Chapter 7
Day 3. 6 days before the dance.
Paul woke up to an annoying fly buzzing in his ear, or at least he thought it was. However, he was wrong. There stood Dawn humming into his ear.
"What are you doing?" Paul growled as he threw himself out of the bed.
"Getting you up," Dawn replied, smiling brightly.
Paul took a quick look over at his clock. "It's 6:30!"
"Well, I'm pretty sure it's going to take you a long time to ever do anything polite, so I thought we might as well start early."
"No," Paul hissed, tossing the covers back over him.
Dawn was a persistent girl. She ripped the blanket back off of him and picked up his mattress, rolling him off of it. Paul landed with a thud.
"You are a TROUBLESOME girl."
"I know. Now get dressed. Put on your tuxedo."
Paul gave Dawn the best death glare he could. He waited for her to drop dead, but she never did.
"I. AM. NOT. PUTTING. THAT. STUPID. TUX. ON!" Paul broke apart each word, emphasising his irritation.
Dawn didn't care. "Yes you are. If you want to BE a gentleman, you must DRESS like a gentleman."
"BUT I DON'T WANT TO BE A GENTLEMAN!" Paul screamed.
"Tough," breathed Dawn. "Meet me out in the living room in five minutes or else."
Paul sighed and got up. If anyone had a worse temper than him, it was Dawn when you kept her waiting. He'd rather avert her wrath, so he changed into his tuxedo and went over to the living room.
Dawn smiled as he walked in.
"Why aren't you in a dress or something?" asked Paul, curious as to why she wouldn't dress up even though she had the opportunity to.
"Because," started Dawn. "My family has a superstition that if a man sees you in your dress before a ball, you'll never find love."
"What a dumb superstition," said Paul, rolling his eyes.
"I think it's interesting," said Dawn, looking deep in thought. "I mean, if someone has a big crush on you, they might want to see you in your dress, but if they saw, you wouldn't find love."
"How is that interesting?"
Dawn shook her head. "Nevermind. Let's just start straightening you out!"
Paul groaned as she gestured for him to sit. Paul sat down at the table, staring at several platters strewed about it.
"What are you going to do to me?"
Dawn giggled. "I'm just going to teach you some table manners. It is obvious that you lack them."
Paul grunted and crossed his arms. "You aren't just going to tame me like some house Pokemon. If you want a proper date, look somewhere else."
Dawn smiled evilly. "What? Are you afraid of be NICE? What kind of an idiot are you?"
"Shut it, Berlitz. Just tell me what you want me to do."
Dawn pushed a platter over to Paul. It was a plate of steak, dripping in fine juices. It had the best smell ever and Paul really wanted to eat it.
"How would you eat that Paul?"
Paul picked up his fork, stabbing into the meat, and devoured it, mouth not even closed as he chewed.
Dawn was not pleased. She took out a spray bottle and sprayed Paul in the face. He stopped what he was doing and screamed as she squirted him.
"What the heck?" said Paul, pushing away the bottle.
Dawn sprayed him one more time. "If you don't do things right, you're going to get sprayed."
Paul was unimpressed. "What am I? Some disobedient Poochyena?"
"You might as well be a poochyena with the way you eat."
Paul grumbled as Dawn pushed over some lobster.
"Ok. Trying eating this one properly."
"Are you just going to stuff me with food all day?"
"At this rate, probably."
Paul shrugged and grabbed his fork, about to pounce on his food again. Dawn sprayed him twice, knowing he was just going to shove it down his throat again.
Paul sighed angrily over at Dawn and grabbed his knife, cutting out proper portions.
"That's more like it!" complimented Dawn.
But then, Paul let out a huge burp. She sprayed him until half of the bottle was empty, revolted by his bad manners.
"That was disgusting!" screeched Dawn. "At least say 'Excuse me' if you're gonna do that!"
The evening carried on like that until, at last, Paul began to go with the flow of things. He excuse himself, and ate nicely, he even said please and thank you. Dawn was proud. Maybe she wasn't a bad teacher after all. Forget about cooking, at least he was nicer now.
Just when Dawn thought things were going smoothly, in came Reggie, face bloody as he spun around in circles, completely dizzy.
"Reggie!"
