"Then you walked in, and my heart went BOOM!"

-Phillipa Soo, Hamilton

***

We both turned to Alice as she exclaimed exuberantly. She looked embarrassed right after her outburst. I saw Jasper throw her a warning look. Do they know something I don't?

Well... definitely, yeah.

"Jazz, Courtney has English with you. I trust you to make her feel welcome." She winked, and I blushed. I felt like a child being taken care of by a new babysitter.

"I got that, Alice." He shook his head slightly. "Thanks for that." He hissed under his breath. I wasn't supposed to hear it, that was obvious. But I did, and it made my heart speed up.

"I gotta get to the library. Bye guys!" Alice cried, giving me a bone- crushing hug before running away. Her skin was cold. Cold like Ice. It was strangely reassuring.

That reassuring atmosphere left with Alice, and I was plunged into awkwardness.

Here I was, next to a drop dead gorgeous guy, and I can't even muster up the courage to say my name. Plus I was still apprehensive form before.

"I think we should be formally introduced." Jasper said something before I could. "My names Jasper Hale. It's nice to meet you Courtney."

I smiled, he held out one of his pale hands, and I shook it, although I saw his wince when I did so. "I'm Courtney ... although you already knew that."

He withdrew his hand, seemingly amused my my awkwardness as he grinned. It struck me like lightning. His hand was also ice cold. And it sent a jolt down my spine.

"Indeed I did already know that, but I am gracious that you repeated it."

I furrowed my eyebrows. His speech is so... formal, old fashioned... and he has a hint of an accent... Southern. Texan maybe?

"So... where are you from?" I asked, trying to make small-talk as we walked to English.

"Texas." He answered, confirming my thoughts. "Rosalie and I grew up there."

"I met Rosalie!" I exclaimed, and he gave me a sideways glance. "Did she scare you?"

"Nah." I chuckled. "She seemed cool."

"Really?" Jasper seemed genuinely confused. "That's... reassuring."

I nodded. "I was worried at first, she is very intimidating, but then she seemed to soften up... like she was... amused."

Jasper's eyes darkened as his lips pulled into a tight line. "Oh?"

"Yeah."

"Great conversation."

I giggled, I like this guy, even if he looks like he is constantly submerged in a pit of flames.

"We have Mr. Thomas for English... I hope you don't have social anxiety because he is going to make you do something really embarrassing."

I nodded. "I know... I already did it once today, so I have a speech set up."

Jasper smiled, but still didn't laugh. That is my new goal at this school, make Jasper Hale laugh.

"Here we are." He opened the door to the English classroom. "You can sit by me if you'd like."

I watched as he made his way to the back of the classroom, his face contorted in a scowl when he thought I couldn't see.

What is his deal? I barely even spoke to him, and now he is treating me like I didn't something wrong....

My second goal at this school; Find out what Jasper Hale's deal is.

Wow my life is suddenly revolving around Jasper Hale....

I miss Alice.

I walked to the front of the class and handed Mr. Thomas, a balding middle aged man, my schedule, so he could sign it, showing that I went to all of my classes.

"Why don't you just stay up here, Courtney... you can introduce yourself." He offered, and I gulped, my face turning red. "Okay."

I would rather die.

So there I was, awkwardly standing by the teacher at the front of the classroom, while a bunch of teens filtered in.

"Oh look, that must be Bella's sister." I heard one girl quip. She was standing next to a tall boy with short, blonde hair.

"Yeah. What was her name?"

"Psh... like I remember."

I rolled my eyes.

"Class, we have a new student joining us today, this is Courtney Swan from Arizona."

Dammit! He just took a part of my speech away!

"Courtney, why don't you say a few words about yourself."

Damn you bald man for ruining my speech!

"Okay... my name is Courtney Swan, I have a twin sister, Isabella-"

The brunette girl smirked triumphantly.

"And I like to... play baseball."

With that, I rushed to the back, and hurriedly sat next to Jasper. That seemed to shock people more then my blatant lack of style. They immediately started whispering, and I heard the brown-haired girl say whisper in front of me.

"Wow... she must be a witch if she got the freaky Cullen kid to be her friend."

I know that Jasper heard, but ignored her, while I glared and not-So-discreetly kicked her chair.

I thought I saw Jasper smile at that too.

By the time English was over, I was starving and deeply regretting not eating breakfast.

I stuck to Jaspers side as we entered the cafeteria, my eyes raking the crowded white room for Alice. I happened to see Bella sitting with the brunette and blonde bitches from my English class, Jessica and Mike, I discovered. They were all staring at me with a mixture of astonishment and confusion on their face as I made an offhand remark about Cafeteria food, and Jasper grinned.

Again, no laugh.

"Courtney!"

I gasped as Alice jumped on me and gave me yet another, bone crushing hug.

"Hi Alice." I laughed as she grinned up at me, her whole face sparkling.

"You'll love my brothers! They are quite odd... they always have strange debates... well!"

Alice grabbed my arm, handing me the tray off food she was holding. "Alice you didn't need to but me lunch-"

"Nonsense! Your stomach was growling all day! I don't think you can live off of one protein bar."

I giggled as Jasper followed behind us as Alice dragged me to a table in the far corner.

"Hi guys!" Alice exclaimed, once we reached our destination. "This is Courtney Swan."

Again, emphasis on my name. Maybe she just really likes it?

Rosalie smiled warmly at me, which seemed to also confuse the other two males at the table. One was a burly brunette, with yellow eyes and dark brown hair. He looked really scary to be honest, but when he smiled at me, his unusual eyes glittered with mischief. The other looked sort of like an angel that fell from heaven. He didn't have the same effect on me that Jasper did, but his pale skin still seemed to shine in the light. He had caramel colored hair, and yellow eyes as well. It must be pure chance that they all have such unusual eyes.

Alice pulled me down in the spot next to The big guy, I am assuming he is Emmett, and her. Jasper sat across the table next to Edward, who nodded at him with a look of pity.

"Hi." I waved timidly, I felt so small sitting here with all of these beautiful humans.

"Hey Court!" Emmett exclaimed, grinning ear to ear. "I have heard so much about you!"

I traded an alarmed look with Jasper. "Huh?"

"Just because I texted him and told him about you!" Alice quickly cut in. "Guys, this is get to know Courtney time! We can all ask her questions as we eat!"

That is exactly what happened.

As I munched on the pizza Alice snagged for me, each person at the table went around and asked me a question, it started off pretty basic:

"What is your favorite color?"

"Red."

"What is your favorite sport?"

"Baseball."

"What is your favorite movie?"

"Hmm... I don't really watch movies, but I read a lot of books!"

"Then what is your favorite book?"

"I dunno."

That made Emmett laugh.

And then it quickly escalated, until we were in a full-blown debate near the end of lunch.

"No! Proper English rules imply that to make something past-tense, you at ed, so it would be yeeted."

"No! It is yote!" Emmett quickly contradicted Edwards statement. "Yeeted is not proper grammar at all!"

Rosalie scoffed. "You guys are arguing over the past-tense of yeet, and are concerned about grammar?"

Emmett held a hand out. "Rosalie is right... this is childish."

There was a brief moment of silence.

"Fine! Courtney! You don't speak any other languages! What do you think?"

I laughed, rolling my eyes as I took a sip of the apple juice Alice got for me. "I resent that, I speak a little French..." I paused, pretending to be in deep thought. "Have you considered yaught?"

The table burst out in a mix of giggles and groans.

"Hey Jazz, what do you reckon?" Alice asked, her eyes glowing with enjoyment.

Jasper took a deep breath, dipped his head back, and leaned forward on the table, and made his face serious. We all leaned in, desperate to hear his opinion.

"I can not stress... how much I don't care."

I was thrown into a fit of giggles, leaning on Alice's surprisingly hard body as I clapped my hands in amusement. I could feel all of the other tables staring at us, but I didn't care. This was the happiest I have felt in years!

"Courtney."

And just like that... the mood vanished.

I looked up into the eyes of my twin sister, a boy stood by her side, the blonde one from English... Mike.

"Yes?" I answered, not moving, Alice's cold arm still wrapped around me, all of the Cullen's/Hales seemed to shift in their seats a little, like they felt the tension in the air.

"Um, can I talk to you, for a second?" Bella's eyes flashed to Edward. "Alone."

I followed her gaze, and saw Edward glare at Bella, his eyes looked... almost black.

I jumped in my seat, suddenly frightened. Had I imagined that? How suddenly black his normally yellow eyes were?

"Yeah... sure." I muttered quickly, "Oh-uh..." I grabbed a napkin and quickly jotted down my number for Alice. "You can text me if you want." I smiled, and right as I turned away, I felt a sudden wave of calm wash over me. It was like... all of my previous fears were washed away.

I lifted my eyes to meet Jasper's, he softly smiled at me, and I felt a blush rise to my cheeks as I smiled back. "Bye guys." I waved, and the whole table waved back. "Bye Cordie! Try to not get in too much trouble!" Emmett winked, using the nickname he gave me after admitting he thought Alice said my name was "Cordie" When she first mentioned me. "Right back at you, Emily." I retaliated, using my response when he first told me.

"You know... when Alice first said your name I thought she said Cordie."

"What?" I laughed, lifting my gaze from Rosalie to look at her boyfriend.

"You heard me."

"Yeah... well when I first heard your name, I thought Alice said Emily."

"So what we are agreeing on is that Alice has bad pronunciation..."

"Exactly!"

"Guuuuyyyyyssss!"

I got up from my seat, sending one last smile over my shoulder, before being lead off by Bella and her bodyguard.