Chapter 10~ Detention

Jace

I stumbled into Mrs. Lanning's office five minutes late, breathing hard as I squeezed my overflowing duffel bag through the door. I pushed my damp hair back from my forehead in exasperation. My socks and sweatpants were spilling out the sides of my bag and my shirt was on inside out, courtesy of the entire boys distance team. For some reason, their idea of hilarious involved clothes theft, too many cuss words, and a very frustrated Jace Wayland.

Clary looked up as I all but barrel-rolled into the room and smirked at my obviously flustered appearance. Awesome. I slid into the desk next to her and began pulling out my homework. Maybe if I acted like everything was normal, she wouldn't say anything…

"Wow. You didn't see the tornado 'til it hit you in the face, huh?" Guess not. Clary met my exasperated look, her green eyes dancing with amusement.

"What you're seeing is the complete and utter devastation of Tornado Teenage Boys," I swept my hands gallantly, gesturing to my disheveled clothes and duffel bag. To my surprise, Clary laughed wistfully. "I know what you mean." Her eyes were pointed at the bag, but her gaze had a faraway look, as if she was in a different place and time. I averted my gaze as I tried to puzzle out what it was that Clary was reminded of by teen boys messing with each other that she would miss so much. Did she have a boyfriend? A brother that used to tease her like guys do? I mean, she obviously wasn't a guy herself…right? I thought about that for a second. That would be a disturbing development.

Clary noticed my extremely confused expression. "It reminds me of my life in California," she explained. "Or more specifically, I guess, it reminds me of my best friend Simon. We used to play jokes like that on each other all the time." She ducked her head in embarrassed amusement, remembering a piece of her childhood. "One time, I snuck into his bedroom and turned off his alarm clock for school the next day. He woke up super-late and had to rush to make it to school on time, but I stole ALL his shirts. I left him with a pink camisole, and he lives with his mother and sister, neither of whom could lend him a decent shirt. I made him walk the entire way to school in that shirt, until the principle demanded he 'put on proper school attire or remove himself from school grounds.'" Clary swooped her fingers in an air quote and mimicked an old woman's nasal voice. She met my gaze again and a faint blush colored her cheeks, suddenly self-conscious.

I smiled, though I figured it was one of those 'you had to be there' things, because that sounded like the lamest practical joke ever. "Wow. Sounds like you guys were pretty close, huh?" I tried and failed to keep the slight tinge of jealousy out of my voice. Like I had a right to be jealous.

"Yeah, Simon? He's the best. He's honestly the most fun guy I've ever met. He's a nerd and he knows it, but that doesn't stop him from pretending he rules the world. He's sweet and he makes you feel at home with him, wherever you are." I glanced down at my desk so she wouldn't see the emotions that were surely playing across my face as she described the guy who meant so much to her. "He's my best friend," she said simply.

I felt the overwhelming urge to punch something. My jaw clenched, but I forced myself to calm down. What the hell, Jace? You have no right to be jealous, like Clary is just a possession to be guarded, like she only belongs to you. You don't even know if you like her, idiot. I shifted uncomfortably in my seat, trying to regain my devil-may-care attitude. "He sounds great. Too bad you don't get to see him that often anymore, huh?" I tried to sympathize.

Clary's longing expression visibly brightened. "Oh, I'll see him all the time! He's moving into Seattle tomorrow!" She tossed her ponytail back over her shoulder as she bent over the papers on her desk, pencil in hand. "I think he's going to join the track team, though he's not any good at all, and he'll probably be at school on Monday." Then, almost as an afterthought, she spoke, "Don't tell him I said that, about him being slow. His ego, despite his flaunting, is actually as fragile as a toothpick." She smiled, then went back to her work, checking her watch for the time.

Well. Shit. Clary's best friend slash childhood play-buddy slash potential-maybe-boyfriend was moving to Seattle. In less than 24 hours. And I still hadn't sorted out my feelings about Clary. And once my feelings were well and groomed, I still had to figure out what the hell I was going to do about them. Shit.

I mulled this over a while as we worked, our conversation full of easy banter. I could feel Clary relaxing slowly as she got used to my presence and realized I wasn't going to give her a hard time tonight. The time passed easily until it was nearly time to go, when naturally the conversation turned back to track. That seemed to happen a lot with athletes that shared a love of a sport, and I was grateful to find someone as enthusiastic about running as I was.

Clary grinned slightly as she said, "I'm so grateful to the track team. It really has made school much more bearable, especially in the friends department. Though," Clary rolled her eyes to the ceiling, "Kayla and the girls sure know how to give a girl a hard time when they want to. I'm really excited about the overnight meet next weekend. It'll be great to spend so much time team-bonding."

I let my excitement show on my face as I responded, "Yeah, the overnight meets are cool. It's also a great chance for the whole team to run, not just the varsity. The coaches let us have some fun for once, and we all get pretty close. " Little did she know. The last overnight meet was filled with food fights, late night trips to McDonald's, pool parties, and extremely late nights. Needless to say, we all ran like crap the next day. But it was well worth-it.

Clary exclaimed, "I can't wait! Though, I hope Coach is lenient about the race. I haven't been doing so great on the time trials lately." Right. Because kicking all the girls' and half the guys' asses was doing just terrible.

"Well, what do you expect? Running next to me, anyone looks slow," I said with a fake hair-flip.

Clary snorted. "Right, Goldilocks. Way to toot your own horn." Then, "On the bright side, Simon should be there." Oh. Great. "I think that the guys will really like him, and I know that he'll like the girls." Clary wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. She started packing up her things, and with a glance at the clock I realized we had stayed past the end of detention.

"Oh yeah. I bet he's one of those walking Star Wars advertisements. Let me guess: glasses, shaggy hair, owns more graphic t-shirts than Target? I'm sure the ladies will love him," I couldn't resist remarking dryly.

Clary recoiled at my arrogant words, surprised at the abrupt change in tone. "What, a nerd isn't worthy enough to date someone here?"

"Well, nerds normally aren't the most attractive people ever, what with their love of ridiculous futuristic spaceships and green hairy Yoda-things. 'Likes them, no one does.'" I replied with a grin, expecting a laugh or at least a smirk.

But Clary's eyes flashed angrily, and I realized too late that she thought of herself as one of the nerds I was describing. Shit. I had spoken without thinking, so used to talking to the jerks I surrounded myself with that I slipped into School-Jace mode without realizing it.

She snatched her bookbag from under her desk as she stood up and faced me. "You jackass," she whispered, voice deadly quiet with anger. "Simon is a better guy than you'll ever be. Maybe if you got your head out of that shallow, arrogant ass of yours, you could see that." I watched her, stunned at how things fast things sped out of control, as she stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind her.

A/N- Ok, it's been two-ish years since I last updated this, and I'm positive this chapter is super-rusty, to say the least. The Mortal Instruments hasn't been my passion for a while now, but I felt I should finish this fic, just for my peace of mind. I hope to add Clary's POV to this chapter soon since this didn't feel all that satisfying to me, but I figured, hey, why not update what I've got so far?

Please let me know what you think. Hopefully, this is worth finishing.