Chapter 3.
I got a text from Alice the next morning just before 5 am telling me that the scheduling plan would go off without a hitch. I tried to ignore the surge of nerves that seeing those words brought me. The fax had came in overnight with the document for Edward's internship, and Carlisle would be calling the school the moment they opened to set everything up. I had to do this for my family, but if Bella's scent was going to be a problem for Edward, I was a little worried about what it would be like for me. Was it only Edward that she would effect, or would her scent be stronger to everyone? Alice didn't go into a lot of detail before their departure, and I didn't want to overload her with unnecessary calls or texts. This was my time to shine. It was my chance to prove to my family, and to myself, that I didn't need to be watched.
The clocked seemed to be moving in slow motion. I had changed my clothes several times, before I got another text from Alice.
Black jeans, dark gray cowboy boots, light gray long sleeve t-shirt with the black jacket. :)
I smiled and pulled the clothes from my closet. Normally, I couldn't care less what I wore. Alice usually shopped for me, and the rest of the family for that matter. Every few months she would fill my closet with things she knew I would like. Most of it was very neutral, and no matter what I grabbed it usually looked fine. Once in a while though, she would stop me before school, shaking her head and telling me that I needed to change, providing the perfect alternative. Fashion was always changing, and it was important for us to blend in. Today, I wanted to blendin and look presentable. It was the first time a new student and Forks resident, was going to interact with anyone from our family. I wanted to look nice, without trying too hard. The outfit that Alice chose was perfect and I silently mouthed "thank you" into my empty room before heading downstairs, hoping she would see. The phone in my pocket buzzed.
You're welcome. :)
I headed downstairs to Carlisle's study and heard him hanging up the phone with the school, just as I entered the room.
"Son make sure you go to the school office before your first class to grab your new schedule. Everything is all set, Ms. Cope is expecting you. I have to get to the hospital, call me if you need anything." he said getting up from behind his desk.
"Will do, thanks Carlisle." I said, following him out to the living room where Rose and Emmett were waiting for me. Emmett, feeling amused and excited; Rose as indifferent as ever.
"Well, one good thing about Edward being gone is we don't have to take that shitty Volvo. We're taking the Jeep! Rose is driving." He said with a smirk. He liked to let Rosalie drive the Jeep while he stood up in the back of it like an insane redneck. It didn't do much to help us blend in, but it wasn't so out of place that it mattered. Teenagers were prone to showing off by doing dumb, dangerous shit all the time.
When we got to school I headed for the office to grab my new schedule. Ms. Cope, an older woman with artificial bright red hair, that was an assault on the eyes, greeted me before she looked up. She was slightly startled for a moment, her natural instincts trying to warn her of the predator in front of her, but the fear subsided quickly when she recognized me.
"Mr. Hale, I was expecting you! Your father called this morning and explained the situation. Isn't that marvelous for your brother! An internship at the hospital! And aren't you just the gentleman for offering to rearrange your whole schedule, just to help him out. Mr. Cullen must be so proud to have raised such fine young men, here you are." she said, handing me the paper with my classes on it. I looked it over and realized it was a little different than I expected. I had figured I was just going to be swapping Biology and study hall but it looks like my biology, study hall, gym, and Spanish class were all rearranged. I didn't really mind though, I figured at least it was something different.
My first class was unaffected by the change in my schedule. Trigonometry with Mr. Varner. Boring as ever, even with a pop quiz that most of the class seemed unprepared for. I however finished in 10 minutes, and that was even with me trying to go slow. The next class was a study hall, which used to be when I had Spanish. It was held in the library, and I sat as far out from everyone as I could and opened a notebook, so I would at least appear to be busy. I found myself doodling mindlessly until a pair of, perfectly recalled, chocolate brown eyes were staring back at me from the piece of paper. I hadn't realized what I was doing and felt sort of embarrassed. I looked around to make sure no one had noticed, not like they would be able to do anything but guess who they belonged to, even though my rendering was perfect. I sighed and started to worry. I barely knew this girl, and I was supposed to be ignoring her. I wasn't off to a great start. I closed my notebook rather quickly, just as the bell rang and headed towards the gym.
My pace was a little quicker than necessary, and as I turned the corner I had to stop quick, because someone was about to walk right into me. BeforeI could step out of their way at a human speed, they were already crashing into my stone body. I tried to slack my stance a bit and absorb some of the blow, but the student still stumbled backwards, and fell right on their ass. Bella. She was confused and slightly disoriented, but mostly embarrassed. Without thinking I offered her my hand, she didn't seem to react to the temperature difference, thankfully. We were both rattling off apologies by the dozen, by the time she was back up on her feet and looking up at me. I had been wrong when I said my drawing was a perfect rendering, because there was no way that any medium of artwork could truly capture her beauty. I can't explain what we were both feeling, but it's almost as if our emotions were one in that moment. There was an immediate sense of attraction, but also a sense of calm and trust. Her brain must have been ignoring all the warning signals, that told her she was looking into the eyes of a predator. I felt no fear from her at all, which was unusual in itself. It took me a moment to realize we'd been standing there staring at each other for more than a minute. While I didn't want to take my eyes off of her, I didn't think Bella would like the attention that it could potentially draw, especially after feeling how she felt from all the attention her first day brought her. I did the hard thing and smiled, looking down. Breaking her gaze. She blinked several times before the feeling we shared subsided and embarrassment took back over as her primary emotion.
"Thanks, umm… sorry I'm such a clutz." she said, "I'm, Bella Swan".
" Pleasure ma'am, I'm Jasper Hale." I said before I realized how unmodern it sounded. Alice was probably rolling her eyes if she saw this coming. Bella gave me a kind of a confused look before grinning, then I felt her panic when she looked around to notice that the halls were almost empty.
"I- I gotta get going, nice to meet you Jasper!" she said before turning to head back the direction she came from. I smiled and waited for her to notice that she was walking the wrong way. It only took her a few seconds, and I could hear her cursing under her breath as she turned back around and gave me an embarrassed smile before walking past me. I would have felt a little bit bad for her, if it wasn't so adorable.
I got to the gym just in time, a grin still painted on my face from my interaction with the clumsy girl. The girls were playing volleyball on one side of the gym, and the guys were playing Basketball on the other. I was just going through the motions, trying to stay out of the action, making sure to miss more baskets than I made if the ball did end up in my hands. It was painfully boring to pretend to be human in a class that was all about physicality, but I didn't care today. My mind was preoccupied, replaying the scene with Bella over and over. I made it halfway through class before I realized that my first interaction with Bella Swan was successful, even though I wasn't prepared for it. She caught me off guard and yet my control never wavered in the slightest. All the things that I had been so anxious about didn't even seem to matter anymore. Interacting with her was no more difficult than interacting with any of the other human students, which was never exactly easy, but it was tolerable as long as I kept myself fed.
The only thing I was slightly concerned about now, was how hard she actually ran into me. Her body was fragile, while mine was not. It would have been like colliding with a statue, hard enough to fall back on your ass. I hoped that she wouldn't be too sore, but knew that it was probably inevitable. I started to think that maybe she needed someone walking beside her, to make sure she didn't run into anymore dangerous men. I didn't dare to allow myself the hope that, just maybe, that someone could be me. I made my way to the locker room when the coach dismissed us to change still in a bit of a haze.
Then I thought of Edward. If Edward would have been the one she ran into- and suddenly I was angry. Alice was the only reason that Bella was still alive. All the control in the world wouldn't have stopped Edward from taking her life, and I now knew that I would do anything to make sure that would never happen, Alice or not.
Speaking of Alice, I had checked my phone several times through out the morning to make sure that she hadn't tried to get a hold of me, but each time there was nothing. It felt strange, like some sort of leash had been cut loose, like I was truly on my own. It was a nice, but new feeling that still had me a bit on edge. I was almost certain after my run in with Bella that I would have found a missed text warning me before it happened, but Alice had never tried to reach me. I even powered my phone off and back on to make sure that it wasn't broken. It came back on just fine. I frowned and sent Emmett a text to see if he wanted to join me for a quick hunt after school, just to make sure that I was still able to send and receive text messages. Seconds later my phone buzzed.
Sure bro, Rose is gonna come too, we didn't get to make it out yesterday due to all the Edward drama.
I became even more curious after finding everything to be working perfectly, but I trusted her. Whatever Alice saw happening, must not warrant any warnings. She must be respecting my wishes and this was her proving that to me. The bell rang and I was headed to Spanish, which used to be when I had gym. I got to the class a bit early and spoke with Mrs. Goff, she was aware of the schedule change and directed me to a seat in the back. I sat down and pulled out the notebook that held my drawing from earlier and cracked it open to take another look. Now that I'd had a much closer interaction with Bella, the drawing just didn't seem to do her any justice.
" Hey that's pretty good, did you draw that?" a warm voice said, almost jolting me from my chair. I froze. It was Bella. Right here sitting next to me in Spanish class, staring at the drawing I did of her eyes from memory. Did she recognize that it was her? Would she think it was creepy? I needed to play this off just right, and I was starting to panic a bit. I felt incredibly caught off guard for a vampire. Alice hadn't mentioned any classes with Bella outside of Biology, and she had to have seen this coming.
"Uhm- Uh- Yes. Just a hobby I fiddle with from time to time." I said, lamely.
"Oh it's beautiful! There's so much detail, it looks like a photograph!" she said beaming at my rendering of her, "It makes me wonder what the rest of her face looks like, but I like the mystery of it." She was staring at the piece of paper like it was the most gorgeous thing she'd ever seen, which was ridiculous because it held no comparison to her. I felt relief at knowing that she hadn't saw herself in the image.
"Well, I guess we'll never know, but if you like it so much you're free to have it, as an apology for this morning." I told her, and I could feel her excitement bubble before she pushed it down and didn't allow it to grow.
"No no, I can't take it, it must've taken you hours, you need to enter it in like a contest or something, and really this morning was my fault, I'm accident prone." She said, but I could feel the disappointment she was hiding so well on the surface.
"It's just a doodle I did in study hall. I have too many to save them all, and this morning was absolutely not your fault. I should have been paying better attention, my mind was elsewhere. Please, take it and save it from the pile of others I'm hoarding on my desk at home." I said, and I felt her emotions fighting trying to figure out if she should accept it or not before they finally resolved.
"Okay… but only if you won't miss it. Thank you Jasper, it's really awesome! I'd love to see more of your work sometime." She said taking the paper from my hand and studying it more closely, just as Mrs. Goff got everyone's attention and started class.
The hour spent sitting next to Bella was interesting to say the least. I could feel her wanting to look over at me but getting nervous and trying not to. I was fighting a similar urge. After a while of her struggling to focus on class, I decided to send her some energy that would aid in such a task. I didn't want to be the reason she missed something important, and I was already fluent in Spanish. I didn't feel it was fair to keep stealing her attention, even if it wasn't intentional. Even if I was beginning to admit to myself that I wanted her attention.
I imagined taking her to our beautiful home hidden in the woods and showing her the artwork she wished to see. Being able to feel which pieces sparked emotion within her. I'd be studying her, while she studied them. I could see her sitting and talking with Esme, and laughing with Alice. Then the daydream vanished as I realized that it could never come to be. I was supposed to be ignoring her, treating her like everyone else. Just filling Edwards spot and keeping to myself. I've already spoken more to her today, than I've spoken to any one single student in the last 2 years that I've been attending Forks High School. If she were to find out what I was, it would put her and my entire family in danger, and despite all of that, the real problem was Edward. I had to make sure that he never ended up anywhere near her, and taking her directly to our home would be purely insane. The bell rang and I began to gather my things slowly, looking to Bella out of the corner of my eye, trying to match her pace.
"You weren't in here yesterday" she said. It was more of a question, than a statement.
"No, I had to rearrange my schedule a bit to help my brother Edward. He's doing an internship at the hospital with our father for the remainder of the year, and since all the classes are full, I offered to switch a few with him to make things easier." I told her, and before she could ask any questions, I changed the subject. "Hey by the way, how are you feeling? We collided pretty hard earlier, are you sore at all?"
"Oh no. I'm totally fine-" she said moving her shoulder to prove her point to me, but failing to do so. I could feel her pain. She was being stubborn. I looked at her for a moment with an eyebrow raised, and waited to see if she was going to change her answer, but she kept up with the charade. "It's nothing I'm not used to. I'm not what one would call coordinated" She said, letting out a chuckle. I wanted to tell her that I knew she was lying and that I should take her to see Carlisle, but I didn't want to be overbearing. We hardly knew each other, she would probably think it was an odd suggestion, since we only officially met today. So I made the tough decision to let it be. Her pain wasn't intollerable and if I had Bella pegged correctly, I'd say she was probably used to a few bumps and bruises.
"Well, will you at least allow me to walk you to lunch, to make sure you don't have any more accidents?" I asked, unable to stop myself. I was being wreckless, yet the pull to be near her was making me defy logic. I felt nervous waiting for her to answer and wondered for a moment if I was being too forward.
"Uh, yeah. Sure." she said blushing, and giving me a nervous grin. The flush of her skin did make my throat a bit scratchy, but it wasn't anything that I couldn't handle. I swallowed a bit of venom and smiled back at her, motioning for her to lead the way.
Bella and I made our way to the cafeteria without saying much. She did manage to almost trip over absolutely nothing on the short walk down the hall, and she'd had to grab my arm for support. I tried my hardest not to laugh, when she was so obviously embarrassed and frustrated.
"I would tell you I'm normally not this accident prone, but that would be a big fat lie." She said, letting out a sigh. She looked away and began to grin. She was feeling more amused now than embarrassed, though it seemed as if that emotion never fully, disappears from her aura anytime I've been around her.
"No, you?" I said, playing it up like I was shocked before we both broke out laughing. Even her laugh was beautiful. I had to get ahold of myself. I had been so wrapped up in my morning with Bella, that I didn't stop to think about what my siblings would think when I walked into the Cafeteria with her. I looked over to the table where we all sat. I quickly felt the daggers, that were Rosalie's eyes, piercing through me. She was angry. Emmett didn't seem to have a problem with it, as he was interested and amused. I would have loved to continue my time with Bella, to go find an empty table and sit with her and talk more, but I knew that was a bad idea. Rose would probably have my head on a stick if I didn't get to explaining. "Well Bella," I said before pausing, hesitating, wondering if maybe I could get away with- nope. I felt Rosalie's anger spike once again. So I just said "I guess I'll see you around."
"Yeah umm, thanks again for the drawing, and making sure I didn't kill myself between Spanish and here. See you later." I could feel she was a little bit disappointed, but she didn't let it linger. Maybe she was hoping I would have asked her to sit with me, and I wished that I could have. At least we'd get to be in Biology together after this, though she wasn't aware of that yet. I wondered if she'd be happy to see me again, or if she'd care at all. No. I needed to stop worrying about how she felt about me and just treat her like anyone else. The problem was that no one else could compare to her. Being around Bella was like breathing in fresh air. There was something soothing to me about being near her. I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
I went and took my seat with Emmett and Rose. Awaiting whatever Hell she was about to reign down upon me. She was looking at me as though she wanted to rip my head off so I closed my eyes and waited to hear her lecture, but it never came. When I finally opened my eyes she was still staring through me like she wanted to burn me alive but she remained silent. Emmett was the one to cut the tension.
"See, I knew Edward was overreacting. She doesn't seem so scary." He said with a smirk.
"What seems scary is the fact that Jasper was looking at her like she's God's gift to Earth, when she's nothing but a weak pathetic human who's existence is a threat to us all." Rose said with a snarl before adding "Alice should have let Edward just get rid of her when he had the chance." I couldn't help the growl that escaped my chest. Emmett then became worried and Rosealie felt smug that I just confirmed her suspicions. "We may as well get ready to kiss Forks goodbye now. One idiot wants to kill her and the other is ready to defend her honor, this isn't going to end well." she said, her anger increasing. "It's been what, one day? Get a grip. I know you're lonely but a human? It's pathetic, not to mention dangerous. Get your head out of your ass before I rip it off and actually put it up there." She said before taking her lunch tray and storming away, heading out to the Jeep I assumed.
"Do you know what you're really getting yourself into bro?" Emmett asked, watching Rose storm through the double glass doors that led to the parking lot. He was only mildly worried, probably more so about having to hear Rose bitch, for who knows how long, about how she wants to rip my limbs off.
"I'm not getting myself into anything Emmett, I was just being friendly. She's nice. But I will vow to make sure that Edward never lays a hand on her. She at least deserves that." I said, looking to the table in the middle of the room and meeting her eyes. She smiled and turned back to Jessica, who was blabbing on as usual. I couldn't help but grin as I looked back to Emmett.
"Uhh yeah, whatever you say dude." he said, getting up to follow Rosalie. He hadn't believed a word I'd said, though he wasn't angry or bothered in the slightest. He thought it was funny that I was having such a hard time being honest. Though, if I was being honest, I couldn't help wonder the same thing. What was I getting myself into?