"You don't smell," Clary snorted as she looked across to where Jace was sitting, trying to subtly sniff his arm without her noticing. He rolled his eyes over at her and she just laughed. "Don't worry, it's not like they're expecting you to be all dressed up or anything," she said in a way that was probably meant to be reassuring. All it really did though was remind Jace that he was going to this dinner as her friend rather than as a date. It wasn't as though she was all dressed up, she had just come straight from work, but she didn't get all dirty and sweaty at work like Jace did, stuck in a garage in the hot weather with a bunch of guys where the air conditioning didn't work.

"Wait..." Jace looked out the window at where they were going, recognizing the neighbourhood with a frown. He hadn't been listening when she had given the address to the driver because he had been pulling on a clean shirt over the wife beater he was wearing. "Where are we going?"

"Oh, mum and Luke have a school down here, and they live in the adjoining building," Clary replied. "It's a mixed arts school, so like dancing, art, drama—all that shit."

"The Circle?" Jace asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah," Clary replied with a grin, but then hesitated and looked over to him. "You know it?" Jace swallowed hard as he looked back out the window at the very familiar neighbourhood that was passing by outside the window.

"Uh, yeah," Jace nodded. "It's where I had my job interview this morning." Clary looked taken aback and she blinked at him.

"As a teacher?" She reiterated and Jace couldn't help but feel as though he was under inspection.

"Yeah," he replied slowly. Clary stared at him for a long moment and then smiled.

"Was it Jocelyn that interviewed you? Curly, red hair? Usually wears flowy dresses that make her look like an eighties hippie?" Clary asked and Jace hesitated and then nodded. "That's my mum." Jace stared across at Clary, and he could honestly see the resemblance so damn clearly that he couldn't believe that he had missed it.

"Shit," he muttered, and then he felt nervous all over again.

"Oh, chill out," she reached across and jabbed him lightly in the side. "It's going to be fine." The uber stopped and Clary moved forward to pay for their ride. Usually Jace would be shoving money forward to pay for half their ride, but they were now parked at the curb outside the school and Clary was opening her door. She got out her side and then waited expectantly for Jace to follow after her. He swallowed hard as he got out, rubbing his hands down the front of his jeans. "Let's go," Clary held out her hand as he finally got out of the car.

"Yup," he said under his breath. Clary just rolled her eyes at him again and tugged at his hand. They walked through the front doors of the building—Jace for the second time that day—but they didn't go directly down the hall like he had this morning, toward the office at the end. Clary immediately started up the stairs to the left, dropping Jace's hand as she picked up the pace. Jace hadn't been up here, but he was guessing that it was to the rest of the school. He had only seen the downstairs office and a long room that looked like a dance studio, with a massive mirror along one wall and a barre.

"Did you want to check out your new workplace while I go find mum?" Clary asked with a wiggle of her eyebrows when they got to the top of the stairs. There was a lot of noise going on around him—yelling of kids and then there was music playing loudly from the studio right next to them, which looked like an art studio.

"I don't know if I got the job," Jace reminded her with wrinkle of his nose.

"You need to have confidence," Clary sung out, bumping her hip against his.

"I also don't need to get my hopes up, just to have them crash down," Jace said, and then winced at how down on himself he sounded. Clary obviously thought that as well, raising an eyebrow at him and giving him a disbelieving look.

"Alright then," she muttered, making a bit of a sad face. "Well, you're more than welcome to come with me to find mum if you want." She sounded a little put out and Jace wondered if it was because of the way he was talking. Jace couldn't help it though, because everything that he had read about this place made it sound too good to be true, and even though it would be absolutely amazing to work here, Jace didn't doubt that there would be people applying for the job who were a lot more qualified than him and didn't have the whole piercing and tattoo look which would probably scare off some parents.

Then again, if Clary was Jocelyn's daughter, then maybe Jocelyn wouldn't be totally opposed to hiring him based on how he looked.

They were walking down the long hall, passing by several rooms—some of them empty, some of them full—and Jace couldn't help but look with interest into each room. It was an arts school, but their term 'art' was stretched pretty farm. There was an actual art; painting, sculpting, sketching. Then there was dancing and music and, based on the room they had just gone past, but then it also looked as though there were drama lessons and defense classes happening.

It wasn't a full time school—like a university or somewhere that people could get grants or scholarships school. People paid to take all kinds of lessons there and some schools nearby paid them to take on their older students and the more talented ones. Everyone who was here wanted to be there, and that was where Jace wanted to come in, to help them like music had always helped him.

They were getting near the end of the hallway, where there was a turn, and Jace noted a smaller room with a large piano. There were a few stools around it and then a proper piano bench in front of it with a shelf against one wall that was almost overflowing with piano books. Clary stopped walking and looked over her shoulder, back at Jace.

"You want to wait here?" She asked with a knowing tinge to her voice that looked like it caught Jace by surprise. He glanced back at her, and for a moment it seemed as though he was going to shake his head and keep following after her. But then he nodded and Clary couldn't help but feel a little proud as he walked into the empty room. She could play piano okay, she had been taken a few lessons in the time that she spent at the school when she was younger, but it was all basic things, nothing great, and her calling was more to do with a pencil and paper and paint, and her tattoo gun. But Jace was naturally drawn to music, and she knew that he must feel the same call to it that she felt to art. "I'll be back soon," she told him, watching as he wandered toward the piano and pressed his fingers down on a few keys.

The piano was perfectly in tune, and the notes were crisp as his fingers skimmed over the keys. It sounded so good and the ivory keys felt so smooth under his fingers that he slid all five fingers of one hand over them, up and down, just enjoying the feel of them underneath the pads of his fingers. Jace licked his lips before sitting down on the bench and staring down at the piano.

Back in high school, Isabelle had been one of those girls who had been completely obsessed with Twilight. To the point where he and Alec snapped her DVD in half because they were so sick of her rewatching it.

But one good thing had come out of it.

The song from the first movie.

Jace had heard the piece of music on the soundtrack when Isabelle was playing it over and over again and he had ended up looking the song on Youtube and then brought the sheet music for it. He had played it so many times that he had memorized it. It had been years since he had played it, but as his fingers ran over the piano keys, it all started coming back.

The music filled his ears and the room and it sounded incredible. Jace's whole body swayed as he played, moving forward and bring his fingers down more firmly over the black and white keys as the song got louder, drifting backwards as he rounded to the more delicate verse. When he finished the song, he started it over again, and again. The music felt incredible and he had forgotten how much he loved playing piano. When he had gone to his interview, he had demonstrated a couple of his skills on the piano, and that had been the first time he in a long time that he had been able to play on a piano rather than on a keyboard, and he had really wanted to enjoy it, but he had felt a lot of pressure with Jocelyn watching him.

Now, he could take his time and enjoy it.

He was on his third round of the River Flows In You when he heard movement behind him. He really didn't want to stop playing, but he did, jerking his fingers away from the piano and turning around to look over his shoulder. In the doorway, Clary was watching him with wide eyes and a small smile on her purple painted mouth. Beside her was Jocelyn, the woman who interviewed him—Clary's mother—was watching him with a similar look, although her smile was wider.

"You play beautifully," Jocelyn told him, tilting her head to the side as she took him in. Jace smiled back awkwardly as her eyes slid back to her daughter. "I thought you said your friend Jason was coming tonight, not Jace. This is such a weird coincidence."

"Well, clearly you misheard me. You always said there's no such thing as coincidences," Clary grinned, nudging her mum in the side. "Only fate." Jace knew what Clary was trying to insinuate but he hoped that Jocelyn didn't think that he was trying to get Clary to put pressure on her mother for him to get the job.

He definitely wanted it, but he wanted it because he was good enough.

"You guys ready to go?" Came the deep voice of a dark skinned man who draped his arm around Jocelyn and then leaned forward to kiss Clary on the cheek. He shot a grin toward Jace and Jace felt himself relax a little. "I'm Luke," the man said, holding out his hand in Jace's direction. Jace got up from his seat and came over to shake Luke's hand. Jocelyn was still eyeing up him and he felt the nervousness return.

But then Clary reached out and took his hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. Jocelyn and Luke lead the way out of the small room, back down the hall and towards the stairs. Clary tugged on Jace's hand and they followed after the older couple.

I hope you guys are all staying safe and well. Let me know what you thought of the chapter, and if you've got any recomendations for movies, TV shows or music, then let me know! My latest comfort watch movie wise was When Marnie Was Here...This made me really happy, although I definitely cried. I've recently started watching the original version of Charmed and also Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, which are on completely opposite ends of the spectrum but hey. Lol. My top songs at the moment are;

1) like crazy - Aidan, Thomas Reid and cozyboy. 2) Middle of the Night - Amy Shark. 3) I Need U - BTS. 4) Must Have Been The Wind - Alec Benjamin. 5) Too Sad To Cry - Sasha Sloan. 6) Cypher Pt 4 - BTS. 7) Wish I Was Better - Kina and yaeow. 8) Never Had A Dream Come True - S Club 7 (lol, clearly feeling some old vibes in here). 9) Womans World - Little Mix. 10) What Do You Think? - Agust D

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