*abuse mentioned in first paragraph*
I awoke late the following day feeling sore from the punch my father gave me the night before. I got up and went to my bathroom to get ready. As I changed, I saw multiple bruises already formed around my stomach from my father. While my enhanced healing would have usually healed the bruises already, since I hadn't been eating nearly enough food, my injuries had been staying around longer.
I finished getting ready before making my way downstairs. I grabbed my backpack and walked out the front door without seeing either of my parents. As I started walking the familiar path to school, I was shocked by the sound of a car's horn. I turned to see Jasper driving a car with Rosalie and Emmet in it beside me.
He rolled down the window before saying, "Hey, need a ride?"
My heart started to beat slightly faster at the sight of Jasper, but I tried to ignore it. I figured ignoring my feeling with Jasper was the best course of action. I prepared to decline the offer before Emmet yelled out, "Come on, you'll be late if you walk."
Without thinking, I said, "Sure, why not." I walked up to the car, opened the back door behind Jasper, and climbed into the car. As I buckled, Jasper drove off in the direction of the school.
"So, did you sleep well?" Emmet asked.
"What?" I replied, confused at his choice of topic.
"You know, sleep. It's what humans need to function." His tone was filled with sarcasm, but it made me smile slightly.
"I did sleep well," I told Emmet. "What did you do last night instead of sleeping?" I asked him back.
"We played a lot of Mario Kart," he told me with a smile. He seemed exactly like the type of person who would love Mario Kart, so this information didn't surprise me.
"We're here." Jasper's words cut our conversation short as I realized what his words meant.
"Were you driving super fast again?" I asked Jasper before turning to Emmet without letting him answer. "You were just trying to distract me from how fast we were going." I opened the car door and got out of the car, half annoyed, half-joking.
"Not true," Emmet said quickly, and he followed me out. "I seriously just wanted to talk to you."
"Uh-huh." I rolled my eyes with a smile on my face letting Emmet see I was playing around as the rest of the family joined us by the car.
"What did you do?" Edward asked Emmet. "I could hear how annoyed she was with you from our car."
Emmet feigned surprise as he looked at me. "I annoy you?"
"Leave her alone." Jasper's words were harsh and sudden, making everyone look at him, including me. He realized we were staring, so he asked us, "What? He was rude to Emma."
He's trying to defend me? That's the nicest thing any has ever done.
I could feel Edward staring a hole into the back of my head, but I did not want to look at him or answer the millions of questions probably going around his head.
I won't answer any of your questions Edward, leave me alone.
The warning bell sounded as people started to leave the parking lot and walked toward the school building. We followed the crowd into the school. As I started walking toward my locker, I could feel people staring at me more than usual, and I couldn't figure out why.
My morning went well as I listened to my different teachers talk. I took notes and focused on the board as best I could, but I felt my mind drifting to Jasper every now and then. How could I not? I hadn't really processed the day before yet, and a lot had happened.
Okay, so I imprinted on someone. That's good news since I wasn't sure if that day would ever come. The problem is I imprinted on a vampire. But he doesn't want to kill me. He also doesn't know, and I don't want him to know. I never want to pressure someone into liking me. He seems to like me already, but I don't want to push him. He did stick up for me to Emmet even though we were just joking around. That must be a good sign.
The bell rang, signaling the end of my morning classes and the start of lunch. I walked out of my classroom, stopped briefly at my locker, and made my way to the lunchroom. I could see everyone looking at me and whispering. I thought they were talking about me, but I assumed I was imagining things. I grabbed some food and saw the Cullens already sitting at their table, all of them looking at me. I also saw Jessica looking at me with wide, excited eyes.
I decided to talk to my human friends for a second first before going over to the vampires. As I made it to their table, Jessica immediately pulled me down next to her and started bombarding me with questions. "Why are you hanging out with the Cullens? Are they nice? Did you ask one of them out? Why did they drive you?"
"Wow, wow, wow, calm down, Jessica. They're just nice kids. They're in a bunch of my classes, and they found out I don't have a car, so they volunteered to drive me." It was a simple cover story that I was sure no one would question. I was known to get along with everyone, while everyone didn't get along with me. It would just look like they just didn't not like me yet.
"So, which one did you sleep with?" Jessica's words immediately made me angry.
As soon as I moved to Forks, someone started a rumor that I slept around, and ever since, Jessica accused me of sleeping with guys constantly. I usually just dismissed her when she said stuff like that, but something about her accusing me of doing that with one of the Cullens really angered me.
"What?!" I exclaimed, getting everyone's attention around me.
"Well yeah, the whole school's talking about it." She said it so calmly like we were talking about our favorite colors. "You left with them and arrived with them. You obviously slept with one of the new kids."
I looked around the cafeteria to see everyone looking at me, waiting to hear which boy I hooked up with last night.
"I didn't sleep with any of them, Jessica." I angrily got up from the table, feeling my inner wolf trying to get out. I walked straight out of the cafeteria, out of the building, and into the forest.