In The Deep

Chapter 7

After they arrived at the school, Clary thanked them for the ride so many times that Isabelle told her to shut up and go to school. She thanked them one more time before walking to her locker to get her books and wasn't surprised to see that Jace was already there. Clary opened her locker and he turned to look at her.

"Hey-" He said and Clary interrupted him, raising her palm up.

"Don't say it." She said and Jace seemed amused, as always.

"Say what?" He asked closing his locker and leaned against it with his shoulder. Clary glared at him quickly.

"Locker-buddy." She said and Jace laughed before biting his lip, thoughtfully.

"Fine, you have a point. It sounds absolutely horrible." He admitted, nodding along his words and Clary gave him that "I made my point" -look, as she took her math book and then closed her locker. Suddenly she remembered Isabelle asking her that what was going on with her and Jace, Clary couldn't help feeling kinda glad that she felt so easy around him. It was weird and completely new to her, but she liked it.

Suddenly the bell rang, snapping Clary out of her thoughts.

"Have fun in math." Jace said glancing at her book and Clary rolled her eyes.

"Have fun in..." She said tilting her head to see the title of the book he was holding. "Geography." She said cheerfully and Jace grinned.

"I sure will." He said smiling as he walked past her. "See you." He said smirking at her before turning away completely. Clary smiled after him before turning to the other direction and making her way to her math class. She hated math, it gave her a headache. It was too much thinking, there was already enough to think about in life that made you stay up all night, so why add math to it?

After a while Clary was sitting in front of her desk in math class and staring down at a piece of paper in front of her. She couldn't concentrate at all. Her mind kept wondering all the time and for some reason she kept seeing those golden eyes staring back at her. Clary cursed at herself in her mind and then forced herself to focus on the math problems in front of her. Like she didn't have enough problems already. She started counting them and filling them up, not really double checking if it was completely correct. She had too much in her mind right now and it wasn't like she was going for perfect, she was going for passing.

After the pain and torture that people called math, Clary walked out of the class room, making her way to her locker. Suddenly someone shoved her from behind and she stumbled forward, dropping her book. It slided along the hall and Clary sighed. She glared behind herself and saw couple of assholes laughing about it. Clary went after her book quickly, falling down on her knees and picking it up. She gazed up and saw Jace standing above her.

"I was thinking about being a gentleman and picking it up, but you beat me to it." He said shrugging and Clary rolled her eyes as she got up from the floor.

"Well, I appreciate the thought." She said briefly and walked to her locker, Jace following to his own.

"They just do that to you?" He asked and Clary turned to look at him as she opened her locker.

"Huh?" She asked raising her brows and Jace rolled his eyes like he shouldn't be explaining this.

"Those jerks." He said nodding towards the hallway where assholes had disappeared after having their fun.

"Oh, it's fine." Clary said shrugging as she shoved her math book into her locker and started looking for her history book. She saw Jace looking at her from the corner of her eye, his golden eyes looking alert as always. She turned to him slowly. "What?"

"Just because you're used to it, doesn't make it fine." He said and Clary rolled her eyes as she turned back to her locker.

"Forget about that." She said reaching at the back of her locker, standing on her tiptoes, until she reached her history book.

"Forget about that? They shouldn't even get to do that." Jace said motioning with his hands, his geography book swinging dangerously close to Clary's head.

"It's nothing new, it's nothing big." Clary said closing her locker, but Jace still didn't seem convinced.

"Maybe for you, but I'm not gonna stand and watch." He said simply smiling. For a while Clary had been happy that someone actually cared, thinking it was cute. But now she was horrified.

"Please, don't do anything." She said and Jace frowned.

"Why not?" He asked, his book swinging in the air again and Clary grabbed it, putting his hand down.

"Because it's not about you. Because I don't care about them and it's working just well like this." She said and Jace seemed even more horrified.

"You think that's 'working just well'? It's definitely not 'working just well' if you're already used to being pushed around by those assholes." He said and Clary took a deep breath.

"Just please, don't do anything. Stay out of it. Please. I'm asking nicely." She said looking up at him and Jace looked at her like he was trying to think about it.

"Fine, I'll let it go this time. Only because you asked nicely. But if that happens again, I'm not gonna stand still and watch, I swear to God they won't be laughing anymore." He said and Clary couldn't help laughing.

"Fine, they'll just beat the crap out of you if you try to fight back, but don't come crying to me and say that I didn't warn you." She said shrugging and turned away, making her way to her history class.

"Don't you even hear how sad is that?" Jace asked and Clary turned around on her heels, smiling.

"Let it go, it's nothing. Not a big deal." She said turning back away. The truth was, it was starting to feel like a big deal because Clary was trying so hard to convince Jace, and herself, that it was nothing. She was used to it and so were a lot of other students, it wasn't that big of a deal.