Jocelyn stood beside Lucian in the first class she'd ever had, her heart in her mouth as she watched the demonstration before her. They were being thrown in at the deep end, being made to fight each other. She'd partnered with Lucian, but he didn't want to do it. He didn't want to admit it, especially before Jocelyn… but he was scared.
As they took positions, he swallowed hard and mouthed to her
Make it quick
One hit and he was done for.
She felt guilty as she sat upon the floor of the living room, Lucian lying upon the sofa with an ice pack to his head, murmuring out. "I'm sorry Lucian."
"It's hard for everyone when they first start, I'm sure." He groaned out. She bit her bottom lip and sighed, running a hand through her auburn locks. Lucian shrugged, muttering out. "Yeah…"
The first few weeks passed quickly, and Jocelyn was excelling. Lucian was not. He lay on his bed, staring at a blank piece of paper morosely, attempting to ignore Jocelyn's scribbles as she wrote her last page. A moment later and she grinned, announcing she was done.
Lucian was envious, but he never made it apparent.
Jocelyn lay on her back now, reading her passage on the Strength rune inside her head. Perfection.
"You know…" Lucian mused now, setting his pen down. "I saw Valentine again the other day."
"Oh?"
"He just kind of… walked past me. Like he didn't know who I was." He rolled his eyes and sighed, setting pen to paper again. "There's always one loner, sat at the back of the class hmm?"
Jocelyn tutted and flicked her pen at his shoulder. "You met him once, Lucian. It doesn't instantly make you friends. He's…" she searched for the right word and ended up saying "He's popular. I doubt he even knows all his friends names. Calm down. There's more to life than trying to be friends with the popular boy."
"Yeah. Like failing." He snapped, getting to his feet and stalking upstairs, letting the bedroom door slam shut. Jocelyn sighed, shaking her head a little- she'd shunned all company these first few weeks in favor of getting her work done. It had been extremely dull and boring at times, but she got it all in on time. She was top of her class.
And Lucian was bottom.
Jocelyn gave up with the next page of essay writing and got up, collecting her easel and paints, plus her best brushes and left the city, going up to the hill where she'd sat on Bellatrix and watched Valentine save her best friend. It seemed like years ago now.
She set up her easel, pinning her hair back with a spare brush, humming an Idrisian childrens song and set the canvas up with the little foldaway stool, looking towards the city that glowed and sparkled in the sunlight.
For a moment, Jocelyn just stared at the city before sketching an outline of the demon towers, continuing her humming as she sat down and started to mix the lightest shades first. As she glanced up, her eyes widened and she jolted back, falling off her stool with a thump.
"Sorry." Valentine apologized with a chuckle, offering her a hand to pull her up, but she didn't see it as she stood up and dusted the grass off her legs. She scowled as she faced him, snapping out. "By the Angel, Morgenstern. You could have just-"
"Tapped you on the shoulder? Said a simple Hello? You still would have fallen off." He laughed in amusement and Jocelyn sighed, closing her eyes for a second before stooping down and snatching up her fallen paintbrush. "Still, manners."
He cocked a brow at that, folding his arms. "Are you calling me rude, Miss. Fairchild?"
"I think I am Mr. Morgenstern."
There was a pause, then he asked politely. "What are you painting?" Jocelyn blinked, then waved a hand at the canvas. "Alicante."
Valentine stepped around to look at what she'd done first when Jocelyn stepped before it, blocking his view, telling him hastily. "It's only in the early stages."
"I'd still like to look." He shrugged, not taking a step away. Jocelyn sat down upon her stool and raised a paintbrush, pointing to the rectangles, starting to speak "Those are supposed to be the-"
"They are the demon towers. You have so little faith in your work, Jocelyn.'
"Thank you (!)"
"You misunderstand me." He pressed. "What I mean, is that you have talent. You shouldn't be ashamed to show off what you've done so far, because everything has an ugly beginning in art. First comes the outlines, then-"
"I know." Jocelyn muttered. "You don't have to give me a play-by-play version of how to paint."
"My apologizes." Valentine told her quietly, gazing at her work. "May I watch?" he inquired, making Jocelyn feel awkward- she didn't like people watching her while she painted. But he wasn't laughing, and when he was silent… it didn't feel strange at all. She nodded and picked up her paintbrush once more, starting with such a light blue it was almost white. Silently, she dabbed at it where the sky was to be, aware that there was someone next to her, watching intently… but he never said or did anything that put her off.
For half an hour Jocelyn sat there with Valentine sat next to her, watching her every movement as she painted. When she'd finished the sky, she looked to him and smiled… only to feel it fade away.
He was gone.
Jocelyn blinked and looked around, but saw nothing. He'd slipped away while she was engrossed in her work. She blew on the last cloud that was drying until it was, then packed up, heading back down to Alicante.
But she still wondered why a boy like him would… well, be interested in someone like her.
Lucian was dozing lightly on the sofa when she walked in, sitting down ontop of him with a laugh as he jolted awake.
"Where have you been?" he groaned sleepily and she got off him, replying with. "I was painting."
He blinked at that, then looked down where his sheaf of paper, his homework lay crumpled under him. "Ah. Damn." He breathed out, making Jocelyn groan and roll her eyes. "By the Angel, Lucian… I swear you're doing this on purpose."
"I'm not." Lucian grumbled, screwing up the paper and tossing it into the bin at the other side of the room. He then noticed her expression and cocked a brow "You look distracted."
"Valentine came to watch me paint." She admitted, making Lucian frown as he sat up. "Why did he do that? That's not… creepy or anything. You never even let me watch." He was sounding disgruntled by the end and Jocelyn laughed, shaking her head as she walked towards the stairs, biting her bottom lip. "I think I'll go to one of the dances tonight. It's about time we stopped being recluses."
"Bu-" Lucian started, but she was already gone up the stairs. He sighed and laid his head back against the sofa, staring at the cream ceiling. It was a toss up of attempting to finish this impossible essay, or go and mingle with the others…
He scrambled to his feet.
"You look beautiful, you know that?"
Jocelyn blinked at Lucian as he complimented her as she walked down the marble stairs before the accords hall in her dark red strapless dress that was full length. She smiled at him, glancing at what he was wearing- a black shirt and matching trousers. His hair was smart, smarter than it had been since his first day here.
"Thank you." She beamed. "You look handsome as well." And that was it, she was stepping off the last step and Lucian felt his stomach drop- why did she have to say it like that? It hurt… like the Marks he couldn't bare without yelling in agony. He was starting to believe he was totally useless, that he didn't belong here in Alicante.
Maybe he should just go home…
He watched Jocelyn as she walked towards the main group milled around there, a few girls striking up a conversation with her. A girl name Madeleine Bellefleur, Maryse Trueblood and Lukes sister, Amatis Graymark. A moment of staring and Lucian stepped forwards to walk over to her, to join in… but then stopped dead, feeling sick. With a sigh of regret, he just slinked away back to the house and shit the door behind him, going upstairs and collapsing onto his bed, feeling alone and miserable.
Jocelyn never noticed Lucian was gone as Madeleine commented on how beautiful her dress was, and how it matched her hair. She blushed, wondering just how she'd stayed away from company for so long. The girls were light, young, bubbly and fun.
"You like him, don't you Maryse?" Jocelyn muttered to the young woman as she stared at Robert Lightwood who was talking to Michael Wayland. Both handsome she had to admit. Maryse blushed, quickly denying it, but Jocelyn had guessed.
She felt like a true teenager as the all stood there gossiping. On how hot the guys were, the classes… were they easy or hard? And then the talk turned to Downworlders.
"I wonder if a werewolf pees on a lamppost as it passes one?" Maryse laughed out, wrinkling her nose in disgust after as she added. "Eww. Vile things."
"You don't have any tolerance at all for Downworlders?" Jocelyn inquired as she sipped on her drink; she didn't know what it was, but it was alcoholic and it tasted so nice. Something cream in color.
"Why should I?" Maryse muttered, trailing her little finger around the rim of the glass. "They are monsters that would kill us if given half the chance. Out of control feral beasts… like vampires."
"I saw this Shadowhunter the other day that wore a necklace of vampire fangs. It was the creepiest and brilliant thing ever." Someone said, and they all looked around to face a blonde haired woman. She stole Maryse's drink and knocked it back, coughing out. "I heard the Gard confiscated it from him."
"Ah my dear Celine."
They all looked around now to face Valentine, staring at him almost, Jocelyn knew it; he was wearing black jeans and a white shirt. She felt her eyes flicker down a little to his arms, gazing at the black Marks that were visible underneath, as if they'd been drawn onto the shirt itself. He'd obviously done it on purpose to draw attention to him, and it was working. Jocelyn noticed he wore his marks with pride… maybe that was why he chose to display them like that.
Valentine drew the blonde woman into his arms, pressing his lips to her temple with a widening grin. "How are you? It's been too long."
"Very well thank you." She smiled, pulling out of his arms reluctantly. "Vampires gone rogue in the East." She explained with a sigh. "They preyed on young girls. I think the youngest one was maybe three years old."
The group fell silent at that, and Valentine clenched his jaw for a moment before saying in a cold tone. "Monsters. All of them. This just gives us more and more evidence."
Jocelyn felt sick at the thought of vampires playing with three year old children before they killed them… drained them of blood. It was just so horrible.
A shatter of glass made her realize that she'd dropped her drink where it had shattered upon the floor. Oh. Wait… the glass had broken in her hand from the grip she was exerting. Jocelyn stared at her hand as the blood dripped from it, a frown upon her face, as if it wasn't really hers.
"Jocelyn, are you okay?" Amatis asked in concern with her eyes widening at the sight of her bloodied hand. Jocelyn laughed weakly and nodded, clenching her hand with a hiss of pain. "I'm fine."
"Have you studied on how to create iratze's yet?" Valentine asked of her, and she laughed weakly. "Actually, we're just about to study them. We've not started drawing them yet… that's next week."
Jocelyn watched as he pulled out his stele and took her injured hand into his own, tracing the design of the healing rune over her injured palm. She gasped quietly as it stung and burned, but then it was gone. As were the cuts on her hand.
"Thank you." She said in a sincere voice, gazing up into his eyes that seemed almost midnight blue as the witchlight flickered there. He inclined his head and let go of her hand. "My pleasure" Valentine muttered and Jocelyn was aware at how everyone seemed to be… staring at them. She blinked and returned to her senses, smiling out. "I think I'll go home before I injure my other hand. It's only a matter of time." Everyone laughed at that, Valentine included, making her flush-
Maybe she did belong here.
Jocelyn was in a relatively chirpy mood as she closed the front door behind her, and Lucian, now that his mood was improved, was finishing off his essay. He cocked a brow at her. "What's cheered you up?"
"It was good night." She said sincerely, heading upstairs without another word, changing into her nightwear. Jocelyn snuck a look at her palm-
Jocelyn swore she could still feel it tingling.