Disclaimer: I do not own any of Cassandra Clare's characters!

Clary Morgenstern was a walking enigma. From the day I'd arrived at St. Xavier's, as flustered as I'd been, there had been this moment. It couldn't have been more than a second, a mere blink, but it had felt like so much longer. Juggling my new books in one hand, scanning my schedule with the other, and somehow keeping up the conversation with the guy—Jordan—showing me around, a girl with red red hair had picked that exact moment to walk past me, literally taking away my breath as she'd met my gaze with a pair of devastating eyes, and, not a moment later, moved on with them trained to the floor.

I'd watched her make her way down the rest of the hallway, keeping her head down, going unnoticed by anyone else it seemed, until she'd turned a corner and abruptly left my plane of sight. I still couldn't understand why that girl had left me standing there, mouth slightly parted, in an iron-handed, sucker punched-daze, completely unmindful of Jordan trying to regain my attention. She wasn't by any means drop-dead gorgeous, or even societally pretty. Don't get me wrong, she was pretty, just... in a way that you normally wouldn't consider. There was something about her—her wild, red hair, subtly-unsettle freckles, and the-the story behind her eyes, all of it, that made her into something that was endearing enough to be mistaken as beautiful.

Clary was a grade younger than me, only a sophomore, but she was in both my physics and calculous classes. She sat in the back of my physics class with another sophomore, a girl nearly as quiet as she was, keeping to herself and not saying anything unless our teacher would call on her himself. She always had the right answers, her voice surprisingly strong and unwavering, and never ceased to impress the rest of the class, the majority being completely lost and remaining silent but thankful to be able to cross a problem off of their homework. She was no different in calculous, that is if she even showed up. It was weird, how even if she was there for the attendance to be taken down, more often than not she'd always receive a pass and have to leave early. Then again, I was the only one that seemed to take notice.

Jordan thought it was weird, my interest in her, and I guess it was understandable. Clary was just a decent-looking girl that simply was there; a wiz at school that was absent from it a lot, that never was the first to say anything, and that drew in her sketchbook more than she interacted with other people. She shouldn't be anything special, and if you asked anyone about her they'd most likely not even know who you were talking about, but to me, even just thinking about her was inevitable. It wasn't like it was love at first sight, no, or even that I had a harmless crush on her, I just...was interested. And that was it.

Whatever it was about her that made me so attracted, however, wasn't strong enough to make me go out of my way to talk to her. In fact, I had yet to even approach her. I watched her though, all the time. While it took no longer than a matter of days to get my name spread around school and, thanks to Jordan and his ties to the soccer team, to gain a solid group of friends, being surrounded by people in between passing periods, during lunch, and in the courtyard before and after school, did nothing to keep my mind from wandering off, to keep my eyes from seeking out a particular redhead. I could laugh and smile and joke around all I wanted, I could attend as many parties as I was invited to, I could even show interest in other girls (in a variety of other girls), but Clary, no matter how far back in my mind I'd push her, was there regardless. With me. Always.

I didn't obsess over her, and it wasn't like she was all I thought about, I just kept her close, whether it be the last memory of her I had or when I'd simply take notice of her sitting alone at a lunch table with her sack lunch pushed off to the side, head down, scribbling furiously in her sketchbook. I've always imagined that she was a good artist; I had never actually seenany of her work, but she was always drawing so she had to be all right. I guess it's never occurred me before that she could be drawing stick figures. Then again, she didn't exactly strike me as the stick-figure-drawing type. What did I know?

Anyways, observing from afar did nothing to lessen this undeniable pull I had towards her. She was so, so complex. She always left me after each of our one-sided encounters with this hungry appetite to scrutinize. Her appearance was one that shouldn't have any questions left to be asked about; she was small, doll-like even, a girl that was sensitive to even the slightest of touches I'd think. The smears of paint that dabbed her school uniform, as minute as they usually were, just added to her seemingly simple fiber. Clary, to anyone that gave her more than a second's worth of a once over, was as quiet, independent, creative, and gentle as her exterior entailed. But, to anyone that gave her more than a second's worth of a once over, there was always something else. Something guarded.

Sometimes I'd catch this goofy looking Junior, a boy with glasses that hung crooked on his nose, childishly curly hair, and eyes that betrayed his supposed 'maturity', talking to her. I think his name was Simon. It's what I've heard a couple of his wanna-be band mates address him as, but I could be totally wrong. I think he liked Clary—no, actually, I knew he liked her. It was obvious, the way he'd appear out of seemingly thin air to help her carry her books, or to walk her to class, or to be caught looking at her from afar like me. Clary was nice to him, of course, but as he'd be cracking these loud and ridiculous jokes, going out of his way to compliment her, and trying desperately to engage her in pointless conversations, Clary always seemed to be in a whole other world, reflecting this lost look in her eyes. She never went any deeper with Simon than friendly small-talk, always keeping their waters shallow. Where it was safe.

I felt bad for Simon, but not nearly as bad as I felt for her. For Clary.

It wasn't like she was afraid of people, but I could tell that she didn't trust them. She was always shutting them out, always turning her head away from boys that took interest her, from classmates that simply want to get to know her better, from chances to go outside her comfort zone—and I wanted to know why. And so I watched and watched and watched, and found myself never losing interest but never gaining insight. Some days she'd come to school with her eyes hardly open, looking so exhausted that I'd fear she'd just fall over, and other days she'd look completely normal, always keeping to herself and steering clear away from possible interactions. I could always tell when she was happy, or at least in a considerably better mood, because it had become rare to see her being anything other than sad; it was all in her movements, the lack of motivation she had as she sulked past me to get to her seat in physics, the way she just seemed completely drained of all energy.

I couldn't tell whether she was in pain, or if she was really just that depressed—and that raised more questions. Why would a girl like that, a girl who was smart, talented, and attractive be depressed? She was young, and yet it was as if she'd lived a lifetime of hardships and never-ending obstacles. She should be going to homecoming, to parties, having fun and the whole shebang, but she was above it all. None of that stuff mattered to her, and I wondered what did matter enough to her for her to completely give up on being young. It had to be something.

And I was going to find out.

This is probably the last thing you guys want me to be doing, starting yet another fanfic. In my defense, I'm sharing this with you guys because I figured that having to write something like this for my creative writing class shouldn't go to waste. I'm thinking of making this one a shorter story, but I'm not sure yet. I may also be having to change the rating later on—yeesh, I know—because this story is going to touch on some sensitive subjects.

I know not a lot happens in this chapter, like nothing at all, but I really need to get going on my chemistry project that's due tonight (oops), and I plan on updating this as early as Tuesday night! The whole story won't be this boring, I promise!

Just let me know what you guys all think!

Until next time, peace!

Will edit soon!