"Eat a live frog first thing in the morning
and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day."
-Mark Twain

Lisa woke up by the soft buzz of her alarm clock. Anna was still lying on her bed and she had fallen asleep in her beanbag, causing her neck to hurt. The buzz got louder, Lisa got up and turned off the alarm. She tried to do it as quietly as possible, even though she knew that it wouldn't wake Anna up.

She quickly got dressed in her bathroom. When she was finished, she saw that a little sun was shining through the window. Which made the Institute look even more rustic. Anna was laying on her stomach on Lisa's bed. Her mouth was a little bit open and some saliva ran out.

"My brand new pillow," she silently grumbled. They had talked all evening and Lisa couldn't remember what time it was when they had fallen asleep.
She was just considering waking Anna up, when someone knocked on the door. Lisa frowned and walked to the door.

Arthur stood in front of her, with only a bath towel wrapped around his waist. Lisa was surprised and held her hand in front of her mouth, she couldn't restrain herself to laugh. Arthur didn't seem to notice it.

"Can I ask where the showers are?" Lisa didn't know what to say.

"There is one in your room," she said confused. Arthur looked at her as if he didn't know what she was talking about. She sighed and walked past Arthur to his room. His backpack was on his bed and there were hanging clothes on the chairs and in the open closet. She recognized some T-shirts: a black and yellow one, with Star Wars on it and one with a blue-white-red shield on it. Max had the same T-shirts, Lisa realized. He probably even had them in the same size. She also noticed a black, rectangular object on his bed. Lisa couldn't believe her eyes. She picked it up in disbelief.

"Have you really smuggled this into the Institute?" Arthur frowned.

"It's a laptop?" Lisa impatiently put it back on his bed.

"And those are forbidden here." Arthur frowned his eyebrows again, as if he didn't know that rule.

"Why?" Lisa opened her mouth and closed it again.

"Because it is in the Law," she said after a while. Arthur sadly looked at his laptop, it had something puppy-like.

Lisa had no idea why mundanes were obsessed with those smartphones and computers. She had a cell phone from the prehistory, they never really needed it. In Idris, there even was no service. Lisa had always been interested in the things that the mundanes do. So she also felt a curiosity about the laptop.

"You are allowed to keep it, but make sure Marianne and Richard don't find out, okay?" Arthur nodded slowly. Lisa realised he was quite uncomfortable. She pointed to a door.
"Here is the bathroom." Arthur seemed to finally understand it. 

"Ah, I thought it was the door to another bedroom." Lisa looked at him in confusement. She stared at Arthur, even though she didn't want to. The only boy she had ever seen without shirt – to draw runes – was Jonathan. Jonathan was muscular, like almost every shadowhunter, because of the daily workouts. Arthur, on the other hand, was not muscular at all and Lisa wondered how much they had to train at the academy.

Arthur walked to the bathroom, he seemed to approve it.

"Nice here." She also heard him mumble something like: old-fashioned shadowhunters, who know nothing about technology. Lisa left his room, shaking her head and walked to the kitchen.

It's going to be quite funny here, she thought. With a smile, she walked into the kitchen. She wanted to tell Jonathan what just happened, but for the first time, he didn't seem to be there.

Her smile disappeared when she saw that he was there, and not alone. He was sitting on the ground behind the table, with Olivia on his lap. Lisa didn't know why, but she felt a twingle in her chest.

Jonathan and Olivia saw her, Olivia immediately got up and sat down on a chair. Lisa could see she had been crying, even though she tried to hide it by holding her hands in front of her nose and cheeks. She tried to catch Jonathans gaze, but he was looking worried at Olivia. Another twingle. She wondered if this had anything to do with Olivia's boyfriend. She also smelled something burned, her head immediately flew to the stove. There we go again.

"Jonathan!" She ran to the pan and pulled him off the fire. The...thing...that was in it, was totally blackened. Jonathan was standing right next to her. She sideways looked at him. He seemed confused, even more than usual. He still didn't look at her. She threw the content of the pan in the garbage.

"That was our breakfast!" Jonathan said. Lisa wanted to ask what it actually was, when Olivia interrupted.

"I din't like eggs anyway." Lisa and Jonathan both looked at the girl and were astonished. She had no tears in her eyes and a big smile on her face. As if she hadn't been cried and today her lucky day was. Lisa found people who could hide their feelings so well dangerous. She looked in the fridge, there was an apple, lettuce and ice cream. She sighed, slammed the door of the fridge and sat down on a chair, Jonathan came to sit next to her.

"We can still eat frogs," Lisa suggested. Jonathan looked at her with squeezed eyes.

"Not again," he whispered. Olivia looked at them with questioning eyes, making Lisa feel uncomfortable.

"So...you are a couple?" Lisa was startled, Jonathan apparently too. He had opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

"No, Jonathan is like a brother to me, I know him since I was six," Lisa declared. Jonathan slowly nodded. Olivia kept looking at them. Abruptly she got up and walked to the door.

"When will we get the tour?" She looked over her shoulder.

"Within about half an hour, when Arthur is here," Jonathan said, he stared at the table. Olivia walked out, she muttered something about getting lost.

When she was gone, Lisa turned to Jonathan. He was still looking at the table. She bumped her knee against his leg, he immediatly looked at her.

"What just happened?" Jonathan didn't replie, he seemed confused.
"With Olivia," Lisa said. Jonathan looked away again.

"Apparently it wasn't her boyfriend wo ran away, but her brother." Lisa didn't know what to say. She couldn't imagine losing Jonathan, Max or Lotte and definetly not Anna. Only Olivia hadn't lost her brother. He was still there, somewhere. She could only not go to him, which was forbidden by the Law.

"If she misses him so much, why did she become a shadowhunter?" Jonathan absently shrugged, as if he didn't care. Lisa knew he did. He go up.

"I'm going to get dressed and then we'll give the tour, okay?" Only now she noticed he was still wearing his pyjamas. She could see the runes on his body, he was completly covered with them. One in the shape of an eye on his right hand, the Voyance rune, the Angelic power rune on his collarbone. Lisa nodded. Jonathan hesitated, but turned around and disappeared.
A few minutes later Anna entered the kitchen.

"What's that smell?" She turned up her nose.

"Burned eggs, there's still some if you want, in the garbage." Anna marched to the fridge and picked up the apple.

"Who putts an apple in the refrigerator?" she mumbled. Lisa told Anna what just happened, without forgetting any detail and Anna listened attentively, as always. She always told Anna everything and she also told her everything. Anna got up after her story and walked to the door.

"What are you going to do?" asked Lisa.

"To comfort her, of course! She has just lost her brother." With those words, she left. Lisa wanted to go after her, but realized how bad she was in comforting and sat back on her chair.

*

Anna walked to Olivia's bedroom. She wondered if she even would be there. Before she had reached the door, someone grabbed her by the arm and dragged her along.

She pulled herself loose from Jonathans grip, he had dragged her to his room and now closed the door. Anna crossed her arms.

"What that failed action really necessary?"

"You were going to Olivia, am I right?" Anna nodded.

"What's wrong with that?" Jonathan sat down on his bed. His room was a mess, even worse than Lisa's. Anna kicked some junk aside and sat down next to him. He was acting very strange, he inhaled deeply and seemed to pull himslef together.

"Maybe you should tell Lisa," he blurted. Anna jumped straight.

"What?" Jonathan deeply inhaled once more.

"She's going to find out anyway, and you can't keep lying to her."

"The pot is calling the kettle black!" Jonathan frowned his eyebrows. Anna sighed.
"Why do you suddenly want me to tell her?"

"Because she is going to find out! And you keep delaying it!"

"You're not going to tell her, right?" Jonathan shook his head.

"I won't, no."

"Then who will?" Jonathan sat down on his bed and crossed his legs.

"Olivia," he said with a sigh. Anna didn't understand.

"She has just got here!"

"I think she can read people very well." His eyes were directed to the ground. Anna laughed sarcasticallly.

"Olivia just misses her brother, I don't think she really cares about other people."

"And what are you going to do about it?" Jonathan got up, he was just a little taller than her.
"Return her to her brother? Bring him into the Institute? You know as well as I do, you can't, Annabeth!" He fell back on his bed and said something, so quiet Anna couldn't understand it. She sat down next to him.
"I don't want to lie to her anymore." He turned his head to Anna. She knew Jonathan found it difficult to lie to people, especially to the people he loved. She found it difficult to ask it from him. Anna bit on her lip and got up. 

"Okay, I'll tell her." Jonathans shoulders relaxed and he breathed out.

"But you're going to do it right now, otherwise you'll just delay it agian." He got up and walked to the door.
"Wait here." Anna wanted to protest she wasn't ready yet, but he had already shut the door behind him.

______________
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What's Jonathan talking abour? What doesn't Anna want to tell Lisa?
Find out in the next chapter -->
Remember: Trust no one