Lifelines - Jasper Hale

Eight - August 2005

The previous two years in forks had not been too bad. Eventually, Joan had settled into a routine. The worst problem was that she was limited as to who she was. At the school, she did not appear to be herself, rather she had to blend into the rest of the family. Their cover story was that she was Alice's sister. Therefore, had to look more like her sister. A benefit to her ability was that they could make it so their cover stories appeared more realistic. And fool everyone into believing their story. 

School had just started up again which was terrifying to Joan. The high number of people constantly set her nerves alight. Her control had slowly gotten better, she could spend her days surrounded by the normal teenagers who were more concerned about their appearance and what others thought about them, then anything else. She knew if she looked back a couple of decades ago it could have been argued for a time she too was like that. She, however, was a child raised in a country which was at first deprived after a war and then entered another one. She was in simple a child raised in mist of war. 

The decades which had passed had changed the world greatly. For the teenagers, she was forced to spend her weekdays with were nothing like those she knew from her human life. These were much less about proving themselves to their families as most of them had moved onto proving themselves to one another. Though many aspects of the modern teenagers were still the same. They still struggled with keeping up with others around them and still felt an obscene amount of pressure to conform to what society wanted of them. Even if society's expectations were slowly changing. 

Joan still hated attending American school. She knew much more about the history of the country now, yet still couldn't will herself to actually enjoy the subjects she was being taught. Well, the normal subjects she found everyone else her supposed age and gender enjoying. Many of the other girls her age seemed to enjoy subjects like English and Art. Well, art was more Alice's subject and she was going to allow her sister that one. English was a topic she had never liked ever since she was a small girl. Her immortal life had not changed that either. Rather she leaned towards the other subjects like maths and physics. And of course mechanics. 

But of course, the new day meant attending school once again. After all her years in America, Joan had never quite become confident in the whole, wear your own clothes. A strict school uniform had always been enforced back in Scotland and it the lack of order and chaos the lack of uniform caused still confused her to this day. She had not much to worry in terms of clothing for that day as this was something she allowed both of her sisters to do. 

But them waking up at 6 am was not something she ever learnt to enjoy. Sure she lived without sleep but this did not help. The early hours of the morning were the times she spent with her mate. Sometimes, neither spoke and only enjoyed one another's company. But today was not one of those days. Rather they were speaking quietly about the day ahead of them. There was no need to speak loudly for there was limited space between the two. And the superhuman hearing also helped. 

That was until Rosalie and Alice decided to barge into the room and drag Joan out to 'get ready'. Joan knew there was no argument with the two other girls. Rather she allowed them to throw clothes at her and demand she go into the bathroom to change. The outfit they had chosen for her to wear today was a navy coloured peasant top with orange and pink squares pattened down the front, a pair of bell-bottomed jeans and navy coloured converse highs. It was not a bad outfit at all. Joan just missed the clothing of the 90s. She fondly remembered being a grunge child yet she was stuck wearing the latest fashions of this decade. She just hoped the outfits would get nicer as the years progressed. 

By the time the three girls had completely finished getting ready it was gone 8 am and Joan now looked more like the cover version of herself. It was not that exhausting for her to keep the appearance up. Yet Joan felt as though she was never truly herself whenever she was made to look like someone who was not herself. They had gone downstairs to join the others before school had started. This was to waste more time as they were not required to be there until 9 am but were always ready previously. 

When Joan entered the living room she came across one of the normal sights of the mornings. She found both Jasper and Emmett sat together on the sofa. They were fully engaged in whatever game was playing on the TV screen. She never knew what game they were playing but knew that this kept them entertained and continued to grow their sibling bond. Not as if the two boys were not best friends anyway. She slowly approached the pair going behind the sofa as to not interrupt the game before sitting down next to her mate. She attempted to watch the game but still could not figure out exactly what was going on. And as if she and Jasper were mentally connected she laid her head on his lap as he adjusted his hands to not hit her. 

"Hey, Jo-Jo" Was the only acknowledgement she got from Jasper as he continued to furiously hit the different buttons on the controller he held. Joan made a small noise in response spending more of her time focusing on the day ahead. She attempted to think positively as the pair had already run through the fears and thoughts she had about the day that previous morning. 

"Rose, did you hear about the new girl starting school today?" Alice stated from somewhere towards the kitchen.

"No. Joanie, you know anything?" Rosalie called across the room 

"Why should I. I don't leave this house unless necessary." Joan hollered back

"Well, apparently she's the Chief's daughter and has just moved back to forks" Alice continued to inform

"Wow thrilling, didn't take you as a gossiper Alice" Came the drawling voice of Edward as he finally came down from upstairs. No one was quite sure what he did upstairs on his own all day, But he was a very miserable person to be around. So it was not necessarily a bad thing. 

"That means we won't be the talk of the school. Oh no, what are you going to do Rose?" Questioned Emmett. Joan let out a small huff of a laugh at his statement not wanting to overly side with him. She was petrified she would face the wrath of Rosalie if she did so. 

Though their moments of relaxing and peace were put to an abrupt stop as it got closer to the time when they had to attend school. 

With a large over the top sigh, Joan slowly got up from the sofa and walked over to where she had thrown her backpack. Lifting the backpack up she groaned. It was not because it was heavy. No, she really just didn't want to leave the house. 

"You're not getting out of it that easy darling" Jasper spoke from behind her

"But Jazz" Joan whined 

"Nope"