Thanks again to every who read and reviewed. :)

I'm trying to get these updates up on Mondays, but it depends of the validation time over at Twilighted. It's taking longer this week, so I'm just going to post here first in case it takes another while. I wouldn't want to deprive any of you. lol Anyway, next week I'm away, so I don't think I'll be able to update. I may get it up another day, maybe not. If anyone goes over to the Twilighted thread, I'll post teasers and try and keep people updated on where there chapter is.

Everything Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer.

Chapter 5

Having lived with Rosalie all his life, Jasper was not easily scared by her. If he saw her temper rising, he would avoid her, or find a way to subdue her. Emmett helped. Despite what people might think, she was not all that frightening.

Usually.

"What the fuck, Jasper. How could you let this happen? You're a fucking idiot, you know that?"

Now, Jasper was cowering in the corner of their living room, as far away from Rosalie as he could get. There was every chance she would start to throw things.

Her face was contorted in her anger, turned red from her screaming, and her hair was unravelling. This was how Jasper knew he was in some serious shit: Once Rosalie stopped caring about her appearance, there was no hope.

He had spotted the signs on the way home from school. Rosalie kept quiet at the wheel, which was unnerving enough in its own right. Her movements were jerky as she veered between the lanes, ignoring the speed limits. Her red lips had been pursed so tightly that lines began to form in her lipstick. However, the real deal-breaker was when she left off Emmett before driving home again.

"Good luck," he'd laughed, before Rosalie give him a cool goodbye and he left the car.

Jasper had half expected her to explain what was wrong when they were alone, but Rosalie maintained the silence, which quickly became torturous. It would not have been so unbearable had he known exactly what Rosalie was so mad about. They had been sitting beside each other less than twenty minutes ago in class, and she had been completely normal.

Something must have happened when she went to the bathroom, leaving Jasper's side for little more than a few minutes, before meeting him at the car. Since then, not one word had come from her.

They had entered the house quietly. Rosalie's heels felt intrusive as the sound of them hitting the hard tiles in their kitchen echoed off the walls. Following close behind her, she caught Jasper off guard by suddenly flinging her bag onto the table and spinning around to glare at him. She placed on hand on her hip and the other rested on the post of one of the wooden chairs.

"Is there something wrong with you?" she asked. The calm in her voice would have fooled someone who knew her less than Jasper. He just waited for the storm to hit.

"What are-"

"Do you know where Bella Swan is going this Saturday?" Her voice was still deceptively even, but her foot began to tap rapidly. From the way she was staring at him, Jasper felt as though he should know what she was talking about, but he genuinely had no idea.

"Where?" he asked. Rosalie took her time answering, but her actions spoke louder than anything she could have told him. Her nostrils flared as her fury built and she folded her arms across her chest in a fast, uneasy movement. Dread stirred in the pit of Jasper's stomach. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, not opening them when she finally spoke.

"Ben Cheney's party." Each word dropped like a hammer, and reverberated around Jasper's head like the sound of Rosalie's shoes had done against the kitchen walls. She lifted her lids slowly, the full force of her glower unleashed on Jasper. At that moment, he felt like an 8-year-old who had broken his mother's favorite vase.

"How... Who... What?" he stuttered. He could have been knocked over with a feather. Finally, his sense came back to him. "You must be mistaken," he told her, shaking his head. "There's no way she would go, no way anyone would invite her. It's just not possible-"

"Then tell me why I heard Angela Webber talking about it in the toilets?" she interrupted. "Ranting and raving about how Edward Cullen-"

"No," Jasper muttered in absolute denial. "Even he wouldn't do that."

Rosalie raised a mocking eyebrow at him. "Do you really think those Cullens are above anything? Of course they would do that!" She was almost laughing.

"So, are you telling me that he... ." Jasper trailed off, not even considering the possibilities.

"Invited her to go to this party with him? Yes, Jasper, that is exactly what he did."

Jasper stood dumb as his brain processed what Rosalie was telling him. He couldn't believe that it was possible, but he'd never had reason to doubt his sister before. Even so, he still didn't understand why it made her so angry at him.

"And you,"- here it comes- "you were so fucking cocky about it."

Again, she pursed her lips, almost to the point it looked painful. She took slow, purposeful steps towards Jasper. He took quick, purposeful steps in the opposite direction.

"I cannot believe you let this happen," she seethed.

"Rosalie," he tried to reason, holding his hands up in front of him and stopping, "I didn't even know this was going on. How was I supposed to know this was going on. Hell if I understand how Cullen's mind works!"

She halted in her advance, throwing her arms down by her sides and balling her hands into fists. "You said you had it all under control. You told me that you knew everything about her, who she was becoming friendly with, what she likes, what she doesn't. You said it was a done deal." With every sentence she inched closer to him, but Jasper had no room left to maneuver around her.

He didn't enjoy this feeling; being scared, retreating. However, he could not blame Rosalie for her anger. They both knew how important this was, and Jasper had let her down, out of pure laziness. It was true that he'd promised Rosalie that Bella was as good as theirs, better, in fact, but that was because he believed it himself. As a consequence, Jasper had not bothered to follow up on her.

It was one of those rare days when Jasper's confidence came back and bit him on the ass.

Rosalie continued her tirade, moving from one room to another, completely unrelenting. With every pitiful attempt at defense Jasper made, Rosalie would fire back at him. Eventually, he succumbed to fact that resistance was futile, and he let his sister unleash the full force of her fury.

Once every profanity had been used, and every insult at been hurled, Rosalie sank into a chair and ran her hand through her now messy hair.

"You're going to have to fix this," she stated, her voice still shaking with anger, but now noticeably lower in volume.

"I will." Jasper perched on the armrest of the chair Rosalie occupied. Tentatively, he placed a hand on her shoulder and began to rub slow circles. He could feel her relaxing. They sat like this in silence for a while, Jasper was not sure of the exact time. "Want me to call Emmett?" he asked, removing his hand from Rosalie's back.

She inhaled deeply and shook out her hair. "No, no," she said, raising to her feet. "I'll do it."

Rosalie left the room, so Jasper took up her place in the chair. He listened to the sounds of a brief phone call, and then Rosalie shouting that she was going to Emmett's. The crunch of her tires from outside alerted Jasper to the fact that he was now alone. His parents wouldn't be home for another hour; that gave him plenty of time to figure out his next move.

From the information Rosalie had given him, or shouted at him, Jasper knew that there was some serious damage control to be done. However, his main obstacle was not simply regaining Bella's favor, but doing so under the radar. To Jasper, there was nothing more unattractive than desperation - which was probably the reason most of the girls in school didn't appeal to him - and he would never lower himself to that level.

Within the brief hour he had to himself, Jasper constructed a game plan. Something much more stealthy and foolproof than what he'd had the day before. In addition to a more detailed and strategic offense, Jasper had now planned a sufficient defense to keep their asses covered from another attack from Camp Cullen.

Judging from the overt and simple manner in which Edward had gone about romancing Bella, he was not the main problem. Alice was.

Jasper was under no illusions that Alice had no part to play in what was going on. What unnerved him was that he didn't know exactly what she did have a part in.

He had always noticed that there was something off about her. She rarely socialized, yet many girls idolized her. She never made an obvious attempt to undermine Rosalie, but she had done it, and made it look effortless. Jasper assumed that she was like a swan; peddling furiously beneath the surface, but maintaining an effortless grace to the visible world.

But she had to have a weakness, and Jasper would find it, then exploit it.

By the time his parents arrived home, Jasper had already made a few calls and set his plans into motion. His dad threw a chinese takeaway on the table and Jasper helped himself. He carried his dish upstairs, claiming that he had to finish his homework.

He rang Rosalie once he was hidden safely in his room. Rosalie and Jaspers' parent had an idealized view of their children. While they weren't bad parents, they mainly operated on the view that what they didn't know couldn't hurt them. Just as long as their children kept out of jail and were shipped off to an ivy league college, they were happy.

The ring rang a few times before his sister picked up. Jasper had trained his brain to never try to guess what she had been doing beforehand where Emmett was concerned.

"What?" The irritation in her voice travelled through the line. Earlier, Jasper would have winced at the sound, but now, with a plan and more confidence, he didn't flinch.

"Put Emmett on," he ordered. Some shuffling came from the other end, but it was Rose's still voice that he heard.

"You're on speaker," she said. Jasper sighed audibly.

"Do you really not trust me?" he asked.

"Not one bit." He would have argued, but she had a point.

"Hey, Jazz. So you survived the wrath of Rosalie?" Emmett chuckled. "Ow," he added, evidently, Rosalie had retaliated physically against his remark. They mumbled a few sentences to one another and laughed, before Jasper interrupted.

"Look, I'll leave you both to go back to... whatever you were doing"- Emmett muttered something else and laughed loudly- "just listen to me for a few minutes."

"This better be good," Rosalie warned.

"Rose, I didn't even want you included in this part of the plan, so shut the hell up or pass the phone to Emmett." Jasper was pretty sure of his plan, and did not appreciate Rosalie knocking him. Evidently, she had said all she needed to anyway, for silence fell on the other end of the line.

"What's up?" Emmett's more confident, reassuring voice hit Jasper's ear. Jasper smiled, imagining Emmett's reaction his proposition. He waited a couple of prolonged, deliberate seconds, allowing sufficient suspense to gather.

"How do feel about crashing a little party this Saturday?" Quickly, Jasper held the phone from his ear.

"HELL YEAH!" Emmett bellowed, his booming laugh followed. "You know how long I've been waiting to hear you say that?" Jasper laughed along with his friend. However, their joy was cut short as Rosalie's sharp tone cut through the laughter.

"And how is that going to help us, Jasper?"

"Come on, Rose," Emmett pleaded on the other side. "It'll be fun. Let's show those Cullen twats how to have a good time."

"Seriously, we've messed this up enough as it is-"

"Exactly," Jasper interrupted her, "and now I'm going to fix it."

"But it's so obvious." She did not go to any pains to disguise how stupid she thought this was. In the background he could hear Emmett planning already.

"So, I've got one keg in the jeep. I could easily get two more by Saturday, if we drive up to Post Angeles. Tequila... Tequila! Rose, do you have that bottle from-"

"Emmett, I am not bringing that to this so called 'party'. We're not going," she said in her resolute, motherly voice. She didn't sound like she could be persuaded, but Jasper knew he could do it.

"This is only one part in the grand scheme of things. We're just going to do a little mole work, upset the group. Hell, if we bring enough people, this could actually turn out to be a good night." He may have been imagining it, but Jasper could almost hear the cogs turning in Rosalie's head.

"So you're not going to make a move on Bella?" she asked.

"No, not unless an easy opportunity arises. You know I'd never be that obvious. I just want to suss out how much damage is already done." he assured her.

Rosalie sighed loudly. "We'll think about it, and I'll talk to you later," she eventually conceded.

Jasper agreed and hung up, but not before an enthusiastic Emmett yelled "Keg stand!" into the mouthpiece.

Although he knew he would have to keep a steady head on himself, and Rosalie would undoubtedly remind him the same, the prospect of some weekend entertainment excited Jasper. It had been a while since he'd slummed it with the best of the Forks high schoolers, and they were always good for a laugh.

Tomorrow was Friday, which meant that he only had one whole day to get enough people rallied up to make this a successful crash, but making sure that no one actually invited to the party got wind of it, especially Ben, or the Cullens.

When Rosalie returned, she had been convinced by Emmett to attend the party. Jasper reiterated his intentions for the evening in a little more detail. He asked her to tell him everything she'd heard about the party, too. She became less and less skeptical when she saw how throughly he'd thought this through. Impressed with what she'd heard, Rosalie hovered at the door, asking one final question.

"Is Alice Cullen going?"

"My guess is as good as yours," Jasper replied honestly. She nodded in acceptance and disappeared from his door.

"I'm not wearing anything expensive," she called out to him. "They aren't worth it."

"Rosalie, I couldn't give a rat's ass what you wear," Jasper mumbled to himself, shutting off the light at his desk.

*******

The next day passed without much happening. As discussed, Rosalie had suggested the plan to Tyler Crowley in Gym, to test people's reactions. When he agreed wholeheartedly, Rosalie instructed him to spread the word, but to keep it quiet. From the buzz surrounding the cafeteria at lunch, and the relaxed looks on the faces of the Cullens and Ben Cheney, their plan had been successful.

However, the most difficult part was ensuring that Bella did not find out. Rosalie had stressed this point to Tyler, and he seemed to have done his part well. At their table, Lauren Mallory kept shooting satisfied smirks in Bella's direction, flicking her eyes occasionally in Edward Cullen's direction. Mike Newton was doing the same, a content smile on his own face. He was talking animatedly to Bella, but she had a look of oblivious innocence on her face, showing Mike wanted this to be as much of a surprise as Jasper did. They both obviously felt pleased that they were spoiling Edward and Bellas' date. Jasper couldn't say that he felt much different.

The car ride home that day was much more cheerful than yesterday. So much so, that Jasper only felt a little worried about what had passed today between Edward and Bella in their fateful Biology class.

On their way out of the car park, they received a number of discreet thumbs up from fellow students. The smiles on their faces betrayed just how thrilled they were to be included in a plan that involved himself and Rosalie.

It was times like this when Jasper felt positive that the Hales would always be the greatest family to ever pass through Forks High School, and the legacy that they left behind would outshine that of any other family.

End of Chapter 5