A/N: Thanks for the review! I promise I'm not dead just had a family emergency and had to stay up the road at a cousin's home for a while. This is literally the first day since Wednesday I've been home- and I had to clean for the first nine hours (all by myself- may I add) I was here. School starts Monday, and I'm going to be extremely busy with house hopping and being a responsible daughter... Oh the trials at fourteen young years. Tonight though it appears my mom is letting me stay at home... So I'm going to try to write as much as I can after I finish my summer paper.

Enough with my complaining. Here's the next installment.

Enjoy!

Gina and Jeremy concluded, luckily, that they were able to stay here. The boy who went on the shooting injured the people he wanted to target, not even knowing who Eli or Meredith were. Nevertheless, school would be closed on Monday, and counseling services would be offered to those who needed it. Meredith though, still wondered about Jasper. The thought of him consumed her extended shifts at the bookstore.

How'd he know there was looming danger? Someone might have tipped him off. His family seemed to have a knowing of what was occurring as well, being the reason why his sisters were downright furious when he hadn't left. Why did he want to protect her? Why did his eyes go black, and why was his grip the results of bruises around her body?

Rubbing her temples, she sat on her flat roof, staring at the antiquated street lights in the winter chill. Stars glittered in the sky, something she missed. Sighing, she shivered; it wasn't the brightest thing to come out in near freezing weather in her pajamas. Having enough of the cold Meredith retreated back indoors and took a much needed shower.

The next afternoon, she had finally mustered enough strength to go clock in at the bookstore. John had gotten fired, but the work room and the cashiers still ranked of marijuana, much to Meredith's dismay. Pot didn't smell bad; it was probably just the cheap stuff he smoked. Regina had called out sick, so it was just her and some snobby blonde she recognized from school.

Much like any day, her co workers left early. It didn't really make a difference whether they were here or not because they never really do anything productive. About to close up, a familiar swatch of bronze hair caught Meredith's eye. Pushing away the book she was reading, she announced, "Welcome, can I assist you in any way?"

Two males she recognized as Jasper and Edward emerged from the bookshelves. The assistant manager at this time put down his book and came out to pretend he was in charge of something. "Did you ever stock the shelves?" he queried silently, so the customers wouldn't hear him.

"You told Violet to," Meredith answered quite bluntly. Jasper and Edward walked up closer to the counter.

Tapping his fingers angrily, her supervisor got extremely agitated and demeaning, "This is a team Meredith, she was probably waiting for your help." Meredith bit her lip, she didn't want to lose this job, her life was clicking into place. So she sucked it up and went to stock the shelf Violet was too 'busy' to do. Her assistant manager apologized loudly so Meredith could hear his condescending voice.

"Excuse me," Jasper's voice rang clearly through the air after the harangue. "Can you get your supervisor?" he inquired, his hands defiantly crossed around his puffed chest. Animosity was thicker than southern mashed potatoes. Edward lingered behind him, and Meredith watched them both out of the corner of her eye.

The rude manager, who she identified as Keith, rolled his eyes, "Why?" he moodily snapped.

"I don't think you should have asked that question," Jasper's voice shook. It sent shivers down her spine.

Laughing, Keith questioned rather freshly, "What are you going to do big guy?"

Jasper looked seething angry, sneaking into the back room, avoiding Keith's eye sight, she escorted the owner to the situation. Hale then complained to the kind hearted owner in a not so kind hearted way. The manager flushed red and insisted a thirty percent discount on their purchases. After tugging Keith off of the floor and into an office, Meredith broke the silence, "Thank you."

Sitting the books on the counter, Jasper's eyes trained to her forearm, "It's not a problem." His eyes trailed someplace else. "See you tomorrow Meredith."

"You too Jasper," she frowned when the name escaped her lips.

Sitting in the library, there wasn't anything to do on the first day back. Jasper was zooming through homework. Meredith was checking books back in. Though, she wasn't doing only that, she was devising a plan to get information out of Jasper. Mustering up enough courage, she cleared her throat, "How'd you know, Jasper?"

"What?" he asked dumfounded. It was like he was a Martian dropped on Earth without trace knowledge of English.

Raising her eyebrow, she continued, "It seems like your whole family knew about the shooting before it happened." Daring to glare at him, he shot back an even more defensive scowl. A long period of time passed before Jasper even stopped giving her that look.

Finally, after the deadening silence, he replied, "You should probably stay away from me." Meredith began aimlessly checking in title after title again.

"Maybe I should," she mused. After all, if they knew about it beforehand they're obviously a shady bunch. It wasn't safe to jeopardize their new location. Jasper and she endured the most awkward silence after she said that.

When the bell rang she escaped the confines of the angst ridden library. She needed to go somewhere, do something, tell someone. Meredith was literally running back to the apartment. Once she fled up the stairs like a bat out of hell and opened the door in a hurry, she collapsed on the newly assembled leather couch. Her chest heaving up and down to a horrific rhythm, she felt the scream rise into her chest, building up until she could let them loose.

Even though it was so cliché and cheesy to her, Meredith clutched a pillow, screaming her lungs out into the fiberfill. It was so relieving. After she was done, she still struggled to breathe. Everything that had happened in the past week had exhausted her. Additionally, what Jasper gave her today, was not an explanation. That wasn't even closure.

With a fierce face, she stormed into the statistics classroom, ready to confront Jasper. She was a nervous wreck all during lunch. Last night she slept restlessly. This had to stop; Meredith needed that closure she had decided on the previous evening. After she ungracefully threw everything she'd need down on her desk, Jasper came over and arranged his stuff like a civil person. "How are you today?" he questioned in the drawl she was all too familiar too.

Catching his glance, Meredith got to observe how gorgeous he was. Those eyes drew her in and the tousled hair she once critiqued grew a liking to her. "I thought I was supposed to stay away from you," she attempted to sound angry to have the words cut at him like knives. Much to her dismay, she sounded more like the angst ridden eighteen year old she was.

"I never said I wanted you to stay away," Jasper defended himself. Meredith became outraged, taking to biting her tongue so no rash statements flew out of it. After a few minutes had passed, Jasper tried to continue conversation with her, "Do you like Greenspon?"

Somehow, out of some unchartered reserve deep within her flawed soul, she found tolerance for his out of context question. Scanning the worksheet in front of her, Meredith answered, "No, it's not my favorite place, but I can make due."

He nodded as if in agreement. "Surely isn't South Carolina, what part did you live in?"

"Isle of Palms," she replied, beginning to silently wonder why he cared. The rest of class, he picked at her life, wanting to know just about everything that had ever happened to her. At points, she'd stop him and ask Jasper about his life, but he always possessed short answers like she was supposed to. Even though it was all lies and fabrication, Meredith had to admit she was doing a good job at it.

Not all of them were lies. "Oh, I've been distracting you- here," he passed the sheet full of answers.

"Thanks, but I can do it on my own," she declined his offer of answers. When his eyes pleaded, she sighed, "Fine." Copying them all down, she turned in the class work along with Jasper's.

The next class they had together was spent talking as well. Meredith thought it was going very well and forgot about the pressing moral dilemma of closure. She figured out that he was adopted and had a twin sister, Rosalie, whom she had seen the day of the shooting. His adoptive father was a doctor in town and he didn't mention what his mother did, but obviously spoke of her in high regard. He had one other sister and two brothers not of relation to him. Jasper and his sister were the only ones who had kept their previous name, Hale, as all the others have the surname Cullen.

Towards the end of the period, Nate strolled into the library. Meredith sustained a wave, and he enthusiastically greeted her, "Hey, Meredith."

"Hey, Highlighter," she referenced to his hair, the platinum blonde tresses curling into ringlets.

Before he could say anything Regina came dashing in, "I got the game!"

Raising her eyebrows, even Jasper sustained a few laughs, "Slow yourself," Meredith giggled.

"Real Madrid," she huffed, now noticing Nate's presence.

"I didn't know you gals liked soccer," Nate grinned widely, "I play soccer."

Regina rolled her eyes, "No, stupid, we like David Beckham."

"I appreciate David Beckham, but I also enjoy the sport," Meredith admitted, blushing. She used to play soccer when her life was normal. Eli was actually trying out for the team here in Greenspon, something she wanted to do, but knew was a luxury she couldn't partake in.

Nate rolled his eyes in annoyance. Huffing, he placed his hands on his hips as Meredith and Regina gushed over the get together. It was only a brief discussion since Regina had to go back to class. "So you play soccer?" Meredith raised an eyebrow, turning her gaze to his stomach. It was obvious he trained diligently and persistently. Like Beckham, he had the toned look about him.

Nodding his head with a devilish smile, "Center Forward," he shrugged like it was nothing. Turning momentarily to check in a book, she caught Jasper glowering at the boy across the counter, almost like the innocent blonde was Satan himself. The anger directed towards Nate wasn't something Meredith had ever seen before.

"I used to play as a Winger, but I have played as a Forward," Meredith informed him. "That was two years ago on a Junior Varsity squad," she laughed self consciously.

His eyes lit up as she turned back to face him. "You should really try out," he pressured her. They continued small talk until Nate realized the time. Nate was actually alluring to Meredith, in some way. He was attractive, smart, and goofy; something rang triple threat about him.

Jasper's eyes still didn't let up on the shifty glare as Nate left. His hands were shaking with some kind of anger that Meredith couldn't define. She left him to himself because she was honestly frightened by the severity of his resentment.

But that was before she suddenly thought it was a great idea to pick up on the conversation that her friends had interrupted. Jasper became much calmer, and less visibly angry. "There's something very different about you," she commented.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Jasper cautiously pried.

She actually wondered on that for a minute. The fact her fight-or-flight response was in kick whenever she thought about him wasn't a good sign. "I think it's good," Meredith gave him a weak smile.

"For good measures, can I walk you home this evening?" he queried.

Unsure of what to do, Meredith reassured herself that she could probably defend herself if need be. After all, she wasn't a defenseless Barbie; she had grit when she needed it. "Sure," she shrugged, the bell rang at the most appropriate timing, and Jasper waited for her to pack away her things.

"You played soccer?" he restated in curiosity, Meredith at the moment threw her bag over her left shoulder. His eyes were dark again, black almost. Something about him screamed danger. Paranoia wasn't a new trait that she had encountered, but it definitely wasn't her favorite.

"Yeah, probably couldn't do it now, but it was fun while it lasted," she sighed in remembrance of the days she could run around the pitch and do whatever she wanted.

Mainly though, Meredith missed the sporty physique and the outlet that it gave her. When she was that powerful, nothing could've happened to her. "I bet you could still do it," Jasper encouraged her, holding the door open as she gaped in astonishment. No one did that around here.

Walking through it, he simply gave her a weak smile as they advanced into the cold. "Nope, pretty sure I can't do it anymore," she laughed. Looking self consciously down at her leg, she realized how much she really did miss it, and not just the physique portion.

Jasper cleared his throat, "What happened?" A cloud of fog swirled from his breath as the question escaped his lips. Pacing slower, she wanted to stretch the short walk with Jasper as long as she could.

"A girl got a little too defensive and tackled me, shattered my hip, I had to have reconstructive surgery," she trained her eyes on the ground. It wasn't out of shame. Actually, that was the first truthful thing she had said to anyone in Greenspon. That sincerely happened to her.

Jasper remained quiet, he now understood, "I'm sorry."

"It's life," Meredith shrugged. Pulling her coat around herself and shivering, she was quite sure she'd never be able to grow accustomed to the cold. "It wasn't my life goal or anything, just something to pass the time," she further divulged. "You play any sports?" she could picture Jasper doing anything. His build was perfect for a pitcher, even a cross country runner, but overall; he looked like a very defensive person.

Jasper shook his head quickly sending curls in all sorts of directions. Smirking, he retorted, "No, just an occasional game or two with my brothers." His eyes trailed down to lock with hers. Meredith being only 5'3, the experience was quite intimidating, Hale was a little over six foot. "What sport do I appear to play?" he interrogated with an irresistible simper.

Meredith nearly melted. She finally got a real glimpse at how stunning Jasper really was. "Something like Lacrosse," she estimated, playing in his build.

"Interesting," he mused quietly. Meredith internally sighed as he stopped right outside her home. "Well, have a good evening," he sincerely said.

Meredith smiled, "You too Jasper," she waved goodbye. Ascending the stairs, when the door pulled together, she nearly fell down in shock.

She had never told Jasper, or even mentioned to him, her location. Darting to her room, she laid down on her stomach in frustration, stuffing her face into her pillow. That fueled the conspiracy that he was bad for her. What happened outside was mere proof she couldn't get close to anyone ever again.

But, maybe it wasn't her, she devised. It was him.

There was something different about Jasper Hale.