The Look Of Love

Chapter 48: I'm Alright, Maybe

You know the kind of day where you feel like five giants and a leprechaun are throwing you around? The last two weeks of January, for the Senior's at West Valley High, have been like that. Life Skills class strikes again, in the form of baby dolls. Each partner pair were given a lifelike, realistic looking doll. Each one comes complete with a crying and bodily functions meter. 

The doll is to be taken care of by the "happy couples". This project will complete the family planning portion of the class. The pairs were assigned to trade off care, of the doll, so as to resemble parenting in real life. So much fun. This assignment brought about some interesting revelations with the Cobra's and their girls.

For example out of the boys, Bobby and Tommy found they are actually adept at childcare. They have both been breezing through this assignment with ease. On the other hand, Johnny, Dutch, and Jimmy realized people who say they sleep like babies are usually the ones who don't have kids. They've begrudged the doll every night for the past week.

 Their partners thought it would be fun to trade off weeks. For one whole week one partner would get the doll, and the next week the other partner would have it. They regret agreeing to this idea. In the name of sanity, Dutch put the doll in the dryer so as to not hear it cry. Unfortunately, it still cried. Due to his lack of response, the teacher's counted points off he and his partner (after checking the doll's electronic system). Susan already disliked Dutch, now even more so.

As for the girls, they are all coming out smelling like roses. All of them except for one... Mary. Like Johnny, Dutch, and Jimmy she has also learned parenting is not as easy as it seems. The doll is making it difficult, for her to be the kind of parent she always imagined she would be.

 This doll has wrecked her sleep cycles, her eating cycles, and her showering routine. One of those three things seem to fall by the wayside, every day the dumb doll has been in her care. Unlike the three boys, Mary and Mark decided to trade off days. One of them has the doll  for one day, and vice versa. 

Yesterday wss Mary's day to have the doll. Walking up to meet her friends, Tommy and Gwen noticed her approaching first. "I can tell today is going to be one of those 'does not play well with others' kind of days," Tommy told the group. They all looked up, from chatting with each other, and noticed Mary too.

Gwen sucked in a breath. "Oh gosh. Her hair is up in a messy bun. She has a T-shirt on, no makeup, and... are those sweatpants?" All of the girls cried a horrific "No!!!" 

Mary came near the group and saw her girlfriend's faces. "Hi guys! What's wrong?"

Staring at her friend, Ashley cried "You are what's wrong! You're wearing sweatpants. Sweatpants are for people who've given up. Why are you wearing those, in public?" She covered her eyes in shame.

"Well you'll have to excuse me. I'm slightly inconvenienced, tired, and hungry. I can only please one person per day. Today is not your day, so get over it," she snarked. Then she took the doll out of her tote and shook it while she talked. "And if this thing cries one more time I will run it over with my Jeep!"

They all stared at her with jaws gaping, and unblinking eyes. Bobby thought he could help her. "Sweetie, just hand me the doll and back away," Bobby encouraged. He's been noticing her being a lot edgier lately. 

She sent Bobby a mean look and whirled around to her friends. "Someone pass me a parenting book, so I can smack him with it." His forehead creased. "Yes, I'm talking about you and your perfect parenting made easy skills." Bobby looked affronted. Everyone knew, if Mary's being sarcastic and cynical to Bobby then, stay out of her way.