Chapter Text
Drama
Jasper should have known better than to let Alice pick their classes for their senior year. But the man trusted her with his life… Which was now coming back to bite him in the ass. Jasper had questioned Alice immediately once he realized what class she enrolled him in. When asked, her only response to him was, “Trust me Jasper, you’re going to end up loving that class,” and when he kept pressing for more information, she would only reply with a knowing smirk and wink as she would say, “Spoilers*.”
In his defense, he didn’t even get a chance to think about it for very long before they had to leave after the fiasco that was Bella’s birthday party. Back then Alice only left him confused on why she put him into Drama class of all things. Normally, she would put him in art with her, because at least he could draw fairly well so it was an easy A for him. As well as having the other students that left him alone to do as he pleased. Never in his wildest dreams did he think Alice would do him dirty by sticking him in a class as social as this one.
Partner projects were dished out almost weekly. Thankfully though, the class had an odd number. For Jasper that was his scapegoat. Each time a partner project was dished out, he was able to get assigned to the group of three which included two theater kids who’ve been best friends since third grade. So it was easy for him to hide in the background and contribute as little work as possible. The two friends didn’t really care to do the work since they were just ecstatic to have one of “the Cullens” in their group.
As he walked through the door, he glared at the girl who was now talking to the teacher. He overheard her tell the teacher, before he walked through the door, that she was excited to be joining the class.
A new student.
Which meant the class wasn’t an odd number anymore.
Which meant Jasper would be getting a new partner.
This girl was the last person he expected to ever come to Forks. She looked like she should be living in a big city, and using daddy’s credit card to buy her whatever she wanted whenever she wanted. The color of her clothing almost hurt his eyes to look at.
Pink.
Everywhere.
She looked like Barbie and a bottle of Pepto Bismol had a love child. She wore a soft pink blouse tucked into a hot pink skirt, hot pink heels with little gems on the tips, and a long silk headband that matched to hold her hair back. Which stood out against all the pink with how jet black in color it was. It was also pin straight and long enough it covered most of her pink Louis Vuitton backpack.
‘Alice is going to have a field day with this girl…’
The thing that stood out the most was the white gloves she was wearing. He couldn’t fully see her, as her back was turned toward him, but she was very animated in the way she talked. Her hands flounced about as she spoke and caught his eye.
She sounded so sweet and genuine as she talked to the teacher, but the more she spoke the more he felt the waves of annoyance and irritation rolling off of her.
‘Fake…’
With a small roll of his eyes, Jasper went to take his seat, and as he walked by her, he took a small unneeded breath. All of a sudden he was hit with the most mouth watering scent he had ever smelled. He stilled. In less than a second, his eyes darkened, as the grip he had on the strap of his bag tightened, and immediately held his breath.
‘No…Not again…’
With how enticing she smelled to him, he was worried this was going to be an Edward and Bella situation all over again. He felt panicked as the thought started to overtake his mind. They had just come back, and now here he was about to ruin all of it again. All because of some stupid blood singer.
It was bad enough the family had to deal with the whole situation between Edward and Bella. Jasper didn’t want to add to the problem by adding another blood singer into the mix. With everything they went through to keep the little human safe for Edward’s sake, Jasper would hate to be the cause if they had to breakup… again.
The whole family knew his slip up last time was due to feeling everyone’s bloodlust on top of his own, especially Edward’s, but now… now there would be no one to blame but himself if he lost control.
“Pssst. Jasper,” he could hear Alice from three rooms down trying to get his attention, “Just go sit down. You’ll be fine.”
Jasper grew frustrated as he whispered back to her under his breath in a warning, “Alice…” He didn’t want to say too much though, in fear of accidentally taking a breath and slaughtering the the whole class.
“Please Jasper… Just trust me. Go take your seat. Everything will be alright.” She almost sounded like she was begging him to stay at this point.
‘Why should I stay? I’m risking everything by staying. If I slip up… I could end up slaughtering everyone in this room. Then we’d have to move again… would it be worth it though…. Possibly… but Esme would be disappointed if I did…”
Jasper’s internal struggle was interrupted when he heard a small twinkling giggle coming from the bane of his existence that took up space behind him.
Reluctantly, Jasper slowly made his way to his assigned seat and kept his head down as he placed his bag under his desk. As the other students made their way to their seats, he felt his hands curl into tight fists as he felt the on slot of emotions hit him upon his classmates seeing the new girl.
Excitement.
Anxiety.
Jealousy.
And teenage hormones. All bundled up and hurled at Jasper. Emotion after emotion. Only being intensified the more everyone was starting to emit the same ones. It was almost dizzying to feel such a range of emotions in such a short span of time, even if they were all directed toward the pink gumball standing at the front of the classroom.
Jasper closed his eyes, and started slowly counting from 10 in his head in an effort to try to calm down.
‘10…
9…’
The bell rang signaling the beginning of class.
‘8…
7…’
“Settle down everyone. Take your seats,” Mrs. Thornbrook tried to settle the class, “We have a new student starting with us today… Why don’t you introduce yourself dear?”
‘6…
5…’
The girl took a small breath before speaking in that same fake bubbly voice from before, “Hello everybody! My name is Delilah. I moved here from the Big Apple, and I’m very excited to be getting to know you all!”
‘4…
3…’
“Alright Delilah. Why don’t you take a seat behind Jasper. Will you raise your hand, please Jasper?”
‘2…’
Eyes still closed and head down, he raised his hand to signal where he was. As he did so he heard Alice again, “Jasper... Breathe.”
‘1…’
He took a breath.
Jasper’s eyes shot open as Delilah walked past him. Her scent flooded his senses.
‘Strawberries…’
Strawberries mixed with sweet vanilla and a hint of cardamom.
Her scent was decadent. Intoxicating. An almost euphoric feeling had come over him, and drowned out all the other emotions that had been surrounding him. It took Jasper a second to realize it wasn’t someone else’s emotion he was feeling but his own.
In all his years of being on this Earth, Jasper had never smelled something as deliciously sweet and… seductive.
Jasper took a second to focus, and noticed that his throat wasn’t burning with need. He wasn’t thirsty… As good as she smelled, he didn’t feel the instinctual urge to pin her to the floor and sink his teeth into her.
Jasper took another breath, and he felt his entire body relax. This wasn’t like Bella and Edward. Jasper had felt Edward’s emotions, from across the school, when Edward first smelled Bella. The sheer panic, confliction, and murderous intent Edward felt was nothing like how he was feeling in that moment. Jasper wasn’t having to constantly hold himself back from pouncing on her. If they were on a spectrum, then they would be polar opposites.
“Jasper. You can put your hand down now.”
Breaking out of his stupor, he looked up to see Mrs. Thornbrook looking at him with a small smile on her face. Quickly, he put his hand down. He didn’t realize it was still raised, and just nodded at Mrs. Thornbrook to continue on with the day’s lesson.
As the teacher proceeded to talk, all Jasper could think about was the pink temptress that was now seated behind him. He couldn’t remember if he ever had felt as relaxed and satisfied as he did with each breath he took. Delilah’s scent created his own personal high that he could just get lost in. All the other people’s scent in the classroom disappeared, and all he could focus on was her. He leaned back and relaxed more into his chair.
Her blood wasn’t tempting him like others did. The agony and sense of dread he used to feel at the thought of sitting through classes surrounded by humans was gone, and his throat no longer painfully burned the way he had grown accustomed to. It was confusing, but Jasper wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth. For this one hour he had with her sitting behind him, he wouldn’t worry about it. He’d take the small solace this random girl had unknowingly created for him.
Jasper knew that once this class was over, he would have to question Alice on why she kept this from him. She could have given him a better warning so he didn’t panic as much when he first smelled her. It was obvious now that Alice knew about the girl sitting behind him, and how heavily he would react to her scent. It was probably why she had signed him up for this class.
But why was he reacting to her like this?
Jasper’s thoughts were once again interrupted when he noticed all the other students getting up to pair up with each other.
‘Oh… It’s Friday… That means a new project…’
Projects were usually assigned on Fridays, and then students were expected to present the following Thursday. He looked toward his old partners, and saw them already paired up. Jasper then felt a small poke in between his shoulder blades.
Slowly he turned around, and black eyes met violet.
Delilah had a megawatt smile plastered to her face, but as he focused he could feel her earlier annoyance surfacing again, as she spoke sweetly, “You weren’t getting up, and I didn’t know if you had a partner already or not.”
Jasper stared at her for a second before replying with a charming smile on his face, “Well you’re in luck ma’am. I’m usually the third wheel in my old partnership. So if you’re wantin’ to, I’d be happy to partner with you.” His southern twang slipped into his speech more than he had meant to, but then he felt a sliver of attraction underneath her annoyance. Jasper’s smile turned more into a smirk as his ego swelled with satisfaction and pride at knowing he evoked anything other than annoyance in the small overly pink girl.
“Wonderful,” her fake smile widened as she spoke, “So, how do you want to go about it?”
Jasper’s smirk faltered as he quickly looked back at the board to see if the assignment was written down. To his demise, it wasn’t. He looked back to the girl, and could feel her annoyance growing again, and any attraction she had dissipated, even though her face didn’t show it. He went to speak, but she cut him off before he could reply, “I’m guessing you weren’t paying attention, were you?”
She started pulling out a notebook and a pen that had a pink fluff ball attached to the end of it for her to use. “Hopefully this is just an off day for you,” her grip on her pen tightened, “Either way, the assignment was to write out a dramatic scene, and then we have to act it out in front of the class.”
Jasper’s face hardened slightly as he took in the emotions that didn’t fit her outward expressions. He also didn’t appreciate the condescending tone that sprinkled into her speech. Jasper tried to ease the annoyance she was feeling, but quickly realized he was having no effect on her. Jasper got up and turned fully around to straddle his chair so he was facing her head on. He crossed his arms on the back of his chair, and leaned forward as he spoke, “Trust me sweetheart, it’s a one off. No need to worry your pretty little head over if you asked the slacker to work with you.”
Her smile tightened. “We’ll see about that now, won’t we?”
‘Oh… She’s gonna be a challenge…’
His eyebrow raised as his smirk returned.
It was a good thing Jasper liked a challenge.