Disclaimer:I do not know any of these characters. All rights belong to Cassandra Clare
From that moment onward she was a permanent fixture in all of our lives. She became my best friend and warm up partner. She became Max's lifeline to comics. And Alex's study buddy. My parent's favorite child (not even joking). And most importantly she became Jace's relief. By the time summer was over his instagram had been replaced of all football and team photos for pictures of him and Clary. His life had a new focus. They did everything together. He took her to the beach, tubing, to Cedar Point, to the movies, for ice cream, to volleyball practice everyday. He counted any minute not in her presence a waste of time. His new best friend, after Alec, became Jon, Clary's big brother. When he wasn't at football or with Clary, he was in the pool with Jon and Alec. And when Clary wasn't with Jace she was with me or the team.
The team loved her. She excelled at everything. No matter who was on the other side of the net she was always the best on the court. And the thing they found most exciting was her and Jace. Nobody new how she became so important to him, all they new was that they're famous quarterback was wrapped around a five foot midget's finger. And Jace's football friends found themselves dumbfounded at the sight of Jace with his arm around Clary and a smile to rival the sun on his face.
And yet. They weren't dating. And my parents were totally cool with it too. They weren't like the movies where they make their son choose between football and the girl. They were practically hinting at marriage and Jace hadn't even admitted he liked her yet. Well at least to anyone but her.
She came to the second half of practice one day, after going out to lunch with Jace, with a story to tell. She whispered to me in between drills how Jace took her to Potbellys (their favorite place) and confessed in between a lot of stuttering how much he liked her. She had simply grabbed his hand and said," I like you too." He had smiled and gave her hand a squeeze before finishing his sandwich. That was all that was said on the subject and she was cool with that. She said she didn't need a title to know how much he liked her.
That quickly changed though. On the first day of school Jace drove to school with Alec and Jon. They were going to carpool because they all played football and they didn't want to waste money on gas. Clary and I drove her car and dropped Max off at the middle school on our way. By the time we arrived we had five minutes to get to homeroom. People were milling around their lockers and almost all stopped to stare at Clary. This was the girl in all of Jace's recent pictures and the subject in just about every tweet.
Jace was crouched by his locker a couple down from Jon, who was waiting for Clary. Jace was to busy throwing books in his locker to notice Clary walk by, until she ruffled his hair on her way. His head instantly pushed into her hand and a smile replaced his usual bored expression. His eyes followed her as she walked to her brother. Jon and her talked for a minute before she walked towards the junior lockers with me down the hall. Jace watched us as we disappeared around a corner before he refocused on the task at hand.
What they didn't realize was that everybody in the hall had watched the exchange and were already talking about it. Girls were cooing over the way Jace had acted and guys were whispering about how hot Clary was. Before the first bell even rang signalling the first day of school, Clary was the subject of everyone's talk. And the best part was that Clary didn't give two hoots about what was being said. Jace. Jace on the other hand did. Not because he thought it would hurt his rep, but because he thought Clary was going to be hurt by all of what was going on. He glared daggers at anyone who even mentioned her name and his normal stoic face was fixed into a scowl. And people began to understand, she was off limits.
By third period the only thing being said about Clary was how cool she was. She was intelligent and sassy. Nice and pretty. Athletic and artistic. She was pretty much dating the unattainable guy and had a really hot brother. Her position on the volleyball team gave her some more leverage in the school and they the team always making sure she was doing okay. In no time Jace was back to being passive about everything.
Lunch came after fifth period and all of us were lucky to have been put in the same one. Clary and I sat with the rest of the team after we grabbed our stuff from our lockers. Jon and Jace sat with Alec at the table next us. Jace made sure he was sitting directly behind Clary so he could talk to her anytime he wanted. Jordan, their friend Bat, and Raphael joined them shortly after they sat down.
Clary was eating her sandwich and strawberries when Jace put his arms on either side of her head and boxed her in underneath him. She rolled her eyes as he kissed her forehead and grabbed a strawberry before moving his arms from around her. She stopped him by grabbing his arm. He instantly leaned down so his face was closer so he could hear her ask for chocolate covered pretzel she knows Maryse packed him. His hand slid from hers and he grabbed the bowl of pretzels from his table offering her one. She gladly took two and he went back to his table with another strawberry and a shoulder squeeze.
By the time school was over Clary and Jace were the power couple (despite the fact that they weren't dating). Clary and I headed to the locker room to change into our spandex for practice. The rest of the team filtered in and out at the same time. Freshman and JV had to set up the nets so they went first followed by the varsity. We did drills and ran outside around the track all practice. The football team was on the field doing sprints and learning plays at the same time we did stairs on the bleachers and ran miles around the track.
By the time we were finished we had all shed our shirts and were running our final mile in nothing but our sport bras and spandex. After we walked a cool down lap we grabbed our water and shirts and headed back inside. We played bingo bango bongo for the twenty minutes left of practice. By the time we left all of us were starving and sweating profusely.
Clary and I were walking to her car in the student parking lot when Jace, Jon, and Alec walked out of the boy's locker room. Clary was dead on her feet and Jace gave her a piggy back ride to her car. (I was just as tired but my turd of a brother didn't offer me one) Jon was carrying both of their bags as Jace's hands were a little full. Clary was pretty much asleep on Jace's back and he refused to let her drive home so Jon and I switched places so he could drive both of them home. This became our routine before games started.