I woke up the next morning to the sound of my alarm clock and got ready for school. Once again, it was cold and rainy. Big surprise.
Downstairs, Elle was making pancakes, my absolute favorite breakfast. "Hey, Clumsy, what's shakin?" she asked.
Okay, I'll admit that was weird, but sometimes, that's just the way that Elle is.
"I'm so tired," I complained, then sat down at the kitchen table to eat my breakfast.
When I was finished, I walked into the front door area. I pulled my black Converse onto my feet and put on my jacket, then made a mad dash to my car.
I turned on my heat and sped off toward school, even though I was early. I flicked on the radio, and soft, melodic rock began to flow out of the speakers.
As I pulled into the parking lot, I scanned the rows of cars to find the black Jaguar. There it was, parked on the other side of the lot, along with the silver Volvo and red BMW. Jasper seemed to be immersed in a conversation with his siblings. I saw him glance back at me a few times. Ugh, I could tell already that this was going to be a good week, and I detested that.
The very second that I walked inside the school, I was greeted by Mike Newton's smiling face. "Hey, Alice!"
"Oh, hi Mike."
"Listen, I was gonna get the group together so that maybe we could hit the beach down at La Push or something. The weathers supposed to be nice, plus, I wanna go surfing."
"Oh, ah, yeah! Sure! That sounds great!"
"Okay, cool. We're all meeting in the parking lot behind my parent's store at around eleven-ish on Saturday."
"Cool, I'll be there." I said just as the first bell rang.
I walked over to my first class, which was French. I found it hard to pay attention. My mind was on Jasper the whole hour.
The hours ticked by until finally it was lunchtime. I sat with the usual group, but I found myself sneaking quick glimpses of Jasper as the lunch hour carried on. Then, when lunch ended, I headed eagerly off to biology. I was surprised to see that Jasper was waiting there for me.
"Hello, Alice!" he greeted. He seemed more cheerful then his usual depressed state.
"Hi, Jasper," I replied, pulling out my biology textbook.
The teacher started talking. I drowned it out. I already knew this stuff. We had learned it just before I left Phoenix.
School ticked by. I found it quite boring. I had pretty much zoned out in every class, thinking of Jasper and how nice he was being to me today.
Jasper had decided that, that day, he was going to walk me to my car when school ended. As we were walking, I decided to invite him to La Push on Saturday.
"Eh, I don't really like La Push that much, but thanks for the invite," he said.
I was crushed. But, what could I do?
The next day, Saturday, was the day that we were going to the beach. It was really cold out, but I didn't care. I was just glad that I was going to be getting out of the town for once.
I pulled into the parking lot at Newton's. Surely, the whole gang was there, wearing bathing suits under warm thermals and sweatshirts. it was only about forty-five to fifty degrees out, and it was just on the cusp of being spring time.
On top of Mike's Suburban were four surfboards. Mike hadn't been kidding after all. Mike spotted me as I got out of my car. I definitely wasn't dressed for the beach, for I had on rain boots, jeans, my warmest sweatshirt, and the thickest thermal that I owned.
Elle had been happy that I was going out today. She told me how she felt about leaving me home alone a lot, because of her job. I didn't care when I was alone. It gave me time to think about my future, which I had been doing alot of.
Mike waved to me as I joined the group. "Hey Alice!" greeted Angela.
"Hi!"
Mike clapped his hands together. "Well, everyone's here," he began. "Let's get in the car and go have ourselves a party down in La Push!"
He opened the passenger seat door for me. I climbed in, much to Jessica's dismay.
When we pulled up to the beach, Mike pulled all the way in, so that the side of his huge car was practically sitting on the beach. He climbed out first, then walked around the front of his Suburban to open the door to let me out. I could see Jessica pouting in the backseat. Why was Mike so blatant to her?
I had already opened the door by the time he came around. I was shocked by the cold air that blew in from the water. It really made a difference from inner Forks to the beach in La Push.
Mike seemed just a little bit offended by my independence of opening the door. I didn't mind. He should be following somebody who liked him, for instance, JESSICA!
He brushed it off though, and instead opened the door on the side. Jessica smiled as she popped out, and began to help him unhitch the surfboards that were tethered to the top of the car. One by one, they set them down on the sandy ground, then began to strip their outer layers and slip into the full-body wetsuits.
"Can you help me zip up, Mike?" Jessica asked in a flirty tone.
"Sure, Jessica," replied Mike, who seemed a little bit uncomfortable by this.
When everybody was all suited up, they started to grab surfboards. Then, a few tall, lanky boys strolled up to the scene. They didn't look like they were in Forks High. They had copper colored skin, with long, flowing, black hair.
"Hey!" spoke the tallest one. "I'm Sam. This is Jacob, Embry, and Quil. We heard that there was a get together, and we wondered if we could hang out with you."
"Surely!" Mike agreed. I knew that I recognized Jacob from somewhere.
Then, Jessica asked me a question. "Hey, Alice? Didn't you invite Jasper?"
"Yeah, but he had to be somewhere today," I replied, letting more disappointment slip into my voice then I should have allowed.
I saw Sam's face tense at this little fact. "The Cullen's don't come here," he snapped.
I backed off, but the one with the longest hair, Jacob, looked pretty gullible. I could definitely get it out of him, I thought to myself.
When all the Quileutes sat down, I stood up and sauntered over to Jacob. "Do you wanna go for a walk?" I asked.
The boy seemed more then eager. He stood immediately and followed me to where I was walking. "You're Elle's daughter, right?" he asked.
"Yeah, I am, actually. How did you know?" I asked.
"We used to throw mud at each other when we were little," he chuckled.
"Oh, yeah! I remember you!" I realized, then quickly drifted back onto topic. "So what did Sam mean? You know, about the Cullen's not coming here?"
"Oh, that? It's an old Quileute superstition. I don't believe it," he answered, shaking his head.
"Ooooh! Could you tell me?" I asked.
"I"m not really supposed to talk about it."
I batted my eyes. "Please?" I asked, trying to make my pupils bigger.
"Okay, fine," he agreed, "but you can't tell anyone!"
"I swear," I said gravely.
"Okay, so apparently, back when the tribe first formed, we're the descendants of wolves. Their our ancestors or something. So way back when, when my great-grandfather was the tribal leader, he stumbled upon 'cold ones'--Jacob put quotations around that--hunting animals in the woods. He took note of their yellow eyes, and knew immediately who they were. The Quileutes and the Cullens made a treaty, since the leader of the coven made such a point of saying that we could coexist. Now, we live in peace, but it still raises tension when they are around."
"The Cullen's just moved here from Alaska a few years ago. That's what I was told."
"Or, they just moved back...Okay, you gotta swear that you won't tell anyone that I told you," he said, taking on a completely different tone of voice.
I laughed. "Okay, I pinky-swear," I said, holding out my pinky. Jacob shook it.
"We should be getting back," he said.
I checked my watch. Sure enough, it was getting late. The group would be wondering where I was. "Sure," I said.
We turned and started running toward the get-together, watching the sun as it set over the water.
"Bella! Where have you been?" Mike asked protectively as I walked up to the camp with Jacob.
"Talking with Jacob," I replied nochalantly.
"Oh my God, you scared us," said Jessica. "We didn't know where you were!"
"Sorry," I apologized, then turned to Jacob. "Nice talking to ya."
"See you around," he said, then turned and walked away with his friends.
So that was what made the elusive Jasper Hale the way he was. I had considered several theories, but this was by far the most realistic one, not that vampires were realistic. But, after hearing Jacob's story, I was starting to believe that the tribal story was actually what happened. This was my lead, and I knew, deep down in the bottom of my heart, that this was true. The only thing was, my head didn't agree.
We all climbed into Mike's car. I let Jessica sit up front, which made Mike a little uneasy. We rode back to Forks, to the same meeting spot as this morning. I drove back to Elle's house, thinking about Jasper, and how my entire perspective had changed because of him and the story....
I hoped you enjoyed my latest chappy. School has been really crazy and I just haven't had time to write. I promise, a new chapter will be up this weekend or early next week at the latest!
Always, Animanga128