A/N: So this is chapter 3. Hope you like it! A lot of things about this chapter might seem very weird, but they're the best I could do. Also for the sake of this story, let's just say that Jace isn't related to Alec or Isabelle, but Alec and Izzy are still siblings. You'll understand why when you read this chapter. Also like I said before, a lot of characters are OOC, so please don't hate me if you don't like what a character is like in this fic.
RaluckxY – you're wrong about most of them. Stick around to find out…. You'll figure out most of it in this chapter itself.
Summary - AU - When Clary, a teenager, becomes a victim of cyber-bullies, she and her mother move to a new place. However, her traumatic past haunts their lives. Starting over at a new school, romantic interests and the poignant lessons from an eccentric history teacher draw them out of seclusion until they realize confronting a hurtful past is essential to ensure a brighter future.
JOCELYN
I'm with the head of the school, Jia Penhallow. She's finished showing me around and now we're in the auditorium/theatre, which is bigger than any of those of the schools I've worked before.
"Mr Wayland used to work out here, so I hope this is okay for you as well, Mrs Fairchild?"
Mr Wayland was the previous drama teacher, who died and vacated this post for me. "Sure," I answer, because I usually spent most of my time there.
"Thank goodness, because we don't have any extra office space."
I'm still marvelling at the size and grandness of the place. It has a beautifully carved ceiling, and intricately decorated pillars. It looks like something out of an actual fairy tale.
"Okay. So you have your first hour off, then class in the second hour and fourth hour, then lunch, and then class in you sixth hour."
I take in a breath. This is going to be a good day. "Okay," I say, smiling at Jia.
"I have to get back to my office. If you need anything, come to me ok?"
"Sure."
Then I hear this clanging sound. I look outside the door and see the same guy I helped out before. He seems to have dropped his garbage bag, and is letting out a string of swear words.
"Who….?"
"That," she says with distaste, "Is Mr. Graymark."
"What does he teach? What is he…?"
"Don't even get me started. He's supposed to be the history teacher, but he does everything but teach. Anyways, I really need to get going now. Stop by in the afternoon?"
"Umm, sure!" I say, not at all sure as to what I was supposed to say to that.
She leaves, and I'm left there again to marvel at the beauty of the theatre.
CLARY
I'm in the halls, and trying to navigate through the crowd of people standing in groups there. I manage to get to my supposed locker by pushing and shoving them all. I realize how clueless I look – wandering around with a sheet of paper in my hand, and how much attention I'm attracting. I pull my hoodie lower over my face.
I reach my locker and put in the combination, but it doesn't open. I try again. It still doesn't open. I panic. What if someone here knew me, and did this to spite me? What if what happened back home happened here too?
I'm still panicking when the guy I helped earlier comes up to me. "They're all like this – cursed. They never open."
It takes me a moment to realise that he's talking about the lockers. "Oh yeah?" I reply, trying to get the conversation over as fast as possible. I don't want to socialise unless it is absolutely needed.
He takes the paper with the combination written on it from me. "Here, this is how you do it," he says, and then turns the dial really slowly to 13, then to 31 and then back to 17. It opens with a click. "The trick is to do it so slowly that you can hear the sound it makes every time it turns."
"Um, thanks."
"No problem. I'm – "
He is just telling me his name when a huge guy comes and thumps him on the back, really hard. "What's up, weenie? Talking to a GIRL? Hasn't she run away yet? You know, after smelling that horrible female cologne you've put?" He laughs.
"Don't do that, Alec! I've told you, I have problems!" He tries to reply with confidence, but it comes out more like a squeak.
"Aww, does Simony darling want his mommy?" He laughs and then walks away, leaving me with a very embarrassed boy. Then the bell rings and I have an actual excuse to leave. I bolt down the corridor, even though I don't know where to go.
CLARY
The first class, Math, goes by fine, except the teacher, Mr Starkweather, makes me stand and introduce myself. "My name is Clarissa Morgenstern," I say, looking for any sign of recognition in anyone's eyes. But all I see is bored teenagers. Anyways, if someone knew me, it would me as Clarissa Fairchild, not Morgenstern. The rest of the classes go by too, the same way, with some teachers asking me what I've covered in those subjects so far, and some just ignoring me altogether. That was fine by me.
Then comes History.
_
CLARY
I walk into History. Instantly I realize that this isn't a normal class. All the walls were covered with tapestries right from the ceiling to the floor. The class has props and mannequins and everything you'd usually see in a drama class, except they're all extremely old fashioned. They're lining the walls of the room, leaving barely any space for the desks. The windows are all covered by the tapestries, so there is no light except for the dim yellow bulbs that are randomly located on the walls. Most of the tapestries are red, and along with the dim yellow lights, they are giving the room an eerie sort of feel. There's even a real piano in one desks are in the little place left after all the tapestries, in a circle facing the centre. I don't see a teacher, but everyone finds this normal. I choose a desk and sit down. I see the boy who helped me out, and the boy who came and thumped him, Alec. I also see the couple from the jeep. The guy looks at me and tells his girlfriend, in a voice extremely audible to me, "Hey look, it's the girl from before." The girl doesn't even look up from whatever she's doing with her nails and gives out a 'whatever'. Everyone seems to be pretty relaxed, which makes me sure that this teacher is a good one, or at least not a normal one. In any case, I hadn't seen such a classroom before.
"ROMANS!"
I jump up in shock. What I thought was another mannequin behind me, was actually alive, and my teacher.
"Did you see how high she jumped?" I hear Alec say, and the couple from the jeep laugh. I ignore them.
I see the teacher. He's definitely not normal. He's dressed like a roman gladiator, complete with the armour, a sword, gauntlets, helmet and even a cape. He steps into the middle of the classroom, inside the circle of benches.
"Good morning class. Ancient Rome was one of the most powerful, most technologically advanced societies in the world. Also – " and he pointed his sword towards one of the guys, "one of the most violent. Yeah. Now, can someone tell me what the Coliseum was?" and he turned slowly, sword still outstretched. I answered in my head. I had no desire to answer in class all the time, and give people another chance to attack me.
"Oh!" the girl sitting on the other side of Alec raised her hand. "My parents saw it on a cruise they went on last year."
"Awesome! But what was it?" The teacher, Mr Graymark pointed his sword at her.
The girl opened her mouth, and then shut it, her face colouring.
"Awesome." The was scattered laughter in the class.
"Umm – "An Asian girl raises her hand. She's clearly a foreign exchange student. She has a dictionary in her hand, and she squints at it to read something.
"Coli-seum. An Amphi-theatre in Rome." I manage to figure out what she's saying, but barely, because her accent is so heavy.
"Yeah! Jade scores! Thank you Jade. Now, the coliseum was an amazing piece of architecture in Rome. It was where you got all your entertainment. Now, let's say you wanted to see two warriors fight."
"Yeah!" Alec, who had been making faces the whole time, sat up straighter, looking interested.
"Where would you sit?" Mr Graymark points his sword to Alec.
He laughs. "Sitting? I'd be fighting." And he flexes his muscles in what he thinks is impressive, except he's grunting and looks and sounds like a polar bear doing push ups. I smirk.
"Okay," Mr Graymark is clearly not as impressed as most of the girls, who're sighing. "What about you, Jace?" and he points to the guy from the Jeep. So that's his name.
"Wherever the emperor sat." He shrugs.
"Okay," Mr Graymark's face holds the same expression as it did before. Unimpressed. I hold back the urge to smirk. "Isabelle?" that's Mr Popular's girlfriend.
"Guess that makes me queen? Or Emperoress." I want to punch her for saying Emperoress. Clearly, looks aren't everything. I look at her boyfriend, and I see a flicker of something like disgust go over his face. But it's gone in a second, and he hugs Isabelle. Maybe I imagined it.
I shift my attention back to the teacher. He's pointing to Alec again, who seems to have said that he'd kick someone's butt. "As a gladiator, you'd have many opponents to fight without doing that."
"Then I would." He shrugs. This makes me smirk again, for no apparent reason.
"Yeah, with one big difference," I mutter under my breath, loud enough for only me to hear. But the teacher seems to have the senses of a wolf. He whirls around and points the sword at me. "What was that?"
"Um, nothing?" I try. He doesn't give up.
"No, you said something. What's the difference?" I sigh. He isn't going to let this pass. I see the dumb chick smirk.
"Well, they fought to the death."
"That's right. They fought to the death because they were the lowest class." I see Alec start. "They were all the slaves, prisoners of war, criminals. That kind. They had no choice - fight, and stand a chance of living, or just die. People gathered in the coliseum and flocked to see others suffer and die. You might say we've changed, but the truth is, violence, is as much a part of our society today as it was then. We might not kill people for entertainment anymore, but we do flock to death and suffering."
"Have you ever pulled over to the side of the road to see an accident? When someone's house catches on fire, why is it that we start taking pictures to post online? You ever leave a negative comment online, or spread a rumor for everyone to see?" I suddenly become very uncomfortable. Does he know what happened? I see his eyes settle on me, and I hear the voices again. You betrayed me…. I thought you were my friend… stay away from me, freak….. nobody wants you here… I'm in a trance for what seems like 10 minutes, but is actually just 2 or 3 seconds. I snap out of it. Nobody here knows. I'm just being paranoid. I comfort myself and turn my attention back to Mr Graymark.
"….I know we talk about the Romans and how they really delighted in the bloodshed, but I think the real question today for us here is this... Why do we take so much delight in watching other people suffer? History is always
in the making. What will your history be?"
I see Jace and some of his friends silently repeat the last line. Nobody seemed surprised by the completely philosophical turn that the lesson had taken, so that meant that most of the lessons were like this. This was going to be an interesting class.
I pick up my stuff, and am leaving when Alec crashes into me. Intentionally. "Watch it!" he growls, and leaves. I sigh. I'm not ready for this to start again.
"Here." The boy I'd helped earlier gives me the papers that fell out of my book. I manage a thank you as a response.
"I'm Simon." So that was his name.
"Clary."
"What's your next class?"
I look at my time table. "Spanish."
"Cool. I have drama. The previous teacher died, so there's going to be a new teacher today."
I don't want to let on that she's my mother, so I look at my watch, mutter a hurried apology and rush out. I see him looking after me, confused.
JOCELYN
My classes go by well enough, until I get to the one in the sixth period. This was Clary's grade, and if she'd taked drama, she would've been here now, and I'd instantly have a better time. The kids are all disinterested – one is dozing off, another is texting, two of them are KISSING each other, and one girl is actually painting her nails.
"Okay, so I'm your new drama teacher, Ms Jocelyn Fairchild." No response. I try again.
"Can anyone tell me what you've been doing in class earlier? What play are you'll performing? Has the casting been done yet? Anyone?"
A boy sitting in the middle row with his laptop out hands me his copy of a book – Twelfth Night. I sigh in relief that at least one person here might be willing to help me.
A/N: Hey! How did you like it? Thank you to all of you who're following or have favorited this story, but please please review too. It would make my day. So this is a pretty long chapter, and I've updated quite late, but this is probably how frequent my updates will be. Keep reading!
-ExterminateTheButterflies