Chapter 10

Clary woke up the next morning to her blaring alarm clock, almost surprised it had been the first interruption from her sleep. Normally Clary would have hated its shrill scream, which rang throughout her ears like a wailing baby's cries, as well as all the things it represented, but today she welcomed it. Today she welcomed it because it meant being somewhere other than the same place Jace was, and that meant she could finally feel like her life was still normal.

But then she felt guilty. She thought of the talk she and her mom had had and remembered how she had thought it was such good advice and that she was definitely going to take it. Could she really be blamed though? Jace made her so confused. Everytime she saw him she was torn between wanting to smother him in hug and punch some sense into him.

Then, she realized that Jace would probably be going to school as well, and that maybe she wouldn't be as free as she thought. Thinking of everything the day was sure to hold, she took back any remorse she'd been feeling.

With a groan, Clary swiped her hand across the clock and quickly swung her legs out of her warm bed. What she had initially thought was going to be a good day now seemed daunting and pushed her with strong hands back into bed. However, Clary was a fighter and she managed to get dressed, brush her teeth, shower, and drag her feet into the kitchen. When she arrived, she was surprised with a delicious, warm, steaming breakfast that broke into her clouded head and put a brilliant smile on her face.

"You made breakfast! Thanks Mom!" Clary said.

Then, Jocelyn turned around, saw Clary, and smiled cheerily back at her, "Your welcome, Darling," she said as she walked from the kitchen and into the living room.

Clary quickly went and got herself a plate from the cupboard and then went to gather food. She couldn't help but feel a little ridiculous when she shoveled food onto her awaiting plate, shoulders hunched as she smelled the bacon, eggs, toast, sausage, and pancakes.

"You'd think you were starving," she heard an amused voice say from behind her.

She recognized the voice as Jace's, and instead of answering she turned to glare at him. Part of her expected Jace to be a hypocrite and rake the food onto his plate just as enthusiastically as her, but the larger, correct, part of her expected him to delicately spoon food onto his plate. Needless to say his polite motions not only embarrassed her (after all she, the girl, should have been the one who was being gentle) but also sparked a fiery indignation inside her that led to her shoveling even faster and putting even more on her plate. The disgusted/fascinated/surprised look on his face. Yes, sometimes being contrary and stubborn was quite fun.

However, when Jace then simply shook his head with an amused half-smile and turned away, Clary could feel the exasperated pout on her face. Then, when she was done, she walked with her back straight to a seat at the kitchen table, diagonal from Jace. She noticed that Jace was making a point to take perfect, prim, and proper bites, so Clary ignored him and simply enjoyed her food.

As hard as she tried to ignore him, she couldn't help sneaking glances over at him every once in a while. Most of the time he'd be staring right back at her, and she had to admit it was a bit unnerving.

Finally, it got to her and she said, "Why do you keep staring at me?"

"Why not? And besides you were staring at me, too. Not that I can really blame you."

Clary simply raised an eyebrow and watched as Jace childishly smirked at her.

"Oh, and by the way," he said, "Jocelyn and Luke said that it would be a good idea for you to show me around on my first day of school."

His following grin rubbed in her face the fact that she wouldn't be able to get away from him. Clary couldn't also help but be a little frustrated. She and Jace weren't even in the same grade. She was in tenth, and, she assumed, Jace would be in eleventh or possibly even twelfth.

She slit her eyes and said, "But we're not even in the same grade."

This bit of knowledge apparently didn't actually seem like knowledge to jace, for he said, "Oh? I didn't realize."

Clary was getting frustrated, but somehow managed to grind out from between her teeth, "There's no need to be sarcastic, but I don't really see how I'm going to manage to show you to all of your classes and still get to mine on time, so I think you'll have to manage on your own. Or can you not handle that?"

Jace brushed off her response and said, "Of course I don't need your help. I don't even need to be going to school. I already know everything I need too and more. My father taught me more than any teacher ever could. It might even get a little embarrassing for them."

Though Clary knew Jace meant it as one of his typical-Jace comebacks, she couldn't help but notice the mention of his father. And the look in his eyes when he mentioned him. She was so busy reveling in the new piece of information, no matter how small, that she forgot to reply to him.

She was completely oblivious to the world until she heard Jace say, "Rendered you speechless, have I? I have to admit, that was one of my worst comebacks. It's always good to know that even at your worst, you're still better than everyone else."

"Haha, very funny," Clary said as she got up to put her stuff in her backpack.

"Oooo good one," Jace said with a generous amount of mockery in his tone.

Clary just continued with her stuffing. She could hear Jace start to follow her lead. In the back of her mind, she wondered when Jace had gotten a backpack, but also figured he probably already had one and had just brought it along.

As Clary was turning to get a pen she had left on the counter next to the counter, she, never known for her grace, banged into the still scalding hot grease in the pan from the bacon and it burned a fiery trail all the way from the stove top to her unfortunate, bare foot. The searing oily liquid could be heard as it sizzled against her flesh, but once Clary recognized the pain, the only thing that could be heard was her ear-splitting scream.

She dropped the pencil out of surprise and promptly dropped to the floor. Tears sprang unbidden to her eyes as she not only felt the terrible pain, but saw the absolute mess her foot was in. The skin was horribly burned, but worse than that were the grotesque blisters that bubbled up.

Clary was vaguely aware of footsteps making their way toward her, but all she could focus on was the blinding pain in her foot, which was somehow spreading up her entire leg. It wasn't until she felt lean, muscular arms wrap around her that she fully realized there was someone there to help her. She looked up, and even though her blurred vision, she could make out Jace's figure. She wasn't sure whether it was just her significantly dis-enhanced vision or if it was a genuine emotion, but Clary thought there was an unmistakable amount of horrified worry covering Jace's face entirety.

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