Alice idly tears at the human food in front of her with her thin, pale fingers and French-manicured nails that she did last night. She scatters the dozens of pieces about her tray and then goes to work at making a design of them. Soon enough, a pointillism-like portrait of Bella stares back at her. Her hair is made of green and orange flecks, her skin is mushy and yellow, and her eyes, ironically, are red and lumpy, but the resemblance stands nonetheless.
"Don't you love it?" Alice asks in her tinkling soprano voice, pushing the tray towards Bella who grins and rolls her doe-like, topaz eyes.
"It's wonderful, Alice," Bella replies in a voice like a mother to a child although Alice is actually older than Bella in human and vampire years, "Just like the one you made yesterday, and the day before that, and last week, and every day of school since I became a vampire."
Alice sticks out her tongue at Bella, who rolls her eyes once more and snuggles deeper into Edward's side. Alice looks away quickly. The intimacy and love circulating between the mates in her family has been a little overwhelming lately. For someone who is used to knowing when things are going to happen, it's terribly hard for her to not know when she's finally going to find someone who she'll look at like Bella looks at Edward, or like Rose looks at Em, or like Esme looks at Carlisle.
"Hey, I thought I was your muse, Alice," Emmett grumbles, snatching the tray and glaring at Bella's food face.
"An artist can't be tied down," Alice says in her most aristocratic, melodramatic voice, plucking her tray away from him and swiftly prancing across the cafeteria causing dozens of sets of eyes to be drawn to her just because of the way she moves, and dumps her masterpiece into the garbage.
She returns to her family to find Edward talking about the new guy who had moved into town. Everyone has been talking about him for the past week and apparently he arrived today. The amazing son of Charlie Whitlock, chief of the Forks Police Department. Which translates to chief of a single deputy and a cramped concrete building. Oooh, aaah. Everyone has been dying to get a glimpse of him. Looking around, Alice doesn't see any unfamiliar faces though. It really doesn't matter – a new human isn't even half as exciting for her as, say, a new shade of lipstick coming out in the MAC collection.
"I'll catch you losers later," Alice tells her quasi-siblings in a teasing voice, "I have a date with a scalpel and a frog." She winks cutely at them, and then slides her creme-colored hobo bag up on her shoulder and flits out of the cafeteria just as the early bell sounds. They aren't even dissecting today in biology, but whenever Alice so much as hears the word biology, dozens of dissected frogs of highschool-go-around's past come swarming through her head. If she wasn't so used to dead animals, having vivid images of digging into countless frogs drifting through her mind for an entire hour every day just might be disturbing.
Alice gingerly takes a seat at her lab station, noticing Mr. Banner, her old, haggard teacher, glancing at the empty bar-stool next to her and then at a piece of paper in his hands. No one has ever bothered to try to be Alice's lab partner. Nothing personal – just a natural instinct to stay far from her at all costs drilled into them.
A familiar, prickly tingle dances across Alice's skin and then she is swept into the future. She watches as a teenage human boy walks into the biology classroom and is directed to the seat next to her, and then returns to the present only moments later. Looks like someone's getting a lab partner.
The bell rings shrilly, telling all students they had better be in class, and then about ten seconds later, a boy saunters nonchalantly into the classroom. Mr. Banner gives him a puzzled look and purses his thin lips. "You're the chief's son? Jasper Whitlock?" Mr. Banner asks incredulously.
Alice is thinking the same thing. This boy doesn't look like he could possibly come from the same blood-line as gruff, uptight, strict Chief Whitlock who is hardly ever found without his police uniform ironed and spotless, his ashen hair combed neatly to the side, slate-gray eyes that are as cold as steel, and his mustache perfectly manicured.
Jasper has messy, shaggy honey-blonde hair that falls into his forehead, sea-green eyes, dozens of bracelets on each wrist, a form-fitting navy blue, threadbare t-shirt with some sort of band insignia on it, and black jeans that hang low, exposing a pair of blue and green striped boxers, threatening to slip off and gather around his knock-off Converse at any moment.
Jasper grins sardonically and replies, "Yes, sir," with an adorable Southern-drawl. He came from Texas – how much sexier can a guy get?
"Very well, then. You may take a seat next to Miss Cullen," Mr. Banner gestures to the only free seat in the room. Jasper seems a little startled as his eyes land on Alice, appraising her for a moment, shocked by her vampiric beauty. In a matter of a few seconds, he studies her from her stylish, spiky, ink-black hair, to her huge golden eyes framed by delicate dark lashes and shimmery make up, to her smooth, even, ivory-colored skin, to her cute little slightly-upturned nose, to her pouty, rose-red lips, to her incredibly thin, petite figure clad in designer clothing, to her little toenails painted neon-pink barely sticking out of her creme-colored two-inch slingbacks that rest against the metal bar in the front of the lab station.
Alice feels like some sort of bacteria under a microscope. She's quickly aware of all her flaws – something very non-Alice like. Her fingers rake through her soft-as-silk hair, wishing it was long and flowing like Bella's or Rosalie's, not shaven so short which she knows must have happened during her stay in the asylum. She sits up straighter, self-conscious of her tiny 4'10" frame.
But Jasper smiles at her, a flirty and friendly smile that suddenly makes Alice feel like the most beautiful creature on this planet.
And then reality hits her. What the hell? Why did she care what this inane human boy thought of her? Her short hair is stylish and completely in right now, and her height is adorable. If Jasper doesn't think so, then that's just too bad, so sad, but Alice could certainly care less... Right?
Alice smiles back pleasantly, and he strolls over to their table and drops his ratty backpack on the floor with a thud. It's probably crammed with textbooks since it's his first day. He has muscular arms though, and supported it so easily that Alice never even noticed how heavy it probably is.
He scrapes the barstool back on the linoleum and takes a seat, his posture faux-relaxed. Alice can see how rigid he is. Maybe because it's his first day and he's surrounded by people he doesn't know in an unfamiliar place, or maybe because he just so happens to be sitting next to the world's most dangerous predator. Probably both.
Alice notices how incredible he smells immediately, and not just in an entree sort of way. He's chewing cinnamon-flavored gum, and is wearing cologne that smells like the most perfect array of spices. His blood is of course alluring also, but not her main focus. Decades of practice has allowed for that.
After a few minutes of listening to Mr. Banner drone on about how the ocean is, in theory, going to rise and wipe out half the major cities in America, Alice risks a glance over at the young, attractive boy next to her. And finds his turquoise eyes fixed on her.
Their eyes lock for a moment, and then they both glance away quickly. She covertly sneaks a peek out of the corner of her eyes and sees him smiling while staring straight ahead. She smiles too, although she isn't quite sure why.
The develop a routine of sneaking glances at each other, waiting for the other to look and then quickly averting their gaze. It becomes almost like a game, and for some reason, Alice can't seem to wipe the stupid, broad grin off her face the entire time.
She memorizes the smallest details of the left side of his face - his high cheekbones, strong jaw, the two freckles on his neck that look like a snake bite, the jagged scar that runs from the corner of his eye to his hairline, the many other small, faint scars that crisscross on his neck. She wonders why they're there, what their story is. She's curious about why his nose is slightly crooked as if it has been broken before. She picks out the different shades of gold that weave through his long, wavy hair - butterscotch, honey, brass, sunshine.
Then, near the end of the period, she looks over at him and is greeted by the now familiar sea-green eyes framed with golden eyelashes, but this time, he doesn't look away. Alice is trapped in his stare for at least five seconds, the air between them feeling hot and heady. Then he breaks away and stares forward once again as if he is actually listening to the teacher.
Alice can't help herself – she lets out a quiet giggle that sounds like silver bells and quickly puts her hand over her mouth to muffle it. What's so funny, she has no idea. Maybe she just likes that Jasper broke the rules to his own game.
The bell rings and everyone rushes for the door. Alice slowly stands and bends down, taking her bag off the floor, very aware that Jasper is lingering also. Even Mr. Banner has left the silent classroom.
"I'm Jasper, by the way." the boy says, giving Alice a lopsided smile as she turns to face him. Alice smiles also.
"I'm Alice." she tells him, pushing an unruly lock of black hair off her forehead.
"Pleasure to meet you, Alice," His voice is quiet, deep, and laced with that lovely Southern accent.
"Likewise." she chirps, grateful that her voice is naturally smooth and silky to make up for the fact that it is so much louder and higher than his that it would sound harsh by comparison if she were human.
"I guess I'll see you tomorrow." He grins at her once more, winks, and then turns and heads out of the classroom, melting into the rush of students in the hall. Alice uses the nearest lab-station counter for support. Had they been...flirting? She shakes her head, clearing it of the strange fog that had settled there.
Human. Jasper is a human. Don't think about him, Alice chants to herself as she heads to gym, which she has with Bella.
But no such luck. For the rest of the day, the boy with the golden hair and sea-green eyes is trapped in her mind. And she can't tell for the life of her if that's a good or bad thing.
