A/N: Hello again, my little fanfiction friends. For those of you reading any of my other stories, don't worry. I'm still working on them. But I've had this idea in my head for a while, and I really felt the need to write it down. (Well, type it down, anyways.)

Full Summary: When her mother suddenly decides it's time to move, Clary is determined to find out why. And when a mysterious blond boy and his shadowhunter family meet her, they just assume she's another mundie. Clary knows nothing of their world, but when Jace starts falling for the forbidden girl, and strange things start coming after her, they're all determined to figure out what's going on and who Clary really is.

Sadly, no, I'm not Cassandra Clare, which means I really don't own too much of this. And if I was Cassandra Clare, I wouldn't be wasting my time with this.

Songs:

Follow Me Down- 3OH!3 ft. Neon Hitch

Heard The World- O.A.R

Clary POV

When I first saw the moving truck in front of our house, I just assumed they were in the wrong place. When my mother told me to just bring the important things, I just assumed we were going on a vacation or something. But when she brought out the boxes, I knew something was wrong.

My mother, Jocelyn, had been acting weird for almost a week. She was always edgy and paranoid, and she snapped at me over the smallest things. But when she started packing her clothes, I realized something was wrong.

"Clary, stop arguing with me. Just take this boxes and go pack your clothes. Don't bring anything else except your clothes and your sketchbook." When I opened my mouth to protest, she glared at me. "Now." She told me in a tone that left no room for arguing.

I've never understood a lot of the stuff my mother does, but when she gets like this, I know something serious is going on. And although I didn't want to, I went up the stairs with the boxes she'd given me and started throwing my clothes haphazardly into them.

The fact that I couldn't bring anything except clothes and my sketchbook was kind of upsetting, but I wasn't going to argue with my mother. I could hear her rushing around downstairs, packing the essentials and probably making a mess of what we weren't bringing.

So now here I was, leaning my head against the window of our car as I'd been doing for the past three hours. Luke was behind us, driving my car.

I can hardly remember a time in my life when Luke wasn't there, he's always been like my father. At first I'd assumed he was coming with us, but my mom said he was just driving my car to our new house and making sure we got settled.

In a situation like this, a normal person would be questioning like mad. But my mom can be kind of scary when she wants to be, and right now she was giving off the Don't-ask-any-questions-or-your-dead vibe. And when she gives off a vibe, you listen to it.

I'm not sure when I fell asleep, but I guess I did. When there's nothing to do in a car and it turns out to be, like, ten-thirty at night, I guess that's what happens.

I was being shaken awake by my mother when I finally opened my eyes. "Clary, come on. We're here." I sat up a little groggily and looked at the clock on the dashboard. One fifteen in the morning. Which meant we'd spent almost twelve hours driving.

My mother was already out of the car and opening the back of the moving truck, but I took a chance to look around first.

The house looked old and was built with gray wood, kind of like you'd expect a beach house (that wasn't owned by the rich) to look. It was two stories with a small wraparound porch, and even in the dark the grass looked a little yellow. The back of the house was surrounded by woods, and there were only two other houses that I could see, one next to us and another across the street.

"Clary!" My mother's stern voice broke through. "Get some of the boxes out of here and put them in the house." I sighed as I turned away and went over to the moving truck.

It looked kind of sad and lonely, since there weren't too many boxes. It made me feel a little better to know that our house didn't look like that; To know that our house wasn't lonely and empty. And hey, at least the next people who lived there wouldn't have to go and buy a bunch of new furniture.

I was still exhausted, so carrying the boxes into the house happened in a kind of haze for me. All I remember was seeing that there was also furniture in this house, and then after all of the boxes were inside I crashed right onto the couch and immediately fell asleep.

When I woke up in the morning, I heard my mom and Luke whispering in the kitchen. Well, I was guessing it was the kitchen. It almost sounded like they were arguing, and I could tell they didn't want me to hear.

But they didn't know I was awake, and so what do I do? I go and eavesdrop. I hid behind the wall near the archway.

"She's going to get suspicious, Jocelyn. You know her, Clary's going to want to know what's going on. You're going to have to tell her something."

"Yes, I'm going to have to tell her something, but it doesn't have to be the truth."

"Jocelyn!" Luke's whisper sounded exasperated. "You can't keep lying to her. She deserves to know the truth."

"Luke, I'm not going to tell her something that's just going to put her in more danger. He's already found us more than once, but if Clary knows the truth it will be that much easier for him."

Luke sighed. "I can't tell you how to raise your daughter, Jocelyn. Just know that one day she's going to find out, and it won't be pretty."

I heard a chair squeak as someone pushed it across the floor; I assumed Luke was getting up. I skittered silently back to the couch and lay down just in time. I heard Luke come into the living room, pause, and then I heard him walking to the door and opening it. It slammed closed, and I could have sworn it was intentional, like he knew I was awake and was giving me an excuse to get up.

I sat up and feigned a yawn just as my mom came into the room. She gave me a weary and tired smile and said, "We should start unpacking. But before we do, why don't you go see the rest of the house? You barely got in before you fell asleep last night."

As I looked through the rest of the house, I still got that old beach house feeling. There were two bathrooms, almost all the flooring throughout the whole house was that gray wood, and the furniture seemed old yet comfortable. I think the most modern part was actually the living room, which had both a fireplace and a large T.V.

It didn't take very long to unpack, but by the time we were done my lower back ached a little from all the bending over.

"Why don't you go outside and draw something, Clary? You may not like this place, but you have to admit that it's got beautiful landscape for drawing."

I smiled. "Yeah, I guess it does."

So I went outside and sat on the back lawn with my sketchbook and my pencils. At first I wasn't really sure what to draw, but for some reason I started sketching the house next door to ours. The light was hitting it perfectly, (which yeah, I know, sounds cliched and something exactly you'd expect an artist to say) so I just started drawing it. I'm not sure how long I sat there, but I was suddenly interrupted by a shadow falling across the page.

I looked up to see a very tall girl with straight black hair and an almost heart shaped face. She was strikingly beautiful and slightly intimidating.

"Hi." I said meekly. "I'm Clary."

The girl looked at me speculatively, then asked, "Did you guys just move in?"

I nodded. "Yeah, last night."

She smiled. "So I did hear something last night. I was getting a little paranoid and my brothers thought I was going insane."

I stood up and smiled back. "No, you weren't going insane. Although anyone who thinks we need to drive for twelve hours just to get to a new house is insane." I said, gesturing towards the house.

She smiled again and stuck out her hand for me to shake. "I'm Isabelle Lightwood. We live next door."

"Yeah, I kinda figured that out." I said as I shook her hand.

"So where'd you guys move from?"

I'd expected this question, and I was about to answer, but then I remembered something my mom had said while we were in the car.

"If anyone asks, you tell them we came from West Virginia."

"....Why?"

"Just do it, Clary. West Virginia, okay?"

"We came here from a pretty small town in West Virginia." I felt kind of bad lying to someone I barely knew, especially considering she was being so nice to me.

"Well, at least you're familiar with small towns. When we first moved here from New York, I almost went insane. I couldn't stand how quiet it was, and it rains so much. But I think it's starting to grow on me."

We went through all the usual questions, like how long she'd been here, why they moved, what our favorite things were. But when she got to the question, "Why'd you guys move?" I was struck dumb. I'd meant to ask my mom, but there hadn't really been any openings. And besides, from what I'd heard this morning, even if I'd asked I'm not sure she would have told me the truth.

I looked away, into the forest, and furrowed my brow. "To be honest, I'm not really sure. I think my mom just wanted a change in scenery." At least the first part was true.

"Hmm. Yeah, my mom wan-"

She was interrupted by a shout. "Izzy!"

Isabelle sighed. "I'm over here!" She shouted back. "I'm talking to the new neighbor."

A kind of tan, brown haired boy who looked a lot like Isabelle, came around the corner. He looked me over and raised an eyebrow. "New neighbor?" He asked.

Isabelle rolled her eyes. "Yes, that's what I just said. And yes, I did hear something last night. So ha!"

The boy rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine, you weren't hallucinating." Then he looked at me. "Hello, new neighbor girl. I'm Isabelle's brother, Alec."

"Actually, my name is Clary." I said as I shook his hand. "A lot shorter than new neighbor girl, don't you think?"

He smiled and then looked over at his sister. "Izzy, mom says she needs you to help her clean out the basement or something."

"Well why can't you help? I'm busy welcoming the new neighbors."

Alec rolled his eyes. "I can't help because Jace and I have to clean out the garage." He looked over at me and rolled his eyes. "Spring cleaning or something."

"But I can't leave this poor little girl to wander around all by herself."

"Hey!" I said indignantly. "I'm seventeen. I'm pretty sure I can 'wander' by myself just fine."

"Shh. You're my excuse. Just pretend you're like, a twelve year old or something." Isabelle mock-whispered.

Alec looked at me, confused. "You're really seventeen?"

I rolled my eyes and sighed, annoyed. "Yes, really. I'm small, okay? I get it."

They both smiled. "Yeah, I think that's pretty obvious." Alec said. I glared at him. "Hey, no need to get all defensive."

"Alec, go away. Stop insulting our new neighbor."

Alec rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay. Just get inside soon, before mom comes to drag you out by your hair."

"I wouldn't put it past her." Isabelle muttered.

Alec laughed. "Wouldn't put it past her? Don't you remember that time when you were five, and it was raining out but you refused to come inside because you were playing with-"

"Okay, I think that's enough for storytime." Isabelle said with her hand over Alec's mouth, laughing a little nervously.

"Izzy! Alec! What's taking you guys so long?" I heard a velvet voice shout.

A golden haired boy suddenly popped out of their garage and started walking towards the three of us. He was taller than his siblings, and had much more muscle than them. He was tan and his eyes shone gold, and he was obviously handsome. It was also obvious that he knew it.

When he got to us, he delicately raised an eyebrow at me, just as Alec had. "And who's this?" He asked, still staring at me.

"Jace, this is our new neighbor, Clary. Be nice to her. We don't want to scare her off on her first day here. And besides, she's the first girl around here even remotely close to my age that we've had in a while."

The boy, Jace, I guess, raised an eyebrow again. "Izzy, I'm not sure I'd consider thirteen close to our age. What, do they need a babysitter or something?"

I rolled my eyes and looked away, muttering something about how people need to get used to the fact that not every girl can be six feet tall.

"She's seventeen, Jace."

I still wasn't looking at him, but I could tell he was smirking. "Really? Are you sure."

I turned so I could glare at him. "Okay, we've already had this conversation. But since I'm not a complete asshat, I'll say it again." Now I started talking slowly, as if he was five years old. "Yes, I am small. No, I'm not twelve. Yes, I'm short for my age. And no, that still doesn't make me twelve years old. Yes, I'm really seventeen. Does that clear it all up for you?"

"Hmm. Asshat. That's a new one. Do you have a speech issue or something?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you can't seem to talk at a normal speed. So either you're completely struck dumb by my amazing looks or you have some speech issues."

"No, I do not have speech issues, and I'm definitely not 'struck dumb' by your looks. Especially since I think blond hair is superficial." I didn't really believe that, but I threw it in there anyways. "And as you can see, I can talk at a perfectly normal speed. I just thought you needed some slower talk to penetrate that thick skull of yours."

I could see Isabelle beaming out of the corner of my eyes. "I can tell I'm going to like you, Clary."

"I think I'm going to like her too. She seems......fun." I heard Jace murmur. I glared at him.

"Okay, before someone gets their eyes clawed out, let's go help mom. Or I will tell that little story from when you were five......" Alec said. Isabelle turned to give him and annoyed look and sighed.

"Fine. I'll see you later, Clary." She said as she started to walk away.

"Yeah, see you later Annie." Jace said as he started walking away. "Oh, nice drawing, by the way." He called over his shoulder.

I looked down at my sketchbook, which was still lying on the ground. I hadn't known I'd left it there.

And by the time I'd finally registered what he'd said, he was almost already back to his house. "Annie?" I shouted.

He just laughed and shouted back, "Either that or I could call you Shirley."

Was I just nicknamed after Little Orphan Annie?

Yeah. Awesome neighbors. Sure.

Sorry. Nothing epic in this chapter. But there's going to be some drama between Clary and her mom in the next chapter......

What do ya say about pressing the awesomely awesome green button right below this and telling me if I should continue? I'm not totally sure if this is good or not........