Alright, so here's Chapter 10! I also want to thank you guys for the reviews and follows and favorites too! I wasn't expecting such a positive response to that last chapter.

On another note, who here has seen the City of Bones movie? I am still yet to see it. I was kind of annoyed that they didn't do a midnight premiere for the movie in my town (not that I could've gone). They made such such a big deal about Twilight and Hunger Games (but I do love the Hunger Games. Waiting until November for Catching Fire is going to kill me). *sigh*

Bow down to me peasants: From this, we deduce the first rule of being on : DON'T LET YOUR PARENTS KNOW ABOUT IT

Kylie Smith 2: I apologize for any confusion, but I don't plan on splitting Wessa up at any point during this story, or in other future stories. I have them lined up to deal with a tragedy in the next story, but that's about as depressing Wessa's going to be. (That was major spoilery, sorry!)

AyRayKay: I read your review at 2 in the morning and I nearly shouted. I don't think my family would've appreciated the screaming at that hour, but I did love your review!

Before Tessa realized it, she was back at Institute, the Christmas holidays having flown by. She wouldn't be going back home to New York until the end of term in June. It was longer than the time between fall term and Christmas break, but Tessa didn't feel it. Probably because she knew what to expect when she went London this time.

Classes resumed on a Wednesday morning, for some odd reason, and not willing to part from her family, Tessa had booked the latest possible flight on Tuesday afternoon to London. The goodbyes were tearful; Tessa and her mom were crying into each other's shoulders before she went through security, and even Chris, who had stepped out of school early to drop her off, had tears in his eyes as he hugged her.

The next two days flew by, with Tessa walking through her classes in a robotic fashion, jet lag taking her over. She was more awake by Saturday, which coincidently was the day of the ball. Tessa was excited; the event was supposed to be a grand affair. She spent the morning doing homework, and in mid-afternoon, she was lugged out of the library by Tori and Cecy, who claimed that they needed to start getting ready.

Tessa was exasperated. "Guys, do we really need four hours to get ready? Seems like a lot for a dress, hair and makeup, don't you think?"

Cecily sighed as they entered Tori's and Tessa's room. Sophie was already seated in the vanity chair, waiting for them to return. "Tessa, I don't think you understand how much time people put into this ball. Besides, we have to do our nails too, and that can take a while too." said Sophie, rising to her feet.

She was right, the process was arduous. At one point, Tessa made the mistake of mentioning that she didn't know how to ballroom dance, which caused Cecily and Victoria to go into hysterics, scrambling to teach her a few steps whenever they had a moment. Apparently, everyone took a day long class during First Form on ballroom dancing, something that Tessa had never really needed. She might've learned, if she'd spared even a moment of thought for making her debut back in New York, but her mother had never pushed her to attend. That was one thing that Tessa loved about her mother. They may belong in the Upper East Side, but she never forced Tessa to attend the society events that bored her to tears.

At one point, Sophie was trying to teach Tessa how to twirl properly when they heard a knock on the door. Victoria flung it open to reveal Will, who was standing in the doorway with a look of amusement on his face. He held out a paper tray which held four cups of coffee. "Here, Thomas went out and picked up coffee for all of us." Victoria took the tray from him, one hand on the door. Will peered around her and saw Tessa in spandex shorts and a sweatshirt, her hand in Sophie's. She flushed at the sight of him, and Cecily, who was seated on Tessa's bed, waved at her brother. "Good-bye Will." Victoria shut the door, leaning against it and gorging down half of one cup.

"Bless Thomas. Institute sets out a rule that students who are attending can't leave a few hours before the ball and that they have to stay through the night. Apparently, someone died from a drunk driving after the ball a few years ago" said Victoria, tossing her empty cup into the trash by the door.

Tessa shuddered and sat down at the vanity, examining her newly painted nails. They were dry, and she turned to Sophie. "Help me do my hair. It's going to take a bit of time to tame my bush." Sophie laughed and slowly transformed Tessa. She got ready herself afterwards, and all four girls were finally ready a little before seven. Tessa looked at herself in the mirror, wondering who was this creature in front of it. The dress was long, and trailed slightly on the floor. Sophie had put her hair in an elaborate knot, and lined it with a jeweled headband. She had left a few strands loose, framing Tessa's face.

The other girls stood around her, admiring themselves in the mirror. Cecy in deep blue, Victoria in purple and Sophie in a dark green that matched her eyes. Cecily wrapped her arms around the girls' shoulders and smiled. "Aww, guys, we look fantastic. We'd better get going though, the boys will be waiting for us."

They nodded in response and made their way out of the room, chattering about the food that was to be served. They had nearly made it out of the dorm when she remembered that she had left her phone in her room. "Guys, I left my phone in my room. I'm going to go and get it, don't bother waiting for me. I'll meet you at the table." They nodded and Tessa scrambled back, stuffing her phone into her purse and making her way to the main entrance, where she was to meet Will.

Tessa fumbled with her hands as she made her way down the corridor. This would be the first time she and Will were making a public appearance together, and she wasn't sure what the reaction would be. Will had even been asked by several girls to accompany them to the ball, but he had deftly told them no. As Tessa reached the stairs at the top of the main corridor, she felt a gust of wind blow by her. The main doors had been thrown open. She shivered as she slowly made her way down the steps. At the bottom, Will was waiting for her.

He was wearing a navy blue suit with a turquoise tie to match Tessa's dress. He looked like a hero taken right out of a book, with the breeze blowing his his hair out of his face. She smiled and flushed when he gazed into her eyes, and he smiled back, gently taking her hand and kissing it when she reached him.

"You are….."

"I am what, Will?"

"I can't even pick the right words. Let's start with beautiful, perfect, unique but most importantly, mine."

She gazed down at the floor as Will twined his fingers with hers. "I hope you realize that I'm not going to let go of your hand the entire night."

They made their way into the dining hall, where waiters were crisscrossing about. Everything was covered in white, the ceilings, windows, tables. The chandeliers had fake icicles hanging off of them and the back of the hall had been cleared to provide dancing space and room for the musicians. They made their way to a table in center, where Cecily, Victoria and Sophie were already seated with their dates. Jem was seated at another table with his companion.

Tessa set her free hand on Will's arm, staring ahead. "Oh really? How do you plan on eating dinner then?"

"It's a good thing I'm ambidextrous" he said, wiggling his fingers.

Will, unfortunately, was not ambidextrous. His left hand was very bad at twirling bits of spaghetti onto his fork, and as a result, he was eating very slowly. At some point, everyone had gotten up to dance, and Will and Tessa were the only ones at the table. She was eating slowly for his sake, but it really wasn't working. She finally wound up feeding him his dinner, shoving bits of chicken and dessert into his mouth while he sat by her, his arm propped up to support his head. He didn't seem to mind the arrangement though.

When they were finally done, Will led Tessa to the dance floor, expertly twirling her and swinging her around the room. Since she was in flats, Will had set her on his feet, and was carrying the weight of both of them. The went right by Jem, who was being very respectful of Sophia's space. So that's who he came to the ball with. Sophia was in a pale lavender dress that swirled neatly around her ankles. Jem, who never really seemed to notice girls, wasn't really able to take his eyes of her.

Will brought Tessa closer and she wrapped her arms around his chest, and he set his chin on her head, slowly revolving in place now. Tessa met James' gaze, and she winked at him and smiled, happy for him. He grinned back and brought his attention back to Sophia, who was whispering something lightly in his ear. Tessa turned away from them and buried her head in Will's chest, wanting to be in a world with just the two of them. She had already received several murderous glances from other girls in the room, who were eyeing Will in longing. She didn't want to be stared at anymore.

And they stayed like that, twirling and moving slowly until it was nearly midnight, and Tessa was so tired that Will was practically holding her upright. "Tess" he said, stroking the bare skin on her upper back, "do you want to leave now?" She nodded and he took her hand, leading her out of the room and back to the dorm. When they reached the dorm, Tessa discovered that her room was empty. Will flicked on the lamp next to Tessa's bed, casting a dim glow about the room.

She stood in front of the vanity, slowly taking of the jewelry, setting the earrings into a small drawer, and the rings and bracelets onto a jewelry tree. She reached up to unhook her necklace, but was having a hard getting her fingers to latch onto the clasp. Will stood up behind her silently, and undid the necklace. Tessa caught the necklace before it hit the ground and set it onto the dresser. It took her a moment to realize that Will wasn't quite finished yet.

The edge of his lips were tracing Tessa's neck. She watched wide eyed in the mirror as Will planted deep kisses on her neck, tracing them down her shoulder blade and back up to that sensitive spot behind her ear. Shoot, that's going to leave a mark in the morning. He trailed his fingers slowly down her back, stopping at the zipper of the dress. Tessa turned her head sideways, glancing at Will through the corner of her eye. "Unzip me" she said. His lips parted in surprise, but he did as he was told. Tessa crossed her arms over her chest, setting her hands on her shoulders and let the soft blue material pool around her ankles, leaving her in a beige strapless bra and black knee-length spandex, which she had worn under the dress to keep her warm.

It was nothing special, and she knew it, but it was enough for Will. His eyes widened, and in a moment he was sweeping her out of the dress which was on the floor and onto the bed. He set her in his lap, and crashed his lips into hers.

She shifted so that rather than sitting sideways in his lap, she was straddling his hips, knees placed firmly on either side and feet tucked next to his thighs. Tessa eased the suit jacket off of him, tossing it onto the chair. When they broke off to catch some air, Will leaned back on his hands, looking into Tessa's face. She was staring the beauty in front of her, tracing his eyes, lips, cheekbones and neck with the tips of her fingers. Then he started to speak.

"Tess, before we take it any further, I need to ask you. Do you really want to do this?"

Tessa sat back onto his lap, letting her hand fall to her side. That was a really good question. She didn't know what she wanted. She wasn't sure if she was ready, or if it was even wise. After all, she hadn't even been dating him for two months. She was going to kick herself for this later, but she knew it was smarter. She stared down at her hands and said "No, Will, I don't really know if this what I want."

Tessa felt her lowered head being lifted slowly by one of Will's long fingers. He smiled. "Tessa, it's fine. I do not wish to force anything upon you. Being with you is all I need." Tessa nodded and yawned. Will chuckled. "Besides, I think we should go to bed anyways." She nodded again and rolled out of his lap, letting him stand up. She grasped his wrist in her hand. "Don't leave me." He patted her hand and gently loosened himself out of her grip. "I'll change and be right back." He left the room, and Tessa took a moment to scrub away the makeup on her face.

Once she had stepped out of the bathroom, she found Will already tucked under the covers of her bed, back pressed to the wall. She smiled and crawled into the bed beside him, not bothering to put on night clothes. She pressed her back into his chest, and he subconsciously wrapped his arms around her. And somehow, this felt more right to Tessa than anything they could've done together.

Tori's POV

Victoria was outside in the courtyard, walking arm in arm with Gabriel. They were skirting the edge of the fountain, talking quietly. She smiled as he spoke, but she couldn't help feel uneasy, like Gabriel was hiding something. He seemed to be getting a little distant lately. They sat down on the edge of the fountain, watching as Dean Roberts peered around a bush and dragged Matthew Winters and Willow Hall from out behind it, both extremely red faced. Gabriel turned to Victoria. "I think the phrase we're looking for is 'get a room'." She laughed and kissed him once on the cheek. That didn't seem to satisfy him though.

He leaned in, turning her body slightly towards his and bringing her closer to him. He kissed her with full force, not paying attention to his surroundings. Victoria, however, was in no mood to be caught and yelled at by a teacher. She pushed him away from her gently.

"Hm, Gabe, stop. There are teachers around."

He was tracing his nose along her neck. "I don't care, Victoria. I want you, and I want you now."

Now she was irritated. She forcefully shoved him off of her. "Gabe, stop it. I don't want to."

He set his hands on either side of the edge of the fountain, staring at her. "You know, why is it that we're always doing what you want? Why can't I ever make the choices?" Before he even had a chance to feel for what he said, Victoria retaliated.

"Maybe, if you spoke up, you wouldn't feel like I never let you choose. But then again, you never seem to want to talk, do you?"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm talking about Christmas, Gabe. I spoke to Gideon."

"So?"

"Do you remember the night I called you after the holiday started?"

He nodded.

"Well" she continued "I hadn't pushed you to talk because you never blow me off because you're busy. I figured it was important and let it slide. But Gideon asked me Wednesday if everything was alright between the two of us. I didn't even know what he was talking about, until he mentioned the phone call that you had conveniently dropped. And you never did bother calling afterwards, Gabriel." She had set her hands by her side, looking at the ground.

"Victoria, if this is about that stupid phone call that I didn't return, it's really nothing to get upset about."

She stayed silent for several minutes. "I really needed you that night, Gabriel. I needed you, and you weren't there when you could've been. My cousins made a laughing stock out of me in front of a hundred people that night, did you know that?"

Gabriel's lips parted in surprise. She scowled at him, and continued on. "But clearly, whatever is running through the head of Gabriel Lightwood doesn't cast a light onto what others may feel."

Now it was his turn to be angry. "Hold up. How on earth could I have known that the party would turn out disastrous? And since when do I not care about you, Victoria? Or anybody else, for that matter?"

"Perhaps if you stopped wallowing in self pity, then you could see that none of us really have it easier. Will and Cecy lost a beloved sibling. Sophie was attacked so badly in the dead of night during Year 9 that I'm surprised she speaks to the guys at all."

"And yourself right? Because your parents were blown to bits right in front of your eyes? When you were only ten years old?" He rose to his feet, crossing his arms over his chest. "If you had stopped thinking about yourself for more than a minute, then maybe you could see that losing my mum to cancer was no cakewalk either." He stalked away, climbing up the steps of Institute. Victoria turned to look at her reflection in the water of the fountain, shifting in and out of focus.

The ball had been fun, until the music became morbidly depressing. Gideon had been the model gentleman, but he was still awkward on his feet, accidentally stepping on Sophie's toes while they were dancing. After a couple of hours and several red phalanges later, Sophie was ready to get out. But she didn't want to cut the night short with Gideon either.

"Gideon, do you mind if we leave? There's something I want to show you" she said quietly in his ear.

He nodded, and looked at her in surprise. He let himself be dragged out of the ballroom by Sophie, who led them both back to the dorm, but instead of heading downstairs, she began to head upstairs. "Soph, where are we going? My room is upstairs, not yours." "I wasn't taking us to your room, Gideon." They both flushed. Sophie shook her head to clear it, and pushed at a bit of the wall at the end of the East wing corridor on the fourth floor. It swung open into what looked like a supply closet. There was a small metal staircase here, which seemed to lead right into the ceiling.

Gideon's lips parted in surprise. "So, huh, this is what you wanted to show me? It's quite lovely.." Sophie sucked in her cheeks and raised an eyebrow at him. "You think I wanted to show you the supply closet and the stairs to nowhere?"

"No, that's ridiculous. Whoever came up with that idea?"

Sophie rolled her eyes and smiled at him. "Come here, and follow me up the steps."

Gideon did as he was told, and watched as Sophie felt around the ceiling and picked at a random bit of it. She finally managed to pull aside a bit of the cloth that had become a part of the ceiling. She peeled it aside, revealing a trap door. She set her hands on the door and pushed up, talking down to Gideon. "The best things are usually the most hidden ones." She raised the door slightly and pushed it aside, revealing the London night sky above them. Sophie used her arms to hoist herself through the opening in the ceiling. Gideon followed suit, and was utterly shocked by the view in front of him.

They were on the roof of Ethan house. After the main building, it was the tallest building on campus. The roof was flat and lined with stone benches. It's almost as if it was built for students to use. Sophie seemed to be channeling his thoughts, and smiled at him. "It used be another spot for students to hang out. But that was a long time ago. A student once committed suicide by jumping off the top, so they barricaded it."

"Then how do you know about this place?"

"Because of Cecily and Victoria. They wanted to explore one night during Year 9 and we found it here. We swore that we would keep the place to ourselves. Although, I think Tori might've shown this place to Will and Jem" she said as she lifted the seat of one of the benches. "Victoria hid a stash of wine here last semester. I wonder… Nevermind, it's here" she called, extracting it from the depths of the bench. Gideon raised an eyebrow at her.

"Don't judge. It's not my stash." She pulled off the loosened cork and drank a sip of the wine and sank to the ground, her back pressed against the bench and dress pooling around her knees. She patted the floor beside her. "Sit next to me." He felt his feet drag his body to where Sophie was. He sat down. She handed the bottle to him. "Cheers" she said. He grinned and took a sip, setting the bottle on his other side.

They sat silently for a while, slowly draining the bottle between them and staring at the starry night sky. Sophie leaned her head back onto the bench.

"You know, the night I was attacked, looked just like this" she said, subconsciously touching the scar that ran across her temple.

Gideon mimicked her posture, not knowing what to say.

"I was so sure that I was going to die that night" she continued. "I am so lucky that I was found when I was."

"Sophie, you're stronger than you give yourself credit for. You wouldn't have been able to die if you'd tried."

"Not really. You saw how badly I went into shock afterwards, not being able to talk to anybody besides Victoria and Cecily. It took me two freaking months to talk to you boys again. And I still don't trust many boys."

"But you're here, with me. Right now."

"Because when I'm with you, I feel safe."

She rolled her head on the bench to look at him. Before he could stop her, she was leaning into him, kissing him once.

Gideon opened his eyes as she moved back slightly. That was unexpected. She leaned in to kiss him again, but he held drew back this time.

"Sophie, this isn't right."
"What do you mean? You don't want to kiss me?"

"Are you kidding? Every neuron in my brain is screaming at my body to hold you tight and never let you go. But you're drunk, and I'm drunk, and I don't want you to regret anything." Sophie pondered this for a second, and then rose to her feet. "I guess you're right. I want to go to bed though. Will you at least walk me back to my room?" she said, holding out her hand.

He smiled and took it. "Of course. I'll follow you to the moon and back, Sophie."