One would think that Jessica had been preparing for this question by the way she jumped into a more secretive position, her back purposely turned toward the five figures that were casually entering the cafeteria as if it were a runway.

"The Cullens. They're, um...Dr. and Mrs. Cullen's' foster kids. They moved down here from Alaska a few years ago"

I turned my attention to my unappetizing tray, my mind actively working against me as I attempted to ignore this conversation while my ears were eager to listen in. It felt invasive to listen to, but people at Forks are so effortlessly intrusive, I was glad the conversation wasn't on where I'm from and why I moved here.

Angela cut in swiftly, informing the star-stricken Bella that those kids often kept to themselves. However, Jessica was quick to intersect.

"Yeah 'cause they're all together" she scoffed in unrelenting astonishment "like together-together, the blonde girl, Rosalie, is dating the big dark-haired boy, Emmett, they're like a thing, I'm not even sure that's legal"

I couldn't help the scoff of indigence at her words. It was rude, plain and simple.

"Barely, they're not related, they're just minding their business"

Jessica frowned at my obvious defense of their relationship and Lauren glared at me. If I had time to respond to everything people did to piss me off, my life would go by in an instant, so I let Lauren's bitchy attitude go for now. I raised my brow before taking another bite of my apple, besides, I'm all for people speaking their minds, but if you're gonna be about it- be about it. Everything comes with consequences, especially running your mouth.

Angela agreed with and Jessica was comfortable enough to defend that she felt it was still "weird" but smartly left it at that. Bella turned her head at their banter, and I was too curious wondering which Cullen had caught her attention specifically not to turn around. As I my gaze wandered from Rosalie to her burly bear of a man, Emmett, to an absolutely adorable pixie styled brunette with the cutest smile, my eyes stopped dead on a man that might has well been crafted by God himself. I mean, gotdammit! It felt as if everything had just clicked, I felt oddly full, no not full- whole, complete. The ring on my finger hummed softly, but it was loud in my head, happy almost as my stomach twisted. When my eyes landed on this man an unbelievably delightful wave of emotion washed over me, I had never felt a something so strong and true, something so undeniably real. His eyes were deep and dark, tittering onto black, his hair was a golden blond and curled naturally toward the tips the touched his ears, his skin might as well have been starch white but I honestly couldn't find myself caring that he lacked the melanin I usually preferred.

"The little dark-haired girl is Alice, she's really weird, and she's with Jasper, the blond one who looks like he's in pain"

And just like that I peeled my attention off of the blond man that had effortlessly stolen my attention. Angela, who had been the only one to notice my awestruck peering offered me a sympathetic smile, which I shook off with the wave of my hand and a smile of my own. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed, in truth it was almost overwhelming the sense of disappointment I felt, a bitch shocked herself! I'm not a relationship person, never been in one, rarely feel the need to get in one. I'm someone who's never been hung up over a dude- so why did it almost...hurt? It made me feel stupid, internally whining over a taken man.

"Jess, at this point I need to know your definition of weird"

I was forcing myself to become active in the conversation that continued to develop so that I could shake off this odd sense of disappointment. Which paid off in a way, I figured out that Bella was crushing heavy on the youngest Cullen kid, Edward. He was honestly just as stunning as his siblings, with his copper toned hair, deep brown eyes, and skin so clear it looked like glass. I took a peek at the table where the Cullens sat after catching Bella staring once again, not expecting much- I almost did a double take at the scathing glare Edward directed towards Bella, I mean shit was brutal. I felt violated for the girl and almost put myself in his line of sight just to block her from seeing something so blatantly disrespectful. Not that I had the chance to, I checked to see if the rest of his siblings were also glaring at the poor girl and was relieved to see they didn't mind her like he was. Before I could bring my attention back to whatever was coming out of Jessica's mouth, it was ensnared.

I was caught gazing at the siblings by a pair of beautiful abyss-like dark eyes. It was him, Jasper, staring at me with the most handsomely surprised face I had ever seen on a person, as if I had caught him off guard. Which was an astounding thought considered how built he was, I mean honestly what could he expect me to do to him? His body was carved by the Greeks themselves; toned marble is what he looked to be made of. I would have questioned the look, had I not been too focused on trying to calm my heart and my thoughts. The toothpick that rested enticingly on his full lips threatened to fall out as our eyes held contact, his features shifted from shock to disbelief to his seemingly signature pain filled expression. I didn't bother seeing what other faces he could make because with more struggle than I would like to admit, I forced myself to turn away from him. Only to be greeted with mischievous brown eyes that danced in amusement.

"Anita" I almost choked hearing the teasing tone slip past Bella's lips. Her brows upturned and a smirk playing on her lips

"You tryna find out what's good, Isabella?"

My glare didn't prove to be as menacing as I had hoped, possibly due to the smile that was peeking out of the corner of my lips, and Bella simply bumped my shoulder for using her full name. I was honestly thankful for the girl, she doesn't even know how helpful her presence is.

Lunch resumed much like I thought it would, with me adding enough commentary to satisfy the others, only truly responding to Bella or Angela, Jessica wasn't all that bad, but I struggled to feel as comfortable with her as I did with the others. There are some people you don't know what you can talk about with. Although I was present in the conversations, I realized all too soon that I kept pushing away the urge to glance back at the boy with honey locks, partially due to the holes I felt being engraved into the back of my head. It felt wrong to ignore, but I refused to give in.

When the bell rang, I did my best to exit the cafeteria at a normal pace, throwing what remained of my lunch into the trash and telling Bella I'd see her after school before heading off to my next class. Thankfully, common sense had kicked in to ask Eric for directions to my next class instead of asking him to show me. After our meetings though, the boy was all too eager to give me directions and go, it nearly made me feel bad.

For my final class of the day I was graciously given history, not a class I'm necessarily excited about being in, but one I'm already familiar with and would most likely be able to relax in. Although his directions were clear, I found myself lost down the one of the many hallways of this school, all I had to do was find a staircase, go up to the second floor, it's the third door on the left hand side. By the time I stumbled upon the staircase and scrambled to the classroom, the lightly populated halls had been vacated and I was five minutes late for class. My teacher looked annoyed when I interrupted what I believe was roll-call but he easily dismissed me with a wave of his hand and continued down the list. In a state of mild panic, my eyes went straight to the furthest available seat in the classroom, not wanting to feel the eyes of my peers burning into my back with their unasked questions and ridiculous assumptions.

Just as I placed my bag down my name rang through the air, my head snapped up to the source and my teacher jumped in surprise. I must've startled him with how suddenly I snapped to attention. My reflexes are a bit stronger than others, it comes with being able to sense energy around me, something any sorcerer can do.

"Sir?"

"Just checking"

Without another word he continued down the roll and I situated myself into the seat. Taking a deep breath, I steeled my nerves by focusing on calming my heartbeat. In seconds I was back to normal, my head resting on my propped hand as my teacher spoke about America's past as if it happened yesterday, he was surprisingly animated and actually managed to capture my attention the first fifteen minutes of class. However, all good things must come to an end and I soon realized the class might not be an easy A like I assumed it would be. The teacher gave the first row of tables a stack of papers to pass down for a collaborative assignment. 30 questions long, so we were expected to work in teams of two to get it done before the end of class. Made sense, seemed easy enough- until I was handed the final two sheets of paper for my column, I turned to my left arm extended so my expected partner could grab the paper from my hands, and froze. I mean full body rigor mortis over here; I might as well have died in that moment because I can't even imagine the stupid look on my face as I was greeted by the sight of the ethereally beautiful boy from the cafeteria.

"Ma'am?"

His brows furrowed as he called my attention. Oh fuck, did I just- just gawk at this man? Blatantly? In front of him? Shit say something! Hable pendeja! Dile algo! (talk dumbass, say something)

"Yeah-yeah! Mierde, um sorry, I didn't mean to stare, you're just unreasonably handsome, sort of took me out for a second"

NOT THAT! Why THE FUCK would THAT be the right thing to say?!

The blond seemed just as surprised by my outburst, his eyes barely noticeably widen for a second, the longest second of my life, before he blinked and coughed suddenly. But I heard it, the chuckle he masked between his coughs. I didn't give him a chance to properly respond, not really expecting a proper response in general, by placing the assignment paper in front of him. I was ready to blow through these questions and keep to myself, he's too fine for my health.

"Alright, question number one: what is the first capital of the United States? That's cake, it's New York, New York, next question: when was the Declaration of Independence signed? It was signed-"

"August 2nd, 1776, commonly misbelieved to have been signed on July 4th, 1776-"

"Which was the day the document was finalized, yet remained unsigned"

I tapped my pen on my table as I built the courage to chance a look at the boy beside me, he wore a subtle grin on his features, and when I say subtle I mean it-took-me-a-couple-of-seconds-before-I saw-it subtle. Yet it was still there, and I felt like I was floating seeing grin on his face.

"Would you look at that, smart and handsome, Mr. Cullen- you're a catch"

The grin on his face widened by a millimeter as his dark brown eyes casually trailed towards my face and, much like before, the ring on my finger hummed in delight and sent a tingle down my spine. Almost as if in response, his attention, for a split second, drifted to my ring. His regarded it as if he was noticing it for the first time. Not that I'm surprised, a sorcerer's ring is the focal point of his, hers, or theirs power, it's not in any way easy for someone to take our rings, but it's better that they're not noticeable to begin with- therefore we enchant them. They're not invisible, imagine losing that, no- they're just easily missed, you could stare at my hand for hours and still not find the ridiculously bulky ring to be out of place or at all significant. However, without any provocation, his eyes just fell onto the spot where my ring rests and a spike of fear forced me to tuck my left hand between my thighs. No matter how cute he is, he's a stranger and I'm not taking chances.

"it's Hale, ma'am"

"What? Where?"

I flinched expecting the hail to start scraping against the school's windows, but instead was greeted by a melodic laughter: light and airy, but deep and resounding. My whole body seemed to hum along to the sound itself as I found my attention once again ensnared by Jasper in his entirety.

Dios mios, what the fuck is going on with me? My attention "ensnared"? "Melodic Laughter"? When have I ever?!

"My name, ma'am, is Jasper Hale-Cullen, but I prefer Jasper Hale"

"huh? Oh! I missed that, well I'm Anita Rodriguez. You said Hale? Like Rosalie Hale? She's in my AP physics class"

"She's my twin"

"Deadass?"

It slipped before I could stop it and I felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment. I've realized that not everyone is familiar with the way I talk here; I've been called aggressive so many times today it's not even funny.

"My bad, you can take the girl out of New York, but can't take New York out the girl, apparently, I meant to say really, but not that I was really questioning it. I mean, I have a twin too, we're fraternal and he's lives in Florida with our pops so, I don't doubt it, just surprised I guess"

I rambled, I deadass might as well just tell him my whole life story while I'm at it. I expected to see him annoyed or slightly put off, but I was surprised to see him- interested? Genuinely giving me his attention? Yessir.

"You don't have to apologize for who you are, darlin', ain't nothin' to be ashamed of"

I slammed my pen down dramatically, and turned my body to face him in a second as I dawned upon something crucial:

"Holy shit, you got a southern accent? Are you shitting me right now? I'm tryna focus here!"

"I'm sorry to hear that, ma'am, is there any way I can-"

"Stop, no, I did not sign up for this, we have an assignment due in fifteen minutes and we've only answered two questions. Question number three: when did the civil war officially end? Ok. I know General Lee surrendered in 1865, April...9th, but it says officially? As in when was it declared over? It couldn't have been that long after, because nobody else was able to replace him and the war was already nearing its end. It was definitely after April because General Johnston also surrendered his army the on the 26th. Sometime in May then?"

"May 9th, 1865"

My eyes snapped to him, but he was staring down at the paper with this...look on his face. It was different from that pained look he wore when I first saw him. No, this one was personal and as much as I wanted to, I didn't pry.

"Question four: how long have you been in Forks? My guess is a couple of months. Also. Why did the pilgrims come to America?"

And that's how my final class period went, playing twenty one questions with the hot blond who moved from Alaska two years ago, is the oldest son in his family, loves to play baseball with his family, is secretly a history nerd, has two sisters, and most importantly he's single. He visibly flinched at the mention of him being rumored to be dating his sister, Alice. He admitted that Alice was always just a sister to him, but she is the closest sibling to him in the house.

The teacher came around to each table, collecting the papers and quickly grading them with an answer key in hand. He quickly made his way down our flounder before finally reaching us and picking up our papers.

"I'm surprised to see you two got anything done with the amount of chit chat you were doing"

I couldn't find it in me to be bashful at the teacher's admonishment. We got the work done and managed to be a little more than cordial with each other, I don't see the problem. Realizing I wouldn't be able to give an appropriate response to him I kept my mouth shut and glanced at Jasper who didn't seem bothered by our teachers words.

"Well, I guess I can't complain too much see as you both got the highest marks in the class, but Jasper, next time allow Miss Rodriguez to pass or fail on her own"

My head snapped to attention as the class did that dramatic round of "oohs" and "aahs". Did this man just call me dumb? As in, Jasper next time let the woman learn her lesson?

On my MOTHER, I'm about to fucking violate this oompa lumpa, built like my granddad, forehead bigger than an NFL stadium, his wife left him after her signed the prenup, most likely on a sex offender list, little bitch.

"Aye, son, let me tell you something real quick-"

"Anita answered most of the questions on her own, Sir, she only referred to me when she was unsure, but she was never wrong and even gave detailed examples to support her claims, she did her part better than me"

It was like someone blew on the flame that had been ignited in my body only to light a new one. My anger disappeared and was replaced by pure appreciation for the boy next to me. He doesn't even know how he just saved me from violating this man. I mean, a second ago I was prepared to go in on our teacher and now I feel like I might faint from how fast my heart is pumping. Because the look on this god-like man's face is a giddy itself, he had straightened his posture when regarding our teacher so I was blessed to see his sculpted figure more clearly, he held his head high but his eyes were narrowed, daring the older man to deny the truth. He spoke so clearly, his voice holding so much conviction, and his drawl- oof that drawl. Bless up for me sitting, cause that drawl made my knees go weak. The teacher sputtered out a half-assed apology before making his way to the front of the room and announcing what we would be going over tomorrow.

I cleared my throat, straightening my back to give myself the motivation to say:

"T-thanks, Jasper, you didn't have to"

"But I did, you didn't deserve that. Besides, I was saw that look in your eyes darlin', I'm not about to lose such a great partner"

The bell rang and in a blur of movement Jasper had up and walked out of the classroom without another word. I stared at the space he occupied with an incredulous disbelief. Had that really just happened? I noticed that I wasn't the only one wondering the same thing, as kids passed by us, I caught end of what many of them were saying.

And it wasn't all that good, but fuck did I care for? I just got the hottest boy in school to talk to me and he was actually nice back!