Jasmine's Point of View
I didn't think it was possible, but I finally got all the dried blood off of my body. I changed into a pair of warm, clean clothes—courtesy of Alice—and started pulling at my hair with a brush. The blood, though rinsed off, had left it with a crunchy, dead feel. Every hard stroke of the brush hurt my head, but I kept going. Alice would never forgive me if I left the bathroom with a tumbleweed on my head.
There was a knock on the open door.
"Knock, knock," Leah joked. She eyed me pulling at the tangles and my hair coming off in the brush. "Need some help?"
I threw the brush down, defeated. "Yes," I groaned.
She giggled at my expression. Coming over to stand beside me, Leah ruffled my hair.
"Don't!" I exclaimed, smacking her hand. "You'll make it worse!"
She laughed again and picked up the brush from where it landed inside the sink.
"Were you trying to scalp yourself?" she asked me.
"Yes, Leah, I'd love to go bald," I said.
Gently, she pulled the brush from my hair's roots to its tips. In less than two minutes, she had my dark curls perfectly untangled.
"Miracle," I murmured.
"Not a miracle," she disagreed. "As long as you don't fight with it, it won't fight with you."
"Thanks, Leah." I turned around and gave her a hug. She returned the favor.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"For what?"
"For making Seth happy." She sighed. "Never before have I ever seen my brother as delighted as he is when he's with you."
"Leah, you're forgetting that he imprinted. He doesn't have a choice. Seth has to love me." Now that I thought about it, the thought bothered me. "If it hadn't been for that, he might not have chosen me."
"But you are forgetting that he already had chosen you," Leah argued. "He told you he loved you before he imprinted. The imprinting only made the bond stronger, even though I didn't think it was possible. Jasmine, Seth would always love you; had he imprinted or not."
I sighed. "Well, I guess we'll never know that for sure, now will we."
"I guess not," Leah said. "But I would bet against Alice that he would have picked you anyways."
"Well, I guess we'll never need to figure that out, now will we?" I said, rather sharply.
I had to admit, the thought bothered me a bit. Would I still have Seth if it hadn't been for the imprinting? Or would he have left me by now to go with a girl that you usually see with guys like him. A tall, pretty, sporty blonde that dressed in designer clothes when she wasn't in her cheerleading uniform? Someone like Rosalie! Yeah, leave it to me to be jealous of my aunt. Maybe not Rosalie exactly, but some girl like her. It seemed like a likely possibility. Seth was handsome, I'd bet he could get any girl he wanted. And yet, as Leah had said, he'd chosen me on his own. He'd felt this was about me before the imprinting kicked in. But would he have changed his mind by now if this was a normal situation?
I entered the door of my room and closed the door. Keeping my eyes on the ground, I sank down to the floor. My breathing started to get heavy and ragged. Is it possible that if Seth wasn't been forced to love me, he wouldn't love me? He'd told me he loved me many times, but aside from the first time, it had always been because he was—in a way—under a spell.
"Jasmine," a voice said, startling me so much that I jumped, "do you need to be alone?"
I looked up to see Renesmee seated firmly on the corner of my bed. She was almost my height now and her bronze curls were so long that she was seated on them. Was it possible that she was growing so quickly? Nessie patted a spot next to her lightly and I stood up—my face flushed with embarrassment at being caught while having a nervous breakdown—and carefully seated myself next to her. I didn't want her to leave but I didn't know what to say.
"Nessie, how do you feel about the fact that Jacob would've killed you if it hadn't been for the imprinting?" Whoa. Where'd that come from?
Renesmee stared at me, her brown eyes larger than usual. "How did you know about that?" she asked.
"I—I don't know," I said truthfully. "It just came out of my mouth." What surprised me more than having said something involuntarily was the fact that it had been a correct statement.
"I—I—" she stuttered. "I'm not sure. I never really thought of it. I suppose it does bother me now that I think about it. But he didn't kill me and he loves me now. I'm sure he would've loved me anyways if he'd had a chance to get to know me," she stated in her defense. "Why do you ask?"
I simply stared at my hands as I toyed with them, clenching them into separate fists then joining them together and making shapes with my fingers. I peeked up through my heavy locks of dark hair and watched as comprehension swept across Nessie's face.
"This is about Seth," she said, scooting a bit closer to me. "You're worried that he wouldn't love you if it wasn't for the imprinting."
I nodded meekly. I bit my lip hard to keep the tears in. Since when was I so emotional? Jeez, it was killing me.
"Jazzy, didn't he say he loved you before that even happened?" As if she had to remind me. I guessed anyone who knew would pull that one first.
"Maybe he would've changed his mind by now," I whispered. "He might've found the perfect girl for him. Someone pretty, popular, someone worthy of him."
Renesmee looked at me like I was insane.
"Have you had a chance to look at yourself during your life, Jazzy?" she asked, incredulously. "You beat some vampires I know when it comes to overall beauty." She leaned forward to whisper in my ear, so low I could barely understand. "If it came down to inner beauty, I'd say you beat Rosalie by thousands of miles."
"I HEARD THAT, NESSIE!" Rosalie screamed from downstairs.
"Like it's not true," she murmured. "Anyway, don't worry about it, Jazzy. He's here now and he loves you now. We'll never be able to sort through all the 'what if's in life so just deal with it!" She smiled a small smile and wrapped her arms around me. "One thing's for sure now," she whispered. "He's not leaving any time soon."
I hugged her back. "Thanks, Ness," I whispered.
"Aw," Alice sighed from the doorway. "How sweet. Two sisters having a little heart to heart." She smiled playfully and dragged me up from the bed. There was only one possibility for what was about to happen now.
"Jazzy," Alice squealed, "let's go shopping!"
I rolled my eyes. Of course.
"Why?" I groaned.
"Jasmine have you had a chance to look at the date lately?"
"Um…" In truth, I hadn't. "It's… um… August, right?"
Alice looked at me like I was crazy. "No… It's September first…"
"September first. All right. Great. I still don't see how this evolves shopping."
"Tomorrow is your first day of school," she informed me.
A light bulb turned on over my head. Now I understood. "School shopping," I murmured. "Great. As if I need any more excuses for you to buy me so many things."
"You may not," Alice sang, "but I do!"
Alice started pulled me out of my room. I turned my head around to be able to see Nessie.
"Come," I whispered. "Please! I need someone rational to be there."
Renesmee snickered. "I don't know," she said playfully.
"Don't make me beg," I groaned.
"Why?" she giggled, grabbing her purse and a thin sweater off my bed. "It might be fun to watch."
"Hurry up!" Alice cried. "We need to get a full eight hours of shopping in!"
Nessie tossed me a black sweater with a hood and I allowed myself to be dragged into Alice's Porshe. We drove for no more than two minutes before we parked in front of the Forks Mall.
"Aw," I said, faking disappointment. "No shopping spree in Paris, Ali?"
"Well," she said, thoughtfully, "if we catch the next flight we might be able to make it back by—"
"Slow your roll," I said, hopping out of the car with Nessie behind me. "I was just kidding."
A look of frustration came over her face. "Of course," she said.
"Let's shop," I said, more enthusiastically.
Alice's face brightened. "Yes," she squealed. "Let's."
Hooking arms with one another, we made our way through the parking lot—avoiding the stares and gasps of surprised people—and walked through the doors of the mall.
(Well, I was going to stop there, but why stop when I can keep going, right?)
Well, it was definitely nothing like I'd expected. Stores lined the sides of it and there were fountains and stands going down the middle. Varieties of music blasted out of several of the stores and mixed with the gurgling water of the fountains and the voices of people's conversations in the atmosphere.
For Forks, it was pretty nice.
"Well," Alice said, not finding the beauty in it that I did, "it's no shopping spree in Paris, but it'll do."
I played Alice's doll for the rest of the day as she dragged me to every store and made me try on every outfit and every shoe.
"Alice," I whined, "can we go home yet?"
"Not yet!" she declared as she handed a clear card to a cashier at a store called Rave. "We haven't even been to the left side of the mall yet!"
"The… left… side…" Great. Just great.
Alice and Nessie walked out of the store quickly and gracefully with bags filling their hands. I walked slower with my hood on behind them. There was a girl turned around talking to some friends and—just my luck—I bumped into her.
"Excuse me," I said politely. She turned around and I gasped.
Her blonde hair was pin straight. She was tall and slim with the type of body cheerleader stereotypes had. She wore white sunglasses on her head and a red mini dress with sparkles that brought out her ruby red lips and sky blue eyes. It was exactly the type of girl I'd imagined Seth might be able to have.
Instead of saying something like "Oh, it's okay," and turning back to continue her conversation, she smirked and said, "Well, would you look what the cat dragged in."
One of her friends—a tall red head—snickered. The other, a Vietnamese girl, remained silent and sipped the smoothie in her hands.
"Someone could use some makeup," she smiled.
"And some serious highlights," her red headed friend volunteered, picking up a lock of my hair and throwing it back down again like it were some piece of trash.
"Tiffany, Asia, cut it out," the other said, putting a hand on their shoulders as she said their name. The one name Tiffany—the blonde one—brushed her away and Asia did the same.
"Butt out, Jade," Tiffany sneered.
"I will not butt out," she said indignantly. Tiffany and Asia stared at her, angrily.
"If you're so eager to protect your little friend," Linda smirked, "then leave. You both are just trash, now aren't you?"
Jade stood in front of me protectively. "Fine, then," she said. "We'll leave." She took my arm and started pulling me in the direction Alice and Nessie had gone.
"Thank you," I whispered.
"No problem," she said. "I'm tired of getting pushed around by those two anyway."
"I'm sorry you don't have better friends," I said.
She shrugged. "It's no big deal. I'm used to being by myself."
"Jasmine!" Renesmee called, running up to me. "Alice and I caught what happened back there. Jeez, rudeness much?"
"It might do her some good to have me knock some sense into her right about now," Alice murmured.
I turned to catch Jade's expression as she took in Alice and Nessie. Her eyes were wide and her mouth had dropped open.
"Jade," I said, "this is Renesmee Cullen, my cousin."
"Nice to meet you!" Nessie said, taking Jade's hand and shaking it lightly.
"Hello, Renesmee," Jade said, recovering from the shock but still shocked nonetheless.
"Please, call me Nessie."
"And this is Alice Cullen," I said, gesturing toward her, "my…"
"Aunt," she completed. Bounding forward, Alice took Jade's hand and gave her a one armed hug while pecking one cheek. "Nice to meet you, Jade."
As Alice retreated her hand, Jade stared at it incredulously, probably wondering why it was so cold.
"And we haven't been correctly introduced," I said, holding out my own hand. She seemed relieved to take mine, probably thinking that it seemed a lot more normal than Alice or Nessie's pale, glistening hands. "I'm Jasmine Cullen."
"Jade Hoang," she said, taking my hand and seeming relieved at feeling a perfectly normal human temperature. "Nice to meet you." She smiled a beautiful, bright, delighted smile and I knew she meant it. It was only then that I really got a good look at my new—can you believe it?—friend.
Her slightly curled red hair cascaded down her back and to her waist like a waterfall. Her slim body was about four inches shorter than mine. Her almond shaped eyes were beautiful and dark—almost black, but when the light hit them, you could tell they were brown. She wore designer clothes just like her "friends" had, but they were much more subtle. Just a dark denim skirt and an aqua shirt with bell-like sleeved. A diamond necklace hung from her neck.
"Would you like to come shopping with us?" Alice asked in her usual perky voice.
"How I would love you," Jade answered, "but I haven't a cent on me."
"Not a problem," Alice decided. "We'll get you anything you'd like."
While the offer struck a glisten to her eyes, Jade shook her head. "I wouldn't want to impose."
"Oh it's no problem!" Nessie chimed in. "We have enough to spare."
Jade shot me a questioning look and I smiled and nodded in encouragement.
"All right," she said, taking a last sip of her smoothie before tossing it into a trash can next to her.
"Let's shop then," I said. Alice and Nessie burst into some girly giggles over something they'd been talking about before. I was about to start following their parade, but Jade turned to look at me.
"Thank you," she said, smiling, but I saw the seriousness behind her face. "Really."
"It's no problem," I said. "And you'll get used to Alice. Eventually. Shopping is the only thing she likes to do."
Jade giggled. "I think I can get used to that."
We exchanged another smile and made our way at a calmer, more human pace as we followed Alice and Renesmee's path.
Author's Note: Hey everyone! Yes, I got the entire thing mentioned in last chapter's A/N sorted out. It was all really a huge misunderstanding. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and the new characters introduced in it. This is so definitely not the last you'll see of Jade, Asia, or Tiffany. Especially not Jade, I'll tell you that much. I've decided to make Jasmine's story into parts (part 1, part 2) to avoid my own confusion and yours. Originally, I wasn't gonna stop until I got 100 reviews. My writing, though, clearly isn't good enough to get that many. xD I have big things planned for part two! (and part three, for that matter. Yes, I said part three.) Thanks so very much for reading everyone! Forever be awesome, April~
