Chapter 8: Just putting out a fire

Jace POV

I heard the door open and quickly shoved the book back into her bag. Trying to act casual, I crossed my arms behind my head, lying back on my bed's headboard.

Clary walked in, chin in the air and her jaw set. She held a confident and stubborn pose like she was steeling herself for something that she wasn't looking forward to doing. The only thing that betrayed her was her eyes. They darted around nervously before finally coming to rest on me.

I expected her to blush, giggle, and look away like most girls did when I looked at them directly. Instead, she squared her shoulders and looked right back at me.

"Alright, where should we start?" she asked me. I blinked, she was so forward.

"Well, the assignment is something that makes us unique, right? So, to get an A, which I'm guessing you care about, we need to do something that sets us apart." She glanced at me, and then began to pace, chin in her hand.

"You're right; I do want an A, and we do need to be different. Other people are going to do some sort of symbol that represents them, something that represents a moment in their lives. That's what regular teachers would want, something, like that, but—"

"—but, Mrs. Fischer isn't a regular teacher." I finished her thoughts for her.

"Exactly, she's…well, nuts," she admitted honestly. I chuckled. I inwardly shrugged, I knew she had never disrespected teachers or said a word against them, but Mrs. Fischer was definitely off her rocker to say the least.

"So, something different could be…I don't know. Something that's not a symbol." She continued pacing.

"Well, we could take this freakishly literally and actually make a drawing, painting, or sketch of a moment in our lives," I suggested. She stopped in place, turning the idea over and over in her head.

"That could work." She acquiesced. I thought about what I would do, and then realized that the only thing that was going to get me a decent grade was something painfully personal.

"But," I began, and she glanced at me in apprehension, "no questions about anything we might draw unless we offer up the information freely." She nodded quickly, eyes big.

"Same thing for me," she agreed.

"All right, let's get started." I prompted. She stopped chewing on her lip and began to rummage around in her bag, pulling out her sketchbook. She glanced up at me as I watched her.

"Uh…listen, this is kind of personal, so…please don't look at it." She requested hesitantly. I felt guilty.

"Sure, no problem, Red." She glared at me.

"Are we going to have this conversation again? My name's not Red, you know that." She said. I got up and approached her, quietly, taking my time to make her uncomfortable.

"Are you going to remind me what your name is, little girl?" I stared down at her, smirking. She glared right back up, both eyebrows raised.

"You're thicker than I thought if you can't remember something I told you at least twice today alone." She stated.

"Maybe I just like calling you different things," I whispered and took a curl of her hair, studying it closely.

"And maybe," she started, "I'll break your wrist if you don't stop touching my hair. So, if you want to keep those fingers attached to the rest of you, I suggest you keep your hands off me," she smiled angelically up at me. I smirked, but didn't let go of her hair.

When I didn't back away, she reached a hand up and curled her small fingers around my neck, bringing me closer. She was still smiling innocently up at me as my breath caught at our close proximity. She raised her eyebrows and her smile turned devious. I didn't see her move, but suddenly I was gasping for air as she kneed me in the stomach as hard as she could. I released her hair and moved away, clutching my ribs.

"Point taken…Clary," I gasped out, not losing my smirk. She turned away, but not before I could see her blush at my use of her name and the grin she tried to hide.

"Okay then," she said, "now that we've gotten that sorted out…let's get started."

We both sat down on my bed and began.

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Clary POV:

I was perched cautiously on the edge the bed with my sketchbook balanced on my knees, pencil poised and hovering over the paper. I set the tip to the paper, paused, and then drew it back again, chewing on my lip.

I got nothing, I realized.

"Me neither," Jace stated from beside me. I furrowed my brow in confusion before coming to the conclusion that I had spoken aloud. I sighed in frustration and tossed my sketchbook from my lap to the bed.

"I don't…do what I do on command." I felt frustrated and a little embarrassed that I couldn't manage to do the thing that I loved the most. I sighed and flopped back onto his bed. I could feel him staring at me. I glanced over and saw him looking at me, just looking.

When we made eye contact, I had to suppress the urge to tear my gaze away and look anywhere but him. I couldn't hold off the blush that flooded my cheeks no matter how much I tried.

I held his gaze and slowly sat up. I couldn't stop studying his golden eyes as they bore into mine. As mesmerizing as his gaze was, I eventually wrenched my own away to stare back at my face.

"Anyways…" I breathed, trying to pull the attention back to our project. I saw him smirk at me as if he knew how uncomfortable he I was under his scrutiny. He probably did. I slowly breathed in and out, trying to control my nerves.

He was gorgeous, I knew it, he definitely knew it. But, he had a less-than-flattering reputation. Basically, he was an ass. I wasn't going to fall victim to his 'charms'. I wasn't going to be another girl in his long line of…well, girls.

"So, for this project, I was thinking that we could integrate both of our sketches so that they meant something, you know?" I left my train of thought hanging there for him to pick up on. His smirk grew, and I steeled myself for one of the scathing, sarcastic remarks he was famous for, but got none. I looked over and saw him with his pencil scratching over the paper. His hair was swept in front of his face, hiding it from my view so I couldn't see his expression, but I imagined it was one of intense concentration.

I leaned over to get a peek at what he was drawing. It looked like foreign designs spreading across the page, spiraling from the tip of his pencil. They looked like a mix betweens something utterly foreign, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Chinese characters. The individual designs were thick lined and heavily shaded with graceful curves and the occasional flourish flowing off the center of the character. They reminded me of a long forgotten language with its own alphabet and expression.

"They're runes." Jace answered my silent question. "One time, years ago, I decided to research forgotten languages and writing and stumbled across this one. I have no idea where it comes from. I only found pieces of information mentioning a race sent to Earth to protect us from the demons of every culture and religion."

He pointed at one in the left corner of the page, still looking down.

"This one means strength," he crossed to the other side and gestured at another one, "and this one stands for remembrance and mourning." He spoke in hushed tones, no more than a whisper.

"Is there one for fearlessness?" I questioned. I could definitely make use of a lack of fear. He shook his head, the first genuine smile I'd ever seen from him pulling at the corners of his mouth.

"No, there isn't." I leaned back, in concentration, then, acting on an impulse, reached again and took the paper and pencil from his hands, grazing his long fingers in the process.

I barely noticed the contact as I was wrapped up in my own mind desperately clinging to a shred of an image I had imagined.

I set the pencil to the page and moved it along, just barely making a mark at first then thickening it as I grew more confident. I flicked my wrist at the tailed off endings and followed the curves as delicately as I could until I felt it was finished.

I pulled the pencil back and glanced up at Jace who was still staring at the drawing I had just completed. I labeled it: fearless, then set it down.

"Well," I began, chewing on my lip at his lack of response, "now there is one."

"Now, there is," he repeated, shifting his gaze up to stare into my eyes once more.

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Time skip

Clary's POV:

I was dreading the morning…for several reasons. First, I had to go to school, that alone was enough to put a damper on my day. Second, I had to face Jace…again. Third, Ethan. Enough said. I knew today was going to suck, so I decided to keep my head down and try to draw as little attention to myself as possible.

Knowing my luck, that wasn't going to happen.

I got school and immediately pulled my hood up to hide my face. I looked around cautiously…and sighed. Jace was looking at me. Well, more like smirking at me. I got the feeling that he knew what I was trying to do.

I scowled at him from across the parking lot. He winked back at me. I stuck my tongue out at him because that's what mature adults do, right?

I hurried down the pavement to Izzy and Simon's side…which, unfortunately, was right next to Jace. Well, at least it was better than being trapped with Ethan.

"Clary," Izzy's attention snapped me out of my thoughts, "you're birthday is in a week. Do you know what that means?" I sighed, knowing where she was going with this.

"…that I get an entire day of hanging around with you and Simon, my two best friends, and my brothers because they wouldn't leave me alone anyways?" I prompted hopefully. Iz shot me a look.

"No. It means that we are going shopping!" I groaned, knowing Izzy, I would be running around a mall from the better part of my day. I looked from Simon to Alec, then to Magnus.

"Don't let the Iz take me," I pleaded jokingly. We had a running joke about how Izzy can get anyone to do anything when she was in her intimidating Iz mode.

"Sorry, Clare, no one can resist Iz." Alec chuckled at my fake display of fear.

I made a big show of looking disappointed and afraid for my life before sighing and giving in.

"Fine, Iz, but I swear if you make me buy anything that makes me look even shorter than I am, I will take one boot from every pair of boots you have so you have to find them again and fill them with Magnus's glitter so they don't match anymore," I threatened her, laughing so she could see I was kidding.

"You wouldn't."She glared at me, obviously imagining her life without her gigantic collection of beloved boots. I raised my eyebrows and smiled cunningly in challenge.

"I make no promises." She stated before wrapping her arm around Simon's waist and leading him away to their first class.

I chuckled at their retreating forms. I felt pressure on my head and looked up to see Magnus resting his arm in my hair, effectively reminding me of how short I was compared to, well, everyone.

"What was that about stealing my glitter stash?" He glared at me, wrapping his other arm around Alec. I laughed and spun away from his arm not looking where I was going. As my luck would have it, I ran into something, or someone.

I craned my neck up, expecting to gaze up into luminous golden eyes. Instead, I found myself staring into muddy brown eyes that were a little too close for comfort. Ethan.

I jerked away, this time it was into Jace. I wanted to apologize to Jace and glare at Ethan defiantly, but, my body wasn't responding. My eyes stayed locked on Jace even as he addressed Ethan.

"Watch where you're walking, Evan." Jace said it quietly, but it was received as it was; a thinly veiled threat.

"My name is Ethan," Ethan corrected haughtily, but Jace wasn't even listening, he was dragging me away by the elbow. I snapped to my senses and tried to jerk my arm away, but he held on.

"Where are you taking me?" I demanded. He smirked, still not looking at me directly.

"First period, Re—Clary," He finished after I glared at him pointedly, "or did you not hear the five minute bell?" I shut my mouth; I hadn't heard the bell actually. I was…distracted, to say the least.

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I was breathing hard. My gym class was playing dodgeball, and Ethan was on the opposite team. So, guess who my target was. That's right, Ethan is going down hard. My team usually won dodgeball, nobody else had caught up to it yet, but I was good a dodgeball. I was quick, small, and, most importantly, underestimated. No one targeted me. That was fine by me.

I was moving as fast as I could until I could get a clean shot at Ethan, even if I got out on an illegal head shot. I was past the point of being civil towards that slimeball.

Faster, faster, faster. I urged myself to move quicker than I already was. Thankfully, I have pretty good instincts and even better reflexes because, targeted or not, the other team had every good player except for Jace, and the crowd on our side was thinning quickly.

I moved to the corner, ducking a few projectiles when I found my shot. He was slightly turned away from me. I took a breath, and threw it as hard as I could. It hurtled through the air and hit him squarely in the side.

Out. He was out.

Almost half of his team turned towards me and focused their fury on my corner. Apparently, they don't like their star playing getting out because of a five foot nothing redhead girl. I barely had time to think, oh shit before a dozen plastic balls bombarded me. Being the stubborn redhead that I am, I did everything I could to stay in the game. I dodged and weaved everything that came at me, though I didn't catch anything. Whereas most people had an instinct to catch things, my instincts screamed; get out of the freaking way before it hits you!

I took a breath and decided that if I was going to survive this game and the ones to come I was going to have to learn a new skill. I let my breath out and jumped in the way of a ball. I brought my hands up and they closed around the ball. I looked up, the guy who had thrown it was stunned….he was also out of the game. I grinned, this was fun. From then on, I was basically a ninja, not to brag.

Finally, I was one of three in on my team facing down the 10+ on the other side. I glanced around, Aline, Jace, and me. Jace caught my eye…and winked. What? I wondered, before dodging another onslaught of offensive tactics from the other team. Suddenly, Jace was there by my side.

We moved quickly, working flawlessly together to beat the other team down. Alone, we were vulnerable. Together, we had a second defense, a second pair of eyes, and a second offense.

Together, we OWNED that court. Aline had gotten out long ago (she had only stayed in by hiding in the corner and shrieking each time a ball came near her), and it was finally down to Jace, me, and one more person on the other side. He was Ethan's best friend, and he was pissed. At me. (More than likely because I had gotten Ethan out) Oops. He was out of ammunition, and we were loaded.

I half turned to Jace and smirking, tilted my head towards the other guy; you want to do the honors? I silently asked. He grinned back his consent, then his eyes widened. I followed his gaze to see one more ball was hurtling towards me. He must have hidden it behind his back. I thought. I froze, locked in place. I could only watch; eyes wide with fear as the plastic ball that looked so much like a glass bowl my father had once flung at my head with frightening strength and anger drew closer every second. It was eye level, and moving fast enough to knock me over. It was definitely an illegal shot.

I cringed back as it neared only to watch as a golden hand shot out and grabbed it inches from my nose. I looked over to see Jace, with his brow furrowed in concentration and golden eyes trained on me, grasping the dodge ball that had almost knock me unconscious.

He then flung that ball back at its original owner and he was declared out.

I grasped my ribs as my breath came in short pants and grinned at Jace who looked almost more energized after 45 minutes of playing as hard as we possibly could. His gaze shifted to me and we stood there grinning at each other before the bell rang and we had to leave class.

Walking out of class, I felt good. It had been freeing, almost therapeutic to shut Ethan down like that. After two years of him not leaving me alone, I was relieved to legally deal out some payback.

I turned a corner and froze for the second time that day. Ethan was standing there with a murderous look on his face and his hands balled into fists. I glanced around wildly, looking for someone or something to defend myself with.

Just as his fingers fisted in my shirt I brought the first object I had reached cracking down on his shoulder.

A fire extinguisher. He let go with a yell and I swung it again, this time catching him across the head. Not enough force to seriously injure him, but enough to make him fall to the ground.

"What happened here?" demanded a voice from behind me. I spun around, my red locks splaying across my shoulders to find Jace standing behind me looking utterly confused.

"What are you doing with that?" He asked, his eyes flicking from unconscious Ethan to the fire extinguisher held high in my hands, to my emerald eyes sparking in fading panic.

I looked up at the fire extinguisher. There really was no good explanation to what I would need a fire extinguisher for.

"I was just, you know, uh, thought I saw a…fire?" He glanced at me amused and incredulous at my outright lie.

"A fire." He repeated, starting to grin.

"Yep," I set the fire extinguisher down, "just putting out a fire."

Hey guys! So, this chapter is ginormous for me, it's exactly 3,255 words! :D The fire extinguisher idea came from my awesome reviewer .TMI who coincidentally has my favorite series in your name! Thank you to all of my reviewers. I decided to do the 'protect from afar' thing because that's what my reviewers wanted! I'm going to try and do two other storied that I have ideas for, check them out, both are TMI but my other stories are PJO/HOO, thanks for everything, I'll try to update soon. REVIEWS = CHAPTERS

-Phoenix