JPOV

Jasper stood in front of his bedroom window the morning his life would change for the rest of forever. It was a dreary morning much to Jasper's distaste. He missed the vaguely familiar heat of the south from his human days. Not that it mattered. Now that he was a vampire he had absolutely no sense of temperature. Jasper sighed. It was times like these that he missed his human senses. Times when he could taste bitter, sweet, or salty foods instead of being revolted by the mere scent of them. He missed simply feeling hungry instead of feeling a burning in his throat and a loss of control.

Alice walked in interrupting his trail of thought. Her face held a strangely sad expression which immediately worried Jasper. He frowned and read the hopelessness radiating from her. She pulled a vain attempt at smiling and walked over to him. Jasper grabbed her arm and pulled her into his embrace. She put her arms around him, squeezed, and let go. "What has been up with you these past few weeks?" Jasper asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You've been so distant. . . Wait, don't tell me your pregnant?" Jasper joked, trying to make her smile or at least roll her eyes.

She smiled weakly but didn't say anything except, "You'll find out soon."

That worried Jasper. Did that mean something was going to happen to one of them? But surely she'd tell someone, wouldn't she?

Edward. He had to know. He immediately trudged over to his room when he was ready for school. He swung open Edward's door and was just about to ask him when he already answered Jasper with a gruff "Alice doesn't want you to know so I'm no saying anything."

Alice came up from behind Jasper and wrapped her arms around his middle. "All I can tell you is that there is a new vampire in the area. Her name is Isabella and she is a vegetarian like us but she is special."

Jasper turned around in her arms and kissed her forehead, then the tip of her nose, but when he lowered his lips to hers, she pulled away. "Alice, please, tell me what's wrong."

"I don't think we should be together anymore," she said and walked downstairs to leave for school.

They shouldn't be together anymore? But they were mates! His mind thought back to the first time they'd met. He'd walked into some diner in Philadelphia, hoping to make a meal of the depressed man sitting in the corner booth but instead found himself face to face with a pixie like vampire. Her smile and positive emotions dazzling him. She'd stopped him from killing that man and possibly many others. Just by meeting him in that diner. That was the beginning of his love for her.

Edward walked up behind Jasper, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "You'll understand soon."

Jasper wanted to understand then.

BPOV

Ugh, Bella hated being the new girl. All the attention, the looks of curiosity, the slight advances from the boys who hardly even knew her. . . She was sick of it. Her new "friend" Jessica clung to her arm as though she were her social life boat. People came up to talk to Bella and there was Jessica, sticking her nose into everything and answering all of their questions as though Bella was deaf or mute. Angela looked at her sympathetically, but knew better than to interfere. Jessica was the sort that would chew off her head for it later in private.

Not to mention the fact that Bella was struggling with her urge to kill the poor girl. Not because of the smell of her blood but just to finally get rid of her. It was lucky that Bella had chosen to wear a long sleeved t-shirt otherwise Jessica would have noticed her ice cold skin.

Finally, it was lunchtime. Bella grabbed an apple to at least appear to be eating, when she heard Jessica mumble, "Anorexic."

Bella snorted. As if Jessica was eating much more.

She sat down at their table, not having many other choices, when she felt someone trying to break through her mental shield. She turned around.

And there they were, the Cullens. Just as Aro had described them. She guessed that the one who was staring at her so intensely was the mind reader, Edward. How rude, Bella thought. There was a reason she had her mental shield up. He smirked at her. She was tempted to give him the finger. Two of the others were staring at her. They must be Alice and Jasper, she thought. Alice gave her a big smile and waved while Jasper simply sat there and stared, projecting his emotion of curiosity to her.

Bella frowned. Strangely his curiosity did not annoy her. Instead it excited her. She wanted him to be curious about her. She wanted him to know everything about her . And she wanted to know everything about him.

She wanted him.

JPOV

Jasper sat at the table, listening to all the usual chatter about the new girl, Isabella Swan. It was beginning to annoy him. It was normal to be excited about a new student but this was overkill.

That is until he saw her.

She sat at a table full of kids who, Jasper sensed, caused her discomfort. He examined her physical features: long, brown hair with touches of red, golden eyes identicle to his, skin as pale as any vampire's, and last but not least, what intrigued Jasper the most: her scent. It intoxicated him, drew him to her. It took all he had not to run across the room, take her to the forest, and. . . And what?

What had just crossed his mind?

He felt disgusted at the very thought of killing her and talking to her still didn't seem like enough, so what was it he wanted?

Edward looked at Jasper, amused by his thoughts, and answered him, "You want to make her yours."

He wanted to make her his? Jasper looked at Alice. But wasn't Alice his?

Alice looked at him sadly and said the words that scared him the most: "We were never meant to be together. I was meant to meet you at the diner, but even then I knew that we didn't belong together. I just figured we could keep each other company until we could find our mates. I love you, Jazz, but we're not mates."

She turned away from Jasper and smiled at Bella, who was staring at us curiously. Edward was staring at her curiously as well, though Jasper couldn't understand why. He was angry with Alice and Edward who'd kept this from him for so long but he decided he would forget about it for now and turned to look at Bella. He was having a hard time getting a read on her emotions.

He couldn't wait to get to know her.