A/N: This is a story I've been working on for almost a year now. I started working on it in January with the brainstorming help of my two best friends coachlady1 and tiffaninichole. They helped me outline and shape this into something worth reading. Then once I started writing the first chapter I knew I was going to need the help of someone who had been through something more or less like what happens in the first chapter and one of my other best friends at the time, jacksonmccoy, graciously offered to help me write it tastefully while still getting my point across. He had the opportunity to help me with the first two chapters before he was taken away from us way too soon. This story is dedicated to him in more ways than one and wouldn't be half of what it is without his help and encouragement and assurance that it was okay to write it.

This is going to be seven to eight short segments and once I'm finished writing it, I'll post one a day to follow this first one. It's taking me a lot longer to write than it normally would because I want it to be perfect and it's hard to get through sometimes when it reminds me so much of my friend whom I loved very much.

The reason I'm posting the first segment is that today is a very special person in my life's birthday. MandaLyn is someone Jack introduced me to because he knew we would make great friends and we certainly have. She is now one of my best friends and one of the only people who truly understands the bond I had and doesn't try to make me feel bad about it. She now lives just an hour away from me and even though we don't see each other enough, she knows how much I love her and how much she means to me. I knew this would mean more to her than posting some random one shot because of the dedication and love put into it to make it as good as I could.

Happy Birthday sweetie! I love you, you mean the world to me and I hope you have the best day ever! You are special and you deserve it!

Mizzhyde helped in the editing of this and any other mistakes are solely my own. Also, there are some harsh words that I absolutely do NOT condone or support in this segment but they were necessary to the plot and have been approved by Jack, so I know it'll be okay. I did shed tears while writing this one.

Segment 1

The day was gloomy at best as I wandered around the small town of Forks, Washington. If the town was going to be my home for the next several years I decided it would be a good idea to familiarize myself with my surroundings. I'd been walking around for nearly an hour and had seen everything I figured there was to see so I proceeded to head home. I cut through a deserted park when I heard a loud, rough voice call out.

"What are you looking at faggot?" My head snapped to side to see what was going on; I knew no one knew who I was so they couldn't possibly be talking to me.

I saw four very large, very scary looking boys approaching me rapidly and my heart dropped to my stomach, they had to be at least fourteen or fifteen. Two of them had short bleached blond hair, one had curly brown hair, and the biggest boy with the long black hair was obviously from the Quileute reservation just down the road. They did not look pleased as they came closer and I instantly hated being the new kid in a small town.

"Me?" I questioned quietly, looking around to see if there was anyone else nearby. There wasn't.

"Yes, you. Are you stupid or something? Ain't no one else here..." Wonderful, I thought to myself. I really didn't need to be making enemies so soon, especially ones who were obviously looking for a fight.

I started to back up slowly, eyeing them carefully as my mind furiously tried to figure out the best way to escape the situation. Truthfully I knew it was no use; they were all bigger and probably faster than me.

"I-I-I wasn't looking at anything..." I replied nervously while still backing up, wishing they'd just leave already.

"Well, it looked like you were staring at my friend Mike here..." The taller blond said as he threw his head to the side to indicate that he meant the shorter blond boy. "And we don't appreciate faggots staring us down..."

I startled visibly when I backed right up into something hard and rough, a tree trunk by the feel of it but I was far too petrified to actually confirm my suspicions. They all laughed at me. "I'm not gay... I swear I wasn't looking at him..." I declared again, my voice shaky as hell and not very convincing.

"I don't believe you," the one name Mike snarled at me, as he grabbed me by the front of the shirt and got in my face. I wanted to hit him or push him out of my way but my instincts told me that it wouldn't end well for me if I did; there were too many of them.

I was terrified and nearing tears as Mike glared at me. "Awww... Look, Ben, he's gonna cry... The little baby is going to cry." The boy with the curly hair began to laugh maniacally.

"Please leave me alone..." I begged, my voice barely above a whisper. "I wasn't doing anything wrong... Please?"

"Well... isn't that just adorable? He's gonna beg..." The taller blond was smirking at me and then without warning, he swiftly kicked my legs out from underneath my body and I hit the muddy ground hard with a thud.

They all started laughing hysterically as they formed a circle around me, essentially towering over me. "Nice one, James..." one of them said but I wasn't paying attention to which one. They were high-fiving each other when one of them suddenly kicked me in the stomach. "That's for my friend..."

"Fuck..." I cried out, curling into the fetal position instantly to protect myself. "Please stop; just leave me alone..."

"Quil, let's make him beg for his mommy..."

The Indian boy cackled hideously and then replied, "Yes, let's."

I felt several more blows from behind me on my back and my legs and cried out again, "Please… Please stop... Please…" I begged shamelessly, knowing that's what they wanted and hoping it would make them stop kicking me and leave me alone sooner. "I won't do it again... please..." I knew I hadn't done anything and the tears were seconds away from pouring over when the short blond bent down and got in my face again.

"I knew you were fucking staring at me..." he accused me and then punched me directly in the nose. "You little fucking queer boy..." The tears fell as I felt something warm and wet oozing down my lip; my nose was bleeding.

"FUCKING CHRIST!" the one named Quil screamed and turned around quickly as he rubbed the back of his head. "The fuck you think you're doing, asshole?"

"Leave him alone," a confident male voice called out but I didn't dare look up to see who it was. I kept my head and knees tucked tightly to my chest as I shook in fear, waiting for the blows to start back up.

"Did you just throw a fucking rock at my head?" Quil growled at him, angrier than ever.

"Yeah, and I'll do more than just throw a rock at your head if you don't leave him alone," the other person challenged, not backing down.

"Oh yeah? What the fuck do you think you are you going to do to us?" James asked in a sickeningly sweet mocking tone.

"Well, it just so happens that my father is Officer Whitlock of the Forks PD and if you don't leave him alone and get the fuck out of here right now... you'll each be receiving a visit from him tonight and that's a promise..." His voice was edgy and threatening and I was more grateful to the boy who was saving me in that moment then I would ever be able to express.

"Fuck, Quil... I can't afford my third strike... I don't wanna go back to juvy," James whispered just loud enough that I could hear him. I opened my eyes and peeked up at them.

"I think we've had enough fun for now... but you better fucking watch your back, queer boy. Let's go guys..." They all murmured their agreement and just like that, they took off in the opposite direction and were soon out of sight.

Within seconds, the boy who'd just rescued me was kneeling down next to me. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked, placing one hand reassuringly on my shoulder. I looked up at him slowly; my head was pounding and my face was throbbing and it just plain hurt to move. "Jesus, you're bleeding..." he muttered.

"I know..." I whispered the only words I could think of at that moment.

"Doesn't look like anything is broken," he told me, inspecting my back and front cautiously. "Can you get up or do you need help?"

I just shook my head, I was too sore to move so I was definitely going to need some help getting out of that position. He didn't say anything else, just extended his hand and very carefully helped me to my feet. "Come on; let's go get you cleaned up..." He started to walk away.

"I live that way..." I told him, pointing toward the north side of town.

He shrugged his shoulders like he didn't care. "That may be but I just live a block away so let's go to my house. My dad isn't home so you won't have to explain anything..."

I hadn't even thought of that, how was I supposed to explain what happened to my parents without looking like a total fucking wimp. I relented and began to follow him slowly... carefully.

Once we made it to his house, he led me into a bathroom on the second floor, where he wet a washcloth with warm water and handed it to me so I could clean the blood off my face. "What's your name?" he asked me.

"Edward Cullen."

"You're new, right? I haven't seen you around before..."

"I just moved here from Chicago yesterday, actually," I told the boy realizing I had no idea what his name was.

"I'm Jasper, by the way..." he offered with a comforting smile. "Do you mind taking off your shirt off? It's dirty and has blood all over it; I'll let you wear one of mine."

Very, very slowly I slipped the shirt over my head and he gasped. "Jesus Christ, how hard did they kick you? You're already bruising..."

"I'll be okay, I bruise easily... always have."

"They are just fucking bullies... but if they try to bother you again let me know and I'll have my father take care of them."

"Thank you... for everything..." I told him softly. He just couldn't understand how grateful I was.

"It's no problem; I would hope someone would do the same for me..." Jasper walked across the hall and came back quickly with a new t-shirt for me.

"Do you wanna play some PlayStation?" he asked me after I was all cleaned up.

"Sure..." I shrugged.

Normally I'd have been so fucking embarrassed about someone seeing me like that but Jasper never made me feel like I'd done anything wrong or like I was in any way less than him because of what had happened.

We talked about the things we liked and didn't like. I found out he was twelve just like me, that our birthdays were actually only a week apart and that we both loved baseball and football. He was a huge fan of all types of music and had posters of different bands hanging up all over his bedroom while I was mostly interested in movies and the behind the scenes productions of it all.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in his bedroom playing video games and talking. When it was time for me to leave I thanked him again and he told me not to worry about it. I smiled as I walked home and I knew that Jasper and I had just crossed the line into friendship.

Put the story on alert if you want to be notified when I finish posting the rest. I still have a couple of segments to write but will hopefully be able to start posting soon! Let me know what you think!

Happy Birthday Manda!