Disclaimer: As always, these characters aren't mine. They belong to Stephenie Meyer.

A/N: Hey! Wow, thank you so much for your quick response with reviews, guys! That makes this story already completely worth it! I'm glad you all liked the preface, even though it was evil. Sorry, I had to. Just a note. I had to tamper with Alice and Jasper's ages a little bit since when I first wrote "Blood Moon," I was not planning on writing a sequel. Since I mentioned it was a year later, Alice is seventeen and Jasper is "seventeen," but he's about to "turn eighteen," as you'll find out in this chapter. So, I just had to clear that up a bit. Trust me, I do have my reasons for changing their ages. But anyway, I'm glad you liked the preface, and I hope you enjoy the more lighthearted first chapter!

Chapter 1- Snow Day

I slowly opened my eyes when the alarm clock on the nightstand beside my bed went off. I groaned as I turned onto my back and hit the snooze button, ignoring the annoying glowing, green numbers that showed me that it was six-thirty, which was also "get up and get ready for school" time. How I hated that time… Besides, it was the last day before winter break of my senior year, and who really wanted to go to school on that day anyway?

"You know, I would normally tell you not to push that button and just get up and get ready because you'll be late for school otherwise, but I might not have to do that today."

At the quiet sound of the voice I loved most in the world, I opened my eyes and looked up into Jasper's perfectly sculpted face. "And what makes you say that?" I asked quietly, my voice still thick with sleep as I snuggled closer into his side.

Jasper smiled down at me before quickly kissing the top of my head. "Have you seen the amount of snow we're getting?" he wondered. "It could make for terrible driving conditions."

I rolled my eyes. "No, I haven't because unlike you, I was busy sleeping instead of watching the snow," I told him. "Besides, school never gets cancelled in 'bad-weather central…'"

"You might want to take a look for yourself then."

Since he was so insistent and I couldn't resist those golden eyes of his, I slowly climbed out of bed, shivering since I was no longer protected by my blanket's warmth, and threw back the curtains over my window. After my eyes adjusted to the sudden light, I gasped as my eyes widened at the sight outside.

There was already at least five, maybe six, inches of what appeared to be the heavy snow on the ground and was still falling in heaps from the sky. There was also a strong wind, which caused the fallen snow to drift across the roads, creating, as Jasper had said, terrible driving conditions. I had to learn to listen to the vampire…

Could it possibly be…?

"See?" Jasper muttered with amusement from where he still lay on my bed.

I nodded, but I still didn't get my hopes up too high. You never know- our superintendent could be crazy enough to still have school in this weather. It's been known to happen in places that were expected to have snowy weather in December…

Suddenly, my cell phone began to ring near my bed. I ran over to it, picking it up and answering it on the first ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, Alice!" Jessica exclaimed on the other end. "Have you heard? Schools are closed today!"

I smiled broadly, and Jasper laughed a little when he sensed my excitement. "No, I haven't been watching the news since I just woke up," I replied. Jessica and I have been better friends lately since I got together with Jasper and Mike Newton, her boyfriend, wasn't hanging around me so much. "But are you serious? It's cancelled?"

"Yeah, they just called it!" Jessica told me with just as much excitement. "So, what are you doing today? Mike and I are calling everyone so we can get as many people as we can to have a massive snowball fight through town."

"That sounds fun, Jess, but I think I have other plans today," I said, glancing over at Jasper. "I think I'm going to the Cullens' house and spending some time with them."

"Oh." I wasn't surprised that Jessica sounded slightly disappointed. I was pretty much the only one who got along well with the Cullens, even though a lot of girls had crushes on the guys of the family- including Emmett and Edward. Everyone was surprised, if not jealous, that I was in their social circle. "Yeah, I suppose you'd wanna' see your boyfriend. You can bring him with you if you want to find us later. But hey, don't your brothers live with them now? I haven't seen them in a long time…"

I smiled slightly, though it was a bittersweet smile. "Yeah. They have been since we got back from the Montana trip last summer," I explained. "Remember, they have that… health condition which needs to be watched by Doctor Cullen?" Wow, I needed to get my story straight… I could tell Jasper was silently laughing at me.

"So, does that mean that all of the Cullens have that health condition then since Edward and Emmett look like them now?" Jessica asked with confusion.

Oh, crap! "Um… I don't know…"

"But, shouldn't you know? I mean, you're dating one of them, girl!"

"Well, you see…" I paused for a second, knowing that I had to get myself out of this corner and fast. "Oh, hey, my grandma's calling me. I've gotta' go. But, I'll see you later, all right?" Wow, brilliant move, Alice…

"Okay," Jessica said, but I could tell that she wasn't going to drop the subject. "I'll see you sometime over break if you can't make it today. Happy holidays!"

"All right, see you soon, Jess. You too. Bye." I quickly flipped my phone closed and set it down with a sigh.

"Your brothers have a health condition which needs to be watched by Doctor Cullen?" Jasper asked with disbelief, a teasing glint in his eye. "I must say, Alice, even for you, that was… pathetic. It's been a year since we've gotten back."

"Yeah, well, I was put on the spot," I protested in my defense for whatever pride I had left, climbing into my bed and laying down beside him again, resting my head on his shoulder while he wrapped his arm around me. "What was I supposed to say? They've been turned into vampires, but don't worry. They won't hurt you. They're vegetarians. I would like to see you come up with something so quickly…"

"I could have," Jasper told me with a wink.

I looked up at him with a sly smile. "Okay, then prove it," I replied. "Why are Edward and Emmett now so pale?"

Jasper smiled back down at me as he explained, "It's a recessive gene trait in their DNA dealing with the pigmentation of their skin caused by the sudden shift from a sunny place to a place with hardly any sunshine, back to sunny place, and finally back to a place with hardly any sun. It's not very common, which is why you do not possess it, but the outcome tends to be the drastic paling of the skin due to the surfacing of this recessive gene."

I stared up at him in complete shock once he was finished. "Is… is that even possible?" I asked. For one, short moment, I believed him.

In response to my question, Jasper just shrugged. "You can tell a man there are over three billion stars in the sky and he will believe you, but put a sign that says 'wet paint' on a bench and the man must touch it for himself to see if it truly is wet," he answered, though it really wasn't an answer…

"So, do you really think that people will believe all that mumbo jumbo you must made up?" I still had my doubts.

Jasper smirked at me. "You humans are curious by nature," he told me. "If you tell someone something that they themselves can't determine, such as how much stars there are in the sky, they tend to accept it as fact. But, if you say something that is simple enough for them to prove, such as putting a sign on a bench that says 'wet pain,' then that person can touch the bench for themselves to know for sure that it really is wet. It's curiosity."

My smirk mirrored his. "True…" I granted. But then, a mischievous glint appeared in my eyes. "Since we're such a curious people, I wonder what would happen if I do this."

Before Jasper could even ask what I was referring to, I leaned over and kissed him randomly, my lips lingering on his for a short moment. When I moved away, I saw that he had a small smile lighting up his face. "My you are one curious little monster," he muttered before rolling us over so he was now lightly on top of me. I laughed a little before he leaned down, our lips meeting again in a kiss that was more passionate than the sneak one I had given him.

I wrapped my arms around his back to hold him in place while he placed his cold hand on my hip. But then, Jasper suddenly broke away as his head swerved to my bedroom door. "What?" I asked, alarmed.

"Your grandmother's coming up the stairs," Jasper told me quietly. "I should go."

"Yeah, I guess," I agreed with disappointment as he got off the bed and covered me back up with my blanket. "She would freak out if she saw you in bed with me." Even though Jasper and I didn't go that far in terms of our physical relationship and do things like that since he was a vampire and I wasn't and he could easily hurt me, my grandmother would definitely jump to the wrong conclusion anyway…

"Don't sound so disappointed. I won't be gone long," Jasper said, kissing my lips again quickly before he walked over to the window. "I'll come to your front door in about… fifteen minutes asking if you want to come spend the snow day with us since you already told Jessica that was what you would rather do today anyway."

I smiled up at him. "Okay. See you soon, Jazz."

Jasper smiled in return before pushing up the window and quickly slipping out. Shivering, I rushed over to it and pushed it back down to keep out the harsh winter air right as the door to my room opened. "Oh. You're awake, Alice," my grandmother said cheerfully. "You do realize that you have no school today, don't you, honey?"

"Yeah, Grandma," I replied with a smile. "Jessica called and told me, which is what woke me up. I've been too excited to go back to sleep."

"Are you doing anything with her and your friends today since there's no school?"

"She told me that some of us were going to get together, but I don't know if I'm going to," I told her.

"Why not, honey? It's better than sitting around here all day not doing anything," my grandmother said.

I shrugged. "I don't know. If something else comes up, I might consider it." Like, spending the day with Jasper, for example.

Though it was strange to say, living with my grandmother really wasn't torture for me anymore. In fact, I kinda' liked it now that we got along better. The one thing I did miss, however, was the fact that Edward and Emmett no longer lived with us.

Since they had been turned into vampires and were now members of the Cullen family, they lived with Carlisle since he didn't think that it would be the best idea for them to live around humans quite yet, and he didn't want questions to be raised about their appearance. Emmett and Edward had both graduated from school, so they fortunately didn't have to worry about that anymore.

But as it was with Jasper, both of my brothers had better self-control around me, so I was the only human they were allowed to see if there were no other vampire around. Unfortunately, just the opposite happened when I was around "normal" vampires since the ones that drank human blood were drawn to me as if I was a magnet…

But, that was beside the point. I now have seven fully-capable vampires that watch out for me if any nomads happen to wander through Forks or if Laurent or Victoria really do decide to come after me for the death of James even though it was almost a year later since they were still out there somewhere. Hopefully, that wouldn't be the case. I hated having my family fight for me…

The definite positive change in my grandmother, though, was that she now seemed to be putting things into perspective with the absence of Edward and Emmett. Carlisle had brought me home after the camp on his own, regretfully telling her that my brothers had contracted some strange but potentially fatal disease where they would have to be in his continuous care. He was an impressive liar, I had to admit. But with the constant threat that Edward or Emmett could die, though they hadn't to my grandmother's knowledge, she viewed me in a whole new light since I was technically her only grandchild left, at least in the house. She was even calling me by Alice now, which was a definite bonus. She paid more attention to my needs as an individual instead of what a girl my age should be doing, and she was starting to act more like a grandmother.

But I missed Emmett and Edward terribly, and I wondered if I was ever going to be a member of the Cullen family. I almost had been when James had bitten me at the camp, but Bella had been able to get the venom out of my system in time to stop the transformation from occurring. Jasper was still as strongly opposed to my turning as ever-though he had admitted that he would be the one to turn me if it came down to it-since he said I still had a choice of whether I was a human or vampire, and he wasn't going to take my humanity away from me since I still had that choice.

"Well, since you're awake, you might as well come down and have breakfast," my grandmother said, breaking into my thoughts. "I'm making ham and cheese omelettes."

I smiled broadly. Those were my favorite! "Great! I'm coming!"

I followed my grandmother out of my room and down the stairs to the kitchen. I sat down at the table when she moved to the stove to start cooking, and from where I was, I could see she had been watching the news in the living room. From what I could read on the T.V. screen, I could see that the snow was supposed to stop around noon, and by then, we were supposed to have about a foot of snow if not more. Wow, that was the most snow the small town of Forks has seen for a while…

At seven, my grandmother finished making my omelette and set it on the table in front of me with a fork and a glass of milk when the doorbell rang. "Who could that be?" she asked, mainly to herself.

My smirk was so wide that I wasn't sure if I could successfully hide it behind my hand. I knew who it was. It had been about fifteen minutes… "I'll get it, Grandma," I offered, getting out of my chair.

"Alice, you're in your pajamas," my grandmother stated.

"Yeah, and so is every other kid in Forks," I told her, but I smiled anyway. What? My pajamas were decent enough- a small, black t-shirt, a pair of navy pants with yellow crescent moons on them, and a pair of white socks. Besides, Jasper sees me in them all of the time anyway…

My grandmother sighed, but she didn't stop me from leaving the kitchen and entering the living room where the front door was. I saw the silver Volvo in the driveway even before I opened the door, so it was no surprise to me when I saw Jasper standing on the other side. I smiled broadly at the sight of him covered in snow. He looked adorable, almost like my own personal abominable snowman since he was so much taller than me.

"Hey there, Frosty!" I greeted cheerfully, reaching up to help him brush some of the snow off his shoulders.

"Hey," Jasper replied with a smile of his own, standing in the doorway so that he wasn't yet in while he got all of the snow off him so it wouldn't get he carpet wet. My heart fluttered, and he smirked, when he brushed it out of his wet blond hair, which made him look so good. Better than usual, which was saying something. "I see that you're staying warm."

"Yep. You can come in now since you're de-snowdified." I stepped back a little so that he could enter before shutting the door behind him so the snow wouldn't get in the house and I wouldn't get too cold.

"De-snowdified?" Jasper looked down at me curiously.

I laughed- the mischievous laugh I knew that Jasper loved so much. "Word I made up," I explained casually. "It means that you're free of snow."

Jasper smiled down at me as he laughed a little, but then we both looked back at the kitchen when my grandmother suddenly entered the living room. "Oh, Jasper. Good to see you, dear," she said as she smiled at him. I was so relieved that she liked him… "It's a good thing that you let the poor boy in, Alice. Hell's freezing over out there! I'm glad you made it safely."

"Thank you, Mrs. Brandon. Good to see you too," Jasper replied politely with a slight nod of his head- definitely his Southern upbringing. "Yes, driving certainly is difficult out there right now. The plows haven't gone through some of the side streets yet, but the main roads aren't so bad."

"That's right, and you live so far out, too. I'm surprised you made it here," my grandmother muttered as she approached us. "Here, let me take your coat, and you can come in and warm up, dear."

Jasper handed her his coat- she didn't seem to be bothered by his cold hands since it was frigid outside-as he took off his shoes, leaving them on the mat by the door so that he wouldn't get anything else in the house wet. "I thought I would come to keep Alice company for a while, and maybe once the weather clears up a bit, she can come back to my place for the afternoon and evening. My sisters would love to see her, not to mention Edward and Emmett."

"Can I go, Grandma?" I asked enthusiastically. She didn't have to know that I had already planned on spending the day with the Cullens. The less she knew the better.

"Well, yes, if you want to face the elements," she answered as she hung up Jasper's coat in the closet with ours. "And as long as you're careful driving, of course."

"Don't worry, Mrs. Brandon," Jasper assured her, placing his arm around me as I moved close to his side. "I'll make sure nothing happens to her."

I smiled up at him, standing up on my toes to kiss him. Jasper retuned it, but the moment was over much, much too soon when my grandmother cleared her throat.

"Breakfast, young lady," she reminded me.

My face flushed furiously with embarrassment as I took Jasper's larger hand in mine and led him past my grandmother into the kitchen, where he sat beside me at the table while I began to eat my omelette.

"Can I make you one, Jasper?" my grandmother asked after she made it back to the stove and began to make her own. "I have plenty of ingredients here for another."

"Oh, no thank you, Mrs. Brandon. I already ate," Jasper answered with a polite smile. "I don't want you to go through the trouble."

"No trouble at all, dear. I just hate having us eat in front of you. Are you sure you don't want one?"

"It's no big deal. And, no thank you. I'm sure."

I smiled up at him, wondering what he had already eaten. A deer? A small squirrel or rabbit perhaps? Jasper returned the smile, taking my hand that was resting on my knee in his cold one.

My grandmother then finished making her omelette and poured herself a glass of milk before she sat down at the table across from us, looking at us curiously. "So, Jasper. You're going to be eighteen soon, correct?" she asked.

Jasper seemed to be caught off guard by the question. "Yes, correct," he answered. "Next month." I had to struggle to hold in my laughter. Sure he was going to be eighteen… plus how many years it's been since the Civil War. It amazed me sometimes to think about how much older than me Jasper really was…

"That's what I thought." My grandmother then looked over at me, and I recognized the look to mean something along the lines of, "If you two do anything when next month rolls around, I can get him arrested if I find out about it." I blushed fiercely again as I lowered my gaze from hers and took another bite of my omelette.

The rest of breakfast passed without incident, with the three of us talking about the snowstorm raging outside, how school was going, and what our plans for after high school were. Jasper said that he was probably going to be staying in Washington, and I mentioned that's how I was probably going to start off too. I wasn't sure exactly what my future held for me, but no matter what, Jasper was definitely going to be worked into it somehow.

When I was finished with my omelette, I got up from the table and placed my plate, fork, and cup in the sink. I was about to wash them, but Jasper insisted that he do it even though I told him he didn't have to and I didn't mind doing them. My grandmother finally told me to just let him do it since he was so insistent and polite, so Jasper stayed in the kitchen to help her while I ran upstairs to get ready so that we could leave once the weather calmed down a bit. I entered my room and shut the door, smiling broadly to myself as I leaned back against it.

This was going to be the best snow day ever!

A/N: See? Much more lighthearted. It won't be staying that way for too much longer though… But the events of this chapter were actually inspired by my last day before winter break of my senior year when schools were closed. Of course, I didn't have Jasper come visit me, but still. The idea is still the same, lol. Oh, and happy Mother's Day! I hope you all have a wonderful day with your mothers. But, as I said before, the lightheartedness won't be staying around too much longer since… well… why don't you for yourselves with the preview? Thanks for reading! Your reviews are much appreciated!

Next Chapter: A Snowball Fight

"Alice, I think it's time that you and I had a talk," she said, gesturing for me to sit in the chair beside her.

Xxx

"Well, at least you didn't have to have it said to your face…"Jasper's eyes suddenly widened as he extended his hand out toward me. "Careful, it's-!"

But his warning came too late, and I screamed as I suddenly slipped on the ice and landed on my back.

Xxx

"What are you doing, Jazz?" I wondered, noticing that he was staying very still.

"Listening to your heart." His response came out as hardly more than a whisper, and I had to strain my ears to hear him since he didn't look up at me. "It's different from any other human heartbeat. They tempt me, but you… your heartbeat is comforting."

Xxx

"Do you like it?" Jasper asked, a smile in his tone at my shock.

I couldn't answer. Their gift had literally struck me speechless.

Xxx

"Jazz?"

"It's… nothing, Alice," Jasper muttered, giving me a small smile as he took my hand and kissed my fingers quickly. "Everything's fine."