Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I just like to play with the characters.

Additionally, I would like to thank my wonderful beta, EdwardsMate4Ever, and jaspersdoll, for suggesting the title and other creative input.

This is a Jasper-Bella fiction. It takes place in current time. Vampires are in hiding, but have a more structured society. They take human "pets" for food, and some humans are held in captivity to be bled for vampires. They bottle this blood much like humans bottle beer, and it is sold in the underground vampire clubs and bars. There are a number of "designer" blood labels, some of which are very popular. Bella's blood has been featured in a blend called "LaGuerra" and is the most popular designer bottled blood on the vampire black market.

Humans who have been claimed by vampires have a small tattoo on their wrists to mark them as vampire property. The marks are usually a series of dots forming a small triangle or rectangle. The colors and pattern identify both the Vampire Territory and individual owner claiming the human.

Chapter 25 - School Daze

When I got to school that day, still thinking about whatever tiff had occurred between Carlisle and Crazy, I had the feeling this was not going to be a normal day.

Sure enough, I saw Crazy outside the window during my 9:30 class, gesturing for me to leave the classroom.

Thinking of Jasper sitting in the next room, I kept my emotions on an even keel, and raised my hand. I gave an embarrassed squirm in my chair as I asked the science teacher, Mr. Banner, if I could go to the bathroom.

He seemed surprised, but as I usually applied myself to all of the lessons, he quietly gave me the necessary hall pass. I moved quickly to the girls' washroom, and, of course, found Crazy waiting for me. As soon as I entered, she dragged me into a stall, where she started putting my coat on me, saying, "We're getting out of here. If that Carlisle thinks he can…"

Then she stopped, whipping her head around towards the front of the stall.

Crap, I thought.

She peeked up over the top of the stall and said, "This is the ladies room. Are you confused, Sir?"

And of course, she was answered by, "Not at all," in a familiar drawl. "You girls going to come out of there?"

I opened the door, feeling foolish, and there was Jasper, leaning up against the mirror next to the sink, one leg bent in a v against the wall, both hands in his black leather jacket pocket. He looked like sin on two legs.

"Hi," I said stupidly.

"Hello," he said to me gently. "You ready to go back to class now?"

"No. We've had enough. She's leaving with me," said Crazy, grabbing me by one arm and pulling me towards the window.

"You know, you could really make my day just by opening that window," Jasper said calmly, though his eyes were stormy. "You ticked off Carlisle so bad that he bit you, and now you're going to…"

I gasped and turned to Crazy. "Carlisle bit you?"

"It's a male vampire thing, baby," replied Crazy, her eyes darting between Jasper and the window. "And a coven-master thing. I'm sure he's bitten everyone in that coven from time to time. But I'm not in his coven, so I'm not his chew toy."

"You want her to watch this?" asked Jasper, gliding towards us with a predatory stalk.

I gasped and started to choke with fear. Jasper stopped immediately, and Crazy started to pat my back. "It's OK, baby. Just breathe," she whispered soothingly.

"Don't start anything with him, just don't. Not today, OK?" I pleaded, choking on my words. The thought of Jasper tearing her apart was tearing me apart.

Crazy seemed to relent, and kept patting me. "Breathe, breathe. We're OK. Maybe I better go now."

Jasper said, "I believe you're correct there."

She gave me a hug then jumped out the window, and he removed my jacket, quickly stowing it in his locker at vampire speed before walking me back to my classroom.

I resolved not to let that day's drama ruin my school experience, though.

Angela had asked me to come to her house after school to study and work on a project for drama club. I wasn't about to ask Esme, but then Edward surprised me by bringing it up himself.

"Why don't you just ask Esme," he asked me while we were sitting in the living room, watching the news a few nights later. He seemed to have become more adjusted to my scent, and was talking a bit now. But I noticed that Jasper still seemed to take him outside for a run from time to time.

"Ask me what?" asked Esme, surprised.

"Angela wants Bella to come over to her house to study," replied Edward, as casually as if he was remarking on the weather.

"Well, why don't you go, then?" she replied, turning to me.

"I just, well, I'm just not sure what's…allowed," I mumbled.

"Of course you should go. You should see your new friends from school. Spend time with them; that's part of the fun of attending school," said Esme.

I nervously took a glance at Carlisle, who nodded his agreement. I had never really understood my place in this coven. Jasper had never returned to Texas. He had started taking "runs" after school or at night with Edward, but when they left the house, Emmett always stayed with me. Edward never seemed to be in the house with me without Jasper or Emmett. And Carlisle was always present, as was Esme.

"Maybe I could take some brownies," I said. This was one of the new things I had just learned how to cook. I was quite proud of them.

I had done some cooking with Crazy while we were in Florida and California, and we had quickly bought a fire extinguisher and learned to keep it handy. It seemed it was safer to follow all of the steps of a cooking show than go along with some of Crazy's shortcuts, although it was never as much fun. The food I made with Esme never caught on fire or got burnt to ashes in the oven because we were in the other room, dancing to some music video that had just flashed across the TV screen. So, in addition to main dishes, I was working on desserts. And brownies were my latest accomplishment.

"What a wonderful idea. Give her a call; tell her you'll be there tomorrow night, if she wants," Esme urged.

So I actually got to spend time at a regular human house, with a group of regular, free humans. No vampires present. At least not inside the Weber's house, anyway. I sensed Jasper was outside, though he said to give him a call and he would pick me up when I was ready to come home.

Angela and I ordered pizza, ate ice cream with the brownies, and tried to talk about Ben Cheney and Jasper. She didn't want to talk about Ben Cheney, who had eyes only for her, and I didn't want to talk about Jasper, who she said only had eyes for me.

Soon we moved on, talking about some of the other high school couples. Or were they really couples? Maybe just good friends? We didn't get a lot of work done on our drama assignment, but we sketched out a few different sets for the high school's upcoming production of "Grease."

Out of the blue, Angela asked if I thought Edward could sing. I told her that I knew he could play the piano, but I didn't know about his singing voice. And I wasn't likely to hear him sing, since around me, he was often still struggling not to breathe, I added to myself.

I tried to steer the conversation away from my prior life, although she was obviously curious. She wanted to know what it was like to be home schooled. Although the Cullens and I had rehearsed plausible answers to these questions, she just seemed like such a nice girl I didn't want to lie to her. So I simply steered the conversation away from this topic by mentioning that I had lived in Anaheim, close to Disneyland. This got her attention, as apparently she had taken a trip to Disneyland when she was nine years old. She dug around in her closet and proudly brought out her souvenir hat with Mickey Mouse ears, and the photo of her family and their church group. It was fascinating seeing a picture of her as a nine-year-old girl. There are no photos of me when I was nine, of course.

"Do you have photos like this?" she asked, almost as if she read my mind.

"No, my family wasn't big on picture taking," I replied. Because we lived in a single room barrack, didn't have cameras, and didn't get to go anywhere, I thought to myself. Get off the pity train, I then chided myself. This is your life now, so start enjoying it.

We talked a bit more, including about where she wanted to go to college. She had already decided she wanted to be a teacher, maybe even a college professor. She liked her family, and living in in Forks, but she was ready to move to a bigger city. Her usually serious eyes sparkled as she talked about her future plans. She was even thinking about joining the Peace Corps.

When the night was over, I called Jasper, and he came quickly. Mr. and Mrs. Weber seemed quite impressed by the respectful young man who arrived at their door, calling them "Sir" and "Ma'am." I could tell Mrs. Weber was going to try to get him to stay in order to ask him some questions about the Cullens, but he said that Mrs. Cullen was waiting for me, so she just waved us good-bye.

After we got into the car, he smiled as he noted the excitement in my eyes. "You had a good time, then?" he asked.

"Yes. I've never been with people like that before. In Jacksonville and Anaheim, I just worked. People asked me to join them for drinks or movies, but those would have always been at night, and I just never went out after dark…"

I realized self-consciously that not only was I babbling, but I was starting to talk about my precautions against vampires.

"I understand your reasons, darlin'; you don't have to explain," he said quietly.

I smiled, happy. Odd as it may sound, it was good to have someone who I could talk to about my lack of experience around other humans. Even if he had been partially responsible for that. I was finding myself looking forward to the few occasions we had some time alone together, however random and infrequently they might occur. I could feel my fear of him slipping away and being replaced by something else, and I had to force myself to remember what it had been like, before I came to the Cullen house.

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