Yo. So I am SOOOO sorry about the long long wait! I have been unbelievably busy, and unfortunately, this story is at the bottom of mmy priority list at the moment. At the end there will be some responses to reviews :)
Be warned, this chapter may be a bit boring. Bear with me. I wanted to get the chapter out to you. Hopefully I will be able to get the next chapter out faster.
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The curser on the blank Word document blinked as Anouk bit her lip and stared at the screen, trying to start her Catcher in the Rye essay. It was odd, on Friday she had known exactly what she was going to write and had the whole thing outlined in her head and now she couldn't even think of the first sentence.
Anouk's door opened and she jumped as her mother popped her head in. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, sweetheart," her mother said kindly. "You've been rather jumpy this weekend."
"Have I?" she said softly, still watching the computer screen. She couldn't imagine why she would be jumpy . . . except for the fact that she almost got eaten by a vampire on Friday night. But how was she to explain that to her mother?
Her mother looked at her worriedly, but said nothing to acknowledge it. "I've made ravioli for dinner," she said, as if bribing Anouk to come downstairs. "It's your favorite, isn't it?"
"Thanks, Mom," Anouk said, forcing a smile at her mother. "But I have to finish this essay. It's due tomorrow."
"Oh," her mother said, defeated. "Well, I'll save you some. . ." she softly shut the door and Anouk heard her walk down the hall and down the stairs.
Anouk turned back to the screen. "You can come back in now," she said.
In a second Jasper was sitting on the desk next to her computer, watching Anouk as she picked at her nails.
"I can see you're working extraordinarily hard on that essay," he said after a moment of silence.
Anouk looked up at him and half-smiled. "I don't have anything to say about the book."
"You don't have anything to say, or you're distracted with something else . . . scared?" he asked seriously, and Anouk rolled her eyes. All weekend he had been worried about her and rarely left her side, as if she would start freaking out if she was alone.
Which she might've. She was still rather shaken up, after all.
Jasper got down off the desk in one smooth movement and kneeled down beside her. "Edward thinks that the vampire that you saw has some sort of ability to make people hallucinate."
"That's interesting," Anouk said, completely uninterested. Jasper raised an eyebrow at her. She sighed. "Sorry. It's just . . ." A movement outside her window caught her and Jasper's attention, and Anouk stared outside, " . . . stressful . . ." She stood up and walked towards the window slowly, holding her breath. Jasper was right behind her. She reached for the latch on the window but Jasper stopped her.
"Let me." Anouk looked at him for a moment and nodded. He slowly opened it and looked outside. Anouk stuck her head out as well, but all there was the tree that had always been there. Jasper sighed and they went back into the room, shutting and locking the window.
"Well, so far this year has been the weirdest one of my life," she sighed. She looked back to her bed. "I think I am going to go to sleep now."
"What about your essay?" Jasper asked, smirking.
"I can get an extension. I hope . . ." she looked at Jasper, smiling, admiring his features for the millionth time that hour. They were close . . . probably the closest they had been that night, and Anouk could hardly contain herself from jumping all over him (though she tried to keep that emotion under control).
She was surprised when he took a step closer to her. They stared at each other as her breath caught in her throat. "Goodnight," he said so quietly that she barely heard it. He brought his hand to her face and pushed a piece of her hair out of the way before slowly tracing his hand to her neck and holding it there gently. Anouk leaned her head back a bit, almost so he was supporting her head with his hand, and Anouk struggled to keep her legs from collapsing. Without looking away, Jasper brought his face closer and closer and Anouk's breaths came faster and faster.
Just as their lips almost touched, Jasper dropped his hand and looked away, clearing his throat. Anouk looked away as well, taking a step back, trying to breathe normally.
Jasper nodded and went to open the window. "You could stay," Anouk said barely above a whisper.
Jasper looked at her and smiled slightly. "I shouldn't though."
Without looking at Jasper, Anouk nodded and climbed into her bed, lying down on her side to sleep, though all the lights were still on, and the computer screen was glowing brightly. Jasper chuckled slightly and walked smoothly to the light switch and turned it off, as well as the computer.
"I'll see you tomorrow," he said, walking past her bed to the window yet again. "Sleep well."
"'Night," Anouk said softly, and Jasper was gone.
-.-.-.-
The Cullens were as awake as always, and calmly reading, writing, playing piano or video games as they always did when it came night. Jasper didn't feel much like talking to anyone right at the moment so he swiftly walked up the stairs and into his room.
Unfortunately, he wasn't going to get the solitude he wanted at the moment. Sitting on his couch was Alice, crossed-legged and smiling, though not as widely as she would have usually.
"Welcome home, stranger," she said happily. "I feel as if I've hardly seen you at all!"
Jasper half smiled and sat down beside her, saying nothing.
"How is she?" Alice asked quietly.
"She . . ." jasper began, trying to think of what to say, "She wants me to think she's not bothered at all."
"Which you know isn't true . . ." Alice added. Jasper sighed and nodded.
"She's scared."
"Of course she is," Alice said, rolling her eyes.
Jasper looked at Alice seriously. Alice was probably the only person he would ask in the house for advice, besides Carlisle, considering he was the closest to her a knew she wouldn't judge him for anything. "What do I do?"
Alice rolled her eyes again and stood up, walking over to a shelf and looking at the different things Jasper had placed on it. "Well, you can control her emotions."
Jasper shook his head. "Yes, but what happens when I can't be around her, like when we go to separate to go to class . . . The anxiety will just come back. Maybe even stronger."
"Okay . . ." Alice said, thinking and facing him with one hand on her hip. "Well, what would you do to comfort me?"
Jasper studied her face for a moment before answering. "I don't know . . . give you a hug?" Jasper saw Alice's face and cut her off before she could suggest it. "Alice, I can't. I could lose control and bite her."
Alice smiled and sat back down next to Jasper, but flung her legs over his lap and laid down. She sighed and propped her head up. "It's not like her blood is going to be pouring out. It would just be the same as when you have to be sitting in the car with her." Jasper raised his eyebrow and looked at Alice skeptically. She groaned and lay back down. "A hug is the least you could do. I think she's getting to the point where she wouldn't mind you taking a bite or two." Alice grinned.
Jasper rolled his eyes. "It's not funny, Alice," he said, though he couldn't stop a small smile.
-.-.-.-.-
School was nothing particularly special for Anouk. Her English teacher had agreed to give her an extension, though her grade would suffer a little. She could deal with that. Her classes seemed to go by extra slowly today, and Anouk couldn't wait for lunch so that she could take a break from pretending to listen to her teachers droning on and on about nothing important.
When the bell rang, Anouk sighed, and made her way to he cafeteria. When she arrived, it was already almost completely full, which was to be expected considering her class was the farthest away from the cafeteria as it could be.
She stood in the doorway for a moment, watching everyone buzz about, before making her way to her usual table to meet Georgina and the rest. She smiled at them, though all of them were looking at their trays of food, silently. Anouk shook it off, and went to pull out the only empty chair at the table, next to Georgina.
Georgina, however, propped her feet on the seat so that Anouk couldn't sit there. They locked eyes. "Sorry, that seat's taken," Georgina said sweetly, though there was a bite to her tone.
Anouk's mouth twitched into a confused smile and narrowed her eyes at Georgina. "For whom?" Anouk asked.
"For someone who isn't you." All the sweetness was gone from her voice now, and she was looking at Anouk with a frown.
Anouk glanced over to the Cullen's' table, and locked eyes with Jasper. She could feel the shocked expression on her face. She looked back at Georgina. "What's your problem?" she asked lowly.
"I would ask you the same thing, but you're to good to tell us about it, anyway, right?" Georgina said, icily, staring at Anouk with a small smirk. Anouk's mouth hung open at her rudeness.
"What are you talking about?" she said, astonished at her friend's behavior. Everyone else at the table was watching the conversation between the two.
" 'Oh, there's nothing going on between me and Jasper,'" Georgina said, pretending to be Anouk. She glared at Anouk and chuckled darkly. "Yeah, right."
Anouk looked at her friend with wide eyes, desperate to defend herself. "When you asked, there wasn't," Anouk said, looking at only Georgina. "I don't see how that's any of your business, anyhow."
Georgina leaned forward towards Anouk and said quietly so that just she could hear, "Was there something going on when you went out with Jared on Saturday?"
Anouk frowned and looked at Jasper again. Now Alice and Emmett were watching as well. Anouk shook her head slightly and folded her arms across her chest.
"Why didn't you tell us, Anouk?" Jessica said, hurt.
"Yeah," agreed the others.
Anouk opened her mouth, but Georgina spoke first. "Like I said, it's because she thinks she's too good to tell us common folk about her life, divine as it is."
Every word that came out of Georgina's mouth was dripping was sarcasm, and she smirked, satisfied, at Anouk. "That's not true," was the only thing Anouk could say. She couldn't believe the way they, her friends, were acting. She looked at them pleadingly, but all of them were picking at their food or at something in their lap, except, of course, Georgina who was smiling satisfied at Anouk. Anouk was sure she felt her face heat up in an instant, and was positive they she had turned red now, though she tried to seem calm. "You guys have been my friends for years. Why—"
"If we were really your friends, then why wouldn't you tell us?" Jessica said, looking hurt. Anouk was outraged that everyone would be so stupid as to listen to Georgina, but Anouk didn't say anything.
Anouk stood and looked at the faces of each of her friends, silently. None of them spoke and only a couple dared to make eye contact. How could they treat her like this when Anouk has always been so nice to them? She scoffed. She was better than them. She would never behave so childishly because Anouk didn't tell them something. She knew it was just Georgina and her jealousy, trying to make herself feel a little better than Anouk by convincing everyone to hate her.
With that final thought she smiled tightly at Georgina, who smirked and raised an eyebrow, and walked away. She walked right passed the Cullen's table, only glancing at Jasper, and outside towards the trees. When she was about twenty feet away she threw her folder angrily, causing all the papers inside to fly about.
"Anouk?" Anouk turned to Jasper, smiling in spite of herself. She rolled her eyes and shook her head as she thought about what had just happened again.
"I can't believe her! Can you believe her?!" she said, flushing with anger.
"She's jealous," he said picking up some papers off the ground.
"As if I didn't know that," Anouk snapped before sighing and kneeling to the wet ground to pick up the rest of her papers. She stood at the same time Jasper did, and he handed her the papers he had collected. She offered him a small smile. She took a deep breath before turning in the opposite direction and head towards the trees surrounding the school.
"Anouk . . . school's that way," Jasper said, amused. Anouk looked over her shoulder at him and smiled mischievously. She motioned for him to join her. Shaking his head in amusement, he obliged.
Together they walked into the woods, silently, deeper and deeper until Anouk stopped in front of a large tree with many branches. Without a word, she hoisted herself up into the tree. Jasper followed just as silently, though he was much more smooth with the movement than Anouk was.
The climbed up several branches, until Anouk seemed to find a comfortable spot to sit, and Jasper sat down on the branch next to her. He sensed her aggravation.
"Just forget about Georgina," he said, finally breaking the silence. Anouk sighed at looked at him with raised eyebrows.
"We've been friends since fifth grade," she said skeptically. Jasper shrugged. Anouk bit her lip and looked away. "You know, it's not like I ever really fit in with them anyway. They were just there, you know . . . so we started hanging out . . . and then got to calling each other 'friends'. But . . . I mean, we aren't that close . . . well, we couldn't be, could we? considering I wasn't comfortable even telling them that you and me were, you know, 'hanging out'." Jasper nodded in agreement. "And I mean," she continued, trying to find ways to make this 'disagreement' with her 'friends' seem like no big deal, "obviously they aren't really good friends, for them to just believe something like that, and listen to Georgina, or whatever. And Georgina just gets so jealous of everything. It's annoying."
She sighed again, and smiled at Jasper. "I'm better off without them, huh?"
Jasper smiled encouragingly. He didn't want to agree with her completely, just in case her friends did come to their senses and apologize.
Silence settled over the two again. Jasper half wondered why Anouk wasn't afraid, coming into the woods, but he didn't want to bring it up. She was obviously distracted.
They heard the school bell ring for lunch to end, and they decided that they should probably head back so that they weren't late. Together they walked back through the trees and into the school, casting side-glances at each other the whole way.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Everything was a blur except one spot on the wall as Anouk turned and turned and turned. She felt someone grab her waist firmly, and she stopped turning before bending her knees and lifting into the air above her partner's head. Her back arched and her arms hung limply, yet gracefully above her head. In another second, her feet were firmly back on the ground. Her toes barely had a millisecond's rest, though, before she was back on Pointe, one leg up in an attitude position.
"Okay, good job, Anouk," Madame Rose said and Anouk and her partner relaxed. "Why don't you take a break, hmm?"
Anouk took a breath and nodded, walking towards the wall to sit down. There were a lot of people at the studio today, because Madame Rose's friends from a studio in Seattle had come to teach a couple classes. Anouk was excited; very rarely was she able to work with a partner because there were very few guys in Forks that were interested in ballet.
One look from Georgina across the room was enough to transform all that excitement into anger. She sipped water out of a plastic water bottle. Georgina and her glared at each other, before Georgina smirked and kept dancing.
"Anouk," a voice said softly from beside her. Anouk turned to look at the speaker, her instructor, Madame Rose was watching her with a kind smile, yet worried eyes. "Are you alright?"
"Yes. Fine, why?" Anouk asked, trying to sound pleasant. "Aren't I doing alright?" she added, slightly disappointed.
"Oh, yes, yes," Madame Rose said quickly, "You're doing great, Anouk, really terrific, as always! It's just . . ." she paused and Anouk blinked a couple times. "Well, you aren't putting as much emotion into it as before . . . I don't see the same passion that I usually do."
Madame Rose was old, but she looked very good for her age. Though she had wrinkles, her grey eyes twinkled and she had a bright smile. She could be strict though, when she wanted. Her thin frame didn't make her look fragile in the least; in fact, her muscle was clearly evident, though not outstanding. Her graying hair was always pulled up tightly into a bun, without a single stray hair out of place, unlike Anouk's, in which case she had strands falling about her face and pieces sticking out of her bun.
"Don't you enjoy dancing anymore?" Madame Rose asked sadly.
Anouk straightened up. "Of course I do, Madame!" she assured. "It's only that I've had a long day. A long couple of days, actually . . ."
"Maybe you should just go home for the night . . . relax a bit?"
Anouk sighed and glanced at Georgina, who was spinning perfectly in a pirouette. Madame Rose wasn't going to ask her to leave, and Anouk felt as if she had to stay and prove to Georgina that she was still better than her.
While Anouk watched Georgina, Madame Rose spoke again. "Listen, I wouldn't have said anything, usually. But Julliard is offering a summer semester there for a select group of prospective students. It's under a full scholarship, and would almost guarantee you an acceptance to the school next year. I have hopes that you would be selected . . . I hope you don't mind that I took the initiative to suggest your name as well as several other students of mine."
Anouk looked at her teacher with wide eyes. Madame Rose watched her, waiting for a response. Anouk shook herself out of the shock. "No, I don't mind . . ." she said slowly.
"Are you interested?"
"Of course!" Anouk answered quickly. She grinned at her teacher. "Who else is up for it?"
"Georgina and Helena." Anouk felt her smile falter at the mention of Georgina, but she quickly replaced it. "People are going to come to see who should be accepted . . . I'll let you know when. But for now, why don't you head home and rest."
Anouk really didn't want to leave now. She wanted to practice and practice until she was guaranteed that spot. Or at least beat Georgina to it. But she knew better than to ignore her instructor's wishes. She nodded and reached down to her feet, untying and slipping off her shoes before replacing them with boots, and, not bothering to change her clothes, walked out of the studio and to her house where she plopped into her bed and fell asleep almost immediately.
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: A couple things. Firstly, I agree that a lot of romances rush into the relationships, and I was definitely trying to avoid that! I am glad I succeeded so far. Secondly, trust me, it won't be like Twilight. That was something I was trying to avoid too; writing the same story with different names. As for the name Anouk . . . Well, Anouk is a French name . . . and Anouk is French, which hasn't really been mentioned in the story yet, but will be, and I have always liked the name and thought is was beautiful and, like you said, different. I suppose I chose it because I wanted her to stand out in subtle ways . . . after all, one must stand out to attract a vampire, right? But mostly I just liked the name :)
diehardTWIhard: I'm glad you like the story! I think long chapters will be the death of me . . . I always write so much and put so much detail, I actually have to cut the chapters' length down a bit!
Caleb's babe: I am glad you picked up on the tension : ) it was the effect I was going for.