"You do understand that you are going to have to wrap your arm around my neck, right?" Jace asks me, raising an eyebrow.

I look at him, as though he has dropped from space. He might as well have. There is no way I am wrapping any of my limbs around any of Jace's body. I can only imagine some of the more mild sexual innuendos that he will come up with. "Why would I have to do that?"

"Your leg is sore, and you're going to have to make it look realistic," Jace informs me, a touch of impatience coloring his voice. Apparently someone has issues with being questioned.

I'm sure that he will be okay.

"Just put your arm around my damn neck!" he snaps at me.

"I don't even want to think about who else's arm has been there today," I whine.

"No one's," Jace replies dryly. "You should feel special, you're the first."

I send him a sharp look and he just rolls his eyes and grabs my wrist and pulls it around his admittedly firm upper body. "What's wrong, Morgenstern?" he muttered humorously in my ear, "You afraid that you might like it?"

"In your dreams," I scoff, as I give in and begin hobbling beside him, feeling thoroughly ridiculous. "Why couldn't you be the one to fall?" I whine.

"Because I'm manly," Jace informs me superiorly, "and manly men don't fall." He is silent for a moment, but the look on his face lets me know that he will not stay silent for long. "Not to mention that you are the klutz out of this relationship. Is anyone going to really believe that I tripped and you helped me up?"

I glower at him, silently wondering what I could do to make him hurt as much as possible in the position that I am in. Deciding that my angle is not good enough for a painful enough kick, I just let the wonderful idea go, and settle on snapping, "They would definitely believe that I shoved you."

Jace places a hand over his heart, his golden eyes widening in mock hurt as he looks over at me. I can see his lips twitching as he fights down a smile at my expense. Moving to aim that kick is getting harder and harder to resist. "That is not a very girlfriend like thing to do, Ms. Morgenstern," he says his tone was so mocking that I pull my arm away from him, and attempt to slide out of the arm that is around my middle 'supporting my weight'. He clamps it around me firmly, and I am stuck to his side as if someone super glued us together.

"You can take that thought about me acting like one of your brain-dead whores," I say venomously, "and stick it up your—!"

"Calm down," Jace laughs, snatching my arm back around his shoulder as he drags me closer to the smelly classroom that I really didn't want to enter. "I was just messing with you. If you started acting like a brain-dead whore, Jon, Izzy, Simon, Magnus, and I would have to have an intervention."

I roll my eyes and am about to thank him sarcastically for how much he cares about my lack of whorishness when he opens the classroom door, and the taste of the perfume enters my mouth, and I have to shut it to prevent gagging. I grimace as I look over at Jace; he stares back, though his expression is one of perfect and devout concern.

This boy can act! I make a mental note to never trust him about anything else for the rest of my life when the short and wrinkly form of Ms. Fairchild walks up to me. It is clear that we have just interrupted a boring lecture because the look on her face is murderous…I guess it goes with the just kill me now feeling that I have deep down in my gut.

"Do you have a tardy slip, Morgenstern?" she asks me sharply. Never mind the fact that I am clutching on to a handsome boy that seems to have a golden tint to him. Nope. Let's just all hate on the redhead that's already having a freaking terrible day! What can possibly go wrong?

"No ma'am," I say through clenched teeth. It is out of aggravation, but it sounds as though I am in pain as I say it. Score!

I see Simon and Izzy on the other side of the class, and it is my safe haven from all of this…Jace included. All I have to do is convince this old hag that I am hurt, that Jace is an amazing person, and that I should not be counted tardy. My life would have been easier if Jace would have let me just go and get a damn tardy slip like a normal person!

"She fell, Ms. Fairchild," Jace says, his voice is so sweet, like honey. Anything could fall under that spell, which is why all of the teachers loved him despite his smart mouth. "I made her stop and looked at her ankle to make sure it wasn't swelling, because she refused to go to the office. She told me how much she liked this class and didn't want to miss it," he is so laying this on too thick, but I watch with a slightly gaping mouth as Fairchild soaks it all in with a small smile. "So I helped walk her over here. Nothing seems to be sprained or broken, so she shouldn't have to go to the nurse's office, but do you think that you could excuse her just this once?"

I am silent as I listen, waiting for her to demand that I walk all the way to the office. My eyes actually feel like they are going to fall out of their sockets when she says, "Of course, dear. Thank you for bringing her here."

Jace smiles at teacher as though he hadn't just lied to her through his teeth, and Ms. Fairchild turned around and walked back over to her desk.

I look up at Jace, who is smirking down at me, as if informing me that he knew that he could get me out of trouble when he felt like it. I just ignore the arrogant expression, and say, "Thanks for taking me to class."

"No problem," he says, smiling. Before I know it, I am engulfed in a bone-crushing hug that my entire English class is an audience too. My face is hot, and my heart is pounding as he holds me against his chest firmly, one of my arms is around his neck, the other is between us, resting in an awkward position as one of his arms winds around my waist and the other snakes up my back, pressing my entire body against his.

"Anything for my girlfriend," he informs me. He says it as a whisper, but I am not stupid. The entire class hears it, and I can feel the heat of their stares as Jace releases me. He casts me a wink and turns around, quickly walking out of the room.

I officially hate him, and am thinking about ending our five minute fake relationship before it has time to blossom. I feel even more strongly about this as I turn around and the entire classroom is looking at me as though I have confessed that I am part angel and hunted demons, or some weird thing like that.

I avoid eye contact and look at the ground as I walk to my normal spot in the stuffy classroom: the corner desk at the very back beside the widow where I might just get some inspiration from a passing person or bird to draw during one of the many boring lectures that one has to endure in this forsaken class. Of course, there is no idle window gazing as I sit down in my normal spot…instead, there is tiny-redhead-gaping. This spectacular sport is being pulled off the most spectacularly and blatantly by none other than Isabelle Lightwood and Simon Lewis.

I glare at both of them, but of course neither one is intimidated. I set my eyes first on Izzy, knowing that she might just want to congratulate me, or call me stupid for Jace. There is never any telling with Isabelle Lightwood. She is one of those girls that everyone avoids because she is so pretty that everyone just assumes that she is a snobby bitch. That is so very wrong about her. She is one of this nicest people that I know. She does know that she is pretty however, though I suspect that knowing that you look good is a family trait, considering the fact that she is Jace's adoptive sister.

She is tall with creamy pale skin, black hair, coffee brown eyes, and a killer fashion sense that most people aren't even bold enough to think about. She doesn't really flaunt her looks, though she doesn't have to, they stand out without her doing anything to them, but she doesn't try to play them down, knowing that she has to take advantage of her god given feminine superiority, as she calls it. I can respect that…though I am nowhere near as pretty.

She smiles slightly at me, and says, "As much as I can actually say that I saw the two of you getting together coming, I didn't see it happening so fast. Especially with Jon around."

I freeze slightly, all of my bodily functions coming to an abrupt halt as my world starts falling a apart around me. Jon! How could I forget about my brother? I wonder if he already knows, or if he doesn't, who is going to tell him. I know for a fact, now, that the rumor is going to spread by the end of the next period, so what happens when Jon finds out that Jace and I are 'dating'?

"Yeah," Simon interjects, "how's he taking it anyway?"

"He…" I trail off, unsure of what to say. I look at neither of them as I lay my head down on the desk and cross my arms over my face. "He doesn't know!" I whine, my voice coming out muffled.

Both people become silent, and I lift my head up curious. I expect to see them snickering at my pain. Instead, they are looking at me in sympathy. I look over at Simon, hoping for something in the logic department. Simon screams nerd after all, with the glasses and scrawny frame. He is sweet as can be, but compared to any of the other guys that I hang out with, the guy is a bag of bones. Behind the glasses, though, he does have very pretty brown eyes, which matches quite nicely with his olive toned skin, and dark brown, almost black hair.

His route is yielding nothing but silence, a depressing silence at that. I feel the sad feeling of resignation coursing through me as I realize that Jon is all the way across the campus, and that he will stay there until the bell rings. After that, Jon and I get into his crappy little Kia, and he and Jace will both drive to my house breaking the speed limit by at least twenty miles an hour every inch of the way. Jace and I go to the furthest building away from the main building in the school, where all of the classes for the fine arts were held. Jon has Speech last, and Jace and I had art. This means that neither of us would see him until after school was over.

Suddenly my blood is running cold.

"Well," Simon says patting me on the back, apparently trying to be comforting…and failing at life, "at least when Jon kills you, he can murder you and Jace together. He might kill Jace first, and either be too tired to finish the job, or give you enough time to run for help."

I glare at him, and he cringes back slightly. I look back over at Izzy once I am sure that I have properly intimidated Simon. I want to ask her what kind of stupidity thing was she on about with the whole Jace and me getting together eventually thing. I can't, though, because if I do, I would be giving it away, and I don't know if Jace wants me to say anything to any of them.

Before I can give it very much thought, the bell rings yet again, and I realize that I have missed an entire lecture in English that will probably end up being a test that I will definitely fail.

When I walk into art class, I sit down at my usual spot, where I am an embarrassed third wheel with Aline Penhallow and Helen Blackthorn. I am the first one inside, as usual, and I sigh, grabbing my sketchpad, and pencil as I prepare to finish my sketch entry for the project grade that is due in a few days.

Before I can even open it to the right page, however, someone has grabbed my wrist and snatched me out of my chair. I yelp as I stumble into a firm surface for the second time that day. I take a step back, though Jace still has a hold on my wrist and glare at him slightly.

"What?" I demand.

"Come on," he says. "You can sit at the back table with me today. Since we're dating, you can ditch them for me, and I'll ditch Seb for you."

I look up at him disbelievingly as the first couple of people start walking slowly through the doorway. Jace leans in and whispers in my ear, "If this is going to work, Morgenstern, you're going to have to actually look intimate, work with me here, okay?"

He stands straight up, and I frown slightly up at him. I can be intimate if I want to be! Just to prove him wrong, I shoulder my book bag roughly, grab my sketchpad and pencil in one hand, grasp his with my free one, intertwining our fingers together, and pull him to the back table where I see his plane black bag sitting in a chair.

I place my book bag, sketchpad, and pencil on the longer wooden table and turn to look at him smugly. He is looking at him with a faintly impressed look on his face. I do not know whether to take this as a well done or a challenge accepted.

Because of that expression, I decide to not tell him about Jonathan, and how my brother is going to freak out in less than an hour and possibly kill us, though I am sure that he will kill Jace first…blood ties are awesome like that. Challenge accepted, indeed, Herondale. I smile at him, and he smiles back, apparently oblivious to the fact that this is not a friendly smile at all.

You guys are amazing! I love you all, and please for the sake of my ego and inspiration, keep the reviews coming in! I am glad that you all like it, and since you all insisted on needing more, I decided to honor you all with a fast update because you're so awesome!

This chapter foreshadows the telling of Jonathan…or at least his reaction to it anyway. How do you guys think he's going to take this?