Ok, well here we go with chapter 2. I have recently been made aware that someone had this idea before I did. All I can say to that is this is an original idea of mine and that great minds think alike! I did look over the other version, and I will try to make mine as different as possible, since plagiarism is just bad and no one wants to read the same thing twice. In addition, I am quite lazy and really did not want to copy down all of City of Bones, plus the commentary by me, so it might be helpful for people who haven't read City of Bones in a while to keep a copy on hand as you read this to use as a reference. Anyhow, let's get on with chapter 2!
Chapter 1: Pandemonium
The book started in the line outside Pandemonium Club, which made sense to me; I privately considered it the spot my life had truly begun. Through my musings, I heard my name. "Huh?" I asked, disoriented.
Jace looked at me for the first time, "Fifteen year old Clary Fray, standing in line with her best friend, Simon, leaned forward along with everyone else, hoping for some excitement." He repeated patiently.
"Wait," Isabelle said, frowning, I thought this book was about all of us, not just Clary."
Jace gave her a Look. "Isabelle, we are on the first page, and it's no mystery why I haven't appeared. Haven't you ever heard that you can't rush perfection?"
Isabelle calmly gave him the finger, then flipped her hair over her shoulder with a sniff. I hid my grin and turned towards Jace. "Keep reading. I want to see what it says about me."
Jace looked back to the book and continued to read. The description of the demon boy in the line made everyone at the table turn towards me, especially when Simon resignedly said in the book that I thought the demon was cute.
I blushed and looked down at my lap. "I didn't know he was a demon, okay?" I finally said defensively.
Magnus spoke for the first time, "Don't worry, Clary, I think he sounds cute, too," he said, dropping a glittery wink.
Jace's shoulders were stiff. "Permission to continue?" he asked sarcastically.
"Granted," Isabelle said, waving a hand languidly.
Jace just rolled his eyes and and continued reading. When he got to the Demon's point of view, he, Alec, and Isabelle kept clenching their fists and feeling their weapons. Isabelle actually snarled a little when the demon said that human lives burned brightly as candle flames- and were as easy to snuff out.
Next came a description of Isabelle. The demon had thought her beautiful. Isabelle smirked a little and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "See, even demons can't resist this," she said, pointing at herself.
Jace gave her a dirty look and kept reading. Isabelle didn't appear quite as smug when Jace read the line about the demon tasting the phantom sizzle of her death on his lips with relish. She held her head up high and examined her nails, lips pursed. She began to scowl when the demon said that she wasn't so perfect up close and went on to describe her smeared makeup and sweaty neck. When he thought Got You Isabelle could contain herself no longer. "No, I got you!" she shouted. Everyone in the restaurant blinked at our group for a moment. I sank down into my seat until all those eyes turned away.
Jace resumed his reading. As he read the description of mine and Simon's dance moves, Isabelle and Alec snorted, and Magnus put his head in his hands and started muttering something about the horrors of the 21st century. Next came the way I had watched the demon boy, then a description of Simon that made him blush like crazy and took the attention of me, thankfully. Isabelle nearly lost her milkshake out her nose when I said in the book that Simon looked like he was on his way to chess club. Jace was no better than her, he stopped reading and put his face in his hands, shoulders shaking.
Simon was giving me a dirty look. Uh-Oh, I thought to myself, there's trouble brewing in that direction. I was jerked out of my thoughts by all of people, Alec.
"Really, Clary?" he asked, smiling slightly. "You were going to hook up with a demon?"
"I wasn't going to hook up!" I replied, stung, "I was just going to talk to him." I folded my arms across my chest. Jace rolled his eyes at us and kept reading.
Next came Isabelle getting the demon to notice her. When I said that she was gorgeous, she hopped up, climbed over Magnus's lap, and wrapped her arms around me.
"I love you, Clary!" she said, then climbed over Magnus once more, despite his groans of agony. "Are you calling me fat?" she asked angrily. Magnus quickly denied it and shut up. Alec grinned, and then turned back to Jace, who was scowling at his nails.
Jace started reading about how I had first seen him and Alec following the demon. Then , he had to comment.
"I see you admire my 'slinking grace', as you put it," he added with a smirk aimed toward me.
"Just read the damn book," I muttered. Jace smirked again and kept reading. When he got to the part where Simon said he was cross dressing and sleeping with my mom, Jace shouted,
"I knew it!" Everyone at the table snickered, myself included, despite my guilt over Simon's scarlet face. Grinning, Jace continued to read about how I had first seen him and Alec trailing the demon boy, then how Jace had pulled a knife, making me shout at Simon and grab him. When Simon said that my mom was attractive for her age, there were more smirks and several comments about Simon and cougars, until I furiously reminded them they were talking about my comatose mother. That shut everyone up quick.
Jace turned back to the book and read about me yelling to Simon about the knife-wielding psychos that only I could see. Next was my decision to go after Jace and Alec. Unexpectedly, Alec spoke, "You know, it was brave of you to come after us. Stupid, but brave."
"Ummmm, thanks, I guess?" I said, not sure whether it had been a compliment or an insult. Alec just smiled. I decided it was a compliment, and smiled back. Alec and I had gotten off to a rough start, but we were getting along much better these days.
Jace sighed loudly, gave us both annoyed looks, and kept reading. His voice tightened as he began reading from the demon boy's point of view again. The other shadowhunters went back to feeling their weapons while I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
When the demon boy said it would be a pleasure to make Isabelle fall, she snorted and muttered, "Good luck with that," a scowl on her beautiful face. She perked up a few seconds later, however, and reached down to fondly pat the glinting gold around her wrist as the book went on to describe her taking out the demon with her whip.
When the demon described Jace as pretty , he was highly insulted. "Pretty?" he asked, "Stunningly attractive, maybe, but pretty?"
Isabelle smirked and mockingly looked Jace up and down. "No, not pretty. Now, adorable-" .
"Shut up, Izzy." Jace replied lazily, then kept reading. The book went back to my point of view, how I had found the three shadowhunters in the storage unit. When I described Isabelle's hair as being like damp seaweed, she gave me a Look and said, "Really, Clary? Damp seaweed? Thanks so much." She flipped her hair again and tried to look annoyed, but I could see the tiny grin tugging at the corner of her mouth. I let my eyes twinkle at her as Jace read about how the shadowhunters had questioned the demon boy. Isabelle's tiny smile turned into a full blown grin she flashed at me for an instant, before turning away with her usual condescending expression. Despite the fact that I had once called her a bitch and we had both been completely jealous of each other, we were becoming good friends. We were both pretty new at having a female friend, but we were trying, and it was working out, despite ourselves.. The other day, while I was at the Institute planning the upcoming trip to Idris with the Lightwoods and avoiding Jace, Isabelle had actually stuck up for me when I got into an argument with Alec involving the weight of a Ravener demon. Like I said, we were friends, despite ourselves.
I was pulled back to the table when Magnus snorted with laughter.
"What?" I asked in puzzlement.
"They're crazy, Clary thought, actually crazy," Magnus repeated between sobs of laughter, "Someone finally noticed they're crazy."
Alec looked like he was having a hard time not laughing himself, and there was something almost…..tender about him as he watched Magnus laugh. The rest of us looked worried about Magnus's already questionable sanity.
Once Magnus had calmed himself down and we stopped eyeing him warily, Jace continued reading. And oh my god, it was beginning to get embarrassing and slightly obvious that I was concentrating on Jace. I nearly banged my head on the table when the book mentioned my thoughts about him being like a lion.
Magnus looked like he was about to comment, but Jace kept reading determinedly. When the demon said it knew where Valentine was, both my brother and I became extremely tense at the mention of our father. Jace sounded almost relieved when I leaped out of hiding behind the pillar and shouted for the shadowhunters to stop.
Isabelle spoke up, "You freaked us out, you know," she said, doing yet another hair flip." I thought you were some sort of crazy downworlder who was in league with demons and about to attack us."
"Thank you, Izzy, I love you too." I said, grinning.
"I don't think that now, silly," she replied, rolling her eyes and flashing me a tiny, genuine smile.
Jace continued reading about my first encounter with the shadowhunters, until he read what he had said that fateful night, "You'd better get out of here, if you know what's good for you."
Magnus snorted and examined his nails, "And supposing she had, then where would you be, little Nephilim?" he looked around the table, "I'll tell you where you'd be. In even deeper shit and more confused than you are now." No one was quite sure how to respond to that until Jace spoke up,
"Well, I went back for her later, no harm done, Warlock."
Magnus raised an eyebrow. I hated it when he did that. "If she had gone then, she would have just thought you crazy, not seeing the demon's departure. Also, this action would signify she was complacent, and she would most likely go with her mother when she asked, instead of running away to wherever you found her, Jace."
Everyone blinked at him until a thought occurred to me, "Wait a second, how did you know that my mother wanted to leave the city that day?"
He looked at me through half-lidded eyes, "That's for Magnus the Magnificent to know and Clarissa Morgenstern to wonder about."
I heard someone clear their throat. Alec his ears red, asked stiffly, "Can we get back to the book now?" I suddenly had a very good idea of where Magnus got his information on me.
Jace kept reading, after giving all of us a Look. He read more about my argument with Jace over the morality of killing the demon. He read about me threatening them with the police and Alec insisting that I was lying. Alec looked rather pleased at being proved right, to be honest. Then he read about his fight with demon, Isabelle and Alec flinching occasionally, while Jace just looked bored. When he got to the part where Isabelle grabbed me with her whip and chewed me out, she had the good grace to look embarrassed.
"Sorry, sorry!" she said, "I didn't know you then!" Jace rolled his eyes at her and kept reading. He read about our argument over the existence of the shadow world and the shadowhunter's sanity, then, oh god, not again, my thoughts of his tawny hair. I had actually thought the word tawny. Shoot me now please. Jace read through it quickly and impassively, then through our continued argument, Simon's appearance, and my lie.
"I knew you were hiding something!" Simon said, shaking his head, "Why didn't you just trust me?" he asked, voice trailing off into a whisper. I didn't answer. He knew why.
After Isabelle gave another, this time half-hearted, apology for laughing at my lie, Jace read about Mine and Simon's conversation outside, both of us shifting uncomfortably in our seats. After that, chapter one ended.
Well, I thought to myself, this should prove interesting.