Hi, friends! Quick A/N today because I need to post this then get ready to go to my brother's new house for the night, which does not have wifi - so I wanted to make sure I gave y'all your scheduled update :)

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Chapter Four

Jasper

My siblings kept eyeing me on our way to school the next day, no doubt feeling the dread I tried and failed to contain. After the near slip the day before, the prospect of what might happen today worried me. I had every intention of resisting. My mind was in it. But I vividly remembered Isabella Swan's scent, and my instincts wanted me to do nothing but hunt her down and give in—

Edward coughed, pulling me away from the path my thoughts had taken. Again. He shook his head, not saying a word. He, and everyone else in the family besides Alice, had wanted me to take a day or so off from school before working on my control. I hadn't wanted to torture myself with stress over what was to come, though. I preferred to jump right in.

Perhaps it wasn't the most careful method, but it was the only way I could commit without the possibility of losing my nerve.

In the parking lot, we parked toward the edge of the lot, away from any more reasonable spots where the Swan girl was likely to park. It also gave me some distance from the mass of students milling about the school so I could brace myself for the day with fresh air. I didn't have any classes with the girl, so I likely wouldn't cross paths with her until lunch, but I wanted to be as cautious as possible.

"Are you sure about this?" Rosalie asked, watching me intently. Her emotions were uncertain, nervous. A tinge of worry laced the air. Whether that was actually worry for how I was doing or the outcome that would affect us all was unknown.

I nodded resolutely. I'd made my decision, now I needed to stand firm. No room for weakness. "Yes."

She didn't seem convinced, so I let her feel my newfound confidence. While I was at it, I gave a dose to Edward too since he seemed skeptical. "If you're sure," Edward said.

"I'm sure." Not even Edward could argue with my certainty.

"Great, now let's go before you guys freak him out," Alice said, taking my hand and tugging me toward the buildings. My lips twitched—she knew as well as I that once I was determined to achieve something I wouldn't give up. Even if my siblings doubted me; I'd simply have to prove them wrong. "You'll do great," she told me quietly, and I knew she meant it.

"I will," I agreed, boosting her confidence in me even more. "Don't you worry."

She grinned, going on her tip toes to peck my cheek before wandering off to her own first class.

I spent the first portion of the day very aware of my surroundings. Which wasn't exactly out of the ordinary, but my reasoning was now much different. My attention was focused on making sure Isabella Swan didn't cross my path unexpectedly in any way—not even the barest breeze of he scent in my direction. Luckily, my vigilance was for nothing because by the time I walked toward the lunchroom with Emmett and Rosalie I hadn't seen hide nor hair of the girl.

Many of the students talked about her, however. I learned a lot. Her parents had divorced when she was only a baby, and she'd lived in Phoenix ever since. She visited her father, who clearly adored her, once a year. Now she'd chosen to come live with her father for reasons unknown to the general public, thus leading to much speculation. She'd become fast friends with Jessica Stanley and her group, though Jessica was already speaking negatively about the girl to other friends; her jealousy seemed to be the reason for this, and later overheard conversations revealed that Mike Newton had his eyes set on Isabella Swan which explained the quick Vendetta Jessica seemed to have. In one day, the Swan girl had gone from being the new girl to being something of a Forks celebrity. And from what I could tell, she had no idea.

Without any insight into the girl herself, I couldn't come to any real conclusions about her life or reasoning behind her actions. So mostly everything that wasn't cold hard fact was speculation. But the information would be useful regardless.

Like, for instance, I could expect her to sit at Jessica Stanley's table again. So when we made it to the lunchroom before the masses, I led Emmett and Rosalie to a table as far from where I knew they would sit as possible. It was in the opposite corner of the room than we usually sat, but I figured my siblings and Alice wouldn't mind considering the circumstances.

When Alice arrived, however, she frowned. "How are we supposed to make friends if you're not anywhere near her, Jazz?"

I gave her a patient smile, pulling out the chair next to me and gesturing for her to sit. "One step at a time. First I need to make it through at least one lunch period without wanting to attack her. Then, once I'm sure I can get closer, I'll work on initiating conversation."

She pursed her lips. "Maybe I should go talk to her first, then. Warm her up for when you get to—"

"No," I said firmly. "I appreciate you wanting to help, darlin', but I've got to do this. It's my challenge, and I'll be the one to defeat it. I just need to do it in my own time."

She sighed, but nodded in understanding. "Fine."

I rubbed her shoulder. "You'll get your new friend soon enough. A little patience first."

She rolled her eyes. "I know. I'm just…excited for what's to come." Her gaze met mine, sparkling slyly. Whatever was to come, she was still keeping it a secret for now—and if the burst of irritation was any indication, she was hiding it from Edward in her mind too.

"Maybe you should stop talking about how great the future is if you're not going to share?" Edward suggested.

Alice giggled, the sound like bells. I smiled. "What's the fun in that?" she asked teasingly.

Now it was Edward's turn to roll his eyes, but the attitude was short lived. He faced the door. "She's about to walk in."

Thank you, I thought to him calmly, pulling in a deep breath just before she walked in. Her gaze scanned the room, landing on the table we sat at yesterday before a startled look took over her face. Then she continued to glance over the room…until she caught where we were sitting. She blinked a few times, stumbling a little over what appeared to be nothing. Another fact to add to my growing list of information on Isabella Swan: she was clumsy.

After a moment, she regained her composure and made her way through the lunch line, only grabbing a bottle of soda before settling at the table I'd predicted with Jessica Stanley and her group of friends.

Throughout the entire lunch period, I tried my best not to stare…and failed. I noticed she was having the same issue, but her attention was captured by my mind-reading brother so luckily she didn't notice that she had my focus. Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, and even Edward chatted quietly throughout the period, but I paid them no mind. I was singularly focused on achieving my first task in my overall goal—making it through today without having the violent reaction I'd had yesterday.

"Are you ready to go?" Alice asked gently as we were nearing the time for the bell to ring.

Ready or not, I was going to do it. So I stood from my chair with the rest of my present family following suit. "Let's go."

Emmett and Rosalie walked ahead of me while Edward and Alice flanked either side, subtly creating a barrier in case the worst happened and I snapped.

I drew into my reserves to clench down on all the calm I could manage as we neared the Swan girl's table, which we had to pass to exit the room. My body relaxed. And then as we walked by, I did the opposite of what I'd done all lunch long.

I took a deep breath.

My throat burned, and my lips twitched in attempt to pull back in a snarl. My body wanted to react—I could feel the instinctual movement trying to happen, but I held back. Drawn tight and fighting everything in my nature, I took tense steps toward the door. On any other day, the distance was nothing. What was ten feet? I could pass ten times that in seconds.

But now the distance felt like forever.

Until finally, finally, we were through the doors and out of the cafeteria, fresh air surrounding us as I took extra steps to catch my bearings. I felt like stumbling but held strong. The hard part was over—now I needed to recover.

Realizing what my own thoughts had just said, I froze.

Alice, obviously catching my shock, threw her arms around me. "You did it!"

I smiled, returning her hug and kissing her head. When she pulled back, I left my arm around her but faced our siblings. "Told y'all I could do it."

Emmett's laugh boomed, Edward smiled, but Rosalie smirked as she said, "Shut up, Jasper."

Bella

Forks was teaching me intimately how it felt to constantly be a spectacle. I was almost immune to the casual attention. Except throughout lunch they were watching me—I knew it. Every time I looked over, they didn't appear to pay me any mind. But when I wasn't looking I could feel it. Different from when the rest of the students stared. There was a heavier weight to the gazes coming from the Cullen table.

My own eyes frequently strayed in their direction. To Edward, mostly. I told myself it was because I was trying to gauge his mood compared to our last encounter. Would he be so angry again today? But I was lying. The truth was that I simply had a fascination with them…with him.

As I walked to biology, I hoped Edward wouldn't remain such an enigma today so I could get over my rapidly deepening obsession.

Entering the classroom I saw that he had beaten me to our table. Not surprising since he and his siblings had left the cafeteria before me. But as I made my way to my seat, nerves started crawling up my throat. For all the confidence I had in my mind to learn more about the Cullen family and Edward's strange behavior, I was turning to such a wimp now. I dropped my backpack on the floor by my seat and Edward's eyes snapped to me.

They weren't nearly as hostile today, though they were not exactly friendly, either.

"Hello," he murmured as I sat down. "I'm Edward Cullen. I apologize for not introducing myself yesterday—I was worried about my brother. He wasn't quite feeling well. You're Bella Swan, correct?"

I blinked at him, partly agape that he was speaking to me at all but also very slowly processing his words. "Um…" I mumbled, trying to come up with some response that wasn't idiotic. "How do you know my name?" Mentally, I cursed myself as soon as the question was out. So much for not saying something stupid.

Edward's brow furrowed. "Sorry to be the one to tell you, but everyone knows your name. You've been the talk of the town."

"Oh, no," I said, trying to save the interaction even though I'd already led it in a ridiculous direction. "I know that. I meant how did you know to call me Bella."

It took Edward a moment to respond, but I could have sworn I saw a muscle tick in his cheek. Great. I was making him angry again. "Do you prefer Isabella?"

I shook my head. "No. I like Bella. It's just…" Wow this was going terribly. "Everyone seems to know me as Isabella and I'm always correcting them. I think my dad calls me Isabella behind my back or something."

Edward's expression smoothed out and he nodded. He didn't seem to have anything else to say, so we both focused on the front of the classroom to wait for class to start. I wouldn't have called the short introduction a successful conversation, but I let out a breath of relief that at least we'd had an improvement over yesterday.

Edward

After a successful lunch period for Jasper, I figured I might as well work on improving the atmosphere between the Swan girl and myself. If Jasper made it to the point of being able to handle her blood enough to spend time with her as a friend, I didn't want to be an obstacle to achieving that goal because the girl had any sort of prejudice against me for being rude to her. I needed to support my brother. Even if I didn't particularly wish to interact with her.

So in biology, I introduced myself. I was polite. I was not openly hostile. I was even kind enough to ignore her awkward attempt at…conversation? Whatever it was she tried to do with questioning me calling her by her preferred name. And that was an endeavor in and of itself, since it was so frustrating not knowing what was going on in her head. Navigating what could possibly have been a human interaction landmine.

Overall it was a minimal interaction, but I figured it was better than nothing. Definitely better than the impression I'd left the day before. Likely not enough to overshadow what I now recognized as a blunder, but I didn't need to do everything now. If we were to remain in Forks, I'd have time. Hopefully that time would teach me patience with not being able to see into her mind—or better yet a way into her mind so I wouldn't have that weakness.

This hope was what I wrapped my mind around through class as Mr. Banner lectured and the girl took notes and occasionally stole glances my way. From what I could tell, she was more at ease around me now that we'd spoken to one another.

My suspicion was confirmed later when I met Alice by the car. "Good job, Edward! Things just got easier."

I narrowed my gaze at her. "Easier how?"

Alice simply grinned, refusing to give even a hint of what was to come for us with the Swan girl. All she'd reveal was that Isabella Swan was destined to become a dear friend. In exactly what capacity and for how long, only Alice knew. She kept all the specifics to herself. It was nearly as infuriating as not being able to read the girl's mind.

On the drive home, Emmett and Alice congratulated Jasper again on doing so well during lunch. Rosalie was stewing in her seat behind me, and though aligning with Rosalie in her bitterness was odd, I was silently glad to not be alone.

Jasper brushed off their congrats. "I'm still a ways away from making contact."

"I'm just saying, man," Emmett said, "you're already blowing my mind. I only lasted, like, four seconds. Tops. You're doing great."

"You really are," Alice agreed. Her mind flashed to the Swan girl's face, the girl's eyes wide. There was no context around it and Alice pushed the memory of the vision away swiftly before I could pick anything else out of her mind. In due time, she thought to me. Aloud she said, "You'll get there sooner than you think, Jazz. Don't stress too much."

Jasper sighed, thinking that he needed to stress. He couldn't relax, not yet. He hadn't built up resistance enough to let his guard down—and he didn't think he'd be directly interacting with Isabella Swan nearly as soon as Alice thought. But he also knew better than to bet against Alice. He'd learned better than that. So he said, "I'll try not to, darlin'. But try to be patient, yeah?"

Alice smiled at him. "I'll try."

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