Parents in Training

CHAPTER THREE: HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER

On our way back home, we had to indulge in dad's lecture in the car. I was glad it wasn't directed towards me because I had nothing to do with mum being a control freak over Will's future. The whole ride consisted of dad reflecting on a chaotic night, yelling at his wife and his son about he was this close to losing a deal with Benjamin Morris and that we should be glad he still agreed to partner up with us.

Dinner was really awkward after Will and mum's argument. It didn't make it any better when Brittany decided to talk about her fabulous, glittery life like literally, no one asked. I don't even think she was invited. And yes great, she went to Milan last week to work with some fancy name designer and that she had a Burberry campaign with Kate Moss or whatever. Like, nobody cares.

"I walked my very first runway at the age of fourteen and it was for Calvin Klein in Milan." She batted her eyelashes as she held the wine glass filled with water that was sloshing around. Nobody really asked what she was up to but I guess Brittany had every second to make it her best and to remind people how amazing she was. "After that, I signed my first modelling contract for one of the world's top modelling agencies."

I scoffed at her as I bottle fed the doll.

Brittany's hearing just happened to be on point so she threw me a bunch of daggers, putting her glass of water down and leaned over to see me, "What have you been up to?"

I decided to take the challenge because while dad was discussing business with Benjamin, I had to make it my night too and show Brittany that not everything had to be about her. Shoving the doll into Will's arms, I took my glass of orange juice, mimicking the way she held it and making the liquid slosh around.

"Well, I'm getting well involved with Model United Nations, am currently finishing off my Gold Award for Duke of Edinburgh," I muttered, leaning over the table with the candles flicking between us as I stared at her, diagonally from where I was sitting, "Organised a charity event for a school in Cambodia last week and I'm currently taking the role of a single parent to a plastic doll – oh and I might've bumped into Victoria Beckham two weeks ago but I'm not really sure."

I saw her perfectly lined eyes turning into slits as she leaned back in her chair with Leon's arm draped over her bony shoulders. Grinning at her, I took a long sip of my orange juice, feeling the victory and my well-earned triumph.

"It's refreshing that a young beautiful woman is ambitious. It's hard to find a young lady with her own aspiration these days." Jenna smiled over at me, slowly looking over at her son.

But of course my victory over Brittany's arrogance didn't dilute the tension between Will and mum.

The second we got home with a loud slam of the door from Will and mum cursing in Italian, I went up to my bedroom, put the doll on my bed, went to the bathroom to take a quick shower and when I got ready for bed, I decided to call Kate and Gabe. After a horrible hectic day, I need people like myself to converse to. People who have the same views as me and just as bitter and cynical to the world as me – unlike the vast majority of people back in Middlesborough – are the ones I needed in my life.

"1-800-d**k-Sucker, what's the problem?" Gabe picked up first in the three-way conversation before I could hear Kate howling with laughter while I stayed deadpan.

"Oh yes Gabe, too many hotlines blinging you picked up the wrong call." Kate chuckled and so they both laughed while I sprawled on top of my bed, eyeing the baby in the carrier by my feet.

"Alright, Bella. What's up? How was dinner with the in-laws?" He teased and I rolled my eyes. I told them about the fact I was meeting up with the Morris with my family. In response, both of them laughed so hard their faces turned red.

"Did your mother handed you over to Leon?" Kate snickered and I dragged my hand down my face.

I whined, "Oh trust me, she handed one thing and it was horrendous. She completely went bonkers on William right in front of them! To make it even worse, it was at Le Jardin where every pretentious arseholes go to for dinner and there I was cradling a plastic toy! As if my entire family was already crazy enough!"

I eyed the doll with the same smiling expression on its face. I looked away and faced the wall so I wouldn't have to see it.

"Oh poor you with the baby project." Kate mumbled. She sounded sincere but I know she wasn't being sincere. If anything, she was relieved she wouldn't have to do it since she dropped biology in term one.

From there, the conversation went everywhere. I listened for half of the time because I was multi-tasking between the conversation and my laptop, checking for new TV shows I could watch. Gabe couldn't stop talking about how he was being forced to dance with his cousin at her Quinceañera the next week while Kate was complaining about how she got paired up with her ex-boyfriend in English, reciting from Twelfth Night.

Jonah wasn't a bad guy, he was just... slightly unbearable. But I guess Kate has some sort of right to insult him since the breakup between the two of them didn't end quite well.

"And I swear to God," Kate breathed out in a huff, "I want to punch that stupid face! He completely cut me off when I read my line!"

"But at the same time you want to sit on it too." Gabe said and I stifled a laughter because I knew if I giggled just slightly, Kate would come to my house and cut open my throat.

"Okay shut up, Gabe. I didn't ask for an opinion!" Kate spat harshly.

There was a long pause until Gabe spoke up again, "But don't lie. He's got a nice face. Also, it's not an opinion, it's a fact."

I snorted at this as Kate said, "Then you go suck that stupid d**k of his!"

"Hun," Gabe said, "I'm sure you didn't think it was stupid last year. Don't bring up the fact you butt dialled me and all I could hear was you moaning and Jonah poisoning my once innocent ears."

I laughed this time and my stomach hurt after all of it. Kate became speechless with a loud over-dramatic gasp ringing on the line. I wiped the tears in the corner of my eyes and took a deep breath. Gabe called me right after when Kate butt-dialled him at the most inappropriate time.

"Coco's pretty much all over it by now, though. Just a normal thing to do on a Friday night." I took in another breath because my oxygen intake wasn't enough after all that laughing. "Speaking of Coco, the mighty leader of Gucci-Prada was at dinner too."

"Ugghhhhhhh." Both of them groaned simultaneously.

"Poor Mable though. What's going on with her and Valentino, anyway? The girl asked me if she could suck my d**k today. I'm freaking gay. I technically already have a sign over my head and let's not forget the time when people were homophobic and drew a bunch of p*****s on my locker. Am I not being obvious enough?" Gabe snorted and I could imagine him rolling his eyes and fixing his hair in the mirror then putting his hand on his hips.

"But props to you for attracting a girl." I told him which he chuckled at.

"But Mable's like a senseless leach." Kate spoke up, "Like, she'll suck anyone's d**k. She would sick Principal O'Reily's d**k – that is, if he had one."

Middlesborough School was pitifully sorted out into a social system. The nerds were nerds, the outsiders were outsiders and the popular were the popular while Gabe, Kate and I were the unsorted ones. Or maybe outsiders, depends on how you look at it. Top of the food chain was of course Leon, the king, and Brittany, the queen. Along with them were Harris (smartass who play sports as well as he could do all the science), Valentino (the less of a douche than everyone else) and Jonah (the transfer kid whose dad left him at the age of ten). With Brittany, the Queen B(itch), there were Mable the One Who Would Ride Anything and Coco the One with the Undetermined Test Results – names by Kate Oxford herself.

They both started to roast the Gucci-Pradas and the Breathing-Walking Ken Doll Rejects (names by Gabe Frichelles himself) and I yawned as it was already 2AM.

"Guys, I think I'm gonna-," WHAM! "JESUS."

"Bella?! Are you alright?" Kate asked hastily.

I sat up on my bed, putting the laptop aside and peek over at the window behind my bed. A hooded face was right on it and I screamed, quickly closing my mouth in case I woke up my entire family. The person pulled back the hood to reveal their face. My facial expression hardened into an annoyed one.

What the hell is Leon doing here?

"Isabella Juliana Morrey, you better say something right now becaUSE I'M GETTING A HEART ATTACK!" Gabe yelled as I raised an eyebrow at Leon who was hanging onto the window sill with his head peeping over with a smug grin on his face.

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, something fell." I lied because how was I supposed to explain the actual situation when I had no idea myself? "I'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Goodnight!"

I hung up and leaned over the headboard of my bed. I slid open the window and furrowed my eyebrows at him as he hung onto the ledge with his smug grin turning into a sheepish one.

"What on earth are you doing?!" I whispered-shouted at him.

"Can I come in?"

No. "Why?! And what are you doing?!"

"I need to come in, please, Bella." He started to plead now and I could see that his hands were losing grip on my window sill. I'd let him hanging there for forcing me to do the project alone but then I didn't want my family to wake up to a dead body of a teenage boy they met the night before in the rose garden.

I purposely looked at him with a blank face as he probably deserved hanging there for dear life, running away from whatever.

"Bella! Please!" He yelled and hurled himself forward so now his elbows were on the ledge and his face was uncomfortably right up to mine. God, his eyes were stunning under the night sky and his hair was stuffed under the grey beanie.

I shrugged and sat myself aside on my bed to give him some room to get in. He hurled himself onto my bed with a bounce before sitting on the edge. Leon grabbed the top of his beanie and took it off, ruffling his now messy head of brown hair, he looked over at me.

"Thanks." He mumbled, like he was ashamed of saying it.

"No problem." I looked away from him because I didn't want his attractiveness to get to me. "Why are you here anyway? How in the bloody hell do you know where I live?"

"Your car kind of gave it away and I was in desperate need of a place to hide." He explained and I narrowed my eyes at him, crossing my arms on my chest.

If I was sure two things about Leon Morris, one is that he had a huge blinking sign over his head saying that he was a major dickhead and two, trouble didn't stay too far away from him. For Leon Morris being that desperate to find a place to hide out, he wasn't running away from his everyday amateur pranks. It wasn't like that one time he had the gym hall covered with toilet paper or that one time he ran round the field after scoring two goals in the row -- and I mean him running naked after claiming victory.

"What exactly did you do?"

He opened his mouth to say something but it was answered when a police car drove pass, the blue and red lights blinking across the road as the volume of the sirens started decreasing. All the possible horrible things a teenage boy could do that could get him into a lifetime of trouble instantly poured into my thoughts.

He might've murdered someone as a 'harmless' prank. Or he broke into a house and decided to take every single valuable possession in there. Leon might as well became a leader of an unstoppable cult. Whatever was happening, I knew it wasn't good.

"You need to get out of here! Right now!" I pointed back at the window.

Leon gave me a depressed look on his face, "Oh, come on! Just ten more minutes, please. They might go around the neighbourhood again." He pointed over at the doll and frowned at me, "We have a child together!"

"I don't care! I'm going to get in trouble!"

"What? You never had a boy in your room?" A stupid smirk graced his beautiful face.

"Leon, stop joking around!"

"I just need to be in hiding for a couple more minutes, please."

"What if the police come knocking on the door?!" I started to panic now because there's got to be some sort of crime for hiding a criminal in your room, right? Hiding him at my own home would instantly make me an accomplice. I was basically an accomplice! "People get in trouble for hiding fugitives! They're an accomplice!"

He sighed and dragged his hand down his face, "Who are you calling a fugitive? I didn't commit homicide or g******e or whatever if that's what you're wondering. You have to stop being so overly dramatic."

"Who knows what you're capable of?!"

"Oh I'm capable of a lot of things, baby." He took this chance to turn it into some sort of dirty joke and winked at me. He winked, causing a ridiculous amount of red creeping up to my cheeks.

I gasped at how he wasn't taking this situation seriously. I wasn't planning to put myself in jail for keeping some sort of teenage runaway in my room. Whatever he did to make those policemen drive around the neighbourhood, I wasn't taking any chances so I got on my knees and waddled across my bed to the window, opening it and gestured for him to go through it.

"The guys and I just did a couple of harmless pranks around the neighbourhood! Nothing big! The owner of the house like called the cops on us."

"Oh yeah? Well, did you kill someone while at it too for them to chase you around?!"

"I knew I should've went to find Crazy Chuckie instead of you."

"Then go find Crazy Chuckie! At least it's usual for him to harbour bandits in his room!"

"You're being overdramatic."

"Just go!" I opened my mouth again to say something.

I stopped because the doll started crying again so I took in a deep breath because Leon wasn't going to move a single muscle to take care of it. Knowing the crying was going to wake my parents up, I waddled to the edge of my bed, taking the doll out of the carrier and rocked it back and forth.

I realised I didn't change the fake diaper.

Getting back onto my feet, I placed the doll down on my bed and I could feel Leon's eyes burning against my skin as he watched me. My cheeks were heating up as I took out the diaper from underneath the plush cushion of the carrier.

"Why is this project so important to you? It's not even real." He snorted as I lifted the stiff legs of the plastic invention up so I can place the new diaper underneath it.

"Because it would be utterly pathetic if I can't take care of a plastic doll, never mind an actual baby." I shifted my eyes from the doll to him. He had a lopsided grin on his face with his dimples popping out and almost caused my heart to stop for a second. "And you're utterly pathetic too."

"Oh babe, you wound me every single damn time." He faked a frown, placing his hand on his chest with his tone dry as the Sahara dessert.

The baby stopped crying so I cradled it in my arms for a while because I knew Miss Philips was keeping track of how many times the baby was getting snuggled. And maybe give me some brownie points.

"You know, Miss Philips knows that you're not having any cooperation whatsoever, right?" I gave him a sick grin because at Le Jardin, Miss Philips saw him ditching me outside when the baby was obnoxiously crying out for bloody murder.

He returned the sick grin with much more sarcasm this time, the insincerity of the smile looked painful. "And still no f***s were given, Bella. I'm a man of my words. I don't care. And this whole thing is based on teamwork so if you tell Miss Philips that I have 'no cooperation whatsoever', you know damn well your grade will be as bad as mine."

Fury was building up in my veins so I placed the doll back down in the carrier just in case I unconsciously throw it at his stupid perfect structured face that I wanted to lick.

"Why am I still keeping you in here?!" I rhetorically asked and pointed back at the window, "Get out!"

Leon's eyes shifted from the baby and to me, before giving that perfect smile of his. He winked once again, "Nope, I'm not going to risk it."

I grumbled with my fists clenching. He nonchalantly walked towards the corkboard above my study table. He chuckled to himself and I raised my eyebrow. I realised that there were a bunch of embarrassing photos stuck up on the board so I stood in front of him, preventing him from seeing any more. The only sole reason why I kept those embarrassing photos is for my own entertainment and nobody (in the exception of Kate, Gabe and my mother) ever comes into my room. Until now, the most unwanted person ever to be standing in here.

"Excuse me but that's an invasion of privacy."

He snorted and pushed me aside and leaned closely to look at the photos, "These are amazing," Leon laughed and pointed at an old Polaroid from Year 8, "Oh my God, look at you! Your hair was a mess, huh? And oh my God, look at those braces! Fluorescent pink braces!"

I face palmed myself as he continued to laugh at the other pictures.

"I think that's enough-"

"No, wait, it's getting better! How old were you in this one? With red lipstick all over your face!"

"I was four and it's my mother's fault to leave lipsticks around." I mumbled as he laughed on. There was no turning back now. He was all over it.

"Look at this one! You're crying!"

"Yes. I would know that."

"Wait, you went with Arnold to the Year 6 social?" He looked at me before bursting out in laughter that his face turned red. He was turning red out of amusement while I was turning red out of pure embarrassment. Everyone was turning up with a date because turning up dateless to a Year 6 social was the most un-coolest thing ever. But with Brittany Fowler being evil since birth, she told every boy to not ask me to the social or agree if I ever ask.

Arnold, poor Arnold who had a neck brace at that time with a complete headgear for his teeth, was the only boy who was willing to go with Bella Morrey, who at that time, was struggling to survive the most awkward and cringiest phase of her life.

However, I do wish Arnold the best of luck, wherever he is now.

"If you're just going to ridicule me, you're going to need to think of another person to harbour you!" I snapped and grabbed him by the wrist, leading him back to the window.

"Aw, come on," He pouted at me, "I think you and Arnold make a lovely couple! Especially with that fantastic headgear and that moss green dress you were wearing."

"Get out!"

He clambered himself onto the window and carefully got himself out. Leon lazily gave me a salute before I could see his mop of brown hair disappear from my window. I watched him running across the garden, clamping his hand onto the tall brick wall and threw himself to the other side where I could see his shadowed figure running down the cul-de-sac.

What a pain in the ass.

I looked at the doll, "If you were real, things would be a whole lot different, huh? And here I am, losing my mind and talking to an inanimate object!"

Scoffing at how ridiculous the situation was, I put the carrier aside and pulled my comforter over so I could turn myself into a human burrito, taking in the perfect chilly yet cosy temperature before drifting off into a sleep.