Ayyyy new chapter
I'm sorry Jace hasn't been mentioned, I swear he'll appear in the next one!
Disclaimer: CASSANDRA CLARE OWNS THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS AND THE CHARACTERS
Chapter 2: Shut out
The two hours turned into four with all the traffic. For what reason would all these people want to be going to Brocelind of all the places?
"Clary please get that frown off of your face, we know you're unhappy." My mother comments.
"Well I'm sorry but do you know what happens to people who are like us and then fall? It's a national embarrassment and everyone we have ever met will disown us and pretend that we never even existed."
"Okay, Clary, you're being so damn selfish right now. It's not the end of the world so just grow up." Jonathan says.
I huff and look out the window. All I see is trees. We're going to the middle of nowhere.
"Mom, if you grew up here, how did you meet dad?" I ask.
"Finally something that it's a complaint…" I hear Jonathan whisper.
I sneer at him and give him my best side eye.
"Well, I was sent here by my parents to get home schooled. It was the better option since they were threatening to send me to boarding school in England. Anyway, your father had a little vacation home a mile up. We met when one of my horses had escaped and he had found it. He brought Artemis back to me and there we go."
"That's actually so cute." I say.
"You have horses?" Jonathan says.
"That's all you got from the story?" I give him a look and shake my head.
"What? The point of the story was mostly a horse!" He says defensively.
"Yes, Jonathan we do have horses."
"After all this time?"
"Well they can live for up to 40 years sometime so maybe you can even meet her." Mom smiles at the memory. "We have caretakers at the house, Sophie, Cyril and Thomas who also care for all the horses."
Wait we're allowed to have caretakers?
All of a sudden dad begins to pull over.
"And we are here." He says.
We get out of the car. The house was bigger than I thought they would be.
"Well this certainly is charming!" I clap and remark.
"Okay what happened to you? First you were Wednesday Adams and now you're… Barbie." Jonathan says.
"Well my therapist says that if I feel any negative emotions I must combat them with stronger positive ones."
"You're seeing a therapist?" My mother exclaims.
"No, mother. Obviously we wouldn't be able to afford it right now."
"She's pretty messed up." Jon comments.
"I googled what to do in an existential crisis. That was the first result." I continue.
Three people come out of the charming home all with big smiles.
"Greetings House of Morgenstern."
"They are really old time-y." I whisper to Jonathan.
"No kidding. What is this the 16th century?"
Mom hugs the people and my father nods as a greeting.
"Hello…" Jonathan and I say.
They lead us in and give us a short tour. The place was pretty well kept and cute, like something out of a movie. There were enough rooms for all of us and a servant's quarters; the place was pretty old, built in 1902 by our great grandfather on our mother's side. The room I have has the view of Brocelind Forest so that was not surprising like at all…
"Do we have any neighbours? I mean I saw other houses but… I can't imagine who would want to like here, with no one around." I whisper the last part.
"Yes, ma'am –" Sophie says but I cut her off.
"Just Clary is fine."
"Clary… There's the Lewis Family, they have a boy who's about your age, Simon I believe is his name."
"Simon Lewis." I try out. "Well is he cute?"
"That is all up to you."
"Right. Well you've been a great help so thank you, Sophie." I begin to unpack the clothes and shoes that I managed to haphazardly pack.
After that I sit on my bed and sigh. Hopefully this is all temporary. Hopefully I can get back to my beautiful Manor in Alicante and forget this absolutely humiliating experience. Hopefully.
I pull out my phone and call one of my close friends, Kaelie.
"Hello?" She picks up on the third ring.
"Kaelie! Hey girl,"
"Clary, wow. Hi." She gives a flat response.
"So I don't know if you've heard but… I'm in a really terrible sitch right now."
"Oh yeah! It's all over Alicante. The Morgensterns falling from grace. Who can believe it? I feel for you, honey except not really. I couldn't ever imagine what you must be dealing with."
"Thanks… I think?"
I stand and start to walk around since I can never stay still during a phone call.
"No problem! So… any particular reason as to why you called or…?"
"Right! Well I was wondering if we were still on for tonight. You know, Pandemonium?"
"Oh yeah, It's Saturday." She drags out. As if she didn't know. "I'll have to get back to you on that one."
"What? Why?" I ask nervously.
"Well I need to go ask the rest of the girls, Seelie, Aline, Maia, Tatiana –"
"Well that's easy I'll just call Iz-"
"Yeah, here's the thing, Isabelle isn't coming."
"What are you talking about?"
"Clary Honey we know you two are close as it gets but… you've… how do I say this? You're irrelevant now. Isabelle doesn't want to come because she knows that it's true and that you wouldn't be invited. She pities you Clary."
"Are you kidding? Iz and I invented these nights out and you were all nothing before us –"
"Oh we know. But you're nothing now. Literally. Will we even be seeing you in APA? Considering you won't be able to afford tuition and this year is almost over?"
I have no idea what to say so I just hung up.
"Hey." I look up at the doorway and see Jonathan.
"How much did you hear?"
"Didn't need to hear everything to know what just happened." He sits down on my bed and I sit beside him.
"I knew it would happen. I just didn't think it would be so soon. We are eternally shut out of the world we created. All because of one bad thing. What did we do to deserve this?"
"Well…"
I lay back. "Noooo…. You can't –you can't believe that we deserve this?"
"I don't know okay. And you don't either so maybe… maybe everything will go back to normal."
"Normal? Even if it did, this will always be with us, and everyone too. 20 years from now when we mention our names to anyone what we'll get is 'oh yeah you went bankrupt that time 20 years ago. What a disaster.'"
"Clary. Stop. You can't do this to yourself." He stands up and pulls me with him. Come on. I am taking you away."
"To Paris for some shopping? Oh wait."
"Stop!" He shakes me, something he does to wake me up or get me attention. "We're gonna go for a walk."
"A walk? In these shoes?" I look down at my heels.
"Oh please you'll survive. You go on 6 hour shopping sprees every week a short walk will be fine." Then he pulls me out to the wilderness.
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~Liz Ashley xx
