Alice stared at me, her eyes full of apology.
"Believe me, Jasmine; I had to lie to you about this. I'm sorry." She put one cold hand on my leg and I—very rudely—pushed it off.
"I don't want your apologies," I said, coldly. "I want an answer." I hated doing this to Alice, talking to her this way, but my anger ruled over practicalities at the moment. My hands clenched to fists as I awaited her response.
"Well?" I said impatiently when she didn't answer.
"I—I wanted you to think you had more options than you did." Pain filled her eyes fas she said this. My fists loosened and guilt overwhelmed me. No, this wasn't Jasper using his power to make me feel bad. This was me realizing how pathetic I was being. I dropped my head, ashamed.
"I'm sorry," I whispered. "I'll listen." I looked up through my lashes at Alice and Jasper's faces. I didn't care enough to ask where Carlisle, Esme, and the others had gone. I was only aware of Jasper and Alice sitting in front of me and of Seth sitting as close to me as possible with one arm around my shoulders. I could tell he hadn't wanted to leave me now. After all, this involved his life as much as it did mine.
"When I had the vision," Alice started, eyeing me as if expecting an interruption. I kept my mouth firmly closed. "I knew I had to keep it from you. I told my family, yes, but they all swore to keep it a secret. After all, none of us want an undead life for you."
Ah, so Bella had betrayed me. Great, just great.
"I figured that, maybe, just maybe, if I didn't tell you, you might give up on the idea. You'd go on with your life, forgetting that you'd ever wanted to be one of us. Of course, I always planned to stay close to you, but far enough so that you wouldn't have second thoughts about staying human. You must realize, Jasmine, that we only want what's best for you."
"I realize that, Alice," I said. "But maybe I have different ideas about what's best for me. Staying with my family forever, that's what I want. Alice, Jasper…that is what I think is best." I put my hand on Alice's leg like she had to me. I half expected her to push it off just like I had. But instead, she put her hand over mine. Jasper added his hand and smiled at me. Seth's hand stroked my cheek. Looking up at Seth's face, I saw him smiling a sad smile. Here came the guilt wave again. Of course, my heartbeats would be more precious than gold to him now.
I noticed then that Bella hadn't betrayed me. No, she related to me more than any of the other Cullens. Bella knows how the guilt feels. She had been, after all, in my place not very long ago. I made a mental note reminding me to thank her for being so understanding about everything.
"So…it's settled?" I asked. "After graduation?"
"Any time afterwards," Alice said. I could tell there was a pronounced difference between the two. I could also tell that Jasper was getting ready to explain it.
"After your high school graduation, Jazzy," he said. "If you're still not ready, you can always have a few more human years. The Cullens aren't going anywhere."
"So, I can be changed when I'm ready but I have to be ready after graduation?" I clarified.
"That's right," Alice said, ruffling my hair.
Now that my mortality was officially limited, there was another question I was simply dying—if you'll excuse my choice of words—to ask.
"I'm going to school?" I asked.
"Oh! I can't believe I forgot to tell you!" Alice fretted. "Yes, all of us—with the exception of Carlisle and Esme—are starting school at the La Push high school next month. Isn't that exciting?" She smiled a bright, playful smile and giggled childishly. "You did have lessons at the…er…orphanage, didn't fyou?"
"Of course I did. This is going to be so different, though! I've nevfer been to real school! What's it like?" Alice's excitement was piling on to mine. School! I could barely believe it. Real, actual school!
"Nothing very special, Jazzy," Seth said. "Now calm down! Jeez, I've seen five year olds on Halloween less hyperactive."
"Is there anything I need to know?" I asked. Surely, Alice knew I wasn't talking about classes. I needed to know what my story was. I simply couldn't go walking into the school saying, "Hello! My name is Jasmine Isabella Cullen! Alice and Jasper adopted me and, it turns out, the Cullens are a family of vampires that feed off of animal blood! My boyfriend's a werewolf, in case you were wondering. Now, where can I sign up for prom committee?" Yeah, no.
"Firstly, Jasper and Rosalie are twins. Rosalie and Jasper Hale, got it?" Alice eyed me as if I should have a pen and paper out taking notes. I nodded. "Carlisle and Esme adopted us all when we were about three years old. We've been living with them ever since. Bella has to keep her last name so that's Bella Swan, all right?" Again, I nodded. "And since everyone thinks we're adopted, you, Edward, Emmett, and I go by Cullen. We grew up with Jacob and Seth, therefore, we met Leah. Think you can remember all that?"
I gulped. "Sure hope so…"
"Oh you will," Jasper assured me.
"I thought Alice was the psychic, Jazz."
He shrugged. "Don't need to be psychic to know that," he said, quoting me.
"Where's Nessie going?" I asked. I hadn't heard Alice mention anything about her.
"Oh, her growing has slowed so she's growing at an almost normal rate now. Since she looks to be about twelve, she's starting middle school."
"And her story is…?"
"She is Esme's niece. Her parents just died so she's orphaned and Esme agreed to take her in." Alice nodded brilliantly.
"Is there anyone else who…knows?" I asked.
"Yes, the rest of the werewolves know," Seth said.
"And… how many werewolves are there?"
"Not many," he said. "Well… not many at the school, anyway. Most of them are out of high school by now. The only ones that are still there are Jacob, Embry, Quil, Collin, Brady, Leah, and me."
"What happened to Paul?" Jasper asked. "He didn't finish his senior year at high school, I'm sure."
"Oh he didn't," Seth answered. "He dropped out. Didn't think that he could be a werewolf and a student. Not with his temper." Seth chuckled along with Jasper and Alice.
"What does temper have to do with anything?" I asked, confused. I hated never knowing what anyone was talking about…
"If any of us lose our tempers, we burst into wolf form, no matter where we are. It hardly ever happens to any of us anymore, but Paul is an exception. His temper rages out of control at the slightest thing, so imagine him at school where he fails out of every subject and his teachers hate him. We all thought it safer for him to drop out and take some anger management classes."
"It's for the best," Jasper said. "Now, you might want to go to bed, Jasmine. I'm sure you're tired."
"I'm not," I said. "I think I've slept more than I needed to throughout the past few days."
"But your body is probably exhausted," Alice said. "You should at least go lie down."
I sighed, defeated. "All right." I stood and made my way to the staircase.
"Where do you think you're going without saying good night to your dad?" Jasper teased, opening his arms. I rolled my eyes playfully and ran into his arms.
"Night, Dad," I said.
"And your mom?" Alice said.
"Night, Mum," I said, hugging my aunt-slash-mom-slash-vampire.
"Coming, Seth?" I asked. Seth looked at Alice and Jasper as if awaiting approval. Alice smiled at him and he stood up.
"Coming," he said.
Upstairs, I went straight into my room and flopped onto the bed. The sweats I had on would be good enough for sleep if I ever got to that part. I really wasn't tired.
"Trying to sleep?" Seth asked, closing the door as he came into my room. The moonlight created light shadows on the floor and bed as he came to sit beside me. He lied down on his back with one arm extended to the side. I lied down next to him and rested my head on his arm. I turned onto my side to be able to see his face better. I saw that he was staring at me, too. As his eyes bore into mine, I melted.
"I don't think sleep is even possible now," I said. "Do you realize that I've spent the majority of the week sleeping?"
"I guess that's true," he said. "But you really deserve more sleep than you gotten, my little angel. You've been having some hard days."
"Why do you call me 'angel'?" I asked. "I'm not so special that I deserve to be called so." Seth laughed at my grimace and pecked my forehead.
"You're right," he said. "You are so much more special than that. In fact, you put an angel to shame."
"I love you," I reminded him.
"Best three words you could say to me," he said.
He kissed me again. His mouth was hot, even for a werewolf. I inhaled deeply and tried to preserve the moment. I couldn't quite grasp the fact that he loved me. It was more of a miracle than anything.
"Seth!" Leah's voice boomed from downstairs. Seth pulled away from my and rolled his eyes.
"Ignoring…" he murmured.
"SETH!" Leah screamed again.
"Go ahead," I said, releasing him. His lips swept across my forehead before he stood up and left the room. I stared up at the ceiling when an unnatural, unwanted wave of drowsiness swept over me.
Jasper… I groaned in my head. I knew he was using his stupid power on me. I might've said it out loud so he could hear my complaint, but I was too involuntarily tired to open my mouth. My last memory before complete blackness was cold arms around me and a forest around me. The trees were moving so fast, it was like a movie put on fast forward. I might've started protesting, but aside from being too fatigued to move, I knew the chances of it being a dream were high. Until I heard a voice that was too real to be a dream.
"JASMINE!" Alice's voice cried in horror. It sounded as if it came from thousands of miles away, but it was still barely loud enough for me to hear. That was when I knew I wasn't dreaming anymore. I heard a chuckle that was sickeningly familiar.
Thomas Henderson… Even thinking the name made me sick to my stomach. I tried to find the strength to scream, to thrash, to cry, but the drowsiness came down harder and stronger like a boulder, crushing me into oblivion.
I'm dead.