06 | NOT MY TYPE |

THE NEXT DAY, Rory and Bella were almost late to school. It was the former's fault—Rory had to take Orion, her newly adopted German Shepard, on a morning walk which had taken more time than she expected.

Mr. Molina quickly accepted their field trip slips and directed them to wait with the others for the two buses that were transporting the junior students going to the local community college's greenhouse.

"Bella!" Mike Newton was approaching the pair of brunettes as they waited for the buses. Like Tyler Crowley and Eric Yorkie before him, the athletic blonde had a determined stride and a hopeful expression like a puppy. His blue eyes turned to Rory nervously and back to Bella hopefully, "Hey, Rory. I heard they almost sent out a search party for you last night. I'm glad you were okay though."

"Word gets around quick in this town," Rory drawled with a shake of her head. "I got a new best friend outta the ordeal. Her name's Orion and I've only had her for one night, but if anything were to happen to her, I'd kill everyone and then myself."

Mike nodded distractedly. He was staring at the girl next to Rory. "Um, Bella—can I talk to you about something?"

Rory wasn't offended by Mike's rudeness. She found it quite amusing as he stared at Bella with big pleading blue eyes. Bella was too nice to say no so she looked at Rory pleadingly. Rory snickered and after patting Bella playfully, she wandered over to Jessica who was clearly distracted by what Bella and Mike were talking about.

Rory rolled her eyes, her hands shoved deep in the pockets of her jacket to keep herself warm. She felt eyes on her and she looked up to find Jasper Hale, Alice and Edward Cullen nearby. The three were muttering indiscernibly to each other, but Jasper's now golden ocher eyes would rise up to her every so often.

Rory couldn't help but note that he looked especially handsome today, with a designer navy blue cashmere sweater over a white collared button down and well-fitted designer jeans. The Cullens were well off on top of insanely blessed in the looks department.

Rory decided the flush to her skin was attributed to the cold weather.

"—think he's asking her to prom? The boys are determined to snap Bella up apparently since she's going out of town for Sadie Hawkins." Jessica's worried voice faded back to Rory's attention as she dragged her eyes away from Jasper Hale's.

Rory was concentrated on the pavement as she answered her friend. "Nah. I think Mike will ask you. After all, you're going with him to Sadie's this weekend." Rory couldn't help but glance at Jasper, standing so close yet still so far away.

Jessica beamed. "You're right, Ror. I have nothing to worry about." Jessica's voice was falsely cheery, badly hiding her obvious concern.

It seemed Bella and Mike were finally done talking about whatever, but Rory didn't get a chance to interrogate Bella or tease her as Mr. Molina ushered them all onto their assigned buses. Apparently Mr. Molina had assigned buses according to last names, so Rory's beginning half of the alphabet last name meant she was separated from Bella, Jessica, Mike and even Eric. This meant the bus she rode was also the one which three golden eyed beautiful creatures were also assigned. Perfect.

Rory filed onto the bus and scanned for open seats. Edward and Alice already sat together and Jasper was by himself across the aisle. No one dared to sit with him even thought the bus was quickly filling up.

"Rory! Over here!" Tyler Crowley tried to call her over to the back of the bus.

The half Spanish brunette faked a smile and had no resolve but to squeeze down the narrow bus aisle. Just as she shuffled past the middle of the bus, Rory stumbled and tripped over someone's bag. She expected to face-plant on the dirty, rubber floor—thoroughly embarrassing herself—but she could taste the grimy school bus floor two cold, pale-white large hands shot out like a blur and grabbed her.

Rory humphed and looked at the owner of the hands that gripped her by her elbows. Of course. Jasper Hale. His brow was arched as they stared each other down—her with resentment and he mockingly.

There was an exasperated line of students waiting behind Rory for her to get a hold of herself. Hearing the complaints, Rory tactlessly pulled away from Jasper's iron-like grasp.

"Thanks," Rory muttered, averting her gaze because she had a tendency to get lost in his honey eyes. She felt the stares of Alice and Edward.

Jasper let out a impossibly graceful and elegant snort. "I wasn't just going to let you fall and do nothing, Rory. Chivalry ain't dead yet."

She rolled her eyes, still not sure what to make of Jasper Hale's whiplash decision to speak to her again—and she walked away to a waiting Tyler Crowley where she suffered his bad attempts at flirting until the bus arrived at the community college.

Joining Bella and Jessica's side, Rory was glad to not feel as suffocated as she did in the too tiny bus. As Mr. Molina led the way down the greenhouse, she lamented her awful almost embarrassment to her friends' amusement, only resulting in her turning even more red than if she had just fallen when she admitted that Jasper Hale had caught her. Rory refused to give into their drivel. They were nearing the end of the greenhouse when Bella had split off to talk to Edward Cullen of all people.

"Jasper Hale is really gorgeous," Jessica whispered with a giggle and a glance at the leonine back of the 6'3 blond walking a few people ahead of them with Alice animatedly speaking to him. Rory groaned. Trust Jessica to never leave any topic—especially of gossip—open ended.

Rory had already been watching Jasper discretely for the last half hour they explored the glass building filled with plants so she noticed when he appeared to turn his head the slightest bit when his name came up, as if they had called his attention despite their quiet whispers.

"—too bad, he's with Alice Cullen and all."

Rory turned her head so fast. "No, he's not!" she whispered/hissed. Jessica was a bit startled at Rory's sudden impassioned tone and quick movement. She settled herself and cleared her throat. "They're not together after all," she informed Jessica.

"Oh," Jessica said shortly. A smirk grew on her pretty features. "It's quite funny how quick you disputed that, Rory. Careful, there, you're looking a bit green-eyed." Jessica giggled at Rory's crimson face.

"I just don't like false gossip," Rory commented, keeping her gaze straight and incidentally on Jasper's figure. He had looked back at them again, this time, his angelic features hinted at the ghost of a smug smirk.

She didn't like that look on his face and she didn't like it even more when Jasper seemed to linger in front of a selection of dark green and purple ferns, purposefully waiting behind for her it appeared. He had an intense look of slightly comedic concentration on his face as he observed the ferns. Rory tried to dart around his figure like everyone else, but he smoothly slid in position next to her. He glanced at Jessica once and she traitorously left Rory for Mike's side with a high-pitched giggle.

"Are you following me or something?" Rory asked curtly. She looked up at him sideways. He had a small smirk on his face.

"Following you? No, I was just taking in the beauty of Forks ever luscious green life." To an outsiders view, Jasper's and Rory's matching dry sarcastic wit was adorable. To Rory, it was aggravating.

"You should be more careful, Rory," Jasper said with a now serious tone. "I heard you were almost attacked in the woods last night."

Rory paused and her brows furrowed in confusion. "I didn't tell anyone that. Is that the rumor going on about now?"

If Rory wasn't watching him so closely, she would've missed the way he froze for a microscopic second. "Yes," he agreed almost heatedly. "That's what I heard. My advice remains essential though."

She huffed. "Okay, Hale, what sort of fucked up game are you playing?" Rory was one to get straight to the point. She glared ahead of her, still too irritated to look at the honey haired boy beside her.

"Game?" Jasper's smooth tone was genuine and full of curiosity.

"Yeah—this whole push-and-pull bullshit you keep playing with me," Rory retorted bitterly, crossing her arms in attempt to get a grip on her uncontrollable temper she only seemed to have around him. And also to warm herself up—Jasper wasn't exactly a walking furnace, more so a living freezer.

"Is that one of your theories?"

Rory's left eye twitched. She glared at Jasper, who had that irritatingly beautiful mocking expression. They were now the last ones amongst the greenery; remaining behind everyone else who had filed out in the parking lot already in attempt to keep a semblance of privacy from their nosy classmates.

It was like a dam exploded. "First of all, you act like you hate me half the time—don't deny all the glares—I'm not blind. Then, you miraculously save my life—literally out of the hero's playbook by the way—refuse my thanks and then you and your siblings—and I mean Alice because she actually wanted to befriend me—ignore me like nothing happened. Now, you're suddenly speaking to me again and you know things I haven't told anyone else and you're trying to give me advice?" Rory spieled out all that had accumulated between her and Jasper Hale. "It's horribly confusing and I do not have the patience or stamina to deal with whatever this is anymore. Make up your mind, Hale. Hate me, like me, ignore me—just fucking choose before I lose the last remaining part of my mind."

Jasper frowned but also kept his gaze ahead of him. "I...hadn't realized I had such an effect on you. I don't want to be the bad guy, Rory, but I'm not the good guy either. Believe me, I have had no intention of playing games with you, Rory. Whatever I do, I have done to protect you."

She scoffed. "Don't sound so self-righteous. Of course, with all your stupid good looks and heroics, your bipolar moods may have dampened my otherwise happy perspective of Forks."

"I truly apologize, Rory," he began carefully. "I just...don't know how to exactly..."

"Make friends? Be nice? Not make a girl feel hated for unbeknownst reasons?"

"Be normal," Jasper admitted, his eyes and tone serious. "I want to be, but you...unnerve me."

"I unnerve you," Rory let out a bark of laughter, startling him slightly. "Life is full of irony."

"It's difficult for me to be around you," Jasper frowned. "I have to go against all my instincts, what my family says, to be here. Beside you."

"Ouch," Rory wrinkled her nose.

Jasper recoiled. "I meant—I can't get a read on you. You're unpredictable and you throw me off. I have no control around you." He looked slightly constipated as he admitted that aloud to her. "You should stay away from me."

"That sounds like a you problem." Rory replied sardonically even if her expression didn't match her tone. "Stop trying to control me. You don't even know me."

"It's a dangerous problem for the both of us," Jasper retorted angrily. He exhaled, his face twisting in pain before flattening like granite rock. "And I shouldn't get to know you as much as I want to. Somehow, nothing bad has happened. Yet. Our paths weren't meant to cross and result in a happy ending. For me at least."

Rory wanted to argue against his belief they would be dangerous together. Friendship wise, of course. But even she couldn't deny the way he, and his siblings, made everyone around them feel uneasy.

"What if I like danger? What if I don't believe in happy endings? Or that the world is divided into good guys and bad guys?" She shot back. "Like I said, you don't know me. Maybe I like living on the edge."

"Maybe you should like living more," he muttered under his breath, too fast for her ears.

"So that's it then?" Rory scoffed. "Back to acting like I don't exist."

He spun around and ended up centimeters away from her, their toes almost touching as he glared into her eyes.

"I am very aware of your existence at all times, Rory." The corner of his mouth lifted cynically. "It's not a good thing, darling." He began to make his way to the exit.

She wasn't going to let him walk away again with riddles and nonsense. Rory grabbed his hard, ice-like hand. Ignoring his shocked expression, she narrowed her eyes. "There's no going back now, Hale. You opened the gates, let me in."

Gold met hazel.

It seemed like deep, introspective searching looks were their thing. Rory craned her head up to stare at him defiantly and challenging while he stared down with resolve and helplessness.

"—Ms. Aden, Mr. Hale, the bus is ready to leave." Mr. Molina's shout stopped their stare off.

They stiffly exchanged one last look at each other once more and walked to the bus, barely noticing their hands were still locked together until she felt him tug her from going to sit by Tyler Crowley. Feeling the stares of everyone one the bus, Rory sighed and backtracked to the plastic bench Jasper stood next to. Alice smiled happily while Edward stared at her and Jasper broodingly.

"Stupid good looks?" Jasper had murmured to her as she had no choice but to sit with him. She kept her gaze on the blue in front of her, while feeling eyes on her from all directions.

Her face was crimson and her hands were cold, but Rory felt an immense sense of giddiness and satisfaction. "You are irritating."

➖

Forks public school education system was nothing like Rory ever experienced. As it was such a small town, Rory was on set to graduate before the rest of her friends. Rory's schedule comprised all of the AP and honor classes offered at Forks; which meant that after her junior year, there would be no more higher-level classes available for her to take. It explained why she and Jasper Hale had so many classes together even though he was a senior like his adopted siblings, Rosalie and Emmett Cullen.

Speaking of Jasper Hale, Rory was not sure what they were anymore or how to react nowadays.

He still looked uncomfortable and pained but that seemed to be his reaction to everyone. Like he was struggling with himself over something Rory could only guess on. She honestly felt so bad that Jasper was in any type of pain being around so many people. Especially when people got too close to him or whenever Alice or Edward or any of his siblings left him alone. Rory was beginning to understand his cold facade was nothing personal.

(Against her at least.)

(Anymore that is.)

Gone were the glares and avoidance, but the mystery still remained. He was warming up to her—figuratively—and Rory couldn't fight the warm feeling he set upon her soul whenever he looked at her. He was trying—they both were—to figure out how to deal with whatever magnetic force kept pushing them together.

Rory had her theories—Bella was quite the influence—and each theory was more outlandish than the last. Rory didn't have a chance to talk to Jasper in their first two classes together because exams and oral presentations took precedence. As always, their quality experience comprised of intense glances and brief exchanges.

Mr. Molina's biology II class was sort of a mess in Rory's opinion. They jumped from subject to subject and everyone seemed to go with it. Maybe that's just how it went in Forks. Because while they literally just had a field trip to a greenhouse, apparently the word in the street (the school hallways) was that they were now on blood typing.

Which was why when Rory and Jess walked into biology the following Monday after the field trip that took place on Thursday— Jess had been thoroughly describing of her and Mike's night at the Sadie Hawkins dance—Rory was very thrown off to not find her brooding blond sitting at the black-topped lab desk behind her own. Not that he was hers. Or that she cared he skipped class.

Rory was a mess. Let her live.

"No Jasper Hale today?" Jess asked as she set her bag down.

"Why would you ask me?" Rory responded too quickly and nervously.

"Don't you have first and second hour with him?" Jess rose one eyebrow. Then her expression changed as she watched Rory fidget and become unusually tongue tied. She tilted her head knowingly. "Do you and Jasper have like a thing now?"

"No!"

"What about Phillip?" Jess was eager for gossip.

"Wh—I mean, yeah. Phillip. My boyfriend. I have one of those. Which is why me and Jasper can definitely not be a thing," Rory stammered through.

"Long distance relationships never last anyways. So, if you suddenly decide to call it off and be single—I won't judge you," Jess said almost convincingly. "Besides, it's Jasper Hale. He's so gorgeous and intimidating. And you're the only person in this town besides the teachers that he even bothers to acknowledge. That's something. If I was Phillip, I wouldn't blame you at all."

Rory slapped her forehead and groaned. She really wished she could tell Jess and everyone else the truth.

"You can tell me anything, Rory," Jess said as they worked on puncturing themselves to find out their blood type. Rory didn't mention she already knew hers—O Negative—as a deep part of her enjoyed the pain.

"Nothing to tell." Rory watched in fascination as a large bead of blood pooled at the tip of her index finger.

"We all saw you hold his hand last week," Jess added, wrapping a bandaid on.

Rory pressed her bleeding finger to the indicator card. "My hands were cold," she explained nonchalantly despite thinking to how his ice-like hands did the opposite of warming hers up. She didn't really mind it.

"Sure, Rory," Jess said lightly. "Sure."

"Seriously, Jess, nothing is going on between me and Jasper Hale." With her tone and seriousness, Rory almost managed to convince herself of the statement. Almost.