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"It helps a little if you think of theh,musical voice too fast for huh tohear "Her name is Whitney She has a baby sister she adores Her arden party, do you remember?"

"I knoho she is," Jasper said curtly He turned away to stare out one of thesmall s that were spaced just under the eaves around the long room His toneended the conversation

He would have to hunt tonight It was ridiculous to take risks like this, trying totest his strength, to build his endurance Jasper should just accept his limitations andithin them His former habits were not conducive to our chosen lifestyle; heshouldn't push himself in this way

Alice sighed silently and stood, taking her tray of food - her prop, as it were - with her and leaving hierant about their relationship, it was Alice andJasper who knew each other's every mood as well as their own As if they could readminds, too - only just each other's

Edward Cullen

Reflex reaction I turned to the sound of ht

My eyes locked for a small portion of a second with a pair of wide, chocolatebrownhuman eyes set in a pale, heart-shaped face I knew the face, though I'd neverseen it myself before this moment It had been foremost in every huhter of the town's chief of police, brought to live hereby some new custody situation Bella She'd corrected everyone who'd used her fullname

I looked away, bored It took me a second to realize that she had not been the oneto think my name

Of course she's already crushing on the Cullens, I heard the first thoughtcontinue

Now I recognized the ??voice' Jessica Stanley - it had been a while since she'dbothered me with her internal chatter What a relief it had been when she'd gotten overher misplaced infatuation It used to be nearly impossible to escape her constant,ridiculous daydreams I'd wished, at the time, that I could explain to her exactly ould have happened if otten anywhere nearher That would have silenced those annoying fantasies The thought of her reactionalmost made me smile

Fat lot of good it will do her, Jessica went on She's really not even pretty Idon't knohy Eric is staring so muchor Mike

She winced enericallypopular Mike Newton, was completely oblivious to her Apparently, he was not asoblivious to the new girl Like the child with the shiny object again This put a h she was outwardly cordial to the newcoe about my family The new student musthave asked about us

Everyone's looking at ly in an aside Isn't itlucky Bella had two classes with meI'll bet Mike ant to ask me what she's - I tried to block the inane chatter out of my head before the petty and the trivialcould drive me mad

"Jessica Stanley is giving the nean girl all the dirty laundry on the Cullenclan," I murmured to Emmett as a distraction

He chuckled under his breath I hope she's ht

"Rather uniinative, actually Just the barest hint of scandal Not an ounce ofhorror I'm a little disappointed"

And the new girl? Is she disappointed in the gossip as well?

I listened to hear what this new girl, Bella, thought of Jessica's story What didshe see when she looked at the strange, chalky-skinned family that was universallyavoided?

It was sort of my responsibility to know her reaction I acted as a lookout, forlack of a better word, for rew suspicious, Icould give us early warning and an easy retreat It happened occasionally - soination would see in us the characters of a book or a , but it was better to move on somewhere new than to risk scrutiny

Very, very rarely, soive them a chance to test theirhypothesis We si h I listened close beside where Jessica's frivolous internalush It was as if there was no one sitting beside her Howpeculiar, had the girlto herI looked up to check, feeling off-balance Checking on whatI ever had to do

Again,rightwhere she had been before, and looking at us, a natural thing to be doing, I supposed, asJessica was still regaling her with the local gossip about the CullensThinking about us, too, would be natural

But I couldn't hear a whisper

Inviting warm red stained her cheeks as she looked doay froer It was good that Jasper wasstill gazing out theI didn't like to i of bloodwould do to his control

The emotions had been as clear on her face as if they were spelled out in wordsacross her forehead: surprise, as she unknowingly absorbed the signs of the subtledifferences between her kind and mine, curiosity, as she listened to Jessica's tale, andso morefascination? It wouldn't be the first time We were beautiful to theht her staring at me

And yet, though her thoughts had been so clear in her odd eyes - odd, because ofthe depth to them; brown eyes often seebut silence fro at all

I felt a moment of unease

This was nothing I'd ever encountered before Was there so withme? I felt exactly the same as I always did Worried, I listened harderAll the voices I'd been blocking were suddenly shouting in my headwonder what music she likes, two tables away - fixated on Bella Swan

Look at hiirls in schoolwaiting for hihts, also revolving aroundthe girl

so disgusting You'd think she was fa Lauren Mallory was so jealous that her face, by all rights, should be dark jade in color And Jessica, flaunting her new best friend What a joke Vitriol continued to spew frohts

I bet everyone has asked her that But I'd like to talk to her I'll think of amused

maybe she'll be in my Spanish June Richardson hoped

tons left to do tonight! Trig, and the English test I hope hts were unusually kind, was the only one at the table asn't obsessed with this Bella