A/N: Hi guys! I'm so pumped that people are reading my story! I lied big time when I said I would update in the same day...I had more homework that I thought :S! Here's the new chapter though! Thanks to IdreamofEddy for the help!
I don't own Twilight.
Jasper POV
The gloomy light streaming in from my window didn't wake me up, but it wasn't helping me hold onto the edge of sleep either. I gave up the battle and opened my eyes. The first day of school is always the hardest after having the entire summer off. I sighed loudly to my empty room as I stumbled into the shower and turned on the water as hot as I could take it. A scorching shower was always the best way to wake me up, but today I couldn't shake the fog from my mind. My brain must be resisting the return to the draining everyday routine that school drilled into me. I lathered up the soap as much as I could, scrubbing my entire body from head to toe as vigorously as possible without taking off the top layer of skin. The feeling of the creamy soap coating my entire body was great; rinsing it off was equally as satisfying. The sensation of being entirely clean always made me feel better. I towelled off, wrapping the towel loosely around my hips, thankful that I had my own bathroom. I quickly brushed my hair and ran some wax through it; hair maintance was not high on my list of priorities, there was no one I had to impress. I let another sigh slip past my lips. Yep, back to normal, I thought to myself.
I heard dishes clattering in the kitchen so I threw on my jeans and a t-shirt, adding a sweater over top. I wasn't preppy but I wasn't into sweats either. I left those two categories to Edward and Emmett. I took the stairs to the kitchen quickly, enjoying the "tha-thump, tha-thump" rhthym my feet made as I tumbled down. Edward looked up at me with a look of slight irritation, but amusement as well. I wondered why it mattered to him when I acted a bit childish; I savoured the simple pleasures. I glanced at Edward's button down and khakis and smirked to myself; he was so predictable. Emmett and Rosalie were no where to be found and I looked at the schedules Esme had insisted we put on the fridge and saw they didn't have a free period first thing like we did.
"Good morning." Edward said as he poured me a glass of orange juice, knowing I wouldn't resist the fresh, tangy citrus that brought the south back to me. Despite living all over the country, I had never let go of my roots. Rosalie had almost lost her accent completely, but mine still weaved through my words, strong and promient.
"Good mornin' to you too," I helped myself to his crusts and took a peach out of the basket. "Are you ready for our ten-month long entombment at Forks High?"
Edward scowled at me. "Stop being so pessimistic. You've been grouchy all week, and for what? You've got the starting spot on the swim team, you get to hang out with the coolest people in school, and you get to see Kate everyday now. I don't see why you're complaining."
Of course he wouldn't. No one would complain about my life; it was virtually perfect. I had a great family, great friends, a girlfriend people would kill for. I was being ridiculous.
"You know, you're right. Lemme try that one again. 'Goodmorning Edward! Ready for ten months of pulse-pounding excitement?" Where did the sarcasm come from? I was really losing it today.
"Ready as I'll ever be. We need to head out soon though, if we're picking up the girls ontime. Do you want me to drive?"
"Nah, I wanna drive my truck. You can drive tomorrow."
"Fine, but you better hurry. You know how they hate being late."
"I'm on it, I'll meet ya outside, I just gotta grab my bag." I rushed to my room to grab my backpack, quickly packing my swim shorts incase I had to wait around for Edward to finish in the darkroom after school. He always lost track of time when he was concentrating and I didn't want to interrupt him.
I ran downstairs and walked out to the garage to get my truck. Carlisle and Esme had bought me the truck for my birthday last year and I loved it. I felt horrible knowing how much they might probably spent on it, but I couldn't help savouring the freedom of having it. Tagging along with Edward had been growing more and more frustrating. I wanted the chance to go off on my own and I had felt bad borrowing his precious Volvo. Not that I blamed him, it was a sweet car. I just preferred something a bit more durable.
I hopped into the cab as Edward did, swiftly pulling out of the drive and turning onto the highway towards Tanya's house. Kate was already there with Tanya, so we didn't need to stop twice before heading to school. Tanya gave Edward a sloppy, wet kiss before climbing into the back. Kate leaned forward and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek. I grinned back at the casual hello. While I drove, the three passengers talked about their upcoming extracurricular activities. Edward was starting to get together his portfolio for submission to colleges. The girls were chatting about the drama club. Tanya wasn't worried about her position as star performer in this years theatre production, and she and Kate were trying to guess which play the drama department would pick. They were both hoping for something more modern.
"I don't know why we have to do all the classics," Kate complained. "I want to do something contemporary. Something with real edge. The drama department needs to get its act together if it wants to get more funding. No one wants old musicals anymore."
I personally disagreed with her, but I knew by now that arguing with Kate about anything related to the theatre was a mistake. She knew what she was talking about and hell if you tried to tell her differently. She wasn't a bitch about it, she just knew what she knew.
Still, I couldn't resist teasing her just a bit. "How about Oklahoma? Can't resist Surrey with a Fringe Ontop." I drawled at her.
She rolled her eyes at my suggestion. "That wouldn't bring in the kind of revenue from pre-sales that we need for new costumes. Besides, Oklahoma is hardly cutting edge". She shook her hair out of her eyes as if that closed the discussion. She turned back to Tanya listing off the plays she deemed worthy.
Edward just gave me a sidelong look and I smirked back. This was not an out of the ordinary conversation for us to have. Kate and I were not the most compatible people in the universe. She was confident and self-assured. I was more layed back and pliable. We had been the two outsiders in the group for months before it started to seem silly for us not to date. It's not that I didn't want to date her. She was good-looking, in an intense way with silky red hair cut into a severe bob, bangs falling in her face, a small, slightly upturned nose and vivid green eyes. She had a sharp look about her, reflecting her attention to detail and her decisiveness. I had never seen her without makeup, and she was always smartly dressed. She was our friend though, which meant she had a good heart. Plus, she threw great parties.
We coasted up to school a few minutes early to see Jacob and Vanessa already there, leaning against Jake's Rabbit.
"Finally! Where have you been? I've been waiting to talk to you for soooooo long." Jake moaned, exaggerating the whine in his voice. He was such a kid.
"We were waiting for Jasper to drag his butt out of bed." Kate explained and I laughed.
"Can't blame a guy for wanting to put off the first day of school, can you?" I said, as Jake laughed with me.
"Yea, I probably could." Kate returned. "I have to meet with Ms. Adele before class. I'll see you in Chem." She squeezed my hand as she left. I watched her walk away. Yep. Right back to normal.
"Well, now that that's finished I have to talk to you guys about Lunch," Jake started. "Fill her in later, Jasper. Today's Bella's first day, so we have to make lunch extra special alright?" He continued to explain the plan about making her the centre of attention and I gave an inward shudder.
"Don't you think she might like to settle in first before you make her a spectacle?" I said suddenly, surprising myself. Jake brushed off my concern and started thinking of ways of getting her to stand on a chair when I decided that it would be best if I just went to class. This was all ridiculous. Having to re-start schools was something I was pro at, and I always enjoyed surveying the territory, flying below the radar for the first couple of days to get my footing. Luckily, the bell rang saving me from an awkward exit and I headed to Chemistry.
Kate was already there, the building was right beside the Auditorium. I asked her how her meeting went while I chucked my books on the desk we shared.
"It went great, I think I may have persuaded her to try something different." My book knocked hers out of the way a bit as it hit the table and she straightened them out. "Can you try and be a bit more careful this year? I would like to keep my eyebrows for the grad photos."
I bit back the laugh I had for that. I had almost singed off her brows last year in Chemistry. I was not a scientist. At all. If it hadn't been for Kate, I woudln't have passed last year. I tried to remember that fact as she gave me a reproachful look.
"I'll try my very best."
Apparently my best wasn't good enough. It was my eyebrows this time which almost disappeared when I turned the bunsen burner up too high in impatience. I laughed it off, but Kate looked morally offended. I tried to reassure her.
"At least you have the oppurtunity to pencil yours back on... I can't possible wear makeup. Emmett wouldn't let me live it down." I laughed at the image but she remained unentertained. I started getting irritated. Why couldn't she just loosen up a bit? I tried to shrug off the aggrivation and chaulk it up to my displeasure at being back at school, but I couldn't quite get over it while she looked so self-righteous. Had she never made a mistake before?
As we walked to my Calculus class, things were not improving. I dwelled on the look on her face. Kate was great around the group and I couldn't understand why she was standoffish when they weren't around. I secretly thought that she was dating me because it was convenient, and I had to admit that was a part of why I was dating her. With a group as close knit as ours, it was hard being single when everyone else was paired up perfectly. Kate left me at the entrance to the classroom, giving me another kiss on the cheek. I could tell she was still annoyed at me.
"I'll see you at lunch?" she said awkwardly, trying to hide her irritation. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the back of Marcus' head disappearing around the side of the Language building with a girl I didn't recognize, loose brown ringlets cascading down her back to her waist. I could only see her from behind, but if her front matched her back she was hot.
"Yea, probably. I'm going to stop off at the library on my way so don't be surprised if I'm late." I said absentmindedly, still wondering who the girl was.
"Well, take your time." She said frostily at my distracted tone and turned on her heel. I was left thinking that I would take as much time as possible to let her exasperation subside.
I tried to sort out my feelings of frustration towards Kate during class and had only succeeded in working myself up more. She was so constricted, I wanted to shake her out of her tension, force her to relax. But she had always been this way, even when we were just friends. High-strung. She was the one to organize all our big events, wanting everything perfect. She had even asked me out, organic attraction not trustworthy enough in her books. Probably asked me 'cause the uneven numbers got under her skin I thought bitterly.
The gleam of the roof of the pool caught my eye, and I decided it would be stupid to go to lunch in this mood. Not only would I have to face the possibility of having Kate still pissed, but I'd have to participate in the fuss over Bella, which I hadn't entirely condoned in the first place.
Coach Clapp had always let me have free reign of the pool. He trusted me not to do anything stupid like dive into the shallow end; I had been around pools enough that I wasn't totally irresponsible. I applauded myself on my choice of lunch activity. I needed the relaxation offered by the cool water.
I quickly changed into my suit in the silent change room and walked quickly to the pool deck. I climbed the 6 steps to the diving board and walked to the end, curling my toes around the lip. I filled my lungs with the chlorine sting, coiled my body, tensed my muscles and launched myself into the air. I sliced through the surface, diving straight down, trying to reach the drain at the very bottom of the pool. Before I could reach my goal, my body pulled me back up. My head broke the surface and I gasped for air. That was the release I had needed. Nothing quite felt like plunging into cool water, your instincts taking over; fight them to stay down or let them take over and resurface.
I swam to the ledge of the pool and started my laps. Breast stroke, Side stroke, Front crawl. I did a few laps of Butterfly just to make my swim seem more industrious. As I swam harder, the frustration left me, and I felt the tension leave my shoulders. I did a lazy backstroke, gently slowing into a deadman's float while I stared at the clouds on the other side of the ceiling above. I prefered the days of gloom. The clouds were like a thick blanket, comforting and soothing, even as they smothered the sun. It was easy to get lost in oblivion when you were staring up at a sky without definition. It could reach down and swallow you up in it's billowy folds. I floated for an immeasurable moment, letting the water keep me afloat, overly aware of the contrasting sensations of half my body underwater and half above. I let the water begin to close over me, cripsly engulfing my face, creeping closer to my eyes until I closed them and sunk beneath the surface to head back to the edge. I swam underwater on the way, re-memorizing the way the water flowed over the contours of my body, the strength coursing through my arms as I forced the water to my sides, pushing against the natural resistance.
I launched myself off the bottom of the pool to give me a start on heaving myself up over the edge, not wanting to give up and use the ladder. I shook my hair out, letting the curls seperate after being forced together by the water. I began looking for my towel when I abruptly stopped caring about where the fucking towel was.
I was right. Her front was just as hot as her back. Hotter. Her face was slowly panning from my head to my feet and I wondered if she was sizing me up. I took the oppurtunity to size her up. Her feet were awkwardly turned in, as if she was embarrassed or unsure. I found her practical, everyday runners endearing. Her darkwash jeans fit her perfectly, hugged her subtle curves. She had on a black t-shirt with long sleeves and a part of my mind wondered why she didn't have a jacket in this weather, she looked too delicate to be easily warmed. Her neck flowed gracefully into her jawline, fragile and soft. A small chin was the point in her heartshaped face. I watched as her defined cheekbones went from white to pink, pink to red, red to crimson. I couldn't help myself, I took a step towards her.
I saw it all happening very clearly. Her quick reaction to my advance, her foot in the puddle on the deck. She was about to go down, possibly into the pool. I completed my first step and took three more before my hand found her arm and steadied her. I was completely shocked when her arm wasn't cold. It flamed under my hand, I could almost feel the blood pulsing under her skin through the thin sleeve.
"Sorry, but you don't look dressed for swimming," I said nervously, forcing myself to smile, unable to relax my fingers from her arm. She began to raise her head, her eyes taking in my face. I took advantage again of her distraction. Her hair was slightly rumpled, mussed up into a sexy wave, curls at the end. I coudln't help but compare it to what people were constantly referring to as "sex hair". I pulled in a deep breath. Her perfect, plump lips were slightly parted, breathing shallowly. I wanted to reach out and see if they were as soft as they looked.
"I...I...Sorry...I didn't mean to interupt." She looked so nervous. I felt it emenating from her, into my chest. My palm burned against her arm and I couldn't take it away. It was an impossibility.
"Not at all. I was just finishing up." I pushed through my teeth, struggling to maintain a casual tone so she wouldn't bolt. I could feel her tension, her willingness to run away from this awkward situation. She tilted her head up, slowly moving her eyes to meet mine. My anticipation mounted. I was not prepared for what I saw. Looking back at me was a pair of round, glossy brown eyes. They were chestnut, they were cinnamin, they were cocoa. They were absolutely endless. I couldn't look away, they coated me in their smooth texture; being dipped in chocolate couldn't compare to how it felt to drench myself in her eyes. I couldn't feel my expression, I was being bowed under the weight of her gaze.
She drew in a sharp breathe and I realized I still had her arm in my grasp. I made myself relax my fingers, withdraw them from her arm. They had left a wet handprint on her shirt. My face contracted with concern...how tight had I been holding her?
Her eyes snapped away from mine and I was free again.
"I was just coming to check out...the pool." She breathed out, airily but trying to compose herself. What had we been talking about? Oh. The pool. I reached into my mind to keep her talking.
"It's great isn't it? The ceiling is getting to be infamous. Is it living up to it's expectations?" I rambled, trying to get a handle on myself. I mentally shook myself.
She let a small laugh escape. "Indefinitely, I've never seen one quite as open as this one."
Curiosity raged inside me. Why was she so interested in coming to explore it? "Do you swim?" I asked stupidly. Who doesn't swim?
She hesitated: "I used to... back home." Excellent. I knew I had been right before. There was no way this breathtaking girl could have escpaed my notice in a school this size.
"Back home? You're new then. I was sure I hadn't seen you around here before." I said without thinking. Of course she was new. I gave myself a smack to smarten up. How was I supposed to make conversation if I kept stating the obvious?
"Um, yea I just got settled in yesterday." Yesterday? Wasn't that cutting it a bit close to get ready for school? I decided to be the friendly, welcoming type. She didn't need some half-naked creeper checking her out in a virtually deserted building. How could I introduce myself? I wracked my brain for something fitting. Oh. The pool.
"Well, I'm a member of the swim team, if you want I can see about a trial for you," I rushed out, "we have a great co-ed group this year. I'm Jasper Hale." I extended my hand a bit too fast for a casual handshake but I hoped she didn't notice. Oh my god. I was going to touch her again. She put her small hand in mine and I was absorbed again in the intense heat radiating from it. I searched for her eyes, trying to see what she thought of my fumbling self-introduction.
"Oh! You're Jasper. I'm Jacob's step-sister, Bella."
Shock. What I felt was pure shock. I was standing, dripping wet, shaking hands with Jacob's Aphrodite of a little sister. She looked up at me as the full realization of our situation overtook me. Here I was, rooted to the ground, trying to keep myself from jumping Jacob's little sister. The feeling of being punched in the stomach began to resonate from my abdomen and I felt the need to flee. Flee as fast as possible. I tried to be polite as I rushed to get away from her.
"Well, welcome to Forks, Bella. I have to run, I'm going to be late for class if I don't hurry. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other again soon." I choked out before I spun and tried to casually walk to the change room. I stopped just long enough to give her a small wave before dashing into the change room. I collapsed onto a bench, my hands on my knees as I gasped for breath. What. The. Eff...What the FUCK.
I closed my eyes and hung my head in my hands. As soon as my eyes closed, I saw her eyes staring back into mine, boaring into my soul, searching my entire mind. I saw their apprehensivness, then recognized the strength that hid behind the self-conscious layer. My mind's eye zoomed out from just eyes to her whole face, her hair, her flushed cheeks, her full lips. I jumped up from the bench and rushed to the shower. I turned the tap on full, and even the freezing cold water couldn't shock the image of her out of my head.
A/N: Ahh, this is so much longer than I thought it was going to be. I won't be updating until later tomorrow, hopefully not this late though!
PLEASE review. It makes my entire day when I hear you are liking it!
I'm off for a cold shower myself ;)
