Parents in Training

CHAPTER ONE: HOW TO NOT WORK TOGETHER

"Okay, I think we had enough of this for today." Miss Philips said as she stood up from her table, shutting off the DVD player whilst everyone peeled their hands off their eyes. Miss Philips made us watch birth videos that lesson. Everyone seemed reluctant and it's quite understandable as to why every inexperienced teen who hadn't birthed any offspring so far to be reluctant to watch a lady scream in excruciating pain.

Miss Philips took out a box from under her desk and placed it onto the surface for everyone to look at. She started working at Middlesbrough School the year before. Ever since then, almost every guy in school decided she was the fittest teacher they've ever seen in their lives. She was young and she was gorgeous. I don't see why not.

"With that aside," She began and dipped her hand into the box before pulling out a plastic doll. Everyone exchanged the same confused glances. However, it's the most interesting thing we've seen so far that day. "I think I should tell all of you that we received many concerns from your parents about this whole baby situation. I get it, young people like you often to break free out of their cage and get drunk and ultimately, make the biggest mistake of their life."

Someone in the back coughed and made Miss Philips sigh. She looked slightly annoyed so she turned in her super high heels, taking the chalk off the side of the board and started to write on the board. In cursive letters, she wrote 'RESPONSIBILITY' with two lines underneath it for extra exaggeration.

"All of you lack responsibility." She looked around the class and sit the plastic baby on her table. "Principal O'Reily received many concerns from parents and if your parents can't turn you troublemaking lot into something good, we have to."

With this, she started to pace in front of the class, scanning all of us with her beady eyes that narrowed into slits. Once she saw me, I sunk in my seat. It was like she was giving my soul the daggers. There was something about Miss Philips that made me feel so uncomfortable. I don't know if it was the beady eyes of that creepy aura wafting off of her like she was always up to something. Maybe she was an undercover witch.

She stopped pacing by her desk and placed her hands on the surface, "So, this leads to the big assignment that all of you should be excited for."

Everyone in the room groaned in frustration, including myself. I had physics homework, my English coursework due the next day and alongside that, I hadn't touched my psychology assignment. So I prayed that whatever assignment Miss Philips was planning, it wouldn't take up my entire life.

"As you can already see," she let out a big sigh when she took out two other boxes and onto her table, "I have mechanical babies for all of you to work in pairs to take care of together. This will teach you partnership and what it takes to become responsible for another thing. You are the first ones in your year group to undergo this assignment. Your friends will do the same in a few months' time."

I threw my head back and mentally cried to myself. There's one thing I was sure of for this assignment. I absolutely had zero ideas on how babies work and I, particularly for one, hated those things. Sure, babies are cute but in one split second, they burst into tears. What do they cry about? Taxes?

"Alright, shall we start the pairing?" She sickly grinned at us with her perfect teeth showing. She tapped the clipboard with her pen before calling out our names, "We have Chandler Adams with Emma Kendall. There's Tommie Smith with Jamie Greene. Alberto with the one and only Gwen."

She went on and on, reading names off the list. I crossed my fingers (and toes) and prayed for a partner who would be a professional in this whole baby assignment thing. I was hoping for someone in the room to miraculously been a professional babysitter in their life and I was hoping that the person would be my partner.

"Bella Morrey!" She said a little too giddily so I looked up at her. She was grinning like a madwoman and a crossover of the Cheshire Cat. Putting down the clipboard, "With Leon Morris! And the pairing is done!"

Leon Morris. My eyes widened at this and my legs weren't functioning for me to get up and just like everybody else, go get a mechanical baby from the box. I mean, it wasn't like he could bury me alive or put a knife to my throat. He wasn't some evil dictator or whatever. It's just that I'm not exactly the go-to person to hang around with intimidatingly beautiful people. He was those type of people when every time you would see them walking around, you would have a song playing in your head as if they were walking in slow motion in a movie. Like that one time when Leon's shoulder brushed past mine at the canteen and the chorus of Living on a Prayer started playing I my head.

Yes, Leon Morris was extremely and indisputably beautiful. It was the soft brown hair that went up into an adorable mess. It was the pair of dimples in his cheeks every time he smiled at you. It was that defined jawline and those big brown eyes that glistened against the sun when he played football with his friends on the field. Even with the Godly looks, he managed to maintain numerous rumours about him. From the multiple classes skipped to the pretty Queen B girlfriend of his.

I finally found the courage to get up and before I could even walk around my table, the one and only Leon Morris cut in and walked ahead of me. Whatever happened to chivalry and 'ladies first'? Chivalry was truly dead in Middlesbrough. Taking my things off the table, I headed up towards Miss Philips' table to get one of those mechanical thingies but Leon beat me to it. There was a stack of little carriers in one box and two other boxes had plastic babies in them. He took one carrier and one of the mechanical contraption before heading out of class.

I reached my locker in time and slammed my head against the metal surface, letting out a sigh.

Oh God I'm paired with Leon Morris.

Closing my eyes, I went with my breathing techniques I usually do when I get nervous. My palms were already sweating and my heartbeat was running higher than usual. Taking in one last deep breath, my hands were finally not jittery enough to open up my locker. I shoved my homework into my bag and some books I didn't need back into the locker. When I closed the locker, Leon was standing behind it with his shoulder slumped against the locker and the plastic baby in the carrier by his side, making my breath hitch.

"Hi there, partner." He greeted with a wink and I tried not say something stupid so I bite down on my tongue. Leon held out the carrier in my face, shaking it seeing I didn't take it away from him. "Come on, take it."

I slowly take it away from him with an eyebrow raised.

"Belle Morrey, is it?" He crossed his muscular arms across his chest, the muscles bulging.

"It's Bella. Like Bell-ah." I demonstrated for him which he rolled his eyes to. I look from the smiling baby and back to him, "So, how are we going to do this?"

"I was thinking, Bell-ah," Leon grinned and his smile looked even more amazing up close. He held my shoulder and looked deeply into my eyes which made me shift on my foot, trying to minimise the awkwardness in my system. "I've heard that you never failed a single assignment while I, on the other hand, am highly debatable. So, I was thinking to put this on you since you're good at almost everything because let's be real, I'm going to screw up."

I scoffed and his eyes shot up as if he found out that I knew what he was up to. "Are you implying that you do nothing but do every girl in school while I'm going to be stuck with this mechanical baby for us to pass?"

"Exactly! I like you, you're smart!" Leon exclaimed and leaned in like we were about to share secrets as if we were already besties for life, "And not every girl in school because I haven't gotten to you yet. So what do you say?"

"No." I told him and he looked offended.

He laughed humourlessly before his facial expression shifted into a stone cold one. "Do you want to fail? Because if you give it to me, fine. I'll bury that thing so I wouldn't hear it monotonously crying for food and then dig it back out in time when we give it back to Miss Philips."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You wouldn't."

"It's not real anyway and yes I would and I know you wouldn't because you're scared of one single flaw in your student record. Am I right?" He asked and I was afraid of agreeing with him so I crossed my arms over my chest to show him that I didn't give a single rat's ass. Leon leaned in again and considering how short I am compared to him, he had to slightly duck his head to meet my eyes, "And if you do somehow give it to me, I'll burn it and we'll see how your perfect student report will look after that."

I could feel my blood boiling in my veins. I know that he was using his power against me because he knew he had power. Every girl in this school fantasized about him and him knowing better, he used it against them to get what he desired. But he wasn't going to do that to me. No matter how hard he flashed that perfect smile of his and how good he smelt that day.

But then, I was on a good streak. I was passing each class with flying colours and I wasn't going to let one single assignment making one single flaw.

"Should've known about your wonderful threats." I muttered under my breath as I adjusted the carried in my hand. Leon winked and pushed his shoulder off the locker before walking away.

Turning to face my locker, I hit my forehead against the surface again.

After the mini-discussion Leon and I had in the hallway, I missed the bus. I would call my brother or someone to pick me up from school but I was in a rush this morning because I woke up late and I had Model United Nations this morning at the lecture hall and that resulted in me forgetting about bringing that one essential thing for teenagers: my phone.

I was finally in the neighbourhood area. From school to this neighbourhood, it took me fifteen minutes on foot. It was scorching hot outside too so fifteen minutes felt like an hour in this heat. Summer was starting earlier than we thought in Gavenstone.

The sound of a motorbike's rumble made me jump. Looking over my shoulder, there was a sleek black motorbike roaring up the street. It swiftly parked at the grand house in front of me. The house looked lavish with the wide lawn with the sprinklers on, feeding the green grass. Roman columns at the front of the house made the house looked sturdy. Bushes of roses lined up at the front porch with butterflies drifting above it.

The motorbike became quiet and I watch the person swing their leg over the bike to get over it. My body stiffened when the biker turned their head towards me. With one gracious move of the hand taking the black helmet off, it was no other than Leon.

"Close your mouth, sweetheart. You might catch flies." He winked at me, taking a sip of the can drink in his hand as I rolled my eyes at him. Leon pouted, "Aw, come on. Don't bottle up your excitement when you see me. Just don't take a picture of the artwork, that's all."

"You're so full of yourself." I bitterly said to him but it only encouraged him more to be flirtatious, giving me kissy face.

"Bye, honey!" he yelled out once I started to walk away. But then I stopped myself and thought: wait, he lives in the same neighbourhood?

Once I reached my house, I saw that my dad's car was already parked out on the driveway meaning he was already home. Which was unusual.

I kicked the door open and my dad stood behind it, shocked with a phone between his ear and shoulder. He gaped his mouth at me and clasped his phone between his hands. He walked towards me and left a kiss on my forehead as a greeting.

"Honey, next time open the door like a normal person." He told me before walking up the staircase to, most likely, his reading room which was congested by old English literature and complicated papers and a bunch of other stuff Will and I hadn't gotten the chance to explore yet.

Walking towards the living, I saw Will and mum standing and talking to each other. She was rapidly telling him stuff in Italian. Will's Italian was horrible so mum thought it was best to try conversing to him in Italian until he could speak like one. Will's just a year older than me and he went to the same school. He skipped today because he got suspended for making a huge tipi out of toilet paper in the middle of the canteen with his hooligan friends.

"Ciao, Bella!" Mum walked over to me and grabbed my face and making me look like a puffer fish as she kissed both my cheeks. She was about to say something until her eyes landed on the plastic human in the carrier I was holding. Her smile fell and raised an eyebrow at it, "Um, what is that?"

"Your grandchild." I told her and she forced a smile at it.

"It's blonde." She flickered the hair of the doll with a disgusted look on her face. Looking at me, she said, "But adorable."

"Yeah, the father's not Italian, sorry." I told her and she laughed.

"Baby project, huh?" Will asked and I nodded. He held his finger up, "When it cries, don't throw it over the balcony. The teacher will know."

I remembered exactly the day when Will came home with a baby doll with huge green eyes and curly orange hair. Dad said Will's partner was a Scottish warrior with dominant genes. I also remembered when I was in the kitchen stuffing my face with cupcakes, I saw a doll falling from the sky.

"Yes and you failed because of that. God forbid you do the same thing to your own actual child." Mum shook her head disapprovingly. She looked at me hopefully, "But you'll do great! A woman knows how to take care of a baby and I'm not being domesticated at all. Anyway, go get ready the both of you. We're having dinner out at Le Jardin - we're meeting important people."

"With who?" I raised an eyebrow.

"What's his name again? Your father told me the name but I can't really remember. What is it again?" Mum was starting to think hard now, pressing her fingers to her temples. She snapped her fingers with a big smile, "Ah, right, Benjamin Morris! He's thinking of investing!"

Dad had this whole company fully focused on sports attire. It did well, selling over millions in just a few weeks and getting billions at that. All I know about Leon's dad was the head of a football agency. He had his own football team too. I guess it wasn't hard to figure out both of them would end up working together.

But seriously? Dinner with the Morris?

"Tesoro, you look like you're about to throw up. What is it?" Mum asked and I put on a fake smile.

"Oh nothing, it's just that I don't think I'll be able to go with you guys because of this." I lifted up the carrier. Really, I just didn't want to see Leon's face.

"Oh don't be ridiculous!" Mum shoved my shoulder playfully, "Will is going and I want my daughter to be there too. You can bring that silly little thing with you if that's going to get you to medical school."

Oh yeah, mum always wanted a doctor as a daughter.

She nudged me, "Just come with us. Besides, I don't have food for you to eat at home. You're already skin and bones so this is good for you. And I hear that they have a son. I have a feeling he's quite the looker, eh? Come on, Bella."

Will scoffed while I mentally gagged at the thought.