D a w n :
I sat on a stool in the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal while holding Emily in my left arm. As I ate, I thought about the previous night, how Lane had taken me out to the balcony which was beautifully decorated.
There lights were on, but he had covered them with a pink red cloth so the whole scene was tinted pink. There was a small table with two chairs facing each other, and the food was covered in the silver covers that I've only even seen in movies before.
He did all these little things like pulling out my chair for me and giving me his suit jacket when I could've easily gone in and gotten my own.
He was such a gentleman and he truly made me feel special.
The bedroom door opened and Lane walked out in his grey sweatpants and to my surprise, he was actually wearing a shirt today. He walked past me to the cupboard and poured himself a bowl of cereal.
He smiled at me. "Hey."
I smiled back. "Hey."
"You're not feeding Emily?" He asked, pouring milk on his Frosties.
"Lane, he's a doll."
Lane sighed, coming over to the counter with his cereal and took Emily from me, rocking him in his arms. "Poor baby's gonna grow up with neglect issues."
I watched him rock the doll and couldn't help but smile. "You're gonna be a good dad." I said.
He chuckled, "Yeah, all this practice will pay off when I have kids of my own." He said.
"How many do you want?" I asked.
He took a mouthful of cereal, shrugging. "Don't know, I just want a big family."
"Me too! Being an only child is hell, I mean I have lots of cousins and stuff, but it's not the same has having actual siblings."
He nodded, "Yeah, I know what you mean, I mean I'm not an only child or anything but I barely know my siblings so I think we're in a similar situation."
"Wait, why don't you know our siblings?" I asked.
He shrugged. "They're just so much older than me, they're twins and right now my sister, Hadley, is engaged, and my brother, Adam, is getting his PhD, so I don't see them very often. By the time I was in middle school they had gone to university, so..."
I sighed, giving him a small smile. "Well at least you have me now."
"Aren't I lucky?"
I rolled my eyes, going up to wash my bowl.
"You know," He said, "we'd have some really good looking babies."
I thought about it for a second, before nodding in agreement. "You're right, they'd actually be hot as hell...no offense Emily."
Lane laughed, coming over to wash his bowl. "Well with you as a mother, what other outcome would you expect?" He asked.
I chuckled, putting a hand on his shoulder. "We'd be such great parents."
He nodded. "Dream team."
* - * - *
When we got to work, we saw all the people from our class gathering into a room on the second floor.
"What's going on?" I asked Lane.
"Mr. Jameson wants to talk to all of us as sort of like a 'halfway check-up' or something." He said, walking into the room.
It was a lecture hall and Mr. Jameson was standing in the front of the room, talking to a few students. Lane and I walked to the front, looking for the seats that said 'CEO'.
"Lane!"
He turned to see his friend Kurt waving at him with a couple of his friends.
"Oh hey!" He waved back at them before turning to me. "I'm gonna go talk to Kurt for a minute." He said.
I nodded, going over to our seats without him. On the way there I passed by Damien who was pestering Mr. Jameson.
"Mr. Jameson, it's been terrible and it's almost over, can I please be paired with a girl? Just for the last week?" Damien begged.
Are we still on this?
Mr. Jameson rubbed his temples, a frustrated look on his face. "Mr. Samuels-"
"Just think about it!"
Mr. Jameson took a deep breath. "Ask me one more time and I will fail you." He said.
"Bu-"
"Go ahead." Mr. Jameson said.
Damien's mouth was half open and he looked like he wanted to say something, but he paused.
"Go ahead Mr. Samuels, keep playing around." Mr. Jameson said again.
Damien scowled, closing his mouth slowly.
Mr. Jameson nodded. "Good." He said, "Now go find your seat."
Damien clenched his jaw, but turned around and trudged over to where Phillip and a few other were sitting.
"Is he still upset about that?" Lane asked, sitting down next to me.
I shrugged. "I swear sometimes I think he's five."
"Yeah, I heard him talking about it on the bus ride here, but I thought it would die down in a few hours, I mean him and Phillip are friends, right?"
I sighed. "I don't even know, what's going on with them, I haven't talked to Phillip since the beginning of the project, and Damien's annoying, so I try to avoid him...besides, we only have five days left."
Lane didn't say anything, he just looked away to the front of the room.
"Hey, cheer up, you'll still see me at graduation." I said, punching him arm lightly.
"What about afterwards?" He asked. "Will we still see each other?"
Now I looked away from him, not knowing what to say to him.
I like Lane a lot, but I don't have any space in my life for a relationship. This...thing that we're doing will have to end when the project is over, because I just can't handle this and everything else in my life.
"...The presentation's starting." I said, not looking at him.
I could feel him tense up beside me, but I ignored it, not wanting to face the situation.
"Hello students." Mr. Jameson said, walking on stage. "I see that you have all landed an array of jobs, from Communications Managers to Chief Janitor."
"Whoo!"
Mr. Jameson chuckled, waving to the back of the room where Katie, who was the Chief Janitor sat. "Hello Miss Maynor." He said.
She laughed, leaning back in her chair as her boyfriend Shawn put his arm over her shoulder. I'm pretty sure that Mr. Jameson paired them up together on purpose since Katie seems to be one of the few students that he likes.
"Anyway," Mr. Jameson continued, "I am here to make sure that you are all doing okay and will continue to do okay for the remainder of the project. For example, please raise your hand if you and your partner are going broke."
Hands flew up all across the room.
Mr. Jameson sighed. "Raise your hand if your child has less than an eighty percent."
More hands came up and some went down.
"Lastly, raise your hand if you and your partner enjoy each other's company."
A multitude of hands went down and Lane and I looked at each other questioningly, raising our hands slowly.
Mr. Jameson did a slow clap, scanning the room. "And you all have perfectly demonstrated how quickly things can go sour, because if I remember correctly, most of you were pleased with your pairings when you first got them. Now, these twelve pairs that have their hands up, except for Katie and Shawn since they were previously a couple, are the ones that you all need to talk to. They have all adapted to a new situation in a way that is beneficial for them both. These couples are the ones that, in the end of the project, will have the highest scores on their babies."
"Excuse me!" Shany, a girl in a different section of the class from me raised her hand, sitting up. "Mr. Jameson, our baby has a ninety-seven despite the fact that douchebag here has had nothing to do with maintaining it."
Her partner Tom groaned, making a face at her.
"Well, Miss Samra, make sure you keep a close eye on it. Check it again, right before you hand it in and you may be surprised, because the fact of the matter is that unless you and Mr. Avery learn to get along and create a good living environment for your child, you will fail."
"You can't know that." Shany said.
Mr. Jameson shrugged. "You can't cheat the scores Miss Samra, trust me, many people have tried to, so I suggest you and your 'douchebag' start finding ways to get along."
Shany's jaw dropped as she looked from Mr. Jameson to Tom who looked just as surprised.
Mr. Jameson smiled, looking around at everyone as people started sitting up straighter and murmurs went around the room.
"I don't have to tell you that if you fail this, then you most likely won't pass my class because this final project is worth twenty-five percent of your grade. You've spent all year working towards this, don't throw it away because you don't like the way Timmy leaves his dishes in the sink, or how Jane takes an hour in the bathroom every morning. You have all worked too hard to do that, but it's ultimately up to you, which means that I will end up giving out a few fails. It's all up to you."
Everyone was silent as Mr. Jameson spoke, his words really opening our eyes as we realized the true weight that this project held.
"Now," Mr. Jameson said. "As you all know, disaster is an inevitable part of life, and in the duration of your married life, disasters will happen and you will all have to find ways to cope..."
Oh shit.
Shit shit shit, what is Mr. Jameson going to make us do?
"Ten of you pairs are going to be laid off, and so if you head to your offices now, there will be a riddle waiting for you. You all need to solve your riddles and it will take teamwork and brain power. No foul play allowed, no getting rid of somebody else's riddle or sabotaging it, or else you and your partner will be in that unlucky ten. The unlucky ten will be the last ten couples to return their correctly solved riddles to me, and they will lose their jobs. I'll be waiting here." He sat down on the chair beside the podium.
"When you say 'correctly solv-"
Mr. Jameson cut off Kurt from asking a question that would no doubt be upsetting. "I mean, bring to me the item, idea or whatever it is that your riddle means."
Everyone sat still, just staring at Mr. Jameson.
"Go!" He said, motioning for us to hurry.
All of a sudden everybody was up and feet were pounding as everyone ran to their offices.
"Come on!" Lane said, bolting up the stairs with me close behind him.
When we reached our floor, we ran to our room with Tiffany and her partner Brad right behind us. We ran to our desk and laying on top of it was a folded piece of paper.
Lane grabbed it, opening it. "One sheet, two sheets, three sheets, four...some use less, some use more?"
"What the hell? Let me see that." I said, grabbing the paper.
'One sheet, two sheets, three sheets, four. Some use less, some use more.'
"What the actual fuck Mr. Jameson." I muttered.
"Do you think he means paper? Like printer paper?" Lane asked.
"Maybe, but do you think he'd give us something like that? We'd have to carry the whole printer and not just a sheet of paper then..."
"You're right." Lane said, sighing. "What could it be?"
"Are you serious right now?" Tiffany asked.
"Calm down Godzilla." Brad said, getting up and walking out of the room.
"No! Get back here, now is not the time to go the bathroom! Do you want me to get fired?" She asked.
"Will that shut you up?" He asked. "I can't really help the fact that I have to pee."
She took a deep breath, giving him a forced smile. "You know what, just go, fuck you." She flipped him off, turning back around to the papers.
I turned back around to Lane, smiling. "Lane..."
"What?" He asked.
"One sheet, two sheets, three sheets, four!"
He leaned forward expectantly, waiting for me to continue.
"The bathroom Lane! Some use less and some use more? Toilet paper."
His eyes widened and we both jumped up leaving the room.
"Ah, you're a genius Dawn." He gave me a quick hug as we went to the bathrooms.
"You get one and I'll get one, from both bathrooms, just in case." I said.
He nodded and disappeared into the men's bathroom as I entered the women's. I saw an empty stall and ran in, opening the toilet paper dispenser. There were two rolls and one was almost finished so I decided to take that one instead of the full one.
I got it and ran out, Lane was already outside waiting for me. We both ran downstairs, into the lecture hall where Mr. Jameson was. He was standing in the front with two couples showing him their stuff.
He said a few things to them and one pair started jumping up and down smiling as the other group started arguing as they left the room.
When Lane and I reached the front, we showed him the toilet paper.
"One sheet, two sheets, three sheets, four. Some use less and some use more." I said. "It's toilet paper, right?"
Mr. Jameson smiled, nodding. "Now if it was that easy, then everybody would be done wouldn't they? If that was the answer, then it doesn't teach you anything about anything. This is a learning exercise, so learn."
"I-I don't understand." I said.
He smiled. "Miss Caparelli, unravel your toilet roll."
I pulled the little bit of toilet paper left off of the roll and I looked at it, my eyes widening.
"There's another riddle on it."
Mr. Jameson nodded. "Now go solve it, because we already have two finished groups and I'm sure others are close behind.
"Holy shit." Lane muttered as we walked away from Mr. Jameson. "Here, can I read it?" He asked.
I handed him the toilet roll and he read it aloud. "The world is ending soon, so grab two things you love, either recreation, basics, comfort, or all of the above."
What the hell?
"What does that even mean?" I asked.
"I think he means that in the case that the world is ending and we can only take two things with us, we need to be able to procreate, provide the basic necessities and maybe comfort with those two things."
"Where in the hell are we supposed to find two things capable of that?" I asked.
He sighed. "I do-I don't know...maybe Emily?"
"No, Emily won't help because if it were us, we would be able to procreate by ourselves. If Emily were here and we needed more resources, he would just take up what we could have used to survive."
"That is very true..." Lane buried his head in his hands, deep in thought.
"Lane, I don't want us to get fired." I said.
"Don't worry, we won't...we just need to figure out what can help sustain new life, can provide necessities like food and can provide pleasure." He said.
"Yeah, but we can use two things, remember that." I said.
His eyes widened as he looked at me.
"What is it?" I asked.
"Two things...Oh shit."
"What?"
He took a deep breath. "In any other circumstances I wouldn't suggest this, but I think it's kind of our last resort..."
"Lane! What is it?" I asked.
"You."
I raised an eyebrow at him. "Me?"
"No I don't mean you as in 'Dawn Caparelli', I mean..." He took a deep breath, smiling. "Your boobs."
"My what?"
"Just think about it." He said. "If we had a baby, they could provide food and help sustain life, which would be two requirements in one...and I don't know about you, but I could think of a few ways in which they would provide comfort or pleasure."
I couldn't help but laugh as Lane was explaining.
He chuckled. "If my own nipples could produce milk, trust me I'd volunteer myself, but it seems like we're at an impasse."
I nodded. "Okay."
"Okay?" He asked.
I smiled. "Yeah, let's go to Mr. Jameson, I can't wait to see the look on his face after this."
Lane chuckled, getting up. "Come on."
We ran downstairs, rushing back into the lecture hall which was much fuller now.
Oh God, I hope we're not one of the last ten students left.
We ran up to Mr. Jameson, breathless.
"We found a solution." Lane breathed.
Mr. Jameson raised his eyebrow at us. "Well?"
I took a deep breath before reaching up and grabbing my boobs. "These." I said, trying my hardest not to laugh.
Mr. Jameson pursed his lips as he looked between the two of us, trying hard to contain his laughter.
Seeing Mr. Jameson on the verge of laughter pushed me off the edge and I burst out laughing, leaving Lane to do all the explaining.
Lane was laughing too, but not as hard. "Okay, so her...breasts can provide food which is a basic necessity, and they would also help sustain new life, were we to procreate, and as for the comfort part...I'll leave you to your imagination." He said.
Mr. Jameson chuckled, giving us both a slow clap. "Wow, I must say that this is the first time I have seen this outcome. I must commend you for your ingenuity."
"So you'll count it?" I asked.
He nodded. "Why not? You've met all the requirements."
"But are we in the last ten?" I asked.
Mr. Jameson looked down to his clipboard, shaking his head. "I believe there are three more couples until the last ten, so congratulations."
"Yes!" I hi-fived Lane, still smiling from my earlier laughing fit. "You were right." I said.
"About what?" He asked.
"We are a dream team."
* - * - *
We were sitting at the counter, eating a cheese pizza which we had ordered because both of us were too lazy to cook anything that evening.
"So," Lane said, "Am I allowed to kiss you again or was that a one-time thing?"
I smiled, taking another bite of my pizza.
He rolled his eyes as I chewed the pizza, taking my time.
"If you ask me if you can kiss me, I'm never gonna say yes and just sit there looking dumb as I wait for a kiss."
He chuckled. "I wasn't asking to kiss you now, my mother just always told me to make sure that I had a girl's consent before kissing her. So I wanted to inquire for later times, don't worry, you'll never see it coming."
I sighed, a smile spreading across my face. "Yes, you can kiss me." I said, taking another bite.
He smiled. "Good."
I finished my slice, throwing away the disposable plate. "I'm gonna go shower now, don't sneak in to kiss me." I teased.
"Even if I was planning on it, you've ruined it now." He said.
I rolled my eyes, walking to the room.
"Wait!" He called.
I turned around. "Yeah?"
He grabbed Emily off the counter, tossing him to me, my reflexes didn't react in time though, because Emily landed on the floor with a thud.
"Oh my God Lane, don't drop Emily! We're going to lose points!" I said.
Lane walked over and picked Emily up, looking at the back of his neck. "We, didn't lose anything, see?"
He held him out and sure enough, we were still at an 89%.
"You know, Emily's actually pretty durable, look." Lane dropped Emily again, making the dolls head bang on the table before he fell to the ground.
"Lane, stop! How would you like it if I banged you on the table?" I asked.
Mischief flashed in his eyes as I realized what I had just said.
Lane sighed, placing Emily on the counter and walking over to the table. He sat on it, shaking his head. "If you insist, but if we break the table we'll have to pay for it." He said.
I rolled my eyes. "We're not breaking the table." I said.
He laughed, getting up. "Yeah, you're right, I'm more of a 'large bed' kind of guy anyway."
* - * - *
The song at the top is my favorite song right now and i felt like it fit the chapter:)
Dedicated to miki8958 for their many many many comments on the last chapter lol
Zee xx