Ophelia

Jasper closed his eyes as he listened to the literature teacher rambled on about different interpretations of Dante's Inferno. He had heard this speech on at least 4 different occasions, so it was old news to him.

There was a change in the air, evident to only him, and his eyes opened. He saw Ophelia walk in. She approached the teacher's desk in fluid motions, and she smiled coyly.

"Sorry, I'm late. I had car trouble," her voice was even warmer and more beautiful than he had dared to remember.

"No worries, me dear. Take a seat, now," the teacher, Mr. Bramble, chided her towards the individual rows of desks. She took the closest one to the front, which just happened to be next to Jasper.

She, too, tuned out of the teacher's speech, which she too had heard on multiple occasions and started reading a book she had brought with her. After a few pages she grew bored of it and turned to face Jasper.

"Hello, I'm Ophelia," she smiled warmly and held out her hand to him. Her eyes were even golder than they were yesterday and her smell was gone.

Jasper didn't know what was going on with her, but he decided to play along, "I'm Jasper."

"Nice to meet you. I hope you and your family will enjoy it here," Ophelia saw the confused look on his face and turned back to her book, deciding not to press the issue.

When class ended, Jasper almost jumped out of his seat and rushed to the cafeteria where his brothers and sisters were already waiting for him.

"She's here and she spoke to me," he exclaimed as he slammed his slim figure down onto his chair, taking care to not break it, "but she acted like she didn't remember anything from yesterday. And she smelled...like us and her emotions where completely under check."

"This just keeps getting weirder," Bella turned her attention to Ophelia, who was sitting by a tray of food, a book in her hand, "maybe she felt bad about yesterday."

"I don't know about, Bella. Our kind is hardly what you'd call remorseful," Jasper told her and she shrugged, "Edward, do you have anything on her?"

"No, unfortunately I don't. I'll see how she acts next period...maybe I'll be able to get something out of her," he sighed and rested his chin on his hand.

****

Edward was ready for Ophelia to come into their physics class. Just before the bell rang, she saw her slink into the room and take the only available seat: right next to him.

The teacher had decided to make them watch a movie about universal gravitation, so Edward decided this would be a good time to get to know Ophelia. And to find out what she was hiding.

"Hi, I'm Edward," he said quietly, almost too quietly for humans to hear, "I believe you've met my brother, Jasper?"

"Hello," she said back just as quietly, "yes, I met Jasper this morning. He seemed nice."

"He said the same about you," he smiled. Lie.

"Are you guys all related?" she asked, her curiosity evident.

"The dark haired ones are my brother Emmett, and sister Bella. The blond ones, Jasper and Rosalie, they're twins, but they're our adopted brother and sister," he gave her the usual story about his family.

"Wow, that's a lot of kids. Your parents must be busy," she leaned closer to him and noticed that his eyes were like hers. She barely held back a gasp....she hadn't noticed Jasper's earlier.

"Dr. and Mrs. Cullen are our adopted parents, but they take excellent care of us. What's your family like?" Edward was dying to know how she lived, or if her parents were alive.

"I live with my mother and father. I have no siblings, " she replied. Lie.

"I see. How old are you?"

"Seventeen," she replied automatically.

"How long have you been seventeen?" he asked her the same question his wife, Bella had asked him not too many years ago.

Ophelia hesitated for a few moments before coinciding, "a while."

"How long is a while?"

"I was born August 18th, 1734,"