Previously…

Jem sighed. He and Will were going to have a serious conversation later. "It's Will who ought to be sorry. Don't worry, Tessa."

"Thank you, Jem," Tessa said earnestly. He smiled at her, and they walked back to class.

Lunch was the most awkward thing in the world.

Cecily had noticed some tension between Will and Tessa. He was joking around as usual, but he didn't talk to Tessa, and only her. Jem and Cecily, yes, he talked to them. When the two did talk, it was things like, "Can you pass the salt?" in murmurs.

Jem and Cecily had exchanged looks. This was…strange.

She decided to lighten the mood. "So!" She clapped her hands. "Tessa! My birthday's coming up and—"

"Cecily…" Will shot her a look.

She ignored him. "I'm throwing a party on February 7th. It's at a place called Club Pandemonium, you want to go?"

Tessa shot up at 'Club Pandemonium.' "My brother works there! It's a club? As in an actual club?" Will scoffed and she shot him the dirtiest look Cecily had ever seen, before dropping her gaze and looking everywhere but at him. Cecily would soon investigate on that topic.

"Yeah," Cecily nodded. "So you want to go, or…" Will was mouthing to Cecily with his hands flying all over the place: No, Cecy. No!

Tessa shrugged. "Uh, yeah, sure. I'll go."

Will groaned. He covered his face with his hands. "Great," he mumbled. "Just great."

"Shut up, Will," Cecily hissed. "What's wrong with you two anyway?"

They both refused to talk, crossing their arms and looking away stubbornly. Jem caught her eye, and he shook his head with a warning look. I'll tell you later, he mouthed. She silently nodded.

Cecily pushed her food in front of her, no longer hungry. She threw some of it away in the trash can, sitting there until they were excused.

"Are you okay, Tessa?" Sophie asked her carefully. There were back in the class with Tessa's favorite teacher, Mrs. Matthews discussing clauses and such. She had her back turned to the class and the two girls were whispering to each other in class.

"Yes," Tessa whispered. "I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

Sophie shrugged once. "Well… You seem a bit…off today. Did something happen earlier?"

Tessa bit her tongue. Had she really been that obvious? Although she had to admit, the events of that morning had done more harm to her than she thought. "I'm fine. Nothing happened," she lied.

She gave her a skeptic look before sighing and listening to the teacher. Tessa mentally cursed herself for being as obvious as she was. She attempting paying attention in class, but she was too distracted. Did she really just accept the invitation for Cecy's party? Tessa wasn't really the "party type" and besides—Will was going to be there. And everything would be all weird and there'd be a lot of people and – ugh, no.

Anyway, Sophie and Gideon had been talking more often. Instead of him just ignoring the world, or at least not caring, he would talk to her. Tessa was insanely proud of them and was really happy. It was sweet.

Also, everyone started calling Kyle "Nurse Kyle" because of the improv session. Tessa kind of felt bad about it but Kyle didn't really seem to care. After a while, he had started laughing as well. Of course, as funny as it was to the rest of the class, it was funnier with Julian, Tessa, Sophie, Gideon, and Kyle. Sometimes they'd hang out in hallways and people would ask them why they are laughing, and they would reply that it was an inside joke.

"Tessa, something is wrong. Tell me!" she insisted.

Tessa was tense and she hadn't even realized it. "Nothing is wrong. I promise."

"I hate when you lie." Sophie scowl.

She raised an eyebrow. "Do I lie a lot?"

"No," Sophie told her, "but I can tell when you do. You're a horrible liar."

Tessa frowned. "Am I really?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Tessa scratched the back of her head. She might as well get it over with. But she didn't want to tell her in a public place such as this. She trusted Sophie. She was trustworthy. "Fine, I'll tell you. But not right now."

"After school?" she whispered.

Tessa nodded but then shut up as the teacher turned around to face the class. She, as subtly as she could, mumbled, "Ladies' room?"

She heard a faint "okay" from Sophie.

"Miss Collins, do you have something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?" Mrs. Matthews asked with a small smile on her face. Sophie immediately flushed a dark, dark red. Everyone's heads turned to look at her. Tessa muttered a sorry.

Gideon looked at Sophie and grinned at her. She returned a sheepish smile. "No, Mrs. Matthews," she mumbled quietly, looking down as if she were ashamed.

Mrs. Matthews hummed, before continuing her lesson.

As it turned out, the lesson actually took up the majority of the class so they didn't really have to do any work (not that anyone was complaining). The bell rang and Tessa's heart sank. Theater.

She went to her locker to put away some books and grab a journal but Jessamine had approached her. "Hey, Jessie."

"Don't call me that," she hissed. Jessamine looked around frantically before dropping her voice to a whisper. "Look, I know what happened with you and Will."

Tessa's heart stopped. "You do?"

Jessamine rolled her eyes. "I know everything that happens in this school." Tessa gulped. "No offense, but at least you finally learned to back off."

She looked up, tilting her head slightly. "What?" she asked, completely fazed.

Jessamine scowled. "Don't think I didn't notice you and him acting all… 'buddy-buddy' or whatever. Now that he's finally broke your heart, you haven't talked to him all day. Except this morning, but…" Jessamine waved it off as if it were nothing. Tessa felt like she was drowning and felt the need to gasp for air.

Desperately wanting to get away from this conversation, Tessa mumbled, "We have to get to class."

She stared at her. "We? What?"

"We both have theater together, remember?" Tessa reminded her. And she didn't want to be late either.

"Oh," Jessamine said blankly. Tessa rolled her eyes and gently took her wrist, making her follow her to Theater.

Tessa constantly told herself in her head, Don't sit next to Will, don't sit next to Will. She didn't really want to be near him anymore. Just thinking about him made her mad. Although the seat between Gabriel and him was empty, she decided to sit in the other empty seat next to Gabriel.

She saw in her peripheral vision Will staring at her and she bit on her tongue to keep her from shouting at him. Gabriel sent her a curious glance. "Are you alright, Tessa?"

She swallowed and again, noticed Will jump in his seat, just slightly. "I'm fine." But he voice cracked a bit. "I'm fine," she said again, her voice firmer this time.

"Just making sure. You're acting…different."

Tessa scowled. "If I had a nickel for every time someone said that to me today, I'd be rich. Gosh."

Gabriel rose his hands up in surrender. "Sorry I asked…"

She frowned. "Sorry. I'm fine, really."

Mrs. McGrath stepped in the front of the class as soon as the bell rang. She had her hands held together, and looked very cross. "Okay, class, I forgot to file some paperwork and I must do it now. But I can't have you do nothing, so get in groups of three and take one sheet of paper from the front desk and use that as your inspiration."

Groups of three, Tessa repeated in her mind, biting her cheek. Jessamine went up to Tessa, although not with a smile like the last few times. "Tessa, come on, we're in a group."

She raised her eyebrows. Since when did she agree to that? She was about to tell her off when Will suddenly was next to Tessa. Her heart began thundering in her chest.

"Actually, I was about to ask Tessa if she wanted to join Gabe and I. Isn't that right, Gabriel?" Will shot him a sharp look, and Gabriel nodded slowly. "And I didn't hear Tessa agree to your offer, so…"

Jessamine huffed. "Well I didn't hear her agree to your offer either!"

Will glowered at her. She whimpered, then Will gave Tessa an insisting look. Tessa was beyond confused at the moment. "Fine, which group would you rather be in, Tessa?" he asked in a smooth voice.

If any time is the best time to pass out, it would be now, Tessa thought. "Um, I'll go with you, I guess. Sorry, Jessamine. Maybe next time?" Jessamine snarled and stomped once like a child, before turning on her heel and walking back to some of her 'friends.'

She felt really weird walking back to Gabriel with Will. She kind of felt like screaming, and it didn't help that they weren't talking to each other. Tessa avoided any contact with him, whether it was physical or just simply eye contact. She refused to look at him or touch him or anything.

Closing her eyes, she whispered, "What are you doing, Will…"

He walked stiffly as he grabbed a piece of a square-shaped paper. "I rescued you from Jessamine, didn't I?"

She sighed. "I don't need to be rescued."

Will snorted. "You'd rather be with her?"

Tessa was silent.

"Exactly."

That doesn't mean I want to be with you either, Tessa thought bitterly.

After school, Tessa walked to the bathroom immediately where Sophie stood. She looked at her expectantly. "Well?"

"Inside," Tessa told her. They walked inside where there was a group of girls putting on makeup and fixing their hair.

"Everyone, out," Sophie said in her most commanding voice. Everyone instantly left at her words, an ocean of girls struggling to get out of the place.

Once they left, Sophie asked, "So what is it? What's wrong?"

Tessa looked down shyly. "Well, Will Herondale…"

"That's all you needed to tell me," Sophie interrupted. She sighed and hugged her. Tessa was taken aback, but hugged her back nevertheless. It comforted her. "I'm sorry that happened to you."

Tessa shook her head. "It's okay. I'm fine." She was tired of saying that to everybody, but it was true. She was fine. At least, she thinks she is.

"Do you want me to drive you home?" Sophie asked once she let go. Nate was supposed to pick her up but it might be nice to have Sophie to talk to. Tessa nodded a yes and quickly texted her brother that her friend was going to drive her home and that he didn't need to.

He replied minutes later with: Okay.

Tessa sighed and they both went into the parking lot where Sophie's car was, and they drove home.

A/N: Bad chapter. I know. I couldn't really think straight though because I was playing soccer/football (depends on what country you're in) and it's blazing hot where I live so we were playing indoors. The thing is, in my living room, we don't have carpeting. So it's just tile.

Anyway, so I was playing and I tripped over my little brother (he's trying out for a team and I was helping him practice) and I fell and banged the side of my head REALLY hard on the ground. I had this massive headache and, like I said, couldn't think straight and was later told that I had a concussion, so…sorry about that.

But in other news, Cecily's having a birthday party and I've already got that chapter written up. I just need some more chapters to connect it to that and then I'll wrap it up and then maybe an epilogue, and then the story's finished. So I'd say there's going to at least be 30+ chapters in this fanfic.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Infernal Devices or anything else mentioned in this story.