.

"Somehow, I thought you'd be more..." he trailed off.

Isabelle frowned. "More what?"

"Nothing."

"What?"

"Blonde."

Isabelle cocked her head to the side. "Blonde?"

Clary gave him a puzzled look.

He shrugged.

Jace smirked. "Did you think I'd be brunette?"

"Yes, actually."

Jace chuckled. "Sorry to disappoint you."

Jonathan shot Clary a questioning look.

She just shook her head, still smiling.

"Then you're Alec," said Jonathan, looking at him.

"Yes."

Jonathan's eyes were going back and forth between Jace and Alec. There was a second of silence. "I think I imagined you blonde, too. Though, probably more..." he trailed off.

Clary eyed him curiously.

Alec frowned, puzzled. "More what?"

Clary's eyes widened and she looked at Jonathan, shaking her head slowly, subtly.

Jonathan gave her a questioning look.

Don't, she mouthed. She thought back to her letters. Did she ever mention that Alec was still in the closet?

What? He mouthed back.

He's still in the closet.

Jonathan frowned. What?

Shut. Up.

The others stared at them in puzzlement.

"Isabelle is really good with a whip," said Clary, then immediately regretted it.

Jonathan's eyes widened and he looked at Isabelle.

"That's her weapon while hunting demons," Clary added. She took a big gulp of her tea and burned her tongue.

"Clary tells me you're a good fighter," said Isabelle, trying to change the topic.

"Does she, now?" Jonathan glanced over at Clary.

"I'd love to see how well you fight."

"Will you be using your whip?" Jonathan smirked.

Clary took another gulp of tea, and emptied the cup.

Isabelle seemed unaffected. She smirked. "I said I would like to see how well you fight. I never said I wanted to fight you," she took a sip of tea.

"Who then?" Jonathan seemed intrigued.

"Jace."

Jace raised one eyebrow.

"He's already fought Clary. Let's see how he does with someone he doesn't know."

Jonathan grinned. "I accept."

Jace grinned, too. "So do I."

Clary and Jonathan showed them to the weapons room. It was bright, high ceilinged, and the floors were white marble. There were racks of shiny, silver swords, daggers, seraph blades, all sorts of weapons, a table with a stack of small, folded white cloths, and a large amount of space.

Jace, Isabelle and Alec looked around.

"This is nice," said Isabelle. Her voice wasn't shocked, but it sounded as if she was... flirting?

Jonathan went to one of the racks lined with silver swords. He took out two swords and handed one to Jace.

"You use real swords?" Asked Alec, a hint of concern in his voice.

"They're training swords," Clary and Jonathan said in unison.

Jace ran his fingers along the blade and tapped the end. He looked at his finger, but there was no blood. "Fancy."

Jonathan frowned, confused. "'Fancy'?"

"The ones at the institute are covered with a leather case," said Jace, not looking away from the blade.

"Ah," Jonathan strolled over to the center of the room. "Ready when you are."

Jace strolled up in the same matter Jonathan did, with the same amount of cockiness. "I'm always ready," Jace swung first, and Jonathan blocked it.

The swords made a loud clang when they hit together, making Clary gasp. She's forgotten that the training swords sounded so real.

They went back and forth for a few minutes- the others watched from the doorway, which they'd never left. Finally, Jonathan used his sword to twist the sword from Jace's hand, and it fell to the ground. Jonathan pointed the dull tip to Jace's chest.

Jace smirked. "Impressive."

Clary realized what would happen next before it did.

Jace dropped to the floor and swung his leg around, tripping Jonathan.

Jonathan made a noise of surprise, and fell on his back

Jace swiped the sword from his hands and put the tip to his chest. "Though it's harder to beat someone you don't know," Jace finished. He lowered his sword and held out his hand. Jonathan took it.

Clary let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding.

Isabelle smirked. She waltzed up to where the sword had been dropped, and picked it up. "I'm not as good as Jace," she said. "But if you go easy on me, I'm sure we could have some fun."

Jonathan had switched his sword to his left hand to fight Isabelle. They felt- in his opinion- equally matched now. He hadn't expected her to be this good- from what Clary's letters had said, Isabelle was an easy opponent. Clearly, her training had been paying off, and Jonathan was no where near as good as he usually was with his left hand.

Jonathan glanced down at Isabelle's high heel boots, she stepped back and forth when she struck and defended. He looked at her long, straight black hair, it bounced about as she moved.

Jonathan had imagined what each person looked like as he'd read Clary's letters. From how nice Isabelle sounded, he'd imagined her very different from how she actually did look. He'd imagined a short, blonde girl with a muscular frame. When he'd seen her, he'd been shocked. She was beautiful. And when he'd imagined Alec, he'd imagined him blonde- like his sister- but somehow... gayer looking. At first, when he first saw Alec and Jace, he wasn't sure which one was which, but when he'd seen Isabelle, he assumed the one with the black hair was Alec. And, he'd imagined Jace brunette- he didn't really know why- but he was much more attractive than he'd pictured. No wonder Clary liked him. He also had a cocky and slightly vain personality- he didn't understand that part.

When he'd imagined Clary having a boyfriend, he imagined Clary would pick a nice boy, one who was kind, like their mother, though, Jace was definitely not that.

He knocked the sword from Isabelle's hand, and used the opportunity to get close. He went right up to her and put the sword to her throat. "I win."

"So you do," her tone was seductive.

He backed away and lowered his sword. "How are you with a whip?"

Isabelle smirked. "Wouldn't you like to know," she teased.

"I'm just curious."

"Alright," Isabelle took something off her wrist- it was a whip. "You may need to switch hands, though."

Jonathan scoffed and switched the blade from his left hand to his right. He lunged forward, and Isabelle cracked her whip.

The whip wrapped around his sword, and she yanked it out of his hand.

His eyes widened. "You are good with a whip."

She grinned. "I know."

Jocelyn came in and knocked on the open double doors. "Dinner in twenty," she said, then walked away.

"Okay!" Clary called after her.

Jonathan looked around the room. Clary had just stopped sword fighting with Jace, and Alec was putting away the bow and arrows he'd been using.

Seeing Alec, Jonathan thought back to what had happened in the living room, Clary's reaction. Shut up, she'd mouthed. Why? Was Alec being gay a secret?

Isabelle put her training sword away.

"We might want to change," said Clary. "I'm all sweaty."

"It wasn't a good Idea to wear velvet and silk white training, Clarissa," said Jonathan.

Clary rolled her eyes at him.

"We should all change," said Jace. "There isn't a dress code for dinner, is there?"

Clary giggled. "Not really."

"Though I don't think anyone's ever worn jeans and a t-shirt in the dining room," said Jonathan.

"Gotcha," said Isabelle.

Thank you everyone for being so supportive :)