On the day of Bella's birthday, Maya and her dad had woken her by bursting into her room to give her the gifts they had gotten for her. Her dad and Renee having coordinated to get her a camera and photo album to document her senior year. Maya's though was a lot more fun. Since Bella had told them that she didn't want any gifts, Maya took that as the okay to get her something as a joke instead. She had gone out a purchased a dozen pillows that she had then sown into the shape of a body suit and completed the look with a neon pink helmet.
When Bella had opened the gift and pulled it out, Maya had proclaimed that now Bella could be safe no matter what situation her clumsiness put her in. Her dad had roared with laughter at that but Bella had just scowled and thrown the pillow suit at her head, missing her completely by about four feet. Getting the hint though, Maya had taken that as her cue and skipped out of the room to get ready before Jasper came to pick her up, laughing the whole way.
When they finally arrived at school, after a lovely and steamy make out session, Maya was immediately attacked by Alice. "Hey you're finally here! You have to come over to our house after school, okay? I'm having a birthday party for Bella and you have to help us set up."
"Uh huh. And does Bella know about this party?" Maya asked, very much doubting that she did.
"Well no. But I am about to go tell her. Now come on! Let's go find your sister!" Alice took off in the direction of the school.
Maya sighed, "Come on Cowboy. We're gonna need your abilities to convince Bella to come to this party."
"Why's that Darlin'? Based on her emotions, your sister seems to like being to center of attention. Why wouldn't she want a party about her?" Jasper followed her into the school, taking her bag as he did so and sliding it onto his own shoulder.
"Oh, from what I remember of the few birthdays I was present for she does. But now she is worried about her age. She hates the idea of getting old, which I'm thinking is part of the reason why she keeps asking Edward to change her. She has also mentioned hating the fact that she is now technically a year older than Edward." Maya rolled her eyes at her sister's logic. As if one year really made such a difference. It's not like Bella had to worry about looking old just yet.
Really if there was anything age related that should have grabbed her focus, given how worried she was about being older than Edward, it should be that she was lucky Carlisle changed Edward when he was over the age of consent. From what she knew Edward was only over the line by about 14 months. Had the flu hit a year earlier and Edward turned then, Bella could very well have been dating a minor.
Shaking off the thoughts, Maya and Jasper caught up to Alice just as she approached Bella and gave her a gift, insisting that she would love it and should wear it to the party that night. Maya held back a laugh at Alice's ambush, slinging her arm through Jasper's as they came to a stop a good few feet back.
At Bella's look of hesitance, Alice continued trying to convince her. "Come on, please? It'll be fun."
Maya sent Jasper a glance to see him concentrating on Bella making her smile grow, knowing that he was influencing Bella's emotions to make her more agreeable. It probably wasn't ethical, or fair, but really all she had to do was show up, smile, open gifts and eat cake. How much of a burden could that be?
(BTW yes I know for some people that could be asking a lot and forcing someone to do something they are not comfortable with or against is wrong and should not be done. But for the purpose of this story we're setting aside those little facts and going with it. Plus that little attention seeker can't really complain as she loves being the centre of everyone's attention.)
"Okay. All right." Bella said with a huff and small smile, Jasper's powers obviously working.
Alice let out a small laugh, clearly excited, "Great! Okay, I will see you at seven." She then turned around and made her way over to Maya's side taking her hand and beginning to walk off before Bella had a chance to change her mind.
"Jasper. No fair with the mood control thing." Bella called out from behind them.
"Sorry Bella. Happy ... Never mind." he trailed off at the look on her face and turned to catch up to his best friend and his mate.
The day was normal after that, except for Alice talking their ears off with party ideas, but the moment they got home Alice put them all to work. She had Emmet and Jasper, the tallest of the family, hanging streamers and decorations. While Esme baked a cake as Alice had been forever banned from the kitchen after her last disastrous attempt. Which left Maya and a reluctant Rose to set out smaller decorations of flowers and candles and arrange the presents. Although Maya had been banned from touching the candles after she almost set the table on fire when she got distracted by Jasper walking by. Alice fluttered around the whole time, fixing and adjusting stuff as she went.
At one point, she tried to make Rosalie and Maya redo a table because the decorations were off center by an inch. Honestly the whole thing just made Maya laugh as she watched the two girls go head-to-head in a battle of wills. She and the boys had only just begun taking bets on which one would come out on top when Carlisle had arrived home from work and diffused the situation.
Eventually, it was time for them to get changed for the party and they all headed up to their rooms to escape Alice's crazed decorating.
"We could run away. Make it a spontaneous romantic trip, just the two of us" Jasper suggested, coming up behind Maya to wrap his arms around her as she finished sliding her earrings in. She was in a dress that Alice had gotten for her on one of her many shopping trips. She actually had a few dresses and other outfits here, all hanging in Jasper's closet. Some were new, but most were ones she already owned. Jasper had actually insisted on it. Saying that since they were mates and she was over so often anyways it only made sense for her to have clothes here so she did not have to carry them back and forth.
"We could, but then we would probably spend the rest of our lives on the run being hunted down by our lovely friend." She looked up to meet his face in the mirror, a smile on her face, "which would not be ideal given the demonstration we just saw of how scary Alice can be when she goes full tyrant party planner on us. Talk about a major mood killer."
He sighed, knowing that as much as she suggested it as a joke, there was a very real chance that Alice may just kill them if they missed this party. Or at least get back at them somehow. Jasper had not forgotten the last time he upset her. She had somehow managed to replace all his clothes with a mix of stereotypical cowboy outfits, clown suits and neon colours.
So, with a sigh, he pulled Maya into his arms, enjoying a last moment of peace before heading down to the party. They arrived just a few minutes before Bella and Edward did. Alice led Bella down the stairs and when she reached the bottom, Carlisle approached to offer her an apology, "Sorry about all this. We tried to rein Alice in."
"As if that were even possible. Happy Birthday Bella." Esme brought her into a hug as a flash went off.
They turned to look to see Alice holding a camera, "I ... found this in your bag. Mind?"
Before Bella could respond, Emmet commented "Dating an older woman? Hot." Which caused Maya to grin at the fact that he managed to point out the one thing that upset Bella about her birthday.
Her and Jasper stayed to the back of the group, both knowing that being with the family while Bella was here was going to be challenging. Especially when Bella was Edward's blood singer bloodsinger. So for the safety of Bella Jasper hung back, Maya wrapped in his arms as the two talked quietly to one another, ignoring what was happening.
"Time for presents," Alice announced, catching the pair's attention, "You first Rosalie!"
Rose walked up to Bella and shoved the gift into her hand, "It's a necklace, Alice picked it out." She was still upset about Bella endangering her family and her constant attempts to get Edward to turn her and was not trying to hide it.
Maya and Jasper both rolled their eyes and focused back on each other instead of the birthday girl, ignoring the drama. She played with the fingers of the hand he had draped around her front. Her other hand coming up to cup his face as she tilted her head back to see his face and he leaned into it, inhaling the calming scent of his mate.
Though their focus was broken when Emmet loudly announced "Already installed it in your truck. Finally, a decent sound system for that piece of -"
"Hey don't ... don't hate the truck" Bella said, cutting him off. This caused everyone to laugh, and Alice bounced back over, an envelop in her hand.
"Open Carlisle and Esme's next."
"Just a little something to brighten your day" Carlisle claimed.
"Yes, you've been looking kind of pale lately" Esme added, a smile on her face at the hidden joke.
Bella was opening the gift when she gasped and held her finger up for all of them to see. "Ow, paper cut." A single drop of blood falling to the floor.
Jasper took a step forward as the smell hit him and he felt everyone's bloodlust spike before he tightened his arms around Maya, focusing on her and regaining control. But by then it was too late. Edward had pushed Bella back into the table behind them, breaking the glass on it and cutting her arm open, allowing blood to pour out. With that everyone's bloodlust spiked even more and Jasper lost the last bit of control he was holding onto.
He pushed Maya out of the way, causing her to crash to the floor and raced towards Bella, Edward just being fast enough to intercept and throw him back. He crashed into the piano, but was up in a flash, charging again for Bella. Carlisle and Emmet tried to stop him, but he ducked and dodged them, and they were only just able to stop him from reaching Bella.
Maya was quick to move into his line of sight, cupping his face with both her hands and using her strength to force him to look at her. "Shush Jasper. You're alright, just focus on me, okay? Not anyone else, just me alright? Come on Cowboy, I know you got this."
She focused completely on projecting calming emotions and as she stared at him she noticed the exact moment he latched onto them. He stopped struggling and Carlisle let him go, ordering Emmet to take him outside. The rest of the family, minus Edward and Carlisle who stayed behind to help Bella, followed, the smell of Bella's blood being too much for them.
The minute they were outside and Emmet let him go Jasper grabbed Maya and sped off into the woods. Once they were far enough away that none of the other's emotions could reach him, he stopped and collapsed on the ground. He clung onto Maya and buried his face in her chest. "I'm sorry," he whispered, "I'm so sorry I lost control. I'm so sorry I almost hurt you because I lost control. I'm sorry I almost killed your sister."
Her arms came around him, pulling his head up to rest at the crook of her neck. "Shush it's okay Love everyone is allowed to make mistakes now and again. Especially when they are handling not just their own bloodlust but six other vampires as well" she consoled. "Besides, you did control it, it was only when Edward made it worse that you lost it. And even then, no one could blame you. Hell, I've almost killed her myself from time to time when she has annoyed me." Maya had hoped that she could lighten the mood a little bit and maybe get him to smile when he realized she didn't blame him, but apparently it wasn't going to be that easy.
He didn't respond, Instead he simply pulled her closer, holding her to him tightly and soaking in all the comfort and warmth he could from his mate. She shifted so that she could wrap her arms around him better, murmuring reassurances to him as she did.
That was how Edward found them a little while later, her snuggled into his lap, arms wrapped around his shoulders, hands buried in his hair, softly stroking it, quietly purring, while Jasper clung to her with his face buried in her hair.
"Bella's home and we're having a family meeting" was all he said before taking off back to the house.
Maya let out a sigh, "well then, I guess I best let you get back home." She began untangling herself from him with reluctance.
"Do you need a drive" he offered quietly, the first words he had spoken since his apology.
"Naw. I'm gonna run home. Hopefully that will give me time to figure out how to give my dad an abbreviated version of what happened. I probably can't just tell him that Edward threw her into a table, huh? Otherwise he would probably storm your house shotgun in hand" she joked, causing his lips to twitch a little bit. Which she considered an improvement and a win. "If you could take my dress with you though that would be helpful."
"Sure Darlin'" he placed a kiss on her forehead before stepping back to allow her to shift.
Once she had shifted, she took a few steps forward, rubbing her side against his leg in comfort. He reached down to give her a scratch on the head, telling her he would see her later before she took off. He watched her go until he couldn't see her anymore before turning with a sigh to head back to the house. He knew he was in for an argument. Edward's emotions had been nothing but anger.