Chapter 2 - Some Things Never Change

Author's Note: I own nothing, save for the character I'm about to introduce in this chapter.

"Is it just me...or is everyone still in cliques?" I hear Simon whisper to me, chuckling a bit as he looks around. He and I were on our fourth run to the car to grab more of my belongings, and we were taking in as much of the campus as we could...well, as much as we could see of it that is.

I ended up looking around, taking in more of the people than the actual buildings this time...and I giggle a bit, because I realized he was right. "I thought this was supposed to be different than high school..." I retort, rolling my eyes a bit.

I watch as he shrugs, finding my mother's car easily, as if he wasn't away for two years. It makes me smile that nothing's really changed, despite the physical distance between us. "There are cliques everywhere, no matter where you are. That's one thing high school taught us both, no matter whether we were separate or together."

I winced at the memory the simple statement invoked. I was never really a part of a stereotypical clique in high school, though I knew enough about them that they were very rigid in their ways...at least the popular ones were. It was pretty much just me and Simon against the world, and then myself against the world after he moved, though it always felt like he was there in spirit, and it surprised me when I saw his head of black curls just how much I missed just being NEAR him. Able to hug him, or hold his hand, or feel one of his long arms around my shoulders. It brought me a sense of peace I hadn't felt in a very long time.

"Yeah, well, my version of a clique is either with me or against me, and one's bigger than the other." I mumbled quietly, so low that I thought Simon couldn't hear it. of course, it didn't surprise me much when I felt his arm loop over my shoulders, offering me a tight squeeze that knocked me off balance for a moment, making him laugh. I returned the favor by giving him a quick swat to the stomach, not hard enough to do any form of damage, but he overexaggerated the agony for me anyway, swearing vengeance upon me by tickling.

There were times I hated that he knew everything about me. One that I was insanely ticklish for my own good. He'd threatened me with it many times over the years, and it succeeded in just as many times, whether he actually carried through with it or not. As nice as he was, he could be merciless when he wanted to.

Grabbing the last of my things out of the car, Simon shut the trunk, easily carrying the stack of boxes he had in his arms. I couldn't help but notice, because last I remembered, he'd be afraid of dropping anything he carried. "When did you get so buff?"

Laughing, he peeked out from behind his cardboard wall, falling in step with me, carrying my backpack, my laptop bag, and a box of DVDs in my arms. "Buff? Me? No, I just don't care if I crop this, because it's nothing but clothes."

"I'll hit you again." I threatened him, though I was grinning. He would say that every time I asked him to carry a bag with clothing in it, though if he dropped it, he'd be apologizing profusely as if he'd set it on fire.

"And I'll tickle you if you do." He gave me an innocent smile, one that I knew well enough was also a silent dare. I'd learned it the hard way over the years, but I knew better than to push him now. Which is why I settled for muttering a string of obscenities under my breath, making him laugh.

"Glad to see your potty mouth's not any cleaner." He cracked, still laughing. I went for a kick at his shin, but he was too quick for me and dodged it, leaving me flailing momentarily. I was a klutz by nature, and I should've learned that hobbling on one foot wasn't going to end well for me.

Especially when I felt a shoulder ram into me and send me sprawling to the ground.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" I heard Simon yell furiously. "Did you happen to notice there was someone-"

He cuts off so abruptly that I thought the person who shoved me simply walked off without a backwards glance. But when I looked up at him, he looked...fearful, swallowing thickly. And when I turned to see why, I felt ice run through every vein in my body. Because even through the sun silhouetting his figures, I could tell exactly who he was, before he even spoke.

"Well, well, look who we have here. The Dream Team, reunited."

With that single sentence, I felt every single thing I'd eaten on the road start swirling in my stomach. And I thought idly about succumbing to the nausea and throwing up on his shoes, but the victory would be fleeting. For he'd come back at me with something worse, and also have the money to simply purchase a new pair. There was a reason why he threw the most ridiculous parties...or so I'd heard.

"What the hell are you doing here?!" Simon's furious voice echoed the exact thought going through my brain at this very moment.

I could see him looking around with that arrogant smirk on his face, and making a grand show of doing so, too. As if we were two small children he had to explain the concept of college to. "Well, this is school. I'm here to attend for four years, earn a degree, and find a job suited to what I'd like to do for the rest of my life." He spoke each word slowly, as if we incapable of such knowledge, and it made furious tears spring to my eyes. And if I was this agitated, I knew Simon would be, too. Especially since he'd heard about some of the more vicious pranks Jace had pulled on me in his two year absence.

Though, I never expected Simon to get in Jace's face. "Listen to me, you arrogant fuck." That word surprised me. I'd never heard Simon so much as mutter that word and here he was, saying in front of a crowd of curious college students. "You think picking on her's going to be as easy as it was the last few years?" He didn't bother to wait for an answer from Jace, not that one would be coming. "Well, you're wrong. Dead wrong. I'm back, and believe me when I say that you're not the top guy around here anymore. You're a lowly freshman, just like the rest of us, at a school where your precious reputation doesn't mean a thing." A muscle in Jace's jaw ticked, and I swear if Simon didn't shut up, he'd find himself on the sidewalk next to me.

"Hey, what's going on here?!"

I've never been so grateful to hear Luke's voice at any moment of my life than right now.

Simon backed away from Jace, immediately crouching to check on me, joined quickly by my mother and a girl I didn't recognize, who quickly introduced herself as Dahlia, my roommate. Once ascertained I was fine, all three of them stood, facing off with my 'perfect' blond tormentor.

"Are you seriously going to do this here?" Simon asked him, sounding incredulous, though he really shouldn't. Jace always did like an audience.

"Because lemme tell you something." This time, it was Dahlia who spoke up. "I don't know what outhouse you were raised in, but guys don't like it when you attack another girl for show. You're certainly not winning any special points with me, and I don't even know you." She looked him and his 'perfection' up and down, and to my downright surprise, shrugged him off as if he were ordinary. Simon snorted at the look on his face at such a move. He looked ready to pop a blood vessel.

Luke and my mother never spoke, letting the intimidation of parental figures speak volumes. And it actually worked.

"Tch." Jace scoffed, as if he couldn't be bothered with such theatrics, even though he's the one who caused them, before wandering off. Probably to find a cave so he could hang from the ceiling and sleep.

It was odd, how just his mere presence and and a few spoken words could completely derail everything. The exuberant joy I'd felt at coming here to start anew, followed quickly by the indescribable feeling of being reunited with my best friend all taking a backseat to the sheer misery I felt now. All because of Jace Wayland being in the same college as me.

Two arms wrapping around me from behind, and a head resting upon my shoulder made me snap out of it. It still was different than what I'd gone through. This time, Simon was around, with absolutely no foreseeable plans to leave anytime soon. Just that thought alone raised the dark cloud hanging over me, at least a bit.

As if reading my mind, I heard him whisper. "You're not alone anymore, Clary. I'm not going anywhere."

It's my mother's idea to go and get coffee, saying that we could all probably use it. I protest, saying my stuff needs to be unpacked, but I'm outvoted, the reasoning is that it'll all be there when we get back. The reasoning makes sense, and when I feel Simon holding me close, asking me quietly if I'm okay, I can't find it in me to protest anymore. Because it's been two years since we went to a coffee shop and sat across from each other over two steaming, sugary drinks, and I want all of our traditions to return. Starting right now.

"Feels like old times, huh?" He asks me, breath tickling my ear a bit, making me smile at him.

"Yeah. It does." I agree with him. "Oh! And you remember that movie I was telling you about last weekend? I have it, so if you want to come over this Friday, we can have a movie night and watch it."

"You think I'd be stupid enough to say no?" He asks me in return, eyes shining a bit behind his glasses, out of pure excitement. Hell, we could watch a movie entirely in Japanese and I wouldn't complain!"

I can't fight off an evil little grin if my life depended on it. "I'm going to remember you said that, especially when you tickle me, I say something to blackmail you and make you freak, and you give me free reign to pick whatever I want for movie night as a favor." And it would happen, too. I know for a fact it would, because it happened many times since we started the tradition in seventh grade.

He appeared completely calm, as if I hadn't issued the biggest threat he's ever known, aside from that one year I hid his comics on him and nearly made him hyperventilate from sheer panic. "I've changed since then."

"Yeah, and maybe Jace went gay." I crack back, making him bust out laughing. It was strange, for the last few years, if I had a confrontation like that with Jace, I'd be holed up in my room or a coffee shop, well into my second mug by now, letting the event play over and over in my mind until I got the chance to talk to Simon. With him here now, it was as if the event, though it had occurred, happened weeks ago, instead of less than an hour ago.

It was a feeling I could definitely get used to, especially with Simon around.