Barbara the Belonging

A Cup of Water

There are times where Crystal would skip classes, or school entirely, if she feels like it.

So the moment when she feels like going to school for once, she already regrets it.

Coach Lawrence assigned all the students with little flour bags for a co-op assignment, pretending they were raising a baby.

"Here it is. For the next twenty-four hours, this is your baby." He spoke.

"Are we going to learn how babies are made?" Mary questions.

"At the flour mill, apparently. Your assignment is simple. You will name it. You will care for it. You will never let it out of your sight. Look who you are seated beside. That is your partner. If it comes back in one piece, you pass. If it doesn't... You fail." The teacher explained as he placed the flour bags onto the students' desks.

"Piece of cake." Toby grins and leans back in his chair.

"It's not cake, don't eat it, Domzalski!"

The coach sternly warned him and turned back to his desk, as the students laughed.

Crystal rolls her eyes and crosses her arms, then looks at the desk next to her.

It was empty, and she knew who sat there.

There was an irritating itch that she can't seem to scratch as she stared at the empty desk that belonged to Steve.

"Um... Coach Lawrence. Steve isn't here..."

She raised her hand, calling attention to the teacher.

"He isn't here? Strange. Either he skipped school, which he will definitely get in trouble for, or he's late. He's still in trouble either way."

Crystal hopes he's absent, just so she doesn't have to partner up with him.

"Oh, well. Crystal, you're partnering up with Pepperjack." Coach Lawrence spoke, which made Crystal and Eli look at each other awkwardly.

"Where was I- Oh, right. Don't cheat and turn in fakes. Personalize your babies to begin the joy of parenting."

She really wished she wasn't here right now, but at least she wasn't raising a flour bag baby with Steve, so it was somewhat bearable.

The other students begin coloring and drawing faces on their flour babies.

Some were coming up with names for their fake children, like for Toby and Darci, who named their baby Sir Issac Gluten, which is funny and cute.

However, Crystal didn't care much about decorating, she mostly left it up to Eli.

For the past few days, Lucas was given a notice from the museum that there was going to be a rock show later tonight.

In his mind, he thought there was going to be a literal "Rock" show, but after being told to send out flyers throughout town, he now realizes it was going to be an exhibit showcasing actual rocks.

Lucas was still pretty ecstatic about it since he loves all kinds of gems and minerals.

Well, he would be ecstatic about it if it weren't for the image that was used to promote the event on the flyer.

He stared at it for fifteen minutes now and he could've sworn that it looked like an arm of a troll.

Apparently, some guy found it last night and wanted to show it at the museum for the whole town to see.