Hello everyone! Here is your weekly instalment. It comes with a caution though: I'm afraid, you will have to make this one last. I'm going on holiday next week, so I won't be updating for some time.

I don't own twilight, SM does. I do however own a new PC, which –after hours and hours of work (another reason why there won't be another chapter this weekend) – has finally given up its resistance to working as it should.

Have fun reading and leave me lots of reviews to go on with… have to admit I'm also a little stuck here…

13

Bella's POV

I was so mad at Edward for not explaining what was going on, that I would have ripped him apart if I could. I was equally mad at not being able to reach Jasper. I wanted to talk to him and thank him. Yes, and ask him how he had done it, but I didn't have his cell-phone number and calling the Cullen house just did not look like a good idea with both the doc and Edward trying to keep me away from him.

At least I did not have a lot of time to brood over the whole thing on the weekend: Saturday morning meant cleaning, washing and cooking, then homework – somehow there was quite a lot of that – and in the evening I was at a movie night at Mike Newton's house with Angela, Jessica and the rest of the gang.

On Sunday Charlie took me along to the reservation again; he said that Jake had specifically asked for me to come along, so I prepared another pie and we had a lot of fun with the Blacks. Jake's elder sister was there, and it felt like home in a way to be with them again. In the afternoon we took a walk on the beach, and Jake and I fell into talking about school and stuff. Somehow the topic of the Cullens came up, and he grinned. "So are you keeping away from the dangerous people, Bella? I mean, you don't need any more trouble than your usual clumsiness, right?"

"Huh? Why would you think they are dangerous? Charlie really likes the doc and his wife."

"Ehm", he made a waving 'I'm on the inside' movement with his hands and went to throw another bit of driftwood back into the sea.

"Oh come on, Jake, that's not fair", I moaned pouting.

"I'm not supposed to talk about that anyway", he kicked a pebble furiously.

"Hey, what's gotten into you?" It was not like my sunny-tempered old friend to be moody and aggressive.

"Oh, man, just friend trouble." Suddenly it all spilled out of him, how Paul, Embry and Quil were missing school and spending time with an older Quileute, Sam Uley, and how they were acting as if they were superior to him.

I knew this must be hard for Jake, who had little to no alternatives for finding friends on the reservation and comforted him. When that did not work, I tried to distract him. "What's the big secret about the dangerous people then? You know, with all my clumsiness, I might need a heads-up or it will be my ruin." I looked up through my eyelashes at him and flashed him a smile like Jasper's.

I had not expected my attempt at flirting to work – I had so little practice at that sort of thing, and Jacob and I had been friends since kindergarten – but it did. Jake snorted and sat down on a tree trunk, bleached to skeleton whiteness and started talking in a mysterious storyteller's voice. He told me how the Quileute are said to have descended from wolves and how they could still turn into wolves when the tribe was in danger. He said that the only challenge for those wolves protecting the tribe were the cold ones, evil creatures looking like human beings but made of stone, which sucked the lifeblood out of their prey.

"Ok, but what is the connection to the Cullens?"

"Well, my great-grandfather, Ephraim Black, made a treaty with them."

"Huh?"

"The Quileute warriors found them and wanted to destroy them, but their leader convinced the Chief that they were not dangerous. So they came to an arrangement: the Cullens would not set foot on the reservation, and we would not tell the palefaces what they really were."

"Whoa, wait! How could the doc and his wife have met your great-granddad? They look barely thirty. Besides, they must be different Cullens, they moved down here from Alaska two years ago."

Jake shrugged and put on the mysterious voice again. "Moved or… came back." Then he shook himself, got up and pulled me with him. "It's just old stories anyway; there are lots of those around." Then he grinned mischievously. "Don't worry, Bella, as long as you are here with me you are absolutely safe from them."

"That's comforting, because I sit next to them in class for the better part of the day", I scoffed and laughed it off in order not to make him suspicious.

I was deep in thought when we drove home that night. Jake's stories had certainly set my mind spinning. Beautiful cold creatures that drank people's blood? The Cullens vampires? I shook my head at myself, but as soon as I was in my room, I started my computer anyway and began researching vampires. What I came up with – apart from the expected trash – surprisingly actually fit my experience with Jasper and Edward quite well: The speed, the strength, the white cold skin, the beauty and the attraction, not to mention the fact that I had never seen them eat or drink anything. There was a big but however: Surely vampires could not become doctors, unless the moved around quickly when their patients started dying, and Charlie had not told me about any recent mass murder in Forks.

And, I thought sarcastically when I shut down the computer two hours later and yawned my way to bed, there was an even bigger obstacle to the whole idea: There was no such thing as vampires in the real world. Great, yes, I knew that, but then how did Jasper get to me and how did he push the van away? Jake's stories kept haunting me deep into the night, and the next morning I felt as if I had not slept at all.

To top it all, it seemed as if it was "Annoy Bella Day". It started with a note by Edward, not asking so much but ordering me to try to switch places with his sister. He had handed it to me just before the start of the lesson, and when I looked at it after the lesson, I must have made an exasperated noise, because the next moment I found Jasper looking at me interestedly. He had arrived after the teacher that day, and there had not yet been an opportunity to thank him for Friday, so I turned to him and said my thank-you.

He just smiled back at me and waved my thanks away. My heart must have missed a beat when he turned his smile on me – how does he do that? – and I completely forgot that I had meant to ask him how he had saved me. The next moment I thought I heard him make that growling noise again, and he was gone with his siblings.

"Hey, Bella", I suddenly heard another voice next to me. "Bella? Are. You. There?"

"What?" I realised that I had been staring at Jasper's empty place while Eric was trying to attract my attention.

"I thought that maybe you didn't know about Spring Dance and wondered if you would like to come with me?"

"Dancing? Eh, no thank you, Eric, I don't think I will be here that weekend anyway. Sorry!" I grabbed my things and went to the next classroom in a hurry. Once there I saw Jasper having a heated debate with Edward and Alice, but they were speaking so low I could not find out what it was about. I suspected however that it had to do with the note. Wait! Had he read my note? Grrr! I would show him I did not need him to do my talking for me.

With firm steps I made my way to the arguing Cullens, stumbling only twice, and stopped right in front of Edward. "I am more than capable of handling my own affairs. Don't stick your nose where it isn't wanted."

Edward's face was priceless, and Alice giggled – a very funny sound – and Jasper rewarded me with another of his breathtaking smiles. This time though I had come prepared. I waited until we were both settled at our table before turning to him. "The same goes for you: don't read my stuff!" His smile vanished, and in its place was an expression so pained briefly that I almost started comforting him, but he just put on a blank face again and drawled "Sorry to have annoyed you, Ma'am" in a southern accent that sounded as if it had come from a western movie.

I rolled my eyes and pretended to concentrate on the lesson.

For the next two periods we kept to silence. At lunch Jasper stayed by my side and steered me to a small table after loading up a tray with all sorts of health food. I shrugged and grabbed an apple and a soda.

"You're going to eat all this?" I asked, pointing to the food.

"No, you are", he said determinedly.

"Excuse me?"

"You can't live off hardly any breakfast and an apple; you're going to make yourself sick." He pushed the tray to my side of the table.

"Unlike you, who live on love and thin air, right?" I might have smirked a little.

He bit down a smile. "Something like that."

"Will you explain what happened on Friday?"

Self-consciousness flickered across his face. "I saved your life. You're welcome."

"Don't garnish your prose with too much detail."

"Didn't Edward already tell you? I'm a monster who wants to kill you for his own gratification. Only he stopped me from dragging you away to Monster Central to make you my slave." Sarcasm now, aha.

"He did, but what do you really want with me?"

His eyes – black again – were boring into me, the painful expression back on his face. "What if he was right, and I wanted to take you away from your friends and family to be with me?"

Every fibre in my body told me to say yes to his question, but at that moment I was just scared out of my mind, completely freaked out. "I… I don't know what you mean, Jasper. I hardly know you, and you're not giving me any answers… I'm not sure…"

"Bella, are you ok?" Mike Newton was standing next to the table looking down at me with a look of concern.

"Yes, thanks, Mike." I looked at Jasper and saw that same look of hatred pointed at Mike that he had given Edward on Friday. Mike staggered back at once. "It's ok, man, I was just asking her a question." He left for his usual place.

"What was that just now?" I asked quite sharply.

"N-nothing", Jasper stuttered.

"Can you leave my friends alone?"

"I'm not doing anything." Said in a threatening way.

"You know what? They are right. You are seriously deranged." I got up. "I have some work at the library. I left him sitting alone.

I barely got out of the door when he was near me again – still moving really fast. "Bella, I'm sorry. I did not mean to be so… possessive. I'm not a jerk like that usually."

I sighed and let him follow me to the picnic tables outside. "Will you give me some answers then?"

"It's not as easy as you think", he started.

I rolled my eyes, but when I looked into his face again, I did not see Edward's superior smugness but only fear and pain. I wanted nothing more than wrap my arms around him and comfort him. Hmmm, to be that close to him… My mind trailed off, and before I could ask how I could make him better, he started talking again. "I'm afraid you would despise me, and I could not live with you thinking I was disgusting… it's…"

Was he telling me he loved me in an extremely roundabout way? I could not imagine finding him disgusting – he was the most gorgeous man I'd ever seen. "Why would I do that? I really like you and …"

An angry outburst interrupted what could most likely have become my first attempt at confessing love to a man.

"Damn it, Jasper, why do you have to act like that?" Edward was with us, looking so angry that I was afraid he would rip himself apart like Rumpelstilzken.

The other Cullens appeared behind him with Alice bringing up the rear.

I blushed furiously, and the next second Jasper was in front of me in some kind of crouching stand. I could see his muscles under the fabric of his shirt, he was as tense as a coiled spring.

"Hey, you two, knock it off!" The big burly brother had stepped in between Edward and Jasper. "Calm down!"

It looked like the brothers were having a conversation, but I couldn't hear a word. "Hi, Bella, are they acting up again?" Alice asked in her high chiming voice.

"Actually, Jasper and I were trying to have a private conversation, before Edward butted in", I answered loud enough for Edward to hear.

Obviously that was the moment the bell rang, and we had to go to class, unfortunately that meant I was leaving with Edward. "Can you keep out of my business?" I hissed at him just before Banner came in.

"You have no idea what you are getting yourself into, and I have to protect you", he answered arrogantly and concentrated on his book.

I swear that boy is so infuriating that I'm wondering how he got to grow up to seventeen.

And it looked as if my troubles were far from over yet. At the end of the lesson, Mike came up to me to walk me to gym. Edward came along, surely to warn me against Jasper again, I thought exasperatedly. How could I hammer it into his mind that I did not need his warnings? Mike interrupted my musings halfway to the gym: "Hey, Arizona, what would you think of going to the Spring Dance with me?"

The next daring idiot – this place must be teeming with brave but small-minded boys, and really of all people Mike should know better, he saw me doing sports regularly. I was still thinking what to say to his offer, when Edward's snobby voice cut in. "Sorry, Newton, that won't be possible. She's going with me!"

I was speechless – but only for a short time. Then I exploded: "You are clearly delusional, Edward Cullen, if you're thinking I have agreed to go anywhere with you. Even if I was here that weekend – which I'm not – I would not take you up on this …offer, presumption, or whatever you think that is. You should definitely learn where you're wanted and where not. Go dance with yourself!" I turned to Mike. "Sorry, I won't be here, but you should really ask Jessica, I know she wants to go with you." Then I left them standing and went to the girls locker rooms. From the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of Jasper throwing his head back and laughing contagiously. Oh dear, I must have spoken quite loud. I rushed into the building to get out of sight, blushing furiously and only glad that Edward was not in my gym class.

For once the sixty minutes of gym passed quickly, Jasper was in a hilarious mood and fooled around like a March hare with me and the people on our team, which meant we were all almost rolling on the floor with laughter.

We were still holding our sides when we got out, and by now I'm sure my whole research thing was in vain. Jake must have been having me on. Vampires can't be as funny as that.