Promises (The Mortal Instruments College AU)

Chapter Four: The Party

Despite getting a good night’s sleep, Clary was still overly tired the next day. Classes went by in a blur. She only really woke up in Shakespeare and the Classical Tradition. The class spent the day covering some of Shakespeare’s first plays. Professor Swank revealed that they would be reciting pieces of a play with a partner for their first assignment. 

Jace leaned over and poked Clary with the end of his pen to get her attention. She looked over at him as he scribbled a note in the margin of her notebook.

‘Wanna work on it together?’

His handwriting, she noted, was neat for a boy. The letters looped together in an almost cursive font; however it was still in enough print that it was easy to read.

‘Sure.’ She wrote back. Her own handwriting was very defined. Each letter was carefully printed so that it was perfectly readable. Writing extra legibly became a habit when she was in third grade. Her teachers could never read her work, so she had to spend a lot of time on writing neatly. Now it was just natural.

Jace flashed a thumbs up and a grin before returning to listening to the professor. The rest of class was simple enough. They mainly took notes on plays, the time period around them, and watched snippets from reenactments of how it would have been performed during that time period. After class, Jace turned towards Clary, smile set on his face.

“I think we should do ‘The Comedy of Errors.’ It’ll be funny,” he suggested. She nodded slowly, taking in what he was saying.

“Sounds good. Let me know when you’re free to work on it.” She began gathering up her books.

“What do you mean?”

She stopped and looked at him. “I just figured you’re a busy person. So just tell me when you want to work on the assignment,” she clarified slowly.

“I’m not that busy. Besides, even if I was, I can make time.” A thought seemed to occur to him. “Are you coming to the party at my house tonight?” They started walking out of the room and into the courtyard.

“Yeah, Isabelle said there were people she wanted to introduce me to.” She stopped. “Wait, your house?”

“Yup; why’s that a shocker? I told you that’s where I was heading last night.”

Clary remembered what he had said. It didn’t register to her at that moment. “Wow. Must be nice,” she said thoughtfully.

“It is. Except for the fact that I still have to live with four other people. But, it’s still more of my own space.”

They reached the point where their paths separated. “Bye,” Clary said.

“See you tonight!” Jace replied, turning away with a grin.

Clary smiled to herself and headed to Art and Its Growth. It was going to be a work day for their projects. She didn’t like the idea of her first grade being such a big project, but it made sense. The teacher wanted to see what they were made of, what they could and were willing to do. Taking a seat next to Jonathan, he looked up and smiled at her.

“Hey, Clary. Got the stuff for our project with you?” He asked.

She nodded and pulled out the notes and work that they had done the night before. They started working on it immediately and Clary pulled her wild red hair back into a ponytail.

“So, we’re focusing this on his paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, right?” Clary asked, looking down at her notes and where she had written out an outline for the essay. When Jonathan didn’t respond right away, she looked over at him. His face was only a few inches from hers, and he was staring at her with an odd amount of interest. Clary leaned back a little without thinking, which seemed to snap him out of his reverie. She wished that she had left her hair down to give her something to hide her face.