Oh, Baby! #Wattys2020

Chapter Two

Bella stumbles into school, her hair unbrushed with bags under her eyes. She glares and grumbles at the baby, sleeping in the carrier she's lugging around. It kept her up all night and every time she started falling asleep, it would cry. She doesn't understand how she is doing so badly, there's only a select few things the baby could want. So it should be by process of elimination, however no matter what she tries, her baby doesn't want to stop crying. She's half tempted to ask Ms. Burr if it's possible for the babies to get colic. But she said that the harder levels would cause the baby to cry for no reason.

"I'm gonna lose my mind." She whines, plopping down in the stairwell. She doesn't normally sit here, but it's quiet and isolated.

She finds herself rocking the carrier and listening to music, singing quietly as she does so. She can't do art like her parents, but she has a thing for music. Especially singing, though she's never felt like doing much with it. When she had her music, she felt at ease. As if the expectations her parents' success puts on her, is lifted. Her voice echoes in the stairwell and for a few moments, she forgets that someone might be listening to her sing.

Next thing she knows, someone is tapping her shoulder. She blinks her eyes, her heart rate picking up as she inhales a lung full of laundry detergent. She drags her eyes up to meet Hale's for the second time in less than 24 hours. He jabs his finger up towards the clock above the second floors' door. She's late for class. Quickly, Bella chambers to her feet, cursing and brushing off her jeans before grabbing her baby.

"Thank you, Hale." She nods, turning away from his intense gaze. She leaves as if he set a fire under her ass.

Bella manages to glide through the rest of her day, avoiding true disasters in her classes for the most part. She's pretty sure that Ms. Burr programmed the babies to be less harsh during school hours, because they never shut up outside. All of her teachers have been understanding when the baby does start crying. And she manages to make it to her free period unscathed. Just the way she likes it.

She spends hers in the student lounge area near the front of the school. It's available for those with free periods or study halls. It has built in alcoves with couches and an assortment of chairs. There's a long table in the middle of the circular commons area with checkers and chess. As well as a few smaller tables for working littering the space. A few other people are in the area. One of them being Hale, who is currently sound asleep with his head down. She never noticed him there before.

Bella considers herself an observant person. But now that Hale has crossed paths with her twice in the last day, she's oddly aware of him. She hadn't even noticed him at first, she almost wanted to ask if he had been there the whole time. But she didn't dare try to strike up a conversation. His harsh tone from yesterday echoes in her head when she thinks about it. She wonders just how welcoming he would be if she tried to wake him up just for a dumb question.

She chuckles silently to herself, turning back to the assignment she's working on. She doesn't get more than three pre-calc problems in before the baby started sniffling. She inhales sharply with annoyance, glaring at the demon momentarily before she hurries to connect her bracelet with it. Upon hearing the chime she begins trying to feed the baby. It cries more.

She lays the blanket given to her on the table in front of her and tries to change the diaper. That doesn't work. She even rocks it, to try and stop the crying. Panic is just setting in when a loud slamming sound cuts the crying. Bella looks up to see Hale, glaring at her with wild, sleepy eyes. She quickly glances around at other people to see what they were doing. They all looked between her and Hale and looked away, leaving her to fend for herself against the lion.

"Would you shut that fucking baby up?" Hale growls, suddenly coming alive from where he was sleeping at a table near by.

Bella narrows her eyes, holding the screaming baby, her nerves shot from trying and failing to shut the baby up. "I'm trying, asshat."