Extended Family
Chapter 1- Gossip Travels Fast
Jane POV
I ignored the stares that I felt on my back as I ate my chips. I stared out of the window and contemplated the conversation I had just had with Mr Marshall as I waited for Mason, Alice, Jasper and Edward to come and join me. Mason got there first. Unluckily for me.
"What the fuck?" he asked as soon as he took the chair next to me. "Jane! Why are a load of juniors coming up and congratulating me on asking you out?"
I shuffled embarrassedly under his gaze. "Um… because Jessica Stanley was saying these things… you know, it's probably better that I don't tell you what she said. Um… yeah… anyways… she said some things about you so I kind of… lied and said that you would never date her because you were taken. She asked who by and I told her that it was none of her business and called her a scheming slutty little whore. Jessica made her own assumption and I… didn't deny it…" I trailed off and then stood up, wilding fumbling for an excuse to get out of that sticky situation. "Now, if you don't mind I'm going to…"
"Not so fast." Mason didn't even give me a chance to finish my sentence. He grabbed my arm and pulled me back down on to the seat I had been sat on. "You told your whole year that we're dating?" His gorgeous greeny-blue eyes were wide with astonishment.
I would be lying if I said that his shock didn't hurt me; because it did. Obviously he was too good for me and obviously we wouldn't be dating, but was it so awful that a bunch of juniors – okay the whole junior year – thought that we were? I sighed, and fiddled with the braid I had plaited into my dark wavy hair that morning. "It was an accident!" I whined. "I didn't know that they were all listening!"
He rolled his eyes. "Jane, you were having a screaming match in the corridor; of course everyone within hearing distance was going to listen."
I pouted. "How do you know that?"
Mason shrugged and stole one of my chips. "Gossip travels fast."
My eyes narrowed. "So if you knew what had happened all along, why did you ask me?"
"I didn't know if it was true. So I had to hear it from you." He stole another chip.
"Leave my food alone," I snapped, my annoyance from his reaction to the gossip seeping through.
Mason chuckled and, instead of eating the chip, he turned it toward me and held it by my mouth.
I parted my lips and let him feed me. The tip of one of his fingers brushed against my bottom lip and my skin tingled, my face flushing slightly.
He raised an eyebrow. "Been taking blushing lessons from Bella, huh?"
"You pick these things up when you live with people," I said coolly, though we both knew that it was bullshit.
Mason watched for a moment as I ate some more chips, and then shook his head when I offered him one. "Can I ask you something?" he said after a moment.
"Go ahead." He could ask me what he wanted; getting a truthful response, however, was a different thing altogether.
"Why did you do that? Shout at Jessica for saying that she wanted to…"
"Don't repeat what she said," I interrupted him. "I've been scarred for life already."
Mason laughed. "Okay. Well, why did you do it?"
I sighed. "Because… you're my friend. And I happen to know that you hate Jessica Stanley so I… put in a good word for you." I didn't meet his eyes, fearful that he would see that my words were all lies. That, yes, he was my friend, but that I wanted him to be so much more. That he would see that I hadn't denied that we were dating because it was nice to pretend, even just for a minute.
Mason slid a finger under my chin, making my skin tingle where he touched it, and tilted my head up so that I was meeting his eyes. "Thank you. You're a really good friend to me Jane and… I want you to know that I think of you as… extended family. All of you Cullens."
I smiled half-heartedly as my heart sunk in my chest. It was the same old thing. The same old 'I love you… like a sister' thing. "Mason, you know that you pretty much are one of the family."
He opened his mouth to respond, but a high soprano-like voice chimed in ahead of him. "Hey love-birds," Alice sang as she sat down opposite us. Jasper took his place next to her, putting her tray down in front of her, always the chivalrous gentleman.
"You heard, huh?" Mason asked, dropping his hand instantly and running it through his dark floppy hair.
Alice rolled her eyes. "Hasn't everyone? After Edward, you're the most-wanted guy in the school… and now everyone thinks that you're taken." She met my eyes and I could see the hidden meaning in their ice blue depths. Alice and Bella were the only people that knew about my unrequited crushing on Mason.
I had admitted it to Alice one night just a few weeks after I had been generously adopted into the Cullen family; and she was incapable of keeping secrets from Bella. I wasn't too happy about that. See, Bella and I didn't get on all that well. Not because I didn't like her – even though I didn't, really – but just because she was fun to tease. So I teased her. Admittedly, quite a lot. She was kinda sensitive, though that could have had something to do with the fact that she was already two months pregnant when I came along. She didn't need to worry about that though. Her knight in shining armour always came to her defence. That was the main reason why I didn't like her.
I wasn't jealous – I liked Mason – but Edward was like the brother I had never had. And when he had turned up at boarding school and bunked in the room next door to me, I had seen how broken he was. It frustrated me that she could hurt him so badly and that he would take her back so easily. Sure, it had been a misunderstanding, and, yes, they were in love but… I still felt that he deserved more than a whiny girl whose affections hadn't strayed when he had left without speaking to her; not that it hadn't been for trying.
Yes, the fact that she had kissed Mason more than once also contributed to the tiny grudge I held against her.
Alice cleared her throat then, pulling me back to the present. "Speaking of Edward… where is he?"
I looked around and realised that he wasn't anywhere to be seen in the canteen. I frowned. "I thought he was with you guys?"
"No," Jasper said, "we had Spanish and he had a free period."
"Maybe he went home for the free and lunch? To see Bella?" Mason suggested.
"Probably," Alice agreed. She speared a piece of tuna pasta with her fork. "You know, the baby turned the other day. That means that it'll be here soon." A huge smile spread across her face. "I'm gonna be an auntie."
"Me too," I said, one side of my mouth lifting. "Kinda."
"Jane, you're as related to this child as I am," Alice said, her quirked brow warning me not to get started on this subject again.
"Just not by blood," I muttered, loud enough only for Mason to hear.
He reached for my hand under the table, and squeezed it reassuringly.
I looked up into his eyes and saw the sympathy in them. I smiled at him and squeezed his hand back before he extracted it and used it to nab another chip from my plate. I laughed.
Sometimes, I forgot how much I really liked Mason Roberts.
I met Alice by her canary yellow Porsche (she had received it as a belated birthday present from Edward, Mason, Bella, Jasper and I the previous July) a few hours later. I didn't fail to notice that Edward's Volvo had disappeared from the space it should have been occupying beside it. Neither did Alice.
"Has Edward gone already?" she asked as soon as she came to my side after saying a long – and rather explicit – goodbye to Jasper.
"I guess so," I replied, chucking my bag over my shoulder and into the back as I climbed into the passenger seat. "Did you have any lessons with him this afternoon?"
"No," she said. "Maybe he stayed home with Bella?"
"Yeah, maybe," I mumbled, reaching for the radio and turning it up so loud that the volume rocked the frame of the car when a good song came on. A lot of people stared as we drove out of the car park, but when I searched for the one person I cared about, I saw him talking to Angela Weber from his class, completely disinterested in the noisy attention-grabbing car that passed him by.
I sighed.
"Edward?" Alice called the moment the door slammed behind her.
I kicked off my shoes, ditched my bag on the floor, and headed for the kitchen to grab a coke out of the fridge while Alice headed up the stairs to find her brother. "Hey Esme," I said to my 'adopted' Mum as I pushed the fridge door shut and took a long gulp from the can of coke I had cracked open.
"Hi sweetie," she said from where she sat at the table, playing nervously with her fingers. "Did you have a good day?"
"Yeah," I replied slowly, hearing the nerves in her tone. "What's going on?"
"Mum!" Alice hollered from upstairs. "Where's Edward? And Bella?" Her voice quietened as she came into the kitchen and grabbed a coke from the fridge as well.
Esme watched her daughter with a soft smile. "You guys shouldn't drink so much coke; it's bad for your teeth." Then she turned serious. "Um… Edward and Bella are… at the hospital."
Alice spluttered into her coke in shock. I patted her on the back with a giggle.
"What?" Alice exclaimed when she had finished choking. "Is she…?"
Esme nodded. "Yes, Alice, she's fine. He just decided to come a little earlier than expected, that's all."
"That's where Edward was," Alice realised.
"Have you spoken to him?" I asked.
"Yes, he called about an hour ago. Everything's fine so far; no complications yet."
"How was he?" That was Alice.
Esme laughed lightly. "He sounded like he was tearing his hair out. He told me some of the things Bella had threatened to do to him and they really weren't very nice." She laughed again, and then cringed at a memory. "I don't blame her though. Childbirth really is the most painful…"
"Mum!" Alice interrupted. "TMI!"
Esme stared at her blankly. "TMI?"
"Too much information," I filled her in with a snigger.
"You kids and your abbreviations."
Alice started bouncing in her chair then; and she had only had two gulps of coke. "This is so exciting! I'm going to be an auntie." Then she frowned slightly. "I'm too young to be an auntie."
"I'm too young to be an auntie!" I pointed out. "I'm only sixteen."
"Nearly seventeen." Alice poked her tongue out at me childishly.
"You girls think you've got it bad? I'm forty-three and I'm gonna be a grandma," Esme chuckled.
"Bella's eighteen and she's gonna be a Mum," Alice countered.
"Edward's seventeen and he's gonna be a Dad," I said. We all were quiet then, thinking of Bella and Edward and the tiny little baby. I wondered what they would call him. They had told us that they had a name in mind but they had kept it completely under wraps. Nobody knew but Edward and Bella. Then, I wondered what it would be like having a baby in the house. Whether he would be annoying, and noisy, and smelly, or whether he would be cute, and content, and entertaining. Even if he was a disappointment, it would be funny watching Edward try to put diapers on him, I supposed. And watching Bella attempt to hold the baby without dropping him.
I was sure she that wouldn't drop him, but that would be something else fun to tease her about.
"Whatever you're thinking of doing," Alice said then, "don't."
"What?" I asked innocently.
"I know that evil little smirk, Jane Kylee Cullen." Alice raised her eyebrows at me, knowing how much I hated my middle name. "And I know that you're thinking of something mean- so don't even go there."
I pouted and was about to start arguing with Alice, when Esme spoke first.
"Speaking of evil tendencies," she said slowly, "I got a call from a certain Mr Marshall this afternoon, regarding you Jane."
I groaned. "He said he wasn't going to punish me for that!"
"He told me that he let it slide, yes," Esme agreed, "but Jane, calling someone a… what was it?"
"Scheming, slutty whore," I muttered.
"Yes, calling someone that cannot be condoned, Jane. Please try and keep those names inside your head."
"She started it." I took another gulp of coke.
"That doesn't matter. You're a Cullen girl now and us Cullens are… more ladylike than that."
The three of us were quiet for a moment, and then we all burst out laughing, remembering the time a few months before when a girl had called Bella a slut upon passing her and Esme had called the girl some very unladylike things.
"Mum, you are such a hypocrite!" Alice laughed.
Esme shook her head slightly and patted Alice's head, causing her to whine about Esme ruining her carefully styled, jet black, spiky hair.
"The point still stands, Jane," Esme said then, serious again. "Please don't scream the word whore in the school corridor where everyone can hear. What started this argument anyway?"
"Nothing," I lied at the same time as Alice said, "Mason, of course."
Esme smiled. "Ah."
Alice rolled her eyes. "Honestly, Jay, it's obvious you like him. He likes you too."
"Yeah, like a sister," I muttered.
"Why don't you date a guy in your year? Then he might get jealous." Alice winked at me.
I raised my eyebrows at her. "Can you imagine dating anyone who's not Jasper?"
"That's different…"
"No. It's not." I sighed and stood up, dropping my now-empty can in the bin. "I'm going to my room." I left Esme and Alice in the kitchen and headed for the stairs, picking my discarded bag up on my way past.
Technically, my bedroom was Edward's old room. But since the whole baby thing, Edward had moved to one of the free rooms on the third floor with Bella; the one next door to his 'den'. It had been agreed months ago that moving the love-birds upstairs would be the best thing to do, since that way when the baby came the two of them would be the only ones losing sleep.
I pushed the door shut behind me and sat on my bed, pulling my big scrapbook out from under the mattress. It was a huge book, a proper scrapbook with sturdy pages and binder-style edges. Each page had spaces for captions, and quotes, and photos, and drawings, and anything else you'd ever stick in a scrapbook.
I had had this book for almost three years now. Ever since my Mum had died when I was five, I had believed that Barry Grogan was my father- that was what he had always told me. But then, on my fourteenth birthday, I found this scrapbook in his office when I had raided it for the present he had failed to get me- since he had forgotten that it was my birthday. It was in a massive brown package, with my name on the top, spelt out in clear, cursive letters- Jane Kylee Marshall (my Mum's maiden name). Curiosity overpowered me, and I tore the paper off and opened the book.
There had been a letter paper-clipped to the first page. Now I had stuck it in with glue and surrounded it with a border of blue glitter. I pushed the cover open and read the letter again, even though I had memorised it years ago.
My darling Jane,
I don't know if you remember me, sweetheart, but I'm your father. It took me ages to locate you at this address after your Mum took you away from me when you were only one. I don't want you to hate your mother, not at all, but it would be great if you could persuade her to let you call me; I left you my number at the bottom of this letter.
I just want to send you this so that you know that I'm here, and I love you no matter what. I'll always be here for you and if you ever want to find me, then just ask your mother and remind her that both you and I have rights; she knows where to find me. Or call the number at the bottom of this letter.
I hope that you'll use this scrapbook to document your life- so that whenever we meet again, you can show me the things that you've done, the friends that you've made and the brilliant things I'm sure that you'll achieve.
I love you.
Dad
The phone number was directly after the brief message. I had called it instantly, but all I ever got was a woman telling me that the number was no longer in use. So I had checked the date, and found out that the package had been sent when I was six- just a year after my Mum had died.
That night, I had confronted Barry, but he denied everything for ages, repeating over and over that he was my father. When I said that I knew that he was lying, he had hit me and told me never to bring it up again. Needless to say, I hadn't.
I had treasured the scrapbook ever since I had found it, though, and read the letter everyday; it was a comfort to know that there was someone out there that had loved me once, even if I couldn't contact them. I wondered if he still loved me, and if he thought about me as often as I thought about him.
But, even though I had treasured it for so long, I hadn't documented anything in there until I had moved in with the Cullens. Before that, I didn't want to remember anything that had happened to me.
As soon as I moved to Forks, though, I had bought a camera that prints the photos you take, and got to work with my scrapbook.
Now, as I turned the pages, I could see how happy I was in my new life. There were tons of photos of Edward and Bella, Alice and Jasper, Carlisle and Esme, and even a few of Emmett and Rosalie; my new family. But the person whose photo occurred the most in my secret scrapbook had the most gorgeous green-blue eyes and almost-black hair cut in choppy, uneven layers. His bone structure was sharp and defined, and his body was toned, but not overly muscular. The thing I liked best about him, though, was his amazing smile. I practically lived to make him smile because it was so gorgeous. When the corners of his mouth turned up, his whole face smiled with him; his eyes creasing at the corners and dimples appearing in his cheeks. And every time I looked at him, my heart jumped into my throat and his name would get stuck in my head, in the same way that a catchy song does.
I sighed, and reached for the small pile of photos I had in the pocket for them at the back of the scrapbook and started to stick them down, writing careful captions underneath the photos. The next one I touched was of him and me together, gazing into each others eyes. I really liked that photo because it looked like he genuinely cared about me.
I dabbed some glue on the back, and stuck it carefully into place, grabbing the gold gel pen out of my pencil case and writing a caption on the black card:
"I think of you as… extended family"- Mason Roberts
I swallowed hard, trying to be rid of the lump in my throat as I read his words over and over again. Perhaps the constant reminder would stop me from pining after him for much longer…
Oh, who was I kidding? I was slowly but surely falling in love with my best friend; who saw me as a little sister. How stupid, and clichéd, and utterly heartbreaking.
~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~
So there you have it. And hopefully you already like this Jane. I know I do :) But, yes, she's going to remain very OOC. She's never going to turn evil :L
If you want to see what this Jane looks like, then go to my website and the pic is in the new album for this story, along with one of Mason :) If I had known that I would do a spin-off about her, then I probably wouldn't have given her Jane's character because she looks and acts completely differently but that's what I did and I can't see her with another name now :L And, no, she doesn't like Bella… but that's a part of the story ;) Besides, I can't really see Jane liking Bella anyway- can you? Lol
I don't intend on doing any EPOVs or BPOVs in this story but if there's something I feel you should know from either of their POVs it will be posted as another chapter in the outtakes.
And, before you ask, Jane thinks that Marshall is her mother's maiden name, not her father's surname. Marshall is a common surname so she doesn't make that connection… at least, not yet… ;)
Regarding updates, I don't know how frequently I will post, nor when the next update will be. I have far too many stories on the go at the moment and, admittedly, I'm being pretty stupid posting another but it's practically the summer now so I'm hoping that I will have time to do some more writing. But I will fit it in along with Foundation of Memories, Victim of a Teenage Nobody and Playing the Part and… well, we'll go from there. I might look into doing an updating schedule, but I'm really bad at sticking to schedules so that could go very badly lol
Ah, I'll see.
By the way, this title was the best I could come up with. I struggled for ages with a title and this is what happened so… yeah, it might change if I come up with anything better… :S
In the meantime, I would love some reviews? :L
Thank you so much!
-Steph
