The Shadowhunters

A Nagging Thought

"Again!" Cecily said sharply.

Tessa desperately tried to pull herself up on the bar, but her arms were screaming at her for her to stop. She hung there on the bar. "I can't do pull­ups, Cecy!"

Cecily gave her a disappointed look. "Then give me fifty clap­push ups."

Tessa dropped from the bar, collapsing in a heap of tired limbs and dripping sweat. "Why do I even have to do this?" Tessa asked tiredly.

"To defend yourself from Will?" Sophie suggested.

"I thought we established the fact that Will Herondale is too good of a fighter for me," Tessa sighed.

"To protect you from muggers on the street," Cecily offered.

"Admit it. You're doing this to watch me suffer," Tessa said, pulling herself up into a sitting position before doing a cool­down stretch. One time, she didn't do the stretches, she

woke up the next day feeling sore from head to toe.

"You want to be strong, don't you Tessa?" Sophie asked.

"Yes," Tessa sighed. "But… you know how to fight, Sophie?"

"Err…" Sophie said hesitantly.

"Sophie Jane Collins!"

"Okay!" Sophie said, raising her hands. "I don't know how!"

"Cecily, teach her!" Tessa said, without skipping a beat.

"Alright. But we're moving onto throwing knives now, so since I feel slightly bad about poor Tessa doing all that work – give me fifty clap­push ups, Sophie!" Cecily said cheerily.

Sophie groaned, shooting Tessa and Cecily scowls before dropping onto all fours and began struggling to do her clap­push ups.

"It's a good thing I'm amazing at throwing knives then," a voice said. Tessa whirled around to see William Herondale, leaning against the gym doors.

Tessa screamed then, diving for her tank top that she had shed for her sports bra during her 'training.'

Cecily scowled, reaching for a knife and chucking it at her brother. Tessa was about to scream again, but as quick as lightning, Will sidestepped calmly out of the way. "You're lucky

I'm as good as I am," Will said. "You could have killed me. Or scarred my beautiful face."

"Shut up, Will," Cecily said. "So why are you here?"

"Shadowhunter trip. Decided to go to Hawaii and if you dare snog Gabriel during this trip, I will forcibly remove you two to different sides of the island," Will scowled.

"Why tell me now? Why not at home?" Cecily questioned, picking up several more knives and guided Tessa to the archery targets.

"Because Tessa and Sophie are coming too," Will said nonchalantly, checking his nails.

A thud sounded and it was Sophie collapsing on the ground. She shot up immediately. "Is this a joke? A prank? Are you going to leave us on Hawaii to fend for ourselves? Like…

leave us with rabid monkeys and eating coconuts for the rest of our lives?" Sophie demanded.

"No. I just so happened to find freaking rabid parrots I wanted to take you to!" Will said sarcastically. "But I wanted to invite Tessa and Jem and Gideon wanted you, Sophie, so now

we're all going."

"So we're going to Hawaii for Christmas?" Cecily said, arranging the target boards.