Something Just a Little Different (Jasper Hale)

The Beginning of a Story

"Good news! We didn't find any kind of masses or tumors that were causing the anemia." The nurse, Melly, chimed as she came back into the room.

Miss Wills let out a sigh of relief, "So, what's causing it?"

Arri let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding. She had already prepared herself for some kind of horrible diagnosis where Dr. Cullen came in all somber and apologetic, giving her pamphlets and her having to deal with how emotional her mom was going to be. How emotional she was going to be. So now she wasn't sure what she was supposed to feel. Maybe this was some kind of shock? Maybe she needed one of those blankets.

"Dr. Cullen is sending the results to an expert for a consultation. Right now, he wants you to continue on your iron supplements and blood pills. We've already called the prescriptions in to your pharmacy. You can also pick up your school note at the front desk. You can go ahead and schedule your next appointment, as well."

"Thank you. Thank you so much!" Wiping at her eyes, but smiling, nonetheless, Miss Wills stood, hugging the nurse before gathering her things from the floor.

Arri quietly hopped down from the bed, following her mom out of the room, giving the nurse a curt smile.

Miss Wills didn't argue when Arri excused herself to the car. The teen just couldn't handle being in the hospital any longer, the white walls were becoming stifling and claustrophobic. She needed fresh air. Open space. She honestly didn't know what she needed, but she knew it wasn't in the hospital, whatever it was.
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"What on earth are you looking for?" Esme watched as her husband of many years dug through box after box in his his storage room.

After decades of practicing medicine, he had collected hundreds of journals and papers and research from all over the globe, from every decade, and he kept every single one of them. All packed up in his storage room.

Carlisle passes over a stack of journals to his wife, "I've seen something very similar to this, long ago, in South America, I think..." He finished another box and moved on to the next.

Esme could tell by the crease of his brow that he was concerned about whatever it was, the kind of concerned he got was there was something more at play than just a difficult case. "What happened with the other case?"

"I don't remember the specifics, it was so long ago, and I wasn't the doctor who worked on it, it was a local witch doctor that I happened to meet just after the incident. He let me write down his account on the case, which is lucky for me, because right after I left, the entire village was destroyed by the Volturi." Carlisle sat back, looking at the endless amount of boxes he still had left to go, cursing himself for not doing a better job at organizing them. "This is going to take forever..." He spoke, mostly to himself.
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Arri Wills sat atop her Jeep, letting the cold wind whip her hair away from her face as it blew across the water in front of her. The ocean was choppy from a storm that hadn't reached land yet, maybe it wouldn't, she wasn't really one to check the weather.

She had left the house a few hours before to go pick up her prescriptions, but the thought of going back home just didn't seem appealing. She here she sat, freezing her ass off on the beach she had visited before, not so much contemplating life, but...human mortality, maybe? Futile existence? The sense that, had anything been different, she could have died, and the world would have went on, as if she hadn't been there at all. That was probably it.

Her brother had almost died before, and, to be fair, she had also almost died just a week prior from a a giant mountain cat, also once when she was very young, but her mom didn't really talk it, just that she had some crazy rare illness or something, but those were all different than being diagnosed. Having the knowledge that you were going to die. A deadline. Literally.

But those thoughts made her head hurt, so she climbed off her hood and started up her heater, driving over the white sand and back towards town. She didn't know she was heading to the bookstore until she was parked in front of it.

When she walked in, she was greeted with the smell of coffee and worn paper, instantly calming the nerves she wasn't even aware she had.

Colt, she vaguely remembered was his name, gave a smile from behind the counter. "Hey there, you look like you could use some coffee."

The laugh that came from her mouth was a bit exasperated, but she wouldn't deny it. As he turned to the coffee machine behind him, she curled up in one of the armchairs closest to the counter, ignoring the fact that every time she came here she was in sweat pants.

"You look like you could use a new book, as well. A good story always helps." Handing her the coffee, Colt hopped onto the counter, taking a sip of his own.

"What's your favorite story?" She didn't think she could stare a page long enough to read right now, but conversations that didn't involve anything about her sounded much more pleasant than going home and having to hear her mom call all of her aunts and tell them she was out of the woods for now.

Colt pondered for a second, swinging his legs back and forth as he thought, "I don't know. Probably local folklore, honestly. I grew up on the res, so I've heard just about every one of them. I could tell you some, if you'd like, I'm s pretty decent storyteller," he grinned, obviously taking pride in the fact.

Taking a sip, Arri nodded her head, "I guess I'll be the judge of that."