Now You See Me [Jasper Hale story]

XVIII. Clear As Water

"You have learned something. That always feels at first as if you had lost something." - Herbert George Wells

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I came to the Clearwater's house at four o'clock in the afternoon. Sue (Seth's and Leah's mother) invited me in with a huge smile on her face and apparent relief in her eyes. We actually passed around each other in the doorframe, since Mrs. Clearwater was just leaving to do some shopping. She said Seth was in the living room, watching the TV (as he always did when no guests were around) and that I should try to bring him to heel. I had no idea why I'd have to bring HER son to heel, considering that SHE was his mother. I was about to find out soon though...
Seth and I had been having our little tutoring sections of Physics since three weeks ago, every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon; his mother paid me eight bucks for an hour of my tutoring him, while we usually spent two hours learning. Seth was a good student. He had a high level of logical reasoning, the only problem was his laziness to learn the formulas. Yet, I had my own persuading methods.

"Guess who is here and brought you a chocolate cake..." I walked into the small, cozy living room, grinning at him the best I could. Seth had, however, merely graced me with a glance.

"Hmm..." he murmured gloomily, turning his head back to the TV screen. My eyes slipped down, onto his body, for me to find out that he hadn't had a shirt on. I frowned at him. Not that the view of his bare torso wasn't nice - 'cause Seth really had a divinely worked-out abdomen, for someone who was bare sixteen years old. Teaching a shirtless, hansome guy seemed a bit inappropriate to me though. Shit. When had I gotten so conservative?

"Oh, I love to see you too, Seth. And I'm doing great, thanks for asking," I stated sarcastically, standing right in front of him, obstructing him from watching the TV. I dropped the cake onto the coffee table, watching it land with an audible "thump." Afterwards, I tilted my head to the side, lifting my eyebrow up questioningly. "So, are you not speaking to me today, or is there another reason behind your grumpiness?"

Finally, I drawed his attention to myself, "Hi, Gwyneth, I'm fine. Can you move to the side already? I can't see anything," Seth spoke up, no less moodily.

I was left to stare at him in awe. Was this the funny, always optimistic boy I had met at Emily's, about two months ago? Because this form of "my" Seth was truly unrecognizable.

"Fine, that's enough," I mumbled under my breath, before I stretched my arm towards the armrest of the sofa. His favorite, black was lying on it, so there, I grabbed it and threw the piece of cloth at him.

He caught it, looking up at me, confused, "Hey! What's your problem?"

"What's MY problem?!" I couldn't stop staring at him in astonishment, "Are ya kidding, right? I should be the one asking you that! It's Thursday! We have tutoring, remember?"

Clearwater snorted, rolling his eyes at me, "Physics is a shit. I won't learn something I'll never use anyways. Moreover, Sam said that I won't have to-"

"Hang on," interrupting him with a lifted hand, my eyebrows furrowed searchingly, "Do you mean Sam, Emily's boyfriend?" I waited until Seth nodded. Then, I laughed, absolutely inamused. "Sam knows what Physics is... whoa, point for him! Did the mastermind also mention, that without Physics, you can forget about graduating?!"

"Whatever!" Despite his careless words, Seth frowned, which meant he wasn't happy about it. "I have much more important things to do, than caring about school."

"Like what? Sitting here, watching the TV? I can see that!"

"Yeah, that's exactly what I'll be doing for the rest of the afternoon," Clearwater shifted on the sofa a bit, to move, so there he would get a clear view of the screen. That was far enough for me. I felt my cheeks burn red and my heart beating quicker than usual, when I lost my temper. Crouching a bit, I took the remote control from the coffee table in front of him, and before he managed to stop me, I switched the TV off.

The murderous glares Seth graced me with afterwards, would have killed an army of thousands of soldiers, that was more than apparent. Yet, I wasn't going to give up just yet, "Listen to me carefully, Clearwater. I came here to tutor you, and that's what I'm gonna do, whether you want or not. So stop wasting my time, get your stupid ass off of the sofa, and stop freaking acting like a spoiled brat!"

In an instant, Seth was on his feet, his eyes hurling thunders. With his six feet of height, he was towering over me, like an indian god of revenge over someone who took his toy away from him; his bare chest lifting and falling under the pressure of heavy breathing. He was angry - that was clear; he was angry at me - that was even clearer. I had never experienced angry Seth nevertheless, that was why I had no idea what I could expect from him.
"How dare you?! Order me and shout at me, at my own home!" He hissed through gritted teeth. I stumbled back, afraid of what might his rage make him do.

Fortunately, there came a rescue, in the form of Leah - Clearwater's older sister - soon. She ran downstairs, hissing at Seth to calm down, and for some reason, he obeyed. I hadn't forgotten to gift Leah with one of my admiring glances. After all, four seconds ago, the damned jerk looked like he was going to rip me in half...

"Seth, we need to go," the slightly older girl urged. Her brother looked at her curiously, "Sam's calling."

Seth nodded once, turning on his heel to leave. He hadn't even spared a look at me, running after his sister out of the house. I barely managed to blink twice, when they shut the door closed behind themselves. The point that made me stare at their backs in awe, was their speed though. I thought Jasper Hale (and other Cullens) were the only beings in this world (or at least in Forks), who were able to run so fast. Nevertheless, Leah and Seth seemed to have run away in a tempo, which was dangerously close to the super-human, vampiric pace...
I shook my head and frowned over my own, stupid conspiracy theories. The Clearwaters had brown eyes, not golden ones. Seth's skin wasn't half as cold as Jasper's moreover, not to mention that Alice would have warned me, if they, by any chance, had been vampires. Still though, there was a tooth of curiosity in my brain, that wasn't letting me take a rest.

"Dammit!" I cursed loudly, when I was sure no one was able to hear me. Biting my nails, thinking about what was I supposed to do. Seth certainly wouldn't be happy, if he came back and found me in the house. Checking the watch on my left wrist in dismay, I found out that it was almost six in the evening. That meant I had spent two hours at the Clearwater's, doing nothing prosperous, but arguing with Seth. Shit. There were much funnier ways how to waste my precious time. For example, sitting at home, watching Hayden's attempting to cook dinner.
I hurried to the kitchen, in order to leave a note for Sue, before I left the house and rushed towards my car.

Since Sheriff Swan caught me while breaking the speed limits, I had been driving as humbly as a lamb. Of course, my new style of driving signed on the petrol consumption of my precious Golf. The fuel was disappearing from the tank much more quickly, for that, I had to tank up twice more often than I had before Charlie caught me. As a huge hater of gas stations, I postponed the tanking up for the following day though, driving all the way through the woods.
In some point, my phone rang. According to my new, driving philosophy, I wasn't supposed to take the call. However, the road in front of me was straight and clear, and since there wasn't any police car in the nearest two miles...

"Hello?" I asked.

"Hey, Gwyn," Angela's voice pierced through my eardrums, "I need your help with the text for our yearbook. Are you done tutoring the hot, Indian guy already?"

"Yeah, I'm on the way home. Are ya coming to my place?"

"Yup," she beeped, "Just got in the car. Is there something you want me to bring from the center?"

"Pizza, please!" I rejoined with an appropriate accent on each word.

"Uh... okay. Tuna with an extra portion of onion?"

"Exactly, Honey," I crooned contentedly. "I'll pay you when I-"

Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten a chance to say more. Right in front of my car, there suddenly appeared a figure of a man. Dark-skinned, tall guy, who was wearing something crimson. His crimson clothes were actually the only thing my eyes were able to focus on, when his body crashed into the windscreen of my poor Golf. I heard the man's body, rolling over the whole length of the car, as I cursed and stomped on the brake. I unfastened the belt as quickly as I could, pulling up the handbrake; then, I hopped out of the car quickly, running over towards the man.