Monster

“Ms. Song it has been quite a while since you have come to your rehearsals…why is that?” her snobby teacher gave her an icy glare as she shrunk back in shyness. Why did she come again? Oh yeah, she couldn’t take it anymore; all the stares and whispers along the hall were too much for her to bear at the moment.

“I’m sorry” she whispered “I’ve just been very busy”

“With what? What is more important than practicing your violin? Especially when your parents pay for your lessons” she bit her lip as the blue eyed Russian woman looked at her in disappointment. “Violin should be your life not something that you only do when you feel like it”

Shiori didn’t want to share why she was being so flaky with her lessons but her parents already knew so why couldn’t her teacher. “I’m in the volleyball team”

“Volleyball team?” crossing her thin arms as she looked down at the Chinese girl who’s gaze was avoiding the older woman’s at all cost as she nodded her head.

“I’m very sorry for delaying the lessons and I want to focus now more than ever. Please forgive me Ms. Titov. I will try harder this time” she bowed in apology waiting for the older woman to say something. The high school student hoped with all her might that she didn’t refuse her and accepted her into the program again.

“Fine but you will put violin first and volleyball second. That sport is so…disgusting. Not ladylike at all” pressing her glasses up the bridge of her nose “Now we shall start”

Irene Titov never questioned Shiori why she arrived so early or why she apologized; they never really talked unless it was Irene giving her criticism on her playing. It was a weird relationship the both of them have and yet Shiori couldn’t help but feel grateful that Irene didn’t poke or prod into her personal life.

All she wanted to do was get away from everything.

With hours of practice, Shiori’s arms felt like they were going to fall off as her arms were limp on her sides. Thanking Ms. Titov she packed up her violin as the Russian instructor gave her a tight smile before shooing her out of her studio waiting for her next student to arrive.

On her way back her phone started to blare a certain rock song she couldn’t understand or knew the name of the song since Ronnie added it to her phone whenever she called. Answering it quickly she greeted the blond on the other line “What is it Ronnie?”

“Don’t start with me Shiori. We need to talk” her voice was strained and straight to the point, the Asian girl sighed as her brown eyes followed the line of green trees as she was leaving Port Angeles and already on her way to La Push.

“I know. I’ll meet you at your house so we can have some privacy” when Ronnie agreed to the proposition she hung up and dialed the house number waiting for her mother to pick up since she knew her father was gone for most of the day and didn’t want to bother him because of his busy schedule.

Her mother answered the phone “Hello?”

When Shiori greeted her in Chinese they spoke in their native language talking back and forth to one another. The young teen shared with her mother that she was going to Ronnie’s house to study and do some homework since her blond friend needed some help with some of her classes.

Yuki was a bit hesitate when she heard that she was going over Ronnie’s house but since they have been friends for quite some time and her daughter is very responsible she agreed but wanted Ronnie’s aunt to call her. As much as Shiori and Ronnie were friends didn’t mean that the gothic girl didn’t try to turn her precious little girl into one of those whores she hangs out with.

Hanging up the phone she sighed, why do her parents always have something against Ronnie? She has done nothing wrong? Just because she dressed very dark didn’t mean a thing but since her parents are very protective especially when Shiori witnessed a few fights because of Ronnie.

What they didn’t know was that the reason why Ronnie fought in front of Shiori was because some kids were bullying their daughter very cruelly at the time. Shiori owed that girl her life honestly the teasing went down from physical to verbal which was a huge change for her and relief.

Now parked in front of Ronnie’s house she grabbed her keys and left her bag in the car; taking a deep breath she walked up the steps of her house and knocked. There was a few ruffling from behind the door as the blond opened to see her best friend on the other side.

Instead of greeting each other with a smile their expressions were grim as Ronnie silently opened the door wider for her to walk in. “My mom wants your aunt to call her to make sure we have supervision” she mumbled.

She heard Ronnie cuss a few words under her breath as she flipped out her phone and called her aunt asking her to call Shiori’s mother so she can cool her jets. “Happy?” her blue eyes looked at the brown eyed girl who simply nodded “Let’s go to my room”

It was awkward and silent as they jogged up the steps into Ronnie’s deep red colored room the furniture was all black with red and black sheets that covered her bed. As she sat on the comfortable bed the blond took off her shoes as she laid down gazing up at the ceiling “Talk”

Shiori fumbled with her shoes as she sat up on the bed looking out the window “There’s nothing to talk about”

Ronnie groaned “Please don’t start with this bullshit again. I know when you’re lying and it was quite obvious something happened that made you text me in the middle of fifth period”

Ronnie was a bit agitated that Shiori just up and left this afternoon it worried her more than anything. She didn’t know where she went and she couldn’t afford skipping class since she wouldn’t know where the girl was.

“I couldn’t take it anymore….all of this. Paul teasing me was the last straw and Sherri bugging me every single class that we had together. I’m tired; of it all” clasping her hands together her brown eyes glistened with tears as the recent memories strung her heart in a harsh tug.

“Ree, you can’t be ditching in the middle of the class just because people were teasing you. I know it’s been hard but you have been tough all this time; why crack now?” Ronnie’s head turned to the side wanting to see her best friend’s reaction.

“Ronnie, I never took teasing lightly. It always broke me whether you saw it or not but the way everyone was laughing at me. Calling me names…I just thought that if I quit the team then I will become the weird girl that hardly ever spoke again.”

“Why would you turn back now? You have been doing so well”

Shiori shook her head, “No I haven’t. I don’t belong and the more I am invisible the better it will be for me.”

“Yes you have Ree. Why would you want to be fucking invisible again?”

“Why do you have to be asking the same question over and over again?”

“Because you’re not giving me the answer that I want! You don’t see the big picture here; because of you getting out of your comfort zone you have friends”

Shiori scoffed “What friends? Everyone turned their back on me once I failed the first game”

The blond couldn’t believe what she was hearing “For being the smartest girl in our grade you are a dipshit. Jacob, Embry, Quil, Mana do those names ring a bell? Those are your friends Ree, the ones that you made after you decided to branch out.”

Shiori pursed her lips “But the rest of the sc-”

“Who gives a flying fuck about the school? Those people that I named are the only ones that you need, with them you can survive being teased. No one teases you when they are around right? Well start using your brain” tapping the pale Asian’s girl temple.

“I guess your right” she mumbled as Ronnie smiled widely knowing she was right. Quil, Jacob, Embry, and Mana that is all the people that she needed including Ronnie. What more can she ask for? She developed true friendship with those four and why give up when they have stuck by her side for this long?

Shiori cried out of sheer joy as tears slipped down her pale cheeks as she hugged her best friend in gratitude thanking her for letting her see the light.

Now that she went back to school the next day, everyone kept picking at her and prodding her but there was one person that she couldn’t bear seeing. Paul. Her chest constricted when the end of lunch bell rang and she was walking along the hall waiting for the tall Native American to tease her. It was weird that she hasn’t seen him all day and was so use to his teasing that it felt weird not having him here.

Did he skip school? She thought

It would be a miracle if he did skip school since he rarely missed school and now here she was in her fifth period class waiting for the bell to ring. Her heart thumped the whole time as her brown eyes were stuck by the door waiting to see if Paul would burst through the door.

He didn’t.