Beauty and the Beast

Garreth's POV

"What do you mean, she's not coming back?" I saw Jesse's face go slack with shock and fear as I picked him up by his throat and slammed him against the wall. His head hit the brick with a dull thud and I felt a rush of satisfaction when he started whimpering.

"Garr...She...Tier's...tutor." His fat, pale hands started clawing helplessly at my hand when I tightened my grip. "Can't...breathe." His face was turning red, and the thought not to stop, to just keep going briefly crossed my mind.

Disgusted, I threw him away from me. "I knew that already, Jesse." Landing hard, he started wheezing in air and laid there pathetically.

"No...he's... expelled. She... is going to... live with him."

I felt myself flash hot and then cold. "She's... going to live with that, that freak."

More stable, he managed to pull himself into a siting position, and leaning against the wall, he watched me pace back and forth. "Yeah."

The thought of Belle staying with Tier made me want to break something. It made me want to make him bleed, to suffer. "He won't get away with this, Jesse. Belle is mine. She belongs to me, and I'm not going to let him have her."

Smirking now, he stood up and regarded me. "What do you want to do?"

Kill him. "Make her come to me."

"How?"

"By not giving her a choice."

"Tier's going to be a problem."

I laughed as my mind flashed to the letter, to that stupid freshman that I beat up, to his family and friends. I'm sure they'd love to hear about who had attacked the kid. "No, no he's not."

Isabelle's POV

"No. Hell no. No to the tenth power of never going to happen."

"What do you mean, no?"

"It's kind of self-explanatory, Belle."

"Oh, that's a pretty big word for such an stubborn jackass."

I'll admit, this is not one of my finer moments. Standing nose to nose with Ryan yelling in each others face, while our principal watched us, trying his hardest to ignore us was probably in the bottom ten of dignified moments in my life.

Ryan had snapped right out of his depressed, silent stupor and had gone straight into a raging, towering inferno of highly pissed off Ryan Tier.

He was being completely irrational. Arguing with me about becoming his permanent live-in tutor, for the rest of the school year. Fighting the only chance he had at graduating.

He was so against me helping him, which of course, made me even more set on helping him. He was toast.

"Belle, you're not listening to me. I don't want you to have to give up everything, just for me." He whispered the last part as he pulled me closer to him. He bent his face down closer and practically pleaded with his eyes. His really, really blue eyes. "I can't let you do this."

I felt myself starting to lose focus when he kept gazing at me with those damn eyes. "I want to, Ryan."

"I don't care. My answer is no." He said, angrily as he pushed himself away from me.

His sudden mood change had the fortunate affect of snapping me out of whatever reverie I was in and placing me back in the Rage corner. "You're starting to sound redundant, Ryan. A sure sign of stupidity. Lucky for you, I know the perfect cure for that. Me as a tutor."

He was pacing back and forth now in front of Dr. Wise's desk, who was typing away on his computer studiously ignoring us. Ryan's shirt stretched across his back, his muscles bunching and tensing as he paced. He looked miserable. And angry, I silently added when he stalked over to Dr. Wise's desk, really angry.

"Don't let me tell you what you can do with your 'perfect cure', Belle." Oh, I am so close to slapping the crap out of him. "Dr. Wise. This is pointless. You can let her go back to class. I'll leave--"

I opened my mouth to blast him, but was cut short when Dr. Wise stood up. "Mr. Tier, Ms. Paige. It's done. I've already made my decision. So, you might as well get over what ever differences you may be having, because you're going to be spending the next few months working closely together."

"No!"

"Score!"

"Now," he said, picking up a piece of paper off his desk. "Please get out of my office. Tier, stop by the front desk and pick up your paperwork. Ms. Paige, Mrs. Walt should already have the curriculum and any other items you may need. You two are dismissed."

Ryan had stood there, pretty much vibrating with anger, his face getting redder and redder as Dr. Wise went on. I personally have never felt this burning of a need to High Five someone, but I'm sure Dr. Wise would deem that a bit inappropriate.

"But--" Ryan started to say as Dr. Wise made the shooing motions. "But, Dr. Wise, it's in my rights--"

"Don't let me tell you what you can do with your 'rights', Ryan." I said, sweetly.

He flashed me a furious look before he whirled around and stomped out of the office. Gleefully, I thanked Dr. Wise, and started to follow him when Dr. Wise called my name.

I turned, and was surprised to see him right behind me.

"Ms. Paige," He said softly, his hand big and warm on my shoulder. "Thank you."

Ryan's POV

I had never noticed how ratty and disgusting my hair looked. I mean, I put the term 'rat's nest to shame'. And, if I weren't on the verge of puking and/or having a mental breakdown, I might have felt a bit bad for the hairdresser who was currently trying to tame my hair. It could be considered mildly, if not completely and utterly embarrassing that I had to have help getting ready. Hell, I can't even brush my own hair.

Trust me, eight-teen years of not caring about how I look and yeah, it's probably been about that long since my hair has actually been brushed, that much time really, really takes it's toll.

Freshly out of the shower, my skin pink and blotchy from all the scrubbing I had done, I was now sitting in a towel, alternately watching the guy try to pull a comb through my hair, watch Chip wrestle the dogs on the floor, and listen to David and Lenny bickering about their normal nonsense.

It was all so mundane, so normal that it made me feel even more in the Twilight Zone. I mean, completely discounting the fact that I had just had the most emotional, stressful day of my eight-teen almost nineteen years of existence. But now adding fuel to the fire is the fact that I was now a mere hour away from spending an entire night with Belle. A 'prom' night. With just me, Ryan Tier, and her.
And me, being me, couldn't just have butterflies in my stomach. No, I'm the guy who has freaking Pterodactyls battling Transformers shaped like butterflies in my stomach.

"Mr. Tier, you are looking a bit pale." I looked up from my reflection to see Lenny, David, and the hairdresser staring at me with varying degrees of concern.

"I'm going to puke." I said, and nodded furiously when they just stared at me. "I'm seriously going to puke. Just... everywhere."

"Gross!" Chip screeched.

David just shook his head. Lenny took a bit of pity on me and took a seat next to me. "Sire, there will be music. Candlelight. The perfect romantic evening. We have set the perfect stage for you. All you really have to do is show up. And dance. And charm her. And..."
"Are you going to kiss her?" Chip asked as he flailed his arms and legs, almost as if he were making a bathroom floor angel.

And then his question hit me, and had the same effect as a Mack truck. Staggered, horrified, flustered and unable to help myself, I stood up quickly. Startled, my hairdresser went flying back into David, and they both stumbled back.

"Kiss.. what? What? Who... No one said anything... I don't... "

Getting a better grip on my towel, I prowled around the room. It was either that or curl up in a little ball of freaking the hell out.

"Well, you love her, don't you?"

Oh, God. What a freaking question. "More than anything." I admitted.

"Then just tell her, silly." This came from the six year old currently using the disgruntled hairdresser as a jungle gym.

"I concur. You must be bold. Daring."

I sat back down, hard. "Bold... daring. I can... no, I can't. I can't do this."

The hairdresser hung back a few seconds, apparently gauging if it were safe enough to approach the bench. When I just sat there, stewing in my own misery, he walked over and started brushing my hair again. He kept sighing and frowning, picking up random items, considering them and then setting them back down when he deemed them insufficient in his battle against Tangles.

What the guy needs is a miracle. Yeah, me and him both.

"It's not that hard." Lenny said after we sat there in silence for a few minutes. "You just grab her, pull her close, and tell her how you feel. Simple, non?"

"Non." I glared at his reflection when he snorted. "It's not Lenny. It's not that freaking easy. She's too important... She's amazing. Damn it. I don't deserve her. I don't..."

Taking pity on my misery, Lenny patted my shoulder. "I think Belle would be a lucky girl."

Yeah, he meant well. But since technically I paid him to be nice to me, I couldn't really take his words to heart. No matter how much I wished they could be true. But before I could say anything, the hairdresser put his finishing touches on my hair.

"Oh, my God..."

"Voila!! You look so...well, you look so, so..."

"Stupid." I muttered as I took in my blue-ribbon adorned hair. "God, I look like a pansy."

"Pansy!" Chip parroted helpfully. "A silly pansy!"

I hung my head. "Crap."

The light was bright, almost too bright as I stood there at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for Belle. It's funny, kind of, maybe, if it were happening to someone else, about how time seemed to drag on, stretching way past any point of recognition when all you want it to do is get on with it.

Yeah, this is one of those moments. Those damned Pterodactyls were back, and boy, were they having a blast. I loosened my tie, made sure my damnable hair was still somewhat presentable, and was about to turn on my heel and run back into my room to hide under my covers and wallow in self-pity and patheticness when Belle's door opened, and she walked out.

I stopped freaking out. I stopped thinking. I stopped breathing. She had the most beautiful smile on her face as she made her way down the stairs to me. Frozen, still not really breathing, I took in her dress, her hair, I took in her everything.
The dress was the palest of golds, and God, it was almost unfair about how gorgeous it looked on her. She looked like a princess, she was magical. She was also saying something to me.

"Wh--" I cleared my throat, trying to get rid of the five year old girl's voice, "What?"

"You look amazing, Ryan."

Me? Me? I look amazing? Is she freaking kidding? God, I couldn't possibly look anywhere close to her... She was breathtaking.

"God, Belle. You're so..." I trailed off when I noticed the gold flecks in her eyes. Another check in the Pathetic column, please!

She started to laugh, and unable to help myself, I laughed with her. It was that, or go with my previous plan of run and hide. Looking at me expectantly, she gestured to the open ballroom.

Finally, I was able to pull my head out of my ass, and get my breath back, I offered her my arm and almost stopped breathing all over again when she laced her arm through mine.

No hyperventilating. No hyperventilating. Breathe, Ryan, breathe.

Taking a deep breath, and getting a nice, big whiff of her perfume, I led her to the ballroom.

There were candles everywhere. All over the floor, any flat, stable surface was almost overrun with flickering, little candles. The room was cast in a light glow, the small flames were like stars. I heard Belle's delighted gasp, and had to restrain from doing a fist pump. I settled for a mental one.

"Ryan," She said, looking around. The candlelight seemed to make her look even better, damn it. The lights twinkled, the music swelled, and I managed to pull out her chair and seat her without dropping her or tripping. "This is so perfect."

Yeah, I silently agreed when I sat down on the opposite side of the table and watched her look around the room with sparkling green eyes, and felt so damn happy, that I couldn't help but grin like a damned idiot.

"Want to dance?"

I barely managed to contain my squeak of surprise when I looked up to see Belle standing over me. We had spent the last few hours laughing and talking over our dinner, and the blasted flying dinosaurs of nervousness had just gone extinct when she dropped this bomb.

Cue the flying monsters.

"D-dance? With you?"

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Do you see anyone else here to dance with?"

Since I saw about six or seven of my staff wandering around, I was debating whether or not to say something when she decided to take matters in her own hands and grab me and yank me up.

"Jesus... Belle, Christ, be careful." I barely managed to steady us both when I slammed into her. "You OK?"

"I think I hurt my arm. But," She added, stopping me before I could go into concerned freak-out mode. "I think it'd get better if you danced with me."

She just blinked innocently up at me. Damn those gold flecks. Damn them. "Shall we?" I held out my hand and grinned when she executed a dramatic curtsy and placed her hand in mine.

"Lets."

The lights seemed to dim even more as we made our way to the middle of the floor. Music started, the music softly swelling as we stopped. She pulled my left hand and placed it on her hip and held my right one in her smaller one and just as my heart was about to explode, we started to move.
And we glided, moved over the floor, and as the music went on, I felt myself relax more and more.

Gripping her much smaller hand tighter, I grinned down at her, and sent her twirling away from me. Pulling her back, I caught her laughing and instinctively, I put my hands on her waist and lifted her, whirling her around.

When I set her back down, the music had slowed to a waltz and our laughter quieted down until we just stood there, swaying slightly back and forth in silence. Then, with out warning, she laid her head on my chest and held me tighter. Unable to help myself, I laid my head on hers and held her closer.

This was it. This was my moment. I could do this. "Belle." God, was that my voice? I sound husky and unsure and kind of breathy. Crap. "Belle."

Gently grasping her chin, I tipped her head up till her eyes met mine. I was lost when she smiled up at me, and slowly I lowered my head as she raised hers up.

A shrill ringing had us jumping apart.

Mrs. Angela was walking up to us, guiltily gripping the offending noise maker.

Belle's cell phone.

"I'm sorry, it's her father, or I would have just let it ring."

Belle gave me a long, considering look before she slowly walked over to Mrs. Angela. "Hello?"

Sorry, she mouthed. I shrugged my shoulders, as if my heart was trying to pound it's way out my chest. As if I was moments away from professing my love for her.

"Wait. Dad, slow down. What's... what? No.... OK. OK. God. Is he.... OK. Dad. Oh, God. Maurice. Are you... OK...I- I love you, too."

Stunned, I watched the tears start to fall as she slammed her phone shut. "God, Ryan." She threw herself at me. "Ryan, it's Maurice. He's sick. Really sick. They... don't know if he'll make... they don't know if he'll make it... I need to... I have to..."

I pulled her close and held her. "You have to go to him."

She just buried her head deeper in my shoulder. "I can't. He's in Japan. If I leave, then I can't... I can't help you, Ryan. I won't leave you like that. I can't."

I wouldn't graduate. I would be stuck doing another year in another school. More disappointments and stares, more people whispering behind my back. More fights and more hatred.

But none of that seemed to really matter. Not as much as her.

My eyes seemed to close on their own as I whispered the hardest words I've ever said in my life. "Go, Belle. Go."