DISCLAIMER: See Prologue. Also, everything about the weapons in this chapter, I got from Google. So don't hold me to any of this stuff in case it's wrong, okay? Thanks.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi, guys. It didn't take me a week to update! I mean, it took six days, but it's a long chapter, so that's good. I'm not in love with this chapter, but I had to set up the next one – which is going to include some major Finline stuff, specifically about Jacqueline's past. That one will be really good, I guarantee it. The Author's Note at the end will include some things about updates and the like, so be sure to read it if you usually don't.
REPLIES TO REVIEWS:
Reading Addicted: Aww, thank you! And, actually, I didn't start thinking about that until only a month or two ago as I was writing this. I'd say it takes place about twenty years after the events of CoHF, whenever that is. Clary and Jace are thirty-six years old, because I pictured them getting married at eighteen and having Finn at twenty.
Guest: Your review almost made me cry. It literally made my day when I read it. So thanks for that. :)
Beth: There will be lots of them, I assure you! :)
Booklover1598: Ooh, I'm glad you liked it! Keep paying attention to Kristal, because she's going to have some major influence at the end of AGL.
MidNiteFay415: I liked that scene, too, but I'm you liked it, because you and the rest of my reviewers are the ones I want the opinions of!
Likethewordish: I'm really glad you liked the Raphael part. I thought people wouldn't like it, so I'm glad you did. And it's okay if you have a lot of favorites; I don't mind. :)
ClaceObsessed: That's really nice of you to say. I'm not that good of a writer, but thanks. And read my Author's Note at the end for info about updates.
Guest: Tony, Finn, and Jack have lots of those scenes coming up, don't worry.
JACY14: Ooh, I like that too. I try to keep my Clace stuff as cute as possible. :)
DauntlessShadowhunter479: It will be very tense, of course, as it usually is with those three. And thank you so much! Good luck at your first day, too!
Catia Rose: It will take a little while longer for the kiss, but it's all planned out. It will be very dramatic, and very epic, I hope. And, wow, thanks so much! I'm not that good, but I appreciate you saying that. Your review made my day.
Guest: Happy Birthday! I'm glad I got to update for you. And Jacqueline will be singing a few more times, even about Finn… :)
Remember to read the Author's Note at the end of the chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter Thirty-Five
Finn couldn't get Jacqueline's expression out of his head, her blue eyes looking curious and disappointed as she stared at him a few moments ago, asking him questions about why he was acting the way he was.
He had never really understood what jealousy was like when he was dating Kristal, because there hadn't ever been a situation where he could have felt envious while watching her talk to someone else. There was no other boy that he had ever seen her flirt with, no one else like Tony.
It hurt to watch Jacqueline blush as Tony complimented her, much more than he thought it would've, which was, of course, why he was in such a bad mood. By the Angel, they had almost kissed twice now! Surely, this had to count for something, didn't it? If only he hadn't gotten himself injured in Pandemonium, because otherwise, Tony wouldn't be here.
If you hadn't gotten hurt, he reminded himself, Jacqueline could be hurt even more than you were — or worse. She could have died if you weren't there.
So, in the end, it was probably a better outcome with Tony here, Jacqueline being fine in the process, than Tony not being here and Jacqueline being hurt.
But this feeling still sucked.
Finn stood back, watching as Tony instructed Jacqueline on the proper way to hold a bow and arrow. She didn't look quite relaxed, shooting little nervous glances over at Finn from time to time, but it wasn't like she was exactly… uncomfortable, either. Tony was making her laugh every so often, obviously putting her worries at ease, and Finn couldn't push away the vibe that something was going on between those two.
The fact that Tony and Jacqueline hadn't trained together for all that long was tugging at him, though, telling Finn that it didn't make sense if they were actually flirting with each other. Sure, they knew each other for a little while, but they were little kids, in an orphanage. A friendship that had occurred so early in their lives shouldn't have carried over to the present day, after eight years of the pair not seeing each other.
Finn fought the urge to groan in frustration as Tony continued training Jacqueline without his help. This... this whole thing with the three of them was too confusing. He wished just something in his life could be easy, just once.
Unfortunately, however, nothing ever really seemed to work out that way when it involved Finn.
—•—
Jacqueline bit down on her lip, positioning the bow in her right hand the way Tony had shown her. Hopefully, her weird Shadowhunter skill she had with weaponry — the one Tony was convinced her messed up Runes had some sort of relationship with — would kick in soon because, at the moment, she felt nothing out of the ordinary, nothing supernatural or magical or even remotely... different.
Usually, she felt some sort of confidence in herself, knowing that she was pretty good at all of this. But today? Well, it was a far, far different situation.
The bow that she grasped tightly felt heavier than she had imagined it should've felt, the shape of it feeling awkward around her thin fingers. What, would her only athletic talent she ever had go away after a few training sessions? Even if it had been some sort of weird fluke, why now? What had changed?
Jacqueline resisted a sigh, trying to pay attention to what Tony was telling her without drifting out into her thoughts. Finn was staring moodily off into the distance somewhere, his toned, Rune-covered arms crossed against his chest. She wondered what his problem was now. He always seemed to be mad about something, it felt like.
Of course, that wasn't always true. She was mad at things sometimes, too, and Jacqueline thought she was probably just overthinking — what a surprise — and reading too far into things. If Finn was in a bad mood, so be it. It wasn't exactly her problem.
It shouldn't be her problem at all, actually. Finn wasn't the type of guy she should get involved with, and he still had a thing for Kristal.
God knows she wished he didn't, though.
She felt like a broken record, thinking of all the same things, over and over again. Jacqueline was continually trying to convince herself that Finn was a bad idea, her thoughts feeling constantly repeated. She just wished that… that something could happen — good or bad, it didn't matter. If Finn could just tell her if he liked her or not, she could act — or not act, for that matter — on it, and her problem would be solved.
Life didn't ever seem all that simple, though, at least not to Jacqueline.
"Jacqueline?" Tony's voice pulled her back to reality, and she realized that she'd been staring at Finn without even noticing it. Maybe he didn't see me? she thought optimistically, feeling incredibly embarrassed.
Staring right back at her, however, was Finn, one of his trademark smirks playing across his lips. His all-too-knowing, green eyes showed that he had seen her staring at him, and that he found the whole matter funny. Of course. Jacqueline dropped her gaze immediately, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear. How could he have this effect on her, when no one else ever had?
"S-sorry," Jacqueline replied to Tony, ignoring Finn and hoping she wouldn't further embarrass herself. "What, um, were you saying?"
"Well—"
"You shouldn't have that tight of a grip on your bow," Finn said suddenly, as if he had just noticed it, jumping into the conversation and cutting Tony off mid-sentence. There was a slight edge to his voice. "You look like you want to break the thing."
"I don't want to br—," Jacqueline began, but then she looked down at her hands, her knuckles turning almost white, and she broke off. She hated it when he was right.
Finn raised his eyebrows. In a normal situation, Jacqueline might've laughed at herself and at Finn's teasing, but there seemed to be a bit of meanness in his tone that prevented her from doing so. Something was definitely up with him, but it was obvious from their earlier conversation that he didn't want to tell her what it was.
"If you hold it like that, the arrow will go farther to one side," Finn told her firmly. "And you'll miss the target almost completely."
"Thanks for the advice," Jacqueline murmured sarcastically, though she did adjust her grip and loosened her fingers. She couldn't just completely ignore his advice, even if he was acting like an asshole at the moment — Finn did know what he was talking about (most of the time, anyway).
Tony, who hadn't spoken in a while, was still remarkably good-natured as he added his opinion. "But as you pull back on the string, try and keep that as tight as you can."
"Got it," Jacqueline said, trying to keep just as cheerful of a demeanor as he was. It was harder than she thought it would be, though, what with Finn staring her down. "Anything else?"
Both boys studied her for a moment, and Jacqueline immediately felt nervous about having both pairs of eyes on her. She'd grown a little more comfortable around people since she'd come to the Institute, of course, but any sort of attention focused on her was something that made her uneasy no matter what.
"Relax," the boys said, speaking at the same time. It incited a smile from Tony, the kind of boy who would be amused by that sort of thing, but Finn looked, well, like he had been looking this whole training session — a mixture of angry and irritated.
Tony walked up to Jacqueline first, going behind her. His arms were on either side of her body, her back facing him, and he took Jacqueline's hands, putting them in the correct position on the bow. Jacqueline would've flinched and pulled away from his grasp had the circumstances been different, but, although it still freaked her out a little bit, having someone else's touch on her wasn't quite so bad as it normally was.
Maybe it was because it was Tony. She didn't think he was flirting with her — to Jacqueline, it seemed like he was just trying to teach her how to properly use the bow and arrow, with no other goals other than that.
Right as Tony was saying, "There. Now you've got it right," Jacqueline looked up again, to where Finn was standing.
Or, rather, where he had been standing. Jacqueline, looking around the room for Finn, suddenly could hear the sound of a door loudly closing.
Finn had just left the training room, with no warning or explanation to neither Tony nor Jacqueline.
—•—
"And you need my help with this because…?"
Vanessa rolled her eyes, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "Because you're a girl, Jacqueline! I thought you might be a little helpful when it came to clothes."
"Let me put this straight, Ness," Jacqueline said, fingering one of the many, many items of clothing that Vanessa had thrown onto the floor of her bedroom. "For the last time, I have absolutely no taste and no experience when it comes to clothes — at all."
After Finn had left the training room without so much as a goodbye to either Jacqueline or Tony, the rest of the lesson had gone on pretty much as expected. Tony had been less confident than he had been the last time — with no mention whatsoever of the "mystery girl" that he'd been practicing being confident in front of with Jacqueline — and Jacqueline's mysterious talent had kicked in at just the right time to make shooting the arrows much simpler.
Vanessa, around lunchtime, had grabbed Jacqueline a sandwich from the kitchen — "I knew you'd be hungry after training," she had told Jacqueline while all of this was going on. "And I didn't want you complaining the whole time that you wanted food when I needed your help with more important things." — and then had dragged her upstairs with her.
Apparently, Vanessa had plans this evening to go out with some other Shadowhunter friends to Taki's for dinner. She'd told Jacqueline a bunch of names of those who were going, but, although she was trying to listen, there were probably about ten people Vanessa had mentioned and she couldn't keep all of the Shadowhunter names straight.
Vanessa needed help picking out an outfit to wear, and even though Jacqueline had repeatedly told her that everything in her closet was fine, Vanessa still wanted her "advice". Because being a girl made you have fashion sense? Yeah, right.
Looking down at herself, Jacqueline was wearing a pair of loose sweatpants and a long-sleeved t-shirt that was a little too big on her. Still, it was comfortable and simple, and for lounging around the Institute after a long morning of training, that was perfectly fine with her. Besides, after her experience of walking around with a pair of skimpy pajamas in front of Finn, Jacqueline's insecurities about the way she looked had her dressing in a way that would cover all of her skin.
Vanessa threw another sparkly top onto the bed behind her on which Jacqueline was sitting. "What do you think of this one?" she asked, still facing her closet that was full of clothes.
"Too fancy," Jacqueline replied simply, turning over the shiny material in her palms and throwing it onto a pile of all the other "rejected" clothes, which was growing bigger and bigger by the minute.
"You think everything's too fancy!" Vanessa said exasperatedly, turning around and gesturing to her. "I mean, look at what you're wearing!"
Even though Vanessa was only teasing, Jacqueline pretended to be defensive. "Hey! I happen to like the clothes I wear."
"Uh-huh," Vanessa said, smirking and throwing another pile of clothes at Jacqueline. "Here, tell me what you think of these, will you?"
"All right, all right," Jacqueline said begrudgingly, sighing. She picked up the first piece of clothing Vanessa had tossed to her. "First of all, Ness, this is, like, a dress. A very pretty one, but it kind looks like that thing you made me wear to Pandemonium."
"So you don't think it's good for tonight?"
"Not really. It's just dinner at Taki's." Jacqueline couldn't believe Vanessa really wanted her opinion on this stuff, but she picked up the next thing she had gotten thrown at her. "Ness, this is a bathing suit, you realize that?"
"So?" Vanessa asked teasingly, but after seeing Jacqueline's wide-eyed expression, she quickly correct herself. "Jeez, Jack! I was kidding. By the Angel, I wouldn't actually wear a bathing suit to dinner."
"I don't trust you when it comes to that sort of stuff," Jacqueline replied, smiling. She was quiet, trying to ignore the familiar tightening of her stomach that she got when someone called her by that nickname.
"Jacqueline?"
"Hm?" She looked up, staring off into the distance for the second time today. She tried to think of a plausible excuse as to why she had let herself become distracted — not wanting to bring up Finn, of course, and that she had been thinking of him — and, holding the bathing suit in her hand, came up with something normal to say. "You know, I've never actually gone swimming before."
"What?" Vanessa was shocked. "You live in New York, and you're, like, an hour or two away from Long Island. You're saying you've never been to the beach, then?"
"Nope," Jacqueline said truthfully. "It's not that big of a deal—"
"Yes, it is!" Vanessa exclaimed. "I mean, all right, if you lived in some landlocked state in the middle of the country, you have a legitimate excuse to have never gone swimming, at least in the ocean. But you're so close to the beach, Jacqueline!" She paused, her eyes brightening. "What if we go tomorrow?"
Jacqueline raised her eyebrows. "It's September, Ness."
"It's not that cold yet. We could just hang out on the sand. And, besides, my birthday's coming up. Clary won't say no. She can't."
"If you say so," Jacqueline said, feeling a little timid like she always did when Vanessa had an idea.
"Come with me to ask her?" Vanessa's eyes were pleading.
"Fine. But, under no circumstances, am I letting you dress me for the beach. It's fall, and I'm not wearing a bathing suit. I can't swim anyways, so there's no point."
"But Jacqueline…."
The conversation, obviously, continued like this down the rest of the hallway where the two girls went to talk to Clary.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: First off, I want to say that I made a team at my high school. I'm very excited, but, although I know it's going to be busy, I have no idea exactly how busy I'm going to be. Chapters may be shorter – or it could take two weeks between updates or something – but I have no intentions on stopping AGL. Please bear with me, guys. Sorry about that.
And, I was rereading the Pandemonium chapter earlier this week, and, not to sound like an attention seeker (even though I will), but I honestly can't believe I still have people reading this story. Reading it again made me realize that it really wasn't all that good. I mean, it was okay, I guess, but not great. Is this a normal feeling for writers to have, that they think their work isn't that good? Or do I just have really sucky self-esteem? If anyone could respond to this, that would be awesome. Again, I'm sorry to sound like I'm seeking attention – I really don't mean to.
I guess that's it. Sorry for such a weird Author's Note, but please answer the above question if you get the chance. Thanks, guys. :)
MY FAVORITE QUOTE FROM THIS CHAPTER: "She didn't look quite relaxed, shooting little nervous glances over at Finn from time to time, but it wasn't like she was exactly… uncomfortable, either."
Remember to review, guys! It would mean a lot to me. Also, please answer the poll on my profile, and remember to favorite / follow! Thanks so much!
Until next time,
-Mimi