Monster

Today was a normal day for Shiori, with it being the weekend and her mother’s due date was inching closer, the young teen had nothing to do, but to occupy her mother’s time. It drove Yuki up the wall how much stuff needed to be done before her baby was born; ordering her daughter around only soothed her to an extent before she went insane again.

It was times like these that Shiori wished her father had more time on his hands. Sadly, with him being the great doctor that he was and was highly recommended by all; he was always swamped with work. So for the time being, Shiori has been playing the role of the father, running around making sure her mother was comfortable enough in the house as her belly kept getting bigger each day.

Yuki’s stomach was bigger than a watermelon and it amazed Shiori to see her mother who was so tiny getting such a round belly. Now Yuki was making Shiori help out with the baby shower, she didn’t want to burden anyone else and knowing that her daughter had nothing else to do. It was better this way.

“Be sure to invite everyone.” Yuki reminded her daughter as she rubbed her belly in a soothing way. Shiori glanced back at her relaxed mother as her legs were propped up by a cushion and had a bowl of ice cream on her stomach.

“Everyone?” Shiori asked cautiously.

The teen wanted to make sure that her mother knew exactly what she was talking about; she knew that Yuki wasn’t the most social person in the world, so to invite everyone would be overwhelming for her. Yuki gave her daughter a look as she confirmed, “Everyone.” She didn’t care that she only spoke to a few people on the reservation from time to time; she had to make some effort to be friendly despite her hating having dozens of people over at her house all at once.

“Even Ada?”

For the life of her mother, she saw the cringe that was on her face at the mention of Ronnie’s aunt. Yuki wasn’t overly fond of the Moore family, but if she didn’t invite everyone she knew that it would go around that she didn’t like anyone or certain people. One thing Yuki didn’t like was gossip and she didn’t want anything going around about her or her family. They have a good reputation to uphold.

“Even Ada.” Yuki forced out the woman’s name.

Shiori sighed as she drove into Port Angeles with Ronnie to buy a few outfits for her baby brother. She knew it wasn’t necessary with all the gifts that were going to be given to the baby, but she felt like she needed to contribute something towards the child.

“What do you think of this one?” Shiori turned around to see Ronnie holding up a small biker outfit. She couldn’t help, but giggle, “My mother wouldn’t even touch that thing even if it was the last piece of clothing in the world. This is my mom we are talking about; choose something a little more…adorable.”

“This is adorable. Just look at it!” holding up the leather jacket towards her best friend’s face.

Ronnie was right. It was adorable, but her parents were pretty conservative when it came to clothes and it described who you were and her mother would hate to see her son dressing like someone she didn’t like.

“Keep looking, Ron.” Shiori instructed leaving the blond in a pout as she muttered that she never got her way. She shook her head as her eyes skimmed through the articles of clothing from the baby department. It was tougher than she expected to find baby clothes that she thought would be a good selection for her baby brother.

There weren’t a lot of choices like there is for girls. Boys usually have the same theme and would just switch around with colors as the girls had creativeness and variety in their clothing. Shiori huffed as she held onto the two outfits that she found; she wanted to find a few more for her brother, but no avail.

As she was walking towards the other rack with her eyes focused on the clothes, she hit something solid and before she knew it, she collided with the ground. A groan left her lips as her left side started to throb in pain. What was that? Shiori peered up to see a frantic woman kneeling beside her with worried eyes. Nothing was getting through to her, she couldn’t’ hear anything.

Looking at this woman’s eyes, all she could think about was how peculiar her eyes were. They were golden, something she had never seen on a human before, it reminded her of owl eyes to be honest.

“Are you alright, sweetie?” her eardrums finally decided to work as she snapped back into reality. Shiori shook her head before gathering up the clothes that were on the floor, “I’m fine. So sorry about bumping into you; I wasn’t watching where I was going.” Shiori sheepishly smiled at the poor woman who gave her a wary smile.

“You sure you are okay? You seem a little frazzled.”

When Shiori reassured her, she couldn’t help but see another person standing near the mystery woman. The chirpy girl beside the worried woman gave her a once look over, “You seem fine, but doesn’t look like you have much to choose from this store, huh?” Shiori looked at the pixie haired girl as she nodded slowly wondering if she was some type of fashionista.

Her outfit just screamed that she was rich and knew all about clothing and that perky smile just sent her head into a downward spiral. When the two women, Alice and Esme, offered to take her somewhere else to buy clothes for her baby brother, she seemed a little wary of the two. It was odd to have two women being so friendly after the collision, but Esme was very persistent on making it up to her thinking she had hurt Shiori in some way.

When Ronnie came into the picture, she threw cautious glances at the two women before them as she introduced herself. Ronnie even shared her concern with Shiori in whispers that they needed to be careful around those two, she heard about the Cullens and she didn’t like stuck up rich people.

“I’m rich Ronnie.” Shiori pointed out.

“But you are awesome rich girl. I don’t know about them though.” She whispered before being dragged away by Alice who fervently told Shiori there was a few stores that she would roll over and die for once she saw the baby clothes.

During the few hours that they spent together, the concerns and uneasiness faded away. Shiori had become close to Alice as her sweet and bubbly nature rubbed off on her while Esme was the sweet woman that she thought she would be. Ronnie still was on the iffy side, staying at the sidelines watching as Shiori laugh with Alice as they spoke in Chinese.

It brought Shiori at ease to see that she had someone that knew her culture and thought she was adorable with her accent. Alice hugged the equally short teen tightly as she labeled her as her new best friend, “We should hang out some time, but next time we can shop for ourselves.”

“I’d like that.” Shiori replied, “It was nice meeting you both.” Hugging Esme as she clutched her shopping bags. Now she felt more at ease having a few more outfits for her brother and couldn’t wait to show her mother what she bought. Yuki loved to over prepare so to see the gifts beforehand would set her mind at ease for the time being.

Once they exchanged numbers and Alice gave Ronnie a hug, which she awkwardly gave back, they walked towards her car and drove back to La Push. “Don’t you think it’s a bit weird how nice they were?” Ronnie questioned.

“No.” Shiori answered slowly, “Why?”

Ronnie shrugged, “I don’t know. It’s just…no one acts like that! All sweet and warm, so fucking annoying.” She grumbled. Shiori shook her head at her friend as she retorted, “There are people in the world that are sweet and warm, Ron. You can be sweet and warm.”

“Yeah, when you get to know me, not when you bump into me because I am a bitch then.”

Shiori looked at her irritated friend knowing that driving towards her house wouldn’t soothe her mood at all. Ronnie needed to get some fresh air, so instead of taking the route home she took another one. Towards the beach. As she parked in front of the sandy beach, Ronnie gave Shiori a look of question, “Why are we here?”

“To relax. Come on.” Getting out of the car and popping the trunk open grabbing the volleyball that Ronnie left behind last week. Playing with the ball in her hands, she looked at her blond friend with a small smile as she walked backwards towards the beach watching Ronnie sit in the car. She sighed, knowing it was going to take some time for her to cool off and join her, so she volleyed the ball around for a few minutes focusing on her skills.

Hearing another pair of footsteps, she glanced to the side to see a speck of blonde coming her way. Smirking, she popped the ball towards her best friend who screamed and tried to dodge the ball, putting her hands up in defense.

Shiori laughed at her futile attempt of protecting herself as Ronnie fumed, “What the fuck, Ori?”

“I couldn’t help myself.” She chuckled, shrugging. Ronnie scoffed as she grabbed the ball and bumped it towards her friend. As the leisure bumping continued, it started to become more aggressive as they started to hit the ball harder and further. Both girls were running after the ball, squealing and diving to make sure it didn’t touch the ground.

When the ball flew towards Ronnie, she ran backwards as her eyes focused on the ball, Shiori suddenly saw Jared coming towards her. Furrowing her brows, she stayed at her spot as Jared waved at her slightly as he inched closer to her, “Hey Shiori.”

“Hey?” she greeted back.

“How was your day?” Jared asked. It was odd that he was asking such personal questions, Jared and Shiori weren’t friends and seeing how nosey he was being was weird. Having him come out of nowhere and question her was out of the ordinary. Hearing Ronnie curse in the background, she shifted her feet as she shoved her hands in her pockets, “Fine. Just got back from shopping for my little brother.”

“Where?” Jared shot back.

“Port Angeles…” she trailed off. Why did he want to know? Nothing ever made sense when it came to the La Push boys and when Jared told Shiori to go home, well that didn’t go so well with Ronnie when she heard the end of that sentence. “We aren’t going anywhere. This is a free country; we can do whatever the hell we want.” Ronnie snapped.

“Just go home, please?” Jared stressed.

“Why?” Ronnie pressed.

Just when Jared was about to answer, Paul walked out of the forest that was near the beach; Shiori gave him a confused look seeing that his expression was something she has seen before. It was beyond anger, he was officially pissed off and when Jared mumbled, “That’s why.” She still was confused when Paul stormed over to them.

Without hesitation, he gripped Shiori’s shoulders, “Who did you talk to today?”

“Hey! Get your hands off of her!” Ronnie demanded, the blond started to walk up to the taller boy, but Jared grabbed the girl and pulled her away from them as Paul continued to ask who she talked to today.

“Just some friends. Why are you so angry?”

Nothing made sense anymore. Out of nowhere Paul was acting like they were friends or something; why was he acting like he cared? His nostrils flared as he gripped onto her shoulders tightly making her wince, “I don’t want you talking to them again. Do you understand? Stay away from them.”

“You don’t have a right to tell me what to do, Paul. Why are you even here anyway? I thought you hated me.” Shiori stressed that one word that she was convinced he felt for her. When that word spilled out, she can see his demeanor change, he looked conflicted as a growl left his lips.

“Just stay away from them.” He muttered angrily before she saw his head perk up, his eyes flickered back to the forest before he glanced at Jared. Letting go of her, he didn’t utter another word as he ran into the woods with Jared leaving both girls confused. “What the hell was that about?” Ronnie asked.

Shiori stared at where Paul was standing last, feeling her heart hammering in her chest, she wasn’t familiar with the feeling that spread across her body. It wasn’t fear or anger; it was a weird connection of some sort. Staring at the ground all she could murmur was, “I don’t know.”