Playing House

2

Harry watched in horror as Louis approached his desk. The popular boy seemed to evaluate him for a moment before he dragged a chair over the floor and sat down with the back of the chair up front, straddling it.
"Harry right? I'm Louis. So how do you wanna do this?"

"I can do the assignment by myself. You'll get your credit." Harry mumbled and held out his hand for the doll.

Louis furrowed his eyebrows.
"That's cheating. I wanna do this too. It's supposed to prepare us for, you know, when we get real kids. Which I'll hope will wait for a couple of years, you know what I mean?"

Louis smiled at him. That smile all the girls found so charming. Harry didn't fall for it.
"Okay."

"Wanna meet up after school? You know, to make a schedule or whatever?" Louis suggested.

"Where?" Harry asked. His voice was unsteady.

"My house? Or yours?" Louis shrugged.

There was no way Louis Tomlinson sat his foot in his house.
"I can come to you. Six?"

"Sure. 369 Stoops Lane." Louis said. He got up and grabbed the doll.
"I'll take the first shift. I promise to take good care of Henrietta."

Harry made a face.

"No? We'll discuss baby names later. See you." Louis grinned and took off.

Harry sighed. A month. He could get through a month. It wasn't like he had to spend time with Louis Tomlinson. He just had to see him while they dropped off the doll, preferably in school.

They actually lived close to each other. Harry hadn't known that but why would he? On the five-minute walk over to Louis' house, he had almost talked himself out of it. Figured he'll make up for the lost 25 percent of the grades by scoring perfectly on every test in the future but that was just stupid. His grades were too important to let the popular kid in school intimidate him. So he knocked on the door and hoped that Louis hadn't pranked him by giving him the wrong address. When Louis opened he let out a breath of relief. He waved awkwardly.
"Hi."

Louis was holding the doll.
"Just in time. Margot here is hungry."

Harry made a face.
"Margot?"

"No? I guess we'll come up with something else then." Louis smirked and let him inside.

Two identical twins came running into the hallway.
"Who are you?" They asked at the same time.

"Harry." He introduced himself.

"Are you Louis' boyfriend?" One of them asked.

Harry blushed fiercely.
"Phoebe! It's a school project!" Louis shouted.

"I know! Harry is your pretend boyfriend with your pretend baby. I'm not dumb!" Phoebe shouted back.

"Mum!" Louis yelled.

"Girls! Leave your brother alone. He has schoolwork." A woman shouted from another room.

The twins stuck out their tongues before they ran away.
"Let's go to me room." Louis said and they headed upstairs.

Harry looked around as he stepped into Louis' bedroom. It was the typical teenage bedroom. A bit messy, posters of football players on the wall.

The doll started screaming and Harry jumped.
"Are you hungry, Ursula?" Louis said and looked at Harry. "No?"

"Definitely not!" Harry snorted.

Louis took a seat on the bed and grabbed the bottle and started to feed the doll. Harry took out his notebook and a pen. He was standing in the middle of the room.
"You can sit on the bed. I don't bite." Louis said, sounding amused.

Harry sat on the edge.
"So we have 30 days with the... Ehm, doll. Fifteen each. Do you wanna do two weeks each, like, you'll have it two weeks, and then I'll take it?"

Louis held his hand over the doll's ears.
"Don't call her it. You'll hurt precious Helga's feelings. No?"

"Not Helga." Harry replied but he couldn't help but smile.

"Alright, you come up with a name then, and can we split the weeks? I have football practice Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. Pretty difficult to care for a baby and play footie at the same time." Louis said.

Harry wrote the weekdays four times on the paper and put his name under the weekdays Louis just mentioned.
"That leaves Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays to you. We can take turns every other Saturday."

"That will definitely mess up my weekend plans." Louis muttered. He removed the bottle and held the doll against his chest to burp her, just to get a splash of water on his shirt.

"I can take the doll. I told you that you don't have to." Harry replied.

"What? And I told you I'm doing this. Every other Saturday is fine. Great, now she peed. You can change the diaper since I fed her." Louis said and held out the doll.

Harry stared at it.
"I don't know how to change a diaper!"

"Are you an only child?" Louis asked.

"No, but my sister is older than me." Harry defended himself.

"Alright, alright. Chill. I'll teach you. I have a whole bunch of sisters. I have changed a lot of diapers." Louis smirked.

He put the doll on the bed.
"Can you hand me the bag?"

They had gotten a diaper bag with the doll. Harry saw it on the floor and picked it up. He paid attention to Louis while he removed the onesie.
"Baby wipes."

"Huh?" Harry questioned.

"In the bag. Baby wipes." Louis instructed.

Harry opened it.
"It's a doll. Just put on a new diaper."

"We're supposed to pretend that this is a baby. Give me the wipes." Louis said firmly.

Harry found them and handed them over. Louis opened the diaper and used a wipe before he removed the diaper.
"I'm glad this doll can't do number two." He chuckled.

"Right. Me too." Harry replied.

"Powder." Louis said and held out his hand.

Harry restrained himself from rolling his eyes. He searched the bag and found the baby powder. He fetched a clean diaper too. Louis unfolded it and put it under the doll before he used the powder. Harry watched closely when he attached the diaper to the doll. That didn't look difficult. Louis dressed the doll again.
"There's a note with instructions in the bag too. Apparently, we have to bathe her and stuff and have a parent sign for each thing so we don't cheat."

"So much work for a doll. Pretty silly." Harry smiled.

"Well, a baby is a lot of work. This is actually a smart way to make sure that teens use protection." Louis smirked.

"Maybe. Alright, we have a schedule. Since it's Monday, it's your day. I can take the doll tomorrow at school. Where do you wanna meet up? A bathroom? Behind the school?" Harry wondered, thinking that Louis wanted to avoid being seen with him.

"Why not just by the lockers? No need to complicate it." Louis replied and looked at him, sounding a little dazed.

"Oh, yeah. That'll work too. I'm gonna go." Harry said and stood up.

"Okay. See you tomorrow." Louis replied. He followed him out.

"Say goodbye to Bernadette. No? Alright, name the doll!" Louis grinned.

"Darcy?" Harry suggested and bit his tongue. That was a serious suggestion.

Louis glanced at the doll.
"Darcy. Sounds good."