Jackson

Both Joanna and I had phenomenal control, and we could easily go into town and hang around the humans. We enjoyed going to the general store the most.

Joanna giggled and grabbed my hand, pulling me into the general store. It was snowing outside, and it was mid-November, almost December. Joanna halted suddenly, locking her knees as Sheriff Walsh's eldest son appeared in the doorway to the general store.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Joanna apologized in that sexy southern drawl of hers.

"It's not a problem..." he trailed off, looking for her name.

"Joanna," she offered, smiling at him.

I stepped closer and she hit my leg where the boy couldn't see.

"It's not a problem, Joanna. Here, I was just leaving, so why don't you go ahead," he offered.

She smiled at him again, and stepped over the threshold. I let him pass, and fixed him with a hard stare.

"Jackson," she chided, fixing me with a hard stare.

"I'm sorry, sugar. I didn't mean to upset you," I apologized.

Her face softened when I used her favorite southern nickname. She gave me her famous crooked little grin, and I melted in place.

I leaned in for a kiss, and when my lips were centimeters from her lips, she whispered, "Sucker," and scampered away. I snarled at her, and she giggled from her spot at the counter. We were picking up two pairs of cowboy boots for Joanna and I that Alice had ordered for us. We had a horse, and Joanna was making me ride him with her. I loved horses, so I wasn't going to fight her.

"Good morning, Joanna," the owner of the store, Mrs. McGinty, greeted her.

"Good morning, Mrs. McGinty. Are mine and Jackson's boots in?" She asked her, cocking her head to the side innocently.

"They are. And your mother paid for them earlier, so you are good to go," Mrs. McGinty told us as she gave Joanna the boxes.

"Thank you!" Joanna crooned, and we walked out of the store.

"I'm so excited to ride Nantucket now!" Joanna cried, looking up at me.

I smiled and kissed her softly. She smiled, kissing me back. Suddenly, a snowball smashed into the side of her head. She gasped, shocked at the sudden intrusion to our kiss. She looked toward the direction from which it came, and spotted Sheriff Walsh's son with a pile of snowballs at his feet. She smirked and crouched down, making a snowball herself. She whipped it at him, slower than vampire speed, but still hard and fast for a girl of her size, and it splattered on his chest.

She smirked again and turned with a flourish, prancing down the street. I laughed and followed her. I caught her around the waist and kissed her neck. She giggled and turned to press her lips to mine. Her lips felt warm against mine, considering we were both the same temperature.

"Hey, I thought you guys were siblings?" We heard another one of the boys in town ask.

Joanna pulled away, growling softly, but answered them confidently. "We are...sort of. Our parents adopted us both from different families, and you can't deny when you love someone."

"How old are you?" Another boy asked.

"I'm 13 and he's 14," Joanna replied, her eyes wide with innocence.

"Well, isn't it weird? To live in the same house and be like that?" The boy that asked the siblings question asked us.

"No," she answer easily. "Our whole family is kind of odd, so it doesn't make a difference to us."

"Yeah, you're Dad is pretty weird. He's scary almost," the boy that asked the age question commented.

Joanna bristled. Jasper was a sensitive subject with her, as Alice was with I. He'd saved her from her horrible life, and she was, at all costs, going to protect him.

"You better take that back," I advised.

The boy scoffed. "She's just a girl, what can she do?"

Oh God...

When Sheriff Walsh's son caught sight of Joanna's glare, he whispered to the boy, "Alex, you might want to take it back."

"Whatever!" Alex cried, seeming to taunt Joanna.

"Alex, seriously, take it back," the other boy mumbled.

"Shut up, Mike," Alex muttered.

He was literally taunting her now.

"That's right, I said that your precious Daddy was weird. He's tall, and has weird scars all over him. What did he do, get in a cat fight?" Alex taunted.

Joanna lurched forward, still maintaining a human pace, but I grabbed her around the waist.

Alex laughed, slapping his leg. "Yeah, go on home with Jackson. Maybe you guys can get closer and maybe he can finally be the one to take your virginity."

"That's it! Hit him. Hit him hard," I said, loud enough for them to hear me, and let Joanna go.

She ran after Alex, and, trying to be brave, he stood his ground. But when she sucker punched him in the stomach, his knees buckled. Joanna, feeling better, spun on her heel and strode back over to me. Our boxes had ended up on the snow covered ground, and I picked them up. She laced our fingers together as we walked home.

---

"Joanna? How come I just got a phone call from the Smith's saying that you punched Alex in the stomach?" Jasper asked Joanna as she as I sat on the sofa, curled up in front of the fire Jasper had started for all of us.

"Because I did," Joanna mumbled.

"Why, sweetheart? I thought you of all people should no not to hit people," he asked her, kneeling in front of her.

"He said really mean things to me," she whimpered.

"Like what?"

"He said that you were weird, and he made fun of your scars."

"Well, I'm no reason to hit someone, Joanna-"

"That's not all he said."

"What else did he say?"

"He said for me and Jackson to come home and maybe we could get closer and maybe he could be the one to finally take my virginity..."

Jasper fell silent at this and I wrapped Joanna closer to me, kissing her forehead. Jasper knew she wasn't lying.

"Okay, you have my permission to hit him if he ever says anything like that to you again. He apparently did not tell his parents that part of the story. I'm sorry that I accused you so early on, darlin'. I apologize," Jasper said, standing and kissing her forehead.

"I let her hit him, if that changes anything," I offered.

"That's fine. I'm glad you did," Alice chimed in from her spot at the table by the back door.

I listened to Jasper on the phone with Alex's parents. He explained what Joanna had told him and that I confirmed it. They believed him, mostly because there were two people saying it was true. He hung up and Joanna reached for the remote on the coffee table. She turned on the TV, turning it up kind of loud. I understood when I heard Jasper kissing Alice. I chuckled and kissed Joanna's neck. She smiled and snuggled closer to me as we watched Unwrapped. She loved to watch the Food Network, even though she was a vampire who didn't eat.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Joanna? Where is your coat?" Mrs. Walsh asked Joanna as she appeared in the general store in only a sweatshirt.

"At home, in our coat closet," she replied, smiling.

"It's twenty-six degrees outside! Aren't you cold?" She asked.

"A bit, but I'm only going to be here for a moment. I'm picking up something for Momma," she said, shaking snow from her hair, which was pulled back into a messy bun.

Mrs. McGinty searched through her arrivals and found the one for us. Jasper and Alice ducked inside and greeted Mrs. Walsh and Mrs. McGinty. Jasper bent down and kissed Joanna's head, wrapping his arm around her waist.

"You need to teach her to wear her coat, Jasper. She's looking a bit pale; she might be getting sick," Mrs. Walsh advised.

"I'll see to it that she wears her coat next time she goes out, Mrs. Walsh. Thank you for your concern," Jasper replied, smiling and pulling Joanna to his side.

"There's a snowball fight outside. Go join in," Alice told us, nudging me and Joanna towards the door.

Joanna grabbed my hand and dragged me outside into the snow. She laughed and ducked a snowball that was tossed her way. She threw one back at the boy named Mike, and got him in the face. She laughed as he scowled at her. As she turned to look up at me, she pulled my head down and kissed me. Her head pitched forward, and she turned around. Her hair was full of snow and she scowled at the Sheriff's son. He looked horrified that he'd hit her, and he scrambled over the snow bank he'd been hiding behind.

"Jackson? Come here for a minute," Jasper called me, and I walked over to him and Alice.

Sheriff Walsh's son apologized to Joanna, trying to help her brush the snow from her hair. I could see his cheeks flush as she smiled at him.

"I never got your name," Joanna said to him, and gave him her crooked grin.

"Uh, Oliver. My name's Oliver," he told her, blushing again.

"I like that name. Thanks for helping me get the snow out of my hair," she murmured, and kissed his cheek.

She smiled again at him, turned, and walked back over to us. She left Oliver shocked in the snow, and kissed me when she got back to us. She looked over her shoulder at Oliver, and winked. We went back home then, and Jasper scooped Joanna up, kissing her forehead.

"You are a heartbreaker!" Alice cried happily, laughing.

She giggled and we all joined in.

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