Cassidy- This isn't Twilight from Jasper's point of view. I'm using the book as a rough guideline, but this is a different story.

I have been getting many questions asking whether Bella is a vampire. No she is not a vampire nor is she reincarnated. I'll explain later why her blood smells the way it does.

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Jasper was afraid to look around for the owner of the scent, but he had to.

His eyes swept the room, searching.

At the same time, he tried to pick the scent out of the crowd. It was like an outdoor bazaar with heady scents swirling in the air.

For some reason, her particular scent eluded him.

"What was that about?" Emmett asked him. The others were staring at him now. He could feel them: wary, alert.

Jasper shook his head again, his eyes still scanning the cafeteria. "I don't know."

He saw Edward looking around the cafeteria now. He would have seen her in his memory.

Jasper knew what he needed to do.

"I think it's better if I don't find her." Jasper said to him. "For me and for all of us".

He looked up at the rest of them and continued. "I think I'm going to leave for a while. I know I'm the weakest of all of us." His eyes flickered downward. "And I don't want to risk the integrity of the family."

"We'll come with you." Alice piped. Rosalie gave her a sour look but said nothing.

"No." Jasper said. "I'll be back. I just need time." The bell for lunch rang. Jasper stayed where he was. The others didn't move either.

He waited until the last of the students trickled out through the cafeteria door. Then he stood up.

"I'm going home." He said.

The others nodded.

He walked to the door, and out onto the school grounds. He walked across the parking lot, across the highway, and up into the woods.

He walked through the damp green forest for a ways to be sure he was under cover. Then in a flash he was gone.