Jasper

Homeroom, 7:26 AM

Edward being late for homeroom didn't exactly surprise me, although I did think he'd at least attempt to be a little more conscientious about his (lack of) punctuality for at least the first week of school. Then again, I mused, if he'd been successful in gaining entrance to that music room, we'd be lucky if he showed up at all.

I swept my gaze around the room as best I could without actually moving my head and drawing undue attention to myself; it had really begun to fill up as my peers filed in and took their seats. The bell had to be close to ringing by now. I stopped involuntarily at the block of seats where Alice and Bella sat, and watched Alice pretend to read a book out of my peripheral vision. She was looking at its pages, but nothing about her expression indicated that she was taking a word in. I'd bet she'd read the first sentence about thirteen times by now. It took a little squinting on my part to make out the title since I didn't have my glasses with me, but I thought I saw the word 'ESP'. A little fascinated with her reading material, and still more preoccupied than I wanted to admit about who had been behind the wheel of that vintage Camaro, it took me a few seconds to realize that Bella wasn't there yet either.

Just then, the door swung open forcefully and Bella erupted through it, stalking to her seat and earning a look of disapproval from Mr. Banner. A few people jumped; I couldn't blame them. I didn't know her very well yet, but she seemed to be in an uncharacteristically bad mood. She sat down abruptly, causing the chair to scrape against the floor and making the hair on the back of my neck prickle. Idly, I wondered what had caused her obvious ire. Too intrigued to disguise it, I turned my head to take in the little not-so-silent battle Alice and Bella seemed to be embroiled in, and noticed that Bella's face was flushed and she seemed to be on the verge of…exploding, for lack of a better term. Alice caught my eye and her pained expression turned into one of guarded discomfort just as the homeroom door crashed open yet again, a mere second before the final bell. Distracted, I looked toward the door to see that it was Edward. And he was grinning.

Bella

Homeroom, 7:28 AM

This morning, it was me getting the look from Banner- though I was by no means late yet, even Esme had beaten me to homeroom. Ali gave me a weird look and stuffed the book she was holding into her bag, clearly alarmed at my tardiness, although it was masked pretty effectively by the obvious guilt she was displaying. For two seconds, I forgot I was mad at her and contemplated not holding it against her.

No sooner did I yank my chair out and sit down did the bell ring; I smirked in satisfaction- if I was nearly late Edward had to be. Let him and his perfect cheekbones have that, I thought mean-spiritedly as I glanced toward the empty seat next to Jasper, who seemed as unruffled as ever by his cousin's absence. Fleetingly, scathingly, I wondered if there was anything on this earth that Jasper actually cared about- so far he'd displayed all of the emotional range of a teapot. And he was related to Prince Charming after all. I immediately felt guilty for thinking such a thing- he'd been extremely nice to me yesterday every time I'd seen him, and here my aggravation was causing me to take it out on him. Like it was somehow his fault that Edward was uppity.

The door opened abruptly and Edward stepped through, deflecting Banner's disapproving look quickly with a smooth, "I'm sorry, Mr. Banner. Mr. Swan was speaking with me in the hallway. I'm sure Bella will vouch for me," he said with a smile and a glance in my direction.

I crossed my arms and huffily sat back in my chair, putting on my scowliest face. Ali looked from me, to Edward, back to me, but didn't say anything.

"What?" I finally ground out.

"Uhhh…did I miss something?" she asked cautiously.

"Yes," I answered shortly. "That's what happens when you make plans to meet with someone and then ditch last-minute," I sulked, already in the perfect mood to play this game.

"Bella, it wasn't like that!" she responded vehemently in a whisper. "I didn't mean to get here so late! Emmett showed up!"

All at once, some of the tension fizzled and I turned to look at her, forgetting to give her the cold shoulder.

"Really?" I asked interestedly. It had been forever and a day since I'd seen him- it was almost exciting enough to make up for my crappy morning so far. When we were younger, Emmett had taken on the role of brother and protector for me just as much as Ali- maybe even more since Ali didn't have the same anti-social tendencies I did. I'd fallen a little bit in love with him in fourth grade when he'd knocked James around for teasing me. He'd made it pretty clear that he didn't care for James at all and that's saying something. It's hard to get on Emmett's shit list; he likes almost everyone. On the other hand...James makes it awfully hard to like him.

Anyway, I knew even as a young girl that my Emmett fantasies were just that, but that didn't mean Ali couldn't be my sister. If he ever knew about my crush, he never said anything and he never treated me any differently.

I turned my head sharply at someone nudging my shoulder; Ali.

"Well?" she whispered just as soon as the morning announcements ended. I purposely turned my back to Edward who was watching me kind of intensely; I was still annoyed with him.

Just as I opened my mouth to reply to Ali, the bell rang and the room erupted into a cacophony of chairs grating against the floor, sneaker squeaks and the garbled conversation of twenty-seven teenagers.

"I'm gonna have to tell you later," I said darkly as we stood up. "Sorry." I looked over Ali's shoulder to see Edward, grin still in place, heading towards me.

"Let's go," I bit off hurriedly, grabbing her arm and turning around to retreat. I'd had more than enough of this for one morning, thank you very much. Even in my distracted state though, as I glanced back, I was still able to find the matching looks of vague bewilderment on both Ali and Jasper's faces somewhat amusing. And the frown that had taken residence on Edward's as he watched us go made my morning.

Jasper,

2nd period, 9:01 AM

Second period took its sweet time rolling around, something I figured I was probably just destined to live with. I knew it was because, perversely, I was eager to be near Alice even if she was determined to shut me out…which seemed a likely scenario if one considered the ferocity of the attention she was giving her magazine and the brutality with which she was flipping the pages. I noted with some amusement that it was the same magazine I'd rescued for her yesterday in History, the one with all the supposed guidelines on sex positions.

She glanced over in my direction and caught me looking at the magazine; I nodded at her, a smile still lingering from my train of thought. She furrowed her brow at me but couldn't stop the blush from spreading, indicating that we were on the same page, no pun intended. She made a show of turning back around and ignoring me.

I expelled a somewhat frustrated sigh and slumped back a bit in my chair. I noticed for the first time then that Bella was again nowhere in sight yet I knew she was in this study hall. I wondered if whatever had been going on this morning was serious enough to call her away from school.

I glanced at Edward, sitting in front of me. He was writing something, but I couldn't tell what. I was fairly sure it wasn't homework since we hadn't been assigned any yet. Or at least, I hadn't. Not that he ever did it on time anyway. Wishing I'd had the forethought to bring a book or magazine myself, a thought struck me. At my old school in Texas, we'd been able to leave study halls to go to the library; I wondered if Forks had a similar policy.

Deciding I'd never know if I didn't ask, I stood up and made my way to the teacher's desk, noting that Alice was watching me with a suspicious scowl out of her peripheral vision but being careful not to appear as if she'd noticed. I wondered again why she seemed bent on disliking me, yet couldn't seem to keep her eyes off of me. Completely perplexed and unsure of what to do about it just yet, I approached Ms. Witmer. She peered up at me over the rims of her glasses.

"Yes, Jasper?" she asked.

"Ma'am, I was just wondering if we're allowed to visit the library during study halls?" I inquired. "I'm afraid I'm not familiar with your policies here yet," I noted a bit apologetically, and with one of my most persuasive smiles.

She visibly relaxed a bit and responded, "Why, certainly. We only allow two students at a time per study hall, but you're in luck today- only one student has signed out so far. Would you like the second pass?"

I hesitated for just a second, not really wanting to voluntarily leave her space, but wondering if this wasn't a case of absence possibly making the heart grow fonder. I decided to just go for it; keeping my distance now might serve me greater in the future. And besides, I did have an entire school to explore- now might be just the time to do it, when I wasn't otherwise…distracted.

"Yes ma'am, I'd very much like that," I said with determination. I signed out and left without glancing back- it wasn't in me to regret my decisions once made.

When I reached the library, I wandered through the stacks for a while perusing the offerings before settling on a historical account of battles in my home state of Texas during the Civil War, my favorite era in history. I considered myself something of an amateur expert in the area and I felt very close to that period, strange as it sounds. My parent's house had been in the family for generations and I'd been named after a great-great-great uncle of mine, a major in the Texas cavalry during that war. My father had been delighted to discover that I'd shown an affinity for my namesake and heritage, and when I was sixteen, he'd given me one of the greatest gifts I'd ever gotten- my uncle's military issue overcoat and matching hat with the name J. Whitlock hand-sewn on the inside. It had been kept in the family for decades, and now it was in my possession.

I took the book and made my way over to where I'd seen a lounge type of area and settled in; I seemed to be one of the only people in the library. About seven pages into the book, I'd gotten distracted and bored with my reading material. It was a re-hash of the same basic information I already knew about this particular campaign which I expected, but was very obviously written with a strong Southern bias. I found myself spacing off, wondering what events in this writer's life had inspired them to recall such a contemptuous account of the Battle of Galveston. The War of Northern Aggression, especially the older ones, called it even today. I had just as much Southern pride as any of my fellow southerners, but I hoped that I portrayed myself as a more tolerant and educated member of society than a lot of them.

I would never know the real reasons behind the rift between the two halves of my country, only the ones taught to us in history classes to justify the war; doubtless, very few of the poor souls who had risked or given up their lives and families even knew those. I was imagining the fear and distress of the civilians as soldiers rapped on their doors and told them that they had to leave as quickly as possible, before the port was invaded by Union soldiers when a loud crash startled me out of my musings, causing me to jump reflexively and knocking my book from my lap.

"Oh, hell," I heard a disgruntled feminine voice in the vicinity of the stacks directly to my left say. Curiosity moved me to my feet and had me following the shuffling sounds of books being stacked. I poked my head around the corner to find a very harassed Bella crouched down on one knee, gathering a pile of books that had apparently fallen off the little cart that was sitting next to her. I chuckled to myself when I realized that Bella must have the other library pass that Ms. Witmer had mentioned.

"Can I be of some service to you, ma'am?" I asked with a grin and an exaggerated drawl as I took long steps in her direction, knelt down and began helping her pick up the contents of her cart, now on the floor. She gasped and jumped back a bit, bringing her hand up to her heart.

"Oh, Jasper...I didn't even see you there. Leave it to me to make an idiot out of myself when someone's around to see it," she muttered, blushing. I grinned a little more; she was downright adorable, in a little sister kind of way.

"Oh, thanks. You didn't have to do that," she said belatedly, waving her hand to indicate the small stack of books I was holding and reaching out to take them from me.

"You're very welcome Miss Bella, and it was no problem at all. I was just coming to find something to read anyway," I lied, holding out the top book out for her inspection and hoping to put her more at ease.

She looked at the title, raised her eyebrows dubiously and let out what I thought was a snort of derision as she was getting to her feet and crossing her arms. "Looking for reading material, eh? I wouldn't have pegged you for a..." she looked back at the book and then at me, "...frustrated bible-thumper."

I looked at the book I was holding. It was Intelligent Design for Dummies.

"Caught," I grinned sheepishly as I handed her the offending literature with an apologetic nod. "I was sitting on the couch over there when I heard your, uh, distress," I explained as I used my thumb to indicate where I'd been sitting.

"Typical," she grumbled. "I'd like to say I'm normally more graceful than that, buuut...no," she said in a self-deprecating fashion as she placed the last pile of escaped books back on the cart disgustedly.

"Why don't you come back over here and sit with me for a few minutes, take a break?" I suggested. Her expression turned a bit wary. "I've been keeping myself company all period, and quite frankly, I'm boring as dirt," I continued. Bella laughed.

"If there's one thing I definitely wouldn't peg you for, it's 'boring as dirt'," Bella replied, abandoning her cart reluctantly in the aisle and following me back to the couch I'd set up camp on. "You're way too new to be 'boring as dirt'," she explained as we both sat facing each other.

I chuckled. She picked up the book I'd left on the little table when I'd gone to investigate, and she gestured with it now. "Yours?" she questioned, taking in the title.

"Guilty again," I responded. "Don't worry, I'll put it back," I assured her with a teasing grin.

"Nope," she said to no one in particular as she set the book back down, "...definitely not boring."

I thought she might expound on that, but after a harrowing thirty seconds of silence, it seemed like she'd retreated back into her little Bella cave; she obviously wasn't completely comfortable around me still, which I couldn't honestly blame her for. I didn't mind doing most of the talking anyway- aside from genuinely enjoying our conversations, I suspected that this girl had information that I could appreciate and put to good use.

"So you seem to be in a better mood," I observed, watching her face. She looked confused for a few seconds.

"Huh....? Oh. Right," she said, a grim look settling on her features. "You must be talking about homeroom, I guess?" she asked guardedly.

"Well, I did notice that you seemed a little upset..." I prevaricated, wanting her to feel at ease with confiding in me, and not seeming like I was pushing her.

"Yeah, I was," she acknowledged, without offering a reason. "It...wasn't a good morning for me," she said with finality, and I noticed a little scowl joining the dark set of her expression.

Ok, so maybe that wasn't the right path to take.

"So..." I searched around in my head for a topic that would seem random but give me some more insight, "What do you guys do around here, y'know, after school and stuff?"

The dark expression left her face, to be replaced with one of concentration; she looked like she was really thinking hard about it.

"Umm...I don't really know," she said, bringing her hand up to her hair and pushing the strands that had fallen forward out of her face. "I guess we do...the usual stuff?" It came out in a question form.

"Well, what's the usual stuff?" I asked.

"I don't know...some people do after-school sports..." she trailed off, clearly wondering how to answer the question.

"What sports do you guys have here?" I asked interestedly at the turn of the topic, hoping she'd bring up Alice without me having to ask.

"Well, we've got football...basketball...baseball...um, track, tennis, cheerleading, I guess, if you consider it a sport. Umm...what else? Volleyball, there's a girl's volleyball team..."

"Which one do you play?" I asked, breaking her train of thought.

"Me?" she asked incredulously. "Oh no....No. Me and sports do not get along. Like, even a little bit," she said emphatically as she shook her head. "I can't even stay upright most of the time. Ali plays tennis though. And girl's softball in the spring- oh yeah, I forgot softball," she added as an afterthought. "She used to run track too," she continued on, absentmindedly.

Alright, so she was the athletic type. I filed that away for later consideration.

"What do you do after school?" I asked, genuinely interested.

"Me? Oh...well, most of the time I hang out with Ali, usually at her house if at all possible. I don't know if you noticed yesterday, but my little brother's got a little...crush on her," she said.

"I did actually notice that," I responded casually, amused. I knew exactly where he was coming from. Tough luck, kid.

"Yeah, so anyway. We're normally trying to escape him, unless I get suckered into kid-sitting...which happens a depressing number of times, honestly. Ali has practices a lot after school, pretty much year round between the tennis and the softball. I work a few afternoons at the public library and she works on the weekends at Brewer's sometimes..." she trailed off, looking contemplative again.

"Wait- so you re-shelve books here and work at the public library?" I asked, a little surprised.

"Uhm...yeah," she said a little bashfully. "I really like to read."

"Ok. What else?" I asked, giving her the floor again.

Oh, well- there's a pool hall downtown, some of the kids hang out there after school until they get kicked out for Happy Hour. And there's the diner too," she added. "Mostly, that's it...sometimes they go out to the Res and surf at La Push. Forks is a pretty small town," she said apologetically.

"I come from a pretty small town too...well, I guess we come from a pretty small town, I should say in point of fact," I sad, thinking about my cousin. "Actually, it might even be smaller than Forks," I mused.

Bella opened her mouth to say something, but before she could speak the four minute warning bell rang.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, jumping up. "I can't believe how fast that period went!" She looked at me. "We'd better get back to study hall- we'll have to sign back in."

"Alright, let me just put this back where I found it...wouldn't want to make any more work for some poor soul," I said, holding up the book and giving her a teasing grin. She smiled and plucked it out of my hand as she said, "I'll get it, I know right where this one goes," before running off with it.

I chuckled to myself, picked up my bag and leaned against the back of the chair I'd been sitting in, waiting for Bella to return. My mind went back to the guy who'd driven Alice to school this morning. He was definitely too young to be her dad, and there was no physical resemblance that I could see; I was going to have to get to the bottom of that. A boyfriend would put a serious kink in my plans.

As Bella moved back into view I stood up straighter reflexively; my mother had never let me slouch in company, especially company of the feminine persuasion. Bella must have noticed the movement because she pulled herself out of some serious concentration of the pattern on the rug and gave me a kind of startled look, which I responded to with a quizzical expression of my own.

"I didn't expect you to wait for me," she mumbled, by way of an explanation.

"A lady never walks alone when Jasper Whitlock's on the job," I joked, giving her a big grin and mockingly holding my elbow out to her.

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly and fell into step beside me as we exited the library and started down the hall. It was nice hanging out with Bella. It felt comfortable and relaxing almost, especially in light of the fact that the whole school seemed to be hanging on my every move. I didn't feel like she expected anything of me.

"So I take it you got Doodles home safe and sound yesterday?" she asked, breaking the silence.

I smiled to myself- it brought back a memory of a thoroughly flustered Alice that I couldn't help but laugh at. Bella noticed.

"What's so funny?" she inquired as we rounded a corner. It was my turn to look a little embarrassed.

"Well, uh..." I brought my hand up to my hair nervously and riffled it. "It's nothing important," I stalled.

Bella gave me a measured look. "Oh c'mon- after a lead-in like that, you have to tell me," she said definitively, the expression on her face expectant.

"No...I really can't," I admitted. "I shouldn't have even laughed. Your friend already seems to have a problem with me..." I trailed off.

"My friend?" she asked curiously. "Who...Esme?" she asked, confusion evident.

"Ahh...no," I said as I brought my hand back up to rub my neck. She was still looking at me severely and I knew I'd already stepped in it. Well fine, maybe I could make the best out of a bad situation.

"Your friend Alice," I explained. "We kind of ran into her about the same time your other friend's dog did. I really shouldn't have laughed. It wasn't funny at the time. Well, not to me anyway.

Bella paused in the hallway, her jaw dropped open a bit. "Ok, seriously. What are you talking about? What happened yesterday?"

"Alice didn't tell you?" Now that surprised me a bit. Granted, I didn't know either of these girls well enough to say, but they had seemed pretty close. And I figured like most girls, they probably told each other everything.

"No, she didn't," Bella said in a frosty tone and continued walking. "She was supposed to meet me here this morning, but apparently her brother showed up unexpectedly."

"Her brother?" My turn to question. "Is that the guy who was driving the Camaro this morning?

"Oh, probably. I don't know; I was in the school already, but I know Emmett does have a Camaro," she answered noncommittally.

We had reached the door of the classroom and no sooner did she put her hand on the knob to open it did the bell ring, dismissing us for third period. The door was wrenched inward by someone eagerly escaping and we both nearly got trampled. We had to wait a few seconds for our peers to vacate so we could get back inside; it didn't escape my attention that Alice was watching me somberly as she exited the room, giving us a wide berth and favoring Bella with a look imbued with meaning that I wasn't meant to understand.

"Oooooh Ali, wait for me!" Bella squealed, rushing inside to scribble her name on Ms. Witmer's sign-in sheet. Alice crossed her arms and leaned against the wall, looking anywhere but in my direction as she waited. I couldn't shake the feeling that she was annoyed with me for some reason, but before I could find a way to justify breaking my own rule to give her space, Bella re-emerged through the door.

"Don't forget to sign in," Bella reminded me as she joined her friend. "See ya later Jasper!" she chirped, in a considerably better mood than I'd found her, as she linked her arm through Alice's and dragged her down the hallway.

"Miss Bella, Miss Alice," I said by way of goodbye as they walked away from me. Alice looked up at me when she heard her name and I met her eyes for only a second. I nodded to her, vaguely irritated with myself over how bothered I was by her cool reception, and shoved my hands in my jeans pockets. I watched them walk down the hallway until someone clapped me on the shoulder, breaking the spell. I turned to see what had happened and saw Edward standing behind me with a huge shit-eating grin on his face.

"Bro, you are so transparent," he said as he laughed at me. "See ya in Lit...if you make it through history," he smirked at me and he walked away, still chuckling to himself.

In my distraction I'd completely forgotten that next period was History.

With Alice.