Authors Note: Hi everyone! I'm so sorry for my late update! Life has been rather hectic and painful recently but I haven't abandoned this story if ya'll would like for me to continue it. I hope you all like the update and are excited to read Willa and Jasper's first interaction! There are a lot of layers to Willa and Jaspers character so I hope this scene will be alright! I'll post a little note at the end of the chapter but until then, happy reading and know in your hearts that I will never be able to thank you all enough for reviewing, favoriting and following!

As this enigma-like stranger whispered those finishing words – my heart stuttered in paradoxical fear and felicity. Jasper. An addictive bewilderment glazed my eyes as he took the seat opposite mine, his eyes purposefully holding mine in some ghostly dance…as if it were almost a game to see who would break first. Licking away the dry shell coating my lips, my eyes slowly seeped into his – into that golden fiery abyss that rendered my heart a naïve little fool. How could he have known those words? I swam in his eyes, dived this way and that as I searched for those inky words. There are darkness's in life and there are lights, and you are one of those lights, the light of all lights.

"How…" I leaned forward with childish fascination – as if he were some fairytale writer that would share the secret to happy endings. "How did you know that?" Glee bit at my words as a wide and entranced smile bared my teeth. I had not met someone who could quote upon impulse like that in such a long time. Who could…my chest pressed against the wooden table as I bit my lip in anticipation.

"I ah," he paused, scratching the side of his nose and his pondered the notes of his answer. "I suppose I do a lot of reading." My smile withered slightly at the blandness of his answer. His voice was tight, strained as if it were an effort to reply. We hadn't spoken properly until this moment, and I suppose I now viewed that as both an unpleasant curse and relief. As through all the stares and unwanted heartbeats and thoughts and dances – some hope had conjured up inside me that he had the voice and vocabulary of a lyrical prince. A person that would satisfy my dreamer's pulse and make sense of these foreign emotions.

His answer had been simple – void of all my expectations yet… His words held a vague Texan twang to them, a twang that seemed purposefully restrained as if he was trying to conceal some secret. Feeling my eyes widen and an invisible detective hat and glasses dress my face, I quickly straightened my back and bit my lip as a helpless embarrassed puff of laughter broke the silence.

Shaking his head in an unreadable fashion, he bent down to retrieve his textbooks. Opening the history book – the spine loosening a stiff groan he said, "I think it might be best if we stay focused on learning history." His mouth closed in a straight firm line.

Swallowing my youthful behavior, I straightened my back and gave my best attempt to look studious. "History it is professor!" I chirped, hiding my trembling hands as they closed my copy of Dracula and retrieved my own history book, paper and pen. My fingers plucked up the blue pen – the tip kissing the blank paper and I waited for the lesson to commence.

"The two most important things to remember about Alexander's reasons for emancipating the serfs are first, his liberal education and –" As he spoke my eyes narrowed slightly at the sly twang that hide forcefully under his words.

"On my curious stars, where are you from Jasper Hale?" The words slid from me in some hypnotized and intrigued string – my eyes wide with un-checked fascination.

His eyebrows knitted together in a puzzlement that seemed almost foreign to him. I watched patiently as his mouth parted and closed – as if he wasn't sure of the right answer. His eyes slid down to his hands – solid and rough, fragile and gentle.

"I didn't have quite the same upbringing as my adopted siblings, ma'am – "

"Willa." I quickly corrected him in a gentle manner. From the shy stiffness of his words, I could tell that he wasn't used to talking to other's outside his family – that conversing with others almost seemed fearful, as if baring his vulnerability could shattering something dear within him.

"Willa." He repeated, his eyes flicking to mine in one graceful move – a motion that made me re-think my previous claim about him. I couldn't help but shake my head, shake it as his eyes wriggled inside me, caressing my bones lightly as my heart sang sweetly.

Gathering my courage, I reached forward and gave his clenched hand an encouraging squeeze – his skin tight and cold as an iced feather. "Now, now, you can't stop there after tickling my curiosity."

His militaristic manner cracked slightly as an involuntary crooked smile betrayed him. "You ask a lot of questions, Willa."

I rested my cheek on my cupped palm with intrigue. "My, my…you must be as poor at math's as I am! For I never realized two was many." My words were light and teasing as I smiled at him, my eyes lost deep within his as for once there was no escape nor excuse. He had me trapped, had my bewilderment quivering with a strange excitement. I saw the way others looked at him – those judging eyes that piercing every inch of skin that created him whole. There was a constant whispering about his appearance up and down hallways, but as I peeped into him, as he did into me – all I noticed, all I sought…was to unravel that tangled labyrinth within him.

Clearing his throat, his hands relaxed as they spread across the forgotten history pages. "Rosalie and I were born in Houston and before I…we, got adopted, we travelled. I suppose that lifestyle of constant moving maintained after being adopted." His expression became distant – serious as if some far away memory played on a screen in the corner of the room. "There isn't a single thing in this word that I have not seen." His smile was sad, broken and fragile like a twisted wing.

With hesitance, I reached out to him once more – yet this time, I was cautious and delicate. My fingertips brushed his, gently before they slowly slide over his fingers to rest in-between his knuckles. With my motions slow, I could feel the coolness of him, the raised jagged skin from violent memories that stained in the form of scars. I wanted to look at them, examine his memory painted skin but – my eyes could not leave his.

"I don't think that's true." I whispered, almost desperately as if I wanted to retrieve some hope and plant it in him. His eyes, they held such sadness, a sadness that reminded me of my own and I –

"Why's that?" He asked with genuine curiously. His hand paralyzed underneath my touch.

"Because no matter how many years an individual lives, the world is full of surprises. The older you become the harder they are to find but…but they are there. You just need to look harder." My fingertip traced tiny delicate circles in-between his knuckle, a fallen petal's kiss against the rough ground.

With his eyes peeping through his honey blond hair, I took in a deep breath and shared something I had once promised myself not to. But as I looked into Jasper, as I felt his touch and veins quiver – I knew that despite being strangers…we were similar. We knew of a pain that was reserved for the strongest, we knew divergence and we knew of isolation and what it meant to be lost.

"I know what it means to grow up in different places too. To be rootless and different and searching for some stranger to remove that protective mask that we wear and understand us. I've never known where I belong, what I'm meant for. I suppose ever since I can remember, I've always been fighting to be free, to escape from the horrors and restrictions that this world tether's us to. I know I come across as innocent – a naïve little fool and perhaps I am that but not innocent, no. I grew up in a poverty-stricken world – a world where inequality, death and violence raged through the streets and homes and skies. I've always tried to escape the atrocities I have seen, and I suppose my child-like nature…it protects me. I have had such intimacy with death, lost so many dear to me that…that I hold desperately onto my youth. I have always been sensitive and delicate inside, like a leaf against the breeze who keeps a strong exterior but on the inside, is…I know that we are only strangers and by jeepers you must think me a cuckoo for sharing so much but…when I look into your eyes…by my stars I swear I can see something in you that mirrors something in me. It does not take a wizard nor witch to tell that you are different but, I just…if I'm right, and if you may relate to some of what I am saying then…please know in your heart that if you need someone to talk to," I shrugged my shoulder upwards in a desperate gesture to seem casual, "then I'm always here. Despite how looney I must seem to you."

I wasn't sure what I expect from my small monologue, but I knew the moment I had said it…my heart became small and afraid – as if he now held its glass crust in his hands and was one movement away from shattering it. His eyes held me – held me whole as I tried to stop from trembling in front of him. I had never said what I just had to anyone, had never been so vulnerable and made myself so willingly fragile. I had always been fragile, delicate and sensitive but I never showed it, not to anyone but the stars and God's of isolation. I wanted him to say something, to say that he understood and I knew then that my monologue was not only to meant give him hope, to make him feel that he wasn't alone but, but it was also for myself. To give myself some thread of hope and understanding. I suddenly felt embarrassed, small as I looked away and moved my hand away from his. Was I so lost in myself that I had been imaging this possible connection? The air between us grew warm. Speak, please…I begged silently.

And finally, his lips parted and this sticky silence was broken. "The word is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes."

"Arthur Conan Doyle." I finished for him in an airy gasp as I tried to unravel the meaning behind that chosen quote.

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards before his controlled demeanor gathered his features and placed them in a controlled line. "I think it might be best if we stay focused on History," he paused, as if rethinking his sentence. His voice became gentler, more polite and free and secretive as his southern accent fully coated his words. "If it is alright?"

I nodded shyly, retreating inwards as my ears flared pink with embarrassment. We spent our remaining time together studying history – delving into the Russian Revolution until the sky darkened the moon slayed the sun.

As we silently packed our things away, one final questions escaped my lips.

"Would you find it intrusive of me if I were to ask you a question?" I asked. I was afraid that I had offended him early, fearful that I had burnt him in some invasive and impolite way. We had only just met yet; my mouth had run away with me - silenced my brain and let my heart control it. I shyly brushed my hair behind my ear as I waited for his response.

He seemed to ponder my proposal as he gathered his things. Standing, he shook his head as he towered over me – making me wish to sink into the ground until the earth truly enveloped me whole.

"Not at all." He replied.

Following his suit, I stood as well – my grip tightening on my books as I forced my eyes away from my shoes and up to his. He was a mountain to my single thread of grass.

"What –"my voice came out as a mere whisper. I cleared my throat to speak louder. "What fascinates you so about history?"

He took a single step closer to me, our breathes thickening in this figurative heat. I titled my head back, his height creating a shadow over mine. "I assume it is because I find it personal. We don't live in isolation from the past Willa, we are forever tethered to it." He paused, his eyes misting over as if he was recalling something. His eyes opened as his body angled to leave. "Some more than others."


"Sometimes me thinks 'what is a friend?' And then me say 'friend is someone to share the last cookie with.' 'Will you share these cookies with me Bella?" I tilted my neck back to look up into my cousin's eyes from where I sat in the trolley, my knees pulled up to my chest and a box of strawberry shortcake Oreos in my hands. It was six am when Bella and I realised we needed to gather ingredients for dinner, when we rushed out of the house with our aprons still on and flour woven into our hair.

It had been two days since Jasper and I's tutoring session, two days since he had cancelled our Friday tutoring session that if held would have just been finishing this minute. We had not spoken since that day, had not looked into each other's eyes as I attempted to hide from his bewildering presence. I still felt embarrassed, silly as I willingly avoided him and isolated myself in the wood at lunch time. I did not understand his reply to my speech, did not understand how I could have opened myself so widely and shed my painted skin that seemed brave and strong but was really just glass. I wrote to Fitz in my journal, how I wished for him to be here, how I longed for my mama and father…somewhere to belong. I knew who I was, I knew my morals and dreams and aspirations. At night, I would creep out of the house to shed that skin I wore during the day. I would play my violin and dance, dance and play until the music and art form drowned me completely and I was found once more, found by the stars, the music and dance.

Bella and I had just finished our first week of school, and as I looked up at my little cousin I couldn't have been prouder of her.

"Sometimes I really do think you are the younger one." Bella replied as she pushed the cart down the aisle. Yet just before we rounded the corner, I reached over and placed two more boxes of cookies into our cart. It was winter year, and as I always told myself…to keep warm it's alright to gain a little extra weight to ease the chill.

"Well as the forth Doctor says, 'what is the point of being grown up if you can't be childish somethings?"

Bella rolled her eyes in amusement. "Well for starters you'll be safer and there is a lot of calories in those so you should watch how many you eat."

"We only live once Bella, might as well live it in a way we like." I smiled up at her as we weaved our way through the different sections. The fresh aroma of apples and strawberries tingled my nostrils and I convinced Bella to make a quick detour to the fruit section before we paid for our purchases and drove back home.

"That was – that was nice." My cousin said contently as she pulled into our street, the mist creeping in as the moon flickered through its heavy fogginess. I smiled at her, my hand peeking out of the window to catch the droplets of rain and my knees were pulled up to my chest. "It felt normal."

"Normal?" I asked, slightly puzzled by what she meant.

"Back in Phoenix, I used to do the grocery shopping all the time so it's a familiar task." Bella stopped the truck just outside the house and fell back into her seat. She rested her hand against her forehead and gazed down at me with affection. "It's nice being just with you, just like old times."

My hand slipped back into the car and I pressed a wet fingertip to my forehead, "I," my finger moved to rest against my heart, 'love' I gently pressed my fingertip to her own forehead, 'you.' She caught my hand in hers and pressed my knuckles against her cheek.

"Me too." She whispered, just loud enough to pass over the rain. "I just – I just miss Phoenix." Her thumb ran over my knuckles and she was smiling a little, a small smile with a twist to it, just like a smile of someone who is determined not to cry.

Feeling her pain as if it was my own, I slipped my hand out of hers with a new-found determination. We both had turbulent weeks, both needed each other, needed an escape, something that broke the rules. Placing my hands on my knees I gave them a small drum with enthusiasm.

"Oki Doki, one douse of happiness it is." Bells gave me a weary look, but I gave her no time to ask questions. I quickly leapt out of the car and brought our groceries inside with a skip in my stride. I could hear the soft padding of Bella's footsteps behind me as she shuffled down the hallway. Before she found her way into the kitchen, I quickly popped open the bag of flour and scooped some up with my palm.

"Willa what are you –" The moment I saw her appear, I tossed the four straight at her. The four coated her pale skin, sticking to her loose strands of hair that fell from her messy ponytail. Her mouth parted in an air gasp and her eyes widened in shock. I took a single step backwards and smiled with mischief whilst biting my bottom lip. My hand grazed the edge of the flour bad as I watched my cousin's reaction. Anger glazed her eyes but it quickly faded to happiness as a cheeky grin twisted its way onto her lips.

I had no time to react before she snatched the flour bag out of my grasp and poured its entire contents onto my head. A gleeful scream escaped my lips and I hastily rubbed my eyes before she could pour anything else on me. My eyes burst open and I could see tiny particles of flour clinging to my eyelashes. Black and white shapes ghosted across my eyes but I could faintly see the sink. It was already filled with soapy water. With my hand, I quickly scooped up as much water as I could and splashed it into my cousin's face. She released a scream before opening the box of eggs, plucking one out and ran towards me.

I screamed happily and ran across the room, getting hit in the back with a wet, gooey substance. I skidded to a stop in the living room and fell to my knees, grabbing anything I could. A basket of freshly cleaned clothes was at my reach and in a quick motion, I gathered a handful of clothes and craned my neck over my shoulder to give Bella a playful grin mixed with giggles. One by one, I threw each item of clothing at her, giggling even harder when she freaked out at Charlie's underwear hitting her in the cheek. My chest vibrated with laugher.

Once I was out of clothing to throw, Bella picked them off the floor and chucked them back at me. I let out a scream and scrambled to the floor to hide behind the coach. As Bella threw clothes over the sofa, my fingers scuttled underneath the couch in hopes of finding something. When I felt my fingers graze something smooth, my smile widened and I pulled out an old bubble blower from when we were kids.

I placed it behind my back as I rose to my feet. Nibbling my lip, I said, "Okay, I give up. You win."

She looked at me with surprise, "really?"

"Nope!" I exclaimed and leaped over the couch to slip the contents on her. She grabbed my wrists and pried it from my grip - spilling its soapy contents on me whilst my mouth was open, and its contents flooded my mouth. I dropped to the floor, my fingers curling around the carpet as I gagged and spat out the soapy liquid. Bella, who was consumed with concern, dropped to her knees, pated my back and brushed my strands of flour, eggy and soapy hair out of my face.

I took advantage of this situation and once I finished gagging I ran my hands through my hair before placing it on her face and whipping its gooeyness all over her. She pushed me away and swivelled around to search for another weapon. With her attention no longer fixed on me, I leapt on her back, which sent us tumbling back down to ground.

We were both enveloped in a plague of giggles and mischief as we rolled around the floor trying to tickle one another. To my misfortune, Bella wasn't as ticklish as I. My eyes were squeezed shut and my chest swelled up and down in quick jittery movement as painful chuckles spilled from me. We were so consumed within this bubble of ecstasy and freedom that neither of us heard Charlie open the front door and walk into the mess we had created.

"Hey, hey, what's going on here?" At the sound of a voice dripping in anger and confusion, Bella rolled off me and we quickly gathered ourselves off the floor and attempted to look presentable. As we got up, Bella slipped on the carpet my hand catching her elbow to steady her.

"Hi Dad." Bella said calmly as she tried to regain her balance.

"Yeah hi." Charlie responded and dropped his gun on the wooden table, the clash creating an echoing bang. "Want to tell me what's going on?"

Neither of us had an adequate answer, nor wanted to reveal the complicated truth that underpinned our desire for such an activity. An awkward silence coated the room as neither Bella nor I spoke.

"Look," Charlie crossed his arms tightly over his chest – and I knew from the way his mouth quivered and eyes wondered that it was a feeble attempt to reclaim a strong fatherly status. Fatherly…my thoughts drifted to my mine, to the ghost and dreams of him that seemed to haunt and follow me through reality and fiction. Father…what that must be like to have.

"I know you girls are finding it difficult to adjust but next time you want to," he waved his arms at the mess as he searched for the word, "Do, uh, whatever it is you girls do, don't mess up the house. Clean this up." His voice was stern but his mannerism hesitant and uncertain.

As he left the room, I could see Bella's regret – her embarrassment pinches her nose red. She had told me her tales of Edward Cullen, of her emotions regarding being the new kid, of being alone and afraid and frustrated. I wished with all my heart that I could take those emotions away from her, that I could touch her hand and seep them into me for them to rot and wither. I wanted to protect her, to keep her safe and vanquish any negative feeling that poisoned her. But I knew she would never let me, and I knew that although painful…it would allow her to grow…I hope.

Hope.

I hoped that next week would go better.

That everything will be alright.

Everything will be alright.


Authors Note: Hi everyone! I hope that chapter was alright and I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks! I'll be posting review replies at the end of the next chapter as I am preparing for an exam! Yikies! But I would absolutely love to hear what you think of it, any suggestions, wishes, ideas and most importantly if you would like for me to continue! Thank you so much my beautiful readers! Until next time! :)

PS: Please review! I won't know if anyone would like for me to continue this story or not without it but please no hate as this year has been rather painful.