Disclaimer: Anything from the Mortal Instruments belongs to Cassandra Clare.

Clary stared at herself in the full-size mirror that hung on her closet door. After a week of preparing for the first day of school it all came down to the one last thing she'd yet to do: choose her outfit. She glanced at the clothes she was trying on - the black, run-down converse, green tights, blue denim shorts, a white long-sleeved shirt, and a dark green short-sleeved shirt on top. All-in-all, she was a fashion disaster.

She groaned and turned to look at Magnus, her friend, who was currently going through her perfumes and testing them all out.

He sprayed one on his wrist and brought it up to his nose to smell it and immediately crinkled up his face. "Ew, this one smells like wet dog. Seriously, where do you get these things? They're horrible!"

"Hey!" Clary yelled indignantly. She rushed over to him and took it away, placing it back on top of her dresser. "That one was a gift from Luke."

He laughed dryly. "Well, that would explain everything," he said. Clary rolled her eyes and walked back to the mirror turning sideways to see from different angles.

"So what do you guys think?" She asked both Magnus, who was still eying the perfumes, and Simon who was laying down on her bed playing with a PSP. "Do I look okay in this one?"

Simon paused the game he was playing and looked at her. He lifted his eyebrows in shock. "You're short. And you're wearing all green? You look like a leprechaun, Fray. That or an elf. Point is - no. I may not know a lot about fashion, but I do know that people only dress like that on Saint Patrick's day." She glowered at him and he shrugged then continued to play his game.

"Just because you're my best friend doesn't mean you can get away with these types of comments. In fact, I think that because you're my best friend you're supposed to be saying I look awesome," She argued.

"But then that would be lying, and what kind of a friend would I be then?" He pointed out without a glance in my direction. I scowled and turned to Magnus.

"What do you think?"

Magnus, finally managing to step away from the perfumes, scrutinized her from top to bottom. He shook his head ruefully. "Not even Jessica Biel could pull that one off, honey, and she looks gorgeous in anything." He walked towards her, a trail of glitter in his wake. He grabbed her by the elbow and started twirling her around in order to see her better. He sighed. "You are hopeless. I sometimes wonder how you managed to dress yourself these past ten years without causing at least a few people to go blind." She could hear Simon snort in the background.

She narrowed her eyes and jerked her arm away from his grasp. "Don't you have somewhere to be? You know, with that one guy you're always talking about?"

He instantly cheered up and clasped his hands together. With a dreamy look he said, "His name is Alec and he's my boyfriend not just some guy. Please Clarissa, you should know this already. We've been dating for the past two weeks."

She shook her head and smiled, Magnus' prior comment forgotten. "I know. When are you sending out the wedding invitations?" She joked.

"Soon enough, my dear. I've yet to decide whether I'm going to decorate them in glitter or if I should make the paper itself multicolored." Clary laughed and moved to lay down next to Simon on the bed.

"You're crazy, Magnus," Clary said. She looked over to see what Simon was playing. It looked like all he was doing was shooting people.

"Crazy in love," Magnus responded. His smile faded and was replaced by a frown. "In answer to your previous question, though, Alec is out with his siblings. His sister insisted on taking him shopping with her, what with being new and all, and they felt a need to stand out or something so now I'm left here all by my lonesome self." He made a great big show of sighing and putting his hand on his forehead as though he were about to faint.

"You're not alone. You've been with us all day," Simon said. He shifted on the bed so that Clary could get closer and see the game better. It wasn't very interesting to her, but she enjoyed seeing Simon when he played. He was always making weird facial expressions and shouting at the other players as though they could hear him.

"Like I said. My lonesome self," Magnus repeated.

"This is the last time I let you hang out with us if you don't even consider us as good company," Clary said, halfheartedly. She was getting tired and laying down with Simon always made her sleepy for some reason. He was just so warm.

"Oh, I was just joking darling." She heard footsteps moving and looked up to see Magnus walking towards the door. "Alright then, honey bunches of oats, I shall see you two tomorrow. I need to look fabulous tomorrow and it's going to take me hours to get everything right." He put his hand on the doorknob and opened the door. "And Clary don't over think the clothes. Just wear whatever you want I'm sure it'll work out. If not…then I don't know you at school."

"How rude!" Clary grabbed a pillow and threw it at him which turned out to be futile when he ducked. "I don't ever shun you even when you look like a rainbow all the time."

"That's because I'm so marvelous." This time both Clary and Simon rolled their eyes. "See you." With that he stepped out and shut the door behind him.

Clary listened to his receding footsteps and wondered how Magnus had turned out the way he was. After he came out to his parents when he was sixteen the year before they disowned him. She would've thought that he would be depressed and maybe have trouble with his sexuality, but instead he embraced it and flaunted it to the world. Clary wished she could be as confident as him.

After a while of watching Simon pointlessly swear, she asked him, "Why do you play this game so much if all you do is get mad at it?"

"I don't get mad at it I get frustrated because the other players are making me lose and what do you mean so much? I've only been able to play four hours a day ever since I was forced to volunteer at the synagogue."

Clary snorted. She knew it was very unattractive, especially when she did it in front of cute guys, but she couldn't help it. "Only? That's enough time to clean an entire house, read a small book, run a few miles, cook dinner, stop global warming -" She was cut off by Simon.

"Ha ha. I get the idea, Fray. You don't understand, though." He paused the game and turned to look at her. "I've only been getting thirty kills in one game when I should be getting at least fifty. You may not be a math whiz, but you should be able to see that that is a difference of twenty meaning I am very behind and I need to catch up to everyone else before Eric and all the other guys start making fun of me." He had said it all so solemnly Clary couldn't help but laugh.

He pushed her causing her to almost roll off the bed. She stopped herself before she actually did and sat up, still trying to hold in her laughter. "I'm sorry, Simon. It's just that, seriously? Surely, there must be much more interesting, productive things you could do with your free time."

"Not really. Just the synagogue thing." He sat up, too, and turned off his PSP putting it aside.

"Speaking of, how is that?"

"Eh, it's fine. The Rabbi has me going around talking to people about Jewish stuff and reading the bible. Its kind of boring actually."

"Sounds like it."

He smacked her playfully on the arm. "Just because you're an atheist and you have no heart."

She gasped, feigning being hurt. "I'm offended. I'm not an atheist."

He laughed. "Of course, that's the part that you would deny. So you're admitting that you have no heart."

Oh come on Simon. You know me better than anyone else."

"So it's been confirmed." They both laughed when Clary jumped Simon and pretended to strangle him.

"You tell anyone and you will be subjected to my wrath," Clary said with her hands still around Simon's neck.

He was trying to pry them away, but her hands were so small it was nearly impossible. "Oh really? And what would be worse than this?" He asked in a strained voice.

Clary thought about it. "I will tell everyone that you're still a virgin."

Simon furrowed his brow. "So are you."

Clary let go of Simon and watched as he sat up and started rubbing his neck. For a second, she thought she might have actually hurt him, but when he took his hands away she noticed she didn't even leave a mark. She frowned. "You don't know that, and anyway for a guy who's a junior it's even more embarrassing."

He pondered it for a moment before saying, "True. Okay, Clary, your secret of having no heart will be safe with me as long as mine is safe with you."

They both laughed. "Deal." and they shook on it giving it a more formal feel even if they were just playing around.

Simon stood up and glanced at the clock on the bureau. It was nearly ten pm. He yawned causing Clary to yawn as well.

"Seems like we're both sleepy," Simon pointed out.

"Not really. Did you know yawns are contagious?" Clary asked.

Simon looked at her as though she just said that the sun is yellow. "Yes, Clary, I did know that. Actually, I think I remember me telling you that fact a few days ago when I read it in that People magazine."

Clary flushed, embarrassed that she hadn't remembered that. "ha, well…yeah. Now we know twice," she finished lamely.

"You're so weird," Simon said.

"You're weirder." She said, sounding like a five year old.

Simon grabbed his PSP and walked to the door, just like Magnus had done almost a half hour before. "It's getting late, Fray, I have to go to sleep. And so do you so I'll see you tomorrow. I'll pick you up at 7:30."

"Yeah, fine. You and Magnus were as useful as a trench coat on a summer day, by the way," she called out to him.

"Hey, I never said I was going to help you choose your clothes. I just said I would hang with you guys."

Clary grumbled, knowing he was right.

"Kay, Simon. Good night."

He walked out the door and left Clary alone. She took off all her clothes and changed into her pajamas. She laid down on her bed and dreaded the fact that the first day of school was the next day. She was nervous about it. It was the first day of her Junior year, as an upperclassmen, and she knew that the outfit people wore on the first day was the basis of how you were judged by everyone else which was the only reason she was even making a big deal out of it. Normally she wouldn't, but she also wanted to get in good with the other people because she decided that this was the year that she was going to stand out. She had gotten into Dance Bravo, the school dance team, and she was going to be on top.