Will woke up to the sound of his alarm clock going off. He groaned and covered his head with his pillow, but the persistent ringing wouldn't stop. He cracked open an eye and looked around blearily for the off button. He slammed his hand down on the off button and the ringing stopped. He looked down at the time. It was only five thirty in the morning.

Will turned over onto his back and groaned, keeping the pillow firmly plastered onto his face. He didn't want to get up. It was the first day of school. The first day of his last year.

There was a knock on Will's bedroom door and Linette poked her head in.

"Will? You need to wake up. I have breakfast ready downstairs, if you're hungry."

"I don't think I can go to school today Mam. I'm sick." Will faked a cough. "See?"

Linette sighed. "Oh Will, you're going to have to do better than that to fool me. Now hurry up and get dressed and get breakfast before it gets cold."

Will frowned but got up. He grabbed his uniform from his closet and dusted it off. It had been sitting in the back of his closet for nearly three months. Will was hoping by not being able to see it, it might just disappear.

Will made sure he had all of the parts of his uniform and put them on. He had to rummage through his drawer for his dress socks and search the back of his closet for his shoes. He finally put them on and started working his comb through his hair. He had to wet the comb a few times to attempt to tame the fly away strands from the static and to work through some nasty tangles. If this kept up for much longer, Will was going to seriously have to contemplate a haircut. His hair didn't seem to tangle as much when it was shorter.

Will finished with his hair and headed down to the table for breakfast. It was just before six o'clock.

Cece was already down at the table, eating some eggs and a bowl of cereal. She was wearing a white button down shirt that was tucked into a pleated khaki skirt. She had navy blue knee socks and black boat shoes. Since it was only the first quarter, she didn't have to wear the blazer.

Will was wearing a similar attire, but instead of a skirt, he wore khaki trouser. He also had to wear and blue and silver neck tie.

"Good morning Will~" She chimed.

"Why are you so awake?" He grabbed a plate of eggs and some bacon and sat down next to her. He fixed himself a glass of milk and took a sip.

"Because I actually went to sleep on time last night."

Will rolled his eyes. "More like you're excited to go to that hell hole we all call high school."

"Will!" Linette hit him in the back of the head with a rolled up newspaper. "Watch your language."

"Ow!" Will winced theatrically and rubbed the back of his head. "Well it's true."

"There is nothing wrong with your high school, Will. If there was, then you wouldn't be going there."

Will muttered in Welsh under his breath.

"I heard that Will," Linette said.

Will remained silent and finished eating his breakfast. He placed the dishes in the sink and went upstairs to grab his book bag. It was black with navy blue pockets. He picked it up and went downstairs to put it in the car. He climbed into the front seat and waited for his mother and sister.

Cece climbed into the back seat a few minutes later with a frown. "Why do you get to sit in the front?"

"Because I'm older than you."

Cece bit her lip and stayed silent.

Linette got into the car a few minutes later and started driving her children to school.

"Mam? Why isn't Dad taking us this morning?" Cece asked.

"He had to go into work earlier this morning and he wanted to let you sleep. If he had taken you, you would have been at school already."

Will made a face. "It's too early to be going to school now. I don't want to have to get there any earlier than I have to."

"I could always take you in later if you really want. It's just more convenient for you dad to take you seeing as he has to pass right by the school on his way to work," Linette said.

"I know." In all honesty, he didn't want to go in much later than he usually did. If he got to school at seven, he could claim a spot in the cafeteria to himself until the hall ways opened at seven thirty. And Jem usually got to school around seven twenty, so they could hang out together until their classes started. This year, they had a lot of the same classes together. AP Psychology, History, AP English, AP Calculus, and AP Chemistry. There was one class they didn't have together. While Jem had orchestra before lunch, Will had a free period. He was extremely grateful for it as well. He could use it to get ahead on his homework, or if need be, catch up on his sleep. No one ever got in trouble for sleeping during Senior Privilege. That and the Senior Lounge had a nice set of lounge chairs to relax in.

Linette stopped the car in front of the school building. "Here we are. I hope you two have a good day."

"Bye Mam." Cece grabbed her book bag and hopped out of the car.

"Bye Mam." Will grabbed his bag and went into the school building.

When he walked in, to his relief, not all that much had changed. Usually when he would come back from summer, the school would always try to improve itself in one way or another. Sometimes there would be banners hung in different places, or statues, and one year they even repainted all of the class rooms. Will remembered smelling the fresh paint for weeks. It gave him quite the headache.

Will went into the cafeteria and sat down in the Senior Lounge. He was going to miss sitting out in the normal part of the cafeteria, but the Senior Lounge had a lot more elbow room and he wasn't going to complain about that. He wasn't going to miss being crammed like a sardine while trying to eat lunch. And now that he was a senior, he could eat lunch outside if he so chose. He could either eat on the picnic benches or eat out in the gardens. The gardens were currently full of different summer flowers in reds, golds, and whites in preparation for fall. It was a really nice place and Will was excited to be able to eat out there. He was only able to visit it briefly on his way to his classes as an underclassman.

Will looked at the clock. It was just before seven. He rummaged through his bag until he found a book and started reading. Perhaps that would make the time until Jem arrived go by faster.

It was ten minutes later before someone else walked into the Senior Lounge. Will looked up from his book and immediately regretted it. It was Gabriel Lightwood of all people, strutting in as if he owned the place. Will rolled his eyes.

"You know, peacocks went out of fashion ages ago Lightworm," Will said.

"What was that Herondale? Did you just call me a peacock?"

"Well you're strutting about like one, so yes."

Gabriel frowned and set his bag down on a different table before walking over to Will's.

"I'm not strutting if you must know."

"Really? You could have fooled me." Will put his book back up and pretended to continue reading it to ignore and annoy Gabriel.

"Ugh Herondale, you're impossible." He huffed in frustration and walked away to sit with his things.

Once Gabriel left, Will went back to actually reading his book.

"How long am I going to have to stand here before you look up? Or is your book really that interesting?"

Will looked up. "Jem!"

"Good morning." Jem smiled and sat down next to Will. He set his violin and his bag on the floor and placed his thermos on the table.

"Drinking coffee already? It's only the first day Jem. If you need coffee now, you're never going to survive through the year."

Jem chuckled and took a sip from his thermos. "It's not coffee Will. I don't even like coffee. You know that. It's tea. It's a great thing to help one wake up in the morning."

Will made a face. "It isn't that green tea, is it?"

"No, it's black tea. I think you'll like this one. Do you want to try it?"

"Sure." Will took the thermos and took a sip. "Hm… It's not bad."

"Not bad?" Jem took his thermos back and held it between his hands.

"Are you cold?" Will looked at Jem's hands. His fingers were a bit pale, but otherwise they seemed fine.

"No. It just feels nice in my hands."

Will poked one of Jem's long, slender fingers with one of his own.

"May I help you?"

"No." Will sat back in his chair. "I really feel like these are my last few minutes of freedom before I'm held captive for another nine months. Let's go do something rebellious."

"Oh no Herondale. Whatever you're planning, I want no part of it. I've never gotten in trouble in school before, and I'm not about to change that now. Besides, can you imagine how much trouble I would get in when I went home? You wouldn't be able to come over and eat my mom's cooking for weeks."

Will's eyes widened in mock horror. "That would be the end of the world! Not to eat your mom's cooking? That's just cruel."

"Which is exactly why I'm not going to be joining you in whatever you're planning."

"I'm not actually planning anything Jem. Loosen up a bit. My mother would have my head if I got in trouble at school. It's bad enough when I got my phone taken away last year." Will shuddered at the memory. Getting in trouble with his mother was horrible. Linette made sure Will learned his lesson the first time around.

The bell rang and Jem grabbed his violin and his bag before standing up.

"Oh right. Don't you usually keep your violin in that storage room?" Will asked. He put his book back in his bag and stood up, throwing his bag over his shoulder.

"Yes, I do. If you'd like, you can come with me as I get my new locker."

"New locker? They don't just give you the same one as last year?"

Jem shrugged. "Sometimes they do. It depends on how many new people there are and if they got new lockers or not. Some of the instruments only fit in certain lockers because of their size. Like the cello for instance. There's only five different lockers where they will fit, so often the cello players have to share their lockers. And the basses are so big that they don't fit in the lockers at all. There's a rack if you will in the band room that they leave them on. They have very small lockers that only their folders and bows will fit in."

"They just leave their instruments on a rack? Isn't that dangerous? I know you don't like to leave your violin out on its stand all that often in case it tips over."

"Well their rack is a lot sturdier than my stand. It's made to hold them for a while. It's honestly the safest place to leave them. Even attempting to have them stand in a locker is very dangerous. And with how much they cost, I don't blame the director for not wanting to replace them."

Jem started walking to the band locker room and Will followed him.

"How much does a bass cost then?"

"Well, our director wouldn't buy the most expensive model. We couldn't afford them. So they would probably be between ten thousand and forty thousand dollars."

Will's eyes widened in surprise. "That much?"

"It's a big instrument Will. They're going to cost more. Professional models more so than student models and hand carved ones more so than machine made ones. Of course the ones that are carved by hand sound the best, but not everyone can afford that, which is why they make some of them with a machine."

They arrived at the storage room and Jem got his new locker assignment. Since most of the students that were in band and orchestra were there to put their instruments away, Will waited for Jem just outside of the door.

Will put his violin away and took his folder out of his bag to put in the locker. He closed it before going back to Will.

"How about we go find out where our real lockers are now?" Will asked. "I have too many text books that I don't want to carry around right now. Honestly, why do teachers always have to pick the biggest and heaviest books? It's as though they want us to have back problems."

"That's why they gave us lockers, because they're trying to spare out backs." Jem led Will down the hallways until they got to the area that held the senior lockers. They were the biggest in the school and rightfully so. The seniors had the most books to carry and usually had the smallest bags. After three full years of school, they learned not to carry all of their books at once.

"Oh, if only our lockers were right next to each other," Will said.

"Will, we have most of our classes together. It's not as if we aren't going to see each other."

"I know. And I'm not that far away. I'll see you in class." Will gave Jem a wave before parting to go to his own locker.

Will opened it up and wiped his hand over the shelves. They were clean and free of dust. He took out any of the books that he needed for his classes after lunch and put them away. He would pick these up later. He looked through his bag, debating whether or not it would be a good idea to leave any of his other books. His classes were quite spread out through the building and he didn't want to risk being late. Teachers may be more lenient on the first day, but he needed to get his timing down of walking to his classes to see if he would have time to pick up his books. Will sighed and decided to keep them for now. If he had time later, he could always put the books in the locker after class to lighten up his load a bit.

Will closed his locker and went to his first class of the day. AP Psychology. It was the same teacher that Will had for history the year before and she didn't particularly like him. She was also the same teacher that took away his phone the year before because he was playing on it in class. It wasn't his fault that the class was so boring. He loved history, but not with this teacher.

Will went into the room and picked his seat. It was near the middle of the room. He knew the teacher wouldn't let him sit in the back, and Jem didn't like sitting there. He though it was too hard to focus on what was going on. All of the talking and note passing that happened didn't help one's focus much either.

Will sat down and got out his books. He opened up his notebook to a fresh page and dated it.

"Ah, Mr. Herondale. It's nice to see you again," Mrs. Penhallow said from her desk. "I hope you've had a nice summer and are ready to focus this year."

"Yes, I had a good summer. I really wish it was still summer. I'm not quite ready for school to start."

Mrs. Penhallow stood up and gathered her lesson plan. "I don't think anyone is ready for school to start. But if you crack down now and focus, it will be over soon than you think." She went to the board and started writing down what they were going to go over.

Will rolled his eyes when her back was turned. The only way to make school go by faster was by cancelling it. No amount of focusing could make the days speed by.

Jem took a seat next to Will a few moments later and pulled out his supplies.

"Ready for the first class of the day?" Jem asked.

Will sighed and shook his head. "You couldn't pay me enough to be ready for my first class."