In The Deep

Chapter 13

After school Clary was sitting on the floor in front of her locker, her legs crossed in front of her and once again had her earphones on. She was looking down at her phone and only saw people's feet from the corner of her eye as they walked by. She was waiting for Isabelle to come, but so far she hadn't showed up. Suddenly someone waved a hand in front of her and she looked up to see Jace standing in front of her, looking amused. Clary paused the music and pulled off her earphones.

"Did you say something?" She asked and Jace laughed as he opened his locker.

"How loud are you playing that music if you don't hear me basically yelling your name while standing above you?" He asked and Clary laughed too. She got up from the floor and put her earphones and her phone into her bag.

"Pretty loud, I guess." She said and Jace glanced at her.

"Yeah, I guess so too." He mumbled.

"Have you seen Izzy?" Clary asked then, looking around, but still didn't see her anywhere.

"I haven't, she still has history." Jace replied as he took his books from his locker.

"Oh." Clary just said, it would take about an hour until Isabelle would get out of class.

"Cheer up, that means you get to drive with me." Jace said grinning at her and Clary laughed.

"Right." She said and Jace smiled cheerfully as he closed his locker and they walked outside.

After a while they stepped inside the house that was right next to Clary's.

"Hey!" Someone yelled immediately from the kitchen.

"Hey, I brought a guest." Jace said and Clary raised her brows at him.

"I'm a guest? That's sounds fancy." She said and he snorted. Then a woman walked into the hall from the kitchen, smiling.

"Hey, I'm Maryse." She said and Clary smiled too.

"Hi, I'm Clary. Nice to meet you."

"You too, come in!" Maryse said, gesturing them to walk in with her. They followed her to the kitchen where she was obviously making dinner. "How was school?" She asked, making conversation and Clary glanced at Jace who was going through the mail on the table.

"Oh, it was okay. The usual." She said as Jace didn't seem to even hear the question. Suddenly a young boy ran into the kitchen. He had as black hair as Isabelle and Alec and bright green eyes. He must be Max.

"Jace!" He yelled as he rant to his brother and wrapped his arms around his waist. Jace seemed startled, but only laughed.

"What's up?" He asked and the small boy smiled brightly.

"I wanna show you something." He said and Jace raised his brows.

"What is it?" He asked, but then Max seemed to notice Clary and frowned.

"Who are you?" He asked, his green eyes looking curious.

"I'm Clary." She said smiling and Max returned it immediately.

"Cool." He said with such a cheerful voice that Clary felt like laughing. "You can come too." He said to her then and started pulling Jace with him.

They walked back into the hall and Clary noticed that there were framed pictures on the walls. One of Isabelle and Alec where they were about Max's age, sitting on a grass and squinting their eyes in the sunlight. One of Jace, Isabelle and Alec where they were sitting on a railing on some bridge. Isabelle was smiling at the camera, Alec looking down at his shoes and Jace looking at the water behind them. It wasn't taken too long time ago. One of Alec who had a baby in his arms, most likely Max, and he was grinning at the camera. One of Jace and Alec who were probably about 15 and both looking uncomfortable in their tuxedos. One of Max and Jace, probably taken only couple years ago, outside some building, Max on Jace's back. Picture of the whole family that seemed pretty new. They were on some stairs, probably somewhere in Europe, all smiling. Maryse was standing next to a man who must be her husband, holding on to the railing. The man had Max on his shoulders and next to them was Isabelle. Alec and Jace were sitting on the stairs in front of them and both seemed to be amused by something behind the camera.

"Are you coming, Clary?" Max asked suddenly and she snapped out of her thoughts.

"Yeah, of course." She said, walking after them. They went upstairs and Max lead them to a room that said "MAX" with huge letters on the door. He knelt down on the floor and started going through his school bag. Clary glanced at Jace quickly who seemed amused and then Max got up, handing him some kind of a file.

"Is this your presentation?" Jace asked as he took it.

"Yeah, my teacher said it was one of the best, although I was talking a bit too fast." Max said, watching carefully as Jace opened the file. Clary stepped next to him so she could also see it. There was a title "Crocodile", written with crayons and few drawings of the animal in question. There was also a short text about it. Clary couldn't help but smile.

"Gongrats, it's great. Don't worry about that talking thing, a lot of people start talking faster when they're nervous. I do that too." Jace said as he flipped the page, under it was another drawing. Max smiled proudly, obviously happy that Jace was impressed.

"Yeah, it's really great. I would've loved to hear it." Clary said and Max smiled even wider, his cheeks a bit red from the compliments.

"I hope Izzy realizes I left with you and doesn't look for me after her classes end." Clary said as they walked back to the hall.

"She'll realize it, I mean she probably didn't expect you to hang around there for an hour." Jace said and opened the door to his room. He walked inside and put his bag on the chair in front of his desk. Clary walked in after him and looked around. His room wasn't exactly what she had expected from a teenage boy. It was perfectly clean and pretty much colorless. He had a bookshelf and all the books in it were in order and few of them were on his desk. There weren't any clothes around the room and it was so clean that it looked like he was cleaning it everyday.

"What?" Jace asked, probably noticing how she was looking around.

"Nothing, your room is just cleaner than mine." Clary said and Jace laughed.

"You have some wasteland as your room?" He asked, raising his brows.

"No, but I have a normal person's room." Clary just said and shrugged.

"I don't have a normal person's room?" Jace asked, looking amused and she shook her head.

"No. I mean what kind of a teenager has a room in this order?" She asked, laughing.

"Life is a mess enough, I don't need my room to be one." Jace said and Clary rolled her eyes at him as she sat down on his bed.

"That sounds depressing." She pointed out, but Jace just laughed lightly as he sat down next to her and layed down, gazing up at the ceiling.