YAY!! I'm so pleased to be posting again. I've had major writers block for over a month now. (For anyone who's reading my other stories I am still working on them, it's just taking a while). And … this is in Jasper's pov. YAY again!!! I love Jasper; he is defiantly the best character so I'm so excited to write him.

And before you start, I know 'not another story where Edward left Bella and they meet years later'. I realize it's been done so many times (I've read most of them) but I absolutely love them, you can do so many different things with that one basic plot line. So I don't care if it's unoriginal. I've been desperate to write my own for ages and then suddenly inspiration struck, and I couldn't type fast enough. Anyway this is a very long AN for which I apologize and I really hope you like what I've done (oh and if you like this please check out my other stuff pretty please). And now … on with the story.

JPOV

Here it was; the day we had been dreading since we arrived in this dreary town two weeks ago. Our first day at our new school in Oregon. And it certainly didn't disappoint. So far the day had progressed just as tediously as predicted.

It was barely different from the previous school we'd attended, or the half-dozen preceding that. It was always the same; the same generic classrooms and winding hallways, the same mediocre teachers and disinterested students.

All schools were practically identical, built, decorated and staffed as cheaply as possible, then filled with a shambling mass of semi-coherent hormonal teenagers.

It had always been this way, ever since I had joined Carlisle and committed to this lifestyle; however it bothered me now far more than before. It bothered us all. We all desperately craved a change, any change, something different.

We all knew why we felt this way. We had thought ourselves complete once, that our lives were as fulfilled as they could ever hope to be. Then we had found her. Bella. Our sister, and Edward's reason for being, just as Alice was to me.

We could all see the difference she had made in Edwards life; she became his life, took it over completely. Yet we were blind to the effect she had on the rest of us. Aside from Rosalie, I had the least contact with her, due to my unfortunately poor control, yet even I had been irreversible altered by her presence in our lives. She had made our family complete in a way we weren't even aware was possible.

That was the truth of it. It wasn't a change we were looking for. We were longing for something that would enable us to return to the way we were back then, the way she had made us. But it was impossible. Nothing could ever restore our family, make us whole again. Only Bella could do that and she was gone, dead. She had died shortly after we left her.

My fault.

All my fault.

And now here we were once more, seven decades later, starting afresh, repeating the cycle of monotony our lives had descended into since we left her.

Rosalie, Emmett and I currently were seated at the far end one of the long clear tables, keeping our distance from the other students, in the small, exceedingly average canteen, our trays of disgusting human food untouched before us.

We had sat in perfect stillness, lost in our own thoughts, for a large portion of our allocated lunch period, when Emmett suddenly broke the unnerving silence that always seemed to settle around our family.

"Did Alice mention if she saw anything interesting happening here?" he inquired.

I winced and glanced at the empty seat beside me which Alice should be occupying. I had always found it hard to be away from Alice, just as Emmett rarely parted from Rosalie and Carlisle seldom left Esme's side.

Yet the agony of any separation had become more pronounced in recent years. Watching the perpetual despair that had overtaken Edward, following his separation from his true love, had made the rest of us even more unwilling to be apart from our respective partners for any amount of time, no matter how short.

Today however, Alice was hunting with Edward, and I reluctantly accepted that it was not possible for us to remain together while she was near him. Edward's pain, his continuous agonizing suffering, was more than I could bear. It was hard for me to be in proximity to him, so excruciating was his grief.

Edward never accompanied us to school on our first day any more. He always joined us eventually, knowing that if he stayed away too long our family would receive unwanted attention. In truth I didn't really see the point of him avoiding school. It was a necessity of the way we lived and it made little difference whether he was moping around here or at home. But regardless, he always managed to evade the first few days.

I understood of course, as did the rest of our family, how hard it was for him. It was hard for us all. Starting somewhere new was always the hardest part. Well actually no, leaving somewhere, moving on, that was the hardest part. It just reminded us all the more of the one place we wish we'd never left…

This time Edward had conveniently forgotten to hunt in the two weeks leading up to our first day, and since he generally hunted alone nowadays, the rest of us had failed to notice, until this morning, when he had emerged from his room for the first time since we arrived.

This meant that he was in no fit state to begin school with the rest of us, and Alice had felt obligated to drag him off hunting, ensuring he had no excuse to be absent tomorrow. Without her intervention it was inevitable he would have done little to rectify the situation, in an attempt to prolong his absence.

"No, nothing as usual," I answer in a flat voice, not looking up. "Why? Did you have something particular in mind?" I queried, bemused by his question.

Nothing 'interesting' had ever happened and if Alice had seen anything we would know about it. She was always overly eager to share anything of the slightest interest, most likely as it gave us something to talk about. We were all far too subdued and there was little conversation between any of us any more.

"Oh," he murmured casually, "I just assumed that another coven of vampires living here was something she might have noticed when we chose to move here."

My head snapped up and, sure enough, crossing the room, heading for a large deserted table, were three vampires; two males and a female.

The girl had sharp features and long black hair, running down her back, flawlessly straight, that accented her pale skin perfectly. She was slightly shorter than the two boys either side of her; one with messy light brown hair that partially concealed his face, the other with his platinum blonde hair slicked up into vertical spikes.

We watched as they glided gracefully across the canteen and settled into their seats. It wasn't often we came across other vampires and when we did it was mostly wandering nomads. Their presence at the school, not to mention the golden color of their irises, indicated a permanent settlement nearby and a 'vegetarian' lifestyle.

"We should probably introduce ourselves," I said after a long minute, "after all this is their territory."

We rose in unison and began to make our way over to this unexpected coven, disposing of our trays of food along the way. As we got closer, they heard our approach and turned to look at us, the shocked expressions on their faces echoing ours from a moment ago.

They appraised us warily, their eyes widening as they took in Rosalie's breathtaking beauty, then narrowing as they observed Emmett's large bulk, and finally settling on me. I saw them tense as their gaze lingered on the scars that ravaged my skin. But, I realised in horror, I couldn't feel anything. There was an absence of emotion emanating from them. It was disconcerting, I had never found anyone whose emotions were not clear to me, but to that extra sense it was as if they did not exist. To come across three such vampires at once had to be more than just coincidence.

Still even unable to directly feel and influence their moods, I had always had an appealing presence. I smiled in greeting as we neared and they were immediately compelled to return my smile in welcome, despite the hint of fear in their eyes.

Their caution was unsurprising, between me and Emmett, not to mention our boldness in our sudden approach, we must have seemed rather intimidating. The three of them did not look like exceptional fighters – although appearances can be deceptive – and I was sure we could have easily defeated them were it our intention to fight them for this territory, a thought that had no doubt occurred to them.

We had arrived at the edge of their table now and they were gazing intently at us, probably attempting to discern our intent. They were obviously uneasy and made no move to greet us, the silence becoming more marked with each passing second.

Finally, I could take it no longer.

"Hello, my name is Jasper Hale." I began in a low voice which only they would be able to hear. "This is my brother Emmett Cullen and his wife Rosalie" I gestured toward Emmett, who nodded in their direction, and Rose, who gave a small, half smile, as I spoke.

They exchanged quick but apprehensive glances before the female turned to me.

"I'm Ashley Jackson. Welcome to Astoria High. It's a pleasure to meet you. We've haven't come across another coven like ours before."

The three of them noted the light amber tone of our eyes, enlightening them as to our obvious hunting preference.

"Likewise. We know of only one other coven who live like ourselves. It's certainly a surprise to find another one here. How long have you occupied this area?"

"A few months, before that we were up in Alaska. Is it just the three of you or are there more in your coven?"

Even without the use of my extra sense, I could tell they were concerned about the size of our coven, especially if there were more of us of Emmett's stature.

"Actually there are seven of us in total. Our parents Esme and Carlisle are at home and our other brother Edward and my partner Alice are out hunting and will be joining us tomorrow."

"Rather coincidentally there are also seven members of our family. And our coven also consists of three couples, how funny. What story do you use to explain the relationships?"

I got the impression she was digging for information, but then again perhaps she was just a curious person. Besides, for everything they learnt about us, we would learn about them. Not that I was expecting any conflict between us but I had always been very strategically minded.

"Rosalie and I pose as twins fostered by Carlisle and Esme, while Alice, Edward and Emmett are all separately adopted from a young age. And yourselves?"

Before she could answer a perky blonde girl literally bounded up to us, a huge smile across her face. Just like the others, her emotions were completely hidden from my gift, however her energetic and vivacious nature would have been obvious to anyone. I got the impression she was the kind of person who was in a perpetual good mood.

"Heya guys. Oh hi who are you lot? I'm Hali. Your eyes are all gold, that means you hunt like us right? We've never met another coven like us before. Everyone else prefers to hunt humans, which is just so inconsiderate. I mean we were all human once. Are you staying here long? I hope so, I'd love to …"

She said all of this incredible fast even for a vampire without pausing. She reminded me of a child on a sugar rush. Then she broke of suddenly and started at me for a few seconds and her mouth fell open.

"You're an empath. That is so cool. It's such a rare gift, we thought we'd never meet another one. I have to tell B."

And with that she skipped away again and out of the canteen, leaving me staring speechlessly after her.

"She hates it when you call her that." the blonde boy called quietly after her.

"Sorry about her, she can be a bit much sometimes"

I looked back at Ashley to see the three vampires looking half amused and half annoyed.

"Is she always like that?" Emmett asked, while Rosalie just scowled.

"Pretty much," Ashley sighed "She's the most lively, animated person I've ever known. Anyway, what were we talking about?"

"You were about to tell us about your coven" I reminded her.

"Oh yes. Well William and Rebecca are together. They're the oldest and act as our parents. They basically are our parents really. I know they think of us as their children."

I smiled thinking of Esme.

"Then this is my husband Justin Richards; he's supposedly William's nephew because he refused to use the same last name as our sisters." She gestured to the brown haired boy across from her.

"I am not being called Justin Donatella. It's a terrible surname. Why did you let B use it." He muttered to her

"Because she insisted. And it cheered her up a bit." She hissed backat him, before turning to us once more.

"Then this is Gregory Jackson. We pretend to be brother and sister adopted by the Richards." She indicated the boy with blonde spikes.

"And finally our two sisters. Hali you just met, she's Greg's partner. And her apparent twin, although they're so close they could actually be sisters. Hallinor and Belinda Donatella."

Just then a voice from behind us made me jump. I hadn't heard anyone approach.

"Oh take no notice of her. That's such a mouthful."

I spun around as did Emmett and rose and gasped as I saw the girl who had spoken.

"I never use it. For short it's Bella. Bella Donna."

Standing before me was someone I thought never to lay eyes on again. It was Isabella Swan.

YAY. I've finished. You have no idea how long I spent writing that. I must have started it weeks and weeks ago. And I'm still not sure it's right. I'm really not sure what people will make of this so I would really love some feedback. It all seemed alright until they all start talking. Dialogue is my major downfall, (odd since I have a tendency to talk rather a lot) its going fine until someone starts talking and I'm never sure whether their talking to much or not enough and none of it sounds right. Or am I just being picky? So yeah please review and give me some indication of what you think. ciao xx SD