Jasper stretches his long arms as the sun from the window hits his face. He grabs his phone from the nightstand to see a message and the time 7:58 AM across the screen. After another stretch, he slowly gets out of bed and shuffles out of his room, reading his message from Peter and hoping Esme will make him chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.

Hey, J. Tell Rose I said happy birthday. Did you get her those chocolate things she likes?

Jasper smiles as he types his response.

I will, man. My new foster dad gave me some money to get her a gift. Chocolates and a new sweater. She'll love it.

Where will she go now, though? She's 18. Peter texts back quickly.

They're letting her stay here as long as she's either working or in school. Jasper explains.

Once he hits send, he jogs down the steps, call for Esme

"Esme! Are you up? I could really go for some pancakes!"

Jasper strides into the kitchen, but falls short when he sees Esme. She faces the calender on the wall, her shoulders shaking slightly. Jasper pulls his brow together and walks over to her. He puts one hand on her shoulder, making her turn around to look at him. Her eyes are red and puffy, her cheeks blotchy.

"Oh, Jasper, I didn't hear you come down." She says, quickly wiping her teary eyes with the back of her hand. She steps around him and hurries towards the refrigerator. "Do you know what Rosalie would like for her birthday breakfast?"

"Why are you crying?" Jasper asks, ignoring her question.

"Oh no, I just have something in my eye."

"In both eyes?"

"What would Rose like?" She asks again.

"Her favorite are Belgian waffles." Jasper answers. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, honey. Why don't you go back upstairs and go back to sleep? I'll come wake you up when breakfast is ready." She tells him, spinning him around by his shoulders so he's facing out of the kitchen and giving his back a soft pat. Jasper walks away, but not without looking over his shoulder to see Esme wiping her eyes on a napkin.

Jasper sighs and returns back upstairs. His mind wonders as he tries to figure out what might be bugging Esme. He pushes his bedroom door open, but instead of going to his bed, he walks over to Edward's and shakes his shoulder gently.

"Edward, wake up. Esme's crying." Jasper says softly.

"Get on your side." Edward murmurs, still half asleep.

Jasper scowls and angrily leaves the room. He makes a point to slam the door. How could Edward not care that his mother is crying? Jasper's own mother couldn't give two shits about him and Rosalie, and Edward has an amazing mother who actually cares about him. Jasper would have loved it if his mother was more like Esme after Avery died, but he was out of luck. Stupid Edward and his ungrateful attitude...

Jasper walks across the hall to Emmett's room and raps his knuckles on the closed door and calls Emmett's name through it. He hears a mumble groan from inside, so he pushes the door open. Tries to open the door, anyways. It only opens half way until the pile of dirty laundry stops it. Jasper shimmies his way in and stretches his legs to try to step in the cleanest areas of the dirty room. He's only halfway towards Emmett's bed when he trips on an open text book and falls onto his hands and knees. The ruckus wakes Emmett and he quickly jumps to a sitting up position in his bed.

"Jasper? Dude, what are you doing in here?" Emmett asks with a yawn.

"Esme is crying. Edward doesn't care." Jasper explains.

"She's crying? Shit," Emmett moans. "She must have seen the calender."

"What's on the calender?" Jasper wonders out loud as he gets back to his feet.

"I'm having dinner with my biological parents this Saturday. She always over-reacts to it." He explains.

Jasper maneuvers throughout the room until he can plop down on the foot of Emmett's bed. He pulls his brow together, confused at what he's hearing.

"What's wrong with you and Edward?"Jasper questions angrily.

"Hmm?"

"Edward doesn't care that Esme's crying, and you're running off to have dinner with the parents who didn't even care enough to raise you."

"You're just like Mom." Emmett sighs, still rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. "Get out of my room, let me get dressed and I'll take care of Mom."

"Whatever," Jasper murmurs as he rises from the bed. "I don't get you two. If my parents were alive, I wouldn't be running around with someone who didn't give two shits about me."

"It's not like that, Jasper."

Jasper ignores him and tries to storm out, but he can't make a dramatic exit like he wants while dogging everything on Emmett's floor. With his jaw clenched, he returns to the kitchen. Esme smiles once she sees him. Her tears have dried up, but Jasper can still tell that she was upset. He puts one arm around her waist.

"Are you sure you're okay?" He ask again. She nods.

"I'm fine, honey. Thank you for asking." She says and raises up on her tip-toes to kiss him on the cheek. "Why don't you go find something to keep yourself occupied while I get breakfast going. What fruit do you want with it?"

"Strawberries."

"Okay, honey. Now go find something to do." She tells him again. He nods, but before leaving, he leans down and kisses her cheek.

"Thanks for taking care of me and Rosie."

Esme looks up at Jasper, her jaw slightly slacked at the unexpected thank you. She gives Jasper a genuine smile but her eyes fill with tears again. She pulls Jasper into a hug. He smiles, hugs her back and gives her another kiss, this time on the top of her head. Just as quickly as the words leave Jasper's mouth, tears escape from Esme's eyes and saturate Jasper's shirt. He holds her tighter as she lets out soft sobs.

"Goodness, Jasper, you're making me cry again!" Esme sniffles out. Jasper pulls away from her and wipes her tears away.

"Hey, stop that. No need to cry." He says with a little smile. She smiles back at him.

"You're the best, kiddo." She tells him. "Do you want to help me make breakfast?"

"Yeah, of course. As long as you quit that crying." Jasper negotiates, his southern draw thickening as he remembers how his father use to comfort his mother when she would get upset. Esme gives him another quick hug before instructing him to pull the strawberries out of the refrigerator. As he looks through the refrigerator for the plastic container of strawberries, he can't help but think that Avery would be proud of him.


"This is from me, Rose." Jasper says excitedly as he hands Rosalie a blue birthday bag. She smiles at the poorly placed red tissue paper at the top. Jasper has never been good at wrapping gifts, but that never stopped him from trying. Rosalie is just impressed that he actually used a gift bag instead of wrapping it in old newspaper or magazine pages. She pulls the first layer of tissue paper out to see three bags of chocolate truffles. Smiling, she pulls them out and thanks Jasper. He shoves the birthday bag back at her.

"No, no, there's more!" He insists.

Rosalie chuckles and pulls out the last layer of tissue paper to see a light blue v-neck sweater. She gasps as she pulls it out. Jasper smiles ear-to-ear as he watches her reaction.

"Thank you, Jazz. This is beautiful." She tells him. "I love it!"

"Good! I knew you would." Jasper responds happily. Rosalie hugs him, telling him thank you again.

When the siblings pull away, Carlisle passes a wide box to Rosalie, explaining that it is from the whole family to her. She smiles at the perfectly wrapped package. The pink paper is neatly folded and taped with a big white ribbon secured on it. It's pretty, but she still likes Jasper's better. She gently tears the paper away from the box and her jaw drops when she sees the picture of a laptop taped to the front of the box. She looks at Carlisle and Esme in pure disbelief, getting chuckles from the two.

"Is this seriously mine?" Rosalie asks.

"Yes, it's seriously yours." Carlisle laughs. "You'll need it for college."

"Oh my God, thank you so much!" Rosalie smiles and jumps to her feet. She hugs both Esme and Carlisle while rapidly thanking them.

Jasper's smile starts to fade. He glances at Edward and Emmett on the other end of the couch. The two of them smile at Rosalie. Jasper just can't forget about how they reacted when he told them Esme was crying. Neither one really cared. Emmett didn't even take care of it like he said he would. He just came downstairs and asked Esme if she was okay before he started digging into the waffles. Esme told Emmett she was fine, but Jasper could tell it wasn't. Emmett didn't even bother to notice if she was really upset or not. And Edward didn't even pretend to care. They obviously don't know what it's like not to have a good mother. Esme does everything for them, but the couldn't give a shit about it.

"Aw, I didn't get a nice compute for my birthday!" Alice whines dramatically. Jasper chuckles, leans back in his seat at pus an arm around Alice's shoulders.

"Aw, poor thing." Carlisle whines back mockingly once Rosalie releases him and Esme. Rosalie sits back down, happily reading the features of her new laptop printed on the box. "Why don't you just, you know, ask your own parents for a computer?"

"They're not as cool as you." She pouts.

"Maybe it's because you're always here. They probably forgot that you still live there." Esme adds on with a chuckle.

"I got that same one last year for my birthday." Emmett says with a crooked smile. He slides into the small space between Rosalie and the couch. "I could help you set it up if you want."

"I'd like that." Rosalie smiles.

Soon, the gap between Rosalie and Jasper grows wider as the siblings snuggle closer to the people next to them. Edward sits in on the farthest end of the couch, away from the lovebirds. Esme and Carlisle watch from where they stand.

"Carlisle, I think we're in trouble." Esme says quietly. She grabs Carlisle's hand and leads him away from the five kids. "Do you see how they look at each other?"

"Unfortunately, yes. Those kids are going to be the death of us." He sighs dramatically.


"Alice, it's twelve-thirty." Esme sighs in the doorway of her and Carlisle's bedroom. Alice looks over at Esme from her spot on he couch between Jasper's legs, lifting her head off of his chest.

"Yeah?" Alice responds.

"So go home!" Carlisle calls from his room. Esme chuckles.

"Fine!" Alice groans. Jasper pulls his brow together and grabs Alice's hand when she stands.

"You're going?" He asks sadly. She nods.

"Walk me to the door." Alice demands.

"And then come right back in." Esme tells him. He huffs, but agrees.

Jasper keeps a hold of Alice's hand as the go towards the door. Alice stands on her tip-toes to kiss Jasper's sad lips.

"Meet me in my room once Esme and Carlisle fall asleep. My bedroom is the one with the pink curtains in the window." She whispers to him. "I picked up a little something at the drug store for us."

Jasper smiles and Alice pulls a receipt from her pocket and pushes it into Jasper's. He smiles and kisses Alice again.

"I'll see you in a few minutes then." He says happily, his mood shifting completely.

Alice's gives Jasper one last kiss before leaving. As she walks out the door, Jasper smacks her bottom. She throws him a flirty look over her shoulder before hopping down the front porch steps. Once Jasper shuts the front door, he pulls the receipt out. The only item printed on it are the words "TROJAN CONDOM". Jasper's smiles ear to ear and runs upstairs to grab his coat. He only pauses for a moment to pull his phone out of his pant pocket to check for a text message from Maria. Of course, there's not one. He rolls his eyes and feels the anger bubbling in his chest. Maria never cared for Rosalie, but Jasper would have thought she could have at least set her petty feelings aside and still text him. He pushes the phone back into his pocket and his anger away. He's had it with people and their attitudes. He has more important things to tend to anyways.

I'm sorry it's been so long since I last updated! I've been crazy busy so it's been hard to have time to sit down and write a full chapter. I may start breaking the chapters into smaller pieces so it's updated more regularly.

Anyways, please review and tell me what you think!