Hey everybody! This is my first Mortal Instruments fanfiction and I'm super excited about it. While this isn't my first fanfiction I would still really love it if I could get some feedback. Love it? Hate it? Want me to add something to the story? I'm always open to suggestions and second opinions.

Just as a clarifying note all the characters in this story will be human. Also just to forewarn you I like to write stories in different POVs, but I will only have one POV per chapter. I'm thinking for this story that odd numbered chapters will be Clary's POV and even numbered chapters will be Jace's POV.

I don't own the Mortal Instruments.

"Clary, you've got mail," My mom's voice called from the small kitchen of Luke's house. "It's from the Institute," she added as an afterthought.

The mention of the Institute snapped me out of my nervous nail-biting fit. I had been expecting the letter yesterday and had begun to worry that it wasn't coming at all. I had applied earlier in the summer to the Long Island Institute for the Arts, one of the most prestigious arts high schools in the country. I had been confident at first that I would get in, but then the letter wasn't there. I had started to fear that I was so terrible that I wasn't even worth being informed that I hadn't been accepted. My fingers were tearing at the envelope before my mom could even look at the next piece of mail. Unfolding the paper with shaking hands, I quickly skimmed the letter. I notice my mom's questioning look and began to read the letter to her.

"Miss. Fray, after careful consideration of all the applications it is a pleasure to inform you that you have been accepted to study at the Long Island Institute for the Arts." I stopped as arms were flung around me and I was pulled into my mother's tight embrace. I felt the tears sting my eyes and let them flow, clutching to my mother and holding onto the paper like it was the only thing holding me to the Earth. "Pinch me I must be dreaming," I whispered into my mother's ear.

I felt her body shake as she laughed and pinched my arm. I didn't wake up. A grin found its way onto my face, and I couldn't seem to get rid of it.

Luke, my soon to be step-father, chose that moment to enter the room, and took in the scene before him with a confused look on his face.

"I got in," I squealed, no longer able to contain my excitement, and allowed him to pull me into his strong arms for a hug.

"I knew you could do it," he smiled.

It took me a minute to calm down, but when I did I finished reading the letter aloud. "We look forward to seeing you on orientation and move-in day on August 26th. On this day you will be able to meet other students as well as your teachers, and get settled into your new home here at the Institute. Enjoy the remainder of the summer and welcome to the Institute, Mayrse Lightwood, Headmaster."

The mood in the room became slightly somber at the reminder that, with my acceptance, I would no longer be able to live at home. The school was located on Long Island, near Montauk, too far to commute every day. I, like most of the students would have to live in the dorms. Mom had been reluctant to let me go for that reason, but she knew how much this meant to me, and eventually agreed to let me apply.

"Let's go out to dinner to celebrate," Luke suggested," Invite Simon too; he'll want to know that you got accepted."

"That sounds like a great idea," I said as I went looking for my phone to call Simon.

Two minutes later I heard Simon's voice on the other end of the line, "Hello."

"Hey, it's me," I wasn't able to hide the excitement in my voice despite trying to act calm.

"What's up?" He asked. The curiosity in his voice was plain.

"I got in, I just got the letter!" my elation obvious in my voice.

"Really, so did I!"

"Simon, I didn't even know you applied," I said surprised.

"I didn't want to tell you. Just in case I didn't get in. I didn't want you to feel bad for me or not go because of me. I'll have to work hard to get better, but the man who I auditioned for said I showed a lot of promise."

"That's great Simon," I congratulated. I could picture his smile from the other end of the phone.

I looked down at the empty suitcase that sat on my bed in the guest room at Luke's and sighed. Turning around I opened one of my dresser drawers and started to pull out my clothes, carefully packing them in the suitcase. Once I had finished with my clothes I packed up my remaining belongings, taking special care with my art supplies and a framed photo of Mom, Luke and I at the farmhouse.

Zipping the suitcase shut I sat down on the bed, thinking of all my memories of this room, and smiling to myself. This is it; I'm really leaving in just thirty short minutes.

The door creaked open and Luke stuck his head through the crack. "Need any help with your bags?" he asked. I nodded grateful for his help.

In the driveway was Luke's old pickup truck with mine and Simon's bags in the back. Mrs. Lewis hadn't been able to get enough time off work to drive her son to the Institute herself, so Luke had offered to drive him.

I climbed up into the truck and sat in the middle after saying goodbye to my mom, and Simon climbed up after me.

Luke gave Mom a quick kiss goodbye and climbed into the driver's seat to start the car. The engine roared to life and we waved to my mom as we pulled out of the drive and started on our way to the Institute.

The city flashed by and soon enough it was gone, left behind, and I settled in for the drive ahead of us.

The first thing I saw when I was shaken awake was the ocean stretching on for what seemed like forever. Then I saw the school. It was made up of four buildings, all facing the water, that looked too old to be there, but still looked beautiful. The sight made my fingers itch for my sketch book. Around us teenagers were getting dropped off or reuniting with friends. One group of students had started to play music, and I could hear their singing.

I could smell the salt water when I stepped out of the truck and breathed it in in large gulps; it was so much cleaner than city air. "Do you need me to come in with you?" Luke asked as he reached into the bed of his truck to get our suitcases out.

"We'll be fine," I told him, giving him a goodbye hug.

"You're sure?"

"Yes, we're sure," I replied.

"Okay," he said, getting back into his truck, "Remember to call when you can."

"I will," I called back as he pulled out of his spot in the parking lot and drove away leaving Simon and I alone with our luggage.

A sea breeze blew my red hair around as Simon and I walked towards a building that had a banner above the door that read "All students check in inside". Several other students were going in and out of the building, chatting excitedly with friends.

The wind stopped abruptly as we entered the building and the air conditioning was a relief from the summer heat outside. There were small groups of teenagers scattered around the room, but most were standing in a line that ended at a desk with a woman sitting behind it. There were two boxes filled with files sitting on the desk. As I watched she handed one of the files to the girl at the front of the line and motioned the next student forward.

"Name please." I looked up to find that I had made it to the front of the line.

"Clarissa Fray," I told her.

She fingered through the folders and pulled one out that had "Clarissa Fray" written on it. "Welcome to the Institute," she said with a smile as she handed me the folder.

I stepped off to the side and only had to wait a minute before Simon joined me with a folder of his own and we walked outside again. The energy of the people all around us was contagious. The air was buzzing with words, said and unsaid. Excited shouts, squeals, and yelling rang out all around us as friend greeted friend. I've never seen a group of kids more excited to be at school in my entire life.

Stepping out of the way I opened the folder and rifled through its contents. At the very top was a map of the school grounds. The four buildings were marked as "Administration", "School", "Boy's Dorm", and the final building, circled in red pen "Girl's Dorm". In the top right corner was a box with the words "Room number" in it and a 27 filled in on the line that followed. The back side of the map provided a more detailed map of the school building. I looked over to see Simon examining a similar piece of paper.

The sheet below that appeared to be a class schedule. I still had all the regular subjects, but a big block of my mornings were going to be spent in one of the art rooms. Moving the schedule to examine the next item I found a student handbook and a blue sheet of paper that read "Orientation Day Instructions (Aug.26)" at the top. I pulled out the latter and nudged Simon so that he would read it too.

With Simon looking over my shoulder I quickly read down the list then placed it back in the folder with everything else. Simon had already put his papers into his folder and picked up his bags. We moved into the flow of teens heading towards the dorms to get settled in, the first instruction on the list. Reluctantly, we parted ways at the girl's dorm, the closer of the dorms to the administration building, and I went inside to find my room, leaving Simon to get pulled with the crowd to the boy's dorms.

My eyes fell on the number 27 on a door on the left side of the hall that was propped open with a pink suitcase. I walked into a room with a twin bed, a set of bunk beds and three small desks. On the twin bed sat two more suitcases that matched the one being used to hold the door open. I made my way further into the room and saw a girl with long, waist length black hair fighting to fit her clothes into one of the three small closets I hadn't noticed from the door. Another girl, this one with curly brown hair, was pinning a band poster to a wall with her back to me.

The brown haired girl turned, finished with the poster, and saw me. A warm smile spread across her face as she walked over to me. "Hi, I'm Maia," she said, extending her hand for me to shake.

"Clary," I replied as we shook.

Our brief conversation had caught the attention of the other girl who had appeared to have lost the battle with her closet. "I'm Isabelle, but you can call me Izzy," she stated," and good luck fitting your clothes into the closet, they're about the size of shoe boxes."

"I had no problem fitting all my clothes in my closet," Maia chimed in.

"My closet is almost as big as this room at home. I wish Mom didn't make us live in the dorms; the house is only ten minutes away," Izzy informed.

"Then why do you live in the dorms?" I asked, my curiosity getting the best of me.

"My mom's the headmaster here, but she says she doesn't want to give my brothers and I any special treatment while we're at school. Staying in the dorms makes us just like most of the other students. It also means they don't have to eat my cooking, which is terrible," she answered.

"Oh," I replied, not quite sure how to respond to that, and then asked," So, which bed is mine?"

"Top bunk, but you could have the bottom if you really wanted it," Maia told me.

"The top will be fine," I reassured her, and began to unpack my suitcase.

Despite Izzy's warning about the closets I was able to fit all my clothes easily in the closet as well as some of my other things. I carefully put my art supplies in the desk that was mine and placed the picture on the top, smiling as I did so.

While we had been unpacking I had gotten to know my roommates better as we asked each other questions. While Izzy lived only ten minutes away with her parents and three brothers, Maia was from New Jersey where she had lived with her parents after her brother had died. I, in turn told them about New York and Mom and Luke and our small apartment over the bookshop. They didn't press for many more details, and for that I liked them immediately; they didn't need to know the whole story.

Twenty minutes later Maia, Izzy, and I were standing near the entrance to the school building, looking for Izzy's brothers and Simon. Many of the students were already inside in the auditorium for the assembly that would begin in fifteen minutes, but I wanted to find Simon, and Izzy wanted to find her brothers, so we were outside waiting. I was just thinking that Simon was already inside when I saw a group of five boys headed down the path towards us.

I recognized Simon immediately, and one of the boys I could tell, even from this distance, was Izzy's brother. The third of the boys stood out with his sparkly spiked hair and bright clothes that made the fourth boy who was walking next to him look colorless in comparison, although that didn't stop the boy from being quite good looking. It was the fifth boy however, that had me puzzled. He didn't seem like the type to be at an art school. Unless he was modeling for a drawing class I thought, taking in his golden hair and perfect features, and then I saw his eyes, a mesmerizing gold color, and I knew that if I wasn't careful I would get lost in them without hope of ever finding my way out.

Which one was Izzy's second brother? The five boys were in front of us before I could even try to answer my question. My suspicions about the dark haired boy who looked like Izzy were confirmed as Izzy threw her arms around him, saying "Clary, Maia, this is my older brother Alec," when she released him. She then moved towards the blonde boy to give him a hug. I expected her to say "and this is my boyfriend,…", it only seemed right that two beautiful people should end up together, but the words she said next I hadn't expected to hear at all. "And this is my adopted brother Jace." She turned her attention towards Maia and I then," Everybody these are my roommates, Clary and Maia," she said, gesturing to each of us as she said our names.

"I already know Clary," Simon told Isabelle, and then added at Izzy's confused look, "We're best friends. We came here together. It's nice to meet you Maia and…"

"Isabelle," she supplied.

"Isabelle," he repeated, already sucked in by the beautiful girl.

"I'm Magnus," the boy with sparkly hair introduced himself, "Alec's roommate."

"And Simon and Jordan are my roommates," Jace added, his voice deep and smooth.

With introductions over we headed inside to find seats in the auditorium for the assembly. I had been at this school for no more than a few hours and yet my friends had already increased exponentially. It was starting to don on me that this wasn't going to be your average high school. In this moment my life is perfect, well almost.

Thanks for reading! I'm really looking forward to writing more chapters for this story, but unfortunately my free time has become rather limited with all my school work. School means a lot to me and I won't blow off my homework to write, so I'm sorry, but I most likely won't be able to update more than once a week. I'll try to work on this when I have the time, so my updates will probably come on weekends. I cannot guarantee any updates, but I will try my hardest to update this as often as possible. I'll try for this weekend for chapter 2.

As I said above, any comments, questions, concerns, suggestions, advice, or feedback are welcome so please review!

-Pageturner96