Hi guys.. I'm so sorry for making you wait.. I'm such a bad person.. But I'm here now! I have something important to say, but I let you read this chapter first. So yeah, please read the author's note at the end! Thank you, and I'm sorry.

Chapter 26

CPOV

3 months later

I watched as my teammates swam as fast as they could. Our boys were fast but there were faster ones. Eric's hand touched the wall and Nathan dove. Alex was their last swimmer and he was jumping up and down, warming his legs and arms. He was biting his finger nails. He did that when he was nervous. I walked to him, slightly uncomfortable because things between him and myself have been quite... awkward for last two months. I touched his arm and he turned around.

"Hi.. Clary." He greeted scratching his neck.

"Hey. Look I just wanted to say that I'm sorry. I know things between us have been more or less awkward lately and I don't like that. But that's not why I'm here and not with the girls. I want you to know that I believe in you guys. Coach does, everyone in our school does. So listen to me when I say this. You still can win. Nathan's almost here so you better get ready. Remember this: We all believe in you." I said and hugged him quickly before smiling and walking back to the girls.

"What did you say to him?" Lena asked.

"Just a little pep talk. Let's see how it worked." I said as Alex dove head first. We all held our breaths as he swam as fast as he could. I knew he could do it. I knew how fast he could be when he wanted to. Alex had 4 boys ahead.

"GO ALEX!" Lena shouted and I knew he could hear her because he forced his arms to go a little faster. He passed one of the boys and did the flip turn. His teammates were yelling and shouting to him, trying to make him pass the others aswell. Alex passed the other boy and now had only one boy ahead. Lena grabbed my hand and squeezed it. I squeezed back. There were only 10 meters left and Alex looked at his right side just for a little moment to measure the distance between him and the other boy. Then he really began to swim. He swam faster than I've ever seen him swimming. I held my breath again and squeezed Lena's hand harder. 2 meters left, and he did it! He did it! He passed the guy and touched the wall first. We began to jump up and down screaming. They won! They really did!

Soon came our time to get ready. We had Sophia first, then Megan and Lena before me. I was our last swimmer. Sophia did great job, as did Megan and Lena too. When my turn came, I looked at the audience and spotted Jace immediately. I just smiled and nodded his head. I smiled too and turned my attention back to Lena who almost at the other end of the pool.

"Hey, Clary!" I looked at my left and saw Anna, my good friend from LA.

"Hi Anna! How are you! I didn't know you swim!" I said surprised.

"Neither did I that you swim! We have to talk after this, I've so much to tell you!"

"Of course. And hey Anna? It's nice to see you again." I said smiling and looking at her before looking at Lena who was in third place. I put my goggles on and made sure they were tight enough.

"Yeah, nice to see you too! And hey, may the best swimmer win!" Anna laughed and got ready to jump. Her teammate was a little faster than Lena so Anna was in the water before me. I watched as Lena touched the wall and then I jumped. I saw Anna on my left, only a meter ahead. She passed the girl in the first place and I had to struggle to keep up with her. I couldn't let her escape. So I passed the girl, Miranda, and kept my place behind Anna. We did our flip turns and I really had to push myself to keep up with Anna. Damn, she's fast I thought and tried to make my burning legs and arms to go just a little faster. I could feel every muscle in my body as I tested my limits. Almost there! I said to myself. But then Anna touched the wall and my hand after her. Less than a second, Clary. Less than a second. I thought as I lifted my head. I saw Anna smirking at me and I couldn't help but smirk too.

"Damn girl, you are a beast! Seriously who can swim that fast!" I said laughing and swimming to hug her. "But hey, you do deserve your first place. Congrats Ann, that was amazing!"

"Thanks Clare, I honestly didn't think you could keep up." She winked, took my cap off and ruffled my wet hair. "My little tiny Clare-Bear has some muscles!"

I laughed and pushed her under the water. She got back up easily and laughed too. We got up from the pool and promised that we would see each other later. I went to my teammates and we did a group hug.

"Well done girls!" Our coach said behind me. "I'm proud of you. Now go to shower and get changed."

At the end of the day, I had won one gold and one bronze medal from the individuals. After the Award Ceremony and talked with Anna for awhile and we promised to call more often to each other. I said goodbyes to her and went to look for my family and Jace. Jonathan walked to me hand in hand with Sarah. I would so proud of him, he'd been dating with Sarah over three months. Sarah was good to him. She calmed him down when he was angry and at the point where he would snap and destroy everything he saw. I actually liked Sarah, which was a big surprise. Usually Jon's girlfriends were more or less bitches. But Sarah wasn't. She was sweet and caring, she actually spent time with me, too, when Jace and Jonathan were playing football or something. So yeah, I was happy for them.

"Come here Clare-bear." Jonathan said, letting Sarah hand go and pulling me into a big hug. "I'm proud of you Clary." He whispered to my ear. He let me go and ruffled my wet curly hair.

Sarah gave me a warm hug and said that she was proud of me too.

"Thank Sarah." I smiled to her before looking for mom and dad. Mom was pulling dad through the crowd, pushing the people away. Dad was obviously apologizing to angry-looking people while mom just pulled him with her. When They finally reached us, mom pulled me into her arms and hugged me tightly.

"Mom I can't breathe." I managed to get out and she loosened her grip.

"Oh, Clary! I'm so pround of you! My little Clary baby is all grown up!" Mom sobbed and Jonathan wrapped his arm around our mother's shoulders.

"Mom, you can stop now. Everyone's watching us." Jonathan hissed through his teeth.

"Jonathan! And what is wrong with your hair! It's way too long! You should get it cut! What do you say Sarah, if I just a bit cut here and there and-"

I laughed at my mother as dad hugged me and gave me one big red rose.

"Aww, thank you daddy." I said smirking. Dad had never been good with expressing feelings and it was always so much fun to watch him struggle to get the words out. He just murmured something and went back to mom. Then I saw Jace walking towards me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and nuzzled his nose into my hair.

"Congrats baby, I'm proud of you. My winner." I whispered and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed back.

Then I heard someone cleared their throat and I pulled back. I saw dad looking at us eyebrows lifted and mom still fussing about my brother's hair, Sarah just laughing at her boyfriend. I looked at my family, smiling and happy that I had all these wonderful people surrounding me.

Hey guys. Yeah, I'm sorry it's so short chapter.

So, like I said, I've something important to tell you. There's going to be like 3 or 4 chapters after this one. I feel like this story's going nowhere and I'm stuck. I want to finish this story as well as I can, because you, my readers, deserve more than I can right now give. I've so much in my life now and I feel like I'm letting you down. You don't reserve the long waits between the chapters, and I know my English isn't definitely the best one.

But I am so grateful that I've so wonderful readers who leave reviews and never complain about the lack of updates. So I want to say thank you for sticking with me the whole time I've been writing this. And thank you for reviews, they mean so much to me and I'll try to get better writer, starting with my English skills!

The next chapter should be updated soon, very soon. But still no promises. Love you.

Feel free to review!

/justbeautifulme33

ps. I haven't reread this, so there is probably grammar mistakes. I'm sorry for those...