Chapter One

The first time Magnus spotted Alec was when he was cutting across the football pitch to get to his next class. He was walking with a friend of his, Camille, and happened to look over in time to see a black haired, blue eyed beauty snatch a ball from the air. He was promptly tackled by his teammates, but Magnus's brain failed to process that.

"Who is that!?"

Camille looked up from the magazine she was buried in, watching the football player's scuffle, laughing and messing around with each other, "Which one?"

"The gorgeous one." Magnus sighed, stopping and watching him emerge from the pile, smiling at his team, "Black hair, blue eyes, and the number seven jersey."

"Oh him, that's Alexander Lightwood." Camille sniffed, looking bored, "His brother is so much hotter; Jace Lightwood."

Magnus turned to stare at his best friend, "That beautiful piece of eye candy is related to that blond douche bag!?"

"The hot douche bag." Camille corrected him, turning a page, "And yes."

Magnus turned to watch the boy get hauled to his feet by a teammate, his hair messed up and a smile on his face. It shot an arrow through Magnus's chest, "I want him."

"He's straight." Camille sighed, closing her magazine and reaching out, tugging on her friend's arm, "Come on."

"He can't be!" Magnus protested, his eyes glued on the teen as they walked towards the looming brick building, "He'll be mine."

"Whatever."

"Nice catch, Lightwood!"

Alec looked up and grinned at his coach, wiping a trickle of sweat from his eyes. "Thanks coach."

"Alright team, nice hustle today!" The coach said, grinning at them. He was a middle aged man with light stubble, fit and thin, but one hell of a good linebacker even at his age, "Hit the showers and get to class! And you! Herondale! No dawdling!"

One of the kids looked up and stuck his tongue out, before laughing and running off.

Alec walked back to the locker room slowly, letting his teammates run ahead of him. He looked up and noticed a couple of people walking towards the building. After a second of squinting, he recognized them.

The blond girl was someone called Camille Belcourt; Alec had never met her, but apparently she was nasty as hell sometimes. But what caught Alec's attention was the person she was walking with, more specifically, his clothes.

Whoever he was, he was obviously very self-confident. He wore tight fitting skinny jeans and a purple tank top that sparkled even at this distance. It was hard to tell, but Alec swore he thought he saw color in the other male's hair.

"Lightwood! You'll be late for class!"

Alec looked over, "Sorry coach." He jogged off, forgetting about the colorful teen.

How the hell could he have not noticed him before? Magnus walked into his chemistry classroom, and then stopped short when he noticed everyone sitting in different seats.

"Mr. Bane, how kind of you to join us." Mrs. Fray sighed, poking at her attendance list with a pencil stub, "You will be sitting in the back left lab table next to Mr. Lightwood."

Magnus's eyes snapped up and almost instantly focused on the person sitting next to his empty seat. Blue eyes flickered up and met his, solid and serious looking, "Uh, ok." He walked over and dropped his bag by his stool, sliding on and glancing at his lab partner, "Hi."

"Hey."

Silence descended upon them but Magnus was spared from saying anything else when the teacher stood up and started passing around the assignment.

"Ok listen up. You will work in pairs, no groups of three, to make a covalent bond with whatever I give you. You will need goggles and aprons, some of the mixtures might explode, so be careful. And Sebastian! If you blow up another test tube I will have you thrown out of the class!"

Magnus looked up as Mrs. Fray dumped a box of stuff in front of them and then moved on. He opened his mouth to speak to his partner when he noticed that Alexander had already gotten up and moved to the front of the classroom. He watched him, confused, until he walked back with equipment.

"Here, I got you an apron and goggles." Alexander said, holding out the black plastic apron to his partner.

"Oh, thanks." Magnus took it and pulled it on, making a face when he noticed a stain on it. "So, what's your name?"

Looking up in surprise, Alexander studied his partner for the first time. He was defiantly the same boy from the football field, and he'd been right about the color. His lab partner's hair was gelled into formidable looking spikes streaked with purple, "Alexander, but everyone calls me Alec."

"I'm Magnus. People call me Magnus."

Alec felt his mouth curve upwards at the corners, "Alright then, Magnus, what do you know about covalent bonds?"

"Absolutely nothing." Magnus said cheerfully, reaching for whatever was in the box.

Snapping his goggles on, Alec snorted, "Me either."

"He spoke to me!" Magnus squealed, running up to Camille in the lunch room and throwing himself in the booth, wiggling up and down.

Camille looked up from her magazine, "Who?"

"Alec!" Magnus gushed, leaning on his elbows and staring dreamily off into space, "He's my lab partner in chem. We spoke! Actual words!"

"So? Straight or gay?" Camille asked, stuffing her magazine in her bag and watching her friend.

"I don't know." Magnus sulked, one of his spikes dropping almost comically, "But he's so hot. I, like, can't breathe when he's next to me! And at one point, I was writing something down and he leaned over and corrected it! He was right on top of me!"

Camille felt her amusement rise as Magnus giggled over his new crush, "Well good for you. So do you have any other classes together?"

"No idea." Magnus frowned, sitting up. "I didn't notice before…gosh how could I not? He's so dreamy…"

"Alright lover boy," Camille snorted, kicking him under the booth, "you're making me nauseous."

"So? We never eat during lunch." Magnus scoffed, waving his hand, "I'm going to continue to gush over his beautiful…alluring….stunning blue eyes. And oh my god, Camille, did you see his ass?"

"Yep." Camille mused, smirking as she stared at something over his shoulder, "I'm looking right now."

Magnus whipped around so fast his tank top shed glitter. He spotted Alec instantly, waiting in line with some other guys, talking to them. "Oh there he is!"

"Now that I really look at him, he's not that bad." Camille crossed her arms, her eyes roving to the boy next to him, "Mmmm and there is his delicious brother."

Standing next to Alec was a blond haired, golden eyed, Abercrombie and Fitch worthy model. He was the chiseled good looks type, all arrogance and false charm. He was talking to his brother, mouth curved upwards in a smirk, ignoring most of the fawning fan girls around him.

Alec, Magnus was pleased to see, looked uncomfortable surrounded by all those females, and quickly bought his lunch and made his escape with one of the guys from his team. Magnus's eyes followed him until he sat down in the middle of the lunch room at a table, looking relieved to be away from his spotlight seeking brother.

"He is so beautiful." Magnus sighed, and then made a face as his stomach growled.

Camille looked up at him sympathetically but didn't say anything. She pulled out her magazine again and handed it to him, "You'll love page 24, all about different fierce styles of eye shadow."

"Ooooh yessss!" Magnus hurriedly flipped through the flimsy plastic pages to find it. He was completely engrossed in the article, so he didn't notice Camille watching his crush's table with an unreadable expression on her face, nor when Alec looked up from his friends and spotted them.

"Don't they ever eat?" Alec asked himself, and then turned back to his friends. His new lab partner was quite an interesting person. All throughout the lab he'd been joking around, but working all the same. Putting forth an honest effort while still managing to almost get Alec to laugh; and Alec never laughed. Especially around people he didn't know.

"Hey, Lightwood, what's eating you?"

Alec looked up and then scooted over, making room for one of his friends. "Nothing, just thinking about school."

"No wonder you looked constipated." His friend joked, pushing his glasses up his nose, "So, homecoming's in a month! Any hot dates?"

"Simon." Alec groaned, picking up an apple and biting into it, "Shuddap."

Simon grinned and began to eat his own lunch, "But really dude, you've got to ask a chick before she gets taken!"

"What about you? Who're you taking?" Alec shot back. He looked surprised as Simon's teasing grin faded and a melancholy expression took its place, "Hey, man, I was just messing around."

"It's ok. I actually…well…." Simon sighed and looked across the lunch room to where some girls were sitting, "I wanted to ask Clary."

"Clary Fray?" Alec immediately understood his friend's expression, "Oh man…"

"I know! Why would she go with me when she has Jace?" Simon's face twisted in a sneer.

Alec was silent, unable to help his friend out. But Simon's conversation topic had opened a deep hole in his stomach. Homecoming was coming up, and he was expected, as a football player, to take a girl there. Suddenly Alec felt nauseous, and he pushed his food away, sitting in silence with Simon through the rest of lunch.