Simon's POV:

Math class was torture. Sheer, horrifying, gut-wrenching, mind-numbing torture. As my teacher went on and on about parabolas and slopes, I couldn't help but think how useless this information was to me. Sure, once upon a time, maybe I could have used it, if I was going to get a mundane job in the mundane world. But now, as a shadowhunter, the only arcs I had to worry about was where my arrow would land, my sword would chop, and that demon tail would slice. It didn't help that I hardly understood any of it, anyways.

My least favourite classmate, Leo, on the other hand, seemed to be doing great at it. "C'mon, Pipes, it isn't that hard. All it is is y=a(x-s)(xt) for x-intercept form, then y=a(x-h)2k, with the a representing the multiplication of the step pattern, s and t being the two intercepts, h as the x value of the vertex and k as the y value of the vertex."

Piper looked at him as if he were speaking Greek, "Leo, I'm dyslexic. Hell, Leo, you're dyslexic. How are all of these letter and numbers not jumbling around on the page for you? I don't understand it."

"It's the same way you can speak French, Piper. You got the language of love, I got the language of building and engineering. It just makes sense to me, ya know? Ever since I was a kid, math was just one of those things that I got, same with physics. Besides, I learned this years ago."

"You already knew this?" Piper asked.

"Beauty Queen, I built a giant catapult. Do you think that I, Mr. McShizzle himself, would build a giant catapult before understanding how to calculate where my big, explode-y projectile would land?"

"Yes," Piper answered immediately.

Leo put his hand on his chest in mock hurt, "Wow, Beauty Queen, thanks for the faith." When Leo pulled his hand away, I could have sworn that I caught flicker of flame in Leo's palm. His hand seemed to burn for a second before it quickly extinguished. I shook my head. After all of my recent encounters with demons, I was probably just imagining things.

I went back to my work, but continued to overhear Piper and Leo's conversation, "Leo, is there any other way you could explain it to me?"

"Ok, so you know how, when you throw your dagger, you just know where it's going to land, because of how you throw it?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, this is just like that. Let's start with the x-vertex form. Think of this vertex as your arm, and the grid is the air your dagger flies through. The other vertex is the dummy it lands in. This "a" represents the trajectory the dagger flies at. Make sense so far?"

"I think so,"

"Ok, so now imagine there's a standard it flies at. It goes up 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, et cetera. If there's a 2, it's like you doubled the angle of your throw, and it goes up 2, 6, 10, 14, et cetera, and the same goes for three and four and whatever other number you might put there. Do you get it now?"

"I think so. So, if I throw my dagger triple the normal height, I'll get-" Then Piper cut off, and I heard the sounds of her pencil scratching the paper. For all Leo's weirdness and how obnoxious he was, the dagger metaphor actually made a lot of sense to me.

After thinking of it Leo's way, closing my eyes, picturing the dagger in my hand, watching it hit the target, seeing the angle it flew at, I found it a lot easier to figure the equations out. The rest of the class went off without a hitch, until about fifteen minutes before the bell rang. I had just finished my homework, which left me time to think. Now, the words Simon and thinking do not usually go well together in a sentence. When I think, bad things tend to happen. Most of my worst ideas have happened after thinking (namely, the whole Maya-Isabelle situation, to start).

So when I started dazing off, thinking about Leo's ingenious dagger metaphor, it struck me that Leo and Piper, two non-shadowhunters, found it easier to understand math when pointy-objects were involved. It then struck me that Leo told Piper to picture throwing her own dagger, meaning she actually owned a weapon and knew how to use it. Then I thought of the fire, and my mind wandered back to the start of the semester, with Piper's unusual voice. Suddenly, it all clicked. Not mundanes not mundanes not mundanes not mundanes, my mind screamed at me, over and over, as my eyes blew wide.

I forced myself to calm down.

You are a shadowhunter, I told myself, and you will handle this like one. "Hey Piper, hey Leo, do you guys mind giving me a hand at the beginning of lunch?"

Leo and Piper both looked cautious, "What can we do for you?" Piper asked.

I took a breath, "I just don't exactly understand this, and I overheard Leo teaching you. He seemed to really know what he was doing, and you seem to really get it to, so I was just wondering if you guys would mind helping me out?"

Leo instantly relaxed "Yeah, sure man, whatever. I'm down." Piper still had her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Thanks so much. Do you guys wanna meet at the picnic table around back? It's quiet back there."

"Sure," Leo grinned easily.

I grinned back, "Great. See you there."

I immediately whipped out my phone and texted Clary and Izzy, Meet me at the picnic tables behind the school, start of lunch, be armed but not visibly. I'll explain later"

I got a 'k' from Clary and a 'sure' from Izzy, and I prepped myself. I had a seraph blade safely stowed in my backpack if it came to that, and I knew Clary and Izzy would be great backup.

When the bell rang, I rushed out of the class to my locker, and straight outside. I got there about 3 minutes later, and Izzy and Clary were both waiting for me, along with Leo and Piper. Startlingly enough, Jace was there, alongside Will from our music class and that Nico kid, and I could see Alec making his way towards them, covered in a gold dust, Percy and flanking him. Upon her arrival, Annabeth's eyes narrowed, "What on Earth is happening here?"