Loving The Major - Jasper Hale

Graduation

It was the day of graduation, something all the Cullens had been through numerous times before. But they were still all there, sitting in the gym, listening to Jessica give her speech. Carlisle and Esme were in the parents' section smiling. It seemed no matter how many times their children graduated they were always going to be proud of them. While the children sat with the other students. Rose was in Emmet's arms and Adeline was in Jasper's, with her hand in Alice's lap. Mainly to give her something to fiddle with so she did not bounce herself out of her seat in excitement of the party later tonight. Edward had chosen to sit over with Bella.

"When we were five, they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Our answers were things like astronauts, president, or in my case a princess. When we were ten, they asked again. We answered rock star, cowboy, or in my case gold medallist."

At "cowboy" Adeline glanced at Jasper who was smirking. Both of them remembering how he wanted nothing more than to spend his days on horseback as a boy and how that hadn't really changed.

"But now that we've grown up, they want a serious answer. Well, how about this? 'Who the hell knows?'" This got a round of applause form the audience, even the Cullens joining in, enjoying her speech.

"This isn't the time to make hard-and-fast decisions. This is the time to make mistakes. Take the wrong train and get stuck somewhere. Fall in love, a lot. Major in philosophy, because there's no way to make a career out of that. Change your mind, and change it again, because nothing's permanent. So, make as many mistakes as you can. That way, someday, when they ask what we want to be, we won't have to guess. We'll know." 

Jessica got a standing ovation when she finished, some of her friends even whistling in their excitement.

Then the diplomas were handed out, each of the Cullens clapping as members of their family walked across the stage. After they all gathered in the parking lot with the other students and parents, talking with one another before heading home at Alice's insistence. 

Jasper and Emmet spending the whole car ride home plotting how to best escape from Alice in her party planning mode now that the count down was on. She in turn, spent the ride threatening to chase them down if they even thought of trying to get out of helping.

When they got home, Alice immediately began whizzing around, assigning tasks and rechecking everything to make sure it was perfect. Emmet actually had to hold her up off the floor to get her to stay still long enough to listen when Carlisle tried to tell her it was good enough and the guests would be arriving in a few minutes.

As the party went on, Jasper and Adeline stayed to the side, her swaying in his arms to music. "How long do ya figure we have to stay here before we can escape to our room Darlin'?"

"At least an hour. That's when Alice plans to break out more of the snacks and she has already informed me that we are helping with it." Jasper sighed at that, leaning down to rest his forehead on her shoulder, wanting to escape now so he could spend some time alone with Adeline.

She giggled at his reaction, "there, there, Tesoro. I'm sure you can survive a little while longer."

"No, I can't" he pouted.

Just then, he felt a spike in Alice's emotions and looked up to see her having a vision from across the room. He grabbed Adeline's hand and began to pull her over towards Alice, who had been joined by Bella and now seemed to be surrounded by wolves. They met up with Alice and they all moved up to Carlisle's office where they could talk without being overheard.

"They'll be here in four days" Alice explained when they were all gathered. Not even bothering to expand on who "they" were at this point as it had been all the family had been focusing on these past few days.

"This could turn into a bloodbath" Carlisle said, leaning back against his desk.

"Who's behind it?" Edward wanted to know.

"I didn't see anyone I recognized. Maybe one." Alice was between Adeline and Jasper, both of them holding her hands to offer comfort and support.

"I know his face. He's local. Riley Biers. He didn't start this" Edward stated. He shot Alice a look that clearly said you missed something so look harder, causing Jasper to glare at him.

Anyone with half a brain could see Alice was trying her best and you would have to be an idiot to think otherwise. Which he told Edward silently, raising an eyebrow and daring Edward to say something else as the younger vampire grimaced.

"Whoever did is staying out of the action" Alice said defending herself. She hadn't missed Edward's tone either.

"They must be playing with the blind spots in your vision" Carlisle reasoned.

"Either way, the army's coming and there aren't enough of us to protect the town" Jasper stated. Now completely focused on the battle ahead, not caring for the moment about who was behind it or his idiot younger brother's attitude. Knowing who was behind it may influence their strategy, but given their lack of numbers it wouldn't help at this point.

"Hold up. What damn army" Jacob asked, frustrated at not being able to follow the conversation.

"Newborns. Our kind" Carlisle explained simply.

"What are they after?" Embry asked.

"They were passing around Bella's scent. A red blouse." Alice informed them, still locked in her visions.

"They're after Bella? What the hell does this mean?" Jacob demanded.

"It means an ugly fight. With lives lost." Carlisle was worried for his family, knowing that there would be no way all of them would come out alright if they had to fight this army by themselves.

Jacob looked at the other two shifters and at their nods of agreement said "All right. We're in."

"No. You'd get yourselves killed. No way" Bella stated, looking worried. Although Jasper could sense some smugness mixed in with the worry at the thought of having all these people fight for her.

"I wasn't asking for permission" Jacob stated.

"Edward?" Bella turned to him, looking for support.

Edward shrugged helplessly. "It means more protection for you" he reasoned. He was willing to do anything to protect her, even work with the mutts.

"Jacob, do you believe Sam would agree to an understanding?" Carlisle didn't like putting more people in danger, but logically he knew his family would not be enough to handle the newborns. It was why he had put off doing anything about them yet.

"As long as we get to kill some vampires" was Jacob's response.

"Jasper?" Carlisle turned to Jasper knowing he had the experience and wanted his opinion.

"They'll give us the numbers. Newborns won't even know they exist, that'll give us an edge." He was already reworking his plans to fit in the wolves as he said this, easily falling back into his role as a soldier and commander.

"We'll need to coordinate" Carlisle said, ending the discussion.

"Carlisle, they're gonna get hurt." Bella practically whined, trying to appeal to his compassion, but he just ignored her.

"We'll all need some training. Fighting newborns requires knowledge that Jasper has. You're welcome to join us."

"All right, name the time and place" Jacob said, glancing over at Bella as he did.

"Jake, you don't know what you're getting yourself into." Bella tried again to dissuade him. As happy as it made her to have both groups fighting for her, she didn't want to risk anything happening to Jacob in case something happened to Edward.

"Bella this is what we do. You should be happy. Look at us, working together. You are the one that wanted us to get along. Remember?" Jacob turned to go as Adeline smiled. 

She thought it funny that Jacob, who was younger than Bella by two years, was the one being more mature about this than she was. But then again, responsibility had a way of making one grow up, didn't it?