Love to Hate You, Hate to Love You

Jasper POV

Man, this was starting to get uncomfortable. Anywhere I went in school today, there is was. Lust. Need. Desire. It's bad enough that I don't really have my blood lust completely under check, but then for every male to have his blood boiling today because of some new girl just makes things worse. I hadn't seen her yet, but no doubt she would just be like the rest of them. Pretty perhaps, but nothing special. The school was buzzing with excitement, which I preferred to the lust and heat. Excitement is a pleasant emotion. Not that lust isn't, but school is just a completely inappropriate place. Just ask junior high boys who suddenly choose to walk with their binders or bags in front of their crotches.

It was nearly lunchtime. Perhaps I would get to see this new girl, or if not I would ask Edward what the big damn deal with her was. No doubt he was tired of hearing all the thoughts about her by the end of 1st period. I got up to finally turn in the test I had been done with for the past 20 minutes. It's best to wait until a few other students have turned theirs in. The first few times when I turned mine in first with no wrong answers, the teachers suspected me of cheating. It's easy to know all the answers when you are as old as I am and have taken tests like these time and time again.

Finally, the bell. Alice is waiting for me in the hall, as usual. We linked hands and walked to the cafeteria at what seemed like a turtle slow pace, as usual. I had a brief vision of what it would be like if I suddenly walked to the cafeteria at my natural pace, breezing by unsuspecting humans on my way, and sitting down at our normal table like nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Then, a pale hand jokingly punched my arm.

"Yeah, right, Jasper. You go ahead and do that." Edward chuckled to himself.

Edward thinking about it must have triggered Alice seeing it, as she replied, "No, Jazz, that wouldn't end well, sweetie."laughing in her wind chime giggle.

It was just then I heard a low grumble from behind us and there was Emmett, hand in hand with Rosalie. It aggravates him to no end when Alice and Edward talk without really talking. Emmett's a simple guy, he likes everything all out in the open. Well, everything that can be, that is.

We finally arrive at the cafeteria which is all in a tizzy over the newest human addition. I look around, but don't see anyone I don't recognize and then I hear the unmistakable sound of a tray falling on the linoleum floor. This new girl certainly knows how to make an entrance. Not to worry though, she has plenty of male suitors to help pick up her clumsy mess.

"Is that her, the new girl?" I ask Edward.

He sighs. "Yes. Her name is Isabella Swan, but goes by Bella. She is the police chief's daughter and more than half the boys in this school plan on marrying her."

"What's the big deal with her?" I ask.

"Beats me. She isn't even that pretty." Rosalie says, while staring at her own reflection in the nearest window. I must disagree with her though, Bella Swan is quite pretty for a human. Dark long hair with a gentle wave, fair skin except for her rosy cheeks. I can imagine how warm her cheeks much be from the pooling of blood there. Stop it, Jasper. It doesn't help a recovering alcoholic to think of how good a glass of wine is. Luckily, Emmett interrupted my dangerous thought pattern.

"So, what does she think of the Cullens, huh? What does she think of the pale, graceful, beautiful people who stay to themselves? Especially the most beautiful of them all..." Emmett reached down to kiss Rosalie's hand, which was going to cause all of us to wish we could throw up, when he looked back at us and said "Me." with a smartass grin on his face. Rosalie just rolled her eyes. Then we all looked to Edward, who turned in the girls direction with a smug look on his face.

A few moments passed and the smug grin started to melt from Edward's lips into more of a grimace. "What? What is it?" I ask.

"I don't hear anything."

"What do you mean you don't hear anything?" Rosalie asks, acting put out even though she wasn't having to do anything herself.

"There is nothing. I can hear everyone's thoughts around her and beyond, but with her its only silence."

"That's strange," Alice said looking slightly worried then she got the look on her face I know she gets when she is scanning our futures.

"Maybe she is just dumb. Maybe she just doesn't think." Rosalie said. I turned to look at the new girl and was met with a pair of deep chocolate brown eyes that I could lose myself in for days. They were so full of thought, emotions and question. Bella Swan may very well be many things, but I certainly do not expect dumb to be one of them.