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Excuse the mistakes
Picture on the side is of Parker -->
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“What do you associate with babies?”
“Milfs!”
Mrs. Matthews, my health teacher, crossed her arms over her chest and pursed her lips. The whole class, including me and Maya, who was sitting next to me, turned around to look at the smartass of the class.
Chad Block had a big, arrogant smirk on his face, and his jock buddies were laughing and high-fiving. Chad looked proud of himself and his response, but when I glanced back at Mrs. Matthews, it was clear from her unimpressed expression that she wasn’t entertained.
“Mr. Block, I appreciate the participation,” Mrs. Matthews said tiredly, “but the next time you decide to contribute to the class discussion, make sure your comment is not going to kill brain cells. We only have a limited number, and you, Chad, need them all.”
The whole class burst into laughter, and Chad’s face turned bright red. His mouth twisted into a scowl, and he sank down lower in his chair. Mrs. Matthews was trying to remain impassive and serious, but the slight creases of her laugh lines gave her amusement away.
“Let’s try this again,” Mrs. Matthews stated, giving Chad a stern look. “What do you associate with a baby…” her voice trailed off as she searched the class, and suddenly her eyes landed on me. “Reed?” Mrs. Matthew asked, “How about you?”
“Pooping and crying,” I blurted, accidently voicing the first thing that came to mind.
Mrs. Matthews rolled her eyes and nodded at Maya. “Maya, please, dear God, save me on this one.”
“Responsibility,” Maya answered confidently, and Mrs. Matthews nodded and threw her hands up in the air.
“Thank you!” she cried in relief, and as she started to hurriedly scribble something across the dry-erase board at the front of the room, I turned to look at Maya.
Teacher’s pet! I mouthed, sticking my tongue out.
Maya just rolled her eyes and kicked the bottom of my chair. It pitched backwards, and I saw my life flash before my eyes, which was actually pretty depressing. However, instead of cracking my head against the floor, I grabbed the side of my desk and stopped the chair’s backward motion.
“You almost killed me!” I hissed, jutting my finger out at Maya accusingly.
“You do realize you only fell back, like, an inch, right?” Maya replied, raising an eyebrow.
I opened my mouth to respond, which probably would have been something along the lines of “shut up,” but Mrs. Matthews clapped her hands to regain the class’s attention.
“Alright, kids,” Mrs. Matthews said with a sly smile, “It is time for the stereotypical baby project!” She pulled a tote bag out from under her desk and placed it on the table next to the desk. Then, Mrs. Matthews pulled two egg cartons out of the bag.
“These,” Mrs. Matthews said, holding up an egg in each hand, “Are going to be your babies for the next ten weeks.”
Mrs. Matthews then put the eggs back down and quickly passed out a packet of papers that outlined the project. As I flipped through them, I noticed that this was a partner project. I glanced over at Maya, and when our eyes connected, I knew we were thinking the same thing.
“Wanna be my lesbian baby mama?” I whispered with a grin.
“You know it, Lover,” Maya replied, and she winked at me.
We giggled and looked up to the front of the room where Mrs. Matthews was waiting for the class to quiet down. “I’m sure you all know that this project requires partners,” she stated, and chatter rippled through the room for a couple seconds.
“Well,” Mrs. Matthews drawled, and she picked up a piece of yellow paper from a drawer in her desk. “I’ve already assigned partners.” A moan ran through the class, and I grumbled under my breath about that not being fair.
Mrs. Matthews, ignoring the complaints and protests protesting of her class, started to read off the pairs of people. As my possible partners were narrowed down, I realized that Maya’s name hadn’t been called either. Maybe, Maya and I would actually end up together.
“Maya and Arnold are partners.”
So much for that hope.
After a few more pairings, I realized that Mrs. Matthews hadn’t said my name yet, and there weren’t any more people in the class that I could be partnered with. I raised my hand slowly and asked, “What about me?”
“Ah, Reed,” Mrs. Matthews said, sighing and putting down the list, “Your partner is Parker Hunt.”
“Parker Hunt?” I echoed, confused for a moment. Then, I remembered that Parker was indeed in my health class. He just never showed up to remind people he was a member of the class.
“Yep,” Mrs. Matthews confirmed, nodding her head once.
Oh, no, no, no. No part of me wanted to be partnered with Parker for ten weeks on a project that he didn’t care about. That boy was arrogant and irritating, and I didn’t want to spend the many hours with him that I would need to in order to get a good grade.
“Can I just be, like, a single mother or something?” I asked, leaning my chin on my hands, “Parker’s not here, so I—”
My words were cut off as the door to the classroom was yanked open, and in walked Parker. Speak of the devil, and he will appear. I sat back in my seat and crossed my arms tightly over my chest, which probably made me look like a petulant child. Did I care? No.
“Thanks for showing up, Mr. Hunt,” Mrs. Matthews said, and she handed him the packet she’d previously passed out.
“We’re taking care of an egg?” Parker questioned, raising his eyebrows and giving Mrs. Matthews a look like she was crazy.
“Yes,” Mrs. Matthews confirmed, and she pointed to me. “Reed, here is your partner.” I bit the insides of my cheeks and scowled as Parker’s gaze swung around to me. He smiled crookedly, and I just rolled my eyes.
“Everyone please go sit with your partners now,” Mrs. Matthews commanded, and chair legs scraped across the linoleum floor as people got up and started to move around. Maya looked at me with a mixture of envy and sympathy, and she walked to the other side of the room where her partner was waiting.
Parker plopped down in the seat next to me, and he kicked his feet up on the desk. I was making no move to acknowledge him when I felt a finger being poked repeatedly into my upper arm. Finally, before I imploded, I turned my head slightly to meet Parker’s dark eyes.
“Hey there, Reed,” he said, pushing his unruly, chocolate brown hair out of his face, “My name’s Parker.” I gave him a tight-lipped smile, and before things could get awkward because I didn’t respond, Mrs. Matthews called for our attention once again.
“Before I hand out your eggs,” she said, “I want you all to get to know your partner. The last couple pages of our packet are questions that you need to ask each other for homework for the next class. I’m going to stop now and give you the last five minutes of class to get started, and I’ll expect these completed by Thursday.”
I flipped to the questions on the second to last page, and I bit my lip as I started to read them. The questions were generic, “like what’s your favorite color?” and “what’s the quality you like best about yourself?”
“So,” I said stiffly, and I glanced over at Parker, “We should probably figure out a time when we can figure out these questions.”
“I don’t know,” Parker sighed, folding his hands behind his head and leaning back, “I might be able to squeeze you in tonight.”
I didn’t even know how to respond to that.
How dare Parker act like I had nothing better to do than sit around and wait for him to call! Frankly, I actually had a life outside of school; I wasn’t a shut-in.
“Actually, I have dance practice tonight,” I stated stiffly, “so I won’t be able to squeeze you in, Parker.”
“Oh, so you’re a dancer?” Parker asked, and he got this sly look on his face. I watched in confusion and curiosity as he opened his packet and scribbled the word “flexible” under question fifteen. I flipped to the same question in my packet, and my eyes narrowed.
“You think my best attribute is flexibility?” I hissed through clenched teeth, and Parker shrugged.
“Flexibility makes hooking up more exciting,” he said casually, like it was no big deal he assumed he’d be having sex with me.
“Go fuck yourself!” I snapped, and the bell rang just in time for me to storm out of the room.
*
Two cucumbers, a box of condoms, and a can of whipped cream.
As I stood in the checkout line, my eyes gliding lazily over the headlines of the trashy magazines in the black metal racks, I couldn’t help but get bored and glance at the items of the man in front of me.
After seeing the weird, slightly kinky combination, I eyed the man buying the items. He was balding and flushed, and he looked to be in his late fifties. The man was bouncing from one foot to the other, and when he looked back at me over his shoulder, the man looked erratic.
Whatever floats your boat, dude, I thought as took a step back.
“Reed?”
I turned around at the sound of Thomas’s voice, and I found the kid standing at the mouth of the checkout aisle, holding up a candy bar in one hand and a small LEGO package in the other. He had this innocent smile on his face, but both Thomas and I knew that was just a form of manipulation.
“I thought you were going to the bathroom,” I said, folding my arms over my chest and raising an eyebrow. “What are those?”
“Well,” Thomas drawled, squeezing his way past a woman gabbing on her cell phone, “I could explain it to you, or we could just skip past all of that to the part where you buy them for me.”
“Oh, we can?” I replied, snorting. Thomas nodded vigoursly, and that little boy smile was still plastered on his face. I tried to form the words to say no to the toys and the candy, since I’d just bought him Twizzlers the day before.
That damn smile.
“Fine!” I cried, and I gestured towards the rubber conveyor belt, “Go ahead and put it on.”
“Awesome!” Thomas said, pumping his fist in the air, and he placed the LEGO package and chocolate on the checkout. “Thanks, Reed.”
“No problem, Squirt,” I replied, ruffling his hair.
As I leaned against the cart and waited for my turn to pay for my groceries, I winced at how sore my muscles were. Dance rehearsal tonight had been absolutely killer, and my teacher was a perfectionist. So, I’d done the same combination eighteen times in a row before she decided it was fine enough to end rehearsal.
My body was screaming out for Advil, and I considered breaking open the industrial-sized bottle of the pain medication I was about to purchase. However, I couldn’t bring myself to raise my tired arms enough to grab the blue box.
Just as the cashier started to scan my items, Thomas tugged on the hood of my sweatshirt and asked if he could go to the bathroom. Again, I nodded, and Thomas squeezed past me and headed towards the boys’ bathroom.
After paying for the groceries and reloading them into my cart, I strolled down to wait in front of the boys’ bathroom for Thomas. I was tapping my fingers against the metal cart edges impatiently when I was tapped on the shoulder from behind.
I jumped and whipped around to find none other than Parker Hunt standing behind me, wearing his trademark leather jacket. “Well,” he said, the corner of his mouth pulling up to form a crooked smile, “Fancy meeting you here, Baby Mama.”
“What do you want?” I asked tiredly, I was too exhausted and sore to deal with Parker right now.
“An ‘A’ in health,” Parker stated simply, and I raised an eyebrow.
“Why would someone like you care about your grades?” I replied, crossing my arms over my chest.
“I need an ‘A’ to graduate,” Parker replied, looking at me like I’d missed the obvious. “That means we need to get those questions done for Thursday.”
“When?” I asked, and Parker pulled out a pen from his back pocket.
“Can I see your hand?” he asked, and I hesitated before extending it. Parker scribbled something on my palm, and when I pulled it back, I found a phone number. “Call me when you feel like answering some questions,” Parker said, and he winked.
I started to reply, but I sensed someone come up next to me, and I found Thomas standing there, staring at Parker. “Hey, Squirt,” I said, wrapping my arms protectively around his shoulders. Thomas didn’t respond, but rather kept his wide eyes glued to Parker.
“Nice t-shirt,” Parker said after a moment, pointing to Thomas’s Darth Vader shirt.
“Thanks,” Thomas mumbled shyly. Around people he knew, Thomas was outgoing and confident, but once a stranger was introduced, he became incredibly shy. It was actually pretty cute.
“I’ll see you around, Reed,” Parker said, and he put his pinky and thumb up to the side of his face and mouthed call me! Then, without another word, Parker smiled at me and Thomas and walked past us out of the store.
“Who was that?” Thomas asked, returning to his usual self.
“Parker,” I replied, still looking at where he’d just been standing.
“Oh,” Thomas said, and then he turned to the cart and started fishing around in the bags. “Where’s my chocolate?”
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First things first; Thank you guys so much for getting this story past 300 reads!!! That is so amazing because it happened so fast! You guys are amazing, and I hope you stick with this story cuz things are gonna get awesome ;)
Also, tomorrow, I'm getting foot surgery, so it will be a couple days before I can navigate through the misty fog of vicodin to get the next chapter written. I hope it'll it be by the weekend, but there are no guarantees. If you find a chapter posted about moonbeams and rainbows, disregard it cuz I'm on drugs.
This chapter is dedicated to JessGirl93 because I love her stories!!
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