I'm new to the TMI fan fiction realm and haven't actually read all that much so I haven't really got the just yet of what everyone's into. But this idea sprung to mind and I started it so... yeah.

Please let me know what you think? :D

Ice Cold.

1

"Shit," Clary Morgernstern muttered. She walked quickly, trying to grip all her school files on top of her art stuff. But her small arms weren't making it all that easy and bits of paper were flying everywhere as she hurried into the schools main doors and down the halls to her locker. She shoved everything haphazardly inside and sprinted down the long, white corridors to homeroom.

She flung the door open, panting hard and looked at the teacher apologetically.

Mr. Newman stopped talking to see her standing in the doorway. He gave rolled his eyes irritably and gestured for her to sit down before continuing his speech. Clary being late wasn't anything he wasn't used to.

Clary nodded her thanks and quickly made her way to the empty seat next to Simon; it wasn't often Mr. Newman let her get away with anything.

"Hi." He whispered to her as she sat down heavily next to him, a large grin splitting his face.

"Hey," She greeted, still out of breath, "What's he talking about?"

Simon's grin widened and he slid over a small lip of paper that was on his desk towards her. Clary took the sheet and looked at him, confused.

"Just read it." He whispered.

Clary looked down and recognized it as a parental permission slip. Frowning her confusion, she started to read the text at the top.

Dear Parent or Gaurdian,

We are delighted to be offering your child along with the rest of the junior year to this years juniors geography trip to a two week action-packed adventure to Iceland. Involving hikes through the Icelandic mountains, going for swims in the volcanic hot springs, and a chance to see the Northern Lights.

This will be taking place from the 17th to the 24th of December.

Clary turned to Simon and grinned manically. She had completely forgotten about the junior geography trip the school held each year. Last year's juniors went to Morocco, they all had said it was the best thing they had ever done at school.

She squealed quietly, just loud enough for Simon to hear. The 10th of December was just a month away. They must've been really disorganized with the planning or something; they usually handed out the permission slips, like, four months earlier.

Simon leaned over to her, his eyes wide and bright, "This could be your ticket out – your first time out of New York."

She wanted to squeal in excitement, or show him how happy she was. But something held her back; they both knew she probably couldn't go. So she settled with a strained smile – trying her best not to kill his buzz.

"You have to go, Clary." He continued, sensing her hesitation, "Rebecca went to Iceland with her boyfriend when they went travelling around Europe, she said it was the most amazing place she's ever been."

Clary sighed, "Of corse I want to go. But you know I can't. I wouldn't be able to -" She cut herself off when her eyes had landed on the price of the trip at the bottom of the slip. Six hundred and twenty five dollars!? "Oh."

"What?" Simon asked.

"Look how much it costs." Clary said worriedly. Simon looked down to the bottom of the slip and then back up to her, she looked visibly upset. "Valentine's never going to sign for that."

Simon sat back in his chair, finally catching on. "Oh… well… You could just try. There's no harm in trying right?" He said optimistically, his tone going slightly higher.

"Yeah, I guess." Clary nodded, "No harm in trying."

"Morgernstern!" Both their heads snapped up to the teacher, "I want you back here after school. First you're late and now you're talking over me. That is unacceptable and, quite frankly, plain disrespectful!"

Clary quickly shut her mouth that was hanging agape; she knew it would only make it worse to question the unjust punishment.

Mr. Newman was a short grumpy man in his mid-fifties who had had a personal hatred against Clary since her freshman year when she had run into him in the corridor when he was holding a bunch of papers and a scalding hot coffee. He had dropped the papers and had made her pick them up amidst the sea of teenagers scrambling to get to their lessons in the hallway (she was the one who had just got the coffee all down her front, burning her stomach, and he was the one to still hold a grudge?!).

"Yes, Mr. Newman." She muttered.

"What was that Mogernstern?" Newman asked, putting a hand to his ear.

"I said yes Mr. Newman." Clary snapped. She regretted it immediately.

Newman didn't miss a beat, "You're coming back tomorrow as well for impudent behavior."

Clary let her mouth hang this time in disbelief. "What?! I didn't do anything!" She gaped incredulously.

"Make that until Friday. Not a great start to the week Morgernstern." Newman fired.

Clary was about to voice more of her thoughts on the matter when she heard Simon hiss, "Shut up before he files a beheading or something."

Clary could barely look at him before the bell rung and she was out of her seat, leaving the classroom with Simon right by her side.

"Ugh! I cannot believe him!" She ranted, "I can't believe he still hates me this much after the whole coffee thing. He's got his head so far up his ass that he thinks he's better than everyone. He's not even a good teacher! I've had history with him for four years and I haven't learned anything. Being taught by him makes you no wiser, like when learning to play the bagpipes, they sound exactly the same when you have finished learning them as when you started."

"How would you know? I happen to be a pretty good bagpipe…er." Simon smiled.

Clary laughed, "I would love to see you play the bagpipe." She grinned at the thought, "Walking around in a little kilt thing."

Simon grimaced. "Why is it they always walk when they play? You would think minimal movement would be required when wearing plaid skirts in the Scottish highlands."

Clary grinned, "To get away from the noise."

The rest of the day went pretty slowly. Like, painfully slowly. After school, Newman couldn't even have just given her a detention, oh no. He sent her to the pre-school across the street to help some of the kids there with their reading. It's not like she hated kids exactly, but it was the last thing she needed on a Monday on top of all the junior work load that she was starting to stress out about.

But she was on her way home now, the geography permission slip clutched tightly in her grasp.

She never felt all that safe where she lived. The neighborhood in Brooklyn was known for being a criminal hotspot. There were always muggings and there had been at least two shootings in Clary's time.

She opened the door to her small two bedroom, worn-down house and walked straight to the living room where she knew her dad would be, watching the news and drinking a bottle of Stella Artois. He was.

"Valentine?" Clary asked.

Her father flickered his gaze up at her, "What'd you want?"

His gaze remained on the small screen two metres in front of him. "Can you sign a slip for me?" Clary asked.

"What for?" He asked.

"Nothing much." She said nonchalantly, twirling her hair nervously, "Just some stupid geography trip."

Valentine looked up at her, studying her skeptically. When he gestured for her to pass the slip, Clary could feel her heart beat as she watched him take out a pen and start to sign at the bottom. He was halfway through signing it when his gaze flickered to the price in the small print. "You got the money?" He asked gruffly.

Clary's hair twirling intensified, twisting the tips into knots. "Umm… I was hoping maybe -"

"It's not me going on the trip, I ain't bloody paying for it." Valentine grunted, crumpling the slip into a ball and throwing it half-heartedly at Clary. Clary watched it fall to her feet and picked it up quickly. Valentine's gaze had gone back to the small satellite TV and she knew she had lost his attention.

"I've got two hundred. I've been saving up for ages. I was wondering maybe I could borrow a few hundred and pay it back as soon as possible?" She scrambled urgently for some sort of compromise.

Valentine merely glanced up at her and frowned in exasperation, "I said I ain't bloody paying for it! Now get out of my face before I -" He was cut off by the sound of Clary's phone ringing.

He rolled his eyes and continued to watch the TV while Clary turned and went down the small corridor to her room.

She picked her phone out her back pocket and looked down at the small Nokia. Simon's name was dancing across the screen and the phone was vibrating harshly in her hands. With a sigh, she answered the phone and flopped down onto her bed.

"Hey Si, whats up?"

"Did he let you go?" His voice came through hopefully.

Clary took a deep breath, "No. He said he wasn't going to pay for it." She explained, "He wasn't ever going to say yes, I shouldn't have even bothered."

There was silence as they both tried to think up way's around it, Simons voice piped up, "How much do you have?"

"Two hundred dollars and twenty five cents."

"Hmm…" Simon thought, "What if we tried to raise some money?"

Clary scoffed, "How?"

"I dunno…" He trailed off, "Maybe you could sell some of your art?"

Clary frowned in thought. "No one's going to buy my art."

"Sure they will." Simon said enthusiastically, suddenly excited. "Clary, we live in New York. It's nearly Christmas. People will buy your stuff."

"No," Clary said, "they really won't."

"Not if you draw the right thing. You could set up one of those stalls that get people to sit down and then they draw them but pick out bits of their face that they're self conscious of and make it really big to insult them and people buy them but no one really know why."

Clary thought for a second, "A caricature?" She asked.

"Yeah! That's the one."

Clary laughed. "Okay, that's actually not a half bad idea."

"I'm full of half bad ideas." Simon said proudly. Clary imagined him puffing his chest out.

She laughed again, "I'll talk to you about it tomorrow?"

"Okay, see ya."

"See ya."

A/N. Sorry, not the most eventful chapter. I'm just trying to make the snowball to get it rolling at the moment. Btw, I'm English so please correct me If I don't use some American slang or if something I say isn't correct in American culture or something (especially my geography on New York).

Thanks for reading! Review? X