Hullo my lovelies! I'm back with another chapter! I'm not a big fan of world building but this chapter had to be done so I'm sorry to those of you who don't like world building. But there's a catch, I added some cutsey flashbacks for your reading pleasure. These are put in here for the establishment of Jace and Clary's relationship in the early days of their friendship. Okay, enough with the rambling. It's ok to tell me when to stop.

How did she get even more beautiful over the summer? This kind of thing was only supposed to happen in sappy rom com movies. As soon as I saw her walk through the classroom door in kindergarten, I was instantly hooked. I could remember it like it was yesterday.

Flashback:

"Okay everyone," the teacher, Ms. Gray said, "we have a new student joining us today. Let's try and make her feel welcome. Her name is Clarissa Fray."

And in walked a beautiful woman with long dark red hair. She was quite short and had on paint-splattered overalls. Her face was kind and she had sparkling green eyes to match. Behind her was a small girl, around my age.

She had hair that was a few shades lighter than her mother's and twice as curly. The one thing that was similar about them was their eyes. Her carrot-colored hair was tied hastily back in two pigtails. I never believed in angels, but I'm sure in this very moment, I had just met one.

"Everyone, this is Clarissa Fray," Ms. Gray gestured to the girl behind the tall woman.

"She prefers Clary," her mother said.

"My apologies. Class, this is Clary Fray."

And from that moment on, I knew I was doomed.

Which is what brings me back to present day. Clary'd always been beautiful. But when she walked through the doors this morning, something had changed. She'd filled out and her body was more toned. She had a slight tan from the summer and her hair was darker.

And after she'd come up to me and left me high and dry, I felt the same exact way I'd felt back in kindergarten. Entranced and gasping for breath. But I was supposed to forever hate Clary. It was my fault that it happened and I don't even know why I did it.

Flashback:

We were about 8 years old and Jon and I had become really close. We even had our own little friend group. It was made up of me, Clary, Izzy, Alec, and Jon. We were inseparable.

Until one day, when the boys wanted to play soccer and the girls were busy playing family in the sandbox. One stray kick landed the soccer ball into the sandbox, knocking over the girl's sandcastle. And to say Clary was pissed would be an understatement.

Izzy just gave us one of her signature withering glares but Clary was fuming. She grabbed the ball in her small hands and marched over to the field.

"C'mon Clare," Jon sighed. "Just give us the ball back. It was a mistake."

"No it wasn't," she grumbled.

"You're right. I did it on purpose," I butted in. I don't even know why but something compelled me to say it.

She finally looked over at me with the scariest expression her cute face could conjure up. Her green eyes blazing with fury, she threw the ball at me and stomped the rest of the way back to Izzy.

"This won't be the end of it, Herondale!" she cried.

And what commenced were ten long years of torture. From pranks to public humiliation. The list went on and on. At some point, we'd outgrown the childish pranks and just tried to stay the hell away from one another. But, everyone knew the rivalry between Jace Herondale and Clary Fray.

Luckily, Jon and I kept our relationship strong and was sad to see him leave for college. We talked on the weekends but it wasn't the same.

Seeing her today had brought back so many emotions that I'd tried to squash over the summer. No amount of flings could shake away her emerald eyes in the back of my head.

And walking in to find her sketching was a welcome relief. I heard from Izzy that she'd stopped sketching completely over the summer ever since Jon left. Since her mother was pretty absent from her life, Jon and Clary had each other. But, now that he was gone, she had no one.

And seeing her be the Clary I know and love during class was like a breath of fresh air I didn't even know I needed. Yes l said it. I said love. I am unequivocally in love with Clarissa Fray. And I have no shame in saying that.

The annoying thing is I know it's unrequited.

She'd never see me that way. Maybe once, but that was before I screwed it all up.

Flashback:

Clary and Isabelle had just finished watching Cinderella and wanted to have a wedding of their own. But the dark-haired girl insisted that she couldn't be the prince since she was a girl. And according to 7-year-old logic, that was a valid enough reason for the rest of us.

And so, Izzy forced me into one of my father's dress shirts that hung past my knees and placed me in front of Clary. This was the moment when I realized I loved her. She looked like a goddess in her scratchy green princess dress she'd gotten for Halloween and I knew something had changed that day.

I'm sure Izzy knew just what she was doing. And she made me look like a goddamn fool. She made us kiss. It was our first kiss. We were each other's first kiss. Hands fearfully clamped at our sides, and lips puckered like goldfish we pressed our lips together tentatively.

And what they say in the movies is true. Even for two 7-year-olds, sparks flew. And I felt like there was a camera spinning around us, capturing the whole moment. My hands seemed to have a mind of their own as they reached over to her dress and grabbed a fistfull of light green tulle, pulling her closer to me.

The kiss probably only lasted a few seconds, but it felt like several hours for the both of us. When we broke apart, Clary looked as red as her hair, and I'm sure I looked the same. Some sort of emotion took over her face as she ran off to another room and I was left alone with Isabelle.

She turned to face me fully, "Well, that wasn't what I was expecting." And she ran off to find her friend. I'll never know why Clary freaked out after the kiss, but all I have to say was that was the best I'd ever experienced.

Hmmm. What do you think that meant? I guess we'll both have to see how it plays out in the next chapter. As always, I'll be back with another chapter as soon as possible but I do have a dance show coming up in a few weeks and the preparations are insane. I also have the demon that is AP testing sneaking up on me as well. Luckily it's in May but it'll be here before we know it. And something that I haven't really discussed on this platform is that I'm having my 'Make A Wish' very soon. And we need to get the logistics squared away ASAP. Ok! Enough with the excuses. Please review! Jace doesn't like readers who don't leave a review don't we Jace.

Jace: "No we don't. Because if you don't" *moves his mouth close to your ear* "you're gonna have to pay."

Clary: "Ok, slow your roll there boy. We're only on chapter 2. Give the people their space."

Love ur fave 'tato,

-BlueAries03