02 | NEW BLOOD |

edited : 7/9/2020

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"HELLO RORY, I'M ALICE. Alice Cullen."

Alice Cullen was possibly the closest being alive to a real life pixie. She was a tiny girl with black hair cropped in a typically boyish cut, but Alice pulled the look off flawlessly. Literally. Rory couldn't see one pore or line or hint of redness on Alice's excited face. I'll have to ask her what foundation she uses, damn. The most interesting feature about Alice though, besides her short stature and perfect porcelain skin, were the pure golden irises of Alice's almond-shaped eyes. Gold contacts? Trendy...

The tiny, hyperactive teenage girl beamed at Rory. "I've been so keen to finally meet you!" The phrasing was just a tad off, enough for Rory to notice, but the melodious sound of Alice's voice thwarted further deliberation of her strangeness.

Rory looked to her three new friends whose startled expressions didn't offer any explanation. They didn't say anything to Alice, who was clearly more interested in speaking to Rory than any of the others.

"Nice to meet you, too, Alice Cullen." Rory raised her brow in interest. "How'd you know I go by Rory?" It was strange she had automatically known to call her by her nickname as everyone else had just known her name was Aurora.

Alice's smile didn't waver at Rory's suspicion, though it seemed to grow in mirth and amusement. "Call it a feeling."

Then again, none of the group had been exactly quiet and other people were obviously eavesdropping. Maybe word just got around fast in this school.

Eric was the first of the three to break free of their silence. He looked from Rory to Alice dubiously. "Oh, uh, it's okay, you don't have to take Rory to class. I was actually going to—"

"—nonsense! I have AP Spanish right now and you three will be late to Jenkins. He's not in a good mood today or so I hear," Alice said charmingly. Alice assured the three that she and Rory would be just fine. "Well, come on now, Rory. You have to meet J—" Alice paused briefly, "—Señora Cardoza, she's great!"

Rory completely missed Alice's slip as she glanced back at the others to find an array of panic due to the final bell quickly approaching. "I guess I'll see you guys later."

It was a small school. There was no doubt she'd end up in at least one of their classes before lunch.

"Ok, bye Rory..." they said, hesitantly making their way to class, albeit casting suspicious glances at Rory's new tour guide.

As Rory and Alice walked off, the trio of friends groaned in shared exasperation.

"Ugh. And the Cullens strike again," Eric groaned with a sigh. "What is it with the Cullen family and new girls?"

"First Bella, now Rory." Mike was just as exasperated. "Leave some for the rest of us, Cullens!" he said dramatically as if the alienated classmates were all listening.

"Wonder where Alice's shadow went," Jessica contemplated as they speedily walked to their physics class. "They're usually attached at the hip."

"The new girls are too new to Forks to realize just how much of a bunch of weirdos they really are," Mike snorted. "I don't expect Rory to get too caught up though. Edward was the only single one left of the freaks. Unless one of the couple's are into polygamy."

"First off, it'd be polyamory," Eric corrected him, "Second—."

"Seriously?" Jessica interrupted them before they could continue further with a reprimanding grimace. "Don't be disgusting!"

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Alice was practically bouncing on her heels as Rory followed her down the mostly empty halls. Someone was really excited for AP Spanish even though they had definitely just missed the final bell. Alice didn't seem very bothered.

"How do you like Forks so far? Have you been around? The shopping's not much here, but Port Angeles is nearby, and Seattle is a little bit of a drive away if you're ever up for it," Alice rambled, throwing Rory question after question.

"Forks is a cute town. It's very different from San Antonio—where I'm from. My mom and I just got to town yesterday, so I haven't had time to go around or anything," Rory answered each question swiftly. "I do have to go shopping for a new wardrobe. I'm used to shorts and crop top weather by this time."

"We'll have to go for a weekend soon then. Seattle if the weather's not too bad," Alice said surely, her voice pausing as her golden eyes unfocused briefly before brightening again. "Two weekends from now will be perfect."

Rory didn't bother questioning Alice's oddly specific plans and weather predictions. She was bemused at the dark haired girl's confidence in their budding friendship. She also felt a sense of relief that every person she had met so far was unexpectedly genuinely friendly. It was a nice change.

"Why were they so surprised back there?" Rory asked, thinking back to the trio's matching expressions of shock at Alice's company. "It's like you never spoke to them before or something."

Alice shrugged. "I don't have much in common with them."

"And we do?"

That gleam in Alice's eyes appeared again. "Trust me, Rory. I have a very good feeling that we will soon enough."

Alice was incredibly cryptic, but Rory liked that about her.

Finally stopping before a classroom at the end of the painted cinder block hallway, her self-imposed guide was almost shaking with excitement for some reason at whatever or whoever was behind the door. She entered first with Rory trailing behind, dreading the beginning of classes.

Alice grinned at the teacher who had stopped talking at their interruption. The older Afro-Latina teacher held a brief look of annoyance on her face at their tardiness, which faded as Alice explained—in impressive Spanish—the circumstances, gesturing to Rory's tense form beside her.

Being abandoned at the front of the classroom once Alice continued to the back of the room, Rory shuffled her weight on her feet as she felt the eyes of every student on her.

"¡Bienvenido! Soy la Señora Cardoza!" [tr.: Welcome! I am Señora Cardoza!] She shook Rory's hand and gestured broadly to the class. "Por favor preséntese a la clase, Señorita Aden!" [tr.: Please introduce yourself to the class, Ms. Aden!]

Rory cleared her throat and raised her eyes to the class. Immediately her breath caught her throat because in the next to the window and three rows down from the front was the most unbelievably gorgeous being Rory had ever seen. And that was including Zac Efron.

[or insert token celebrity crush here]

The gorgeous boy—no, man—with honey blond waves sat next to Alice, who was beaming as bright as the sun as she glanced from Rory to him. Like Alice, the mysterious man had pale skin. He looked crafted from marble like Michaelangelo himself. The heavily diffused, cloud-filtered light even helped to light up his sculpted features so ethereally, it was like he was frozen in time.

From the form fitting forest green button down he wore, he was well-defined in the muscle department, with his broad shoulders and bicep. He wasn't burly and brawny like the football players she used to be surrounded by, but he was lean and wiry. Like a track-star or baseball player.

He was staring right at her. With bright golden eyes.

Hm, maybe it really was some sort of trend?

Her nerves returned with a flurry and a flutter. The golden eyes of the honey haired boy were trained carefully on her like she was prey and he was the apex predator. She couldn't break away from his lionlike gaze, his bright golden eyes were twin suns, the gravity of his stare pulling her into a black hole.

Rory Aden knew from then on that this golden god of a man was a very, very bad decision. It would probably be best to stay far, far away from him, but Rory always made them anyways. She couldn't help herself.

A poignant cough from Señora Cardoza broke her stare off with the mysterious golden boy and Rory's eyes returned to the rest of the class. Some of them had noticed her train of sight and seemed to share the same sentiments as well—who could blame the new girl? They had all reacted the same way when the Cullens had shown up to Forks three years ago.

Falling back into reality, Rory flawlessly introduced herself to the class and from Señora Cardoza's squeal, there weren't many natural Spanish speakers in Forks high school.

Glad I'm bringing something to the town besides heavy baggage and a broken family, she thought bitterly.

Señora Cardoza instructed her to pick whatever empty seat was available. A few friendly faces seemed eager to have the new girl sit near them, but in the last row, Alice was pointing a manicured index finger to the seat directly behind the mysterious blond.

Señora Cardoza began her lecture again as Rory found herself sliding past the desks. As she passed Alice and her happy grin, she noticed the blond boy firmly kept his gaze to the front of the class and refused to look at her. He didn't offer her a friendly smile like every other person in the room she passed. He completely ignored her even. Ouch.

As she settled in the creaky wooden desk behind him, she noticed how he remained rigid like a statue with how tense he was. She wondered what his problem could be, maybe he was a snob or something. She considered scoliosis. Either way, he was obviously uncomfortable by her presence, which was disheartening.

A half hour passed and Rory found herself fully bored of the lesson. She had already finished the unit on book analysis back in Texas, so there wasn't any real need to pay attention. Alice was also in agreement as she turned in her seat to face Rory.

"I'm so glad you decided to sit with us," Alice whispered. "We're going to be great friends."

Rory smiled indulgently. "Not like I had much of a choice. You probably would have yelled across the room to talk to me if I decided to sit elsewhere."

Meanwhile, Jasper concentrated his entire being on keeping his bloodlust under strict, difficult control.

"Where are you going?" He had asked Alice when she decided to leave him alone in the classroom five minutes before the final bell. It always made him anxious to be completely surrounded by humans.

"Don't worry, Jazz," she reassured him, a twinkle in her eyes. "You'll see."

"Oh no."

She was dangerous. The girl who had walked in with Alice. And the most beautiful person he had ever seen before in nearly two centuries of immortality.

Jasper practically tasted Alice's excitement and anticipation from his seat as she walked in and Jasper knew she had had a vision about the new girl and him.

Fantastic.

He knew it was best not to argue with Alice, she was quite determined when she wanted something. But when the different emotions he felt from his classmates faded away into the background, he was hit with strangest realization about the new girl.

He tilted his head slightly as he peered at the girl standing before the whole class as she introduced herself.

The abyss of her emotional state overwhelmed him. She seemed to be feeling every end of the emotional spectrum in that very moment, all while smiling as if everything was normal. It definitely wasn't for her. In fact, she was feeling so much emotion, it was difficult for Jasper to read her, giving him a minor headache as he tried to sort through the internal chaos within Aurora Aden. He tried to manipulate her emotional state, but that momentous wall of hatred, sadness, elation, hope, and countless other feelings refused to budge even the littlest bit. It was like a brick wall. He couldn't control her emotions, let alone his.

He was fucked.

And ever since that moment, Jasper had been careful to not dare breathe or stare at the girl, not wanting to freak her out or accidentally attack her. He didn't do well with humans so close to him and the feel of her light exhaled across his back made him even more alert to the girl's too close presence. If Jasper had no control over some human's emotions and couldn't use his abilities, there was no telling on his control over his bloodlust.

He was fucked.

Now, Alice was trying to force him to lose control by making the girl, Rory, sit behind him and trying to get him to talk to her. No fucking way. Sitting in front of her was hard enough, speaking to her would potentially be a blood bath.

When he didn't take her hint, Alice rolled her eyes. Typical. She had to do everything herself.

"That's Jasper by the way," Alice whispered to Rory, flourishing her hand toward the statue-like blond.

Jasper. So that was his name.

Rory waited for him to greet her with what she assumed was Fork's sweet hospitality. But he continued to stare at the chalkboard instead.

She attempted to wave off Jasper's surprising coldness. She didn't want him to be forced to talk to her, as hurtful as his brush off was. However, Alice' gaze narrowed in annoyance at his rudeness.

"It seems he has left his manners at home. Wait until I tell Esme."

Jasper stiffened even more if possible. Alice stared him down. He could practically hear the never ending lecture she would give him when she got the chance. "What are you up to now, Alice?" Jasper asked at a volume too low for human ears.

Alice had never forced him to become friends with their classmates before, it was difficult enough for him to be in the constant vicinity of humans he had seen as walking blood bags for decades. And it had only been three years since he accidentally slipped up in the last town they had lived in. He was on a streak.

The girl was beyond tempting in all manners of the word. The monster inside of him had already engineered a plan—all it would take was a captivating smile, a suggestion to someplace private, and that burning thirst would be quenched. He forced the bloodthirsty beast back into the abyss by hyper-focusing on the faint blue lines on his notebook paper, calming down before Edward had to intercede. His brother was most likely listening in.

I'm all good now, I won't harm her...can't say the same for our dear sister though. Jasper prided himself on his control—over emotions, his bloodlust, himself. She unnerved him. He didn't like it.

Rory arched her brow at the hint of the relationship between Jasper and Alice. They were certainly close if Alice knew his mother well enough to threaten him with, Rory assumed. It was a matter of discerning whether their intimidation was platonic or not. Disappointed for some reason, she knew it was probably the latter.

Alice gave Jasper an exasperated look. "Say something to her. You'll be fine, Jazz," she whispered back insistently, confident in this outcome as things were going just as planned as in her vision.

With a visible sigh, which Rory watched his well-formed back muscles contract and release beneath his shirt, Jasper shifted in his seat to face her slowly and cautiously. Alice reflexively reached a hand across the aisle to his arm encouragingly.

They must be together, Rory concluded, observing their closeness bitterly. She tried to slay the ugly green-eyed monster that had made it's grand entrance deep within her while she posed a smile at the pair, mistaking the display as one of affection, not of support. She wasn't sure why she was having such an extreme reaction to this man, this immediate attraction sprung from a single look, when he obviously didn't want anything to do with her.

The reticent blond slowly turned to face her and she was struck once more by his startling flawlessness. He couldn't be human. But he was. Perhaps he didn't possess any visible physical flaws, but some people masked them better than most. It only made her even more suspicious and interested. Shit.

As if not noticing her internal struggle to regain normalcy, Jasper bowed his head slightly to her. "My sincerest apologies. I've never been the best at making introductions. I'm Jasper Hale. It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Aden."

He only intended to introduce himself to appease his sister's badgering and return to the teacher's lecture to distract himself from his thirst.

Then, the girl smiled at him and Jasper was really fucked.

Rory managed to look somewhat unaffected by his looks despite not being able to breathe properly. He spoke like three sentences to her and she had butterflies. She tried to smother them though as Jasper was probably Alice's boyfriend by the looks of things and Rory was certainly no home wrecker.

Her heart skipped a beat. She didn't miss the undeniable southern twang to his deep, soothing voice she could listen to forever maybe. He reminded her of Texas and that ol' southern charm. One corner of his pink lips was raised up slightly as his onyx eyes met hers. No, Rory. Bad Rory. He's with Alice.

"It's, uh, fine. Yeah, and it's Aurora Aden, not Miss Aden. I mean Rory. Call me Rory, please. Nice to meet you Jasper," Rory stammered through as her heart pounded in her chest. She couldn't help the hot rush of crimson heat in her cheeks either. This wasn't like her. She felt like she was going through an out-of-body experience.

"Likewise," he responded to her statement, staring deeply into her eyes. "Welcome to Forks."

"You, too. I mean, thanks."

Rory couldn't have been any more obvious of her state of panic, but she had no idea Jasper was in the same boat as her.

Jasper had no idea what to do. He usually relied on his empathic ability to guide him through conversations, especially with humans to make sure they weren't too uncomfortable by his intimidating aura. And Rory, just the sound of her voice, her vanilla-honey scent, her eyes, was overwhelming.

Jasper quickly glanced at Alice who was all too amused at this development, she probably foresaw this happening and wanted him to handle it. Oh, maybe this was a test for him. A difficult, tempting, very beautiful test. Jasper looked back at the girl—Rory.

Rory looked into his eyes again. Something was different.

When she first walked into the classroom, his eyes had been an impossibly golden hue like Alice's. She had thought it was some obscure Forks trend to have gold contacts, but up close she could tell he wasn't wearing any. And now they were a dark onyx shade. How peculiar.

She kept from speaking out her observation because she didn't want to sound like a suspicious twat to only find out it was a trick of the light or that she was just crazy and imagining things.

"You should sit with us at lunch, Rory," Alice invited her serendipitously, her chin resting on the palm of her hand with humor playing in her eyes.

Jasper darted his dark eyes at Alice angrily and she glared in return.

Okay, maybe Rory read the signals wrong.

She thought his hard exterior had softened, but she guessed it was just for show. He probably thought she was a bitch, she had been told she gives off that persona in public settings. Even if she had done nothing to him, perhaps he was just an asshole. Not to mention she would be intruding on Alice and Jasper's friend group. Jasper didn't want her sitting near him any longer than he had to in this class. At least she still had the other friends she had made, Alice had invited her first...plus, annoying Jasper even more seems only fair. Rory used to be known for being spiteful and petty; she had hoped to retire that person, but it comes in handy when dealing with rude assholes.

"Sure. If Eric and the others don't drag me along first." Rory said with a shrug. "Or we can all just sit together."

Alice and Jasper glanced at each other. Rory could have sworn their mouths had moved, but she blinked and missed it.

Something was lost in translation as Alice seemed to daze off once more. "We'll see," Alice said finally.

Rory shrugged and returned her attention back on the teacher who somehow didn't notice their obvious conversation despite the rest of the class attempting to eavesdrop and cast quick discrete looks at them.

Rory could feel Jasper's penetrating gaze still on her but she didn't dare to look back. She knew he was probably criticizing her. She wasn't anything close to their perfect gorgeousness and Rory had a strange inkling that their other friends were on par as well. Pretty people tended to stick together. Rory knew that well enough. It's probably why Eric and the others were so stunned by Alice's appearance in the hall.

Rory's well constructed facade made it's appearance once more. She finally remembered why she hated high school. Everyone judged you.

When the bell rang, Rory followed the horde out into the crowded hallway with great reluctance. It was unlikely Alice and her would have the next class together. According to the lady in the front office, unlike AP Spanish, her math class would be full of mostly seniors. Her entire schedule was really like that—in Warren high, her school in San Antonio, she had liked taking rigorous coursework, especially if it meant the sooner she could graduate. It wasn't much of a problem when she was popular and well-known. In a new town, it felt even more isolating. It would've been nice to have known someone else in the class, even if Alice Cullen was a very interesting person.

"You have Calc II next, right Rory?"

Rory looked beside her where Alice had appeared right beside her. She flinched at the unexpected closeness, appreciating when Alice discreetly gave her some space.

"Uh, yes. I do. Apparently I'm not too far away since Cardoza's was 133 and Calc should be 126..." She glanced down at her schedule lying on top of the notebook in her arms and to the direction where classroom numbers began to decline.

Alice grinned. "Well, I'm afraid I'm not that smart for Calc II, but Jasper over here is," she called out, looking as devious as the Cheshire Cat when the incredibly tall blond froze in his steps, caught heading in the definitively opposite direction from their apparently shared math class.

Rory narrowed her eyes at the mute teenager who reluctantly joined her side with a grim look on his painfully handsome face.

"Well, I'm off to art class!" Alice waved with a mischievous grin. "See you later, Rory." She began skipping away.

"Yeah. Right."

Jasper and Rory were left in awkward silence. He stared at her blankly and then promptly continued down the hall, leading the way to their class Calc.

Rory tried not to think of the small distance between them or how tall he loomed over her.

The funny thing was that Jasper had been thinking of that as well.

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