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.

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
A classmate of Bella's in Twilight and her first friend in Forks, on her first day, she fills Bella in on the Cullens in the school's cafeteria. She tends to be more interested in Bella's popularity than her actual character, and is sometimes jealous of Mike's affections toward Bella. She also takes both Spanish and Trigonometry with Bella during their Junior year.

It is revealed in Midnight Sun that she befriended Bella to receive some of the boys' attention, and to be able to strike up a conversation (about Bella) with Mike Newton, who was curious about her.

Mike asked her to prom and they dated briefly, though their relationship ended sometime between Twilight and New Moon.

New Moon
Months after the Cullens leave in New Moon, a depressed Bella calls Jessica to go to the movies with her. Though she agrees, their night takes a bad turn when Bella approaches a few strangers outside a bar who seem fairly dangerous. Jessica becomes very displeased with Bella's behavior and grows more distant from her, and hangs out with Lauren more often.

When Bella and Mike invite her and some of their friends to a movie night, Jessica backs out at the last minute.

Eclipse
"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.

Breaking Dawn
Jessica was invited to Bella and Edward's wedding in Breaking Dawn, with Mike as her date, whom she had reconciled her relationship with. This is her last appearance in the series.

In the Breaking Dawn - Part 1, she, Angela, Eric and Mike attend Bella's 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 inactivities in school, clearly showing some amount of jealousy.

Physical appearance
Jessica is around 5'1" tall, has very curly, dark brown hair and blue eyes. In the movies, her hair is straight brown.

Personality
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.

Relationships
Jessica is an only child in her family.

Edward Cullen
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.

Mike Newton
Jessica is in an on-again-off-again relationship with Mike Newton, who, after noticing that Bella never would date him, settled for her (which is what Jessica had been hoping for). They broke up sometime, 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 of Bella.

Bella Swan
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.

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.

Film portrayal
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