Disclaimer. All publicly recognizable characters, settings etc., are the property of their respective owners. The original characters, ideas and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Chapter 2: At First Sight

(Natalie's POV)

Thick fog was all I could see out my window in the morning, and I could feel the claustrophobia creeping up on me. You could never see the sky here; it was like a cage.

Breakfast with Charlie and Bella was a quiet event. He wished us good luck at school and we thanked him, knowing his hope was wasted. Good luck tended to avoid us.

Charlie left first, off to the police station that was his wife and family. After he left, we sat at the old square oak table in two of the three mismatched chairs and, while Bella finished her cereal, I examined the small kitchen, with its dark paneled walls, bright yellow cabinets, and white linoleum floor.

Nothing was changed. My mother had painted the cabinets eighteen years ago in an attempt to bring some sunshine into the house. Over the small fireplace in the adjoining handkerchief-sized family room was a row of pictures. First a wedding picture of Charlie and Renee in Las Vegas, then one of the four of us in the hospital after Bella and I were born, taken by a helpful nurse, followed by the procession of our school pictures up to last year's. Those were embarrassing to look at – I would have to see what I could do to get Charlie to put them somewhere else, at least while I was living here.

It was impossible, being in this house, not to realize that Charlie had never gotten over my mom. It made me uncomfortable.

I didn't want to be too early to school, but I couldn't stay in the house any longer. I donned my jean jacket, handed Bella her parka and headed out into the rain.

It was just drizzling still, not enough to soak me through immediately as Bella reached for the house key that was always hidden under the eaves by the door, and locked up. The sloshing of my new waterproof boots was unnerving. I missed the normal crunch of gravel as I walked.

I didn't have time to pause and admire our new truck again as I'd wanted; I was in a hurry to get out of the misty wet that swirled around my head and clung to my hair under the hood attached to the zipper-up hoodie I wore under my jean jacket.

Inside the truck, it was nice and dry. Either Billy or Charlie had obviously cleaned it up, but the tan upholstered seats still smelled faintly of tobacco, gasoline, and peppermint.

Bella started the car and the engine started quickly, to my relief, but loudly roaring to life and then idling at top volume. Well, a truck this old was bound to have a flaw. The antique radio worked, a plus that I hadn't expected.

Finding the school wasn't difficult, though we'd never been there before. The school was, like most other things, just off the highway. It was not obvious that it was a school; only the sign, which declared it to be the Forks High School, made us stop. It looked like a collection of matching houses, built with maroon-colored bricks. There were so many trees and shrubs that I couldn't see its size at first.

Where was the feel of the institution? I wondered nostalgically. Where were the chain-link fences, the metal detectors?

We parked in front of the first building, which had a small sign over the door reading 'front office'. No one else was parked there, so I was sure it was off limits to students, but we decided that we would get directions inside instead of circling around in the rain like a pair of idiots.

I stepped unwillingly out of the toasty truck cab and waited for Bella to walk around to my side. We then walked down a little stone path lined with dark hedges. I took a deep breath before opening the door and holding it open for Bella before I entered in behind her.

Inside, it was brightly lit and warmer than I'd hoped. The office was small; a little waiting area with padded folding chairs, orange-flecked commercial carpet, notices and awards cluttering the walls, a big clock ticking loudly on the wall. Plants grew everywhere in the large plastic pots, as if there wasn't enough greenery outside already. The room was cut in half by a long counter cluttered with wire baskets full of papers and brightly colored flyers taped to its front. There were three desks behind the counter, one of which was manned by a large, red-haired woman wearing glasses. She was wearing a yellow t-shirt, which had a cougar on the front along with the school's name.

The red-haired woman looked up.

"Can I help you girls?"

"Yeah, I'm Natalie Swan and this is my sister, Isabella," I informed her, and saw the immediate awareness light her eyes. We were expected, a topic of gossip no doubt. Daughters of the Chief's flighty ex-wife, come home at last.

"Of course," she said. She dug through a precariously stacked pile of documents on her desk until she found what she was looking for. "I have both of your schedules right here, and a map of the school for each of you. The highlighted routes are the emergency exits, and this is a slip that I need each of your teachers sign. You can return it to me at the end of the day."

She brought two manila folders onto the counter and went through the material inside. She also went through all of our classes with us before handing over the rest of our paperwork. She smiled at us and hoped, like Charlie, that we would like it here in Forks. We both smiled back as convincingly as we could.

When we went back out to our truck, other students were just starting to arrive. We drove around the school, following the line of traffic. I was glad to see that most of the cars were older, like ours, nothing too flashy. At home, we'd lived in one of the few lower-income neighborhoods that were included in the Paradise Valley School District. It was a common thing to see a new Mercedes or Porsche in the student lot. The nicest car here was a shiny silver Volvo, and it still stood out.

Bella cut the engine as soon as we were parked in a spot so that its thunderous volume wouldn't draw attention to us. Bella was a lot like me in that aspect, never wanting to be in the spotlight, happy to see others get the attention instead.

I held the map in between the two of us, trying to memorize it now; hopefully I wouldn't have to walk around with it stuck in front of my nose all day.

I stuffed everything into my bag, slung the strap over my shoulder, and sucked in a huge breath. I can do this, I lied to myself feebly. I finally exhaled and stepped out of the truck.

I pushed my hood down off of my head and walked up to the sidewalk crowded with teenagers. I figured that I would let them get their fill now so that I wouldn't have to put up with the staring all day long as they tried to get a look at one of the new girls. Bella, however, didn't think the same way, because she kept her face pulled back into her coat as she walked. My jean jacket didn't stand out, nor did Bella's black parka, I noticed with relief. The last thing we needed was a big sign on our backs that said 'look at me'!.

We stopped in the middle of the courtyard and pulled out our schedules again. We noticed that we had a few of the same classes, except for some of the AP classes that I was taking rather than the honors courses that Bella was signed up for.

We were both relieved that we had the same first period class and began to make our way around what looked to be the cafeteria. Building three was easy enough to spot as it had a large black number '3' painted over a white square on the east corner. I could hear Bella's breathing gradually creeping toward hyperventilation as we approached the door. I casually bumped her shoulder to get her attention and smiled reassuringly at her. She returned the smile and seemed to calm down, holding her breath as we followed two unisex raincoats through the door.

The classroom was small. The people in front of us stopped just inside the door to hang up their coats on a long row of hooks. There were two girls, one a porcelain colored blonde, the other also pale, with light brown hair. At least our skin wouldn't stand out here. We copied them and straightened out our clothes before making our way into the class.

We brought our slips to be signed by the teacher, a tall balding man whose desk had a nameplate identifying him as Mr. Mason. He gawked at us when he saw our names – not an encouraging response – and, of course, my cheeks began to flush at the attention. At least he sent us to some empty seats at the back without introducing us to the class. It was harder for our new classmates to stare at us in the back row, but somehow, they managed.

I busied myself with getting my desk organized while Bella kept her eyes down on the reading list the teacher had given us. I had looked over it on my way to my desk and noticed that it was fairly basic: Bronte, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Faulkner. Bella and I had both already read everything. That was comforting… and boring. I wondered if my mom would send us our folders of old essays, or if she would think that was cheating. I assumed that it would be the latter and I went through different arguments with her in my head while the teacher droned on.

When the bell rang, a nasal buzzing sound, a gangly boy with skin problems and hair black as an oil slick leaned across the aisle to talk to me.

"You're Natalie or Isabella, right?" He looked like the overly helpful, chess club type.

"I'm Natalie and this is my sister, Bella." I corrected him. Everyone within a three-seat radius turned to look at us.

"Oh, ok. Well, where's your next class?" he asked.

"Um," I had to check the schedule in my bag. "I have AP history with Mr. Garner in building five. What about you, Bella?"

"Government with Jefferson, in building six."

There was nowhere to look without meeting curious eyes.

"I'm headed toward building four, I could show you ladies the way…" Definitely over-helpful. "I'm Eric," he added, and I smiled tentatively.

"Thanks," Bella said.

We got our jackets and headed out into the rain, which had picked up. I could have sworn several people behind us were walking close enough to eavesdrop. I hoped I wasn't getting paranoid.

"So, this is a lot different than Phoenix, huh?" He asked us.

"Very," I agreed.

"It doesn't rain much there, does it?"

"Only three or four times a year." Bella confirmed.

"Wow, what that must be like?" he wondered.

"Sunny," I told him with a wistful smile.

"You girls don't look very tan."

"Our mother is part albino." Bella answered.

"Bella!" I chastised her, and gently elbowed her, smirking. "No, she's not. We're just naturally pale." I clarified.

He studied Bella's face apprehensively, and she sighed, meeting my eyes in slight exasperation. It looked like clouds and a sense of humor didn't mix.

We walked back around the cafeteria, to the south building by the gym. Eric and Bella walked me right to my door, though it was clearly marked.

"Well, good luck," he said as I touched the handle. "Maybe we'll have some other classes together." He sounded hopeful.

I smiled at him vaguely and waved at Bella before I went inside.

I went over to Mr. Garner and handed him my slip. He looked up at me and smiled before signing the slip and handing it back to me with a textbook and got the class's attention. Dread filled me as I knew what was going to happen next.

"Attention class," He said, quieting the class down. "We have a new student joining us today. This is Natalie Swan," he gestured at me, "She moved here all the way from Phoenix, Arizona." He turned his attention to me. "Natalie, why don't you tell us something about yourself?"

I hesitantly stepped forward, playing with a ring on my right hand as I held my book and spoke.

"Hi, I'm Natalie Swan. Like he said, I moved here from Phoenix with my sister to live with my Dad. She started here today too. Um, that's really it, I guess." I shrugged.

"Alright, Natalie, why don't you take that open seat in the back next to Mr. Hale." Mr. Garner instructed, gesturing at the back left corner at the only empty desk.

I immediately walked across the room and placed my books on top of the desk. I then dropped my bag down onto the floor behind me and pulled out my black pen, unwilling to make eye contact with anyone around me. Mr. Garner started his lesson and I copied the notes from the dry erase board.

About half way through the lesson, I still felt like I was being watched. Sure, I had been gawked at since I'd arrived at the school, but this felt somehow different. I discreetly began to look around, not finding anything out of the ordinary until I met the dark eyes of the guy who was seated at the desk next to mine.

Good Lord, he was the most handsome man I had ever seen in my life! His curly honey-blonde hair fell into his face and he was pale with a well-defined body and a mouth that was oh-so tempting. Surprisingly, he didn't turn away, regardless of having been caught staring, but unabashedly kept his intense gaze on me. My heartbeat picked up its pace and pounded loudly in my ears. Time seemed to stand still and nothing or no one existed outside of the two of us. I had no recollection of the lesson that was being taught at the front of the class or the other students seated around us.

Suddenly, the bell rang, startling me as I jumped and nearly fell out of my seat, ending the staring contest I was participating in with my extremely handsome classmate. I felt the blood rush to my face in mortification at my display and quickly gathered my books to leave the classroom for Trig. To my utter humiliation, the same golden-haired guy was also in this class and, ironically, we were seated next to each other once again.

I kept my eyes glued to the teacher, unwilling to look at him in the face after what had just occurred during our last class. I had never before felt anything remotely similar to what I had just experienced when I'd looked him in the face for the first time. It was like gravity had shifted and I was continuously being pulled in his direction. A tugging sensation appeared to hit me squarely in the chest like a lasso pulling its noose tightly around my sternum. I did my best to ignore it - and him - for the rest of class, not wanting to look like an idiot with a staring problem.

Bella was in my Spanish class along with a girl we had just met, who later had walked with us to the canteen for lunch. She was tiny, several inches shorter than our five feet four inches, but her wild, curly, dark hair made up a lot of the difference between our heights. I couldn't remember her name, so I smiled and nodded as she prattled on about teachers and classes to Bella and I. I didn't try to keep up and it didn't appear that Bella was trying to either.

(Jasper's POV)

High school.

Or was purgatory a more accurate word? If there was somehow a way to atone for my many, many sins, this ought to count toward the tally in some measure. The tortuous flame that resides in my throat is never at its hottest then when the upper two grades all file into one poorly vented room and partake in their lunch.

I held my breath for several minutes, an attempt to dull the burn, even if only for a moment. It didn't help that my ability to feel and manipulate the emotions of others included the never ending thirst for human blood that my siblings and I constantly felt. It was like I was feeling my own thirst times four right now.

It was difficult for me in the beginning of my immortal existence to differentiate my feelings from those around me, but as the decades passed, it became easier. It helped that the human emotions were not as intense or as overpowering as a vampire's could become.

Today, the majority of the population seemed to be consumed with excitement and/or lust. It all centered around the arrival of the two new additions to our small student body. It took so little to work them all up. It was tiresomely predictable - like flashing a shiny object at a child. According to my brother, Edward, half the sheep-like males were already imagining themselves in love, just because they were something new to look at. I had my reasons for why I was participating in the frenzy, even if I wasn't outwardly showing it.

Natalie Swan was her name. As of today, I finally had a name to go with the beautiful face that had been playing on a loop in my thoughts for the past month straight. Alice had sketched a picture of her for me after she had foreseen the girls' arrival in Forks with her own supernatural ability to see the future. So she knew the important role the human girl would play in my life. I've kept it with me ever since.

"Breathe, Jasper. You're way too stiff." I heard Alice murmur quietly from my right side, reminding me to keep up the human facade we had to maintain in the public eye. Due to our aloft demeanor, we tended to draw a lot of curiosity.

Dreading my next breath, I released the one I was holding and inhaled, amplifying my thirst. Unlike the rest of my family, I struggled daily with my control. They continuously monitored me, worried that I wouldn't be able to withstand the temptation of human blood and snap. However, I couldn't fault their concern, having been the reason that the family had to suddenly pick up and move more times than the rest of them combined.

Edward had often wondered why it was necessary for us to experiment like this, believing it to be the safer path to just admit that I might never be able to handle my thirst the way the rest of the family could, and to not push my limits, flirting with disaster time and time again. I couldn't blame him, though. He was the one who had to regularly hear my thoughts as I struggled through each school day.

It had been two weeks since our last hunting trip. That was not an immensely difficult time span for the rest of my siblings. A little uncomfortable occasionally - if a human walked too close, or if the wind blew the wrong way. But humans rarely walked too close. Their instincts told them what their conscious minds would never understand: we were dangerous.

And I was very dangerous right now.

At that moment, as if to prove my point, a small girl paused at the end of the closest table to ours, stopping to talk to a friend. She tossed her short, sandy hair, running her fingers through it. The heaters blew her scent in our direction and I was immediately overwhelmed by her scent - the dry ache in my throat grew, along with the hollow yearn in my stomach, the automatic tightening of my muscles, the excess flow of venom filling my mouth...

My imagination was getting away from me as I began to picture it - picturing myself getting up from my seat next to Alice and Edward, and going to stand beside the small girl. I imagined leaning down and in, as if I were going to whisper in her ear, letting my lips touch the arch of her throat and how the hot flow of her pulse beneath her skin would feel under my mouth...

I felt Edward suddenly kick my chair, having witnessed my day dream right along with me due to his ability to read the minds of those nearby. I momentarily met his gaze, and then looked down, shame and rebellion warring in my head.

"Sorry," I muttered.

He shrugged.

"You weren't going to do anything," Alice murmured to me in an attempt to sooth my chagrin. "I could see that."

I could faintly sense her deception and fought back a grimace at the frustration I felt about having to be constantly babysat. After all, we had to stick together, the three of us. It wasn't easy, hearing voices, seeing the future or feeling other's emotions. The three of us were freaks among those who were already freaks.

"It helps a little if you think of them as people," Alice suggested, her high, musical voice too fast for human ears to understand, if any had been close enough to hear. "Her name is Whitney. She has a baby sister she adores. Her mother invited Esme to that garden party, do you remember?"

"I know who she is," I said curtly, and turned away to stare out one of the small windows that were spaced just under the eaves around the long room. My tone ended the conversation. I knew I would have to hunt tonight.

Alice sighed silently and stood, taking her tray of food - her props, as it were - with her and leaving me alone. She knew when I'd had enough of her encouragement. Due to the decades we had spent together as a couple in the past, and now as siblings, Alice and I knew each other's every mood as well as we did our own.

All of the sudden, my senses all came alive as the scent of lilacs and apples danced under my nose. The vice-like feeling that had developed in my chest eased some and I immediately knew she had to be near.

Natalie...

She was the one human who I knew could be bleeding right here in front of me and I would never harm her. Our bond had somehow warped her scent to have the opposite effect, soothing the burn and dimming the flame.

I discreetly searched the room until I landed on a crowded table across the room filled completely with several humans. I scanned each of their faces until I landed on a pair of bright blue eyes.

I was internally thrilled at the knowledge that I'd just caught her staring. She was just as curious about me as I was about her. I had to hold back a growl of excited contentment as she quickly looked away.

Mine! My whole body became tense and I clenched my fists under the table. I mentally screamed at her to look at me again, wanting more than anything to reestablish our connection.

I anxiously picked apart a piece of bagel on my tray, observing the occupants of the table out of my peripheral vision. She was seated at the 'popular table' with Jessica Stanley, Mike Newton, Angela Webber, Ben Chaney, Lauren Mallory, Eric Yorkie, Tyler Crowley and an unfamiliar brunette with similar facial features. I knew that this must be the other new student, Isabella Swan. Instead of her sister's blue eyes, she possessed a pair of wide, chocolate brown eyes set in the same pale, heart-shaped face. Her hair was a lighter shade of brown and she wore her hair straight, instead of the long loose curls Natalie favored.

"Jessica Stanley is giving the new Swan sisters all the dirty laundry on the Cullen clan," Edward murmured to us in slight amusement.

Emmett chuckled under his breath. "I hope she's making it good."

"Rather unimaginative, actually. Just the barest hint of scandal. Not an ounce of horror. I'm a little disappointed."

And Natalie? Was she disappointed in the gossip as well? I couldn't help but wonder, what did she see when she looked at us; the strange, chalky-skinned family that was universally avoided?

(Natalie's POV)

We sat at the end of a full table with several juniors, who the girl from Spanish quickly introduced us to. I forgot all their names as soon as she spoke them. They seemed impressed by her bravery in speaking to us. The boy from English, Eric, waved at me from the other end of the table.

It was there, sitting in the lunchroom, trying to make conversation with seven curious strangers that I finally saw them.

They were sitting in the corner of the canteen, as far away from where I sat as possible in the long, rectangular room. There were five of them. They weren't talking, and they weren't eating, though they each had a tray of untouched food that sat in front of them. They weren't gawking at us, unlike most of the other students, so it was safe to stare at them without fear of meeting an excessively interested pair of eyes. But it was none of these things that caught and held my attention.

The golden-haired boy from earlier was sitting amongst the beautiful strangers along with two other boys and girls. Of the three boys, one was big – muscled like a serious weight lifter, with dark, curly hair. The other was lanky, less bulky with untidy bronze-colored hair. And then there was him who was bulkier than the bronze haired boy, but not as buff as the dark, curly haired one. They all looked like they could be in college, or even teachers here rather than students.

The girls were opposites. The tall one was statuesque. She had a beautiful figure, the kind you saw on the cover of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, the kind that made every girl around her take a hit on her self-esteem just by being in the same room. Her hair was golden, gently waving to the middle of her back. The short girl was pixie-like, thin in the extreme, with small features. Her hair was a deep black color, cropped short and pointed in every direction.

And yet, they were all exactly alike. Every one of them was chalky pale, the palest of all the students living in this sunless town. They all had varying shades of golden eyes despite the range of their hair tones. All of their noses, all their features were straight, perfect, angular. They were all devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful. They were faces you'd never expect to see except perhaps on the airbrushed pages of a fashion magazine. Or painted by an old master as the face of an angel. It was hard to decide who was the most beautiful – maybe the perfect blond girl, or the honey-haired boy.

They were all looking away – away from each other, away from the other students, away from anything in particular as far as I could tell. As I watched, the small girl rose with her tray – unopened soda, unbitten apple – and walked away with a quick, graceful lope that belonged on a runway. I watched, amazed at her lithe dancer's steps, until she dumped her tray and glided through the back door, faster than I would have thought possible.

My eyes darted back to the others, just in time to see him turn to look at me. I quickly turned away, shifting slightly in my seat as he turned to look back down at his tray.

"Who are they?" Bella asked the girl from our Spanish class when she saw what, or who, I was staring at.

The girl looked up to see who she meant – though most likely had already figured it out from Bella's tone – when suddenly one of the boys looked at her, the thinner one, the boyish bronze-haired one, the youngest perhaps. He looked at the girl - I think her name was Jessica - for just a fraction of a second, and then his dark eyes flickered to Bella. He looked away quickly, more quickly than Bella could, though, in a flush of embarrassment, she dropped her eyes at once. In that brief flash of a glance, his face held nothing of interest – it was as if Jessica had called his name, and he'd looked up in involuntary response, already having decided not to answer.

Jessica giggled in embarrassment looking at the five striking strangers.

"That's Edward and Emmett Cullen, and Rosalie and Jasper Hale. The one who just left was Alice Cullen; they all live together with Dr. Cullen and his wife." She said this under her breath.

Strange, unpopular names, I thought. The kinds of names grandparents had. But maybe that was in vogue here – small town names? Jessica was a perfectly common name. There were two girls named Jessica in my History class back home.

I glanced sideways at Jasper, who was now looking at his tray, picking a bagel to pieces with his long, pale fingers. His mouth was moving very quickly, his perfect lips barely opening to speak. Two of them still looked away, while Edward seemed to be listening to what Jasper was saying.

"They are… very nice-looking." Bella struggled with the conspicuous understatement.

"Yes!" Jessica agreed with another giggle. "They're all together though, or Emmett and Rosalie are. Jasper and Alice split up last month. And they live together!" Her voice held all the shock and condemnation of the small town, I thought to myself critically. But if I was being honest, I had to admit that even in Phoenix, it would cause gossip.

"Which ones are the Cullen's?" Bella asked. "They don't look related…"

"Oh, they're not. Dr. Cullen is really young, in his twenties or early thirties. They're all adopted. The Hale's are brother and sister, twins – the blondes – and they're foster children."

"They look a little old to be foster children." Bella observed.

"They are now. Jasper and Rosalie are both eighteen, but they're in separate grades. They were supposed to be juniors, but Rosalie took a bunch of summer classes for extra credits so that she could graduate with Emmett. They've been with Mrs. Cullen since they were eight. She's their aunt or something like that."

"That's really kind of nice of them – taking in all those kids like that, when they're so young and everything." I said this with a small smile.

"I guess so," Jessica admitted reluctantly. I got the distinct impression that she didn't like the doctor and his wife for some reason. From the glances that she was throwing at their adopted children, I would presume the reason was due to jealousy. "I think that Mrs. Cullen can't have any kids, though," she added, as if that lessened their kindness.

Throughout the conversation, my eyes kept flickering again and again to the table where the strange family sat. I noticed that Bella would do the same thing, but the alluring quartet continued to look at the walls and not eat.

"Have they always lived in Forks?" I asked. Surely I would have noticed them on one of my summers here.

"No," she said in a voice that implied it should be obvious, even to a new arrival like me. "They just moved down here two years ago from somewhere in Alaska."

I felt a surge of pity, and relief. Pity because, as beautiful as they were, they were outsiders, clearly not accepted. Relief that Bella and I weren't the only newcomers here, and certainly not the most interesting by any standard.

As I examined them, Jasper looked up and met my gaze, this time with evident curiosity and longing in his expression. However, there was also something deeper...a hunger I couldn't describe that was hidden behind his eyes. I couldn't look away even if I wanted to.

"Which one is the boy with the reddish brown hair?" I heard Bella ask.

"That's Edward. He's gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him." She sniffed, a clear case of the sour grapes.

"Neither does Jasper," I heard another girl with a nasally voice say.

Jasper broke our staring contest to look at one of my neighbors – I'm guessing whoever it was that spoke. I found this very odd since we were too far away for him to have heard her.

I turned to look at the girl with the nasal voice and saw that she was a blonde girl with long straight hair. I think I remember Jessica introducing her to us as Lauren.

"I thought he just broke up with that Alice girl?" I asked, confused.

"Oh, he did, but since they broke up, almost every girl in school has asked him out. So I wouldn't waste your time on him either." She said snidely.

Another girl with glasses - who I was almost positive was named Angela and was in my Trig class - leaned in towards me and whispered, "They're just mad because they were both turned down; and not just once either. Lauren's had a long time crush on Jasper, even when he was dating Alice."

I bit my lip to hide my smile and then glanced up at the boy in question once again. His face was turned away, but his cheeks appeared to be lifted, as if he were smiling too.

After a few more minutes, the four of them all left the table together. On their way out, Jasper peered back over his shoulder at me and a look of pain seemed to pass over his features. He still had the same intense longing in his eyes that begged me to get up and follow after him. I almost had to hold on to my seat in order to stay put as they left the lunch room, each one more graceful than the next – even the big brawny one. It was unsettling to watch.

We sat at the table with Jessica and her friends longer than I would have if Bella and I had been sitting by ourselves. I was anxious not to be late for class on my first day.

Finally, Bella, Angela and I left the cafeteria together with Jessica. The rest of our tablemates trailed behind us before we split up and made our way to the last two classes of the day.

A/N: I added a good bit to this chapter, incase you haven't noticed a whole Jasper's POV that wasn't in the original story and rewrote some of Natalie's POV. Let me know what you think!?

If you have any questions or comments, post them in with the chapter's reviews and I will answer them in the next Author's Note at the bottom of the next chapter

Twilight-Survivor : Great to see you're back! Can't wait to read more of your stuff! This isn't one of my favorites of yours but at this point I'm just so excited to see you've returned that I don't care that it's not one of the stories I would've put my left tit up for auction for you to finish! (I'm a Jasper/Bella girl. I like Natalie but sadly, my obsession is pretty specific). My favorites of yours are: Perplexing Revelations Realidades Torcidas. Any chance you will be adding to either of those? (I'm still looking forward to reading this one, I'm still crossing my fingers (and toes) for one of my favorites.

Bella'Xo: I am not 100% sure exactly which ones I will be focusing on first, aside from this one. I might bring it down to a vote, but both of those stories (Preplexing Revelations Realidades Torcidas) are definitely in the running, along with the Dhampir series. Thank you so much for your support and for reading my stories and sticking with me! Xo