Yay, next chapter! Sorry this took so long to get up, things have been rather hectic.

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Alice

"So…where we going?"

I sighed, settled back in the seat of Tyson's car. I don't know. Really, I know we'll just end up with your friends whatever I say. "Beach, I guess."

It must have come out a little more frustrated than I thought, because even he noticed. "Something wrong, baby?"

"No." No, nothing at all. Nothing except a series of weird events, which was saying something considering the weirdness I had started to be immersed in over the past few years. I had come to realize, though, that I had probably been having the visions all my life. They had been less frequent, certainly, and when I was younger as far as I could remember I wrote them off as dreams or déjà vu or lucky guesses, but the older I got the stronger and more frequent they became…and it became impossible to call them anything but what they were.

Of course, when you try to explain to your family that you're seeing glimpses of the future, all they do is say you're lying to get attention. Or call you crazy. And I wasn't crazy, I knew that for a fact. I had seen it come true far too many times. I had almost stopped trying to tell them about them, really. I mean, what kind of insane person kept at something like that, something they knew they would fail? Still, when I had seen Billy in that car accident, I couldn't help but tell him not to leave. I mean, he was brother, my love for him went above and beyond self preservation. Of course, none of them believed me. But at least the time they had spent chewing me out for it had delayed him just enough that he would no longer be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The problem was, now they were all harping on the 'crazy' thing again. They'd go back to saying I was just a liar soon enough, so I wasn't all that worried. They could search my room for drugs, do whatever they wanted. They wouldn't find anything.

I looked over at Tyson, watching him as he drove. His eyes were fixed ahead, relaxed. He had really believed me when I had said I was fine, but then again I wasn't really surprised. He was about as observant as a goldfish, but that didn't mean he didn't have other qualities. He was attractive, certainly, and he could have had other girls, but besides the physical, he had always been a pretty nice guy, though maybe a better friend than boyfriend. Still, genuinely nice guys were hard to find, and I loved him for who he was. But there was something about this that just didn't feel real, that felt more like killing time than anything else. I had spent a lot of time telling myself that it was silly to feel that way, that I should just let things go where they would, stop trying to be some sort of mystical romantic in addition to the huge way I was already a freak. I had told myself that a lot, right up until today.

That's when things had gotten weirder, even for me. The first time he had looked at me, there was this strange mix of shock and hatred, but I hadn't felt either. I had only a moment to really look at him, because then the vision had taken all of my attention. I had been in an empty hall with my back to the cold metal of the lockers, trapped there by his body as he leaned on one arm over me. His gaze was somehow both predatory and tender, and my heart was racing madly in my chest. We were talking, and I was telling him something about knowing him, and about resisting. I didn't remember that part too well, because then he was kissing me and nothing else mattered. It had felt like flying, and I had known beyond all doubt that I had been right to have my 'stupid, romantic' thoughts before about just killing time with Tyson, because there could be nothing else in all the world like this, no one I could ever love with this intensity except for him. I had reached up to take his face in my hands, to pull him closer. He had responded just as hungrily, his body pressing mine back hard against the wall.

Then, I had snapped out of it, and he was still staring at me. I was confused, dazed even, but I had tried to make conversation as best I could. And he had rejected me, rather harshly. If anything could have made the vision more confusing, that was it. I mean, what was I supposed to think? If he was supposed to be mine, and there was no doubt in my mind about that, then why had he reacted like that? How could he be so…so completely aloof, so disinterested? Of course, he didn't know the things I did, he hadn't felt them yet. He didn't know what I had felt in his arms in that vision, the utter perfection of that kiss. We were one, he just didn't know it yet.

He really, really didn't know it yet, because he didn't speak to me at all, slipped out of class before I even had a chance to try again. Then, the vision this afternoon. Billy and I were fighting, over what I couldn't be sure, but it was loud and angry, and on school grounds. After his band practice, from the looks of it. He tried to walk away and I grabbed his arm, trying to force him to hold up. He pulled away, wheeled on me yelling… And then he was there, just a few steps away. When I first saw the look of terrifying anger on his face, in his eyes, I was frightened, backed away. But the anger wasn't intended for me, and I could hear him telling Billy in a very dangerously calm voice to step away from me.

Then, that one was over. So all I had were two disjointed pieces, and none of them told me how to approach him, how all this began. Not even who he was. I knew that they were, collectively, the Cullens but I didn't know which one he was. Maybe… "Hey, you have any of the new kids in your classes?"

He nodded, easy, shifted the steering wheel into his right hand and let his left fall. "Yeah. That big guy, Emmett, he's in my French class. Seems nice enough." He turned slightly to me, eyes a little questioning. "You met any of them?"

I shrugged, casual. "The tall blond guy is in US history with me. Don't know his name. Seems smart, though." I bit my tongue, hoping I hadn't said too much, caught his attention.

"Oh yeah, one of the guys has a class with him, said he seemed real quiet, loner type. Name's Jasper."

Jasper. Jasper Cullen. Jasper, Jasper, Jasper… My mind ran over it and over it, learning the feel of it. I liked it very much. It sounded right, it…fit somehow. I had to bite my tongue again before I said it aloud to really taste it. That wasn't safe here, I could do it when I got home. Suddenly, the beach was just going to be an annoyance. Still, probably better than an afternoon with my brother and an evening with all of them.

I had hardly noticed how far we had come, didn't even register that we were already there until he was parking on the sandy shoulder of the road on the edges of La Push. "Hey, Alice, baby, you sure you're ok?"

He leaned over, his arm resting on my seat, eyes concerned. I looked up and smiled for him, reaching up to trace his cheek. "It's fine. Promise." A little hesitantly, I leaned in to kiss him. He eagerly closed the distance, cupping my face in his hands gently. And I knew then, even more than I already had. It felt nice, it always had. But the real enjoyment I had always gotten out of it before was gone, vanished. I had felt something incomparably better, and somehow this felt like betrayal, now that I knew. I was glad when I could pull away, fake another smile. "Come on. Let's walk."

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I slid in the backdoor as quietly as I could, shutting it carefully behind me. The kitchen was empty, lights off. That was a good sign. When they were going to be mad, they left the light on as another symbol that they were waiting for me. Lights off meant things were ok, at least for now. I slipped into the living room, pausing only a moment at the fridge to grab a Sprite. Dad was watching a baseball game on TV, Padres vs. Nationals. "Hey, dad."

He looked up, a little. "Alice."

I couldn't help it, this hurt. This was why I hated coming home, this…distance. Me and dad had always been close, ever since I was a little girl. It's hard to go from being a daddy's girl to someone he barely acts like he knows. The punishment for telling the truth, I guess. I mean I'd heard before that no good deed goes unpunished. I wondered, sometimes, if I really should have thought of that sooner. Sure, a few bad things would have happened. Neighbor's house would have burned down, Billy would have died…was it worth it? It bothered me that I couldn't say anymore. I was just so damn tired of being either yelled at or ignored. "Where's mom?"

"At Karen's." This time, his eyes didn't leave the TV.

"Alright. Well I'm gonna go on upstairs."

Nothing. No 'stay and watch the game with me, honey'. No 'sweetie, have you had dinner?'. Nothing. Well, that was to be expected. I stepped back into the shadows and up the stairs, not looking back. Billy's door was closed and for a moment, I had the sick desire to go and knock on it like I used to, but I decided I had had enough for the day.

I shut my own door behind me, collapsed back onto my bed. For a moment I did nothing but watch the fan turn, thinking. My thoughts were on him immediately, of course. How could I get him to talk to me? How was this supposed to start? Inconvenient, that I had only been shown that I belonged to him. None of how I got there. I sighed, sat up to take a drink. The can was ice cold, and it reminded me suddenly of the vision, something I hadn't really dwelled on too much before. He had been cold. Very cold, but the me in my vision hadn't minded or even really taken notice, as if this was normal.

Ice cold. I held on to the can rather than set it back down, my fingers adjusting to the cold. Jasper. Alone, now, I could say it for myself. "Jasper." Yes, that definitely sounded good.

When I fell asleep a couple of hours later, I was still seeing him in my mind, not as I had seen him today but as I had seen him in the hallway. The love and danger in his eyes wove its way through my dreams.

''''''''''''''''''''''''

"The three of you, form a group."

Right then, I think I could have cheered. I barely controlled it, but I managed. A group project was actually better than I had hoped for, better than the sketchy plans I had been making in my head for talking to him. He would have to at least interact with me in some way.

If I was ecstatic about this, he looked equally furious. It would have hurt, if I hadn't already seen the future, known how we would end up. As it was, I was just annoyed. He was being a very frustrating hold up. It was me and him and Harry Walters, but I didn't really want to pay any attention to Harry. I slid my desk closer, not really surprised but disappointed when he moved back, moved closer to Harry. Well, fine then. I let myself have a moment of glaring down at my notes before I looked up, getting out a little bit of my frustration.

"Yeah, this sucks doesn't it?" Harry was grinning at me in a very friendly way, his voice soft. "I hate all this old stuff. I mean, why the hell do we need to know it anyway?"

Made sense, of course, that he would think I was annoyed about the report. "Actually, I think it's pretty interesting, but I don't like her." She was too stiff and angry and just one of those teachers I dearly longed to tell to get over themselves. "So…" I looked up at the assignment on the board, trying to figure out what was going on. I really hadn't been paying attention like I should have. "Right. Well since we get to pick our topic, anything you guys particularly want?" I looked at him, not Harry. I knew Harry didn't care, and even if he had I wouldn't have cared what he wanted. It was his preference I was interested in.

He was tense, fingers curled around the edges of his notebook. He shook his head, and for a moment I almost lost hope of ever getting him to really speak to me.

"Really? Because I don't have any ideas here." Alright, I could play stupid for a few minutes. Just to try to make him talk. This was so damn annoying…

For a moment he looked like he almost smiled, but in a very painful sort of way. "The progression of the war in Texas." He got it out quickly, and he clenched his jaw tight after he said it, as if he was trying to physically stop himself from saying anything more.

"That's not really an easy one though, is it? I mean, we could go with Lincoln's presidency or something…"

I knew Harry would only be worried about whether or not it was easy. "Well, everyone'll be doing stuff like that and this won't really be that hard. Besides, it'll be less boring if we do something we haven't heard a million times." I pulled out my textbook, ready to start looking. The war in Texas, huh? Was that where he was from? Or did he just like it there? Or was it completely random, and I was way too obsessed? Yeah, probably the last one.

She rapped on the board, drawing our attention. "Class, five minutes left for today! It would be wise to start working on these soon, so make sure you schedule a time to meet with your groupmates this week!"

I yanked out a sheet of paper from my notebook, ripped it into thirds. I scribbled my name, email address and cell number onto two of them, talking as I did. "I've got loads of free time, pretty much whenever. You guys decide when we want to do this, and you can give me a call or whatever, ok?" Harry didn't need my name, I knew, but I put it on both so it wouldn't be quite so obvious that I wanted him to have it.

It was probably crazy, completely ridiculous that my heart almost jolted out of my chest when he slowly pulled the blank scrap of paper toward him and wrote his name in the kind of beautifully flowing script you never saw anymore except in museums. It was almost impossibly hard to let Harry write his information before pulling it back to me. Jasper…Hale? I thought it was Cullen? Ah well, not that it mattered. Hale was perfectly fine. Well then. Jasper Hale. And this was something new about him, this fact that he wrote like he had studied calligraphy for years. Maybe he had, who knew. Their father was a doctor after all, no telling what sort of rich kid schools they had gone to when they were younger. The only real question was why they were here now.

The bell rang then, and though I jerked a little I didn't jump up. Harry did, and he was gone in an instant. I folded the paper, slid it into the pocket on the front of my notebook. I could sense him, almost feel him still in front of me and the urge to look up became too great. My eyes met his strange golden ones, and I almost fell into them, mesmerized. "Galveston."

My heart pounded erratically, lips curving into what I knew had to be an idiotic grin. He was finally, finally answering that first question. Yes! Progress! It didn't matter how small it was, at least I was gaining some ground. "Well, this makes sense then."

He smiled a little in response, and my heart reversed direction, almost slamming to a stop. This was a little smile, barely passing for one. And still, he was the most beautiful man I had ever seen. If he ever really, really smiled at me…

I caught my breath, forced my thoughts into order. "Are you ah…when would you want us to meet?" And I don't care when, I don't care if Harry's busy. Actually, I do. I'd rather he were busy.

His smile faded and he rose fluidly from his chair, stepping farther back. "Not sure. I'll be in touch."

"Yeah, ok." Please, please let it be soon.

"Until tomorrow then." He dipped his head a little, a gesture that seemed naturally suited to be accompanied with an ending of 'ma'm'.

I nodded mutely, eyes following him as he left. For a minute I was a little frozen. It was the perfect term, because when I did start to move I seemed to thaw into motion, my body starting to move one piece at a time, and ever so slowly. I was still seeing his eyes, hearing his voice. It was harder to hear than I expected, especially since he barely said five words at a time, but there was a hint of a Texas drawl there. There was something so sexy about that, different from the Spanish lilt that Tyson had. This was both familiar and unfamiliar, but undeniably attractive. Just like the rest of him.

I wandered to lunch, claiming a table quickly before Tyson had a chance to show up. In the moments I had before he got there, I pulled the paper out of my bag and programmed Jasper's number into my phone.

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Ah, gotta love annoyed Alice. Of course, I'd be annoyed with him too if he wasn't speaking. But poor Jasper. lol