His Wolf Pup - a Jasper Hale Story

35- Bella's Birthday

As summer came to an end, my senior year of high school started. The first few weeks of class passed by uneventfully. Jasper and I once again had a history class together, which made me glad, and Noah and I spent our PE period pretending not to have extra strength, which was entertaining for both of us. Bella and I also had English and Science class together, which was a fun time.

The other important change was Bella sat at our table from day 1 of school. She no longer spent time with her normal friends and spent all her time with our family. This was easier for her this year because Rosalie wasn't there to tell her to go away.

Before we knew it, it was Bella's 18th birthday.

Edward drove separately from the rest of us and picked Bella up before bringing her to school. Edward had told us not to make a big deal about her birthday, but Alice would not listen to him. He attempted to save Bella from her nonsense by not meeting up with us in front of the school, but Alice dragged me to meet her in front of her locker anyways.

"Happy birthday!" Alice said, pulling Bella into a hug.

"Not so loud," Bella complained. "People can hear you."

"Whatever," Alice told her, releasing her from the hug. She held out her hand where a wrapped gift was sitting. "Here you go."

"I told you no presents." Bella took the present from Alice's hand and put it in her locker.

"That's like telling Alice to stop existing," I told Bella with a smile on my face.

"I've already seen you opening it," Alice said, "and you'll be wearing it tonight at our house."

"Alice," Edward said in a warning tone. "We said no party."

"No, you said no party," I told him.

"You know she'll throw it no matter what you tell her." Noah walked up with Jasper as he spoke, the two of them joining the conversation.

"Just say you'll come," Alice pleaded.

I felt Jasper tense slightly beside me as Bella finally gave in. "Fine."

Alice gave a little cheer as Edward and Bella started walking off. As Jasper turned to talk to me, Bella suddenly turned back around to look at us. "Hey," she complained, "Jasper, no fair with the emotion thing."

"Sorry, Bella," he told her with a smile on her face, not really meaning it.

The two ended up walking away, Edward holding her hand with a smile on his face.

"He really cares for her, doesn't he?" I asked Jasper.

He took my hand in his, leading us to our history class together. "Almost as much as I love you."

"Oh," I told him. "Is that so?"

"It is," he replied. "We would both do anything to keep the two of you safe."

"Well, I'm honored," I told him with a smile on my face. The two of us entered the classroom and walked toward our seats in the back.

The remainder of our day passed uneventfully until we finally drove home. Emmet and Rosalie had come home the week before to spend some time with the family, and I had begged them to stay until Bella's birthday so that they would stick around longer than they had planned. I also promised Emmet we would play fetch after Bella's birthday, and that convinced him.

Our family spent the remainder of the afternoon helping Alice set up the perfect party for Bella. There were streamers, balloons, and a cake that I would have to wait until Bella left to eat. It was a necessary precaution that I continued to take even though I was pretty sure Bella knew I wasn't a vampire. I still didn't want to tell her what I really was, so we continued to pretend I was a vampire.

When Bella finally came over, I was excited to have this party over with so Alice would calm down. Everyone was saying hi to Bella when Emmet decided to mess with her.

"So, Bella," Emmet said. "I see you're into younger men?"

Jasper hit his arm to make him be quiet. We could all tell Bella didn't like the fact that she was technically older than Edward, and Emmet didn't need to make that worse.

"You guys didn't have to do all this," Bella said, looking at our family with a slight frown on her face.

"Trust me, we tried to make it smaller," Esme told her with a smile.

Carlisle laughed slightly at Esme's words. "We can only reign Alice in so much," he told Bella.

As our conversation continued, a sudden flash shocked us all.

"Sorry," Alice said. She was holding a camera I had never seen before and had just taken a picture of Bella and Edward together. "I saw this in your bag. I hope you don't mind."

"Of course not," Bella told her, not wanting to hurt Alice's feelings.

"Why don't we open presents?" Esme suggested, trying to help Bella out by ending this party as soon as possible.

"Yes!" Alice yelled, placing the camera back in Bella's bag.

Emmet handed Bella a present first. She went to open it only to see an empty box. "A box?" she questioned Emmet.

"It's a new stereo," he told her. "I already installed it. Now you'll be able to hear things in that truck."

"Hey," Bella said, "no hating on the truck."

"Here," Rosalie said, handing Bella her gift. "Alice picked it out. It's a necklace."

"Thank you, Rosalie," Bella said, surprised she even was there.

"Our turn," Carlisle said, handing Bella an envelope.

"We thought you were looking a little pale," Esme said with a smile on her face.

Jasper gently wrapped his arms around my waist. "I love you, you know," he whispered in my ear.

"I love you too," I whispered back.

"Oops." I felt Jasper tense as Bella spoke. "Paper cut."

Those two words set my world spinning around me.

Jasper quickly let go of me as his eyes darkened drastically. "Jazz," I said, grabbing his hands to get his attention.

He looked at me briefly before a loud growl and crash broke both our gaze. We turned to see Edward had thrown Bella back and straight into a table of glass vases that had broken and cut Bella, making her bleed even more. Jasper's hand tightened around my wrist, which lit up with pain. He let go and rushed toward Bella.

I cradled my wrist as both Emmet and Noah grabbed Jasper's arms and dragged him outside. Everyone except Edward and Carlisle walked out of the room to get away from Bella's blood. While Carlisle and Edward cleaned Bella up, I sat down and wrapped my wrist so it would heal the right way.

"He hurt you," Edward said, looking over at me.

"I'm fine," I told him as I finished wrapping my wrist. I pulled my rolled-up jacket sleeves down to partially cover it. "I'm going to go find him."

"That's not a good idea," Edward told me, getting ready to stop me.

"Let her go, Edward," Carlisle said, grabbing his arm to stop him. "She can help him calm down."

"Tell him not to beat himself up." Bella's words made me happy, knowing she wasn't mad at him.

I stood up from the chair I was sitting on and made my way outside.