Jack stopped tapping his pencil against the desk when he realised it did absolutely nothing to numb the immense boredom he was feeling as he sat at his desk in the packed classroom.
He could be in PE right now, but no, the school just HAD to change his schedule and put him in this stupid Marriage and life class.
Jack sighed, dropping his pencil on the desk. At least it was only a month long trial class, and then he can go back to punching the sand bags in the gym like he usually did during the last class on a Friday.
"Jack?" Kim said aloud as she walked into the class, backpack slung over her shoulder. "What are you doing in here?
"Besides breaking the record for longest felt boredom…..nothing much" Jack answered wryly.
"Oh ha ha ha" Kim scoffed sarcastically, rolling her eyes and throwing her bag under the desk on Jack's right. "Let me guess, your teacher transferred you to this trial class too?"
"Yep, if they're going to waste our time that could have been spent breaking my record in gym, I wish they'd at least start the stupid class" Jack groaned, leaning back in his chair.
"Good afternoon class" A tall woman with her red hair up in a tight bun and rectangular glasses resting on her nose walked in. Her high heels clacking on the floor as her blue silk dress swayed.
"Finally" Jack whispered, leaning under the desk to take his books from his bag.
"My name is Marina Tessmack. You can address me as either Miss, Ma'am or Tessmack" Marina smiled at each student in turn as she walked to the desk at the front of the class. "Now, about your assign-"
The door slammed open, causing everyone's attention to snap to it just in time to see someone sprawl to the floor with her backpack sliding several feet across the ground.
Laughter rippled through the room as the girl pushed herself to her feet and brushed herself down. She looked about 14 years old, her choppy black hair reaching to the end of her face, showing her bright blue eyes through her midnight black strands of hair on her face. She brushed the long sleeves of her green sweater and pulled the bottom down slightly over her black jeans which she wore with black leather mid-calf boots.
"Sorry I'm late" The girl said "I had to go for registration with the principal"
"Ahh…" Marina Tessmack nodded at the girl before turning to the rest to the class. "Everyone, I'd like to formally introduce our new student-"
"Nate" The girl interrupted quickly "I'm Nate"
Nate walked over and grabbed her bag to where it had slid too, heaving it onto her shoulder and glancing around the room for any empty seats.
"Hey" Jack waved over at her and nodded to the empty desk on his left. "There's a seat over here"
Nate bit down on her lip and nodded, mumbling a thanks to Jack before sitting down in the indicated seat.
"Now that we're all settled" The teacher announced, opening one of the drawers of her desk and lifting out a two fedora hats filled with bent paper slips. "For your assignment this month, you are all going to pair up with someone of the opposite gender and look after a baby"
"Woah, what?" A boy with shaggy brown hair and light green eyes wearing a grey t-shirt over a red opened shirt and jeans from the back of the class scoffed. "Sorry miss but I've taken care of my baby sister a lot of times and trust me, baby puke is impossible to get out of jeans and shirts!"
The genuine horrified look on the boys caused a round of laughter through the class.
Tessmack just sighed and shook her head with a smile on her face. "It's alright Ryan, these babies are specially designed for training in parenthood and state of the art technology. Also, if you look after it right then you won't have to try and get puke out of your clothing" She laughed lightly under her breath and gripped the two hats by the rim, holding them out in front of her.
"Now, each hat is for a different gender. The hat in my right hand is full of the girl's student's names and the hat in my left hand is full of the boy's student's names. You all were specifically chosen for this class so that there is an even amount of boys and girls, Ryan you choose first"
Ryan stood slightly out of his seat and plunged his hand into the hat in Tessmack's right hand. Shifting around a bit, he then pulled out a folded piece of paper and opened it, calling out his female partner's name.
"Kim Crawford" He announced, waving over at Kim who in turn waved back.
Jack's eyes narrowed slightly at Ryan, a look which didn't go unnoticed by Nate.
"Hey, you okay?" She whispered under her breath so the teacher wouldn't hear them.
"huh, oh yeah, just great" Jack quickly replied, tearing his gaze away from the smiling duo.
Nate nodded but didn't look totally convinced. "By the way…thanks, for earlier"
"No problem, I was new once too, I know how hard the first week can be" Jack nodded.
"Week! Oh man, this is my first day…" Nate groaned, opening her notebook and sketching slightly.
Jack chuckled "Eh, you fall into routine quickly enough-"
"Jack, Nate, is there something you'd like to share with the class?" Tessmack asked, raising a brow at the two, drawing the attention of the entire class.
"No miss" They both mumbled, embarrassed.
"Good, then perhaps you won't mind choosing your partners next?" She urged, thrusting the girls hat towards Jack.
Jack sighed and reached into the pile of paper, pulling his hand back out and grabbing onto one of the folded pieces as he brought it out. Unfolding it, he saw a name written in bold marker.
'Nate Andres'
"Nate" Jack announced and nodded at the girl beside him.
"Very good, then you'll have plenty of chances to talk in anywhere besides my class" The teacher smiled at the two before walking on down the aisle of desks.
Nate breathed a sigh of relief and gave a nervous laugh before returning to her sketching.
Jack glanced over at her note pad and did a double take when he saw what she had put on the paper.
In a border of fire and lilies with a dragon laying along the bottom were the words…
'I swear by the light
of the dragon's eye
to stay loyal and honest
and never say die
-WASABI'
"The Wasabi code" Jack whispered under his breath in awe.
Nate glanced at him, surprise registered clearly on her face. "Yeah, how did you know?"
"I'm a wasabi warrior" Jack laughed out.
"No way!" Nate laughed "So am I…well, I was until we moved here"
"It doesn't matter where you live, being a wasabi warrior is a way of life, it doesn't limit to where you are or who you are. My grandfather taught me that, he trained me in the Wasabi code"
Nate nodded and smiled. "I guess, but I can't exactly train without a dojo and I'm still trying to convince my mom to let me renovate out basement into one…but she's not to keen on the whole 'Martial Arts' thing after my dad"
"What happened?"
Nate shrugged "I don't know…my mom doesn't like to talk about. All she says is it was Martial Arts which cause him to leave her and I think she's afraid that I'll do the same"
Jack nodded, deciding it better not to push the subject. "You know, there's a doj-"
"Alright everyone, now that you have your partner, I'm going to give out a baby doll at random. You won't choose if the child is a boy or a girl just like in real life" Tessmack announced, handing out the shoulder strapped baby supply bags to everyone. "These supplies should be enough to hold you over for the month since you all have two bags between you both. Now, if you open one of the bags you'll find the baby doll"
The sound of bags unzipping echoed through the room as everyone opened the bags and half of the student's lifted out a bald, stiff baby doll either dressed in a pink footie or a blue one.
Jack held a baby in a blue footie, glancing over at Kim who cradled her baby lovingly and proceeded to tickle its stomach through the pink footie.
"The babies will stir to life once I give the password, it's voice activated by myself only and I will give it another password to turn it off at the end of the month." Tessmack cleared her throat and announced in a clear, loud voice… "Begin"
Instantly, several of the babies in the room began kicking, flailing fists and worst of all…crying, a loud heart wrenching squeal erupted from Jack's own baby and his stomach dropped when he didn't know how to calm it.
"Let me" Nate insisted, holding out her arms for the baby. Jack immediately complied and handed the 'mother' her baby.
"Shhh….it's alright sweetie…mommy's here"
Jack was about to laugh when the sound of the babies' wails quietened down and the child stopped struggling, it's fake skin seeming to relax in the girls hold. "How did you-"
"I used to babysit our neighbours twins back home" Nate shrugged. "But we have a more important matter"
"Which is?"
"What are we gonna name him?"
So what you think?
If you have any baby idea's for either Kim's or Jack's baby then I'd love to hear them.
Review please!
~Donakiko