Shifting Moon

 I felt closer to Jasper at that moment. It sucked that he had a rough childhood, but at the same time, it was nice to see there were others dealing with trauma and making a normal life for themselves. Seeing Jasper and Alice together gave me hope that there was someone out there that would understand and accept me. 

 "Thanks Jasper, you and Alice have made this move to a new town bearable. Don't tell that little Sprite, but I think in this last week you two have been better friends than I have ever had before besides my sister anyway. Sad as that may seem." It was true, sadly my anger and intensity had always made people avoid me. Well except for Bella, she was a stubborn one that wouldn't let me get away with chasing her away. No matter how bad-tempered I was towards her she just stuck out her chin and challenged me right back.

 I felt something wet on my face and it slid down my cheek. I was mortified, please don't tell me I'm man crying right now. About to die from embarrassment until I noticed that it was snowing, I let out a laugh. "Bella is going to love waking up to this," I said with sarcasm. 

 "She not a fan of the snow?" 

 "Not in the least, I imagine she has cleared her memory of ever having seen it outside her TV shows."

 Jasper just chuckled, "Bad place to have moved then." 

 "She will get over it. That girl is a lot more susceptible to change than she likes to admit. Though if you see her driving towards you in the snow or ice and you like the vehicle you are in, I would be very cautious." I laughingly told him. 

 At this point, the run was over and we were approaching the police station. I was a little surprised that I hadn't worked up much of a sweat, though I chalked it up to the chill of the snowy weather. I opened the door and called out. "Ken!!! Is it you working today?"

 "Hey Kid, yeah, I got the night shift this week. Oh, you got company today huh." 

 "Yeah, this is Jasper Hale. He has been working out with me the last few days."

 Jasper waved at Ken who looked at him a little weary. "You guys have at it; I will just stay here finishing up some paperwork."

 Thinking nothing of it, I just moved to the weight room and Jasper followed. "Must have been a weird night, he seemed a little spooked at us coming in."

 Jasper just frowned and didn't reply.

 "I got some new weights so I can start increasing my lift weight. I was thinking about trying 370 and going from there. Are you comfortable with spotting me at that weight?"

 Jasper just smirked behind Thomas where he couldn't see. "Yeah, I think I can handle that. But I better keep it around 320 for me. I am not all bulked out like you and Emmitt. I prefer a balance between fast and strong, not the extreme of strength like you two." 

 Jasper felt it was a pain to keep up the charade, and the line about Thomas thinking Alice and himself being great friends made him feel bad. But it would keep Alice safe, so he buried the discomfort. He wondered what his new friend would think if he could see him lift 400 pounds with two fingers. 

 Smiling at the thought, he admitted that Alice's idea of spending time with Thomas was a good one. The slight comradery he felt helped him to push back on his thirst. Now if he could just feel this for other humans maybe he wouldn't be the weak link of his family. He hated the weakness, especially as it put Alice in danger. The idea that he would be the one to expose the coven to danger put a lot of pressure on him. 

 Thomas added the weight of the bar (45lbs) and plate weight together to get to 280 and told Jasper to start his warm-ups. Jasper took his turn at moving the weight up and down on his chest. Remembering the posture and struggle of the guys on the TV show he watched to help him blend in and keep Thomas unaware of his nature. The deep breaths caused some discomfort as the smell of Thomas and the deputy's blood burned the back of his throat, but it was bearable. Jasper jokingly thought that resisting the thirst was the true workout he was getting.

 When Jasper was done with his routine at 320, Thomas used that weight as a warmup and was surprised at how easy it seemed. He increased the weight slowly until he got to his desired weight of 370. He sat up after doing a rep of 10 and looked at Jasper, "That seemed too easy, maybe we can push the lift a bit farther. Do you mind spotting me another 20 pounds?" I asked Jasper.

 "No problem, even if I do struggle with it, we have the deputy to help if needed."

 "Let's do it, I am just not feeling the burn from the lift I expected."

 At 390 pounds Thomas still frowned but didn't want to waste any more of Jasper's time. He would need to ride back to his house so he could go to school with Alice and the rest of his family. "Let's call it here Jasper, I am beginning to think something is wrong with the weights I bought, I will test them out later tonight. You be careful riding back home."

 Jasper told Thomas he would see him at school and walked out the door to his bike. He didn't bother with a helmet today and just maneuvered the bike like it was a sunny day. Thomas just shook his head and went back to the weight room and did his cooldown routine. 

 Once Charlie got there, Thomas took his shower, but the entire morning routine didn't seem to have made him sweat much today. He shrugged it off and went to the door to wait for Bella to pick him up. Charlie came out of his office and walked up to Thomas. "You got an idea what you want to do for your birthday this year kid? If memory serves it should be coming right up."

 "Wow, with the move and all I nearly forgot my birthday. How weird."

 Charlie looked up at Thomas, "It's your big 18th, we can't just ignore it now can we? You better come up with something or Bella will, and we don't want that now do we?"

 "No sir we don't, I'll come up with something." 

 As if on cue, I heard the big red truck pull into the parking lot and looked over to see Bella gripping the steering wheel like it was a life preserver and looking around cautiously. "See you after school, Charlie." 

 When I hopped into the truck with Bella, she tossed me a few yogurts. "Sorry, I woke up late today." 

 "All good Bella, you know I appreciate the effort you put into feeding a pig like me." 

 She blushed in true Bella fashion and started down the normal side roads for school. When we parked, I turned to Bella and said "Well it's the start of a new week. Let's hope it's better than the last."

 I got out and walked to art class and saw Ms. Ross unlocking the room. When I entered, I gave my good morning and went to my seat. 

 A few moments later two students walked in and went directly to Ms. Ross's desk. I tuned them out and waited for Alice so we could talk about our project. Finally, she came in and sat down, so I jumped right into my idea. 

 "Ok, Alice let's combine a couple of our ideas. Tell me what you think of the idea that we each paint 3 different people in our lives, one in each medium. I was thinking of the main ones like Oil painting, Watercolor painting and Acrylic painting. But we have to add some randomness to it like drawing lots to see who we paint."

 Alice seemed excited, "Do we draw the same person drawn from the lot or is it one lot for each person?"

 "Well, seeing as it's a partner-themed project we should probably do the same person we draw from the lot. But we can choose which of the three mediums to use. We can use it to show the different takes an artist personally adds to the subject. What do you think, should we run it by Ms. Ross?" 

 "I love it. Let's do that." She was so happy she clapped and bounced in her seat. We went to tell the Idea to Ms. Ross who seemed to like the idea but wondered if there was enough time left. We assured her we would put in the work to meet the deadline of two weeks before school ended.