A/N: this is my first story, so please be gentle!! I think I like where it's headed, I'm almost done with the second chapter, let me know what you guys think!! And I've changed things around a bit...Alice and Jasper were never together, even though they're both with the Cullens. and Bella and Edward hooked up a lot sooner than in the books. I call it creative license, haha. Anywho, enjoy.
Jasper Hale sighed quietly as he unenthusiastically trudged to his seat in history class. He tried to tune out the onslaught of emotions he picked up from the dozen or so students already in the room. At least he had this class with Emmett. Emmett was usually quite cheerful, Jasper would much rather have felt that instead of the petty emotions emitted by his classmates. Nervousness, indecision, loneliness, obnoxious giddiness, not to mention the ever present cocktail of hormones that seemed to make the kids irrepressibly horny.
He found the loneliness part ironic, these children had no idea what loneliness was the way Jasper did. He was alone, living in a family of perfectly matched mates. Alice wasn't attached either, but the two of them had never had more than a brother/sister relationship. He considered her one of his closest friends. Now, since Edward had Bella, Jasper was the odd man out.
He lowered his head a bit to stare at the pattern of the wood on top of the table he and Emmett sat at, hoping it would help him focus his plight to tune out the madness. Since vampires have such better vision than humans, he usually did get distracted by things like that. No one ever suspected the real reason, though. The teachers just assumed he had a short attention span, which is true. Once you've been through high school nine times, one does tend to quit listening. Besides, this was history class. American history. About the Civil War today, of all things. Jasper felt he could have taught the class in his sleep. The thought of him actually sleeping made a wry smile pass across Jasper's face briefly.
He could hear Emmett strolling down the hall, Jasper was glad his distraction was near. Emmett and another girl, who Jasper had seen before but never paid attention to, reached the doorway at the same time. Emmett gestured for her to go first, always the gentleman his brother was. Jasper smirked a little; Emmett was entertaining without even meaning to be. Jasper suddenly felt something new, different from the other emotions he had been trying not to notice.
He felt sadness. Extreme sadness. Not the petty kind of sadness that people felt when things weren't going their way, but an incredible sense of loss kind of sadness. He glanced around trying to pinpoint it, his eyes rested on the girl who came in a second ago. On the outside she appeared fine, maybe a bit annoyed to be in school, but her exterior certainly didn't mimic the inside. Jasper hadn't felt such sadness in a long time, not in himself or another being. Not really even since his own life as a young vampire.
He raised his head up a bit, casually flicking a piece of his unruly blond hair out of his eyes, to observe her further. He found himself desperately wanting to know what was wrong with her, curious about what could make her fall apart so much, yet still be able to hold it together all at once. He cocked his head to the side a bit, a habit of his when he was concentrating. What he would have given to have Edward's power right now.
Emmett gave Jasper a playful punch on the arm as he sat down. Ironically, this gesture probably would have broken the arm of a human. Jasper always found it somewhat amusing how humans thought they were so tough when reality was quite different.
"What took you so long?" he asked Emmett, looking for a distraction. He was unbelievably curious about the girl, yet cautious of it. He didn't become involved with humans, none of his siblings did... especially Jasper. Except Edward, but that's a different story. "Er…me and Rose got….sidetracked," Emmett halfway explained with a mischievous grin. Jasper rolled his eyes; Emmett was just as bad as those sex crazed teenagers filling the room. Emmett was happy though, it was a nice and simple thing for Jasper to enjoy.
The teacher approached the front of the room, signaling the lecture was about to start. Jasper gave the mystery girl another glance. She was sitting nonchalantly at the table ahead to Jasper's left, doodling on a sheet of paper, her light brown hair spilling over one of her shoulders. No one sat with her, maybe that was why she was sad…was she upset about being an outcast? She certainly couldn't have been more of an outcast than any of the Cullens…especially Jasper.
Should he use his ability to help her? He normally didn't use it with people he didn't know, and certainly not in situations he didn't know anything about. He never was one to meddle. Jasper found himself staring at her from the corner of his eye, debating what to do, which didn't go unnoticed by his 'older' brother.
"She's pretty," Emmett remarked so quietly that the teacher never could have heard, following Jasper's gaze. "Don't let Rosalie hear you say that," he smirked, grateful for the diversion. Emmett shrugged and said, "Dead or not, I'm still a guy and I still notice!" Jasper softly chucked, decided not to pay her any more attention. Whatever it was that was making her so sad was none of his business, and he didn't get involved with humans anyway…even if they were remarkably intriguing.