SMOKESTACKS ▷ A. Lightwood [on hold]

01 | prologue

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CHAPTER ONE;
PROLOGUE
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   Waking up only to find out that his friends had left without him had already made Caleb get in a bad mood, and then not finding any ham just made him grumpier.

   There he sat, in his friend's kitchen, sandwich and cellphone in hand. As mad as he had gotten with them, he couldn't wait to know if Clary had been accepted or not in the advanced program. Simon would tweet his pride if everything went okay. If not than he would either not tweet or tweet he would kill them. Which if he didn't, Caleb would.

   He had just refreshed his tweeter feed when his friend's name appeared in it.

   @thesupersimonlewis: So proud of @ClaryFray! Got in NYU #jealous

   Caleb jumped from his seat, a wide smile on his face. A high pitched scream left from somewhere within the apartment, not two seconds later Clary's mother ran into the living room.

   "Clary did it!" she cheered.

   Caleb stopped, frowning. "You have twitter?"

   "Yeah," she said, still excited for her daughter. Jocelyn stopped, putting a hand on her chest, still not able to hide the happiness she felt. "Oh, and it's her birthday."

   "Did you get her anything?" he asked, sitting back on the stool and taking a bite from his sandwich.

   Her smile dropped slightly. "Uhm, yes. I did,"

   "I'm sure she'll like it," Caleb nodded, sensing her discomfort. "Since it's her eighteenth birthday, I thought why not take advantage of it?"

   "Oh, really?" Jocelyn laughed.

   "Yup, dinner at a very fancy restaurant," she raised her eyebrows, mouthing a mocking 'wow'. "Birthday girl, you, Simon, dad and me."

   "And where is this very fancy restaurant?" Jocelyn cocked an eyebrow moving to open the fridge.

   "Taco Bell," he answered, causing her to snort.

   "Right. 'Fancy'," she pulled out a jar with orange juice from the fridge and poured herself a glass of it. "Speaking of your dad, where is he?"

   "The Station, I guess," Caleb shrugged. "There was this girl who was murdered, so he has his hands full today."

   "Oh," Jocelyn breathed, taking a sip from her juice. "Will he come for dinner?"

   "Probably— the captain likes me so I'll do my super puppy eyes if we need to take extreme measures."

   "We're very thankful for that," she smiled jokingly.

   "You're welcome," he winked, taking one last bite from his sandwich, just as the front door opened, revealing Clary. Jocelyn dropped the glass on the counter and ran to her daughter.

   "You did it!" she bear-hugged her. Clary's eyes widened comically as she struggled to breathe.

   "You also follow Simon?" Clary asked, cocking an eyebrow.