Okay, chapter 2 is now up people, enjoy!

xXx

Chapter Two

Once again I was in school bright and early, but this time I was hoping to catch Bella before class. I knew that she was in my History lesson but after how she avoided me when I tried to meet her in class, I decided that it would be best to corner her in the morning.

The hallway was pretty much empty, so I made my way to the library hoping against hope that she was where she was yesterday. The weather was grey and it had started drizzling outside, but as I turned around the book shelf there was Bella nose deep in a book. This time it was 'Pride and Prejudice' and much like her book yesterday it was worn and weathered with use.

I sat down opposite her and like yesterday she put down her book surprised to see me but she smiled and pushed a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"Hey" she said softly.

"Hey" I said in reply. We sat in silence for a few moments just looking at each other before Bella began fidgeting.

"I guess you're not really one to heed warnings, are you?"

"No, I guess I'm not" I said leaning back.

"Ok"

"So the weather's pretty dull today"

After saying that I practically slapped myself round the head, I mean the weather come on, I could do better than that.

"Yeah I guess, but then again this is Forks, the weather's pretty much always dull and rainy, not like Texas right?"

"Yeah, not like Texas"

"Was it always hot then?"

"Yeah pretty much I guess"

"Sounds nice"

"It was"

"It must have been hard for you to move here of all places then"

"You'd think that, but it was a lot easier than I thought it'd be" I was being honest as I said that, leaving Texas, though hard, was probably the best thing I could have done at this point. It was too hard to continue living there.

After a moment Bella giggled and at first I wondered why until I realised that we were really having a conversation about the weather.

I racked my head thinking about what girls liked to talk about and remembered how Lil and Alice were fawning over Audrey Hepburn the day before.

"Do you like Audrey Hepburn?" I asked quickly.

"Huh?"

"I said do you like Audrey Hepburn?" I repeated slower.

"Umm, yeah, she's alright I guess"

"What movie do you like best?" I asked. She glanced at me amused before focusing her eyes on her hands again.

"Umm, maybe Breakfast at Tiffany's or Roman Holiday-"

"Yeah Arethusa in the Acroceraunian mountains or something" I said awkwardly.

"Arethusa rose from her couch of snows in the Acroceraunian mountains" she said correcting me.

"Yeah, Keats right"

"No, Shelley"

"No it's Keats"

"Shelley"

"Keats"

"Shelley"

"Keats" I stated frustrated.

"Jasper its Shelley, you know in the movie Joe and Ann have this exact same argument with Joe saying it was Shelley and Ann saying it was Keats"

"Oh, well, whatever" I said running a hand through my hair. At least I knew that Bella had brains unlike some of the other girls I'd met in this school.

"Roman Holidays a really good movie though, I love it even though the ending's sad but there are parts that are just hilarious"

"Yeah?" I asked smiling. It was nice to see Bella like this, excited over something.

"Yeah and there's this poem she says, when they first met, I love it"

"Who is it by?"

"Umm, well I assume it's by the writer of the script because his work was smuggled into America you see, so it would make sense for him to put one of his poems in it"

"Will you recite it for me?"

Bella looked at me surprised before blushing. I realised that she did that a lot.

"Umm, okay. If I were dead and buried and I heard your voice. Beneath the sod my heart of dust would still rejoice"

"It's nice"

"Yeah, I know. What kind of movies do you like?"

"Horror, action, comedies, basically I like any movie that can hold my attention. I'm guessing you like romance right?"

"Yeah, I guess I'm a sucker for happily ever after's and true love because I doubt I'm going to see that in real life"

After that there was an awkward silence as we both wondered what to say next. I watched as Bella contemplated something, biting her lip as she did. It was odd, I found it strangely alluring despite the innocence of it.

"So…" she began awkwardly.

"Yeah"

"Well, umm" she blushed looking down "How do you know Rosalie?"

"What?"

"I mean…I err, I don't mean to pry or anything it's just that yesterday, she acted like she knew you, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to" she stammered out, her cheeks darkened as she blushed a deeper shade of red.

"Oh, it's okay, really" I said smiling at her "She's my sister"

If I was expecting Bella to react, the reaction she gave me was definitely what I would have expected it to be, as her head shot up in surprise and her mouth dropped open in a wide 'o' shape.

"What? Oh…my...gosh, oh my gosh, I have to go, Jasper, I can't…" she grabbed her books and ran out the library once again leaving me dumbfounded.

The bell rang and I began making my way to my History lesson, thinking of what I knew so far. Bella had already reached the class and had sat in the front row, right in front of the teacher, most likely to stop me or anyone sitting near her.

I sighed and walked to the back, noticing how she didn't even glance my way as I entered. The teacher hadn't made a seating plan but at least this time we did some actual work. Since in my last school I was in an advanced set of History, I had already covered most of this years' syllabus therefore I figured I wouldn't have to work too hard as History came quite easy for me.

As class finished, I watched as Bella packed up her things and rushed out of class before most people. During the lesson I'd watched her, and for the most part she'd kept her head down and worked quickly. I doubted that I had ever met any person as studious as her before but then again I had never met anyone like her before.

As I entered the hallway and got caught up in the mass of people going to and from lessons, it was no surprise that I ended up running into Alice of all people. She was unnaturally short however so I didn't blame myself too much.

"Jasper" she squealed. "Where are you going in such a rush?"

"Umm class" I answered uncertainly.

"Oh yeah, duh" she giggled hitting her head "But I mean what class?"

"English"

"Really, me too? How did I not see you yesterday? I'm usually quite observant" she said grabbing my arm and pulling me in the direction of class. As we walked there she chattered on about nonsensical things like clothes and what not so for the most part I was able to tune her out. I looked around the lesson and was sad not to see Bella anywhere but I figured if her reaction this morning was anything to go by, she'd try and avoid me.

Alice pulled me into a seat next to her which is where I remained for the rest of the lesson. Luckily, I had Gym next and she had Textiles or something so we parted ways.

Again we didn't actually do any sports, simply listened to Coach go on and on about trying out for teams and how it's participation that's important.

As he spoke though I thought over what I had found out so far. Obviously according to Edward Bella had done something 'stepped out of line' but how? But most importantly why did she react that way after finding out that I was Lil's brother? What did Lil do to her? I mean I knew she could be a little hard sometimes and a bitch but the shock and the look of almost fear that was on Bella's face…..it just didn't make any sense.

I eagerly await Art because after Art is lunch and at lunch I get to see Bella. I get to find answers to questions. My lessons fly by, I see Emmett and Edward and Lil as I leave Art and they convince me to come to the café with them.

I try to decline but they make me go, so that's why I'm sat with them and bunch of other people I don't care about as they discuss things I don't care about and the one person who I so desperately want to find out about is hidden away in the library amongst the books with answers to secrets, I want to know about.

Bored beyond my mind I'm pulling apart my sandwich that is until I hear her name being mentioned and my hands immediately still and the piece of bread falls from between my fingers.

"I know she's so weird" I hear Jessica say, leaning over to talk to Lil who doesn't respond.

"She dresses like a freak as well, I mean have you seen her clothes, what girl in her right mind would wear flannel shirts with combat boots, I mean talk about a big no-no" Lauren added smiling. I frowned wondering what they had against Bella.

"Yeah it's like Finding Emo"

"Yeah if I had a life as depressing as hers I'd probably go emo too"

"I wouldn't be surprised if she was a cutter or something or if she tried to kill herself, you know, cause she's always in the hospital for one thing or another"

"Bella's clumsy though, she's been that way for as long as I can remember" Tyler said taking a bite of his pizza.

"You think she cuts?" Mike asked surprised.

"Well, duh, she's always wearing long shirts and everything" Jessica said flicking her hair over her shoulder.

I looked over at Lil and her friends and couldn't help notice the lack of their interest in their conversation and how they were mostly just playing around with their food with what looked like sad expressions on their face except for Alice who seemed to be glaring.

"Just because someone wears long shirts doesn't mean she cuts or anything" Tyler said adding to the conversation "Plus there's nothing wrong with flannel shirts or combat boots"

"Exactly, I happen to find that Rose looks especially sexy in combat boots and flannel shirts" Emmet said grinning at Lil, who smirked back at him.

"Oh yeah, I mean, what we meant was that it looks bad on her because she's so not pretty like Rose is" Lauren stammered.

"Rose?" Lil asked raising her eyebrow at them.

"Rosalie is what she meant to say, that she's not pretty, not like you Rosalie" Jessica hurriedly said.

"Yeah not like you"

"I think we get the point" another girl bit out. She had strawberry blonde hair that she kept in a plait.

"Ok Tanya" Lauren replied taking a sip out of her bottle of her water "I just mean that what she did, what she caused this school was just…" she sighed dramatically.

"And the fact that she had the nerve to show her face around here afterwards, I mean come on, have some shame" Jessica added smarmily. The two of them seemed to have some kind of tag team thing going on.

"Wow shame Jessica, don't you think that your one to talk" I looked up wondering who said that and saw a girl standing beside the table. She had long, light brown hair and wore glasses. She was pretty but not in a screamingly obvious way. I'd noticed her before, in my English class, she was quite quiet so I figured that she must have been Bella's friend or something if she was going to stand up for her like that.

"Angela, why don't you just go and like bury your nose in some book or better yet go run off with your pathetic friend Bella and your loser boyfriend Ben, rather than talking to us"

"Yeah, sometimes I can't believe that someone that looks like me and them" Lauren said gesturing to herself and the others "actually breathe the same air as someone. Like. You."

"You know I was thinking just the same thing, every time I'm around you or speak to you I swear I lose 10 IQ points" and with that final statement Angela walked over to a table in the corner that had a boy on it.

"That girl!" Lauren screeched.

"Seriously Lauren, Why don't you just get over it? It's not like it even had anything to do with you" Tanya said examining her nails.

"Tanya I have this thing called team spirit, therefore if it involves the team it involves me" she smirked at that and I could have sworn I heard her mutter under her breath 'It involves me more than you think'

"Hey Lil, I'm going to go, I have to umm meet a teacher" I said making up some excuse. She smiled and everyone said goodbye as I dumped my tray and made my way to the library.

The library was once again quiet and empty. I walked over to where Bella was sat and stood in front of her, hoping that she'd look at me.

She didn't.

So I took her book from her and sat down.

That got her attention.

"Jasper, what are you doing?" she asked frustrated.

"Just sitting down, in the library, enjoying my lunch. What are you doing Bella?"

"Well I was enjoying my lunch until some jackass took my book" she snarled.

"Obviously you must have done something to warrant him doing that"

"Nope, can't think of a thing" she said shaking her head.

"Any way he sounds like a swell guy"

"Really?"

"Yeah, he must really care to be going through the effort of taking your back just to get you to talk to him"

"Care for me? He doesn't know me"

"Well maybe he wants to but for some reason you keep on shutting him out"

"And did he not think that might be for a reason"

"Maybe he doesn't know what to think because you have him running in circles with all your cryptic sayings" I sighed sitting down.

"Maybe your right, I think I owe him an apology" she said looking at me sadly.

"You think?" I asked incredulously.

"Okay, Jasper I'm sorry. You didn't deserve me running off like that without an explanation at least"

"It's okay"

"No it isn't, I shouldn't have freaked out like that, she's your sister, big deal" she shrugged.

I so badly wanted to ask her why she was freaked out but I doubted that she'd answer the question.

"Bella, we're friends right?" I asked hesitantly.

"I, I don't know to be honest. No, no" she frowned at the table "I mean are you sure, do you actually realise what it means if you were my friend? You've been here long enough, well two days and you must have realised by now that a lot of people hate me and that they tend to hate people who associate with me as well"

"Yeah I kind of got that vibe from some people"

"Lauren and Jessica, right?" she smiled slightly.

"Yeah" I leaned back in my chair.

"Did they tell you why?" she asked hesitantly. I looked at her and noticed that she had averted her eyes from me.

"No"

It wasn't hard to miss the look of relief on her face and I wondered why she didn't want meto know when apparently lots of other people already knew and could probably tell me at any point. I remembered what they'd said earlier and looked at her wrists and seeing whether they were bandaged or anything, then again people who really cut wouldn't go for somewhere as obvious as their wrists, they'd go for somewhere like their stomachs or their thighs or something.

"Ok, well I guess that we're friends then until you find out and hate me like everyone else or you know not hate me just socially shun me"

"Bella, I'm not like that, I'm not going to judge you just because of what someone else says"

"I'd…I'd like to believe you, I really would" she began, her voice caught "But I'd believed that about a whole lot of other people you know and they just couldn't, they judged me regardless and I'm talking about the people who were supposed to be my friends" a tear trailed down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away "In a way I guess it was a blessing though because now at least, I know who I can depend on and who my real friends are, even though I can count them on one hand" she laughed a little.

"You know what they say though, it's better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you're not"

"That's the thing though Jasper, I'm hated for what I'm not and to be honest in some ways, I'm glad that people don't talk to me, I like my privacy but I just wish that, that the people I considered my friends would at least trust me enough to find out the truth or something, I don't even know why I'm thinking about this" she went on "I haven't in months"

"Oh, well I got another saying. I'd rather have a couple of real friends than hundreds of fake ones"

"I like that one better" she whispered smiling at me.

The bell rang and we got our things together.

"What do you have next lesson?" I heard myself ask her. She looked at me in surprise before smiling and shaking her head.

"Spanish"

"Can I walk you?"

She looked at me hesitantly before gently laying her hand on my arm. I felt sparks running through me beginning from where her hand was. "You're a good guy Jasper, do you know that? But you've been here two days and you're probably getting enough attention without hanging out with the social outcast that is me"

"Ok" I answered slightly disappointed.

"Maybe next time" she suggested shyly and I smiled at that.

"Next time then"

Bella left the library first and I followed her after a couple of minutes. I couldn't help but feel as if we had begun some kind of illicit affair or something like that. It was strange but I liked it. This was definitely the beginning of a beautiful friendship, now all that was left was for me to figure out why the hell people hated Bella so much.

I made my way through the next couple of lessons, meeting and talking to a few other people mostly due to Lil and her friends being quite popular in the school. I kept my eye out for Bella's friend Angela, she seemed like a nice girl and people didn't seem to really dislike her except for a few people, mainly the obvious.

Study hall rolled around and once again Bella was sat at the front of the class reading or working, I couldn't tell. This time I was sat at the back of the class with Lil and her friends except a couple of other people had milled around as well. The teacher had announced that he would be gone for the lesson and asked us to behave and actually do some work though I doubted that'd actually happen.

Alice spoke first "So Emmett; how did the meeting go with the coach?"

"Actually it went really well, Riley was there as well 'cause he's the Co-captain and everything but we discussed practice, like you said we made it harder and everything, drills, laps, weights the works and the best thing about it is that we won't always be out on the field, we'll be in the gym as well so at least the guys won't get distracted" Emmett said grinning.

"I was talking to Coach as well about cheerleading and everything and we were going to go in the gym as well so maybe we could do alternate days like when you're out on the field, we're in the gym but obviously we'll have to deal with the problem of people getting distracted when we're out there but believe me, if the girls thought I was hard on them last year, they don't even want to know what I've got planned for this time" Lil said smiling at Emmett.

"Baby I love it when you get all dictator like, seriously, Rosie in control is hot"

"Eww, Emmett" Alice squealed, slapping his arm.

"What?" he said, laughing as he did so.

"Hey Alice, are we still on for shopping tomorrow?" Lil asked.

"Have you ever known me of all people to cancel a shopping trip?" Alice said pointing at herself.

"I thought we were going to the movies tomorrow" Edward said confused.

"Yeah we are, but after shopping, you guys are driving down to meet us" Alice clarified.

"Wait, wait, weren't we getting dinner first" Emmett added.

"Yeah we are. Basically, after school Alice and I will go down to Port Angeles, after that you guys will come down to meet us and we'll have dinner, then we'll see a movie and come back to Forks" Lil said in finality.

"Hey Jasper, you're coming right?" Alice asked turning her attention to me.

"Umm, I don't want to intrude or anything"

"You won't be" Alice answered eagerly "You're one of us now, a friend or brotherof Lil is a friend of ours"

"Yeah it'll be great" Emmett said speaking up

"Oh, well maybe" I said relenting.

"Yay" Alice squealed grabbing me in a hug as though I had agreed. It was strange, for someone so little, she had a whole lot of strength.

"Are you guys coming to Eric's party on Saturday?" Jessica asked, sauntering over followed by the rest of her group.

"Yeah you guys should come it'll be good" Mike said "Plus those hot babes from Port Angeles are coming down as well, definitely something worth seeing, aye Cullen?"

Edward rolled his eyes in response.

"You guys should come, you know, 'cause it's not like there's anything better to be doing in Forks is there" Lauren said sitting down on the desk next to mine "Plus it'll at least show Jasper here that you can still have a lot of fun here in Forks" she smiled at me biting her lip. It was odd seeing her do it to deliberately flirt had no effect on me whatsoever yet Bella doing it so innocently drove me nuts.

I looked to the front of the classroom at her and saw her writing quickly. She had the right idea, do the homework now and free yourself up for later. I pulled out my notepad and decided to start on my English homework. It was about Romeo and Juliet, a subject I had already studied and found quite interesting so I figured it would be easy enough to do.

I began outlining some of the points in detail to make it easier later when I wrote it up. I looked up when I felt a tap on my arm and saw Lil smile at me.

"Are you going to come to the party Jasper?" she asked.

"Might, I don't know yet"

"Well dude, you should come, my parents are away for the weekend and my cousin Sal's bringing a shitload of booze and stuff. It's going to be mad" Eric said laughing.

"And by stuff you mean?" Tanya questioned. I didn't remember her being in this class yesterday but maybe she wasn't in.

"The fun things of course, there's gonna be a mother load"

"You better hope you don't get busted" Tyler said.

"Well who's gonna tell?" Lauren shrilled.

"Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Bella told her dad, stupid Cop's kid" Jessica muttered.

"You know what, I'm so sick and tired of talking and hearing about Bella Swan, Bella this, Bella that. She's a bitch" Alice shouted standing up.

The whole class turned to face her in surprise as did I. So far Alice had come across as a happy go lucky person and to suddenly see her so angry was kind of frightening. She had transformed in a blink of an eye and I think that is what was so scary about it.

"I hateBella Swan, she's a terrible person but here you guys are just talking about her like she's something special. Well she's not and you know what I hope that one day when she's cutting her fucking wrist she cuts too deep and bleeds to death"

"Alice" hissed Lil "Sit down, you're making a scene"

"No, gosh. She's sitting right there and you know she's making it seem like she's all innocent when she really isn't, she's a conniving liar, a traitor, euurgh!" Alice screamed, grabbing her bag and storming out the class. I looked towards where Bella was sat and found she hadn't moved from her position of writing however; the whole class was now facing her as though waiting for her retaliation.

But she simply kept on writing as though she didn't even see them or care.

Then I realised this is what Bella had meant earlier.

"Gosh Bella" Lauren exclaimed standing up with Jessica following her "Even now all you do is cause trouble for everyone"

"Yeah, you shouldn't have come back here, in fact Alice is right, you should just curl up and die somewhere 'cause all that's going to happen is that you're going to live a miserable life, all alone, I mean when not even your mum wants you, who will?" Jessica snarled.

I looked around and watched how people just looked on, some people smirking whilst others just looked away and I wondered why did no one speak up and say something? Or was Bella really right about every one proclaiming her guilty without hearing her side?

Did they really care?

It seemed as though no one actually cared just as long as there was some kind of gossip going on, someone being hated, someone making a scene. It reminded me of that song called Hero by Superchick and how everyone wants to fit in and in trying to do that they let an innocent person suffer as a result. Then I wondered, why didn't I say anything? But how could I when I didn't even know what was going on.

School ended soon after that and like before Bella rushed out. People started laughing because she tripped on the way but she caught herself on the door. I looked sadly on, how much injustice had she been through?

And was she truly innocent?

xXx

That's another chapter done. What did you guys think? R&R but seriously Audrey Hepburn=LEGENDARY! Love her!