The Rise of Lydia Rowe ↠ Jasper Hale (ON HOLD)

[1.05] paper cut

LYDIA'S SECOND DAY AT Forks High School went by much more smoothly than her first. People were slowly beginning to get used to her presence at the school, their stares becoming less frequent and intense. By the time Lydia was walking to her AP French class, she was starting to get a hang of where each of her classes were. Luckily, she hadn't gotten lost yet, saving her from the embarrassment of coming into class late.

The class went by without incident. Thomas completely ignored her, as did the Hale twins next to her. She didn't mind at all—she was discovering that she kind of liked working in silence. At her old school, she'd had a friend in all of her classes, and most of her friends were talkative, especially when they were bored. While Lydia's grades hadn't exactly suffered with the distractions, she found it much easier to retain the information being taught to her without someone talking about something completely unrelated right next to her.

A few minutes before the bell was supposed to ring, Lydia started to put her things away along with the rest of the students. The students around her chatted with each other as they waited for the class to let out, eager to escape. As she reached her hand into her backpack to push down a notebook that was sticking up, she somehow managed to slice the pad of her index against a stray sheet of paper, making a sharp stinging pain radiate through her finger.

Lydia winced, pulling her hand out of her bag to reveal her now injured finger. She cursed quietly to herself, inaudible to the people around her. Still, as if they'd heard her, the Hale twins turned their heads sharply to look at her, their expressions wide-eyed and almost afraid.

Lydia glanced between the two, giving them a sheepish smile as she showed them her finger. "Paper cut," she murmured in explanation, a little embarrassed that they'd heard her.

Rosalie's gaze turned to Jasper, who continued staring at Lydia with a confused look on his face. Well, it was more like he was staring at her cut finger rather than at Lydia's face. Trying not to be too phased by Jasper's eyes on her, she reached into one of the smaller pockets of her bag and took out a band-aid. She wrapped her finger with the band-aid and showed it to the twins. "There. All better."

Before either of the twins could do or say anything, the bell rang. Giving Rosalie and Jasper a friendly smile, Lydia gathered the rest of her things and slung her backpack over her shoulder, heading in the direction of her next class.

She shrugged off the Hale twins' strange reactions to her paper cut as she made her way to P.E., ready to get through her last two classes of the day.

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Lydia walked into her last class of the day, looking forward to being able to go home and wind down. As she walked to her seat in front of Jasper, she was surprised to see him giving her a small smile. She returned it easily as she sat down.

After about forty-five minutes of explaining centripetal acceleration, Mrs. Foss decided to give them the last few minutes of class to either start on that night's homework or talk quietly amongst themselves. Lydia was halfway through the first problem in their textbook when she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder.

She turned around in her seat to face Jasper. "Yeah?"

He looked a little shy as he asked her, "How's your finger?"

Lydia glanced down at her bandaged finger, smiling sheepishly. "It's fine, thank you for asking."

The smile he gave her was small, but it was beautiful. "I'm glad." He paused, and Lydia figured that was the end of it. For some reason, though, she felt a little disappointed the conversation was over so quickly. She was just about to awkwardly turn back around when he spoke again. "You and my sister have AP History together, I believe."