Author: you know that your novel is not popular when you have to give your own power stones to it in order to encourage yourself....Also, this is the 10th chapter and the word count will reach 10k with this chapter (avg word count=1000) I am going to celebrate this small milestone.
Shelly's plan was to ask Alex to tutor her. This way they can meet and talk everyday. This can also help his financial situation.
'It's going to take a bit of effort to convince dad to hire him. I can always handle mom.' She thought. Her parents will not be against hiring a tutor if it can help her improve her average grades but they would be sceptical about the teaching capabilities of a second year.
Night, at Shelly's home.
"Dad, let me massage your shoulders." Shelly says with a fawning smile. Her father Chris was a bit surprised by her sudden filial piety and then quickly realises that his daughter has something to ask from him. So he decides to make full use of this rare opportunity.
"My shoulders are quite sore from work. I will take up your offer." He says with a smile. Shelly's light pink lips twitch.
'You already know that I want something then can't you ask me what I want?'
She starts massaging her father's shoulders. Chris is obviously happy upon receiving his daughter's care.
"Shelly my legs are aching too. Message them while you are at it."
He says when she is almost done. Shelly understood that her father will take full advantage of this situation and goes to massage his legs.
"Shelly my legs are aching too. Can you message me as well?" Her mother Lina joins the fun.
'Et tu, Mom?'.
"Okay."
Shelly pouts while messaging her father. Then her mother adds
"I can't do any chores since my legs are aching. Shelly please clean the house."
"Ok."
"You have to do the dishes too."
"K"
"Don't forget the laundry."
"...."
"Dear, you forgot about tomorrow's breakfast." Her dad adds.
"Are you really my parents?" Shelly asks with anger after she snaps.
"Tell me. Did you both pick me pick up from somewhere?"
Shelly's parents look at each other.
'At last. Will they stop ordering me to do chores?' Shelly thought.
"Tell us Shelly, how did you know about that?" Her parents ask in unison.
"Remember that we truly love you." Her mother adds.
They look at Shelly's stupefied face and start laughing. Shelly gets angry and uses all her will to restrain herself from biting them. They stop laughing soon.
"Ok then. Tell us what do you want,Shelly." Her father asks.
"Dad, I want to hire a tutor." Shelly replies. Both her parents are shocked with her statement. This is natural as Shelly never takes initiative to talk about studies. They are happy and moved in their hearts.
'My little daughter has finally grown up.' They both have the same thought.
"Ok Dear. I'll look for a tutor tomorrow." Chris says.
"Dad I have already thought of a tutor." Shelly says.
Chris was even more happy with that. He thought that Shelly researched about tutors in the internet and selected one. Making your own decisions after research is a sign of growth after all.
'It doesn't matter if it's a shitty tutor. We will stop hiring the tutor after a month if that's the case. Anyway this will be a valuable experience for her.'
"Oh, who is it?" Lina asks.
"Mom, it a second year senior of mine." Both Chris and Lina's brows furrow.
"He is ranked first in his year and was ranked first when he was in first year as well. He is an orphan who got into the school with scholarship. He is working part time to earn his daily expenses." Shelly quickly continues before her parents got a chance to object.
Her parents were silent for awhile. When Shelly got nervous and was about to say something more to persuade them, her father speaks first breaking them silence.
"Sure, let's hire him. How much fee did he ask for?"
"Really!!" Shelly exclaims as she did not think that it would be this easy to convince her dad.
"I didn't ask him if he works as a tutor. But I think he will. I will talk to him tomorrow about this." Shelly says and escapes to her room to avoid doing all the chores that her mother gave her.
"Dear, why did you accept?" Lina asks Chris. She is against hiring a student as a tutor especially since he is a boy.
"Shelly is of the age when she starts developing interest in opposite gender. We cannot stop that. She obviously has a crush on that boy and she will get close to him in school even if we don't hire him. She may also directly give him her pocket money in the future.I decided to hire him so that we can observe him and make a judgement. If he is deliberately targeting Shelly then we can stop hiring him and while we can't make the school expel him, we can definitely transfer Shelly to another school if she is adamant on befriending him."
Chris explains the reasons for his decision.
"Shelly said that she didn't talk to him about tutoring so it means that he didn't lead her to hire him. We can make our decision after observing him."
"Anyway, he should be quite hardworking to take the top ranking while doing part time jobs. Maybe Shelly's grades will improve." Chris says this and goes into the bedroom.
Lina's eyes widen at realisation. She decides to carefully observe the boy when he comes for tutoring.
Shelly who is unaware of her parents thoughts falls asleep while thinking on how to approach Alex about this issue without making it look like she is interested in him or that she is pitying him.
Shelly gets up next morning and goes to school. She is a bit absent minded on the way because she was thinking about Alex. She was wondering if she could help him in some other way.
Author: I will try to complete the school arc within 10 chapters. This is to build the characters of Shelly and her family as well as a bit of Alex's character. My main focus in this arc is Shelly and her yandere tendencies.(I gotta do the yandere tag some justice) I will also put some effort on her parents as well so that you readers will not scold me for making every character except the main character as one-dimensional or obligatory.
This is to attach some personality to the name or else you people will ask me 'who is Chris? Wasn't he the company's Vice President?' because even I forget what name I gave to some characters like the Lunet family's 3 sons. I remember the character description I gave them but not the names. So I need to put some effort in this area.