Hello, lovelies! So glad you're not trying to kill me for dropping off the face of the earth for a year. Answering questions; I'm going to age everyone up soon (now it sounds like I'm talking about the Sims), give it a few more chapters at the most (hopefully you guys don't hate everyone as a little kid), and I will eventually get to why Jocelyn left and why Valentine's oblivious to psychotic Sebastian.
So I had this really cute idea about Jocelyn and Luke doing a collab with their troops and it was just too cute I had to, and I'm basically giving a shout out to all the characters I love and love to hate. Thank you and enjoy, love y'all!
P.S. I have another story I'm working on (if you didn't know already) if you would like to go check it out. It's another Shadowhunters fanfic and is also an excuse I'm using for my long update periods.
As it turned out, Girl Scouts was fun. Together Izzy and Clary had managed to rack up a sizeable troop consisting of Maia, Catarina, Tessa, and them, which was much bigger than Camille's consisting of only her, Seelia, and Lily.
Luke's troop was bigger, with Simon, Matt, Kirk, Eric, Magnus who had joined with Alec, Jordan, Raphael who had joined only because of Ragnor, Ragnor who had been pulled into it because Catarina and Magnus, and Jem who had been convinced by Tessa to join.
Jocelyn thought it would be a good idea to work with Luke, they had woods in their back yard that was perfect for camping. They all learned how to pitch a tent and start a fire without matches. They were taught how to tell directions by the sun and what to do if they ever got lost and that you could eat every part of a dandelion if you really needed food. Then everyone made s'mores before going to bed.
The next day at school, everyone sat together at lunch, they had to join a few table together so everyone had a seat. Camille walked over to Clary and Izzy, followed by Seeliea and Lily. "So," Camille said, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder. "I heard you decided to start a troop."
"Yeah," Izzy said, looking back at the blonde girl crossing her arms defiantly. "Do you have a problem with that, Camille?"
"You know Isabell, I would have let you join my troop. I'm sure you're an excellent cookie salesgirl." Camille looked around the table and stuck her nose up in disgust. "Too bad you've decided to associate yourself with… the lower class."
"Lower class?" Clary asked too dumbfounded to be amused. Camille tried to act like her mother, but coming from a ten-year-olds' mouth it sounded ridiculous.
Seelia stuck her nose up along with Camille, but Lily seemed to have spotted something that caught her eye at one of the tables. "Is that Raphael?" she asked, straining her neck to see the Latino boy sitting next to Ragnor. The two seemed to be in deep conversation and judging from Magnus's face the conversation was making fun of his glitter or his sudden strong liking to Alec (or both).
"What?! Where?!" Camille snapped, turning her head so fast Clary was surprised she didn't catch whiplash. Raphael kind of followed Camille around and he was decently close to Lily, but recently he had started handing out with Ragnor and by default Magnus and the rest of them. Camille, who did not like to lose her control over people, was not happy to see him hanging with as she called 'the lower class'.
"And there's Magnus too," Lily pointed, very obviously distracted. "He's with a boy. I know him, he's Isabelle's sister."
"He can't be!" Camille cried and marched off in strong denial. Seelia turned to follow, and slowly Lily, who kept turning around to look at who Clary presumed was Raphael.
"Well, that went better than I hope it would." Izzy chirped. Izzy, like Clary, probably hoped that something would aggravate Camille.
"I guess so," Clary says turning back to the table. Everyone else was happily talking, barely taking note of Camille.
"What's with that Asian girl?" Izzy asked digging through her pink bedazzled lunchbox.
"You mean Lily? She likes Raphael." Clary explained. Izzy looked over at Raphael, then to where Lily, Seelia, and Camille were sitting before shrugging.
"I don't see it, but whatever. We all have our interests." Clary couldn't help but snort, Raphael wasn't the most agreeable person in the world. She agreed with Izzy, she couldn't see what Lily saw in him. Maybe he was kind of cute? He actually looked really innocent partially because he was small like Clary. That stopped when he opened his mouth, his sarcasm and wit were more than Clary was willing to put up with. Maybe that's what Lily liked, Ragnor sure liked it. Oh well, who was she to judge?
The rest of the week went well, Jocelyn and Luke worked together a couple more times, Clary learned what poison ivy looked like and the basics of purifying water to make it drinkable. She felt a little guilty she hadn't let her mother do this earlier, everyone seemed to have fun and lunch was a lot better with so many new friends.
Izzy was plotting cookie selling strategies despite it only being mid-October when Lily walked up without Camille and Seelia.
"What do you want, Lily?" Izzy asked crossing her arms, Lily wasn't exactly looking at them, she was scanning the tables presumably looking for Raphael. Like always he was sitting with Ragnor making fun of Magnus and all his glitter.
"I want to join your troop," Lily said finally looking at them.
"You what?" Izzy asked dumbfounded, Clary was surprised too.
"I want… to join… your troop." Lily said slowly, speaking to them as if they were stupid.
"Why our troop? I thought you were with Camille, that we weren't good enough." Izzy, like Camille, was trying to look like her mother. But also like Camille, she looked ridiculous and the condescending look she was trying to give Lily wasn't working.
Lily sighed frustrated. "Camille is bossy and it's no fun. We barely do anything… and I heard you work a lot with the boy scouts."
Clary and Izzy turn to look at Raphael before looked back at Lily. "You just want to be with Raphael," Izzy said flatly.
This time it was Lily's turn to cross her arms. "That's not your business, and Camille really is awful to be around."
"Come on Izzy, let her join," Clary said. "It'll make Camille agitated."
Izzy huffed and thought for a minute. "Fine," she said reluctantly. "We'll tell Clary's mom that you want to join, but it better make Camille a lot more than agitated." She looked as if she were imagining Camille sprouting smoke form her ears like a cartoon.
Lily looked satisfied and walked off.
"Didn't expect that," Izzy said watching her go.
"I'm not surprised either," Clary said and Izzy nodded.
Lily pretty much immediately joined their troop. She was quickly put out when she discovered they didn't work as closely with the boy scouts as she thought, but took full advantage of the new group sit at lunch. Clary wasn't surprised to see she had managed to weasel her way into sitting next to Raphael.
Clary had been wrong when she said Camille would be agitated. Camille was furious. She marched over to the table with Seelia as soon as she found out Lily left to yell at Clary and Izzy (she almost was smoking from the ears). "I can't believe you stole one-third of my troop!" she yelled.
"We didn't steal anything," Izzy said calmly, trying not to look like she was enjoying herself. "Lily chose to switch troops. Maybe you should ask her." Camille, not in the mood to be argued with, turned in a huff and stalked off, followed by Seelia.
It had been about three weeks since Clary had seen Jace and she was really worried. Jace was with that psycho boy and the man who appeared to be their guardian was oblivious to the abuse. After school, if there wasn't scouts Clary, Izzy, and Alec would hand out in the clearing when homework was finished. Thankfully Izzy hadn't wanted to invite any more people to the spot where Jace met Clary. Clary wondered if Jace had started to come back but heard Izzy or Alec and run off. She wouldn't blame him though the idea hurt her. Still, she couldn't help but hope.
She, Alec, and Izzy were playing one after noon like usual when Alec suddenly froze. "I heard something," he said frowning and looking around.
"It was probably a squirrel or something Alec," Izzy said from her perch in the tree. They were playing faeries and Izzy was the princess. It was surprisingly more fun than Clary thought it would be, Izzy had a wonderful imagination and Alec narrated what was happening in a way that made it feel like they were actually in a book.
Alec didn't listen to his sister and went over to investigate. "I know I heard something," Alec said, he was near a bush.
"Alec, quit before you anger a squirrel," Izzy said, though a squirrel would not be the worst thing Alec could aggravate.
"Who are you?" Alec suddenly said catching Clary's attention, she and Izzy hadn't really been looking closely at what Alec was poking at. Slowly a boy stood up from inside the bush.
"Jace?" Clary said in disbelief, Jace was looking at her wide-eyed in fear.
"Wait you know him?" Alec asked looking back at Clary.
"Do you usually make friends with creeps hiding in bushes?" Izzy asked.
"He wasn't hiding in a bush when I met him," Clary said not turning back to look at Izzy. "He, he lives next door and he jumped the fence and ran here. I just came across him one day."
"There's a fence?" the siblings asked in unison.
"Cool! I want to go!" Izzy exclaimed excitedly.
"No!" Clary, Jace, and Alec all answered together.
Izzy sulked. "And why not?" she asked.
"Because, Izzy," Alec said relieving both Clary and Jace. "We can't just go over to someone else's property without permission. We could get into serious legal trouble for it."
"Fine," Izzy huffed and stared at Jace intensely, "Clary, do your parents know he's here."
"Well… no," Clary said. "But they won't care. And this is only the second time Jace has been over. The first time he didn't know."
"Your mom would have a freakout," Izzy pointed out causing Jace to sharply inhale.
"Fine, my dad won't mind so I think it's fine. My mom can get over it."
"Jace I haven't seen you at school, why not?" Izzy asked Alec was surprisingly quiet just looking at Jace with little expression on his face.
"I'm, my dad homeschools me. That's why." Jace said quietly.
"Yucky, if either of my parents tried that- just yuck. Alec would probably like it though. He's the favorite."
"I'm not the favorite, Mom likes you and your Dad's princess," Alec responded.
"You know what I mean," Izzy said rolling her eyes.
"Jace, what are you doing here?" Clary asked.
"I-I missed you so I came to see you, but you had other people here this time so I panicked and hid," Jace admitted.
"Is this the first time you've watched us?" Clary asked.
"This better be!" Izzy said hotly. "If you've been spying on us this whole time I'll hang you up in a tree by your pants!"
"Izzy!" Alec and Clary both sounded horrified.
"What?" she asked indignantly. "It's gross if he's been like a creep."
"She's right on that," Alec said crossing his arms. "You better not have been watching us for long."
"No, no! I just got here." Jace said holding his hands up. Clary noticed his hand was bandaged. "You caught me pretty much as soon as I dived into the bush… you- it was almost scary."
"Alec's like that," Izzy mumbled, still in the tree. "You can't sneak anything past him. He's like a parent. Big buzzkill if you ask me."
The whole scene was rather comical, Jace had just been caught and had minimal explanation and topics were switching between him and something completely random barely relating to the subject of Jace.
"Okay, fine. He can just the fence but we can't, when did you meet?" Alec asked getting back on subject.
"A little more than a week before school started," Clary explained.
"What was he even doing over here in the first place?" Alec raised an eyebrow.
"Well, um…" Clary didn't feel like she had the right to tell.
"It's complicated," Jace muttered looking down, Clary's eyes immediately went the Jace's bandaged hand.
Alec, who did have scary observant skills, caught Clary and what she was looking at. His facial expression softened and the matter was dropped.
"Well, Jace, this is probably the most informal meeting I've ever had, but I can't say it's the worst." He said causing everyone to smile.
"Do you want to play with us?" Izzy asked. "I'm the princess and you can be a faerie knight who goes on quests for his princess."
"We won't tell anyone you were here," Alec promised.
A small smile formed on Jace's face, and she realized she'd never seen Jace smile. "Okay, that sounds cool," Jace said eagerly.
Jace easily hopped into the game, becoming a faerie knight and he and Clary went on the quests Izzy wanted while Alec wove the story. It was fun having another person, another character, another idea generator. They barely noticed the time passed until it was getting dark and the parents started calling for them.
Jace went pale as death when he realized how late it was. "I have to go!" he cried and without saying goodbye raced off in the direction of his property. Alec frowned as he watched him go and looked at Clary.
"You know don't you," he says quietly so Izzy wouldn't hear.
"It's not what you think, Alec," Clary said before she realized how awful it sounded.
"I'm sure," Alec said sarcastically. "Clary, you have to tell someone. He needs to go somewhere safe."
"No, Alec, you don't understand. It's now what you think. Just- I'll tell you later I promise. But please don't tell anyone. I know you want to help, but that'll make things worse." Clary looked at him desperately pleading.
"Fine," Alec said giving in. "But if you don't tell me by the end of the week I'm telling my dad everything."
Alec didn't have to wait until the end of the week. The next day Clary was surprised when only Alec showed up. Or she was surprised until she learned that Izzy got in trouble and was not allowed to come over.
Clary took Alec out to the clearing where surprisingly Jace was waiting.
Jace's P.O.V.
"Where's Izzy?" he asked concerned.
"She got into trouble with mom. No big deal though, she's just not allowed to come over this time." Alec reassured him.
"You didn't get in trouble for staying late did you?"
"No, no trouble," Jace said. "At least not yet." He muttered thinking no one would catch it.
But apparently, Alec did because he frowned. "You know he has no right to do that to you." He said bluntly.
Jace looked up startled and he couldn't help glancing at Clary feeling betrayed and surprised she would have told.
"He doesn't know," Clary said. "He thinks it's your dad."
Jace didn't really relax at that, not comfortable with Alec knowing even if it wasn't all correct. He would have to be careful, Alec was like Sherlock with his observations. Alec got confused. "What do you mean it's not his dad?" he asked, looking between Jace and Clary for an explanation. Clary didn't fully understand either and turned to Jace. She had only been there for a few minutes while Sebastian was being a psycho.
Jace looked down at his hands and sat down, hugging his knees to his chest.
"He's- he's my brother." He said quietly.
"I'm adopted and he hates me for it. He blames me for his mom leaving."
Alec looked horrified. "What about your father? Does he allow this?"
"He doesn't know," Jace whispered, barely audible.
"How does he not know?" Clary asked. "He came out when Sebastian was three seconds from actually killing you."
"He doesn't want to believe anything wrong, so he accepts the lies Sebastian tells him and- and pretends that everything is fine and ignores that fact that when he goes away I have a broken rib or something." Jace wanted to start crying but held it in. Alec and Clary looked equally horrified.
"Why- why don't you report them both?" Alec asked. "He could be charged with negligence and your brother would get put in a mental ward or something."
Jace looked up swiftly. "I can't report him! Having to admit what happens… it would kill him. And Sebastian would weasel his way out of it somehow. I can't."
There was a minute of silence before Alec spoke again. "So what are you going to do? If you stay you're probably going to be killed. You, you have to get out of there somehow. You could always run away."
Jace looked at Alec confused. How could he care so fast? They had only met for a few hours yesterday. Why did Alec care? Why was he so upset?
"Jace you don't deserve to endure that torture trying to spare your father. If he blatantly ignores your abuse then he's not worth protecting." Alec said, thinking he was helping.
"You don't get it!" Jace cried standing up, startling Alec and Clary. "He-he's not a bad man. He loves me and he just wants a family again… his wife left and… it broke him…"
Tears were starting to well up in his eyes. Alec's words had hurtful truth to them, but there were also things Alec didn't know.
"You don't know everything Alec," Jace said turning away from both of them and starting back to the fence. "You have no right to tell me anything."
"Jace, Jace I'm sorry!" Alec said desperately. Jace didn't want to listen, his mind was telling him he was just like his father, not listening to something because he didn't like it. But Jace wouldn't be able to cope if he accepted what Alec was saying. Alec didn't know his father, he had never met him. He had never met Sebastian. Sebastian might be psycho but he was also broken somehow and Jace felt bad for him.
"Jace!" Alec called after him, Clary finally realized what was happening and called after him too.
"No," Jace simply said and walked back towards the fence.