Monster

Shiori could hear her heart pounding in her chest as she heard her best friend share her concern with her, “Are you sure you agree to this yourself and not have Jared trap you in a web of lies?”

The brunette girl raised a brow, “Jared isn’t a manipulative person. He’s too nice for that…and it seemed like Paul really needed help with his grades.” Shiori suddenly felt bad for Paul, she didn’t know the reason why he has been slacking off at school so much that he was very close to not graduating on time. One thing that she couldn’t stand was someone being left behind because of something that can be fixed such as grades.

Ronnie scoffed as Dex shared his concern, “Well, I don’t like it. Why can’t Paul have someone else tutor him?”

“Uh, maybe because Shiori is more than qualified and borderline genius.” Jacob replied with a duh tone in his voice. Dex and Ronnie glared at the Native as he shrugged his shoulders and embraced the small Chinese teen, “And we all know that Ori won’t pass up helping someone in need and if anything goes bad then she can always back out…you would right?”

Shiori nodded, “Yes I would…after I find someone else.”

“Good. I’ll start looking.” Ronnie mumbled as she walked away to find that perfect tutor for Paul. Shiori wanted to protest, but seeing as the blonde had already set her mind to it, she sighed with Dex by her side offering to walk her to her car. Shiori stayed silent as Dex muttered about not wanting her to be with Paul alone for too long which she found absurd since they had to be alone for a few hours for the tutoring session.

As the couple walked hand and hand down the hall and out of the front of the school, Dex squeezed Shiori’s hand making her glance up to see that Paul was standing near her car with a annoyed look on his face. Dex leaned down as he whispered, “You sure you want to go through with this?” She heard that question so many times; she was more firm with her answer.

“Yeah, I am.”

Once they reached the scowling teenage boy, Dex pursed his lips before he spoke, “Listen man-”

“I don’t give a damn about what you are going to say pretty boy, just get the hell out of here so I can get this over with.”

Dex narrowed his eyes, standing his ground, “If you hurt Shiori in any way, you are going to be sorry for ever hurting her.”

“I would never hurt her.” Paul replied assertively. Shiori felt awkward as the two kept glaring at one another as if challenging the other to back down. She found it a bit ridiculous that they would be so territorial or even try to be manly in a situation like this. It was only tutoring and spending time with the person that has bullied her for years wont’ be all that bad, right? Her mind must have been lying to her because her heart kept pounding nervously as she stared up at Paul.

“We should get going. I’m going to be late for violin practice.” Shiori whispered shyly to gain their attention.

Both boys took their focus off of each other and toward the shy teen, Dex responded first as he squeezed her hand again and pecked her lips softly. Paul rolled his eyes at the affection while his fists tightened up in balls where he crossed his arms; Shiori was too focused on Dex and her embarrassment to even see the rage that Paul was battling within himself.

“Call me when you get home?”

Shiori nodded, “Of course.”

“Okay, I love you.”

Shiori tensed at the words as she forced a smile, “I’ll see you later.” Releasing her grip from Dex, she walked around her car as she muttered for Paul to climb into the car. Closing the car door behind her, she let out a breath as she turned on the ignition and easily drove towards Port Angeles. It felt weird having Paul sitting passenger seat in her vehicle. The silence was killing her as she started to drum her fingers nervously on the steering wheel.

“Would you stop that?!” Paul snapped.

The frightened girl let out a yelp as the grip on her steering wheel grew tighter, “S-Sorry.” Paul suddenly felt like an ass, here he was being a jerk when this girl would clearly was afraid of him was going out of her way to help him with his grades. Breathing through his nostrils slowly, he tried to calm himself down before speaking.

“I should be the one apologizing. I had no right to yell at you. I’m sorry.” he mumbled.

Shiori shyly glanced his way as she muttered, “It’s okay. So what subjects are you struggling in?” she wanted to make conversation since the drive would be quite long and probably feel longer because of the tension that built up in the air.

Paul scoffed as he bitterly answered, “All of them.”

Her mouth instantly dried at the mere thought of failing all of her classes. She would be grounded for all eternity if she ever brought home any F’s or even a B for that matter. Shiori kept her mouth closed; she had no room to judge. Everyone has their reasons and some have harder times in school than others. Instead, she nodded, “Well since I will be busy for about an hour, why don’t you work on the stuff that you do know and I’ll help you when I’m done?” she suggested.

“Alright.” He grumbled.

The rest of the drive was silent as Shiori wished the ride to be over and Paul tried to gain the courage of actually having a decent conversation with Shiori. It was a lot harder than he actually thought, he saw how flustered some of his friends were when they talked to their imprints before becoming a couple and the more their imprint was comfortable with them, the easier it was to communicate with one another. So maybe if he didn’t act like there was a stick up his ass there would be a decent chance of him actually starting a friendship with her and possibly more in the near future.

Paul shook his head at the image of him being with her. It was still had to believe at times that he actually had these strong feelings for Shiori, the same girl that blends in with the crowd and doesn’t want to cause any trouble. The same girl that blushes whenever her boyfriend shows any type of affection towards her…he wanted to make her blush. She was adorable when she blushed.

There he goes again, being all sentimental.

Shiori parked the car and grabbed her violin from the backseat, Paul followed behind her as he looked around the small studio that he was led into. He frowned at the stuck up instructor that muttered something in Russian before commanding Shiori to warm up and then start with the song they started last session. Without complaining, Shiori did exactly what she was instructed to do and kept doing every single thing her teacher commanded.

Paul stopped working on his homework from the sidelines to hear the strict tone of the teacher’s voice telling Shiori how pathetic she was to play the violin like a toddler. He hated how she talked to Shiori and not once has the teen girl said anything back. A normal teenager would have lashed out, he didn’t get it. No matter how much someone is, they always have a boiling point and why she hasn’t retorted back was beyond him. When the session was over, Shiori bowed in gratitude before heading towards Paul asking if he was ready to go.

On their way down the steps of the small studio and out into the street, Paul couldn’t help, but ask, “Why did you let her push you around like that? She was being a complete bitch to you.”

Shiori snapped around in horror, “Paul! You should never talk about your elders in that way! It’s very disrespectful.”

Paul looked unfazed as he said, “You didn’t answer my question.”

She fidgeted under his gaze as she replied, “It was the way I was raised. Back in China everyone always respected their elders and listened to what they had to say and took their word for it. Disrespecting anyone older than you is just plain wrong, I can’t talk back.” Paul saw a little bit more of her, she didn’t talk back because she didn’t want to, it was because of her culture and it became a habit for her. He knew that the Chinese were an uptight about their elders, but not like this, where they put them on a pedestal.

Paul’s mind was brought back to Earth when Shiori suggested they worked in a library or a coffee shop, not like he wanted to go to her house, but wouldn’t that be her first choice? He didn’t say anything as he said, “Whatever makes you feel comfortable, teach.” Shiori tilted her head in confusion at the word, her brows furrowed in confusion.

“Teach? What’s that?”

He was confused as to why she would even be puzzled about something as simple as that word, but remembered that she wasn’t born and raised in the States; she was raised in a different country and different culture. “Teach is short for teacher.” When he saw the recognition flood her eyes, she nodded in excitement at finding a new word to add to her vocabulary if needed.

When they found a quiet place to do homework, Shiori pulled out her book bag and placed some text books on the table. Paul knew she was smart, but seeing the books lined up where he can see the titles of each book threw him. They had Physics together so there was no shock there, but the other subjects just astounded him. “I don’t get how you can take Pre-Calculus.”

“I think it’s a fun class.” Shiori shrugged.

Paul gave her a strange look; she sure was a strange girl. He watched as she pushed her books aside and asked, “What do you need help with first?” When he didn’t answer, she picked up the first book on his side of the table and flipped through the book until she opened to the page with a piece of paper in it. She raised a brow at the doodle that was on the paper, “Where are your notes?”

“Those are my notes.” He responded bluntly.

Shiori blinked as she glanced down at the paper that has no evidence he was even paying attention in his class, “You need to take better notes. Do you remember what chapter and sections your teacher covered?” He shrugged his shoulders making her purse her lips and flipped back to the first section of the chapter the piece of paper was in. Thankfully Ronnie was in the same course and class, she remembered helping with the blonde during lunchtime.

Scanning over the page, her mind quickly remembered the problems to the section “Come here so you can pay attention.” Seriousness was expressed on her face as she leaned forward to explain the section to Paul. His mind was somewhere else after the first few minutes until he felt someone’s hand tapping his.

His dark brown eyes glanced down at the darker pair as he heard the timid accent of Shiori, “Pay attention or you won’t understand any of this.” This time around Paul’s eyes and brain decided to cooperate and paid attention to her, it was like a light that was switched on after the command she gave him. He knew it had something to do with the imprint and seeing the disappointment written across her face when he wasn’t paying attention wasn’t something he was striving for. The ill-tempered werewolf wanted to impress his tutor as much as he could.

Paul continued to stare at her as she explained the problems that he was having trouble with, the curve of her pink lips and how they formed words were intriguing to him. Her almond shaped eyes entranced him, her light skin tone illuminated from the lights instead the shop and the way she twiddled the pencil between her fingers as she spoke to him.

He held back a smirk as he heard her heart skip a beat when their eyes met, her face flushed and she quickly looked back down as she mumbled what else he needed to do for the section. Paul smiled slightly as he refocused his mind into what she was talking about, in time Shiori will be his or that is what he thinks anyways. He was a lot closer now than he was this morning and if this progresses like it supposed to then in no time Shiori wont’ be afraid of him anymore and would be more open with him. He can only hope for the possibilities.