Hey, I'm going to try to keep these Author's notes short and sweet from now on. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot
Clary POV:
I got a note from Jace and Will saying that they wanted to do something out of the palace for the date so, luckily, I was able to wear some normal clothes.
At first I just wore some jeans and a baggy t-shirt but Izzy practically scolded me. I told her I never get to where casual clothes but she retorted back with 'You're on a date, dress to impress'.
So I was tactfully forced by Izzy to wear her own olive tank top with thick straps, tucked into my skinny black jeans. It showed off my shoulders and arms.
I wore a long, yet simple golden chain and knee high caramel-brown boots with tassels. I also carried a leather jacket just in case it got cold.
Now I stood in the foyer, on time, waiting for the two hooliga- I mean gentleman.
Finally, they came snickering down the stairs like a bunch of jocks. They were wearing similar things - jeans and tight tees which showed their defined muscles, and whoa. Clary, let's not go there.
"Okay, so we were thinking bowling, lunch, and a stroll around the park, how about that?" Jace asked optimistically.
We hadn't really talked much after the awkward meeting, but he clearly seemed to be over it and the 'I-don't-care-about-anything' Jace was back.
So I'm going to pretend like I don't care.
"Yeah Jace, that's a brilliant idea," I said ten times more enthusiastic.
An awkward silence washed over us due to my unusually chirpy voice. Obviously, Will was the one to break it.
"You know talking in high pitched voices doesn't hide the strain you have," he started talking seriously.
"I understand that you guys might be nervous, considering you're spending the day with me, someone so gorgeous, hot, sexy and…" he said his voice gradually getting louder and louder.
Jace scoffed, "Ok thanks Casanova you can shut it now," he said, rolling his eyes.
I laughed, "Okay, I just have to tell Magnus - the royal adviser, that I'm leaving, I'll be right back."
I spun around and ran right into Magnus, "You'll have to go with a guard or two," he said firmly.
"Eavesdropping huh?" I said, crossing my arms together.
"You need to take a guard," Magnus repeated.
"Do we really? It's supposed to be a date!" I retorted.
"Now, biscuit, you know the rules, a rebel or even just a citizen could attack you, or kidnap you at any moment," Magnus reasoned.
"What about Tessa? Can she come?" Jace asked, but looking in Will's direction and smirking for some odd reason.
"My maid? You know her by first name?" I asked in disbelief, "Wow didn't know she got around this quick."
Magnus thought for a second, "Okay, she can stay with you but a guard will have to stay around the perimeter,"
"Sounds good to me!" I chirped.
"Well I'll leave you with your dates," he said eyeing the two boys - for a little longer then acceptable, I didn't care though.
"Tessa? Where'd that idea come from?" I asked turning myself to Jace.
"Bowling would be boring with just the three of us." He remarked.
"Right," I replied.
I dialled Tessa's number.
"Hey Tessa, it's an emergency, meet me down in the foyer, and uh, put some jeans and a shirt on."
"Or you can forget the shirt," I heard Will snicker.
I glared at Will, luckily, I don't think Tessa heard.
"That makes no sense Clary, what emergency requires me out of my uni-,"
"Doesn't matter, just do as I say and meet me down in the foyer, Magnus has excused you from your duties for the day," I interrupted.
"Bu-,"
"Bye Tessa!" I said, abruptly ending the call.
"You're bossy," Jace observed.
"I'm also the princess, so I kind of have to be a bit bossy," I replied, smiling innocently.
"It's no problem for me, you're cute when you're bossy," Jace said smirking.
My cheeks flushed, but I turned away in hopes he wouldn't see.
"This is going to be so weird," Will groaned.
Finally, Tessa came fumbling down the stairs, "You're supposed to be on your date with those two," Tessa said, confused.
"Sorry princess, we're going bowling and then for a stroll around the park and someone needs to look after the other princess, so Jace said we bring you along," Will said pointing at Jace.
Tessa looked baffled, "You know my name?" she asked Jace.
"Let's just say some of my friends' kind of talk about you, goodness knows why," Jace replied, shaking his head.
"Ignore him," I told Tessa, who still held a confused expression.
"And you," Tessa said, turning herself to face Will, "Don't call me princess."
Will held his hands up in surrender, "Aye, aye."
"Princess," Jace added quietly. The two boys started laughing.
"Oh my god!" Tessa exasperated, looking fiercely towards me as if I were to punish them for their 'behaviour'.
I shrugged innocently, "Your idea to put them together."
She rolled her eyes, and pulled my jacket from my arms, "Let's get this over and done with." Striding ahead to the palace gates.
"My jacket?" I asked quietly. She waved her hand dismissively, "I'm cold."
Tessa POV:
"HAHAH take that suckers!" Clary screamed as we walked out.
If it wasn't evident from Clary's squeals, she had beaten us - Will, Jace and I at bowling.
"Why aren't you guys saying anything? Didn't expect the princess to win, huh?" Clary boasted.
"You know if you're this excited about winning, that must mean you clearly aren't used to it," Jace said slyly.
"When I win, which is ninety-nine per cent of the time, I am completely chill," He added.
Clary rolled her eyes.
"No I fully knew of your capabilities, and uh certain competitiveness, and I expected you to win, so, good game," I said good-naturedly, I tried to comfort.
I glanced at the boys and their downcast faces, "This is the first, and probably, unfortunately the last time, you two aren't blabbering on," I laughed, Clary following.
The guard trailed not too far behind us, dressed casually of course.
The two boys exchanged a look of worry as they realised their 'Tough-I Don't care' facade wasn't being upheld.
All of a sudden the arrogant smirk and the amused glint they always have in their eyes returned. They were so similar.
Right now we were walking to the park, planning to have a little picnic and play a game of Frisbee.
Will smiled, "So is anything interesting going to happen in the Selection?" He asked Clary and I.
Clary opened her mouth to say something but nothing came to mind.
Even I thought; then I remembered something. "Halloween!"
Will staggered back from my outburst, but quickly pulled himself together.
"Halloween?" Clary and Jace said together. They exchanged an awkward look.
"What's going on with Halloween?" Will asked impatiently.
"There's going to be a ball and we get dress up!" I said enthusiastically, even though technically I won't be allowed to dress up.
Clary looked at me interested, "That's never happened before, that'll be nice"
I nodded in agreement, taking a sip from my water bottle.
"We have to dress up, what a bore," Jace groaned.
Will on the other hand was beaming, "I have the perfect costume - it'll involve another person though, to finish the costume off," he said passionately.
"And who will that be?" I asked, intrigued.
"My best mate of course," he said looking at Jace.
Jace smirked, "I'm flattered and all, Will, but dressing up really isn't my thing, and I know we're mega bros and all but-," Will started laughing before Jace could continue.
"You, thought," Will's hands were on his knees, as he laughed while bending down, "that, I was, talking, about you," he said between laughs.
I spat my water out, Did Jace just get rejected by Will?
I managed to keep my laughter in, although my smile was humongous. Clary, however
was snorting away.
"I was talking about Jem," Will said, still laughing.
Jace's eyes widened slowly in embarrassment, and although he tried to hide it, his cheeks still flushed a rosy colour.
Jace glared daggers at Will, "Shut up, I like Lightwood better anyway."
Will gave Jace a look of mock shock, "How dare you?" he said sarcastically.
"Let's just go to the park, and set the picnic up." Jace muttered.
We walked in silence to the park until we set up the food.
There was an assortment of sandwiches, lemonade and donuts.
After a long time of eating and talking we got up and decided to play Frisbee.
The grass was so soft that we decided to take our shoes off.
Clary and I were ready to play; I was standing on one side and Clary was standing at the opposite.
The boys were on the side - talking, I think, showing off their muscles.
"Got to go to the bathroom, I'll be back in 5." Jace said.
"Okay I'll just wait here for you," Will said.
"You joining us?" I asked Will.
"Playing Frisbee with two girls? Imagine how that would look, I'll wait for Jace," he said standing firmly in his spot.
I rolled my eyes, "Clary, we'll start without them."
"Okay," she replied, the Frisbee firm in her hand.
I couldn't help smile, it had been ages since we had been out of the palace, together, and not doing any duties, just having fun.
"Here I go," the Frisbee slipped from her hands, but instead of it coming towards me, it went straight for the Will's head.
"Will, duck!" I screamed.
Will's eyes widened in panic, "Shit!" He frantically turned around in circles, "WHERE IS THE BLOODTHIRSTY LITTLE BEAST? DON'T WORRY PRINCESS' I'LL SAVE YOU" He seethed, clenching his fists.
At the sight of Will continuously unleashing death threats, Matt, Clary and I came running towards Will.
"What on earth is wrong with you?" I asked alarmed.
"You said there was a duck," he said, looking around suspiciously.
Meanwhile, the Frisbee lay a couple of metres away from Will on the ground. Luckily he had tactfully dodged it while he was running in circles for no apparent reason.
I picked up the Frisbee, "No smart ass, I meant DUCK as in bend your head down to avoid the Frisbee hitting that head of yours which somehow contains a brain." I exasperated.
I knew I was coming off rude, but I seriously thought something was wrong with him.
Matt went back to his post, clearly not impressed.
Clary laughed, "The almighty Will Herondale is afraid of ducks?" She asked amused.
I would've expected Will to be embarrassed but it seemed as if he thought that ducks were a normal fear.
Will nodded gravely, "Never trust a duck," he muttered. Clary and I exchanged a look of disbelief.
"What happened here, why is Herondale on the floor?" Jace asked, who just came back from his bathroom break.
Clary chuckled, "You will not believe what happened, Will is afraid of ducks."
Jace was about to say something but Will interrupted, "I swear I saw one of their deadly, disgusting white feathers close by-,"
"WHAT! WHERE? WHERE IS THE DUCK? ILL FIGHT IT WITH MY OWN HANDS!" Jace interrupted, his eyes filled with rage.
"For the last time, there is no freaking duck!" I exclaimed, becoming extremely annoyed.
"See, At least now I know I'm not the only sane person here." Will said.
Clary laughed, "Oh, my, god," Clary said in between breaths, "Who knew Jace Wayland could be funny?" She said, tilting her head, still laughing.
Now it was my turn to be confused. "Clary, I don't think Jace was kidding about the ducks,"
Jace's eyes were still widened, ready to escape as if his predator were to pounce on him at any moment.
Except the predator was a duck.
"Nah he has to be kidding how can they both be scared of ducks, that's just too much of a coincidence," Clary asked confused.
Will raised his hand in the air, "You know we're still here, right?"
I blatantly ignored him, "You guys are scared of ducks?" I said with a laugh.
"You should've heard Will's scream, it sounded like he was dying!" Clary cackled.
Will finally rose from the ground, "We've been embarrassed too many times on this date," he muttered.
"We're not scared, we're just not particularly fond of them," Jace excused.
"Sure, sure." I said sarcastically.
And for a moment, all was well, this didn't feel like a date - it felt like four friends, hanging out.
There was nothing dividing us, not our caste, our occupations, it was a nice feeling.
Even Clary seemed to be having fun. Poking fun at the two gorgeous goofs. Hold up gorgeous?
"Tessa, can you come over here please?" I heard Matt call out to me.
I nodded, running towards him. Matt has chestnut coloured hair, chocolate eyes, and was very muscular - like all the guards.
He was quite sweet when he wanted to be, but comes off gruff, emotionless.
"You'll have to wrap things up, we both have duties to attend to, and I believe Clary has another date?" Matt said.
I looked at the time, it was nearly three and we were supposed to be back at three thirty.
"Good call, and yes, it's with Gabriel Benedict, thanks Matt," I turned around but Matt stopped me again.
"Wait, also tell them that tomorrow's dates are cancelled, the contestants need prep for
the fireworks or something for the Halloween ball which is this Saturday, in 4 days," Matt added.
"Oh ok." I replied.
I headed back to the group, seeing Clary still making fun of them over the duck situation.
"Hey guys, so technically what's happening is..." I told them what was going on tomorrow and informed them about the ball next Monday, then we headed home.
The ride was filled with light chatter and laughs. Although I dreaded going on the date in the first place, I enjoyed myself.
Once we reached the palace we headed out separate ways, I stuck with Clary though until her date with Gabriel.
"Ok it's ten past four, you have to go meet up with Gabriel, so bye," I left with a smile and a hug.
She left in almost immediately and I was left alone to wander to my room, which right now I had to myself.
Normally you have to share with one person but the old maid I used to share a room with, Cassie, quit. Apparently there was a new maid moving sometime next week.
Right now I enjoyed the space I had to myself.
I called it a day and started reading on my bed, in my own room. Well for now.
Unfortunately for Clary, she has a whole other date left. I wonder what happens.
Ah I liked writing a nice light chapter. As usual, thank you for follows, favourites and reviews, I absolutely adore them!
