purple rain | jasper hale

twenty three

| trigger warning as always | 

Wednesday was, as always, practice day. After a long interrogation about her athleticism, Jessica ended up inviting Amanda to try for the volleyball team. As Valerie put her purple knee pads on – and shivered as she remembered the day in Port Angeles when Jasper bought her those – she wondered about her friendship with Jessica.

Jessica was her friend, she was sure of that. She wasn't a best friend like Mary had been to her, but she was truly really nice and supportive of her. She hadn't been paying much attention to Valerie for the last few days but like Jasper had told her once, Jessica really enjoyed having new toys to play around with for a while. And Amanda was just that – a shiny new toy for Jessica. Valerie wasn't the news around Forks Highschool anymore, so she had less value as a friend at that moment than Amanda. Valerie couldn't help but wonder if the similar happened with Bella and Jessica.

'I think you're going to do just fine! Look at Val, when she arrived here she hadn't played for centuries!'

'For two years, Jess.' The purple haired girl replied, putting her hair up in a ponytail and sighing. It wasn't like she didn't know how to play when she arrived – she wondered if Amanda would be any good. She hoped she was, it would be great to have more people looking forward to playing Volleyball for Forks. After all, a great deal of the team was graduating that year. 'For how long haven't you played?'

'I've never-' Amanda bit her lip. 'I just played on Gym class as a mandatory sport. I really wanted to join a team though.'

Oh. Valerie bit her lip, suddenly feeling sorry for Amanda. Everyone had to play Volley once in a way in class – it was a mandatory sport that was used to grade the class, much like Basketball and Football were. She felt for Amanda, as playing for a team was very different than playing around at Gym class. Amanda would literally be eaten alive by Lauren and her demanding attitude. Valerie wondered if it was even worth it to go out there and play and watch a fellow mate be literally humiliated to exhaustion.

But practice wasn't that bad; Valerie focused on her part of the team and on their game. Sometimes she couldn't help but notice how Amanda looked at her while she played and the little smiles she sent on her way sometimes. Valerie smiled back at her whenever she could; she felt for her, she must have been terrified and Lauren didn't help one bit. Amanda wasn't good but she wasn't bad either, and even though school would end in just a few months, Jessica said she wouldn't mind training her shiny new today so she would get better quickly and maybe she would have a chance to play in one of the upcoming games. Valerie sighed as Jessica winked at her, knowing she would have to tag along in their practice time... like she didn't have enough shit to think about.

Jasper was waiting for her outside. They were going to grab some coffee and just enjoy some time together as Valerie was always too damn busy doing something whether it was studying, practicing or taking care of the house while her mother was gone. She wondered how the relationship with the boy looked to most people. Maybe the teenagers in Forks really thought she was a home-wrecker, arriving and making Jasper Hale leave Alice Cullen, just so she could be seen hanging out with him like friends did. Perhaps some of them thought she was just playing him, playing with his feelings and with his love for her – it was nothing like that, though. She wanted to act different around him, she wanted to be able to show him her love, but she couldn't, she just couldn't. And she didn't know why. At first Valerie really tried to stay away. She tried to stay away from him, from his bad attitude and his bad mood but she had fallen – slowly, yes, but she did – in love with him.

She was putting her thigh high boots on – she wondered if she would slip in the rain and fall on her ass - when she heard Jessica muffling a laugh from the showers.