Hello, everyone, long time no see. It has been truly a wild ride dealing with this pandemic and I hope that you all can forgive my unexpected absence in light of these times. I have good news and bad news. The good news is, this is new content. Bad news, this is not a full chapter. Instead, this is an excerpt from something I have just posted on here entitled Forever Is a Long Time. This will consist of several one-shots following important events from Saving Valerie from other points of view. These will mostly be from Jasper's point of view, though there will be some about Will, Emmett, Hannah, and others.

Also, you can request one-shot updates if you'd like! If you have an idea or you're really curious how a character thought in a certain instance, you can definitely suggest it! I may even delve into AUs if the ideas come? Feel free to PM me or leave a review on either story with your ideas because I love to get your input on this story.

One more thing before the excerpt, how would y'all feel about either a tumblr or a twitter for this story? There I can post regular updates on the status of chapters, as well as old drafts with changes that didn't make it into the final story. You can request things there or ask questions, anything you want! Is that something y'all would be interested in?

Now, onto the first few paragraphs of the first one-shot in the collection. This one is about Jasper's side of the story on the night of the homecoming dance, when he saves Valerie from Josh.

Once again, thank you so much for sticking with me this long and I absolutely promise you that there will be a real chapter this week! I almost have it done, I just need to do some editing on it.

In the many years that Jasper Hale had gone to high school, he had never once been to a homecoming dance. After fighting two wars, first a human one then that of vampires, it felt silly to risk his family's safety over a dance. Though now he found himself standing against the back wall of the Forks High gym, watching with held breath as his classmates danced to some pop song he didn't recognize. It seemed Valerie Dryden was changing everything for him.

Alice hadn't kept it a secret that Valerie would become important to him. Jasper could still remember when he had first met the pixie-like woman, claiming that his entire life would change if he came with her to meet her family. They were vampires like him, though their lifestyle was unlike anything he had ever seen before. There was no need to feed on humans and feel their fear on a constant basis. The skeptical feeling he'd felt was easily remembered, as was the phrase that made it wash away. "I can see you meeting your mate if you choose this lifestyle."

It was easy to assume his mate would already be a vampire. After all, his self-control was noticeably weaker than the rest of his newfound family. Though he had been with his family the least amount of time, he'd had the most accidents. Jasper missed the most school simply as a risk reduction measure. No matter how many times they assured him otherwise, Jasper knew that he was the flight risk of the family. Due to this, Jasper hoped for a mate that could make him less of a burden on his family. When times got hard, Jasper found himself imagining what his mate would be like. She would have been a vampire for as long as he but would have the kind of control he couldn't seem to grasp. She would be patient, and kind, and forgiving of his shortcomings. His mate would be his better half; the kind of person who would drive him to be better than he'd ever been before. When Alice told him at the start of this school year that it was finally time, Jasper had felt nothing but relief; he had been working and struggling for this moment.

Then the new girl walked into the classroom and if it hadn't been for Emmett's strong, reminding squeeze on his arm, Jasper would have killed her on the spot. Alice was telling him to be patient, that it would get easier, and fury gripped him in such a way that he often wished he had just killed Valerie Dryden that first day. Jasper had not gone through all of that pain for decades only to find that his mate was the very thing he spent a century hunting. Valerie was nothing like what he'd expected. She was as fragile as any human and filled with so much guilt and pain that it actually choked him the first time he sat near her. Valerie was abrasive and beyond infuriating, but she was also brave and underneath that crushing guilt, Jasper could see pure faith in the world around her. It was that faith that drew him to her.