This was truly a nightmarish day. Why Alice had not warned me I probably would never know. If she didn't tell me before, she surely would not explain why she had neglected to tell me later. That would simply be admitting that she had been hiding something from me. I knew she probably had a good reason for keeping it from me. Perhaps I could have been better prepared if she had informed me though.
I had been doing a good job of keeping up the ridiculous day-to-day ruse my adoptive father had designed so that the secrets of the Cullen Coven wouldn't be revealed. I took my unbearable assignment of dragging through a dreadfully dull high school day in silence. But today, things became more complicated. Today I would be forced to interact with the other students at Forks High School. A dangerous trade for any vampire.
Today in last-period science we were given a ridiculous lab assignment where we would be required to burn a peanut under a soda can full of water. We were to see how much of a temperature change there was to the water as a result of the burning peanut. It was supposed to tell us how many calories were in an individual peanut. I fought the urge to roll my eyes while the teacher gave us our supplies. As though we could make accurate calculations using a soda can in an open environment with hardly any controls. Pathetic. The painfully primal experiment was not the cause of my trouble however.
Today, every student would be required to work with a Partner. I was partnered with Tiffany Roswell; A hopelessly shallow and superficial eighteen year old bleached-blonde. The kind of girl who applied so much makeup to her face that it was unquestionably a different color from the skin on her neck. Against my will, I had to admit her neck was appealing to me. Not out of any desire for her skin. It was her blood that was calling to me.
The scent of Tiffany's blood had always been clean and healthy. Probably because of her obsessively careful diet that ensured that she would never gain weight. I held my breath in anticipation of the close contact I would soon have with her. It was no use. The memory of the irresistibly sweet scent of her blood still tortured me. It had been a week sense I had last fed. The rest of my family had hunted two weeks ago; but I constantly fed more frequently than the rest. Decades of feeding on human blood without considering this new vegetarian lifestyle of the Cullen's made it more difficult for me to fight the desire for the fresh blood that was now walking eagerly towards me.
"Hi Jasper!" Tiffany chirped enthusiastically. "This should be fun."
It would be anything but fun. She of all people should know that. She hated science. At least that was what her D minus average would imply. I could tell she wanted me to reply just as enthusiastically as she had greeted me. I just nodded.
Encountering Tiffany was always discomforting to me. I could feel the waves of her emotions as strongly and plainly as if they were gusts of wind blowing over me. Her nauseating infatuation with me was growing tiresome. Two years I had lived in Forks, and two years she had desired some form of affection from me. I refused to let Edward tell me what she was thinking, and I knew Alice would never tell me when Tiffany would be targeting me. Alice thought it was funny. Always asking how "my little girlfriend" was today.
I set up the experiment without looking at her. I could still feel her staring at me. I tried to ignore the awkward feeling in my stomach. The feeling I always had around Tiffany. It was incredibly concerning to me to feel what she felt. I did not enjoy feeling attracted to myself. The last thing I wanted was to desire that Jasper Hale would fall in love with me. Again, Alice found this to be a hilarious predicament.
My hands shook as I concentrated on anything but the blood and emotions of my lab partner. As I screwed up my face to focus, the waves of desire became stronger. She found the expression on my face attractive. Disgusting. I knew I wouldn't be able to stand it for much longer.
"Want me to help Jasper?" Tiffany asked bravely.
"No thank you," I replied as politely as possible.
This had been a mistake. I knew from years of acting the gentlemen that it took more air to produce the breathy tone required for politeness. Out of habit, I inhaled to produce the words. I still had some air in my lungs that I could have used to speak; but old habits are hard to break.
The scent of her blood flowing through my mouth into my throat and lungs hit me like a canon ball. I could taste the scent on my tongue infuriatingly strongly. The thirst burned my throat like fire. It stung more painfully than I can perhaps explain. If my eyes could water, they would have done so. I felt my face and body stiffen as the result of my strain.
Unbelievably, appallingly, the desire for Jasper Hale increased. How was my pain attractive? What was worse than the desire itself, was that the desire made Tiffany's heart race. Her blood pumped more quickly and her skin grew warm. I had to make her go away from me. Now. I could not give in to my blood-lust now. My family depended on my control. I couldn't let them down.
I could make her afraid easily. I could send fear into her just by thinking of the way fear felt. I knew I could only send the fear directly into her alone if I was touching her. This was out of the question. The warmth of her flesh would only tempt me more. Besides, she would undoubtedly take the touch as some form of returned affection. I could not take the chance that her blood would begin to race faster through her already flowing veins.
I would have to send the fear into the room. I could make the entire room so fearful that they would leave the class. I had to feel a little sorry for the other students. They would feel fear, but not know what they were afraid of. I did not have time for common courtesy however. I did not have time to give them something specific to fear. There were twenty people in the room besides myself, and it would take a great effort and amount of time to infect them all. I knew I could do it. . I began to concentrate.
Slowly the atmosphere around me became uneasy. It was not yet at the level of fear. Tiffany was affected the most as she was closest to me. She could feel the tension strongly. She must have felt it was coming from me. My stress or anxiety about the class perhaps.
"Jasper, are you okay?" she asked shakily. I could tell she was struggling with her desire to be near me, and the growing desire to run for her life.
"No. I don't understand this experiment," I lied with a miserable tone in my voice. It was of course untrue. The experiment was preposterously simple. "My father won't be pleased if I come home with another bad grade."
"Oh don't worry!" she said more bravely again, trying to impress me with her knowledge on the topic. "I understand it. We'll get through it together. Just be positive Jasper."
B positive! The fool! How could she say such a thing at a time like this? B positive; her very blood type. It was my personal favorite. Precisely the reason why it was so hard for me to be around Tiffany when I could usually resist most students without this much pain. I grew furious with her. If I had not perfected a show of flawless manners for most of my extended life, I might have exploded at her.
My anger was enough though. My angry and thirsty fury mixed with the fear I was sending around me caused the change I was looking for. The humans ran. Tiffany fled the fastest elbowing her way through the small crowd at the door. She nearly tripped over her expensive high-heeled shoes. Ten seconds, and they were all gone.
I calmed myself in the empty classroom. I could leave now and wait for my family in the car. No one would be able to pin the unexplained panic of the class on me. I now understood why Alice had been laughing when she said good-bye to me this morning. She loved seeing Tiffany in any situation where she lost face. Mostly because Tiffany rivaled Alice in the fashion department and had once criticized one of Alice's new outfits. It was no good telling Alice that the rivalry wasn't really necessary. She already knew that. She just chose to keep the rivalry going for pure sport I supposed.
I gathered my books. Alice would pay for this. I still had the code to her new bank account locked in my computer. I would refuse to give it to her until she paid me back. Yes, she would pay.