Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, I don't own any of this music etc.
Author's Note: I know this chapter gets convoluted and such but I tried to smooth it out a little. It goes on forEVER and I'm sorry about that…but please bare with it. Next few chapters will be shorter. This chapter's song is from the Finale from RENT. Enjoy.
Chapter Seven
I Found My Song
"Last day with no rehearsals for three weeks!" Alice declared excitedly to Jasper. She had sprinted up to him in the hallway just to tell him this, "Are you excited?"
Jasper rolled his eyes and looked down at her, "Oh yes, it's always been my dream to be a theater bitch for three weeks straight."
Alice beamed, "I knew you were one of us!"
"One of us;" it made Jasper glad to know that someone thought he could be on the inside loop of crew. Lately, he had actually felt like one of them – ever since Alice had told him her James story she had been finding new ways to incorporate him during rehearsals and other such affairs. Jasper was officially co-prop master working alongside Bella.
Ever since that fated day, Alice had also not said a word about it. She had been chipper and bubbly ever since and had shown no signs of regretting either telling Jasper or going to crew that day. Nobody else talked about it either. He couldn't help but wonder if this was a request from Alice or just an agreed upon silence of the group.
"When do you have a free?" Alice asked suddenly, as she noticed that they were going into the English and History hallway.
Jasper groaned, "Fourth." He hated is free period. It had all the bombshells from his grade and a few juniors. They were always all over him – asking him for drugs, cigarettes or to hook up at an upcoming party. Lately though, he hadn't gone to the cafeteria during his frees and thus hadn't been ambushed. In honesty, he had begun to sit outside the art room where Alice, Bella and Edward spent their fourth period free.
"Really?" Alice gaped, shocked, "I have never seen you that period!"
Jasper shrugged. "I'm usually in the cafeteria," he told her. "Half my grade's in that lunch…"
"Oh, well, then you'll probably want to hang out with them, right?" She honestly looked a bit disappointed.
"It depends on the alternative." He shrugged, trying to play his nonchalant mask over his honest interest in being able to express his opinions in the art room.
Alice frowned. "No," she said as she changed her mind. "Really, it's okay," She looked away. "I have to go to French." And she was gone, tearing down the hallway.
And Jasper couldn't concentrate. History, learning about Imperialism and the over taking of China was just not captivating at the moment; he wished Alice hadn't assumed he didn't want to hang out with them.
When the bell rang, Jasper was out of his seat like a bullet. He hadn't even pulled out a pen or notebook. He would get the notes later but first period History was always excruciating. He knew where she was and he had to be there too. He sprinted up the stairs, almost knocking over a short and chubby freshman boy.
He ran to the end of the language hallway where the one and only French classroom was located. People were walking out lazily, humming a rap about firefighters. "No, no! It's 'Un-un-huit! Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah. Un-dix-huit! Do-do-dodo-do-do-do." It was Alice as she badly rapped the theme for the phone number to call incase of a fire in an obscure French-speaking country. She was laughing with a girl Jasper had never seen before in his life.
He was afraid she would see him standing there looking helpless, but she did. Her all-knowing eyes wandered around the hallway right outside the door as she took in her surroundings. When she eyed Jasper she eyed him with contempt and kept walking with her friend. Was he really going to have to call for her?
"Alice!" He called. She whipped her head around for the source of her name and frowned.
"I'll see you seventh!" she called to her friend and walked over to Jasper. "Hi." She said trying to keep the venom out of her voice. She really didn't want to disrupt her bubbly persona.
"You didn't let me finish earlier." Jasper stated plainly, he was going to blame this on her and he didn't care how it was going to make her feel. "You jumped to a conclusion that I didn't want to hang out with you." Alice rolled her eyes. "What was that for? I know I didn't deserve that. Y'know, I was actually going to say I'd love to hang out with you fourth period but you didn't let me finish."
When Alice replied, her tone was sharp and agitated. "Well then, you're welcome to join us. We eat in one of the art rooms. You'll be able to find us." Then, she turned once again and made her way down the hall. Jasper blinked slowly as he tried to decipher Alice-speak. Why was she mad at him? He hadn't made any assumptions, had he, now?
French was hopeless; he could not understand why s'asseoir had a 'y' in the vous and nous form. Verbs made him mad.
"Rappelez-vous les devoirs!" The teacher called as they left the room. Now, it was back to the English and History hallway for Advanced History.
History; it was the only thing Jasper liked academically. He liked making connections from the past to the modern day, he liked reading literature about history and he liked to read about wars – people killing each other for no reason. It got his blood pumping and 42 minutes a day, five out of seven days he felt passionate about something.
He paid attention during history.
Then, it was fourth period – Jasper's free. He went straight to the art rooms, he did not pass the cafeteria and he did not collect $200.
"God," Alice's soprano voice chimed miserably. "I'm such a hardcore brat! I totally cut him off and got myself worked up about and then he completely gives me what-for and I'm like 'yah, well, you can join us, we eat in the art rooms, bleh!' Ick! Edward, why am I so icky?" Jasper smiled to himself and entered the art room.
"You're not icky," he promised her as he walked in. "You just ticked me off and I couldn't sit through History."
"Wow, Jasper, what a wonderful apology." She bit sarcastically in reply. She was sitting on the table, hunching slightly as if she was just relaxed. Whenever Jasper was around her she had perfect posture – like she was always performing.
"Alice, stop whining!" Bella insisted – Jasper hadn't noticed her at first. "I need to see your face. Your eyes are brilliantly connected with your emotions, did you know that?"
"You tell me that every time you draw me, Bells!" Alice giggled but did as Bella requested and stared down at her while Bella drew from the lower angle.
Edward sat down next to Bella after giving Jasper a look that told him he was on probation in Edward's mind. No one asked him to sit down.
"Ooh!" Bella exclaimed suddenly. "Edward, ask Jasper about today!" Edward looked like he was about to protest but Bella stopped him. "You know you still want to."
Alice looked up from Bella's portrait. "Why are you standing there, fool?" Jasper shrugged. "Well sit down."
"Harry Potter!" Bella cried looking up from her drawing as well.
"Which one?" Alice challenged.
"Uhm. Er… the one…with the potion…and oh…Dr. Frankenstein-guy!" Bella struggled for the name. "And then there's the bird and the young, hott Voldemort-guy and oh! There's that big scary CGI snake and…it's the…Chamber of…Secrets! Ah! The Chamber of Secrets!"
"Bonne!" Alice exclaimed then she turned back to the door where Jasper still stood. "Well?" She asked expectantly. Jasper hastily crossed the room and sat down on the stool next to where Alice was perched on the table. He immediately regretted this decision as he was now face to face with Alice's very nicely sculpted butt. He swallowed and looked at Edward who was still glaring but he did finally speak.
"Do you want to come over after school?" He asked carefully, measuring each of his words. "Alice, Bella, and Emmett are all coming over after school. If you'd like to join us, you are welcome to do so."
Jasper? Go to Edward's house? As friends? With Bella and Emmett? With…Alice?
"Uh, sure. I can go." Jasper shrugged awkwardly.
"Excellent," Alice cheered. "We have to find you a song."
Jasper felt his eyes shift. "A-a song?"
Bella looked up, sharing a warm smile with him, and said, "You'll understand later."
There were a few silent moments of foreboding before Alice cried, "Let's play Truth or Dare!"
Bella groaned, "No! I am not watching you guys dare each other to do crazy stuff and force me to tell my deep dark secrets. Not happening. Alice, look at me, would you?" Alice focused on Bella but continued to insist on her game.
"I'll play." Jasper finally volunteered.
"No, Jasper, don't!" Bella joked. "You have no idea what you just got yourself into!" Alice cackled evilly at this before she offered him the basic question.
"Truth." Jasper said plainly.
But before Alice or Bella could ask a question, Edward asked quickly, "Do you really do pot?"
Alice's head spun like an owl's and inquisitive bug-eyes stared into his soul, Bella just glanced upwards but returned back to her drawing – unsettled.
Jasper inhaled then, exhaled loudly; he looked at Alice's face and Edward's judging smirk and said, "Yes." Alice gasped and looked down at Bella who glanced at him through her lashes. "Not something I'm really proud of and I don't do it a lot - cigarettes are nice though. My mom doesn't like it though. She can tell when I'm doing it because I move stuff around upstairs. The scraping furniture makes her sad," Jasper stared at the table as if it were the most intriguing thing atoms had ever compiled. "But, I – eh – I haven't done it a lot lately. I have some in my desk at home but…haven't used it in a few months, really." Now that Jasper thought about it, he hadn't done pot since he had been commissioned to do stage crew. The thought warmed him slightly, but he wouldn't ever admit that to them. "Bella, truth or dare?"
"Truth," was her automatic response.
Alice jumped in, "Who do you like?"
Bella sighed and Alice appeared to think she would finally hear the answer. However, "I like you all," was Bella's diplomatic response. "You're all my very good friends."
Edward laughed out loud, "Ah, Bella the evasive one." Jasper had a feeling he liked her.
Jasper had only one word from his very extensive vocabulary to describe Edward Masen's house.
Damn.
The house was huge, old and gorgeous. It was painted an off-white that stood out from the dreary-drab of Forks. There was a front porch with a staircase leading up to a decorative door. Which Edward pushed open with ease. He informed Jasper, Bella and Alice that no one was home and that Emmett would be joining them soon.
He offered a small tour of the first floor of the house – a sitting room, dining room, kitchen and bathroom. Just as he was about to show the trio the basement, Emmett's jeep pulled up to the house.
Edward brought him inside graciously. He seemed rather surprised to see Jasper standing there amongst the group but he accepted it and headed down the stairs into the basement, he was quickly followed by Alice and Bella.
"This," Edward said as he led a hesitant Jasper down the stairs, "Is where we have fun."
Damn.
The room was massive. It had a huge – undoubtedly high-definition – TV with what appeared to be a Wii sitting next to it. There was an air-hockey table and in the corner there was a box labeled "Nessie's Stuff." Jasper frowned. He had forgotten that Nessie was Edward's sister. He could only see bad things coming of this. He ignored the box and continued to follow the group into another room. When he entered he wouldn't have been surprised if his jaw became detached from he head. It was a whole room devoted to the exhilarating and astonishing grand piano in the center. There were bookshelves lined with music books and binders and Alice went right to it.
"Ooh," she cooed at the shelf. "Can I pull out books that look promising?" Emmett bounded over to the shelf as well and Alice turned to confer with him. "What do you think, is he Fiyero material?" They looked at each other and shook their heads.
"Hm," Emmett stared at the shelf. "Is he a Javert?"
"No…he needs more angst," she pulled out a book. "Moritz?" she asked.
"Maybe."
Different names flew around Jasper's head and suddenly Alice was sitting at the piano as Edward flipped through a book, "We all have our own songs," he began to explain. "Some of us have more songs than other but for the most part we have one song that we have an extreme connotation to. We also do duets."
"Do you know how to sing?" Bella asked as she sat in a comfortable-looking chair. "Because if you don't, they'll torture you with vocal warm-ups and singing lessons until you can sing decently." She smiled.
"She'd know!" Alice laughed as she ran her fingers over the ivory keys, kicking her legs under the bench. "Okay," She said firmly. "Who wants to demonstrate first? Bella, Edward or Emmett?" She stared at the accumulated stack of music books waiting for an answer.
Finally, Emmett boomed out, "I'll do it!" Bella laughed and Jasper glanced at her quickly. She was still in the chair, crosslegged with Edward leaning up against it.
"Okay," Alice said again. "So, Emmett's song is 'Gaston' from 'Beauty and the Beast' and if you don't know it I'm going to smack you," she warned Jasper. "Now, Emmett, would you like to explain your connotation to this song?"
"I would, indeed, milady," Emmett laughed, then he turned to Jasper and spoke directly at him. "In my school," he said as if it was a prepared speech. "I'm a bit of a hot-shot. I'm a sports dude who also likes theater. I'm like that guy from Glee, but I don't have a pregnant girlfriend…" Bella and Edward laughed but Jasper didn't get it. Angela often talked about this new phenomenon but had luckily never forced Jasper to sit wand watch it with them. "Anyways," Emmett continued. "I'm a pretty well-liked guy. The girls swoon, the guys cheer and the teachers love me. But for some reason I find it to be sort of melancholy so I took this song and added my own twist to it, I made 'Gaston' a sarcastic sort of guy who's singing about how sure, he's great and all and he's a fantastic expectorator," a laugh from Alice. "But he doesn't really like who he is necessarily…Okay, so I'm going to start…" He motions to Alice who had set up the music book at this point.
"Oh! Em, do you want it down the octave or where it's written?" She asked. Down the what-now?
"Down, please!" She nodded and pressed the starting note. "Oh, we don't really do the musical background so Alice is going to try to keep up with me…the song gets fast though…"
And then he began to sing. At first, Jasper saw it as comical – Emmett was trying to give a melancholy side to a song even he knew was meant to be a rousing pick-me-up – but as Jasper listened, he remembered what Emmett had said, it was supposed to bring a different meaning to a song with a well-known connotation.
Jasper had always wished he had muscles, he was strong – sure – not badly built, but he had always secretly admired guys like Emmett with the bulging muscles that girls fell ass over tea kettle for but as Emmett sang about being "roughly the size of a barge," he sounded so miserable that it was impossible to envy him at that moment.
The song finished quickly after that but, strangely enough, on a somber note instead of the big finish Jasper knew.
It was Bella's turn next, Edward and Emmett literally had to lift her out of the chair but once she was on her feet and Alice had grabbed a new book, she explained the connotation, "This song is 'Mama Who Bore Me' from 'Spring Awakening'," she chuckled slightly. "Uhm, I feel like this song chose me more than I chose it. It sort of…explains my relation ship with uh…my mom…?" She said it like it was a question, obviously she hadn't written a huge speech like Emmett.
The song was written for her. No questions asked. Every note she hit resonated like glass when tapped. Alice played slowly and Bella matched the piano on every pitch. Jasper couldn't believe that they had created this voice. Can a voice be created or does it just need to be found? He wondered.
Jasper never really got to know Bella like he had the others over the past few weeks. He knew she and Edward were meant to be together – if not forever, for the remainder of high school. And now he knew that she had a voice like no one else he had ever heard but as he listened to and thought about the lyrics, he realized that she must have some strong stuff going on at home, her mom didn't sound like the coolest cat on the face of the earth.
When Bella was finished, Emmett ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her. He was massive compared to her but she laughed and held on to him tightly. Then, he went over to Alice and shook her tiny frame in his big hands. "Ally!" He said excitedly – all traces of his melancholy attitude were long forgotten. "Ally, guess what?" When Alice just rolled her eyes Emmett answered for her. "It's your turn!"
Bella flanked her on the left, "Alice! You should! You haven't sung in a while!"
"I don't think so…" Alice said looking pretty stubborn.
"Alice, come on! I'll play and you can sing something funny!" Edward moved past Jasper to get her on the right.
"Guys, I'm not as good as you…" They all protested and kept touching her and closing in. She closed her eyes briefly and when she opened them, she looked scared. "GUYS!" She shouted. "Take five steps back!" Bella and Emmett did as they were told but Edward stayed, grasping her shoulder tightly. "Edward!" She cried out and he was against the wall in a second. "I…I don't want to sing today…" Alice said.
So Alice didn't sing.
However, that did not stop her from forcing Jasper to do vocal warm-ups. They ran through different keys using vowels. Edward watched from a chair amusedly – things were still not completely patched between them so he found Jasper's torture rather hilarious. It was only after Jasper's voice had cracked and Edward had burst out into uncontrollable laughter that Alice had sent him away to make copies of sheet music. Bella and Emmett were more supportive. They stood by him also running the scales and giving him pointers that Jasper couldn't really keep up with but he eventually got a scale to sound rather impressive.
When Alice finally declared him warmed up, she handed him one of the songs Edward had copied. The title read "If I Can't Love Her," and Jasper was already not feeling very sure of himself.
"Don't worry," Alice assured him. "Emmett and Edward will sing with you. We'll also send you home with some music later so you can listen to it! In fact…" She turned to Edward. "Why don't you play and I'll start making a playlist!"
She hopped up from the bench and went to sit in a comfy chair where she pulled out a laptop from her bag. Jasper wondered briefly if she always carried it around and began thinking about how much pain that would probably cause her to have that weight on her all the time.
The song went horribly. Jasper had absolutely no sight-singing ability and Edward kept getting frustrated. When the finally got through one go at the song, a woman – tall and lean and gorgeous entered after a quick knock. She had caramel hair the same color as Edward's and looked like a more grown-up version of Nessie. It occurred him that this was Mrs. Masen, the mother of Edward and Nessie Masen.
Talk about a MILF, Jasper thought to himself.
"Oh! Hello!" She greeted everyone in the room. "I didn't realize you were all here!" She was wearing a pair of jeans and a flowing flowery top as. She turned to her son, "Edward, Dad's coming home tonight, remember?" She sounded pressured and tense and Jasper wondered what Edward's father coming home meant – he knew he'd head for the hills if someone told him his father was coming home but he also knew that that was not the case for every teenager in America.
"Oh," Edward blinked. "Uhm, right," He looked at the music on the piano. "Sorry, guys," he said. "I hate to kick you out…but…er…"
Mrs. Masen swooped in, "Family dinner tonight." She gave a beautiful house-wife smile. "So, I'm sure you all have homework to do – essays to write and projects to start before hell week begins and…" She didn't have to finish, everyone was milling about to leave. Emmett was stacking the music books on the shelf and Alice was popping a CD into a jewel case and putting her computer back in her bag.
Mrs. Masen nodded before retreating back upstairs, probably to change into a 50's house-wife costume or something, Jasper chuckled to himself as he slung his bag over his shoulder.
"Alice, do you need a ride home?" Jasper didn't realize he had said it until after everyone had stopped moving and stared at him. Alice was the only one who didn't think this was out of order and accepted the ride joyfully and announced that they would be listening to her new CD of show tunes music.
Sorry it was so annoyingly long. Next few chapters will be simpler to follow, I promise.
Review?
