October 29, 2016 - Waffles Clary's P.O.V.

"Tessa. I am NOT going to ask Will to homecoming." The last three days had just been her practically begging me to ask him. I was sure he would turn me down. Will was known for being a sort of player. He liked to go after the pretty girls who were basically a copy of their friends. Then when he was done, he'd move onto the next.

"Come on Clary. Please? I'm making you go anyways, so you might as well enjoy it."

"Who says I'd enjoy it if I went with Will?" Tessa knew I was stalling. The truth was, I liked Will. A lot.

"Clary, if you don't go ask him yourself, I will for you." She wasn't kidding. Tessa was exactly the type of friend who would do that. I sighed, about to respond when there was a knock at the door. "I got it." Tessa stood from her bed an eased open the door. "Speak of the devil."

"Hey Clary, can I talk to you?"

May 6, 2019 - New York; Home - Jace's P.O.V.

No. Nope. Nada. This cannot be happening. I couldn't believe I hurt Clary in anyway, indirect or otherwise. I tried to calm myself down by convincing me that I had no way of knowing he was dating Clary, but I just couldn't.

Looking into her eyes, it was almost if I could feel the immense pain she was in. I was just able to contain my tears until I got up to my room. I'd been staying with Jon for a while as me and Robert Lightwood weren't exactly on speaking terms. Luke and Jocelyn couldn't care less about Alec's sexual orientation, so we got along just fine.

I sighed and rolled so I was on my back. No sooner had I settled into place did I hear a quack. "DUCK!" I screamed, jumping to my feet. It sounded three more times before I realized the sound was coming from my phone, and Izzy was calling me. I made a mental note to change that ringtone.

"What ever could you want at 10 at night?" I swear, Izzy never went to bed.

"When were you going to tell me Clary was back in town?" Of course she called me about the last person I wanted to talk about.

"Look, I didn't think it was my place, okay? I really just wanna go to bed." I knew I was being harsh, but I wasn't about to break into tears while on the phone with Isabelle.

"Jace? What's wrong? Is it Clary?"

"No. Look, I'm going to bed. Goodnight Izzy." After a sigh of protest, she hung up.

Two Weeks Later….. Clary's P.O.V

I couldn't believe Izzy made me go out for the cheer squad. Not only that, but I actually made the squad. Though I'm sure Izzy, the caption, had something to do with that. We had been practicing for the last week and a half, even though it was early summer. We practiced on the football field since the boys had only started conditioning and not running drills. We were pretty good, easily mastering basic stunts and getting on to the fun stuff quickly. I'm not sure why they put the girl with the least experience, me, as center flyer, but they did, so I had to work twice as hard to learn everything I was behind on.

I had just executed the perfect side somi, when the football boys walked onto the field chanting "Throw her, throw her, throw her!" We all looked at each other knowing it was only light-hearted play.

"If you insist," Isabelle and three others prepared for a load in, "come on Clary." I stepped into place, smiling from ear to ear. She leaned down to whisper, "Be prepared for something high. We're gonna knock their socks off."

1 2, we shurgged, 3 4, they bent down ,5 6, I jumped in, 7 8, and they threw me. Hard. We had to have set a record or something. I flew above the goal posts, before finally hitting the peak. I did a piked backflip, followed by a triple. The guys below shouted, alerting me that my efforts had not been in vain. The girls released me from their arms and I was swallowed by a mob of sweaty guys. In my short time back, I had made no shortage of friends.

I know I said I wanted to make these longer, but I'm trying to develop background knowledge and characters before everything really starts to go down, so that's the main purpose of this chapter.

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