"Kaelie!" Lydia snapped, her eyes flashing as she jerked her hand toward where Clary and two of the other cheerleaders were standing, already moving toward the rest of their squad, into formation. "Stop making eyes at Meliorn and get your ass in line!" Kaelie rolled her eyes as she shot one last look toward the tall, handsome boy in a basketball uniform who was staring at her appreciatively.

It was half time, and their team was down by a couple points, so while they regrouped, it was definitely time for the cheerleaders to do their thing and distract the crowd while the boys pulled themselves together.

Clary wasn't sure if she liked cheering.

She had joined the squad as a sophomore when she only been close friends with Kaelie. Lydia had been in their year, but she was a bit of an ice queen and not quite someone that Clary wanted to be friends with. It turned out, Lydia was still an ice queen, but she had her moments where she wasn't too bad, and after bonding over horrible routines and limiting their carb intakes, the three of them had become friends.

Simon used to make jokes that weren't quite on the right side of funny about how he was just waiting for her to drop him now that she was a cheerleader and had quickly been working her way up the social ranks in school.

Clary would just jut her chin forward and say that nothing would ever keep her from being friends with Simon, and she had been true to her word. Maybe they weren't as close as they used to be, but the friendship between them was still strong.

The music was loud, bouncing off the walls of the gym and the song getting a little skewed, but the girls knew their routines well enough to do them in their sleep. The way that the acoustics sounded inside was never all that great, even though they went to a school with one of the best indoor sound systems, which was one of the reasons why Clary preferred cheering at football games, which meant they could be outside.

Clary flipped and spun and kicked her legs up high. She felt her dress flicking up, dropping around her waist, and her hair twirled, the ponytail whipping at her face a couple of times. The first song transitioned smoothly into a second and then a third and by the time that song ended, Clary was breathing heavily, her cheeks pink as she landed in her final pose, behind Lydia and beside one of the other cheerleaders, Eloisa Ravenscar. Most of the cheerleaders were smiling wide—a default facial expression for the squad even if their eyes weren't in it—although Lydia's face was set in it's usual expression; pinched.

There were claps and cheers from the crowd but the girls held their position until Lydia straightened up and flipped her ponytail and gave a little bow before beginning to flounce off the court. The rest of the squad followed after her, Kaelie and a few of the others dawdling just a little to exchange a few quick words with the basketball team who were pumped and getting ready to run back onto the court.

"She's a fucking Nazi," Kaelie growled as the girls headed back to the sidelines. Clary lifted her eyebrows in response, but didn't say anything as they picked up water bottles to hydrate before resuming their positions on the sidelines. She caught a couple of leers from a few guys who were sitting in the first few rows and she sent them dirty looks down her nose before turning around and facing the court.

After the game finished, there was the usual mess in the middle of the court. The Blue Knights had won, so there was obnoxious cheering and grunting noises from the boys and some of the families and other students who had been in the stands flooded onto the court. Most of the cheerleading squad hung around as well, hugging some of the players and grinning widely at their friends. Clary hung back though, not particularly interested in getting a sweaty hug from Jordan, who usually tried to make a thing about making out with his popular cheerleader girlfriend when the team won a game, especially when he was the one who made the last basket.

"Hey," Kaelie nudged Clary with her elbow. "There's a party on at Mels place. You coming?" Of course she was going, it wasn't like she had anything better to do on a Friday night.

Although, going meant undoubtedly running into a drunk Jordan, who was going to feel even more cocky after his win today, and that would make him persistent in chasing her, if that's what he set his mind on. She really wasn't in the mood to deal with that tonight.

"I guess," Clary muttered. "I'm gonna go and get changed." Kaelie didn't say anything because Meliorn was waving his arm at her and she was heading through the crowd toward him. Clary headed to the far side of the gym, away from the two wide open doors where there were streams of people leaving, and walked down the hallway toward the locker rooms. She pushed open the second door, into the females locker room and walked inside.

It didn't take long before the rest of the cheerleaders filtered in, only a couple of the girls missing, and Clary had stripped out of her spanks and the blue and white cropped top. She left on her skirt, already feeling better out of the spanks, and didn't bother changing out of her sports bra. She was going to go home for a shower and to change into something that was better suited for the party. She never used the showers at the school—not because she was embarrassed of her body and didn't want to be seen by the other girls, because that definitely wasn't the case, given how often she stripped down in the locker rooms—but there was no way in hell she was putting her feet on the ground on a concrete floor that was probably covered in all sorts of foot fungi and under a shower head that was probably teaming with bacteria.

No way.

She pulled on a loose singlet and a thin jersey before grabbing her bag. There were a few of the girls who called out their 'see you laters' as she headed out, but Clary had her head down and eyes on her phone, her canvas bag bouncing against her hip. Simon had sent her a text, asking about meeting up tomorrow. She was pretty sure she would be hungover in the morning, and her mum was finally meant to be coming home around four or five that evening, but she was free in the afternoon. Clary was tapping at her reply, not looking up from her phone as she strode out the gym.

People moved out of her way as she walked—not as though she gave them much of a choice, since she was strutting in a straight line, following the path that lead from the gym and down toward the car park. She had driven Kaelie there that night, so her bright red mini was parked in one of the first spots at the front of the car park. There were people flooding the car park, some of them looking partially drunk and Clary finally looked up from her phone, wrinkling her nose in distaste at them. She was almost at her car when she saw that someone was leaning against the back of her car. She opened her mouth to snap at them to get their mangy limbs off her car when the person turned around.

"Clarissa," Jace stated with a sexy smirk. Clary stared at him for a moment before blinking and narrowing her eyes.

"What you doing here, biker boy?" She snipped at him. He didn't look at all affected by her tone, just like the other times, and his smirk grew. She knew that they were getting a couple of looks from people around them, but she didn't pay any attention to them.

"Just thought I'd drop by...Say hi," Jace grinned as he straightened up, pushing his shoulders back just a little, making the height difference between them even more obvious. Clary was used to people being bigger than her, that wasn't a problem, that wasn't what was throwing her off balance. It was the way he was grinning down at her, unphased by her cold look she was giving him.

In fact, he looked almost amused.

"How'd you know I'd be here?" Clary asked, her words brisk.

"You struck me as the school spirit type of girl," Jace's eyes skimmed over Clary, down to the short, cheerleading skirt she was wearing, before his gaze came back up to meet hers. "And I knew what school you went to given your friends ID."

"I might not be as well acquainted with the law like you probably are," Clary began pointedly with an arch of her eyebrow. "But I'm pretty sure that constitutes stalking." Jace laughed and shrugged.

"I guess it could be," Jace didn't look bothered. He pursed his lips together and then looked around before taking a step closer, so that he was right up next to her. Clary swallowed hard, hoping that Jace didn't notice it in the dark surrounding. It was night, and the lights that were coming from the gym and the street lights dotted around the car park were mainly behind Clary, so her face was in shadows. "Did you want to come for a ride?" He asked abruptly and she blinked.

"What?" Clary's voice sounded completely taken aback.

"Did you want to come for a ride?" Jace repeated, asking the question as simply as though he was asking her about the weather. He half turned and jerked his head toward the other side of the car park where his bike was parked. It was getting quite a bit of attention from the people who were heading to their cars after coming out of the gym, although not as much attention as Jace and Clary were getting, she realized.

"Um..." Clary didn't like being thrown off balance and getting caught off guard.

What was throwing her even more off balance was the fact that she actually might want to go with him.

"You got something better to do?" Jace raised an eyebrow at her, the one with the little silver hoop through it.

"Actually, I do have plans," Clary sniffed at him. "It's a Friday night, there's an after party on."

"Oh yeah? Think you'll manage to actually get a ride home this time? Or you just gonna get dropped on the side of the road again?" Jace was still smirking at her, although his eyes looked a little harder, which was something she couldn't quite understand.

"Clary!" Came a shout from behind her, and both her and Jace looked back toward the gym, where Jordan was standing. He was still in his basketball uniform, which wasn't surprising. He would wear it until he went home to change and shower. Jordan was still closer to the gym than to the car park, but Clary was guessing that he could still make out who she was talking to. Jace made a snorting noise under his breath and then reached out and touched Clary's elbow lightly. She jerked her arm away from him, but she did turn her attention back to him.

"So? A ride?" He prompted.

"Clary!" Jordan shouted out again, and he was drawing even more attention from people around them as he started coming closer. Clary took in a sharp breath, glancing once more over her shoulder before jerking her head in a nod.

"Let's go."

Alright! Another mass update! I'm just...In a super shitty place right now, completely mental, my life is actually in a really good space—isn't it great when that happens? But writing is generally therapeutic so...Here we go.

Movies I would recommend would be Where The Heart Is, which is an old time favourite for me, and How To Be Single, which I actually quite like, even though I don't like Dakota Johnson. It's like my love for Leslie Mann cancels that out though. Haha. I don't know...Both of these movies make me really sad and happy at the same time, so it's good.

Songs that I've recently fallen in love with are Perfectly Wrong by Shawn Mendes, Chateau by Angus & Julia Stone, You Make It Easy by Jason Aldean and Marry Me by Thomas Rhett. Recommend any songs that you guys have had on repeat recently :)

Hope you're all doing well, and please leave a review and let me know what you thought of the chapter because I love your comments x