Clary~

The moment the bell rang, I was on a mission. A mission to find Jace and tell him all about my little encounter with—whoever the hell that was. I'd never seen her before, not around school, not around the neighborhood, not anywhere. So, she had no reason to hate me, not unless I didn't know her and she knew me and, of course, had a tangible reason to spit fire.

My God. She was horrible, awful, disgusting, vile—

And...she was all over my best friend.

My determined strides turned into wet noodles, the blood in my veins was ice cold, my eyes widened, my heart sunk lower than the Titanic. No. No. No. No. NO!

Jace's Emily was the same girl that had threatened me in the library for no reason. Jace's Emily was wrapped up in his passionate embrace, sticking her tongue down his throat, pulling aggressively at his hair, turning him into an obedient, gutless pile of mush. Jace's Emily was so not deserving of being his Emily. She wasn't right in the head—and I wasn't just saying that because she never had to do anything to get Jace to like her. She never had to wait years and years, waiting for him to look her in the eye and confess that he felt the same way. She never even had to bat an eyelash. All she had to do was look pretty and wow him with mundane words that, coming from anyone else, would have had no effect over the great and might Jace Wayland.

It all clicked into place. Look, as long as you stay out of my way, we won't have a problem.

I now knew that she meant business. That her hating me wasn't so out of the blue after all.

She couldn't have known my best friend for very long and already she was possessive, so desperate to keep him under his spell that she was seeking out any possible threat—even though I wasn't even close to being a threat. If I were, I wouldn't still be pining over Jace's unrequited affection after God only knows how long. Emily was gorgeous. Disgustingly gorgeous on the outside and just plain disgusting on the inside. And she has proven herself to me that'd she'd stoop as low as to intimidate a five-foot, close-to-nothing-pound, frizzy haired nobody, who had absolutely nothing on her. Who was absolutely no competition. Who was about as menacing to her as a mouse was to a lion.

I was okay with Jace finding a special someone. I had...accepted it. But to discover who his 'special someone' was...Well, I was no longer accepting.

I was about to turn the other direction—after clearly seeing that Jace was busy—but then I heard him call my name. "Clary!"

My eyes squeezed shut as I tried to prepare myself for what was to come. This was not going to be good. Deep breath. In. Out. In. Out. In. With clenched fists, I slowly turn back around to face the she-beast and her current victim: my best friend. My Jace. My everything. My go-to for whenever I needed a pick-me-up. My twelve-o'clock shoulder to cry on. My Jace...who wasn't mine any longer—he'd never been mine. Ever. It had all been in my head.

How stupid was I? Did I honestly believe that this was The Princess Diaries? That I'd turn into his Cinderella one day? That my worn down Chuck Taylors would ever become glass slippers? I was no princess. I was nothing special and I never would be. And I was, above anything else that was downright pitiful, undeserving of a guy so beautiful that made Brad Pitt look like the kid from Home Alone all grown up.

"Hey...Jace," I breathed, pretending not to notice She-Beast—ahem, I mean Emily. But, how could I not? She was like a flippin' supermodel! God I hated her.

Jace was noticeably flushed and out of breath. His hair was tousled—and not the way I liked—and his swollen lips (ugh. Ew.) were pulled back into a brilliant smile. "Sorry—I was going to meet you at your locker after school, but Emily asked me earlier to meet me at her locker—and before I really made a decision," he laughed, "here she was."

I nodded, not even bothering to pretend to be happy. He didn't seem to notice.

Then his eyes suddenly went wide and he grinned even larger—was this really Jace? "Oh my gosh! I'm such an idiot—you don't even know who 'she' is!" It all happened in slow motion; Jace placed his hand on Emily's lower back and gestured from her to me. "Clary, I'd like you to meet Emily. Emily, meet Clary."

I waited for Emily to pull out a pen from the outfit she wore—that left nothing to the imagination—and stab me in the neck repeatedly, but instead she flashed me an award winning smile. "It's so nice to meet you, Clary!" Emily said, as if we were meeting for the first time. As if she hadn't threatened me earlier, not even a few hours ago. I wanted to gasp. To tell Jace all about how fake she was. To punch her lights out.

But, who was I kidding?

I returned her sweet facade—not without any trouble—and waved shyly, playing along the best I could. "Hi."

"Jace has already told me so much about you! I'm so glad to hear that you two made up—I know how my best friend got when I dated this one guy back at my old home. She'd been so jealous. It was pathetic, really." To Jace she was coming across as an angel, and, though she'd literally just called me pathetic, I'm sure that he didn't even realize. He was too entranced by the smoothness of her voice and the beauty her pore-less skin radiated. But I wasn't fooled. Not in the slightest. Beneath her bright, blue eyes, she was daring me to 'get in her way', daring me to ruin her reign over Jace, daring me to speak up and express how angry and frustrated and hurt I was. "Nothing against you, though," she smirked. "I know how hard it can be."

I blushed. In anger. In embarrassment. In disbelief that Jace thought she was this wonderful person when she was showing her true colors right in front of him.

I nodded, tight-lipped.

"This is great!" Jace exclaimed, holding Emily even closer, and then going as far as to reach out and ruffle my hair. As if I were no more than a five-year-old. As if I were a dog.

Emily smiled at me all too knowingly.

"It's so great that my two favorite girls in the whole world are finally getting to know each other," he carried on, oblivious to mine and Emily's silent exchange.

I wanted to cry—so now Emily and I were tied? Now I was neck and neck with a girl he'd literally just met?

Pretty soon I'd be in second place. Pretty soon Jace would forget all about me.

"I know!" Emily exclaimed, turning to look at Jace. "Clary is even cuter than you told me she was, baby. I don't even think the little girl I babysat the other day is that tiny—and she's ten!" She was putting on a brilliant performance. Fake. So. So. So FAKE.

I wanted to shy away when she directed her attention at me once again. "You know what you remind me of?" She waited for me to respond, but I just stared at her blankly, my cheeks and neck and ears on fire. "My mother has this huge stuffed animal collection—I know right, how embarrassing. She's way to old to still be carrying around toys from her childhood, but I still can't help but love her. Anyways, she has this Raggedy Ann doll—the resemblance between you and that thing is startling, especially when you blush like that."

I wanted to fall off the face of the Earth.

"Clary is adorable," Jace agreed. How ignorant he was. How I hated him in that moment. "She's always been the smallest one in our class."

Emily's smile was erased. Though what Jace said in no way made me feel better, if anything just made me feel worse, he'd sounded genuine when he called me 'adorable'. Adorableto me was a slap in the face. Adorable to Emily, when it wasn't directed towards her, was a threat. I saw her eyes flash and then narrow, targeting my already beat down self. "So cute," Emily repeated, laughing as fake as you could get. "You know, Clary, I envy you. Not only are you adorable, but you must be pretty confident, too. Not even I would wear glasses like yours. I think I saw the same pair at a dollar store back in D.C."

Jace's smile suddenly turned into a frown. I was too busy trying to keep it together to notice. "Emily. Enough."

"What?" She was laughing, acting innocent, twisting her lips together. She held all the power in the palm of her hands. And she knew it. "I'm just saying that I admire her—it's not like I could pull off something like that."

"Yeah, well, it was nice meeting you Emily," I said hurriedly, spinning away from the 'happy' couple. I had to get out of there.

"Clary, wait!" Jace called. "I'm still giving you a ride home—"

I didn't bother turning around, I just kept walking. "No. That's fine. It's not like I live that far."

"Nonsense," I heard Emily say—now closer than where I left her. I suddenly felt a cold hand grip my wrist, forcing me to stop my progress. Regrettably, I turned just enough to see the She-Beast. She was touching me. "Don't be silly, Clary. Jace told me that your house is on the way—we'd be more than happy to drop you off."

Her back was to Jace and this gave her an opportunity to shoot me a shameless look, one that said "cooperate or you'll regret it".

I nodded slowly, swallowing down the ache in my throat and blinking quickly, hoping that my eyes weren't a dead giveaway that I was upset. Like I said, I was an ugly crier. "Okay," I managed.

Emily let go, but not without giving me a firm, if not painful squeeze.

"Let's go Jace," Emily called, reaching her hand out for her new boyfriend to take. Jace took it gratefully and sent me a smile, one that I did not return. I followed the duo, dragging my feet behind me, looking down, trying to distract myself by counting all the tiles I stepped on. When we reached the front entrance, Jace, trying to be a gentleman, held the door open for both Emily and me.

I waited for her to go through first, but she just looked back at me expectantly. "Come on, Clary," she said. "Don't be shy."

I cautiously stepped around her, half expecting her to trip me and send me flat on my face. That didn't happen. But what did, in my book, was much worse. Just as I was about to safely clear the small space, one of my hips was bumped and the other was sent flying into the metal of the door frame.

"Oh my gosh!" Emily gasped, immediately reaching to help me upright. "I'm so sorry!"

It didn't hurt enough to cause me excruciating pain, no, definitely not but there'd definitely be a bruise there seeing as I was as delicate as a flower petal, unfortunately, and I was mortified. I felt weak and helpless—like I really was a Raggedy Ann. I shrugged her hands off me, too embarrassed to look her in the eye. "It's fine."

"You okay, Clary?" Jace asked, concern lacing his tone, suddenly at my side.

I nodded quickly, trying to be evasive. Unwilling to talk to him.

Emily was abruptly shoving us apart as easily as ripping paper, careless and not at all bothered, "I call shot gun!" she shouted, taking the lead.

I knew Jace was trying to get me to look at him. I knew he knew that I was upset. But I also knew that he knew not to push me, and I was going to take full advantage of that, even if this situation wasn't his fault. Even if I shouldn't be blaming him—but, how could I not? Jace was so blinded by a pretty face that he just stood there and let her hammer me with her intentionally mean words. He used to laugh at girls like Emily to me—he used to call them 'fake' and 'petty' and said that they only got guys that were absolutely desperate. And yet, here he was.

I watched as Emily took the passenger seat—my seat—and was aware of her predatory glare the entire time Jace helped me into the back of his car. Just before the three of us took off, Emily even went as far as to flip down the sun visor hanging over her head, using its mirror to seek me out. She knew she had won. She knew that I got the message. She knew better than anyone, better than me, what she was capable of and she was definitely satisfied.

She knew I didn't stand a chance. And just to rub it in further, she laced her hand with Jace's free hand and displayed them on the consul for me to see.

SO SORRY FOR THE HORRIBLE WAIT! Hopefully this chapter wasn't too horrible!

Please review(:

Until next time, peace.

Will edit soon.