Hey so here is the next chapter...quick note I referred to Hayden as Harry in the last chapter...this was a mistake as Aro and the guard changed his name so sorry for that.

Please review adn tell me what you think!


Chapter six: The squalor of humanity

"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little."
George Carlin

He took it back.

He took back every little snide or cynical thought he had ever had in regards to one of his vampire family make disparaging comments about humanity as a whole. Up until today…well until nine am and his arrival at Fork's high school to be exact, he had always thought that they were a tad bias. He was wrong.

Completely and utterly wrong….humans, especially teenage humans apparently were unimaginably annoying. Not only were they annoying but they were incredibly stupid.

Though perhaps that was a little unfair of him since the majority of his interactions throughout his past twenty+ years had been with beings with centuries of knowledge or at the very least a masters in potions. So, it was perhaps a little presumptuous of him to expect the fifteen and sixteen year olds around him to behave with even an ounce of dignity or intelligence.

And don't even get him started on the bloody giggling and staring…it honestly was making his skin crawl, and he lived with people whose natural instincts were to drain him of life…so that was an impressive feat on the teenage population of Forks to say the least.

He shook his head minutely to try and force his attention back to the pasty, overweight man standing several rows in front of him who was waving around a wooden stick that he assumed was meant to be a teaching aid while gesturing with more enthusiasm then was warranted to a messily chalk written point on the black board. So apparently he needed to revise his earlier sentiment…it was not only the teenagers of Fork's high school who were annoying, but the teachers as well.

Honestly, why would anyone bother making a diorama? Truly it was one of the worst wastes of time Hayden had ever heard of….and he had searched out various unique ways to waste pass time back in Volterra.

He idly wondered how Jane and Alec were making out with an even lower intelligence stimulating experience….thank god and all that was holy that he hadn't been made a sophomore. He spent the next few minutes entertaining himself by imaging up various scenarios. He wondered if there would be a sophomore class left at the end of the day.

Jane had already been in a foul mood this morning, stemming from the fact that she had been forced or rather cajoled (since really other then Aro, no one could force Jane to do anything) into drinking a potion that would change the vampire's eye colors to a more human shade (you just didn't see many humans wandering around with crimson colored eyes). She had bitched and whined that it tasted worse than human food…which Hayden had promptly waved in her face with a gleeful grin.

Apparently she hadn't appreciated his humor, demonstrated by the fact that half of his text books were no longer packed in his school bag…that was rather embarrassing to try and explain to his teachers. He was rather disappointed by the fact that none of the current Cullens…or even Bella for that fact were in his year.

That meant he would have to wait until noon to see their reactions to his and the twins presence…not that they would be able to catch the vampires off guard given the gossip fire that had taken place the minute three new students had set foot in the sad looking building(s).

He winced when the shrill bell rang, even if he wasn't a vampire he had carried over a lot of their abilities and increased hearing was one of them making the school bell a rather painful experience.

"Hayden! Hey like wait up for me… I will like walk with you to lunch…like you can sit with me and my friends!" Natalie the current bane of his existence chirped at him.

He had shown absolutely no interest or even pleasantness towards the ditzy redhead and yet she still clung to him like white on rice. It didn't help that her non-stop chatter was filled with the word 'like' every few words. At first he thought she had an unfortunate syndrome of some sort…he quickly realized that it was called stupidity.

Had she been the only clinger-on he had amassed in the few short hours since his arrival, he might have been less cranky…however she came along with an additional five equally distasteful humans.

He sighed to himself and answered her in the coldest tone that he could manage without actually accidently freezing something with his magic, "Thank you Natalie but I was planning on sitting with my siblings today"

"Oh" she said looking as though someone had told her that not all little girls grew up to be princesses. The crest fallen expression lasted only a mere few seconds before it was replaced by a shiny white grin (did she bleach them or something? Because that color was not natural). "You can like invite your family to like sit with us…we don't like mind spending time with the younger grade"

Hayden wanted to slam his head into the lockers they were passing… his fast pace not doing anything to shake her off, "That is a lovely offer…but they are a little…..antisocial. I think this being our first day we should take it slow….perhaps another time" he gave her a tight smile, which unfortunately made her blush and flutter her eye lashes at him.

"Oh…that's like totally sensitive of you….looking out for your younger siblings. Like I totally understand! Maybe like tomorrow or something" she cooed.

Hayden didn't bother confirming her query but broke away from her as quickly as he could to head over to where he had spotted Jane and Alec sitting and glaring at anyone who came to close to them. It wasn't until he had sat down beside Alec that he chanced a glance over to where he could feel their presence coming from.

What he saw made him want to smirk. All five vampires and one additional human were sitting stiffly at the table across the cafeteria. He took special pleasure out of the fact that Edward look like he was struggling against the impulse to come over and tear their throats out, while Bella was white as ash beside him. He smirked a Cheshire grin at Edward, giving him a wink, delighting in the tensing of his jaw before turning his attention to the rest of the group.

He quickly spotted Alice the only other one that he had met…and well, that was odd.

She didn't seem quite as antagonistic as Edward or as frightened as Bella at their presence…instead she looked rather confused and was staring quite hard in the twin's directions. Hmmm…curious.

To her right sat a rather beautiful blond vampire with a disdainful look on her face who was leaning against a bear of a man…or vampire to be accurate. The large vampire simply was tense but not to the same degree as his bronze haired brother.

The last member of their group made Hayden pause….he was by far the most attractive vampire of the group. Honey blond hair, and the same bronze eyes that the rest of the coven had…although his contained a certain wildness that the others were missing.

Hayden started in surprise…he felt…he felt drawn to the golden haired vampire.

That was unexpected.

He quickly pushed this line of thought away and focused on the vampire's reaction towards them…he look tense as though preparing himself for an attack, although his was far more wary then his brother, like he would evaluate the potential threat before choosing how to proceed.

'So, at least he is smarter than Edward' Hayden thought with some satisfaction, although he resented the fact that he should care what the blond vampire thought of him at all.

Perusal finished, Hayden turned his back to the group and proceeded to ignore them, focusing instead on his 'siblings'. He lowered his voice to a whisper, knowing it was too low for human ears but that it was plenty loud enough for vampire group to hear.

"So Jane love…how many classmates do you and Alec have left? Do they taste any different then Italian's?"

Jane gave him a wicked smirk having quickly caught on to what he was up too, "Oh…they are still all alive…for now"

Alec grimaced and added in an even quieter voice, "unfortunately"

Hayden snuck a glance and was gratified to see that all of the Cullen's had gone statue still, with the exception of Bella who was tugging fruitlessly on Edwards arm asking him what was going on. Hayden shook his head in disgust…honestly he could not understand why someone as old as Edward would attempt to be with a human.

Then again he found the entire Cullen lifestyle odd and distasteful. Why would anyone try and suppress their true natures? It was abnormal to try and be human…which was exactly what the Cullen's were doing. Eating only animal blood, dating humans, attending school…

Though the last one made him a bit of a hypocrite he suppose, though he was far more human they any of them were…and he was only attending to rattle them (and okay so maybe he had been curious as to what all the fuss was about).

They passed the rest of lunch off in silence, Jane trying to burn holes in the loud football jocks seated in the table next to them with her eyes, Alec sneaking glances every few minutes back at the Cullen table, and Hayden pushing the soggy noodle something around his plate in disgust. He dumped the entire mess in the trash when the bell went off vowing to pack his own lunch in the future. Unlike his 'brother and sister' he still needed to eat.

He was lost in the memory of when Aro had given him blood to drink, thinking he might have inherited that characteristic as well (he hadn't and the whole experience had been disastrous) causing him to be distracted enough to bump into the very vampire that he had been previously studying.

The blond made to flinch away from him but then stopped in shock. For a brief second Hayden wondered what had made the vampire pause when he was inundated by emotions…jealously, lust, boredom, happiness, sadness, disgust…more and more swamped him and he stumbled backwards. He would have fallen had Alec not grabbed onto him at the last minute.

The blond vampire mumbled a hasty apology before moving as fast as the setting would allow away from Hayden, an unsettled look on his face. One that Hayden couldn't blame him for. He assumed the vampire must be an empath…what he didn't understand was why that ability had transferred to him.

He hadn't been using his ability…that shouldn't have happened, maybe back when he still couldn't control his gift there was a chance that he might slip, but not now. He had, had perfect control for more than seven years…he mirrored the blond in his discomfort over what had just happened.

He would have to tell Severus about this. Maybe his mentor would be able to make sense of it.

Something told him that he would be disappointed…that this was for him and him alone to figure out.

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The day started off with a strange sense of déjà vu, only this time instead of the endless gossip centering on the chief of police's daughter coming to live in Forks, it was filled with speculation over the arrival of three apparently beautiful siblings.

Normally Jasper did not pay the gossip monger's words and thoughts any heed but he had to admit that he was actually a little curious as well. According to what few snippets of information Edward had managed to tell them before classes they should be expecting to see Aphrodite's children walking down the hall.

Of course this line of thought made Jasper and the rest of his siblings instantly suspicious…it could very well be that the arrivals were human but from the way people were talking he didn't think so. He hadn't survived a civil war, followed by countless vampire battles by being lax after all.

By the time lunch had rolled around he was more than a little on edge. He made his way, along with Alice towards the rest of their coven, careful to avoid bumping into anyone. His control had been getting better but it was a far cry from perfect. Hell, half the time he was around Bella all he could think about was ripping her throat out just to make some other expression (any other) other then naïve confusion appear in her murky brown eyes.

Ok, reigning himself in….it was inappropriate of him to let his own frustrations and unease morph into anger towards Edwards girlfriend…it wasn't her fault she smelt like a five course meal.

He sat gracefully next to Alice and tried to will his own dark desires back into the little box in his mind. Thankfully Emmet provided a much needed distraction.

"Hey, so eddie…get anything on these new kids?" Emmet asked in his usual playful banter, causing Rosalie to wrinkle her nose in displeasure. She had been on a kick lately about trying to get her mate to act more mature….somehow Jasper thought that this was one battle she was going to lose.

Edward frowned, making his serious countenance look like the before picture for Lorazepam, "No….nothing more then I told you this morning. Although apparently they are even less friendly then we are"

Jasper mentally smiled at this, ignoring the frustration and curiosity roiling off of the rest of the table's occupants…that and the boredom and confusion coming off of Bella. He couldn't help but be a little bit proud over his own reputation as being completely unapproachable by the majority of the school population.

Of course this reputation could probably be chalked up to the fact that he always seemed to look like he was in pain (which he was)…for some reason this seemed to make others feel uncomfortable around him. Not that he was complaining it was exactly how he wanted it.

"Alice?" he asked softly drawing surprised looks from the rest of his siblings, almost as if they had forgotten that he was even there. Which in all honesty they probably had. Being the quietest and most reserved out of the Cullen's Jasper found that he spent most of his time on the periphery. Watching but not really participating.

In the beginning this hadn't really bothered him, he was still getting used to spending time with other vampires that didn't involve killing and fighting them, so the space actually helped. But as time passed and he grew more accustomed to a relatively peaceful existence, that space didn't decrease and he was finding it more and more isolating.

It didn't help that the one vampire who had not treated him as a background player had continued to become more and more distant over the past few months. He had been debating about confronting Alice about it for more than a week now but still hadn't reached a decision.

"hmmm….not much. It's rather blurry and out of focus. I can get snippets but they are just that, together they don't really add up to make any sense…" she stated scrunching her brow as though trying to catch a fleeing thought, "I do know that they will end up playing a very big role in the change that is coming" she added after a second.

"Change? What do you mean? Is it bad? Is it Victoria? Or another vampire?" Bella asked her voice full of worry clutching Edward's forearm tightly.

Jasper had to stop himself from showing his surprise when he felt a wave of annoyance off of Alice at Bella's questions. Well that was odd…his sister had always doted on Edward's girlfriend…all because of some vision she had seen where the girl would be part of their family….unless that had somehow changed?

"I don't know" Alice bit out, though only those who knew her exceptionally well would have caught the irritation in her tone, "I haven't been able to get a clear read on the future since we left the Volturi" she admitted.

This had everyone looking even more worried. "Do you think they did something to your vision? You did touch Aro…" Edward asked concern causing him to tense further.

Alice shrugged, the human gesture of course coming off far to graceful to truly emanate the real thing, "I'm not sure only hours after we left I got a bunch of flashes…most of them involved that boy we saw there….I swear immediately after they happened I knew what was going to happen but it-it's like the memories have been tampered with….their foggy and no longer make any sense" she sighed frustrated.

Jasper couldn't help but feel his own emotions fluctuate at that….that was not good…especially given how much Carlisle and the others relied on Alice's gift. Whoever or whatever was playing with Alice's visions was a threat that they couldn't afford to discount.

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of something that had his fighting instincts trying to lash out….he smelled it then…honestly, he wasn't sure how they had missed it before…vampires. He slowly turned his head to scan for the new arrivals and felt an intense anger from Edward and fear from Bella.

The vampires that had entered looked to be quite young, although they moved in a way that spoke of many more years of experience then their physical bodies showed. It had to be Jane and Alec from the Volturi…the twins were infamous, known for their sadistic natures and high place within the Vampire guard. He had never seen them before but given the reactions of Edward, Alice and Bella he knew he was right.

What the hell were they doing here? Edward had said they the Volturi had told them that Bella would have to be changed and that they would be keeping an eye on them…but he never thought that they meant literally. To send two of their most prized guards to….babysit? It just didn't make any sense.

Lost in his thoughts he completely missed the furious hissing going on between his siblings as they tossed back theories and concerns, he was unable however to tune out Bella's insistent questions regarding the whole situation. Not what he needed at the moment…thank you very much.

Before they could delve too deeply into the matter the third new student entered the cafeteria and gracefully danced his way across to where Jane and Alec were sitting. And really that was the only way that Jasper could describe it…it was almost beautiful.

He couldn't help but feel a little shocked at the sight of the dark haired teen…he had heard of course his families' stories of the boy they had seen with the Volturi but he hadn't really warranted them with much truth. He had chalked up Bella's description of "a dark angel' to her teenage girl, hormone ridden mind. He was a little uncomfortable with the fact that he couldn't really disrepute her assessment now that he saw the teen.

It only served to make him even tenser.

This was not helped by the fact that the black haired boy (and why wasn't he a vampire, if Aro valued his potential so much?) seemed to be teasing them…especially Edward, causing his brother to look like he was on the verge of going on a murderous rampage. Though, he didn't think that this would intimidate the teen all that much considering he was living with the Volturi.

The remainder of lunch was spent in tense silence, no one daring to say anything given the fact that Jane and Alec could quite easily hear whatever they said. Edward accidently broke the plastic meal tray in half when the boy (Hayden apparently) asked Jane if she had sampled her classmates yet. Jasper was pretty sure it was said in jest but given who they were…he couldn't say for sure.

When the bell signaling that lunch was over went off, he like the rest of them were quick to rise and make their way towards the exits. For once he wasn't concentrating on where he was walking, far to distracted with sifting through what their presence possibly meant for the rest of them to be paying attention to his surroundings.

Because of this he didn't see Hayden until it was too late and he had run into the teen. It was only the briefest of touches, but it was like the world had stopped…as cliché as that sounds.

He felt nothing…nothing besides his own emotions. The constant swirling and ebbing of everyone else's emotions just disappeared, as though he was the only one in the room. It was the most unnerving thing he had ever experienced. He couldn't quite decide whether he loved or hated the feeling….it was so different.

Just as suddenly as they had touched he had leapt back putting much needed distance in-between them. He didn't understand what had happened….he suddenly understood the usual look on Bella's face….he was confused.

As he hastily fled the cafeteria, not even thinking of where he was headed… he couldn't help but picture the surprised look on Hayden's ethereal face.

Apparently he wasn't the only one confused.