Turning Page - A Jasper Hale story

Chapter Eight

"This is Bella," Charlie smiled, gesturing to the girl who stood sheepishly behind him. "Y'know, my daughter? You guys and Billy Black's kids used to make mud pies when you were little."

Jude nodded enthusiastically, "Hi Bella, it's good to see you!" 

Bella nodded back, cheeks flushing red at the attention as Jude pointed them towards Charlie's regular table. Cora, a woman who had worked at the diner for as long as Jude could remember approached the pair to take their orders, waving Jude away, signalling her shift was finished.

Jude removed her apron and sat herself on the seat beside Waylon as he opened an arm to wrap around her shoulder. Like Charlie, Waylon had been a close friend of her father - like an uncle figure in her life. 

"You remember the year I played Santa, don't you Judey?" he asked as Jude's mother, Emma, placed a plate with Jude's favourite sandwich on in front of her, a pensive look on his face. Emma rolled her eyes, shaking her head at the man, having overheard him asking Bella the same question just moments before.

"I remember your butt crack sticking out of the pants," Jude teased the man - the story was infamous in the town and Cora had reminded both Charlie and Bella of the fact. Waylon wondered if he would ever live it down - it wasn't his fault the trousers were too big! 

'Anyway', he thought, 'those little bottles definitely went down well.'

Across the small diner, Bella and her father sat eating. In silence. Bella liked the fact that her father didn't feel the need to fill every silence with inane chatter, but she wanted to know more about the young waitress. The one she was apparently friends with as a child.

"Hey, dad?" she said, turning to Charlie. The man almost choked on his steak, not expecting his daughter to speak.

"Yeah, Bells?" he raised an eyebrow, encouraging her to ask her question.

"Tell me more about Jude?" she asked.

Charlie nodded, knife sawing at his steak. He licked his bottom lip as he thought.

"Well, I used to be friends with her dad before he died. She's your age, I think... maybe you guys could carpool to school?"

Bella sighed but nodded. She'd offer on her way out. She knew Charlie would not divulge any more information. 

She did not like the thought of having to get to know everyone all over again, but Jude seemed friendly enough. She hoped Jude would stick with her, even if it was just for her first day, just until she had settled in.

Bella's nerves began to grow as she thought of starting school. What would everyone be like? Would she be the freak show new student?

She knew she wouldn't sleep well that night.

***

The fuzziness in Jude's head the next morning was something she had never felt before. She had had headaches before, of course, but this was something else. Her eyes watered as pain ran across her temples and sank into her eyes. She released a groan. Then a sob. And then shut her alarm off.

"You up, Judey?!" her mother shouted up the stairs, trying to rouse her daughter for school. Jude only groaned in response.

As her bedroom door creaked open, she flung her forearm over her eyes, shielding them from the light her mother had let in. 

"What's up, baby?" her mother asked, perching on the side of her bed. Her daughter merely groaned in response, gesturing to her forehead and her eyes.

"A migraine?"

Jude nodded.

"Hmmm, maybe you better take the day off?" her mother questioned. Jude nodded below her arm, too lethargic to argue, or to mention the shift she had at the diner tonight.

"I'll get your shift covered, babe, you just rest."

Jude's mother had always been able to read her mind. She knew of Jude's upset over the Quileute boys disappearing - and for her soft spot for Paul. She knew that Jude had found comfort in the Cullen boys. What she could not work out, however, is which her daughter was most interested in.

Jude's mother had always wanted her daughter to grow up and have a family. She was taken aback when the Cullen family arrived in town and associated themselves with her daughter but nobody else. She wondered which of them would suit Jude most.

Little did she know, Jude had made her mind up.

***

When Bella's phone chimed with a message very early that morning, her stomach dropped. Her first day at Forks High School had arrived and she was nervous. In fact, nervous was an understatement.

"Sorry Bella, I'm not well today..." Bella read from her phone, groaning immediately after reading the first sentence from Jude. The worry brewing in her veins grew stronger.

She shot a message back to Jude quickly; just wishing her to feel better. Bella couldn't help but release a breathy laugh - she knew she wanted Jude to feel better just so she had a companion.

She sighed, pulled her jacket on, and set off for the school. 

***

A knock at the door woke Jude from her late afternoon nap. She groaned and rose from the couch, wrapping her tatty old cardigan further around her shoulders.

Two sets of amber eyes met hers as she pulled open her door.

"What's wrong Jude? Why weren't you in school? Do we need to get Carlisle to come and check you out? Please tell me you aren't dying, that would be-"

"Emmet," Jasper interrupted his brother, who quickly went silent. Jude laughed, taken aback by the taller boy's sudden outburst.

"Well hello to you both too," she laughed, "and to answer your questions... I had a migraine. Who's Carlisle? If he's a doctor - no, he doesn't need to come and check me over, my migraine has gone, and-"

Emmett released a hearty chuckle as she answered his questions in the same manner he had asked them.

"Carlisle's our adopted father," Jasper answered, his voice sending shivers up Jude's spine. She nodded in response before widening the door to allow the two boys into her house. The clouds looming outside the door held rain, and she did not want the boys to catch a cold.

Emmett bounded his way into the living room, puppy dog personality shining clearly. Jasper felt Jude's mood improve instantaneously. Until her eyes began to wander the rest of her porch.

"Where's Ed-"

"He's not well..." the boys responded in unison. Jude noted how rehearsed their answer sounded. 

She made a mental note to quiz them later, but the bag of her favourite candy that Emmett was (falsely) not so subtly trying to hide caught her eye, and distracted her from her moment of mistrust.