Bloom Later ⋆ Jake Brockman

𝖝𝖎. Dangerous Liaisons

✧⁺❀ C h a p t e r e l e v e n . . .

Natalia Hamill had never wanted to be a mother. She didn't like babies. They cried all the time, threw up all over the place and constantly needed their nappies changing. She couldn't imagine anything worse than being the mother to a real-life baby. At least, she couldn't, until she was forced to be the mother of a plastic doll which she was co-parenting with Jake Brockman. That was a different sort of hell entirely.

She had, as was her daily routine, slept through her alarm - a miraculous feat, as the opening to Arctic Monkeys' Brianstorm was extremely difficult to not be awoken by - causing her to be late for school. Quickly brushing her teeth and shoving her textbooks into her bag, she rushed to the door, before remembering today was the day Miss Silvers was commencing her infamous 'Baby Project', causing her to rush back upstairs and shove Karen's doll into her bag. After some speedy driving (that she was pretty sure would have earned her a place on the Top Gear leaderboard), Natalia arrived at school and managed to arrive at her Biology lesson just as the bell rang to signify first period.

Strolling over to the desk she shared with Jake, Natalia slung her handbag on the floor and sat down.

"Morning, Brockman. Excited to embark on this exciting new journey together?"

Rolling his eyes at her mocking tone, Jake reached into her bag and gently took out Karen's doll. It was only when he removed it that Natalia realised her daily morning rush had caused her to dump the baby in head-first, spread-eagled and it had maintained in this position throughout her school run.

That explained some of the stunned and confused looks she had been receiving from students in the younger years. If, when she had been in Year 7, she had seen a psychotic-looking Sixth Former sprinting to lesson with a pair of shiny, plastic baby legs poking out of her handbag, she too would have been concerned.

Jake now had the baby sat on his lap, arms wrapped protectively around it, as though it were truly his son. This wildly amused Natalia.

"Don't get too attached there, Jake," she joked. "Look, it's got blonde hair. Now basic knowledge of biology and dominant and recessive alleles says... you're not the father." She gave her best shocked, soap opera face, which would have put the cast of Holby City to shame.

Her co-parent did not find her humour as hilarious. "I'm not actually attached to this thing" - he gave it a sharp poke to (Natalia assumed) prove his point - "but I need a good grade. You've got A*s ever since Sixth Form started, so, let's face it, it doesn't really matter how you do. But I have repeatedly done shit on every exam we've done, and this is my chance to actually not do terribly on something. I mean how hard can parenting actually be? All we need is to treat the doll somewhat decently, which includes not suffocating it in your handbag."