"Hey, Tom! Want to go and do something fun? Your da said –" Clary stopped and stared as she ran into the barn. She thought at first glance that mayhap it was Leena and one of the boys she'd had her eye on, but it was definitely Tom giving her a sheepish grin as he broke apart from a girl.

"Hello Clary." He seemed fairly relaxed, considering she'd just walked in on him kissing someone. "Sorry, we didn't hear you coming."

Clary eyed the other girl. "Distracted, I suppose," she replied tartly.

The other girl took hold of Tom's hand. "Tomlan, who's this little girl?" she asked. "I thought I met your younger sister."

"I'm not little," Clary snapped, and glared at her.

"This is Clary," announced Tom. "We've been friends for years. And Clary, this is Hanna."

"Hello Hanna," said Clary overly brightly. "I'd say it's nice to finally meet you, but Tom's never mentioned you. Never ever, not even once. It's such a pity."

"We've only been sweethearts a couple of days, Clary. It's been a week since I last saw you."

"Oh, you're sweethearts!" she said, deliberately making her eyes wide and innocent. "How…sweet. Were you slobbering all over each other when I walked in, then? I thought you were picking lice out of her hair."

Hanna looked outraged. "I don't have lice!"

Clary gave her a sickly sweet smile. "Oops. Silly little me."

Hanna leaned into Tom. "Aren't children funny sometimes?" Clary scowled. "I remember being her age – how old are you, ten? Eleven maybe?"

"I'm thirteen and a half," snapped Clary.

They all turned towards the door as they heard Tom's mother calling him.

"I'll be right back," he told them. "Clary, why don't you show Hanna the cats?"

Hanna waited until he was out of earshot. "Don't bother," she sneered. "I hate cats."

Clary crossed her arms and looked her over. "I suppose you think you're all grown up and clever."

Hanna looked smug. "I'm seventeen, same age as Tomlan. I suppose we must seem very grown up to a little girl like you."

"Seventeen," repeated Clary, and the smile she gave Hanna resembled that of a predator. "I'm very good at dealing with annoying seventeen year olds."

"How nice."

Clary's eyes narrowed. "I don't like you," she told her seriously, and Hanna laughed.

"Why would I care about what some bugnobbed little brat thinks of me?"

Clary's eyes widened. It was bad enough that Tom had decided to waste his time with a girl, but this Hanna was horrible. "At least I'm not a sarden poxy, fensucked hedgecreeper like you!"

Hanna grabbed onto her arm, her nails digging in. "I don't care if you're jealous or cracknobbed or if Tomlan's just spoiled you rotten; you're going to be spending a lot less time with him now and you might as well get used to it."

Clary narrowed her eyes. "We'll see about that," she told her, and stomped on her foot. Hanna released her in shock at the sudden pain, and Clary ran for the door that Tom had gone out.

It didn't take her long to find him; he was just coming out of the back door as she approached it. He looked at her, puzzled. "Is everything alright?"

"No," said Clary. "She's horrible and she hates cats and you should get rid of her now."

"Clary, I don't want to get rid of her. I like her."

"In that case, I think you need to see a healer," she told him seriously. "It's not like you even need a girl anyway."

"Maybe I don't need a sweetheart, but if we want to be together there's no harm in it. It doesn't hurt to start thinking about things like marriage."

"Marriage? You want to marry her? There's a lot of harm in that." She made her eyes go wide and convincing again. "You've got to be careful with her, Tom. I think she might have fangs."

"Fangs?"

"Yes, like some of those monsters that got shut in the divine realms. Nursey told me about those when I was little. Maybe she escaped."

"Clary, that's just silly."

"The sprites told me so."

Tom's eyebrows raised. "You've been all the way down to the stream and back since I saw you in the barn?"

Irritated and sulking, Clary crossed her arms. "She called me a bugnobbed little brat!"

"And what did you say to her?"

Clary scowled at him. "Nothing she didn't deserve."

"Clary, I'm sure it was all just a misunderstanding." He reached out to ruffle her hair, but she slapped his hand away.

"I bet you don't ruffle her hair. Stop treating me like I'm a baby, Tom! It's bad enough that she does."

Tom blinked. "I'm sorry."

"You should be," she snapped. "It always takes me ages to fix it."

"Your hair is getting very long now," he told her. "It looks nice on you, Clary." He'd have been rewarded with a small smile if Hanna hadn't chosen that exact moment to come out of the barn.

"Oh, Clary's still here," she said. "I'd wondered what was holding you up, Tomlan." She looked at Clary. "Don't you have any other friends to run along and play with?"

Of course Clary had other friends…although she didn't actually like them. Her mother's friends' daughters usually had much more in common with Rosalind than with her and never wanted to do anything fun.

"I just came to see if Tom wanted to go somewhere, but it looks like he'd rather have a boring day at home today." She looked at Tom. "I'm going to go and climb a tree, and if I fall and hurt myself again, it's going to be all your fault." She stuck her nose up in the air and stalked off.

"Clary, wait!" She heard his running footsteps behind her and stopped when he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Clary, I don't want you to get hurt. Please be careful, I'd be very upset if something bad happened to you."

She just scowled. "Well apparently you wouldn't be upset enough."

"I'm sorry I can't spend time with you today. I'll talk to Da though, mayhap we could do something fun tomorrow if he doesn't need me to help him."

"It'll probably be raining tomorrow," she muttered gloomily.

"We can still find something to do indoors. I have something to give you too."

"Really?" She smiled, her smile widening when she saw Hanna looking impatient back by the house.

"Really," Tom assured her. "I saw it and knew it would be perfect for you."

"You're so nice, Tom," she said, and hugged him. She wasn't usually affectionate with others at all, but this was worth it to see the look on Hanna's face. She fought to hide her smirk as she pulled away. "I'll look forward to seeing you tomorrow then." Tom grinned at her and nodded, and she walked off down the street. Perhaps it was quite good that she had the rest of the day to herself. It looked like she had a lot of plotting to do.