Max's first couple of hours of high school were a lot harder than he had ever thought they would be. Constantly keeping up a glamor was much harder than he had anticipated. People were already starting to give him weird looks because apparently one person had seen his dads drop him off that morning, and somehow the gossip had spread faster than even his Aunt Isabelle could have spread it.
He hadn't really cared about the stares or the whispers, but things immediately got worse after his Spanish class. When he had told his dads that he wanted to learn a new language, he had meant a third language. Having been taught Spanish from almost the moment he could begin to speak English, Max considered himself fluent. This had caused a sufficient uproar in the middle of class, only to have him moved to third year Spanish. None of the other kids had seemed to like that very much.
Now he standing in front of his locker, trying to figure out if he should even attempt to eat lunch in the cafeteria, having the feeling that he would end up sitting completely by himself. Just as he decided that he might as well give it a shot, he heard a voice behind him. "You're the new kid who has two dads, right?"
Without missing a beat, Max immediately whirred around, already far too tired of everyone around him to deal with whatever this person was going to say. Before he could begin to speak, however, his eyes met the eyes of a girl who automatically struck him as gorgeous. Her long auburn hair hung down in curls, gently hugging her face that was covered in freckles. Her eyes were a deep blue, just like his dad's, and she wore glasses that seemed to bring out her brilliance. She radiated confidence and kindness so much that it was breathtaking. He hadn't really expected to find someone who affected him like this in the mundane world, so much so that he momentarily forgot what he was even supposed to be doing.
When he finally regained his ability to speak, all he said was, "Yeah, I have two dads. What of it?" slightly afraid that she was going to end up being the first person to actually confront him about it.
Surprising him yet again, she smiled before responding, something that left his heart racing. "No, no, you misunderstood me. I don't think anything of it. I'm the only kid in this school to have two moms, so I just wanted to come meet you. And let you know you're not alone." She held out her hand before continuing. "My name's Blair."
Max cautiously reached out to shake her hand, having to concentrate more on keeping his glamor up while she was touching him. "Max," he began. "Not that you probably don't already know that, considering the way information spreads around here." He couldn't' help but smile when she laughed, nodding in conformation of what he'd just said.
He continued to have trouble figuring out what to say and was immediately thankful when Blair was the one to speak. "If you want to, you're welcome to come eat lunch with me and a couple of my friends. They're harmless geeks, I swear."
The two boys sitting across Max reminded him terribly of the pictures he had seen of his Uncle Simon before he became a Shadowhunter. Even graphic tees completed their looks, and Max could automatically tell that all the things Uncle Simon had taught him about the mundane world were going to come very much in handy as far as they were concerned.
"Name's Jackson," said the first kid between bites of pizza. His black hair and black eyes were a stark contrast to the other boy's blond hair and deep green eyes. The other boy raised a hand in greeting, saying, "I'm Caleb. Excuse him, he's a pig."
Max was surprised at how easily he talked with them, laughed with them, and how generally well he got along with them. They had been best friends for years, or so they told him, but he seemed to fit in with them flawlessly, as though he had always been there.
"So, what's wrong with you?" Max looked up from his food with a startled expression as Jackson spoke up.
"E- Excuse me?" was all he could manage to get out. Looking over at Blair, he was surprised to see her smiling. Before she could say anything, however, Jackson continued speaking.
"Something's got to be wrong with you, you're sitting with us." He waved toward Blair. "Blair here's the only kid in school to have two moms," next he motioned toward Caleb. "Caleb's the only openly gay kid in school. And I happen to have a startling combination of a photographic memory with dyslexia. So, what's wrong with you?"
At that, Max finally smiled and laughed, understanding better than anyone that nothing was really "wrong" with any of them. It just so happened that the things that were "wrong" with them where the things that brought them together. "I guess that would be the fact that I have two dads and I'm fluent in Spanish."
"Welcome to the club, Max," said Jackson and Caleb in perfect harmony, causing a bought of laughter around the table and making Max feel welcomed for the first time all day.
A week went by without much incident, and Max slowly began to decide that he loved school. He loved the challenge it presented him every day, he loved finally having friends his age, even if he had to hide most of himself from them. They had enough in common that there was never a dull moment with them.
That was, until he was packing his backpack after school one day and he heard several people walk up behind him. "What's it like having faggots for dads, Lightwood?" was the first thing that he heard, and Max had to retrain himself from both turning around and punching the kid who had said it as well as keeping anything magically violent from happening.
He simply turned around slowly, a smile creeping across his face. "I wouldn't know, but you tell me, what's it like having to overcompensate for your terribly low self-esteem?" The boy starting back at Max was a stereotypical high school bully, he was wearing a football jacket and was built like he could have been a Shadowhunter himself. But that didn't scare Max one bit, knowing he was fully capable of protecting himself if need be, no matter how much smaller he was than the mundane standing before him. So he stared back with a completely calm expression, which only seemed to aggravate the other boy even more.
"What the hell did you just say to me?" Max heard someone start to mutter something along the lines of "Come on Kellan, just let up a bit," but no one seemed to pay any attention to that, especially Kellan.
Max decided he wasn't going to let up either, responding, "You know exactly what I said; I didn't stutter. You're just angry that I'm standing up for myself, but here's the thing: I'm not scared of you." Max turned around to close his locker, and started to walk off but thought the better of it. "Oh yeah," he turned back and looked Kellan straight in the eyes once more. "And at least my dads don't have to insult others to feel better about themselves, so there's that."
He walked out of the school without looking back, already planning to not say a word to his dads about what had just happened. He didn't look back even when he heard Kellan saying that he was going to find out just what being scared meant.