"Jace?" Miss Roberts called.

I blinked at the teacher in surprise. Her and thirty other pairs of eyes were trained on me, I realised as I blinked away my unfocused daze. I didn't respond for a few moments, just looking around at the familiar, unimpressed faces around me. "Uh…?"

With a sigh, the teacher said, "Were you not paying any attention? Are you going to answer the question or not?"

I skimmed over what she had written on the board, but I couldn't understand any of it. "No, I'm sorry." I told her, avoiding making eye contact with her or any of the kids in the room.

Fortunately, Miss Roberts had been my Math teacher for the past three years, and she dismissed my answer with a discrete, "I'll talk to you after class."

When the bell rang I made a beeline for the door, trying to disguise myself among the flow of students. The teacher wasn't about to let me go though. "Jace," she said in a clear voice. I turned to look at her. She peered at me over her glasses. I walked over to her desk, where she had sat herself down. "Is there anything that you would like to tell me?" she asked.

I shifted my weight from foot to foot, anxious to get out of the classroom. "No."

She pursed her lips. "I may just be your teacher, but I'm not a useless old crone just yet. If there's something going on, tell someone. It doesn't have to be me."

"Thanks miss," I mumbled, "Is that all?"

She looked at me for a moment, and I could see the thoughts behind her eyes… could see the pity. "Yes, that's all. Don't let me catch you zoning out in class again."

With a quick, "Yes, miss," I made my escape from the classroom. Once I was in the hallway, I sighed in relief before continuing my walk along. Multiple kids stopped to say a quick hi to me, and a few of my old teammates clapped my bag and slapped my hands in a casual handshake. Part of me still couldn't even believe this could be real, even though I'd been here for almost a week now.

A girl – slim, tall and blonde – caught my eye as I walked. My shock barely had time to register before her blue eyes went wide and her lips parted in a surprised grin. "Jace!" Camille beamed as she pranced over to me, slinking her arms around me.

I stood in shock for a moment before hesitantly hugging her back. "Hey Camille," I said, "Long time no see."

She pulled away from me but her hands lingered around my waist. "That's an understatement. Magnus told me that you had returned, but I've been sick…"

Magnus slinked into my view, hovering over Camille's shoulder. She noticed him as well and stepped away from me briskly, a blush deepening on her cheeks. "Hey, Camille," Magnus said first, then grinned at me, "Jace."

"What's up, my fabulous friend?" I snickered.

Magnus threw his arm over my shoulders and swung me around so that we were heading towards the cafeteria. Camille hurried to catch up to us, her high heels clicking on the tiles as she walked beside us. "Not much, Mighty Jace. I see you're livening up a bit. It's great to see. Just don't get too lively," his voice lowered and his blue eyes peered at me from behind a loose strand of dark hair that had fallen into his face, "Especially not with little miss Camille here."

I blinked and looked back at Camille, who gave a defiant huff. "It's not like you to be jealous, Magnus."

"Jealous?" I asked, confused.

"Well, you see," Magnus beamed, "We may or may not be dating now."

"Oh…" I murmured, slightly shocked, then, "Oh," looking back at the two of them again.

"We thought that, you know," Camille said, looking awfully sheepish, "Since you had moved away, it wouldn't really be a problem. If we're being honest, we were never really all too serious, right Jace?"

My mind struggled to process everything. Sure, Camille had been my girlfriend for a whole two years while I had lived in Washington. Even so, it was more for her sake than mine. Or so I had thought. "Yeah," I reassured them, "It's completely fine by me. I've had plenty of time to move on. It's not like we were still dating when I moved away."

The two of them looked at each other, uncertainty plastered on their faces.

"No, seriously," I repeated, "It's cool with me. Besides…"

Clary's face flashed in my mind, and I cringed. She had betrayed me. I was never really anything to her, was I? It was all just a scam. An attempt to bully me. I couldn't finish my sentence.

"Cool," Magnus grinned, "That's actually such a relief. Thanks man."

Camille didn't say anything.

Fifth period came around and I looked at my schedule to see PE printed there. A rush of excitement flooded through me. PE had always been my favourite subject, although I had always been in an excellence class with the other football players. Judging from the unfamiliar teacher on my schedule, I wasn't in that class anymore. But maybe I could sort that out later.

I changed into my sports clothes. I pulled on my footy shorts and my old school jersey. I couldn't help but grin when the teacher assigned us running for the whole lesson. Cross Country was coming up and our class was preparing for that.

Camille was in this class. She was wearing her school running team uniform and swung her arms around in her warming up attempts. Her hair was pulled back into a sleek ponytail and I couldn't help but admire her beauty. I had forgotten, but I had originally liked her because of how pretty she was. It was superficial, but I'm not sure that I've ever liked a girl purely based on their personality… Although Clary was a unique experience for me.

I shook my thoughts away and warmed up. By the time we actually got around to running, my energy levels were at an all-time high and I was itching to get started. It wasn't a habit for me to pace myself, so I naturally launched myself away from the start line with most of my speed. I left most of the class behind me.

I got onto my third lap before my speed dropped and my muscles began to burn. I slowed to a jog, but still blew by the teacher twice more before anyone caught up to me.

"You're still as fast as I remember," Camille huffed as she pulled up beside me. Naturally, the both of us slowed to a jog. We were still a whole lap ahead of the next fastest runner.

"Really?" I asked, "I haven't done much exercise at all since I've moved. I wasn't even on a team."

She blinked at me. "You? Not on a team?"

I smiled jokingly, "I know. Hard to believe, isn't it?"

She laughed, throwing her head backwards. "Of course that's something you would say."

It was my turn to blink at her. I felt my pace drop of completely and she sped past me for a moment before she realised I had dropped off. She turned to look at me in confusion. But my mind was stuck on her last comment.

Of course that's something you would say.

Something I would say? How could I even know what 'me' was anymore? Saying that had felt so natural, but it wasn't supposed to be, right? That wasn't me…

"What do you mean?" I murmured.

She stepped towards me, placing her hand on my arm. "What do you mean? I'm just saying that you're your usual snarky self. It's good."

"My usual self…" I repeated, looking down at the grass beneath my feet.

The teacher blew his whistle, driving a nail through my thoughts. "Back to the hall!" he yelled.

I sighed and began to jog back. Camille caught my hand. "Are you alright, Jace?"

I looked at her, my eyes skimming over her pretty features. In that moment, I could see why I had liked her. Why had I never fully payed her attention before I moved? "Y-Yeah," I stuttered, "Just thinking, you know?"

She smiled warmly. "Well don't think about anything too painful, alright? You looked like your face was getting a cramp."

I pushed a laugh through my teeth, but I became very aware of her hand still clasping mine. I saw Magnus's face swimming behind my eyes, and I pulled my hand out of hers. Clearing my throat, I said, "We should head back now."

"Yeah," she muttered, "I'll be there in a sec. Go on without me."

I looked at her, concerned, but did as she said. As I jogged back to the school, I couldn't wipe her frown out of my mind.