Twilight Imagines

25. Intriguing (Jasper Hale)

(Published December 14, 2023)

   To think that I was a dreamer and a nerd would be a spot on observation.  I loved comics, movies, and pretty much anything that screamed fantasy, barring anime.  One thing I was not was crazy.  I didn't confuse fiction with real life and I certainly didn't pretend that people in my classes had actual superpowers...  That is, until the Cullens showed up.  

   Now that they went to my school, my Spidey senses tingled, for lack of a better description.  Each time I was in the same room as one of them, I could practically sense that something was off.  Of course, everyone else knew they were odd, too.  But it was different for me.  They weren't just odd; they were 'super' odd.  They didn't eat or drink, they socially distanced themselves, and they vanished whenever the weather was nice out.  I knew they weren't hiking.  They were hiding.  

   The worst part was that they knew I knew.  Whenever I sat too near to them or passed them in the halls, they would watch me.  Which, for a nerd who's one goal in school was to be invisible to my fellow classmates, was nerve wracking.  They either needed to approach me and say what was on their minds, or erase my memory of their secret.  If they could even do that...  Which they probably couldn't.  

   I groaned quietly and dropped my head onto the math book in front of me.  It was lunch time and I had somehow managed to get a seat facing the Cullen's table, which had not been my intention.  But, seeing that it was the only open seat at the time, I hadn't had much of a choice.  So here I was, trying not to watch them watch me.  And here I thought I couldn't get any weirder.  

   Lifting my head, I saw Edward Cullen snickering at something.  Since usually he was a stone faced popular boy, this couldn't be a good sign.  He was the one I pegged as the mind reader.  He just had that creepy know-it-all air about him.  Alice was sitting next to him.  She was zoning out at the moment, which just confirmed my suspicions that she could see the future.  It'd be a good fit for her, right?  Then there was Rosalie, the drop dead gorgeous girl in the group.  She didn't even need a superpower; she'd just charm their nemesis' henchmen with her smile.  Emmett had a muscled arm slung around her shoulders, proving that he had the strong member of the group.  Then, sitting just a tad further from the others, sat Jasper.  The quiet, anti-social one who was either an empath or a manipulator.  I wasn't quite sure which one yet.  And, naturally, he was the one who set my pulse into high gear.  I always ended up crushing on the mysterious characters.  If you could call it a crush.  It probably didn't count if I was suspicious of him and avoided him, right?  

   With a sigh, I dropped my gaze back to my math book.  Even while studying math, I could end up writing superhero stories for my classmates.  I shook the fantasy from my mind, pushed aside any thoughts of the Cullens, and focused on the Algebra in front of me.  

   Suddenly, someone took the recently emptied chair to my left.  I slowly lifted my gaze to find a golden pair of eyes staring back at me.  Jasper Cullen was seated next to me.  The anti-social, doesn't have friends, anti-social, doesn't talk in class, very anti-social Cullen was sent to talk to me.  My heart jolted into high gear, but whether it was from him being so near or the fact that I feared for my memories, I wasn't exactly sure.  

   "Hi," He greeted quietly.  

   "Hi." 

   All I could manage was a whisper in reply.  I wondered what the gold eyes meant.  Was he a lab experiment?  Or was that just a side effect of whatever alien substance turned him into what he was?  

   "I'm Jasper Hale." 

   He had a hint of a Southern accent to his voice, meaning he wasn't from around here.  I wondered where his 'siblings' were from.  Instead of asking, I gave him a cautious smile and a tiny nod.