A World Reversed

Part 5

Disclaimer: I don't own The Mortal Instruments. I don't own anyone. This setting was based on an idea from a short film on youtube, but the plot is original. Cassandra Claire owns the characters.

"Clary slow down, will you?" Simon groaned, running to catch up to my fast pace. "Us nerds can only go two paces: the study-walk and the bully-run, neither of which are ever fast enough."

I stopped and looked at him. He held his hands up in surrender and shut his mouth. We continued our walk in the doors of the school and straight into the cafeteria, but Jace wasn't there.

Or Isabelle and Alec.

Right. I sighed in defeat. "Okay, what's going on?" Simon asked, grabbing my shoulder. I spun around on him, frowning. But I was tired of keeping this worry inside me for a full twelve hours. I sighed and looked at my feet.

"My dads, uh, kicked Jonathon out because he let Isabelle in the band," I admitted. Simon gasped lightly. I gulped. "The Lightwood's helped him clean up, but I never saw where he went after that."

Simon was pale and looking around the school nervously despite the fact that we already agreed they weren't here. "If the school finds out a kid with such low grades is straight, Clary, they'll find any excuse to kick him out, too."

I cursed in my head. With all this drama, I'd totally forgotten about that. Our schools were technically not allowed to discriminate, but that didn't stop the board from knit picking to find any and every reason to expel a jig. It happened with Will Herondale, which was the main reason the news that we had sex hadn't spread around school so much yet. They kept the smart ones like Jace, who was a chemistry whiz. I didn't know or want to know if they knew I had done hetero acts, but my drawing talents would keep me either way. But Jon... "He's not straight, though, Simon! But by associating so intensely with them he may as well be. Dammit, he had D's in all of his classes except music. I'd be surprised if they haven't already."

Simon glanced around the school, at our especially moody principal. "Only one way to find out." He looked to the principal then to me. I was not going to go over there. He already hated me for painting a mural on the bleachers one night – I was a little drunk but it looked awesome. If I went to him, there was no way the news about my brother wouldn't spill, if not from him then from me. He had mind power persuasions.

My inner argument didn't matter, however, because he came up to me. "Clary Morgenstern, I am so sorry for your loss." He put a hand on my shoulder. Our principal was an old man who had wrinkles under his black beady eyes and on his forehead. This man had grey hair and a sweet smile; he was the devil. He was cunningly playing the innocent look.

"Why? My brother didn't die," I glared. These people thought so low of jigs, even if the person was just close with one. It was like he was suddenly a new person now. Why would he change just because he befriended a jig?

He paused in his words, almost not expecting such attitude. I narrowed my eyes at him. Who did he think he was? This was both my brother and a personal, family matter. He didn't have the right to speak so openly about either. "We-well, yes, but I can only imagine the loss you're feeling right now. No heterosexual brother will ever be the same as homo Jonathon." He said with such old fashioned displeasure as he shook his head. 'What a shame' his eyes berated. I began to fire back until I heard his last sentence. My mouth stopped, hung open in utter confusion. My principal didn't notice. He pulled out a handkerchief. "I must be going, but give this back to Jo for me, will you? He left it here this morning."

I stood there for a moment, trying to still my anger. My own dad had no shame in starting not just a gossip line, but a rumor as well, and that was something I that truly got under my skin. My dads cared so little about family privacy it was insulting. How could they ever expect me to confide in them with secrets when Jo goes out and tells the whole world an exaggerated form of it? I knew full well that Jonathon wasn't straight. He was too normal to be straight. Heteros had this vibe about them, something mysterious or silently secretive like Jace had. Isabelle, too, kept her own secrets with her wicked ways, but Jonathon? It wasn't possible.