Parents in Training

CHAPTER FIVE: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

I was in the midst of trying to calm the baby down when I started crying myself. The baby was in my arms, being cradled as it cried bloody murder in my right ear. She was screaming, shouting incomprehensible words with her tiny hand in her mouth, tears trickling from her glossy blue eyes. Leon was running around the room trying to find the dummy which was either in the carrier or somewhere else in the room.

"Hurry up, I can't take it!" I cried out, tears blurring out my vision. I was crying along because I thought this was how my life was going to pan out -- a random baby replacing the doll for me to become an instant teen mother.

"Hey, just give her to me, okay?" Leon somehow managed to gain his sanity back, well, most of it. He had taken off his flannel shirt, leaving himself in a white shirt. I was too busy crying to even respond so he pulled her out of my arms where I began to crumble to the floor, hugging my knees to my chest and cried even harder.

I tried to go through my usual breathing exercise: inhale the positive, exhale the negative, inhale the positive, exhale the negative-

"Oh my God, she wasn't joking!" Kate interrupted the train of thought as she slammed the door closed behind her with Gabe jaw-dropped and finally, falling to hit the floor with a loud thump. She had her eyes wide and scanned my now-messy room, letting the wrapped up breakfast bacon sandwich fall from her grip. It wasn't messy in the beginning, I always kept my room organised but when the baby cried and we had no idea where dummy was, it looked like a hurricane had gone through my bedroom.

It took her a while to process everything (as she should) and looked at the state of where I was in, on the floor crying, and then at Leon, who was trying to calm the much-alive child, and to Gabe, who was passed out on the floor. She made her decision quick enough which was to revive Gabe back to consciousness.

Half an hour of crying (the baby stopped crying eventually, thank God) and a few more breathing exercises, Kate and I moved Gabe onto the bed where he was still passed out.

Who knew moving a short, gay boy was this exhausting?

Kate turned around and sat herself down on the bed, sighing. She looked at me, then at Leon and then at the baby where she let out another sigh.

"I don't even know what to say."

I shook my head, "You don't have to."

She moved her head to look at Leon, "It's a surprise to see you here."

He tilted his head slightly, still holding the baby, "Everything's a surprise."

"I had this weird dream where we went to Bella's place and then Leon freaking Morris was standing there with Bella crying on the floor," Gabe mumbled as he propped himself with his elbows, slowly opening his eyes. He blinked a couple of times, looking around his surroundings. When his eyes finally fell on Leon, holding an actual baby, his eyes enlarged, pulling himself up and crawling to the corner of the bed where he leaned against the headboard, knees to his chest. He looked over at me, looking like a paranoid little girl and pointed at him, "Why is that standing in this premise?"

"Are you kidding me? I'm the least of the problem!" Leon rolled his eyes as the baby sucked on her thumb, looking at all of us with her eyes still glossy and her cheeks tear-stained.

Gabe swallowed as his gaze wavered towards me, "What's going to happen now?"

"We were hoping you would know." Leon quietly said.

----

"Now that we have, kind of, gained some sort of sanity left," Gabe cleared his throat as he stood in front of us who were sitting on my bed. Will had came in before and he was sitting next to Kate, on the end of the line. Gabe heaved out a sigh, "As tragic as this situation is, we need to figure out some sort of answer to move forward before this clearly gets out of hand."

"Yes." Leon nodded his head as he bounced the baby up and down on his knee just to keep the smile on her face and not cry bloody murder like half an hour ago, "And we certainly have established that for the billionth time."

"Do you have anything else to say, pretty boy? Before I shove that pretty face out of the window?" Gabe narrowed his eyes and folded his arms across his chest, "Anyway, I was about to suggest a solution after very kindly doing an overview of the situation and highlight on the main thing at hand but then I got rudely mocked by Morris -- don't you have to be rude somewhere else?"

"Not until six." Leon forged a grin at his way to which Gabe rolled his eyes.

I waved my hand dismissively at Leon's way, "Ignore him. What's your solution?"

"Alright so, I was thinking we should come back and refer to the root of the problem: where it all started."

I froze.

Shit.

"Hey, you alright?" Kate elbowed me.

"Miss Philips." I found myself blurting out. All of them looked at me, eyebrows furrowed and eyes glaring at me.

"What does she have to do with this?" Will spoke up.

"She was at the restaurant yesterday and she saw you walking out!" I pointed at Leon who looked at me wide-eyed as I get up, facing everyone, "She knew you weren't doing anything to help out and-"

He gasped over dramatically and sat the baby on his lap before covering her ears with his large hands, "You f*****g told her, didn't you?"

"What happened to," I put on my best man voice, "I'm a man of my words, still no f***s were given! I don't care!"

"I don't sound the slightest bit like that!"

"I was pissed off! And she just happened to be there when you walked away from me when I was calming the baby! When it was just a harmless doll, of course!" I yelled back at him.

"And now what? She freaking turned the doll into a real baby to get me to help?" He was fuming, red in the face as he rose up from my bed, holding the baby to his side as she sat on his hip. He returned back to himself now. The confused glaze in his eyes were dissolving and I could see how he gained back his usual confidence, "This isn't funny, Bella. This is like freaking sorcery and quite frankly, I have no idea what to do now and it's all thanks to you!"

I dropped my jaw, "Me? You think this is my fault?"

"Yeah for opening your big mouth and going off about me to Miss Philips!"

I laughed out loud, not in the funny kind or the kind where I was actually genuinely laughing. I was laughing out of bitterness, like a very, blatant, insincere laugh.

"Well, I'm sorry for dragging you along into this situation! To be honest, I didn't really expect you to be here! In fact, I didn't even ask for your help!"

His eyebrows furrowed as he let out another gasp, "Well then, I guess I'm sorry for feeling like I should help out because a freaking doll apparently became alive!"

"Okay, mum and dad! Enough arguing!" Will stepped between us, putting his hand on our shoulders and pushing us further apart. He sighed, "I think it's best if you two don't scream at each other but maybe question who might be the root of all of this."

Leon and I heaved out a frustrated sigh at the same time and moved our eyes over to look at Will, who was looking at us with a sliver of hope in his eyes.

"He's referring to Miss Philips, you asshats. Jesus Christ, help these two." Kate rolled her eyes, "On second thought, you two might not be that bad together."

"Shut up." The both of us chorused before shooting each other daggers.

We were both staring at each other, nothing but daggers and looks that could spoil milk. I had my arms crossed over my chest, my eyes darting at his hazel ones. I could see his jaw tightening, his eyes turning dark and all I wanted to do was punch him in the face.

"Alright then, I guess we'll leave these two to argue." Gabe sighed and headed out of the room with Kate making a remark under her breath with Will following suit.

After they left us alone, he took a step back and his facial expressions softened. "But I do need something."

"What?" My tone was dripping with bitterness as I looked at him.

"I have to meet the guys at the pier."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Hear me out, please," He paused and gave me a wide smile, "If I don't go, they're going to question it."

"And what? They're not going to question how a doll came alive?!" My voice got louder and he winced as he clamped his free hand over my mouth. I huffed as he still kept it there.

"It isn't fair that you've got your support system! Your two friends wouldn't even look at me and your brother hates me."

I whacked his hand off my face and furrowed my eyebrows, "How are you so sure Will hates you?"

He looked at me as if I should know all along. "Just because we don't scream at each other like you girls doesn't mean everything between us are cool."

"Now, you're the one being dramatic because Will doesn't hold grudges."

"Um, yes, he does," Leon scowled, "He was captain of the football team, goddammit."

I rolled my eyes, "Are you serious? So, now there's some weird bad blood going on between you two?"

He sighed, "The thing is, I need my side of the support system too. You, your friends and your brother aren't exactly the ideal type of support I could get."

Huffing out a dejected sigh, I finally gave in. "Fine."

----

"I hate Ocean Gates. The games are total rip-offs and the food are as greasy as Principal O'Reily's ass." Gabe muttered as we stood in the parking lot near the pier that held the huge weekend fair. It had little game shacks set up, small food stalls and the big Ferris wheel set up right in the middle of it all.

The baby was sitting in the carrier strapped to the backseat. Leon was in the middle of trying to latch the child free when a horrible stench hit our nose. We all leaned away from the car and looked around to find out where it was coming from. Kate started to sniff and slowly moved back towards Leon's car, where the baby was sitting.

"It shat itself." Kate turned around and gave us a sadistic smile, "It would be a great idea if the parents could take care of it."

Leon looked at me. I rolled my eyes pushed Kate to the side. I unlatched the baby from the carrier and when I was about to lay the child down on the very expensive leather seat, Leon grabbed my elbow and gave me a look.

"What?"

"It's leather!"

"Oh, it's just baby poop not red wine!"

Okay, I have to admit, it didn't sound any better.

"Can we just go find a baby changing room or something?" Leon suggested and he sounded desperate, begging even.

"Her diaper looks pretty heavy right now. It might even drip through, that is if she's not having diarrhea." Kate chuckled and I shot her a look. She raised her hands up in defense.

Gabe leaned against the trunk of the car with his fingers pinching his nose to block out the nasty smell. When he spoke, he sounded nasal, "You know, it's now or never."

"Clearly, you don't know how much this car costs me. So I'm going to change her diaper just to make sure my car ends up looking as the way it is." Leon gave a sardonic grin and took the baby out of my arms. He bumped me to the side as he leaned halfway into the car, taking the plush cushion out of the carrier and putting it flat down on the seat before laying the baby there. He let out a sigh and then looked at me, "What now?"

"Rip the adhesive apart, take down the front flap, hold her legs up so you can carefully take the diaper away and dispose of it-"

He held his finger up, "I'm lost."

I cursed under my breath with my fingers messaging my temple before making theatrical movements with my hands, "Then let me do it!"

"No, you're going to get baby s**t all over the seat!"

"I'll be careful!"

"Oh for the love of God, move! I don't think I want to hear you to bicker for another damn second." Kate grumbled and pushed us aside. Thus creating this rogue Kate Oxford to handle a baby with a loaded diaper.

I looked around us to see the car park wasn't really full. It was still morning when we got there and the fair only just opened when we got there and most of the cafes on the pier were opening up for breakfast hour. At the front of the car park, near the shore, I could see three familiar boys coming out of a car.

I tapped onto Leon's shoulder and when he didn't response in the first ten rapid taps, I grabbed his arm with both hands and shook for him to pay attention.

"What is it?! Jesus, you're going to rip my arm off!" He yelled so I slapped my hand onto his mouth.

"They're here."

He narrowed his eyes at me and tore my hand off his mouth, "Why are you so scared?"

I shrugged and started to go through my breathing exercises again. Tugging onto the sleeves of my sweater, I swallowed the lump in my throat, "What if- what if they-"

"Freak out? Think I'm crazy?" He suggested and I nodded my head anyway. Leon sighed and awkwardly placed his hands on my shoulder in some sort of gesture to reassure me, "What else can they do?"

"Okay, now take this away from us as far away as possible." Kate's hand cut in between us, holding a rolled up used diaper.

Leon's face scrunched up in disgust as he took it cautiously and walked on towards the nearest bin and dumped in. Kate held the baby out for me to take. Hesitantly, I sat the baby on my hip, holding her. The baby was heavy, like holding two Golden Retriever puppies. Maybe.

"Leon! There you are!" I heard Harris yell out from the other side of the car park. Leon, who was standing by the bin, spun around and smiled nervously at them before shooing the three of us away.

Gabe hurriedly kicked the door closed and I could see Leon's eye twitching at how Gabe man-handled his precious car. We scurried off towards the outside of the car park, away from their line of sight and onto the bridge that reached the pier.

In ten minutes, Gabe, who in the beginning confessed his hatred for Ocean Gates and its greasy food and useless game shacks, already bought a giant pretzel and some sort of breakfast burrito from a Mexican stall. We walked along the stalls and the game shacks that were preparing to rip people off and I could feel the looks I was getting from the stall owners. They were judging me, as if I made a poor choice in life.

I respect teen mums and that's because the good ones always sacrifice for their child. Whether that's ruining their day out with diapers and snotty tears or cancelling plans for prom because nobody else could babysit their child. They're like the unsung heroes.

The baby made a sound that made my stomach fall. I guess Kate and Gabe heard it too since they looked at me, wide-eyed and we stopped ourselves from walking.

I turned my head and saw there was a huge creamy patch on the shoulder of my jacket.

"For the love of God." I whispered as Kate gave me a sympathetic smile, taking the child out of my arms.

"Go get cleaned up, then." She sighed and looked around for something to dab the creamy goo off the baby's chin.

Cursing, muttering and grumbling under my breath, I went off to find the toilet. The toilet here isn't the best. It's the worst of all, actually due to the vomit from riding all the roller coasters or having far too much greasy food. The ladies' room was dirty, tissues smeared with makeup thrown all over the pink linoleum floor and the mirrors were stained with God knows what and most of the stalls were written all over with quotes or just blatantly stupid things.

I slipped my jacket off and held the vomit stained bit under running water to get it off.

A lady came in with a oil stained apron. She walked up to the sink next to me, held her hands under the tap and then fixed her hair net. I heard her chuckle when she saw me watching the stain off my jacket.

"You alright there, love?"

I hummed, "I've seen better days."

"I remember those days of babies throwing up on ya. Children can be a nuisance," She laughed, shaking her head, "But a blessing at the same time. You look like a young mum -- how old is your baby?"

I stood there stunned, the sound of the running water filling up the silence between us. I fixed my expression to a calm one, or at least I thought I was looking calm.

"Um," I laughed nervously, "About ten months?"

"And you look fantastic -- I'm telling you, when my little boy was at ten months, I looked like a bloating whale!" She laughed boisterously until a serious look washed over her face, "And I'm still a bloating whale. Oh dear, well, I need to get off to work. Those onion rings won't fry themselves!"

I gave her a nervous smile and watched her from the mirror. The lady walked out and when the door finally closed, I let out a strangled sigh.

This was my life now. Washing vomit off my clothes and talking about how problematic children are. This soon, as well!

I shut the water and held the jacket in my hands. I could feel the thoughts were about to fill up my head and before I could go through another episode of freaking out, I hurried out of the door and into the open air where my lungs expanded and I was able to breathe freely. I could hear laughter coming from just a few metres away from me. I looked in the direction and saw Leon looking pale as ever, an awkward smile on his face with his shoulders slumped as his three friends were having a normal Saturday morning, standing by the juice bar shack.

I ran off to the other side where Gabe was sitting on the bench, stuffing his face with the pretzel since the breakfast burrito was out of sight. I sat down next to him and placed my head on his shoulder.

Then, I realised something was missing.

I shot my head back up, "Where's the baby?"

"Calm down, mama bear." He mumbled with a mouthful of pretzel, "Your apparent descendant is with her godmother. She went off somewhere because her dickhead off an ex-boyfriend is in open sight and you know how she is about him."

I sighed out in relief.

He nudged me in the ribs, "You need to relax. I know this is all too much to handle but you need to get your mind off of it. Even for a second. Last week, during psychology, we talked about stress and how it affects our mental health. Anyway, go get your mind off of it. Maybe go try getting that impossible purple polar bear that's been sitting on the shelf for three straight years."

Nodding my head, I looked at him, "Come with me?"

"Alright," Gabe sighed and shoved the last bit of pretzel into his mouth. He stood up and offered his arm for me to link with, "Come with Mama Gabba."

I let out a light laugh and linked my arms with his as he steered us down towards the game shack that had the giant purple polar bear. It was the jumbo gift. All you had to do was shoot the water in the clown's mouth until the balloon pops and to win the purple polar bear, you'd have to shoot into three clown's mouth until all three balloons to pop. Of course, with almost a majority of the the games here are rip-offs, the water would run out just before the last balloon could pop.

So, the purple polar bear just sat on the top shelf, laughing at every victim who tried to win it. The guy made crazy money out of it though because despite losing, he somehow had the heart to give you tiny keychains as consolation prizes.

"Up for the challenge this morning are we, kids?" The man gave us an evil smile, leaning against the post that held the shack. He was bald, skinny and all tatted up.

"Yes we are and we're probably going to regret it." Gabe answered and smacked a pound onto the wooden surface for him.

I grabbed the water gun and positioned myself aligned to the clown's wide mouth with a deflated pink balloon flopped over it's head. I held the trigger and just before I could press on it, Kate popped up by my side.

"Are you really going to waste a pound on that bloody, shitty and impossible game?" Kate muttered as I looked at her, babyless and chewing gum.

I widened my eyes, "Where's the baby?"

Her blue eyes widened just as big as mine as she pointed over at Gabe who now began to look the same with his eyes widening and his mouth gaping.

"You had it!" They both said at the same time, pointing at each other.

I dropped the gun to the wooden floor and I ignored the guy yelling at me, "How do you lose a baby?"

"I swear to God, I gave it to Gabe when I went off!"

"You didn't leave it with me!"

"What are you going on about? Were you that busy with the damn pretzel?"

Gabe's mouth slowly closed as his face starting to turn red. He scratched the back of his neck with a nervous laugh, "I was possibly quite immersed in that pretzel."

"Gabe!" I yelled at him.

"Look," He tried to reason, "Ocean Gates isn't a big place. We can still find her and maybe Leon has her."

"He's still trying to tell his friends!" I slip that information in quickly.

"Yeah, I'm still trying to tell my friends. They're getting some gelato right now." I turned and saw Leon approaching us by himself. He joined us, crossing his arms, "Why are we yelling here?"

I squeezed the bridge of my nose to ease the pain in my head, "We lost the baby."

"YOU LOST THE BABY?" Leon's eyes looked like they were about to pop out of his head. He paced around, heavy breaths and his chest heaving. He stopped in his tracks and faced us, "You know what? This could be a good thing, yeah? The baby isn't our problem anymore!"

We all gasped at him, dropping our jaw. I walked towards him and reached my arm up since he was too tall for me to even reach and flicked him in the forehead.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"That's for suggesting child abandonment! We could get arrested!"

"Or because it's simply wrong and inhumane to leave a baby around!" Kate piped in, quite nonchalantly. She shrugged, "But you know, whatever your morals are and whatnot."

Leon huffed out a sigh, "What now?"

"We find the baby." I said.

----

We split up into two groups. Kate grabbed onto Gabe in a heartbeat, leaving me to pair up with Leon. I guess it made sense since we were supposed to be partners for a doll that was now alive and breathing.

Kate and Gabe went to search towards the entrance of Ocean Gates while we search towards the other end of it. This place wasn't filled like it would in the evening so I hoped it wouldn't be too hard to find the baby.

I walked along Leon, who looked nervous and restless.

"So, you haven't told them?" I asked as we looked around the area but no baby was in sight.

He shook his head, "No. It's so hard to bring up. Like a doll turning real overnight? I don't think so."

"Are you going to tell Brittany?"

He laughed as if I meant it as a joke. Leon looked at me and his grin fell, finally knowing I didn't mean it as a joke. He flushed, the natural colour in his face drowned to a pale shade.

"No. I'm not going to, anyway." He shrugged.

"But she's, like, your girlfriend."

Leon snorted, "She's only my girlfriend in front of everybody else. She thinks she can do the hell she wants with me."

I grabbed his arm so I could stop us from walking. We faced each other. I raised an eyebrow, "So, she's just using you?"

He rolled his eyes and walked on, "Just to make people feel like she's got her life together. Popular, a model and she's got star of the football team as a boyfriend -- what more could a girl like her want, right?"

I decided not to push the question any further as we went around, asking a few stall holders if they seen a baby around. At first, it was weird to come up and ask about a possible missing child as a seventeen year old girl with a seventeen year old boy. They looked skeptic but told us their answer anyway. Which was a 'no' the whole time.

With my unathletic capabilities and short legs, walking started to feel exhausting so I sat myself down on one of the benches. Leon saw me and followed suit, sitting himself next to me. I felt my hands clenching onto the surface of the bench and I could feel tears in my eyes but I wasn't going to cry in public. Not even in front of Leon. I watched the floor before squeezing my eyes shut, taking in quiet long breaths.

"Hey, don't freak out, okay? We're going to find her." I heard Leon say and all of a sudden, I felt his hand on my back. His touch made me jump a little until I started to feel slightly calm.

I looked up to look ahead of me, towards the tall Ferris wheel. My blurry visions cleared up and focused onto the three boys standing in the middle of the walkway. They were standing far away, near the Ferris wheel. Harris and Valentino huddled around Jonah, who had the baby.

Letting out a loud gasp, I went to grab Leon's arm to get his attention but I turned too quick and too fast that I ended up smacking my hand right into his stomach.

"What the hell was that for?" He held onto the are where I had hit him. Looking at me with furrowed eyebrows, he shook his head at me disapprovingly.

With my eyes still trained on the confused trio, my shaky finger went up to point at the direction. Leon looked over and he was now mimicking the look I had on my face.

"Well, shit." He breathed out.

"I think this would be a good time to tell them?"

"Yeah, probably."

"Oh s**t, smile, they're coming this way."

My heart was hammering in my chest as the trio headed towards us in long, quick strides. I had so many thoughts flooding into my head. I knew they were going to question about whose child they were holding and why Leon Morris was sharing a bench with Bella Morrey. Once they were standing in front of us, with Leon giving them an awkward smile and me who tried to act normal like it was my usual Saturday morning to sit on a bench at Ocean Gates.

"First of all," Harris held his finger up and pointed at us two, "I didn't know you guys were friends."

"Oh," I laughed nervously as I tried to avoid the glares from the baby and it's arms that was reaching out towards me, "We actually got paired up for an assignment."

"What type of assignment?" Valentino raised a brow.

I opened my mouth to reply but Leon cut me off.

"A baby project thing." He cleared his throat and the calmness in his face started to fade as he scratched the back of his head.

"I'm not going to question why I don't see any plastic baby around but I will question about whose child this is?" Jonah asked who had the baby, that we lost like half an hour ago, sitting on one side of his hip. He smiled at the baby, "She's cute, actually."

The baby laughed at him as he pinched her rosy and chubby cheeks.

Leon stood up and let out a strangled breath, "Um, yeah about that..."

"Your parents must be really worried, little cutie!" Jonah gushed.

"Jonah."

"You're cheeky one, aren't ya?"

"Guys, I have something to tell you and since we've been friends for a long time, I'm expecting you guys to help me through this, okay?" Leon looked at three of them.

"Can it wait? This kid's parents might be freaking out right now. I think it's a good idea to find her parents first." Valentino asked and looked at the baby, who was laughing at the faces Jonah was making at her.

"Yeah, before Jonah here gets a little too attached." Harris rolled his eyes.

"Oh, please can we keep her?" Jonah looked over at Harris, his brown eyes glazing, almost in mock. He looked at Leon with a serious look on his face, "But, no, seriously. I think we have a priority right now. Can whatever you have to tell us wait?"

"WE'RE THE PARENTS!" Leon lost his patience and yelled at his friends, taking attention from everyone around us. He inhaled deeply as Jonah stared at him wide-eyed, slowly handing him over the baby.

"I did not expect this -- did you, Henry?" A voice quietly said. It was one of the stall holders.

Valentino took a couple steps back, hands in his hair as he tried to register the information all at once. Harris looked around the pocket of his jeans only to take out an inhaler so he could breathe properly. He even had to pump it three times before putting his hands on his knees, bending over to find a position where he could breathe easily.

"Wait, you- you and B- Bella," Jonah stuttered, eyes still wide and his mouth agape, pointed at me as I slowly stood up, "You h- have a ch- child? But it's blonde. This doesn't make sense!"

Leon cleared his throat and I knew what he was about to say was something that wasn't going to make any sense anytime soon. But he said it anyway.

"It was a doll we were supposed to take care of but now it's an actual baby."

"Nossa Senhora de Fátima." Jonah mumbled under his breath before falling backwards, completely knocked out onto the floor as Harris and Valentino looked at us, bewildered and pale.

Despite the eyes looking at us, we moved Jonah's passed out body to lie on the bench. As we waited for him to wake up, I carried the baby while Leon tried to explain the situation to his friends. Over and over again, might I add. It was unbelievable and it didn't make any sense so I was being patient with them while Leon was gripping at his hair, messing it up and looking frustrated as possible.

His jaw was clenching, only to highlight how well done his jawline is and his eyes were firing up. Frustration was an understatement and him being able to come off ten times even more attractive, I had to look the other way to gain my composure.

"So, what's going to happen now?" Valentino asked, slightly confused.

Leon shrugged.

Harris, who was still bent over, still trying to catch his breath, he looked up at us, "I know you probably woke up with your plate full but one problem, mate."

"What?" Leon looked at him.

"Brittany's over there."

"Fuc- I mean, fudge." Leon breathed under his breath.