A/N So… Hello everyone and welcome! If you have been reading this excuse of a story for a while now, you don't need much more information. But if you are new, let me tell you a bit about this story. So I started this story on august 25th, 2020, because of a vastly simple idea. If you have read the story, perhaps you do know the fact that the plot is extremely simple and boring. This is my first fanfiction, so you will have to forgive me… I can't believe I am saying this, but my writing style and vocabulary has changed tremendously since. First of all, I learned how to use thesaurus, so a pat on the shoulder for that. Next I actually never really paid attention to this story, using it as a pastime activity, for I was really bored in summer, and stuck at home because of coronavirus quarantine (I still am), but now that I see I have some readers and they truly dislike the fact that I have hordes of mistakes (dishonor on me), I decided that I would sit my lazy ass back down and correct my mistakes, as well as making the story more complex, (because what good fanfiction doesn't confuse you) and replace my previous chapters. So, please, do enjoy.
Disclaimer 1: I know that a love story between a bully and a victim can not be this easy. As seemed from the platforms name, it is just a fiction. But I also want to say, this love story between Clary and Jace is not going to be that easy. I also want to note that, Jace is not exactly a bully, but more of a tease. People like Sebastian are bullies. You haven't seen a lot of Sebastian scenes, but he gets physical with his victims, thus making him the real bully. But Jace being just a tease, doesn't mean that the relationship between Jace and Clary is going to develop that easily. Note that even though Jace is not exactly a bully, he and Clary are not the bestest friends. So there is going to be some drama between them. I just want to say this to people who got bullied: don't take this story as disrespect, because believe me, I would have want every bully in the world to understand their mistakes and befriend or fall in love with people they did unfairness to; but life is not that easy, and as I wrote before, this is just a fiction.
With all respect,
The author of the story.
Disclaimer 2: I don't own the TMI, but the plot.
"Alright, see you Mom." Clary yelled at her mum who was currently working on what look liked some kind of family portrait- presumably for one of her clients. Jocelyn Fray was a skilled painter who owned a gallery in Brooklyn. Clary got her red hair, green eyes, porcelain skin and short temper from Jocelyn. Despite the fact that Clary was told, on many occasions, that she resembled her mother, it was almost impossible for her to name more than a few similarities besides the obvious. Clary was short, her face full of dust-looking freckles and her body not so curvy, while Jocelyn had an average height with doll-like looks. She even had a graceful way of walking that made people turn their head to watch her go by. Clary by contrast, was always tripping over her feet. The only time people turned to watch her go by was when she hurtled past them as she fell downstairs.
"See you in the evening honey." Jocelyn yelled because of the classic music blasting from the speakers. She had a bright smile on her face, not aware of the fact that she had hazel paint under her nose, making it look as if she possessed a mustache. Clary considered telling her mother of this, but decided against it.
Upon finding her converse shoes that had been scattered around, she quickly tied the shoelaces, not wanting to be late to the first class of the day and see the expression on her teacher's face, which undoubtedly would ruin her day. Jumping in the bus, she took her phone, listening to music while doodling in her math copybook. She was too distracted to see two hands come and grab her earphones and yell to her ear, "Now, now, who do we have here?"
Clary looked up, seeing someone that she immeasurably detested: Jace Herondale.
The two did not have an incredibly dazzling history. In fact, they had a very unpleasant relationship, and it was no secret. No one really knew the reason they couldn't get along. They were like cat and mouse, except it was not definite who was who. They frequently argued, over ludicrous matters, which made no sense at all, but again, they were Clary and Jace, Jace and Clary, cat and mouse, mouse and cat, and whatnot.
Now looking at Jace, Clary could not remember the first time they had a disagreement. Their 'cat and mouse' relationship had been going on for so long that people were used to it now, even some constantly calling their fights ' lovers quarrel', which made no sense to Clary, seeing that her and Jace had no chance of being friends, let alone lovers.
Yet she sometimes could not help but wonder why Jace chose to have an unpleasant relationship with her, when he could easily ignore her, like he did with most.
"Herondale, give me back my earphones. Now."
"Did you really think it would be that effortless to get them back? You tell me and I give it back? Just like that? Yep, of course your highness, I shall forever do whatever you say."
He sarcastically did a little bow, sending some at the end of the bus into a fit of giggles. But it did nothing to extinguish Clary's annoyance.
"Yeah, yeah, so on and so forth, now give me back my earphones. We are already here."
Surprisingly enough, Jace did as she said, gently handing her earphones back. This bewildered Clary, but she decided not to think much of it. Instead, she focused her attention on the day to come. And without her knowing, what a day it would be.
When she joined Simon who was nervously pacing around, Clary let out a breath she knew she was holding. At least he was there to survive through the torture they called high school with her. Every morning she would get worried that Simon would be sick or skip school and leave her alone in this shithole of a school. Even when Simon was late, Clary would call to ensure that he would come. She knew Simon would be troubled just as much as her, in a case in which she skipped school.
But this time Simon didn't looked relived to see Clary. In fact he looked more timid then relived. Clary stopped in her tracks without saying anything. She watched as her best friend of years paced around, nervously checking his watch.
"Simon?" Clary asked hesitantly. Suddenly some disturbing thoughts came to her mind, uninvited. 'What if Simon is moving away or changing schools?' Clary trembled at the thought of coming to this school without anyone dear to her. To say it would creep the shit out of her would be an understatement.
"Simon, don't tell me you are moving away. I will tie you up and sit on you until you stay." Clary said trying to ease the tension in the air. But Simon didn't even smile.
"Would you consider fake-dating me?" Simon blurted out.
Clary blinked.
"I mean not really date but pretend to be girlfriend and boyfriend?" Simon was nervously playing with the zip of his jacket.
"Well that was out of the blue. Any… reasons for that?"
Simon looked a bit relaxed to see Clary respond. A bit.
"So um…well… You see I got a real girlfriend, but I can't really date her."
Clary was still staring at Simon as if he was something weird she found in her petri dish.
"She has a boyfriend or something? Why can't you date her? Care to elaborate?" Now she was looking at him with surprised eyes.
"I am kind of dating Isabelle from drama class." Now Simon was cleaning his spotless glasses over and over again.
"Which Isabelle exactly? I don't know any."
Then realization hit Clary.
Her eyes turned as big as a dish.
"As in THE Isabelle Lightwood? Holy shit!" Clary whisper-yelled.
"Shh" Simon looked terrified even though no one was paying attention to them. "No one can know!"
"Simon, you are- according to you- in a relationship with fucking Isabelle Lightwood, and you expect me to catch up? You are either going to tell me the whole story or I am going to turn down your request- or even better- I will ask Isabelle herself about this-"
"Okay Clary, shit okay. We are just not ready to tell everyone yet. And I would tell you the whole story, but I need to check it with Izzy and see if she is okay with you knowing everything. I really would tell you Clary, you know me."
Clary did indeed know Simon and there was no doubt in her mind that he wanted her to know. Yet having her questions unanswered still frustrated her.
"But why don't you stay 'single' till everyone finds out? You don't need to be in some kind of relationship." Clary inquired.
"Well you see someone has seen us making out, so we need to be in some kind of 'relationship' till then. So no one thinks me and Isabelle's little make out session was anything serious." Simon was intently watching Clary to see her reaction.
"Alright, alright, it was irresponsible of you both to make out in school when you don't want anyone to know about your relationship. Yet-" Clary suddenly came to a halt. "Wait. Make out? You made out with her?"
Simon looked like he would rather be cleaning someone's faeces then be there.
'Clary, we are a couple, obviously."
Despite the oddness of the situation, Clary wiggled her eyebrows at the blushing Simon. She was still bewildered and intrigued- rightfully so. It wasn't every day you find out that your innocent best friend was actually in secret romantic and physical relationship with hot, fashionable and drop-dead gorgeous Isabelle Lightwood, whose brothers were in the football team.
Wait. Isabelle Lightwood brothers. Alec Lightwood- a nice yet an odd fellow. But his brother on the other hand-
"Isn't that asshole his adoptive brother?" Clary asked now half out of her daze. There was no need for name. "Simon they have grown up together. What if she is just like him? What if she tries to break your heart?"
Simon's already big eyes looked as big as a saucer behind the glasses.
"No, no Clary! That is what I thought at first. That she was a spoiled little brat like Jace. But she isn't I promise." Clary hesitated. But at the end of the day, it was Simon's decision, not hers.
"I trust you Simon, just be careful. Now back to the fake-dating thing. What in hell's name was that?"
Simon explained Clary that as soon as the rumors about Isabelle and Simon's relationship begins, they needed to act as a couple. Clary was failing to see the point of it all. People would hopefully find out about Simon and Isabelle's relationship if it was something serious. But Clary was going to help Simon nonetheless.
As long as he wasn't changing schools or moving away.
"Simon I hope Isabelle's worth all of this. I hope she is not like him." Clary frowned thinking of Simon dating someone with a very bad attitude and ego as big as Texas.
"Believe me Fray, I wouldn't go near her is she was anything like Jace."
And as if in cue, Jace appeared out of the blue.
"Discussing me I see." Jace said with a lazy smirk across his face.
Clary and Simon looked at each other anxiously: how much of the conversation had Jace heard?
But from the expression on his face, he hadn't been able to hear much, and had probably felt the urge to niggle them. Again.
"What a coincidence. We were just discussing about your resemblance with the Sun." Clary said.
Jace looked at her and his smirk grew huger.
"Oh I know my looks are gifts to the society. You didn't have to remind me of it." Jace said pulling at one frizzy, curly and red strand of Clary's hair. "Shrimp." he added.
"Oh actually what I meant is that you give headache when looked at." Clary replied flatly, yanking her hair out of his hand in the process.
The smirk dropped from his face as fast as it appeared. But soon a grin replaced it. He opened his mouth, clearly for a witty comment when Aline appeared near him.
"Hello Jace." She said in a flirty voice playing with a strand of her flawless, straight and black hair. She smelt strongly like vanilla perfume which made Clary nearly choke. She never understood why some people wanted to smell like dessert.
"What are you doing this weekend?" She asked with a flirty smile. Clary couldn't understand her. Once she had walked in Aline kissing Helen from the volleyball team. Clearly they both were not interested in boys. Yet Aline continued to flirt with boys. Maybe they didn't want anyone to learn about their relationship. She could understand why though- sometimes the people in the school could get quite cruel when it came to people's sexualtiy.
"I have football practice all day long." Jace just smirked in a flirty way but didn't bother to look at her. He was still looking at Clary and Simon with a conceited look.
"Shrimp, I would love to insult you, but I am afraid it won't be as good as mother nature did." Jace said.
"That was so middle school." Clary said at the same time Simon made a comment about how Jace sounded like a 6th grader comeback.
She knew that she needed to walk away. That would make Jace annoyed because she didn't give any reaction, but Clary couldn't stand it when people said something nasty about her looks.
"Isn't it rather dangerous to use one's entire vocabulary in a single sentence?" She said bluntly. Jace had a stunned expression, clearly not anticipating her to say something back.
"Well look at this Aline, the Shrimp is talking back." Jace said once again without turning to her. Aline began giggling while giving Clary a nasty look. The two didn't get along well since Clary saw her kissing Helen. Even though Clary didn't tell anyone of the accident, Aline was clearly expecting her to use the event as a blackmail of sorts. But Clary wasn't planning on telling it to anyone anytime soon because it wasn't her place to tell someone of Aline's sexuality.
"If you didn't know already that is how a conversation works." Clary once again couldn't help herself but reply back at Jace. Good lord, he was big-headed.
"I am not having a conversation with you if that is what you thought. No one would like to hang out with you and your nerdy lover." Jace said and before Clary could reply back saying Simon wasn't her lover, he turned around and disappeared into the popular crowd with a giggling Aline, not even sparing a glance back at them.
"Yeah clearly that is why your own sister is dating Simon." Clary muttered under her breath so one but Simon heard her. He jabbed his elbow to Clary's side which made her frown deepen. The day didn't even begin but she already wanted to go to her room in Luke and her mom's apartment to smell the familiar and comforting scent of paint and loving faces of her only family members- but till then she needed to survive the day.
A/N So I decided to summon up the first three chapters of the story into one, which I think is more convenient. I hope you enjoyed this.
