His Wolf Pup - a Jasper Hale Story

51- Small Changes

A week passed with me continuing to live on the Rez, and it felt as peaceful as it could be. I visited The Cullens a few times since they came home, but most of my time was spent hanging out with Jasper in the woods by Sam's house.

Then it was time to go back to school. Carlisle had re-enrolled everyone, and Jasper had told me he would pick me up in the morning. True to his word, Jasper pulled up in front of Sam's house, ready to take me to school.

The car ride over was calm. Jasper and I agreed that we would still be with each other as much as we had before he left, simply because we couldn't handle spending much time apart. He knew I hadn't forgiven him completely yet, but he was happy I gave him a chance.

When we pulled up to school, Edward, Alice, and Noah were waiting by Edward's car. Rosalie and Emmet were at home with Esme since they were supposed to have graduated last year, and Carlisle was back working at the hospital again.

I said hi to everyone before Edward went to walk with Bella into school. I had decided I wanted to stay as far away from Bella as possible, and Edward understood, so he decided he would say good morning to me before going over to see Bella.

Our group made our way through the school day, trying not to cause problems. Everyone was excited to see the Cullens again and wanted to know why they left. We had decided the cover story was the family had left because Carlisle got a new job while I stayed here with Sam because I didn't want to leave my friends on the Rez yet. Then, the family decided they'd rather live in Forks and came back home. As far as anyone was concerned, I was living with the Cullens again.

Lunch was where we had an interesting problem. Instead of sitting with her human friends, Bella decided to sit at our table next to Edward. Right off the bat, she decided to talk to me.

"So, Emma," she started to say, "I wanted to apologize to you about how I acted."

"Thanks," I replied, hoping that was the end of the conversation.

Of course, it was not. "Aren't you going to say I'm forgiven?"

"Just because you apologized doesn't mean I forgive you. You treated me terribly while they were away." As I spoke, I realized I was thinking over the things she told me, meaning Edward saw how Bella treated me while they were gone.

"Bella!" He exclaimed suddenly, looking at her in astonishment. "How could you say all that to her?!" He turned back to me quickly, saying, "I'm sorry, we'll go now."

"Edward, what are you talking about?" Bella asked.

Instead of giving her an answer, Edward literally grabbed her arm and pulled her up and away from the table.

As they walked out of the cafeteria, Alice said, "Well, at least he didn't take her side."

After that first day of school, we settled into a good rhythm. Jasper would pick me up at Sam's and take me to school. While at school, I would spend time with Jasper, Alice, Noah, and sometimes Edward. Then, after school, I would either hang out with Jasper, go to the Cullen's and hang out with Rosalie, Emmet, Esme, and Carlisle, or go back to the Rez to hang out with the pack. It was a nice rhythm, where I slowly saw differences happening with everyone.

Rosalie and Emmet had become an unstoppable pair. In any argument, the two would back each other up and demolish the opponent. They really liked to do it when we played Mario Kart, and Edward claimed someone was cheating. Even if Edward was right, the two of them would yell so loud that Edward would just stop. They would then laugh and move on as if they hadn't just attempted to wage war on Edward.

Esme was a lot more attentive to everyone in the family. She asked how we were and if we needed anything a lot. If I so much as shifted a weird way, she would know exactly what was going on and how to help me, even if it was something small like me wanting a blanket.

Alice and Noah invented some form of communication that involved hand gestures to talk when in the same room as everyone else. Only Edward ever knew what they were talking about. It confused me every time they did it, but it made them smile, so I never cared.

Edward kept Bella away from me as much as he could. After our interaction at the lunch table, he knew I wasn't fond of her. While we would still pass each other from time to time, Edward went out of his way to ensure he didn't bring Bella over anywhere I was. Of course, Bella still came over anyway, but the thought was nice. He did make a habit of texting me and asking me if I was at the house or not before he would invite Bella over.

Carlisle was around a lot more. He spent less time at the hospital and more time making sure everything was going good at home. He was a lot more involved in everything going on as well.

Jasper had changed as well. He was a lot more vocal about his feelings, and he was in desperate need of physical affection from me. There was hardly a moment when he wasn't at least touching my hand, as if he was constantly trying to make sure I was really next to him.

The wolves, on the other hand, were interesting. They were happy I was happy, but not all of them were happy about me spending time with The Cullens. Mostly, Jacob was upset, but I told him to suck it up because Bella was also spending time with them.

The only major thing that happened in January was when Edward called another family meeting, this time about Bella.

He started it off be addressing everyone. "Listen, I know everyone here has mixed feelings about Bella, but we need to talk about something that happened in Italy."

"What happened in Italy?" Carlisle asked him.

"When Aro read my mind, he saw that Bella knew about us. He kind of forgot about it once he saw Emma, but he will remember it at some point, and he will want to do something."

"Are you suggesting we turn her even though part of this family does not like her?" Carlisle asked him. "Because we are not doing that."

Jasper wrapped his arms around me as Carlisle spoke before saying, "I agree with Carlisle."

"I'm not trying to suggest anything," Edward explained. "I mostly called this meeting just to tell you all about it."

"Well, that's a terrible piece of information," Rosalie told him.

"Yeah," Emmet added. "Why would you tell us that?"

"Emmet, Rose, stop it." Esme's words were met with giggles and sly smiles from both of them.

Alice suddenly threw her hands up, and Noah laughed before dragging her upstairs to their room, signaling the end of our meeting.