Distractions

Twelve: You Don't Know Her As Well As You Think

Ahhh! I'm so sorry for not updating last week! I had exams on top of my usual course load, but school is out for the summer, so I shouldn't miss too many uploads in the future, save when I have camps or plans with my family. But that's a future Emmy problem. For now, enjoy the...er, fun???...chapter. There's some hints towards something that'll be important later in the story too. If you can figure it out, you get fifty points to your Hogwarts house, and if you don't have a Hogwarts house you get virtual cookies instead.

Ew. English is terrible and can go burn in a fiery pit with the person who decided putting letters in math was a good thing. And Everest herself too for telling Roslyn that she'd have the next two chapters done by the end of the month. A month ago.

"Ugh!" Everest slammed her head down on the desk. It was times like these when she wondered why she ever decided that she liked writing. "Writing is hard!"

There was a chuckle from behind the purple haired girl and she turned. Her eyes were narrowed in frustration and there was a bruise forming on her forehead revealing how she had decided to express her frustration to the world.

Alec stood in the doorway, amused concern written across his features. He crossed the room, his eyebrows knitting together as he saw the mark on her forehead. "Are you alright?"

She nodded. "Yep. I just hate writing at the moment." Her voice was bright and cheerful, disguising just how frustrated and overwhelmed she was.

He chuckled again and offered her a hand. "Well, if you want to take a break I'm heading to the Ops Center if you want to join me?"

"Sure. I need a break before I throw my computer out the window." She accepted his hand and he led her to the main part of the Institute.

Clary was on the phone with somebody, Izzy was standing by a bunch of small monitors, and Jace was leaning back in a chair with an iPad, looking extremely annoyed as Clary talked to the person on the other line.

"We found the Cup. I have so much to tell you. Call me back."

'Ah, so she's talking to Simon, the guy Jace kind of lowkey hates. Fun,' Everest thought.

Everest leaned on the back of Jace's chair and watched as he played Solitaire. Dots connected in her brain as she analyzed the cards. "You can place the Jack down and then place that stack with 10-2. And then once you find the Ace you can complete that suit," she said quietly, pointing at the cards she was talking about.

He looked up at her in surprise. "How'd you catch that? I didn't even see it and I've been staring at it for five minutes."

Everest shrugged, hiding her discomfort. She had always been good at seeing the things people missed for the most part, when it came to games and stuff like that at least, she didn't know why. "You probably missed it because you've been staring at it for so long."

A faint beeping noise grew stronger until an alarm sounded through the Institute. Jace stood up quickly, nearly toppling Everest over. The two of them, Izzy, and Clary peered at the screen Alec was staring at. A red circle was hovering just outside the Institute's wards.

"There's something outside the perimeter," Jace said, stating the obvious.

"I told you—" Alec began.

"Don't say it."

"What's happening?" Clary demanded. Everest grabbed her backpack from the corner she had accidentally left it in. She holstered her gun and pulled her hair back into a ponytail.