"Jace! Come sit with us, please?"

I raise my eyebrows and turn around. Jace stops too, and addresses Kaelie, who had just hollered at him from across the classroom.

"Yeah, Jace. You haven´t sat with us for, like, a week," Seelie says, supporting her best friend.

Jace grins at them. "Sorry, ladies, but little Red here and I have some work to do."

Seelie pouts. It looks like it´s well practiced, but in my opinion, she kind of looks like she´s having trouble swallowing. I try not to roll my eyes.

"You´re choosing work over your friends?" Kaelie asks. There must be something in her eye, with the way she keeps blinking.

"Oh, lay off him, guys," Jordan, Jace´s teammate, says. He smiles brightly. "They can just do their work over here!"

I raise my eyebrows at Jace. I know he´s not going to make me sit at that table. It´s not that the Fakes (as Izzy has lovingly named them, back in Freshman year) have never explicitly done anything to me, but the way they talk and behave just rubs me the wrong way sometimes. Jace knows that.

He grins at me. "Yeah, sure. Just let us get our stuff." Bastard.

As we walk to our table in the front of the class, I elbow him in the side subtly. "You´re killing me with this, you know that?"

He snickers. "Come on. They´re not that bad."

I gather my stuff slowly, not in any hurry. We might be sitting over there, but we´re still putting this lesson to good use regarding our project. I do not want this cutting into my sleepy-time, no sir. I need my muscle regeneration.

I sit down at the two tables next to Jordan in front of Kaelie and Seelie, Jace following me.

The heavily made-up girls scan me quickly. I hesitantly smile at them. Might as well give them a chance. I don´t want to alienate Jace´s friends completely.

Kaelie´s face lights up a little. "You´re Jonathan Fairchild´s little sister, aren´t you?" she asks with big, innocent eyes.

Are they serious? I´ve had at least 4 classes with her since starting high school. She´s really pretending she doesn´t know my name?

I mean, I don´t care, but honestly, how rude.

"Yes. Also known as Clary," I say with a slightly cold look. Jace snorts next to me.

Seelie shoots a look at Kaelie. "Oh, yeah. Cool," she says nonchalantly.

Jordan cuts in, putting a hand on my arm. "Hi Clary! You surviving a little bit with this dimwit?" he teases, nodding his head towards the golden-haired idiot currently doodling in my notebook.

"Yeah, I guess," I respond, ignoring Jace´s indignant ´Hey!´. "And if he starts to drive me crazy, I just hit him on the head. It´s a reset-button. Like now." I hit him on the head (not that hard, but he grunts anyway) and grab my notebook back from under his hand.

Jordan laughs. "Nice trick. I´ll have to try that out sometime."

Jace huffs. "Well, blame me for not wanting to be abused every five seconds. She might look innocent, but this one´s devious when she wants to be," he warns, tugging on my loose hair.

I dive out of his reach. "How about we don´t touch my hair today, Herondale. I don´t want to get it tangled again."

Seelie and Kaelie let out high-pitched giggles. "Tangled? You know, if you want to, like, not have your hair so tangled all the time, I could suggest a few good products that might help," Seelie suggests with a sugar-sweet smile. "It must be horrible to have to deal with this all the time." She gestures to my red curly locks.

Someone should really teach them some manners. Really, where are their parents? Going around insulting my hair like that. Sure, it´s a mess and looks like a rats´ nest, but only I´m allowed to say that.

I fight to keep a smile on my face. "No, no thank you. I´m fine with my hair the way it is," I respond, barely succeeding at keeping the irritation out of my voice.

I lock eyes with Jace, and give him a very clear look. I hate you for this.

He grins at me, but gives me a slightly apologetic glance. Ah, at least he´s remorseful. Why is he friends with these insulting bimbos anyway? Because they´re hot.

Shut up.

Kaelie hums. "Oh, okay," she says skeptically. "But if you ever change your mind, let me know. Or you could ask Jace, you know no one´s hair is as soft as his." She smiles at him, blatantly flirting.

The grimace almost cracks through my smile. She´s not wrong. I´ve had the same thought a few times before. Apparently, so has she. The thought drops to my stomach, and I ignore the uncomfortable feeling it has there. Nope, not important, moving on.

Jace winks, and runs his hand through his hair. "No can do. It´s all in the genes, baby."

I can practically hear the Fakes swooning. Even I, from an objective, not-even-if-he-were-the-last-man-on-earth point of view, can admit that my stomach did a little twist.

I shake my head. "Anyway, we need to get to work, Goldy. I do not want us to have to work into the night again."

"You work late? Like, at each other's´ houses?" Kaelie questions, her voice laced with obvious jealousy.

Wow, she´s really testing my patience. "Yes, we do. How else would we work on the project?"

Seelie is looking directly at Jace, with raised eyebrows. "I don't know, like, Skype or something. It must take up so much time otherwise."

"Nah, it doesn't," he says, waving Seelie away. "We only live a few blocks apart, and I´m over there all of the time anyway. Jocelyn cries if she doesn't see me every day."

I scoff. "That´s not true. If anything, it´s the other way around," I say, raising my eyebrows.

He shrugs. "Yeah, I´m not going to deny that. My stomach gets upset if I go without your mom´s cooking for too long. It´s so much better than my mom's."

"Your mom´s a great cook! You´re just a wuss about your vegetables."

I laugh at the indignant look he gives me.

Seelie coughs politely. "So, uh, how do you guys, like, know each other?" she asks, eyes flickering between the two of us.

Jordan snorts. "Oh come on, girl, you know Jace and Jon are like brothers for a reason."

She frowns, but then it clicks. "Oh yeah, of course," Kaelie says. She turns to me. "So, because Jon is like Jace´s brother, you must be like a sister to him. Now that you mention it, you do argue like siblings a little bit," she claims, looking like she´s just cracked the Da Vinci Code.

I blanch. Me? His sister? Ew, I kissed him.

"I wouldn´t put it like that—" I begin, but they cut me off.

"I bet you have all kinds of stories to tell about our Jace, don´t you? Spill it, girl," Seelie rattles on, unperturbed by my attempt to divert them.

I open my mouth, but I´m interrupted again.

"Nice try. Fire knows that if she starts spreading stories, I´ll be right there with a big box of payback."

"Okay!" I announce, a little bit louder than I should have. "Let´s get to work. I need you to help me with the part about our fifth grade vacation, and I want to get it done today. Read, now," I say, grabbing his arm and turning him around until he´s facing my notebook with my work.

I block out the slight sounds of protests from Seelie and Kaelie, and the snicker Jordan gives when he sees me rolling my eyes.