Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of the characters. They belong to the lucky Stephenie Meyer.

A/N: Thank you all for reading the first chapter and putting my story on alert/favourite. It means the world to me. Please R&R.

Chapter 2

Bella POV

It was Friday. The week had gone by relatively fast. I was headed for my first class of the day when I felt myself being pushed against the locker doors. I looked up and saw Victoria, a girl who Angela told me to stay clear of, and Lauren her sidekick. Victoria then knocked my books out of my hands. This was going to be great, I thought.

"What's your problem?" I yelled.

"My problem? I'll tell you my problem," Victoria said, her red hair shining in the florescent light of the hallway. "My problem is that since you started here on Monday you think you're all that, and I'll tell you something, you're not."

"What are you talking about?" I questioned.

"Just because you hang around with Emmett and his friends doesn't mean you are just going to get popular all of a sudden. You need to earn it," said Lauren from behind Victoria.

"What the hell are you talking about? You don't even know me. And, I don't even want to be popular. It's on the freaking bottom of my list for all I care!" I shouted back.

"Since your parents died you think you'll just get all the sympathy votes from all of us. Well, Little Miss Innocent, you're wrong," Victoria snickered.

I felt tears flooding my eyes at the memory of my parents.

She shoved me to the ground. "Aw, Little Bella's going to cry."

"What the hell is this?" someone yelled.

Victoria and Lauren backed off, still looking at me.

I looked up and saw that a crowd had formed. My face flushed and my eyes burned.

"I said, what the hell is going on?" They yelled again. No one spoke up.

I turned my head to the side and saw Jasper pushing his way through the group of people. As he got to the middle of the circle he looked around in disgust. He knelt down beside me and started picking up my books. Jasper then gently grabbed my arm and whispered to me. "You wanna go?"

I could only nod as I started wracking with sobs. He took my hand and led my through the hall and out the doors to his car. He started driving. I didn't know what direction we were heading in, because I was trying to compose myself and calm down.

He stopped the car and got out and walked over and opened my door for me.

"Thank you," I said, barely a whisper.

"Anytime," Jasper smiled, and it was gone in a second.

I noticed he had driven us to First Beach on the Quileute Reservation. We walked down towards the water. The sky above the ocean was dark and gray; a storm was approaching. Jasper led me to a piece of driftwood and motioned me to sit down beside him.

"You want to talk about it?" he asked. Jasper was sitting just an inch away from me leaning forward with his arms resting against his lap. He was staring at two birds fighting over a piece of food by the shore. He turned his head to look at me.

"I don't think it's much to talk about," I replied. I mimicked his position and winced as a muscle in my back clenched in pain.

"Bella, I can see what Victoria and Lauren said is hurtin' you." He was right, it was. "Maybe even what they did physically is hurtin' you." Right again."I just... What happened?"

I took a deep breath to steady myself and started talking. I told him what they had said to me, and that I didn't even know what they were talking about; popularity was the last thing I ever wanted. I told him about my past. How I never fit in at school; how I was always moving to different places with my mom. That got me talking about her, my mother; she was the only best friend I had. Then, I admitted how much I missed my father, and that I just wished I got to see him more than I did. It was a crying fest, but I needed it.

"What is your favourite memory of your father?" Jasper asked, surprising me.

I laughed, taken aback. "My favourite memory," I mused remembering as much as I could. "I think it would have to be before my parents divorced when I was six. I remember going home from kindergarten and waiting patiently for Charlie...my dad to come home from work. When he did, I got extremely excited. While my mom was trying to cook dinner, Dad would turn on the old radio and we would dance around the house with me standing on his feet. Mom and Emmett would get into it to, and it would always be the highlight of my day."

Jasper was looking at me intently. His golden hair was shining in the rare sunshine.

"What about you and your family?" I asked. "Tell me about your life in Texas."

He smiled. "Well, my family consists of my grandparents and my mother and father; James and Anna, and my sister Rose as you know. My father is a business man and he use to be a rancher until he got caught up in his work; thus moving to Forks. Actually, he works in Seattle; sometimes in Port Angeles. He's always away for work," Jasper said, shaking his head. "I use to follow him around the ranch we lived at with my grandparents. Slowly, he got caught up in other work, and I started hanging around my grandfather. Now, Gramps taught me how to wrangle and was just in the middle of teachin' me how to be a rancher when we moved. He's a good man, very funny."

"My mother stayed at home with us kids all our lives. She taught me to be a gentleman," he smiled and nodded his head at me. "One of the nicest people you'll ever meet. Though, I have no idea she puts up with my dad. Then there's my Gran. She's one of those people who doesn't put up with people's shit. Gran is a very strict but very loving person. She makes the best apple pie in all of Texas."

"Rose gets a lot of traits from Gran; a lot from Ma too." he said. "Family and friends mean everything to Rose; she's extremely loyal and protective over them. She, too, takes no shit from people. Rosie loves the ranch as much as I do. It was a place where we could be free, you know?"

"Thank you for sharing that with me, Jasper. It was nice to hear." I smiled timidly at him.

"Here, let's go for a walk. I want to show you something." he said.

We were walking for about twenty minutes when he stopped at a large lake house. Jasper looked at me and smiled.

"Edward and Alice's parents bought it for us last Christmas; supplied with all of the furniture. They have the one next to it."

I was at loss for words. It was beautiful. It reminded me of a tiny log cabin I stayed at one summer with my mom, but much larger. The water was about fifty feet away. Between the house and the water was a fire pit with log benches and stumps surrounding it.

Jasper grabbed his keys from the pocket of his jeans and unlocked the door. The inside was amazing. The living room was gigantic. A long white L-shaped couch was in the center of the room. There was also a big fire place with a television hung just above a mantel. The walls had wood panels which made it have that cozy cabin feel.

"I love this!" I exclaimed, as he led me toward the kitchen.

Jasper grinned. "This is one of my favourite places, besides the ranch. Would you like somethin' to drink? We're stocked with soda, hot-chocolate, whatever you want."

"I'll have a soda please."

He opened the fridge. "Do you want Coke, Diet Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, or Root Beer?"

"Hmm... You pick," I suggested.

He took out two cans of Coke and poured them into a glass and slid one over the island to me.

"So, what are your plans this weekend?" he asked.

"I don't really know. I was thinking of cleaning up the house a bit and reading a good book. What about you?"

"Absolutely nothing. I might just take a drive up here again tomorrow if this place is goin' to be empty. Though, I'm sure it won't."

I raised my eyebrow at him.

"A party. Alice will probably throw a party tomorrow night. Knowing her, she'll invite half the school. But then again, she might wait for a few weeks to throw one so she can plan it out," he chuckled and took a swing of his Coke.

I was about to say something when I was interrupted by a huge 'BOOM' and a crackle.

"Holy shit!" I exclaimed, frightened by the loud noise. I met my scared eyes with his amused ones.

He chuckled. "It's just thunder, Bella."

"Oh. I knew that." I said embarrassed.

Jasper and I went back into the living room and looked out the sliding glass door to see it pouring rain.

"Dammit," Jasper said as he ran his hand through his blonde curls.

"Janet?"

He turned around and grinned. "You like Rocky Horror?"

"Yes I do. What's troubling you? You don't like the rain?"

"No I enjoy the rain, but the vehicle is at the beach parking lot. It's about twenty, or so, minutes from here. I don't think it would be very intelligent of us to be runnin' all the way back there in this kind of weather," he explained.

"Oh," I said dumbly. "Well, I'm in no hurry to get back, and it should be over soon. Unless you have to get back..."

"No. Not at all. And you're right: it should be about over."

I was glad that there we couldn't get back right away. Jasper and I played chess, at which he taught me how to play. We also played some card games which I whipped his ass at. I was also glad we were away from all the drama back in town. Life was good. Now we were deciding on which movie to watch.

"How 'bout ," Jasper started to say when I interrupted him.

"Forrest Gump!" I practically screamed as my eyes scanned the title. "I haven't watched it such a long time. Please, can we watch it?"

Jasper laughed out loud. "Of course."

I watched him as he put the movie into the DVD player. He looked back and caught me staring and smiled. I blushed furiously and went into the kitchen to grab another glass of Coke for each of us.

"Here," I said, as I handed him the soda.

"Well, thank you darlin'," he half grinned and I blushed again.

Darlin'? He called me darlin'? He probably says that to everyone, no need to get ahead of myself.

I sat next to him on the couch. Not too close to make it uncomfortable, but not too far to make it awkward. Though, really, I wanted to be as close as possible.

Jasper POV

Bella just about burst she was so excited when she saw we had Forrest Gump. I enjoyed seeing her so happy. Over the past couple of hours she seemed like she was truly content, except when she heard the thunder; it scared the livin' daylights out of her. She pouted when I beat her at chess, but she always turned it into a beautiful smile. Then she served it to me at a game of cards, and I was the one with the pout while she had that little smirk on her face.

I was putting the movie into the DVD player when I looked back and saw her lovely brown eyes staring at me. I put a gentle smile on my face and she blushed brightly. She turned around quickly and went to the kitchen. I was about to follow her when I stopped myself. She probably needed some time of whatever made her embarrassed.

I sat on the couch and Bella came back with two glasses of Coke.

"Here," she said sweetly.

"Well, thank you darlin'," I said.

She blushed again. The expressions on her face looked shocked, worried, and then thoughtful. I wondered what was going through her mind.

She sat next to me, less than a foot away. The movie started and her eyes were fixated to the screen. Fifteen minutes later, the electricity went out. That shocked her too.

"Shit," I heard her mumble under her breath.

I raised an eyebrow at her, grinning.

"I wanted to watch the movie," she said frowning, her big brown eyes full of disappointment.

"Here, let me go get my portable DVD player. I think I left it here a while back," I said. Her eyes lit up again.

I rushed down the hall into my bedroom and grabbed the player from my closet. On the way back to the living room I grabbed my cell from the kitchen.

"Making a call?" Bella asked as I came back to the couch.

"Yes, I'm going to call Rose and tell her where I'm at, else she'll have a fit. You should call Emmett too," I explained.

"Oh, of course," she said, fumbling around to find something. She looked back up at me. "I think I left my cell in your vehicle."

"That's fine. You can use mine," I told her.

I turned on my phone to find that I had no service. I also may have mumbled some not too intelligent words under my breath as I tried to find service around the lake-house.

"No service?" Bella asked.

"No. No service," I frowned.

"Well, I'm sure the storm will be over before they start worrying. Let's just finish the movie and then try again."

I sat in the corner of the couch and motioned her to sit beside me. We sat with our legs stretched on the length of the couch while the DVD player rested on my lap. My arm rested on the back of the couch behind Bella.

After the movie was done she insisted on watching another. Half way through it she fell asleep leaning against me; her head on my shoulder. I decided to wake her up after it was finished but she was in a very deep sleep. At my fourth attempt she mumbled something unintelligent and smiled. I couldn't help but chuckle. I picked her up gently and carried her into my room and lay her down on the bed. I then placed a blanket over her and made my way to the door.

"Lovely," she said.

I turned back surprised, wondering if she had woken up. She turned over on the bed and let out a sigh and fell back into her deep slumber. I smiled and went out of the room, leaving the door ajar.

I walked back into the living room and grabbed my cell from the coffee table. I tried, and tried again to get a hold of someone but with no luck.

I lie back onto the couch and fell into an easy sleep.

A/N: What do you think? Yay or nay?

What do you think of the Jasper POV?

Any ideas and whatnot for the story let me know! I greatly appreciate them.

Sorry for being so slow at putting this chapter up. I was sick, had a bunch of homework and tests, basketball, and getting ready for Christmas. I know: excuses, excuses. But what can I say? Hahaa.

I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday! -xoxo Evey