Jessica Stanley

"*That's Edward. He's totally gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him.*"
—Jessica on Edward Cullen
**Jessica Stanley** is a friend of Bella's at Forks High School, and plays a minor role in the *Twilight* series. Her *Life and Death* counterpart is Jeremy Stanley.

She is portrayed by Anna Kendrick in the movie adaptations.

## Biography

### Early life

Jessica's family moved to Forks when she was still a small child, but Jessica has always thought of herself as being less provincial than the locals. In high school, she was a good student and fairly popular, though she wasn't as sought after by boys as Lauren Mallory.

She thinks of Lauren and Angela Weber as her best friends, though she has no loyalty to either of them. She also had a short-lived crush on Edward Cullen, with imaginations that constantly disturbed him until they ended.

### *Twilight*

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On Bella Swan's first day at Forks High School, Jessica becomes her friend, hoping to share some of the attention she has already begun to receive from the school's boy students, particularly Mike. The Cullen "siblings" catch Bella's eye at lunch and she asks about them; Jessica tells her everything she knows about the pair of young men.

She tends to be more interested in Bella's popularity than her actual character, and is sometimes jealous of Mike's affections toward the girl. She also takes both Spanish and Trigonometry with Bella during their Junior year.

Mike asks Jessica to prom at Bella's suggestion and they date briefly, though their relationship ended sometime between *Twilight* and *New Moon*.

#### *Midnight Sun*

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"*Good luck, idiot.*"
—Jessica's thought on Bella.
It is revealed in *Midnight Sun* that she only befriended Bella to share some of the boys' attention, and to be able to strike up a conversation (about Bella) with Mike Newton, who was very curious about her, evident by Edward's telepathy. Though she treats her with kindness, she really thinks badly of Bella.

Edward is initially extremely annoyed by her secret hostility toward Bella, but warms up to her a little bit when she shows concern about Bella for being late while they were in Port Angeles.

### *New Moon*

 File:Jessica4.jpg
Several months after the Cullens abruptly left town, a depressed Bella calls Jessica to go to the movies with her in order to keep her father from removing her to Jacksonville. Though she agrees to a girls night out, their night takes a bad turn when Bella approaches a small group of strangers outside a bar who seem fairly dangerous. Jessica is very displeased with Bella's behavior and grows more distant from her, and hangs out with Lauren and Angela more often.

When Bella and Mike invite Jessica and some of their friends to a movie night, Jessica backs out at the last minute, knowing that Bella would be there as well.

### *Eclipse*

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"*When we were five, they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Our answers were things like astronaut, president, or in my case, a princess. When we were ten, they asked again. We answered rockstar, cowboy, or in my case, a gold medalist. But now that we've grown up, they want a serious answer. Well, how about this,* "Who the hell knows?" *This isn't the time to make hard and fast decisions, this is the time to make mistakes. Take the wrong train and get stuck somewhere. Fall in love. A lot. Major in philosophy because there is no way to make a career out of that. Change your mind and change it again, because nothing's permanent. So make as many mistakes as you can. That way, someday when they ask what we wanna be, we won't have to guess. We'll know.*"
—Jessica's graduation speech.
Jessica became a more minor character throughout the series as she became friendly with Lauren Mallory and Bella drifted away from her, particularly beginning in *Eclipse*. However, Jessica and Bella make up at graduation and she is invited to the Cullens' graduation party. Jessica decides to go to California after high school.

In the *Eclipse* movie, Jessica is the valedictorian of her graduating class and makes a speech about the future whereas in the book, it was Eric. At the beginning, she has trouble writing it, and Mike offers her a cliché note, which she literally throws at his head. On graduation, she makes a fine speech of her own, telling everyone to make as many mistakes as possible in order to figure out their futures. She is last seen dancing with Angela at the Cullens' graduation party.

### *Breaking Dawn*

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"*So, um… do you think Bella's gonna be showing?*"
"*Jess, she's not pregnant.*"
"*Okay. Who else gets married at eighteen?*"
—Jessica and Angela
Jessica comes back from California after receiving an invitation to Bella and Edward's wedding in *Breaking Dawn*, with Mike as her date, whom she had reconciled her relationship with. After the ceremony, she is among the first to embrace Bella to congratulate her.

In *Breaking Dawn - Part 1*, she, Angela, Eric and Mike sit next to each other during the wedding, and later makes comments on the wedding cake, saying "I thought it would be bigger", but flatters Alice about it when she comes to talk to them. She then makes a speech about how Edward became infatuated with Bella despite her lack of activities in school, clearly showing some amount of jealousy. This is her last appearance in the series.

## Physical appearance

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Jessica is around 5'1" tall, has voluminous curly, dark brown hair and blue eyes. She isn't very tall, but her outgoing personality makes her seem bigger than she really is. In the movies, her hair is straight brown.

## Personality and traits

Jessica is known to be a 'chatterbox' and has a very outgoing personality, and not loyal to any of her friends. She always acts nice toward Bella, but in truth she really disliked her and was upset when both Edward Cullen and Mike Newton showed interest in Bella instead of her. She was jealous of her the whole time and was known to be a fake friend, but never did anything hurtful. Edward resented her for this attitude, but warmed up to her slightly when she became worried of Bella for being late at the restaurant they were supposed to meet with Angela.

Jessica's role in the books is to blended with Lauren Mallory's. In the movies, Jessica is still a chatterbox and somewhat of a fake friend, but is much friendlier to Bella than her book incarnation. Her friendship with Bella slowly got back on track after the events in *New Moon*, which shows in *Eclipse*. Edward strongly dislikes her due to the bad thoughts she had of Bella and others.

### Mike Newton

*Main article: Mike Newton*
*Main article: Mike Newton and Jessica Stanley*
 File:MikeNewton.jpg
"*You should ask Jessica. I know she wants to go with you.*"
—Bella to Mike
Jessica is in an on-again-off-again relationship with Mike Newton. They dated once in sophomore year. In junior year, Jessica befriended Bella Swan to share some of Mike's attention to the new girl. After Mike realized that Bella wasn't interested in him and finding out that Jessica liked him, he asked her out and later went to prom with her as his date (which is what she had been hoping for).

They broke up again after some time but remained friends. At Bella and Edward's wedding, she is mentioned to have gotten back together with Mike, though he still has inappropriate thoughts about Bella.

### Edward Cullen

*Main article: Edward Cullen*
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"*Well, Bella was just like everybody else. Totally mesmerized by Edward. Or "The hair", as I call him. And then suddenly, Edward is all about Bella. Even though she's not the captain of the volleyball team. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. Or the president of the student council.*"
—Jessica's speech at Bella's and Edward's wedding
Jessica had a previous intense infatuation for Edward Cullen, which deeply annoyed him. In Stephenie Meyer's draft of *Midnight Sun* (*Twilight* from Edward's point of view) Edward "overhears" Jessica's past fantasies about him, commenting that he was relieved when they finally stopped.

Edward was intensely hostile toward Jessica when she had bad thoughts about Bella, but warmed up to her a little bit when he heard her worry about Bella being late to the restaurant they were supposed to meet. He also showed no dislike to her attending their wedding.

In the first half of *Breaking Dawn*, Jessica gives a speech at Bella's and Edward's wedding and shows some 'subtle' jealousy toward Bella for having won Edward's affection despite her lack of involvement in school activities.

### Bella Swan

*Main article: Bella Swan*
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"*Good luck, idiot.*"
—Jessica's thought
Bella Swan is Jessica's classmate at Forks High School. She befriended her on her first day at the school, though it was really to share some of the attention she was receiving from the local boys.

Jessica internally thinks badly of her due to the attention that she kept receiving from the school boys, especially Mike and Edward, which causes great dislike from Edward.

Their friendship falls out greatly when Bella falls into a deep depression by Edward's departure. A few months later, Bella invites her to a girl's night out, which ends badly when she goes to confront a group of dangerous locals. Jessica starts avoiding her from then on, but their friendship ends on friendly terms on graduation day.

She is later invited to her and Edward's wedding in *Breaking Dawn*, signifying that she considers Jessica as a friend of sorts.

Unlike in the books, she and Bella have a much healthier friendship in the films. Jessica continues to hang out with Bella in *Eclipse* and *Breaking Dawn*, even though she is jealous of her relationship with Edward.

## Film portrayal

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In the movie adaption of *Twilight*, Jessica was portrayed by Anna Kendrick. She reprised her role in *New Moon*, *Eclipse* and *Breaking Dawn - Part 1*.

The character Jessica is combined with that of Lauren Mallory.

## Appearances

* *Twilight*
	+ *Twilight* (film)
	+ *Midnight Sun*
* *New Moon*
	+ *New Moon* (film)
* *Eclipse*
	+ *Eclipse* (film)
* *Breaking Dawn*
	+ *Breaking Dawn - Part 1*

## External links

* Stephenie Meyer's official website
* The Twilight Series' official website
* The Twilight Lexicon