Melody's Crush

Chapter 2

School was all abuzz with bodies moving to and fro making their way through the rhythm of the classrooms. Because I was in all college preparatory classes, Jake and I didn't have any classes together except for health. That meant we had lunch together, too, even though he didn't spend it with me.

However, I always looked forward to health as he always sat next to me in class. I was a front row sitter and he was a back row kind of guy. But it didn't seem to bother him to sit next to me one class out of the day smack dab in front of the whiteboard. I always hoped that he was doing it because he secretly had a crush on me. But based on the way he was eyeing Tricia Scott, I was pretty sure this was not the case.

Mr. Lloyd told us all to settle down in our seats as the bell rang. Ruffling through a stack of papers from his desk, he handed the beginning of each row the right amount of sheets after counting the heads of students.

"Take one and pass it back," he said robotically.

Grabbing the stack, I took one and passed the rest backward as instructed. The title of the paper was Parenting Project. It was a permission slip for our parents to sign allowing us to take part in a parenting class where a lifelike baby would be used to determine our parenting skills.

But that wasn't the kicker.

What shocked everyone in the class was that for the one week we would be doing the project, we had to 'live' with the other student. This is where the parents had to agree to allow the students to be housed together.

Each living with the other for half a week!

There was no way that my mother, being a single mom, would allow a strange guy to stay at our house for a day let alone half a week. And she definitely wouldn't allow me to stay at his for the remainder.

However, if I was paired with Jake, she would most likely kick me out of my room to sleep on the couch so her son could have the bed.

Other than Jake, I scanned the classroom at all the possibilities of guys I might be paired with. Every one of them had me cringing as I couldn't see one if any of them being my babydaddy.

The whirr of whispers and giggles caused Mr. Lloyd to raise his voice. "Alright, alright, alright. Settle down." He pulled out a replica of the permission slip and raised it above his head. "Each of you has until Friday to get this permission slip signed by your parents. This grade counts as thirty percent of this quarter's grade. It lasts one week. Friday to Friday. Of course, the last Friday being the day of the homecoming game."

His monotone voice sounded rehearsed and frankly, annoyed. "You must equally share in the responsibility of the child that is given to you. You will each receive a key that has your unique identifier chip that documents every time you respond to the baby's needs. Whether it be burping, feeding, changing the diaper, bathing," he said ticking off the list with his fingers, "etcetera, etcetera. We will go over the details this Friday when you get paired up and delivered your child."

The class erupted in laughter. He skimmed over us all with the evil eye and continued, "Boys will be drawing a name from a... eh hem." He waited for the class to settle down to a hush. "As I was saying, boys will be drawing a name from a hat from a pool of girls." Snickering came from the back and everyone smiled. "Come on, people," he said dryly. "Eh hem. We have an even amount of boys and girls in the class so there should not be anyone left out."

"This totally sucks," someone complained from the back of the room. With that deep voice and don't give a crap attitude, it could only be one person.

"That's enough, Kyle," Mr. Lloyd reprimanded before continuing. "All your parents have been informed of this project since the beginning of school during parent teacher conference so they will not be surprised when they get this permission slip."