A/N: I own nothing.

EPOV

I stared at my phone as I sent my reply.

"Oh good, me too."

I didn't know what his game was, but I hoped my unexpected reply would catch him off guard long enough for me to think.

As my last class ended, I rushed out of the classroom and only briefly caught a glimpse of Jasper as I left.

I rushed home and read over our assigned reading chapters to distract myself. Then I read them again. And again. And after I had practically memorized the assigned reading for the rest of the year, my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID but didn't recognize the number.

"Hello?" I answered cautiously.

"Hey. Is this Edward?"

The voice sounded familiar but I couldn't place exactly where I had heard it.

"Yes," I replied, not willing to provide any more information.

"Okay good. This is Emmett, a friend of Jasper's."

It hit me like a ton of bricks when I realized just where I had heard his voice before. He was one of the guys that Jasper brought with him when they came to… do whatever it is they were going to do at the school parking lot.

"What do you want?" I asked, trying to keep my voice flat. I didn't need him to know that I was afraid of him. Not that I was, of course. Not at all.

"Look, I know we didn't exactly get off on the right foot, but I really need to talk to you. Can we meet up somewhere?"

He had to be kidding if he thought I was seriously willing to talk to him outside of school.

"Whatever you need to say you can say on the phone," I answered.

He sighed, but didn't argue the point with me. "Look man, Jasper and his girlfriend are trying to set you up in some elaborate scheme. What they're going to do-"

"I know," I replied, cutting him off. I hadn't known for sure actually, but this information confirmed my suspicions.

"You know?" he asked incredulously.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but they want to set up a situation that makes me seem gay and then 'out' me to the entire school."

"Yeah, but how did you…" he trailed off.

I was glad to have confirmed my theory, but now I had another problem.

"So, Emmett," I sneered. "Why exactly are you telling me this?"

"What do you mean?" he asked.

I shook my head, knowing full well that he couldn't see me do it.

"You're his friend, right? So why are you telling me about his plans? Shouldn't you be helping him?

"I…" he began, "I don't know. I don't like what he's doing. You're right, any other time I would have been backing him up one hundred percent. But this just doesn't feel right."

I accepted his explanation, for now. After a few more meaningless words I hung up on him.

It was time for me to come up with my own plan.

I woke up the next morning with multiple nefarious schemes running through my head, and I was more excited than I had been in a long, long time.

Yes, I know I'm not normal. No, nobody asked you.

As I waited for class to begin, I pretty much expected Jasper's wink as he walked through the door. I also wasn't terribly surprised when Jasper "accidentally" brushed my shoulder as he sat down.

I decided that it was time to put at least one of my plans into action. Now don't get me wrong, I do appreciate that Emmett had helped me out. But that doesn't mean that I don't want to get him back as well.

Before I hung up on him last night, I asked Emmett to text me a homework assignment for a class I wasn't even in. I just needed a message from him.

Once the teacher started checking attendance, I pulled out my phone and opened the message Emmett had sent me. I covered the text of the message with my finger but tilted it just enough so that Jasper's wandering eyes could see who sent it.

And when I saw the shocked expression on his face, I knew he had seen it. I smirked to myself as I shoved my phone back in my pocket.

When we were directed to discuss project ideas with our partners, I started rambling information off to Jasper while pulling out my phone every few minutes. I'd pretend to send a message and it didn't take a genius to figure out that Jasper thought I was texting Emmett.

He tried to take notes on what I was telling him but it was obvious he was distracted. He'd stare at me as I pretended to type a message and continue to stare at me for several seconds after I was done.

After about the eighth fake message, he'd had enough.

"Who are you talking to that's so important?" he snapped at me.

I put my phone back into my pocket and looked at him with a blank expression.

"What do you mean?" I asked innocently.

"I'm trying to understand what I need to do for this project but you just keep pulling your phone out! I know you're insanely smart and know all of this already but I don't, so please, just help me out here."

I can't really explain what happened next. It was as if I experienced a wave of… sympathy for him. After he went through the trouble to try to publicly humiliate me, why was I feeling bad for him now?

I brushed the thought aside and decided that I had tortured him enough for one class period and rambled on about everything else that would need to be done for the project. He actually listened and took detailed notes.

When class was over, he was the one to rush out of the classroom without so much as a backward glance.

As for me, I was pissed at myself. Why the hell did I let him off so easy? Why was I feeling sorry for this jerk who wants nothing more than to put me in my place?

I felt the answer creeping up from the back of my mind, but I wasn't even remotely willing to deal with it.

Not right now, anyway.