Margaret Allie Brandon (Jasper's Mate Story)

Chapter 2

Jasper's POV:

I was focusing on the calm that Alice was sending my way, as I felt bombarded once more by all the human scents that permeated through the air and seemed to affect me more than any of my siblings. It wasn't until Emmett walked up to stand next to me and Edward that my focus was drawn elsewhere than the threatening bloodlust in the back of my throat. 

"So Edward, besides what they're all saying, what's the story with this school?" (Em)

"Same as always it's seems. Curious about who we are, whether any of us are models, whether Rosalie and Alice are single, or any of us are single really." (Ed)

"Well then Jasper, anyone tickle your fancy here?" (Em)

I rolled my eyes a bit as Rosalie scoffed and hit Emmett on the back of the head. As the one out of all of us that struggles with our vegetarian diets the most, I doubt I will find my mate with a human. I heard Alice let out a soft giggle before Edward and I look at her. She only smiles and I watch as Edward's brow scrunches in confusion then grimaces a bit before shrugging in what I know to be defeat in reading Alice's thoughts.

I watch a girl in a grey jacket and black long-sleeved shirt walk up into the parking lot, a black beanie hat pulled down over her black curls. She seems to pause for a moment almost confused about what everyone else seems to be talking about. I expected her to walk up to a group of her friends and begin asking who we were or what they were talking about. She surprised me though by standing alone instead as her eyes traced over us, a blank look on her face as she did.

"Hmm now that's interesting." (Ed)

"Well for you to find it interesting it must be." (Em)

"Well, do tell then Edward. What's sparked your interest?" (Rose) 

"Yes, it seems that one human girl, yes the one that your watching now Jasper, the one walking into the school. Seems that she believes she shouldn't get close to any of us anyway so who we are doesn't matter. Appears she has a similar attitude to getting close to us as we do to getting close to humans." (Ed)

"Smart human then, I approve." (Rose)

"Yes, it would appear so. Well, let's go you guys. It wouldn't do to start the school year late would it?" (Alice)

I watched as Alice skipped into the building before turning to face Edward with a questioning look on my face. Alice really only skips when she is excited about something, and there is no way she is that excited about school. It isn't like we haven't all been to school multiple times. He only watches Alice skip inside with Rosalie and Emmett trailing behind her.

"Well Jasper, seems my troublesome little mate has something she's hiding as every time her thoughts went to your future she starting singing an annoying Korean pop song in her head while reciting the pledge of allegiance in ancient greek." (Ed)

"Well guess I'll just have to trust that you'll tell me if you find out?" (Jas)

"Of course Jasper, for now though I suggest we go in. Won't do for us to be late for my freshman year and your sophomore year will it?" (Ed)

We both laughed a bit at the old joke before following the rest of the family and walking into the school. A few minutes later and I find myself being introduced to the A.P. History class, one of the 'youngest' in the bunch of seniors as a sophomore. The teacher told me to take a seat at the back of the room and I found myself sitting to the left of the girl with the black beanie hat. I sat next to her, already tense realizing that I was the only one of my family in this class.

I had to wonder how that happened or rather why as Alice was in charge of picking our schedules, and I always have someone with me just in case I start to lose it. I took a cautious breath and could smell her blood but it didn't call out to me like other humans did. Rather her blood almost seemed to be calling for help. I found myself openly staring at her, but then I saw her glance at me for a moment before catching my own stare at her.

She didn't blush like I thought she would, if anything she seemed to pale, even tensing in her seat for a moment before she leaned away from me a bit. I saw her hands start shaking in her lap for a moment before she clenched them into fists, and she focused her stare on the front of the room as the teacher started talking.

"Alright everyone. Welcome to A.P. History, in other words welcome to every fact you could hope to learn about American History in the short year that we have together. We will be starting with a brief recap on the founding of America, then travel through each and every war before finishing the school year out with the most current events. But today we'll be doing something a bit different. I want everyone to turn to their neighbor and say hello to their project partner for the 3 presentations that we will do in this class this year." (Mr. Michaels)

I stiffened and watched as she copied my action though it seemed to be completely her own. I reached out and felt her emotions of fear, but also guilt and worry and shame and perhaps the strongest underneath the fear was pain. I flinched from the shear force that the emotion of pain had coming from her before I turned my attention back to the teacher. Mr. Michaels began to pass out worksheets for each group to fill out together this period and hand in, and I saw her hand shake a bit as she took it from him, withdrawing from his presence like it burned her.

She started reading over the worksheet, as he told everyone to have fun with the worksheet, and I did the same. It was simple questions like your name, birthday, hobby, and a few other basic human questions. I twisted my chair until I was facing her a bit more and I saw her seem to stiffen again before she slowly turned to face me a bit more as well.

I saw then what she was trying to hide from the human eyes with the hat and her hair. I saw the beginnings of a few scars on the right side of her face, though they only seemed to make her tougher looking, even a bit beautiful. Those weren't what caused my own anger to spike though, no it was the bruises on her neck, hidden from the humans with a few layers of makeup, but I could easily see that they were bruises of handprints around her neck.

I heard her clear her throat some before she looked at me with a pair of blue-eyes that seemed to be full of hidden pain. I realized that pain was a constant emotion that she seemed to be experiencing all the time under every other emotion. I decide that the best way to do this is simply to go down the list of questions on the worksheet.

"Well guess we better get started. Hello, I'm Jasper Hale Cullen." (Jas)

"I'm Margaret Allie Brandon." (Mag)

I offered my hand for her to shake and watched her flinch away from me, raising her hands off her lap a bit before she froze in her seat. She seemed to gulp as she forced out a breath and slowly reached forward with one of her own shaky hands. I gently grasped her small hand, wondering how it felt so right to have it in my own, before she snatched it away again and seemed to tense more in her seat biting her lip a bit before filling in the first question on the worksheet. I copied her before moving on to the next question.

"So, Margaret do you have a nickname?" (Jas)

"No, not anymore." (Mag)

I watched as she looked away from me for a moment before she looked back at me with that same piercing blue-eyed gaze. It was as if she was asking me to answer my own questions so she wouldn't have to speak much. I knew that it was fear she was feeling was towards me and nearly every other person that seemed to just walk by her, but I couldn't decidedly say why. Though I had a few theories based on how she flinched at my hand coming towards her.

"My siblings call me Jazz sometimes." (Jas)

"Hobbies?" (Mag)

"Hiking, reading, video games. What about you?" (Jas)

"Drawing and reading. Favorite food?" (Mag)

"Venison. You?" (Jas)

"Strawberries. Age?" (Mags)

"16, and you?" (Jas)

"17. Your birthday?" (Mag)

"October 12th. You?" (Jas)

"December 17th. Favorite color?" (Mag)

"My favorite color is blue." (Jas)

"Mine is green. Siblings?" (Mag)

"Yes I have a twin, Rosalie, and then three other adopted siblings, we're all adopted." (Jas)

I was too busy watching her, trying to figure out why she didn't seem to be drawn to me as most humans were, even though we also screamed danger I knew how alluring we were. She has answered every question politely enough but each seems forced as she stares at me, leaning away from me in her seat and as stiff as a board the entire time. I heard her answer no siblings and then seemed to sigh a bit in relief as she saw that was the last question on the worksheet, glancing at the clock a bit before looking back at her worksheet.

"Live in Madison long?" (Jas)

I watched with slight amusement as she turned the sheet over and saw that it was blank, before she slowly looked back up at me with a look of confusion passing across her face and in her emotions. The piercing blue eyes that she watched me showed me just how much she was hurting, even though she hid it well enough from the other humans.

"The last nine years or so. The worksheet is over with though if you'd rather just sit here in silence or something for the last few minutes of class." (Mag)

"I just thought maybe you'd like to get to know each other a bit better as friends perhaps? Since we'll be working together on the presentations this year after all." (Jas)

I wasn't sure what compelled me to ask her that, and I knew that I shouldn't even be pushing to be friends with her. Perhaps it was the way her curls seemed to run wild even under her beanie, or the brightness of her eyes, or maybe it was the slight southern accent I heard when she spoke that wasn't too unlike my own. It would be better if we weren't friends at all, it would be safer for everyone that way, but it felt right being next to her, even if she was keeping a few feet between us.

I saw her freeze in her seat for a moment as she looked at me and then the clock again. I knew that the bell would ring in any moment, and I sensed that she was praying it would ring sooner rather than later, but I wanted to know her answer. I felt like I needed to know why she had so much pain and fear as she looked back at me and finally answered in a soft and shaky voice.

"Jasper, you seem nice but I don't make a good a friend. It would be safer for both of us to keep our relationship strictly academic. I'm sorry." (Mag)

"Does it have to do with the bruises you're hiding?" (Jas)

I watched as her eyes became wide before she froze and quickly looked around the room, as if checking to see that no one else was listening to our conversation. However, everyone else was too busy talking and laughing with one another to pay us any real attention. She turned back to look at me with what looked like tears building in her eyes as she started to shake a bit, her voice coming out in barely a whisper.

"I don't know what you're talking about." (Mag)

I didn't have a chance to respond as the bell rang and she stood from her seat, throwing her bag over her shoulder as she made her way to the teacher's desk. She handed the worksheet in to the teacher before walking out of the room as quickly as she could. I heard another one of the students talking about what a shame it was I was partnered with the 'flinching freakshow,' and I felt myself wondering whether the girl had any friends at all. Everyone had at least one friend, right?