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When it was time for Clary to go to school, Raphael insisted on driving her there, but she was hard headed, and refused to let him. The only thing she let him do was make her lunch, and even that wasn't substantial enough.

Damnit, he thought. Why the hell was she so stubborn?

Clary kissed Raphael on the cheek, and hugged him, thanking him profusely for helping. She then biked to school, parked her bike, locked it, and went to her locker.

"Clary, you bitch!" yelled Isabelle.

Clary was determined to not let them bully her. Her junior year would be different. Fuck the haters. Instead of feeling upset, she would keep a calm demeanor, and ignore what they said.

She already knew whatever they said was true. Valentine said it, they said it. Eventually, it grew on her.

She lifted her head, and saw Isabelle walking towards her, fuming. Clary saw the rest of the squad behind Isabelle, all of them had menacing looks on their faces.

"Clary!" shrieked Isabelle "What the FUCK did you do? Simon broke up with me you HOE! Said some shit like he hated how mean we were to you, and it is ALL YOUR DAMN FAULT!"

Clary was about to say something, when Jace interjected. "I told you to stay away from Izzy and Simon. You never listen, huh?"

By this point, everybody was staring at Clary, and the silence was thick with tension. Clary cleared her throat, and looked at Isabelle straight in the eye.

"Sweetie," mocked Clary. "Sometimes, men want good, caring women as their partners, not cruel, heartless bitches. Now, run along, go find another boy toy to play with."

Then she did the unthinkable.

She looked Jace in the eye, spat at him, and turned around, heading to her first class.

Clary walked into English, determined to not let Jace get to her. The bell ran, and everybody started to file into the class. She saw Jace sit in front of her, and he turned around and sneered.

Jace looked at her, a malicious glint in his eyes. "I can't believe you had the audacity to spit at me Freaky Fray."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Simon sit down next to her. "Leave her alone Jonathan." he sneered. "I broke up with Izzy because she is a horrible person. All of you guys are. I'm ashamed that I joined you guys, and I will forever be ashamed of my cowardice."

Clary simply didn't trust Simon, and she doubted he was sorry. But a small part of her was convinced Simon was telling the truth.

They were interrupted by Mr. Starkweather. "Settle down, settle down. I know it's only the second day of school, but we have to move forward quickly in order to cover all the topics this year. So, we will be reading Hamlet, written by Shakespeare. Hopefully we can finish this play by the end of next week. You guys are going to be put in groups of two for Hamlet. Today, we will read the backstory, and you and your partner will discuss how this relates to the real world."

Mr. Starkweather retrieved a piece of paper from his desk. I will tell you what scenes to read up till, and I expect you guys to actual read it. You will come into class every day and discuss the section you guys read, then write a brief summary. There will be a main project after we finish reading Hamlet, which you guys will work on outside of class, since our class time will be spent dissecting the play."

He cleared his throat before speaking. "You have no say in who gets to be your partner, I do. Here are the pairings. First is Clary Fray and Jace Lightwood..."

Clary stopped listening when he said her name and Jace's.

No way. She couldn't do this. Jace turned around and smirked at her evilly.

Great.

"So, Clary, how do you think this relates to the real world?" asked Jace.

Clary thought about this for a minute, and then responded. "Well, I-"

"Yadda, yadda, yadda. Look, I'm going to make this clear." said Jace, his tone serious. "I don't want to be your partner, and I don't want you to think I'm going to put effort into this shit. Plus-"

Jace was interrupted by Mr. Starweather, who appeared right behind Jace. "I hope you won't be making Clary do all the work, because if it looks like she did all the work, I will not hesitate failing you in this class."

Jace blanched. Of course he would care, thought Clary bitterly. He only wants good grades so he isn't kicked off the Alicante High football team.

Jace was the star of the football team. He had won the school countless trophies, medal, the works. He was considered to have great potential, but Clary simply didn't care.

Jacce choked out some crappy excuse, and Mr. Starkweather retreated.

"Fine," growled Jace. "My opinion on how it relates is.."

They spent the rest of class discussing, and to Clary's surprise, he wasn't a complete bitch. He was actually nice, and he cracked a few jokes here and there.

Interesting.

When lunch came around, Clary ate the sandwiches Raphael made for her, and it looked like he packed an extra sandwich for her.

She isolated herself from everyone else during lunch, and she sat at a tree while blasting music on her iPod. While she was eating, she drew the scenery around her.

She felt someone take her earbuds out of her ears, and she looked up to find Simon and Alec looking down at her.

Clary was shocked. She felt rage course through her body, but before she could tell them to piss off, Alec spoke up.

"Look, Clary, both of us are really, truly sorry. I never thought what you did for me would impact my life like it did, and I guess I could never thank you properly. We came here to apologize, but to warn you."

Clary was curious. "Look, what you," she pointed to Simon, "did was unforgivable. How could you stoop that low? As for you Alec, I helped you through so much, something even when your SIBLINGS refused to help. Isabelle and Jace gave me so much shit for helping you come out. And what do you do? You just ditch me after I help."

Simon interrupted Clary's tirade. "I was hurt. Clary, I was so hurt that you turned me down. I couldn't take your rejection because you never said no to me, and I took you for granted. I got so angry, and I wasn't even thinking when I told Jace. I-I didn't realize he would become a monster towards you."

"Clary, we want you to accept our apologies, but the main reason we came here was because of this." Alec showed Clary a letter. It said:

Alec,

We have to get back at the bitch for what her dad did to Jace. He just told me. Meet Jace and I at Central Park at 3:20.

-Izzy

Clary narrowed her eye. Again, the mentioning of Valentine doing something to Jace. Alec seemed to realize her confusion, and explained. "Clary, I don't know either. But...I realized what you did for me was valuable. I'm indebted to you. So, I'm going to meet them and record the conversation. I'll send it to you, ok?"

Clary was skeptical, but she swapped numbers with Alec, and after much consideration, she saved Simon's new number to her contacts, seeing as she only had his old number. She never had the heart to delete his old number.

Without a word, Simon and Alec got up and left. She was left alone, pondering upon one question.

Why the hell was everyone being nice to her all of a sudden?

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