Almost Human | Jasper Hale

Chapter 17

The buses pulled into a narrow parking lot leading into a greenhouse. The sky began giving a light fall of rain. Not enough to soak any of the students, but enough to cause their rain jacket hoods to go up. Meg noticed the rain outside and did just that, flipping the bright yellow hood over her head and waiting her turn to exit the bus.

Alice stood up and pulled Meg up with her when it was close to their rows turn to exit. The lines of students walked out in front of them. Meg didn't know whether to go or let Edward and Jasper go, luckily Edward decided for her. Meg was never great at decision making. Edward got up quickly and walked down the hallway of the bus as if he had somewhere too important to be.

Jasper stood up straight and simply walked to where Edward had stood previously. His eyes met with Megs, though she could tell he hesitated. They were black contrasting his fair skin. Perhaps it was his mood that had an effect on his eye color. He moved his hand slowly and gestured for her to go in front of him. Meg gave him not a single motion or facial expression as she hurried out with his gesture and stormed down the bus aisle.

Alice stopped and crossed her arms. She had a devilish smile though the purest of intentions. She nodded her head after Meg. "Just go..." She teased Jasper. Jasper had no response besides giving her a pained look, not like his look wasn't always pained, and hurried after Meg, yet kept a decent amount of distance. He didn't want to keep Rosalie and Emmett from leaving the bus by fighting with Alice, so it was just better he obliged.

Meg shuffled far behind the group of students lining up at the greenhouse doors. Their teacher was going over a bunch of rules and interesting plant facts to which only a small handful of students were listening to.

"So did you say anything to-" Meg began talking to the person behind her whom she thought was Alice, yet when she turned she found none other than Jasper instead. "Sorry I thought you were...Alice." Meg said in a monotoned voice, she wasn't actually sorry, she was still upset and pissed at Jasper.

Jasper looked behind himself at Alice who widened her eyes at him. The least Jasper could do was be at least a little nice to the girl. He felt her sadness and anger with him, he hated feeling that from her in any way. "I get that a lot, we look a lot alike."

Did the statue boy just make...a joke? It seemed so unlikely to come from him. His face was still straight with the slightest upturn of a smirk for a second. Meg had to bite her lip to refrain from laughing. She was overcome with an odd sense of joy or relief around him, thanks to Jasper's abilities.

There was a bit of awkward silence as the students filed into the greenhouse and squeezed down the narrow paths between rows of vegetation. Meg always found plants and nature calming in a way, which really helped her in her situation. Growing up in the city there weren't half as many plants as there were in Forks.

"Listen.." Jasper began as he plucked a small daisy off of a nearby flower pot and twirled it between his fingers. "I'm sorry about yesterday. It was wrong of me to say all that, in fact it was wrong in general."

"Stop." Meg shook her head slightly with the word which caused Jasper to stop both speaking and walking. Meg turned and looked at him, right into his cold eyes. "Don't be sorry. I understand what you said and all. You're not good with people and that's fine. You don't need to pretend to be my friend to try and I don't know spare my feelings. I'm sick of it. I just wish you were honest with me."

Meg didn't wait for a reply when Jasper opened his mouth. Meg began walking forward further into the group. She stopped when she noticed Edward talking to the new girl, Bella. She overheard her ask about how Edward got to her truck so fast. He answered the same as Jasper and the rest of the Cullens, an adrenaline rush. Either that boy was a superhero, or there really was something else going on. She slid past them and continued moving until she met the backs of the familiar tall boy and his short blonde girlfriend.

Jasper twirled the flower in his hand again, glancing down at it as he did. He clenched his fist before releasing the flower onto the floor. He began following the group again when Alice quickly appeared beside him.

"I'm sorry Jasper. I mean I think it'll take more to get her on your good side again. I think she might still have a soft spot for you even if it doesn't seem like that right now. You may have to tell her..." Alice smiled knowingly at the hurt boy. Jasper gave her a chivalrous nod though he didn't like the feeling of having to eventually tell her everything. She would either run away scared, tell everyone, or be put in danger. None of which Jasper would want.

Meg spent a few seconds pushing her feelings aside and putting on a facade of joy so her best friends wouldn't suspect anything was wrong with her. Yet everything was. "You guys miss me on your little bus ride?" She teased, poking the back of Felix who turned and faced her with a bright smile.

"Of course we missed ya Reid!" Felix draped his arm around Meg and pulled her up next to him and Eleanor. Meg would've normally pushed him off and teased him about something else, but it felt nice to know she wasn't alone and had him and Eleanor right next to her.

"We're going camping this weekend if you want to join." Eleanor asked her best friend. Besides being a fairly girly city girl, Eleanor loved a good camping trip. "My mom won't allow me to go with just Felix, but she was totally cool if you came along as well!"

"Oh come on! Meg would probably only want to camp in her backyard." Felix joked, squeezing Megs shoulder tighter. This time she did push his arm off and raised her chin up cockily. "And? Whatever it'll be fun I guess. I'm coming." Eleanor practically squealed with happiness. Felix moved his hand to intertwine with Eleanor's and she graciously accepted it.

The rain outside ceased just in time for the students to pack up and head back to the school. Some of the kids had spent the last few minutes of the field trip playing with sticks in a bin of worms which nearly caused Meg to gag. She noticed Bella walk past them quickly followed by Edward. Meg said her goodbyes to her friends and decided to follow the group of Cullens going back to the bus.

It seemed the two just finished having a heated discussion when Meg slid behind Alice. "Are you riding with us?" Alice politely asked to the brunette who looked fairly upset. "No, our bus is full." Edward answered for her before violently knocking on the bus doors that opened soon after. The Cullens, and Meg, exchanged confused glances as Bella walked quickly away. They followed Edward slowly and headed towards the back of the bus again.

Meg debated on sitting away from the group, it definitely would be better to be away from them, but besides being a bit mad at Alice she didn't want her to sit alone. "Hey is it ok if I sit by the window this time?" Meg spoke up softly as they reached their seat. "Of course." Alice replied, glancing at Jasper, then moving out of the way to let Meg in. Meg nodded a thank you and slid across the seat, laying her head back and looking out the window.

Alice noticed that she wasn't much up for talking and seemed upset in general. Alice placed a gentle, cold hand on top of Megs. Meg turned and looked at Alice. "I promise you two will make up...sometime." She smiled.

A/n Ok I do start school the 12th so I will try to rapid write but we all know how that goes oops. Hope you guys are enjoying! Love always- M