Jasper Rose - Scarlet Bay (best ereader for comics TXT) 📗

hot!" Mariane squeeled.

"Yeah, he is. It's a pity he's a jerk." I shrugged frowning. I saw Carrie winking at me and making kissing faces and stuck my tongue out at her, rolling my eyes and trying not too grin.

"W-what?!" Mariane looked like she was about to have a heart attack; that or she was going to attempt murder.

"Yeah, we had maths with him and he was... well, a total dick." Jess spoke up, nodding, staring at Mariane as though to dare her to disagree. Mariane was like the stereotypical popular, rude, and stuck up girl in almost every novel and movie there is, with double the rudeness and selfishness, and about 1% of the popularity, wait, no, -21%.

Mariane's face became alarmed and embarrassed; a child realising she can't, in fact, pull the puppy's toung out of its mouth, else its mother would bite her hand off.

I grinned as the bell rang for class, I was able to stick up for myself, but it was a hell of a lot more fun watching Mariane squirm as she tried to get in with Jess.

I hugged Jess goodbye and walked off with Carrie to our next class; we had extension English together this period.

Visitors

Jasper

I bound up the stairs 3 at a time, grabbing the key and kicking off my muddy shoes. I stomped grumpilly in the door and stopped as I saw my dad sitting on the couch.

"Hey Cat!" My dad jumped up, engulfing me in his arms. "They let all us dirty old miners come home early, great, huh?"

I grinned at him, "Yeah, it is." My dad was usually working in the mines up in Cairns for weeks, sometimes a couple of months at a time, with holidays of weeks or months in between.

I stay home with Yasmin, Ruby, Tony, Matt and Sarah while he's away. They are our awesome little family, despite the fact that most of them had no actual relation to us.

Yasmin is a 25 year old English Uni student who was one of my mum's best friends, and Matt is an ex-fellow miner of my father's. Ruby and Sarah were the only ones actually related to me, other than my father, in my family. Sarah is my plump housemaid-like great aunt, and Ruby is my amazing cousin, though she's more like a sister to me, and, of course, Tony is her fiancé, my almost big bro.

My father let out a short laugh and asked me the one question which I needed right now, "Your technique still good?"

I grinned. I loved my dad, he never wanted to pry, yet always knew the exactly right thing to say and when I needed to talk, he even endured talks about guys; well, I gues that shows how good friends we are. Since I was young he had been teaching me to fight, and our fighting was our secret language; the thing that only we shared, that only we understood. "Yeah, of course. I could thrash you with my eyes closed."

He laughed, "You wanna bet? Well, come on then."

-=*=-

Two hours later we both colapsed on the couch, laughing.

Suddenly my dad looked down at his watch and jumped up, "Shit!"

"What?" I looked up at him, alarmed.

"Some of my old friends came to town and they're coming over for dinner tonight. You have to help me cook, and then get ready. They'll be here in 2 hours!"

"Okay then." I jumped up to stand by his side and cracked my knuckles. "What's for dinner?"

-=*=-

I walked over to to the door before my dad could rush from his room in response to the loud knocking. I yanked it open and grinned at the man standing there, "Hey, come in. Dad'll be out in a sec."

"Thank you, Jasper." He grinned down at my slightly alarmed expression, "You don't remember me, do you?"

I grinned, at least there was a reason why he knew my name, "Nope, sorry."

He laughed heartilly, stepping inside and looking around. "I'm Exavier. And before you say it, no I wasn't named after the leader of the X-men." He smiled at me.

I laughed, "That would be pretty cool, though."

He laughed again, "Yes, perhaps. Well, this is my wife, Aviary."

A model like woman stepped inside, smilling softly at me and pulling me into a warm embrace, "Hello Jasper. My, I haven't seen you in years."

"Hello, Aviary."

"... and my son, Jake."

My eyes widened as the newbie walked in my front door. "Uh... hi."

"Hi."

Before I could convey my shock at having the new, hot, completely jerky guy in my house, my dad rushed out of his room, pulling Exavier then Aviary into a hug. "Exavier, Aviary, I haven't seen you in so long."

"You two, Mark, you two." Exavier grinned at him as Aviary continued, "Yes, and they've been docile and boring days!"

They laughed as we walked into the lounge room and my father looked to Jake, "Hello Jake, I assume you do not remember me?"

"No, sir. Quite unfortunately."

My dad chuckled, "Yes." He looked at me, narrowing his eyes, "Such good manners, hey Cat?"

"Huh? Yeah I spose."

He frowned at me, "Jasper." He glanced at the table, directly at my dagger and throwing knives sitting there.

"Oh, um, oops." I walked over and grabbed my knives. "Haha." I slid my dagger into my boot and my knives into a pocket in my belt band.

Exavier grinned and broke into laughter, "She reminds me of her mother."

My dad looked at me, frowning slightly, "Yes, and I can't decide if that's a good or a bad thing." I put my hand on his arm half smiling, and he grinned, "I'd say it's more good than it is bad, though."

Jake frowned at me as though confused as our parents laughed and I shrugged at him. I felt like poking my tongue out at him.

"Come on, dinner's getting cold." My father turned towards the dining room, smiling warm heartedly.

 

Strange New Friends

Jake

 

Who was this girl?

She was a 'family friend'. She had knife sheaths in her boots and belt. She... seemed different to the other girls at our school.

Did it mean she was like us? Or was she something else?

... Or was I just overreacting and being a loser?

I felt confused. And angry. Angry that I knew, as much as I may try and deny it, that this girl had some kind of hold over me. I liked her. I felt like I was connected to her in some way. But after what happened, there was no way I was going to ever admit this.

I saw it in my mind, walking into my best mates house, worried that something was going on with her, Jane, the girl I'd been with for over a year, and then, when I walked into his room-

My father's voice brought me back to the present, "So, what of you, Jasper? How is life?"

She looked up, "Oh... yeah, it's good." She smiled up at my father.

"How is your schooling? Are you doing well?"

"Ahm... yes."

"That is good. And what of outside of scho..."

"Honey, stop pestering the young girl." My mother spoke up, laughing softly at my father. He grinned as she continued, "I apologise, Cat, he gets quite excited sometimes."

"Haha, that's okay, Aviary."

My dad laughed, before sobering and turning to her father, "So, Max, is anything... changing?"

Her father laughed uncomfortably, "Ah... no, not yet."

I turned to Jasper, but she looked as confused as I felt. Were they talking about us, what we were? Did that mean that she was one of us?God damn! What the hell is she?

This had been one confusing day. And I had a feeling it was only going to get worse.

Stars

Jasper

I found him sitting in our backyard later that night; our parents were sitting inside, having a drink and catching up. My father had asked me to find Jake, he would be going soon, and they seemingly wanted to talk about 'adult stuff'.

I approached him slowly, looking up at the stars and the giant waxing moon - it would be full moon in a couple of days, "They're beautiful, aren't they?"

"Huh?" He followed my gaze to the sky, "Oh... yeah, they are."

"Those are the pointer stars, and there's," I pointed, "the southern cross."

I looked down at him and caught him staring at me, "What?"

"Um... nothing." he looked away.

"Okay then." I sat down next to him and leaned my head against the tree behind us. I turned my head to look at him and sighed, staring at the stars, why am I even attracted to this guy? I mean, it's not like I like like him, but... I don't know, there's something there. I looked back towards him, "So, why did you even move here?"

He stiffened, back still facing me, "Ah-"

I cut him off though, it was none of my business why he moved here, and I shouldn't be being a busy body, "Sorry, I'm prying; don't worry I don't expect an answer." Wait a second, why was I second guessing myself? And being ashamed for prying? Me? I'm known for prying and being rude, and though I didn't like how I acted like that sometimes, I don't second guess myself. I shook my head, "But if you want to get it off your chest, that's fine." I over at smirked at him.

"It's fine, and it's just sorta private. Though truthfully it's mostly for my dad's work. He got transferred here." He looked over at me and smiled wanly.

"Okayy then." I smiled at him, "Do you like it here though?"

"Uhh..." He looked sideways at me and half smirked, "Depends, is there a nice and truthful way to answer that?"

I pursed my lips and considered it, "Nope." I grinned at him, "Truthfully this isn't that bad a place, but it seems quite... weird and all that at first."

"Yeah." He smiled down at me and I became lost in