Heyo, guyyys. Okay, so this entire thing is based off of Taylor Swift's (wonderful/amazing) new album, 1989 (hence the title). I took inspiration from the songs, yeah, but also from the hidden messages TS gave each one of them (it's a thing; I'm gonna write them after the first set of lyrics in each of the chapters). All of the chapters are going up either today or tomorrow, seeing as the entire thing's been written. It's sort of like a song fic, except it's an album fic, really? Anyway, it has thirteen chapters, so yeah. Thanks to IWriteNaked for beta'ing this, and to DeathCabForMari for not telling us to shut up about it when we talked about it on our group chat, and to spikeyhairgood for fangirling with me about this album. I love you threeeee. :) I hope you guys like it!

"Welcome to New York"

Walking through a crowd, the villages aglow,
Kaleidoscope of loud heartbeats under coats.
Everybody here wanted something more,
Searching for a song we hadn't heard before.
And I said, "Welcome to New York,
It's been waiting for you."
It's a new soundtrack,
I could dance to this beat forevermore.
The lights are so blind,
But they never blind me.

We begin our story in New York.

Clary Fray didn't know that life was going to get this crazy.

She walked through the streets of her new home, barely believing the fact that she was actually living in New York City, also known as her favorite city in the entire world. Before moving here, she'd lived in a small town in Pennsylvania, so she'd visited New York from time to time. But getting to actually live there—and by herself, too, for the very first time—was overwhelming and exciting and it made her heart leap to her throat.

The first thing she found herself struggling with was catching up with the people. The pace was awfully fast for someone like her, but she'd only been there for a few hours and she was already mastering it.

Since she was a little girl, she loved New York City. Her mom and stepfather, Luke, brought her and her big brother, Jonathan, every year. They would take them to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, and to the Lego store, and to ice skate. The city made the most ordinary things seem extraordinary.

When she started high school, Clary began to get serious about her art, and she would beg her mom to take her to New York often, because there was more art in this city than there could ever be in her boring little town. So her mother, who was a big supporter of her daughter's passion, took her once a month to the city, and Clary lived for those weekends she'd spend looking at art everywhere in New York. There was something everywhere—from museums to street art, New York City had it all.

And that—the lively, fast-paced spirit, along with the cultural/artistic diversity—was what drew her to the city. She'd been dreaming about living there since she was a little girl, and, at eighteen, she could say that she finally got what she wanted. Sure, New York City had its flaws—there was extreme poverty, and it wasn't the most secure place to live in—but it was hers. Her city. Nothing could change that.

She'd wondered, for a while, if she would be able to do this. To jump out into this unknown and leave behind her family to continue her artistic career in New York. She had sold some of her paintings in her high school years, and had a couple of them in exhibits in the city, but she felt like she had to be there. In the center of it all.

When we first dropped our bags on apartment floors,
Took our broken hearts, put them in a drawer.
Everyone here was someone else before.

Everything she had ever felt before was not relevant.

Clary hadn't finished unpacking; she got distracted by the thought of having this completely new life, this other chance at life. A blank slate. Tabula rasa, or whatever. She held the fate of her life in her hands.

Everything—her first breakup, her first time, every fight she ever had—could be left behind when she was in the city by herself. Because, when it was just her, alone in a city with millions of other people, she could find it in her to be herself.

And she had never wanted anything more.

Let me know what you think!