I'M BAAAAAAAAAAACK! Did you miss me? :P I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to update during the past week after all, weirdly enough the weather was actually amazing so some of you need to work on your rain dances haha! We even made a day trip to Wales where I just fangirled about Will Herondale the entire time. It was awesome! Thank you all so much though for your reviews on the last chapter, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to reply to them. I read every single one though and I appreciate your comments so much :) I missed you guys too! Thank you so much for your patience :D

So finally, I can present to you the next chapter! Though I just want to say first, to all of you who thought it was a skunk -really!? I thought I made it really obvious it was a badger considering they chased it into the bushes. Either you were joking or badgers clearly don't exist in your country (you fortunate souls) so I suggest you google them right now. Right now. Google the badger. You're not allowed to read any more until you do. I'm watching you. The badgers are watching you. Badger.

Disclaimer: I do not own TMI or its characters, nor do I own any badgers. Thank god.


Chapter 12: Trying to placate Valentine

"No, not them!" Jace says again, jerking his head. His eyes are wildly fixated on something at his foot. Something black and white and rather large.

I scream.

"RUN!" Jace scrambles off the grass, pushing me in front of him as he goes.

"No!" I turn back around. Why are we running? I wasn't screaming in fear, I was unleashing a battle cry. "This is my chance. Now I can finally destroy it!"

"Clary, how the hell are you going to destroy it!? Do you have any idea how dangerous they are?" He half carries me through the bushes as I struggle to get past him. A small part of my mind registers the fact that Jace's arms are literally around me right now, but the rest of it is in full revenge mode.

"It's getting away!" I gasp, eyeing the badger. It scurries towards a little dip in our garden fence, but just before it escapes, it turns around to face me. In that moment I could swear I see it smirk at me, mocking me. Laughing at how it has devastated the fruits – or rather, vegetables – of my labour. I'm not joking, it actually gives me a look of pure evil. Don't tell me it's the hunger talking. I know what I saw. And then it just slips its furry potato-stealing arse through the hole and it's gone. "COME FACE ME LIKE A MAN, YOU COWARD!" I yell after it.

"Clary, would you please just…" Jace is still trying to push me in the other direction.

"YEAH, YOU KEEP RUNNING!" I wave my fist in the air.

Suddenly, my flimsy slippers catch on a loose branch and the next thing I know I'm falling.

"Cla-" Jace breaks off as he tumbles to the ground with me. Unknowingly, I'd grabbed the collar of his shirt on my way down. I hit the ground with a thud, feeling a sharp pain shoot up my elbow. The pain worsens as Jace lands directly on top of me, his arms digging into my back. I groan and slowly pry my eyelids open, only to find two golden orbs staring straight back at me. His face is just a few centimetres away from mine, his breath coming out hard and fast. I look straight back at him, unable to move. He can probably feel my heart racing, let alone hear it. A throaty cough cuts through the silence.

Jace and I turn our heads simultaneously towards the direction of the noise. Simon and Isabelle are gaping at the two of us, open-mouthed. Ah crap. I'd actually completely forgotten they were here.

"Hi there!" I squeak, pushing Jace off of me immediately. He obliges. "Fancy seeing you here, eh?"

"We could ask you the same question," Isabelle glares down at me. I take Jace's proffered hand, letting him pull me up.

"What exactly were you two doing in the bushes together?" Simon asks, giving Jace a weird sort of look.

"And more importantly, how long have you been there?" Isabelle presses.

Jace and I glance at each other.

"A while?" I hedge.

"So what were you doing in the bushes for a while!?"

"We were just, you know, appreciating the surroundings…" Jace smiles awkwardly.

"Enjoying the peace of the morn…" I offer, waving my hands about in an ethereal fashion.

"Being at one with nature…"

"Connecting the Yin and the Yang…"

"Connecting what now!?" Simon's eyes bulge.

"Yin and Yang!" I snap, as Jace seems like he's about to cough his lungs up. "It's a meditative process. Very spiritual."

"Clary, how stupid do you think I am?" Isabelle places her hands on her hips, glaring at the both of us. Damn, I'd really thought she'd buy that.

"Do you really want to hear the answer to that?" Jace mumbles under his breath. I punch him in the shoulder.

"Fine," I roll my eyes. "We were looking for the badger, if you must know."

"I'm not an idiot, Clary! You were spying on me and Simon!"

"No, she's actually telling the truth," Jace confirms. "We were looking for the badger. You just happened to turn up in the middle of our search, so really, you were intruding on us."

"And the badger," I add.

"And the badger." Jace nods.

"I really don't understand the two of you sometimes," Simon's gaze flicks between us warily, before he gestures for Isabelle to head back inside with him.

Neither do I, Simon.

The rest of the weekend passes without much more incidence. The boys spend the majority of the day practicing so I don't get to spend any more time with Jace alone; then some mechanic that Jordan recommends comes around to fix Jonathan's car so he can drop the boys home. He's a rather large fellow called Bat. My parents come home later that evening, relieved to see that the house is still intact. Since Mum was the one who had agreed to let the band stay over, Dad had no idea about it, and he was furious when he found out that four other adolescent boys had been allowed to stay in the house without adult supervision, particularly Jace.

"So where did they all sleep?" Valentine began the interrogations on Sunday morning.

"Downstairs, Dad," Jonathan said.

"I'm asking your sister, not you!" Dad turned to face me. Clearly, he still hadn't quite forgiven Jonathan for the hair-dying-family-shaming incident. "Where did they sleep, Clarissa?"

"Like Jon said, downstairs."

"And where did you sleep?" His stare was unwavering.

"Upstairs," I sighed.

"Where did Jonathan sleep?"

"Downstairs."

"Where did Isabelle sleep?"

"Upstairs."

"Where did Alec sleep?"

"Downstairs."

"Where did Jace sleep?"

"Upstairs."

"WHAT!?"

"What?" I looked up tiredly, then realised my mistake. Damn my father and his mind games.

"THAT IMPERTINENT RUFFIAN! I KNEW IT!" Dad rose from the table, the vein pulsing in his forehead again. Seriously though, who says 'impertinent ruffian' these days?

"I meant downstairs!" I stood up too, holding my hands up as if he were about to arrest me.

"I could see it in his eyes!" Dad yelled, completely ignoring me. He paced around the kitchen as Jonathan and I tried to avoid stepping in his path. "That day I found him in your bedroom, I could sense uncontrolled burning desire. I know it well from my own teenage days." My mouth fell open, though I tried to erase the last part from my mind. I would probably die on the spot if I ever tried to conjure up that particular mental image.

"Wait, what the hell was Jace doing in your bedroom?" Jonathan's head snapped towards me. There was a strange look on his face, an emotion I couldn't quite place. He's normally so apathetic about most things, I guess it was just weird for me to see him so ruffled.

"We were just working on our English project, that's all." I shook my head. Jonathan said nothing. "There's nothing going on between me and Jace, okay Dad!?" Well, it was the truth, wasn't it? It's not like they needed to know I was hoping for that to change. Very soon, preferably. "He was downstairs, with the rest of the boys. Isabelle was the only other person in my room."

"Then why did you say…"

"It's nine o' clock on a Sunday morning. My brain does not function well at this time, you know that."

"Hmmmm," Dad placed his hands in his pockets, eyes narrowing to slits. "Unfortunately something else you seem to have inherited from your mother's side. Morgensterns have no problems with early mornings. In Switzerland, we'd be out at the crack of dawn…" And so he spent the next hour or so reminiscing about his early years as a Swiss boy, a story we'd had to endure countless times already. Though at least this had helped him forget about the argument and Jace. For now.

On Monday morning, Isabelle grabs me on my way to English. Now that everything's been cleared up between us, English Lit classes with Jace are going to be much more interesting. It's almost ridiculous how much my feelings towards him have changed. Over the space of a weekend, he's gone from being the source of all worldly dread and pain to the catalyst of my inner butterfly army. Oh yeah, they're still going strong. If there were an Olympics for butterflies, my crazy critters would win everything. Apart from synchronised swimming. I'm still working on that.

"I told him!" Isabelle exclaims, a little out of breath. I turn to face her, noticing the wild flush on her cheeks.

"Told who what?" I'm still a bit distracted by my insect training.

"Simon!" She says, a brilliant smile lighting up her face. Now I finally pay attention.

"What? HOW!?"

"Well, yesterday, he invited me around to play Skyrim with him. It was really fun at first, I mean, I liked slaughtering the entire population of White Run in wolf-form, but after a while I was getting worried he was more interested in the game, than the fact that I was playing it. So I just blurted it out. I beheaded the last villager and just said it." She grins at me and I can't help but squeal. How romantic.

"So what exactly did you say? What happened? Tell me everything, I'm ready." I jump up and down a bit, arms flailing. My real life OTP is canon, hell yeah.

"I said, 'Simon, I think I love you.'" She bites her lip, waiting for my reaction. My jaw falls to the floor.

"And what did he say?" I choke out.

"Well, he didn't say anything for a while," she snickers. "He just kind of stared at me, almost exactly like you're doing right now. It must have lasted at least ten minutes. I started playing the game again while I waited for him to respond. I mean, obviously it would come as a shock for someone as drop dead gorgeous as me to suddenly declare her love to you. Then when he finally recovered, he sort of coughed for a bit, and then he just straightened up and said, 'I know.'"

"Oh my God," I burst out laughing. Simon had always said that if he met 'the one,' he'd want their declaration of love to match Han Solo and Princess Leia's from Star Wars. Han Solo said 'I love you,' and Leia said, 'I know.' I guess it didn't quite work out that way for him, so in an attempt to salvage the fantasy, he decided to play Leia. I'm never going to let him live this down.

"I know, right?" Isabelle rolls her eyes. "Luckily this is one marathon I vaguely remember you guys watching, so I could see what he was doing. He stuttered for a bit after that, to the extent where I actually had to ask if he was okay, but eventually he just admitted to me – and this is the best part…" She pauses dramatically, even though I know what's coming. "He's been in love with me for years!"

"Aaaah!" I decide to freak out with her anyway, revelling in the moment. We jump up and down in synchronisation. Hell yeah, training has begun. "Oh, Isabelle that's so fantastic. I'm so happy for you both!"

"Me too!" Isabelle looks like she could float up in the air at any moment. She's practically radiant. "So now, I am officially a taken woman! For real this time, though. All we have to do now is find you someone and then we could go on double dates!"

"Yeah…" I trail off. "That would be very convenient." It's just a shame that the only guy I am interested in, probably doesn't feel the same way about me. Okay, who am I kidding? There's no way he feels the same way about me. I'm just Jonathan's insane little sister who he occasionally gets on with.

"Clary?"

"Oh, sorry. Yeah, I'm listening." I force a smile.

"The bell just rang, you should probably get to class anyway. We can discuss this later."

Yippee, I can't wait.

"Oh, and Clary?" She says, just before she turns into the next corridor.

"Yeah?"

"He's staring at you."


Haha that last bit probably came off a bit more creepy than I intended :P You'll find out who the creepy starer (that should seriously be a word if it isn't) is on Sunday!

One more thing about my updating schedule, I'm going to try to go back to normal, but I can't guarantee the next couple of Wednesdays just yet because I literally got a job at the last minute before Uni and I work full-time on weekdays, so it depends on how shattered I am. Sundays are definite though. I'm actually exhausted right now, hence why the chapter isn't super-long but you've been waiting so long already, I couldn't make you wait one more day for an update. I'll just have to be a zombie all day tomorrow at work :B Let me know what you thought though, I really hope you like it. Again, I might not be able to reply to all of you until the weekend, but I promise I'll get round to it so don't think I don't appreciate every single review. I do. I love you guys.

See you in a few days :D

smim xx