Were's the Love?

Chapter 3: Asshole Teens and Their Bitchy Parents

Jason talks the entire drive into work. I really shouldn't be surprised. He does every morning. Half the time, I don't listen to a word that he's saying. I don't mean to be rude, but I really don't care about how some smart-alecky teenager is doing in gym class. I deal with those little jerks enough throughout the day, thank you very much.

Today, however, is different. Instead of rambling on about our students, he decides to spend the time working on trying to convince me to go out on a date with him. I don't know why we need to. We are already mates. It's not like he needs to woo me to get me into bed. We've already jumped right into that part. We did it the first week we were paired up! It seems like a waste of money to go out to dinner or a movie. Still, the dog seems set on the idea.

"Isn't there a movie you want to see?" he glances over at me, waiting for my response, "The theater in town is showing a new romantic comedy that looks good. If you don't have too much grading to do, we could go see it this weekend. What do you think?"

What I think is that I hate rom-coms. "Do you want to see it?"

"Only if you want to," he smiles, "If you don't, we could watch something on Netflix. Make a nice bowl of popcorn and chill on the couch together after a nice dinner out?"

"Maybe," I shrug and fiddle with the buttons on my blouse. Damn. Did my boobs get bigger? I swear this shirt fit better the last time I wore it.

I can see him smiling like an idiot. I didn't say yes, but if he keeps up with that dumb grin, then I might have to. I stare out the window until we arrive at the school. It's not a large building. The school only caters to the weird offspring of our tribe, with a few normal humans thrown in from the surrounding area. Most of them are kids of local farmers. They know what we are. They call on a few of us to help them with keeping their barns rodent-free. I did it once. The farmer gave me fifty dollars for my trouble. Not bad for an hour's work, plus I got a free meal.

You heard me right. A free meal. Don't judge me. As an owl, rats are pretty damn tasty. It's not like I ate them in human form. I'm not crazy.

Back to the school. Since it is just the children of our unique town of idiots, it houses all grades from kindergarten all the way up to twelfth grade. They are divided into different sections of the school though. You don't want some poor little innocent kid getting run over by a teenage asshole. That would be tragic. There are around thirty students per grade. I know that might seem small, but it's actually pretty large considering that's almost four hundred children for a tribe of a couple thousand adults. I blame the rabbits and dogs. They breed like, well, rabbits. It's nothing to see three groups of triplets in a class followed by another set from the same family in the class below them. The people around here really do like to have litters of children.

We park in the teacher's lot and I grab my bag from the back. Jason hops out first. He rushes around the car and opens my door for me. He really is a sweet idiot. I'm about to walk away when I feel his hand grab mine.

This is different. "Do you need something?"

"No," he drops my hand, "I just wanted to walk you to your classroom. Is that okay?"

"I can make it there on my own. The gym is on the other side of the building."

"I know," Jason looks away. I can mentally see his ears pull back shyly, "but I don't have anything I need to do before class. Since I'm your mate, I thought that I should start acting like it more."

"What do you mean by that?" I cock my brow. I'm actually a little surprised. Every mate that I've had has expected me to act a certain way, not the other way around. If he's worried that he's not acting possessive enough, then I'm in trouble. I really don't need a repeat of Derek or Jeremy.