Inappropriate Conversations

APOV

Forks hadn't changed much.

Except for one fact: seventy-some years ago, the students here had taken one glance at us Cullens, all paired up, and did not fall in love with us any more than what was…healthy…for them. Of course, the girls had a nice time with Edward, the only single one then. Now, though, even though we'd made our relationships clear, the girls keep falling in love with Edward, Emmett, and my Jasper, and the guys keep looking at us girls with inappropriate stares. A growl ripped out from between my teeth as I saw some girls giggling at Jasper. When a junior – football player, by the looks of it – whistled at me, Jasper's jaw locked. Suddenly, I saw Jasper at the football jock's side in an instant, picking him up…and hurling him into the locked glass cabinet of all the sports trophies that Forks had to boast of…which wasn't very many – that was why they were treasured.

Edward saw it too, and gave Jasper a hard kick in the ankle.

I pulled him tighter to me and he relaxed. I saw my vision change abruptly; it was just the six of us, and we passed the football player, and Jasper tensed but made no bad move. Edward sighed in relief.

It was a close one, bro. Just a few more seconds and that guy would've been sports history.

He snorted, not appreciating my feeble attempt at humor. I pitied him, only imagining what disturbing images were playing themselves in his head, courtesy of the student body.

"It gets worse," he whispered.

I feel so sorry for you.

He grimaced and shook his head.

Jasper and I were headed to Pre-cal – oh, joy – in Building Five, Edward and Bella went down to Building Three for Honors English, and Rosalie and Emmett were in Building

Two, for Honors Physics.

Well, at least they changed something – the fact that everything still looked almost the same as when we'd graduated was starting to give me major creeps.

"Too true," Edward agreed.

We then went our own separate ways.

Jasper's hold was almost constricting as more guys stared at me. I leaned closer to him as the girls continued fawning over him.

Suddenly, their faces blanked out, and they seemed in a rush to get to class.

"What'd you do?" I whispered.

He leaned his lips close to my ear. "I made them feel guilt."

"Guilt?" I snorted. "For what?"

His lips had now moved to my hair. "For almost being late to class."

"But there's still five minutes." I was becoming confused.

He kissed the back of my neck. "Exactly why I'm so powerful," he joked.

I rolled my eyes. "Oh, the things you can do."

"Yes, well, let's hurry along, shall we?" he asked, pulling me along. Even though I was strong, there was no doubting the smooth, fluid, iron muscles of his arms. My eyes raked over his ravaged face and the crescent-moon scars covering one side of it, but he was still beautiful to me.

I kissed the scars on his face and felt him shudder.

"You seem very…eager today," he noted, though not with dissatisfaction.

His words made me grimace. "Well, you know…first period isn't exactly my favorite class."

"We still have lunch to look forwards to with the others. And Orchestra. And we'll have Gym with Bella – next period."

I saw a flash of the future; oh, wow, we would be playing floor hockey today – I could hear the pucks sliding along the ground as early arrivers took advantage of the time to warm up – and Bella, standing with the stick held in front of her as if she was expecting the puck to fly up and hit her in the face. Not that it would hurt her, but old habits die hard. Every time the puck came toward Bella, she would hit it away immediately, not caring which direction she hit it in. Most of the time, the puck went to the opposing team. Bella's teammates were slightly irritated with her for that….

I giggled quietly. Jasper's fingers raked across my face. "What's so funny?"

"Bella…hockey…."

He groaned. "I should have known. Immortality hadn't granted her any athletic skills. Even after all these years."

"Remember in Maine, at that one high school, we had to play tennis?"

"Oh, wow…."

That school was fortunate enough to have tennis courts for regular phys ed classes. As soon as the tennis ball came to her, Bella would squeal and dodge out of the way, or give a poor swing at the ball and miss entirely, or she would swing, miss, and the racket would fly out of her hand. Once, she wasn't controlling her strength, and the racket flew into one of the posts by the net, shattering immediately. Just like a…human, Bella covered her face with her hands. She actually did flush red – we had fed just the night before. Edward couldn't stop laughing, and Bella was put out with him for that….

The third bell rang. Jasper's arm was around me, and before the bell tone had cut off, we had already stepped into the Honors English class.

We were the last ones in, but we weren't technically tardy. The desks were marked with post-it notes; on each was the name of a student. We were seated in alphabetical order, and I was with Jasper. I could feel the stares pointed toward us as we took our seats.

The way the girls' eyes popped out as soon as they spotted Jasper, the way the guys were looking at me – I forced myself not to become too bothered with them – I didn't need Edward's mind-reading ability to know every thought that was passing through their heads. One girl stood out to me, though – when we'd entered, she'd given Jasper and I a mere glance, one of curiosity, and went back to sketching on her drawing pad. I felt slightly hopeful – perhaps there was an Angela Weber Jr. of some sorts in this school.

Jasper and I could hear the hushed conversations as easily as if they were being shouted.

"Oh, man, look at that girl, she's hot!"

"Good luck getting her, Daniel."

So the football jock's name was Daniel. I shot a murderous glance at the boy, but he didn't interpret it the way I'd meant for it to be taken.

"Dang, you guys, she looked at me!"

"Right. I'm sure it was a look of pure love."

"Dudes, I'm serious!"

Gritting my teeth, I turned to the girls' conversations. Which, of course, turned out to be no better.

"OMG, will you like LOOK at that guy? He is so hot."

"Mmm, hell yeah, I know."

"I wonder why she's with that, like, dark-haired girl? She looks like a total freak."

"Who knows what, like, goes on inside their heads? Still…he's so…oh my god!"

I was going to do something to those dirty-minded girls that they would carry with them to their grave. As soon as I'd thought that, a vision popped up in my head. I was walking casually toward that group of girls, when I'd grabbed one of them by her neck, swung her around into a pole, and kept walking as if nothing had happened. Jasper's shock…Edward's fury...Esme's worry...Carlisle's frustrating calmness when we arrived home.... Okay, so I wouldn't do it today…and the vision disappeared.

The entire period was utterly boring. We had to take out all our school supplies for this class for the teacher to check, and then the teacher introduced herself. Her name was Ms. Remira, and that was all I needed to know.

I decided to look into random bits of the future, knowing that a few buildings away, Edward was reading my mind to keep himself from committing suicide out of utter boredom.

Carlisle would get a heart attack victim in fifty-two minutes and thirty-eight seconds, Esme would find the seeds for her garden that she was looking for in seventeen minutes…approximately, Emmett would provoke Bella after school…oh, this was fascinating.

"I swear, Emmett McCarty Cullen, the next time you say anything about Edward or me, in that sense, or our relationship, in front of unaware humans, I will kill you myself. Tear you to bits and burn the pieces!"

"I'd like to see you try, little sister!"

Bella shrugged. "Hey, Emmett, do you want to play 'Mercy'?"

"Up for anything."

Bella held her hand up. Emmett instinctively reached up to grab it. Bella suddenly yanked his arm back, against itself; Emmett yelled in pain.

"I take that back, Bella! You can beat me any day! Ow…oh…my…dang…BELLA! LET GO!"

"You have to say 'Mercy'! That's the point of the game!"

"MERCY!"

Bella let go. Emmett rubs his arm. "I swear, Bella, I shall never underestimate you again."

She shrugged. "I saw two humans playing that game in the hallway, before we walked in."

I very nearly burst out laughing in front of the whole class. During the whole vision, Ms. Remira had told us about her personal past, teaching experience, etc., etc., and had told us to turn to page four. I was becoming a pro at this – my mind was minutes, or hours, or days, or weeks, or months…away, and yet I could still do anything I was told to, without actually knowing what I was doing. As I stared at the page labeled "Introduction to Pre-calculus, discrete mathematics, and more", I wondered if I was becoming insane. I had degrees in math – six undergraduate degrees, three master's degrees, and two doctor's degrees – science, and language arts. Now, I'd always dreaded any high school math class.

Intro to Pre-cal, indeed. Jasper could taste my irritation and chuckled so softly that only I could hear.

I thought the period would never end. I was out of my seat a second before the bell rang, snatching up my homework. I would finish it in about half a minute…I supposed that I should wait until I got in the car, at least.

"Will you tell me what was so funny?" he asked, lifting my face up to look at mine as we stood by our lockers – assigned in alphabetical order, too. I was so lucky, but I saw Edward and Bella coming, so I'd better make it fast – and quiet. "Emmett decided to underestimate Bella's strength and she totally killed him. It'll happen after school's over."

He chuckled. "I can hardly wait," he replied.

Edward looked at me, and the corners of his mouth twitched.

Keep it from Bella, will you, Edward? I pleaded mentally.

He gave me the merest nod. Bella stared at us curiously. "What are you guys keeping from me?" she asked suspiciously.

I grinned at her. "You'll find out!"

Bella groaned. She absolutely hated surprises. "It'll be in your favor, though."

"Whatever. I have Gym to endure now."

Jasper looked at Bella's martyred expression and cracked up.

Laughter must be truly infectious – and distracting. Edward's annoyance, Bella's curiosity, Jasper's brief moment of humor all melted at the sound of our laughter.