Okay so this was supposed to another one-shot for "Sometimes" but things got out of hand and this has morphed into it's own little mini-fic! Takes place pre-pilot during Sophomore year. It's just something light-hearted showing Nathan and Peyton struggling through an assignment. This will probably be a three/four parter, maybe more if it continues to grow! Hope you enjoy, reviews are love, Lexie x
Health class. Nathan thinks it's the biggest waste of time of all the lessons he's supposed to attend, and that's saying something; he thinks that most of them are a perfect misuse of his precious hours. It's a miracle he's turned up at all but Whitey's given him a warning about his poor attendance and so he's forced to suffer the torture.
'Mr Scott, this is a surprise.' Miss Lloyd greets him sarcastically, to which he just scowls in response. He scours the room for a seat and is frustrated to see that the only vacant one is in the front row, punishment for his dawdling.
As he crosses in front of the room he catches the eye of a certain curly blonde, he grins and winks, and she throws him daggers with her wounding emerald stare. He gulps realising that she's still mad about that party when he played spin-the-bottle with a few girls, well, there were about eight if he remembers rightly but honestly the whole thing's a haze. He slips into his seat and stretches, yawning widely, he's knackered from Whitey's early morning drilling and was hoping to catch up on some sleep during this hour but fate and a poor report card have forced him to change his plans.
Slyly he slips a glance at Peyton but her gaze is intensely focussed on the page before her where she's no doubt sketching his head on a stick. He envies the fact that she can get away with wearing headphones thanks to her crazy, wild tresses. He imagines that there's some kind of angry, intense song pumping into her ears right now, silencing whatever droning Nathan's going to have to endure at the hands of Miss Lloyd.
There's an odd look in the teacher's eye, the kind of twinkling that usually means that a pop quiz is about to be sprung on them. Nathan groans at the thought, he's skipped so much that he'll probably fail and that's not exactly an easy task; this class is basically just common sense.
'Class.' Miss Lloyd clears her throat to gain her students' attention, 'Today marks a very special day in all of your lives, none of you realise yet but this could be the day that influences the decisions you make later, the paths you choose to follow and how the rest of your life is shaped.'
Nathan arches his brow and believes the woman's gone a little too far in trying to make Health Class exciting. He thinks maybe she always wanted to be a drama teacher and is still bitter about it, so she's inflicting them with her dramatics.
'Congratulations, ladies and gentlemen,' She says, grinning madly, 'you've just become parents.'
She gives them all a round of applause as though it's some kind of celebration whilst the room gives her a mix of bemused and bored looks.
'Well,' She ceases her clapping and goes to the closet to reveal the reason behind her mad gleeful look; the damn freakiest dolls Nathan's ever seen in his life. There's a lurch in his stomach when he finally realises what's going on; one of those pseudo babies is going to be his pretend kid and he's going to have to play Dad if he wants to continue with basketball.
Of all the weeks for Whitey to finally realise that his star player's skipping, it has to be this one, the week where student hell is on the lesson plan.
'Now then, I'm going to pair you all up and each couple will have a baby to look after for the week, which includes the weekend, and no you can't choose the gender!' She laughs madly as though doll gender is what's on their minds.
Nathan's mind is clogged with how he's going to have a life with a screaming fake kid to look after. He's heard about these things and knows that it's basically a smarmy way for adults to show students that babies are hard work. Nathan doesn't need to be told, he can see that a kid would completely ruin his life right now, he doesn't need a week of poop, feeding and whinging to know that.
He twists in his seat to survey the room, wondering if there's a girl he'd be able to sweet talk into looking after the doll 24-7. It's a long shot but this is a desperate kind of situation, he doesn't want to be dumped with it, not when Friday's game night and the weekend's, well it's the weekend. As he assesses the maternal instincts of his peers his eyes fall on the tilted heads of Brooke and Peyton who are in no way trying to hide the fact that they're whispering furiously to one another. Nathan's ears begin to burn as soon as he spots the little powwow, knowing that he's the topic of their moaning. He shakes the issue away though; he supposed to be searching for a girl that will make the perfect mother hen, neither Brooke nor Peyton making his shortlist.
'Mr Scott.' Miss Lloyd diverts his attention from his search by thrusting one of the demented dolls into his hands. 'It's a boy.'
His eyes widen in shock, besides the crazy stare he's getting from the thing he notices that it's just wearing a diaper and the plastic limbs are flayed out resembling a starfish. He just stares, wondering what he should do next; does he have to hold it all the time? And more to the point are there any instructions.
'Here's your care pack.' Miss Lloyd says, dumping a huge basket on his desk, 'Now let's find you a wife.'
She's enjoying this little simulation a little too much, Nathan thinks, it's a bit creepy in his opinion. Speaking of creepy, the kid's looking at him again with it's mad glare, that alone is enough to make Nathan practise safe sex; he never wants a kid if it's just going to leer at him like that all the time.
'Ah yes.' Miss Lloyd has that look in her eye again, causing his stomach to twist, 'I couldn't really pair you with anyone else now could I? Peyton, if you'd care to be Mrs Scott for the week.'
He watches his girlfriend's reaction as the teacher marries them for the next seven days, all Nathan can think is it's about the first time he's ever wished that Peyton had the power to kill with her glare.
The blonde grabs her stuff and slowly strolls to Nathan's desk, dumping her things with a thud and a fair amount of attitude.
'Congrats, we have a psycho child.' He tells her, offering the doll to her tightly folded arms, 'Look at it's eyes.'
'He looks like his Dad, I guess.' She returns, not bothering to move and take the baby from him.
Miss Lloyd claps her hands to silence the class of new parents, 'Now I haven't activated your simulator children yet, first I thought we'd have a little fun! So between you I'd like you to name your little one and work out a schedule.'
'Gee, she knows how to have a good time.' Nathan mutters sourly.
Peyton rolls her eyes, 'Look, I don't want to do this any more than you do, possibly less but whatever, we're stuck with it. What do you want to call it?'
He shrugs, really not caring less.
'This sucks, I get it.' She tells him, 'I have to play house with a boy who likes having his tongue in the mouth of other girls. We both have to do the assignment though.'
He looks into her flaming eyes and guilt floods him, 'I'm sorry, I was drunk, okay? It was stupid. I'm stupid. Isn't that what you want me to say? I'm a big stupid idiot.'
Her pout lessens a little and he can feel her front beginning to melt somewhat. He reaches out and brushes a stray curl out of her eye line, tracing his fingertip from her hairline, down her cheeks and toward her lips.
'We're trying to stop teen pregnancy not instigate it.' Miss Lloyd cries as she passes, 'What have you too decided to name your son?'
Nathan hates how she's trying to make this game of play pretend into real life, that and her ridiculous smirk. He glances to Peyton and can tell that she's fighting the urge to roll her eyes.
He forces a smile to his lips, 'Lloyd, we've chosen to call it Lloyd.'
That wipes her grin away, Nathan thinks to himself triumphantly.
'Call him Lloyd.' She corrects once she's composed herself.
As she hurries away to harass someone else, Peyton delivers a whack to Nathan's arm, 'That was cruel.'
'Funny, Peyton, it was funny.' He adjusts her words, 'Come on, this kid looks crazy and she's completely round the twist. She probably loves that she's a namesake, I'll bet she takes one of these home with her at the weekend and pretends it's hers.'
'Nathan!' Peyton cries in a hushed, outraged tone.
'Bet you any money.' He pushes.
'I'm just going to ignore you now.' She informs him, 'So are we going to sort out a schedule like we're divorced parents sharing custody or do you want to do this together?'
He takes a moment to weigh up each option, overlooking the fact that she's starting to sound like the teacher with her weird references to divorce and child access arrangements. He had been hoping that whatever girl he was paired with would do most of the work but seeing as he ended up with Peyton he knows that it's a shattered dream, she'll make him do his share. On the one hand, being together would be better because he can sneakily make her deal with all the baby stuff but they might just drive each other mad in the process. On the flip side he really doesn't want to have to deal with the spooky looking thing on his own.
'Together.' He says finally, hoping it's not going to be too painful a week.
She nods and begins rooting through the basket in search of something that will make the baby look a little more decent than he does right now. Nathan ponders whether it would be seen as child abuse to cover the thing's eyes.
'So I guess we'll be staying at yours then?' Peyton assumes as she pulls the doll's limbs into a onesie with an astonishing tenderness.
'Why?' Nathan asks, his forehead creasing in thought. If they were going to commit to this, and it looked as though Peyton was going to force the to do so, he would prefer to stay at her's for the duration.
'Because you have a crazy training schedule that you'll use as an excuse to disappear if we live at mine, I won't see you all week and I'll end up doing all of the work. I know what you're like, you'll conveniently have a work-out at six in the morning and say you can't stay round and I'll have to get up all night to the screaming.' She explains, to a surprised and impressed Nathan for that was exactly what he was planning on doing.
With the baby dressed, Peyton passes the doll to Nathan who handles it like a live grenade, holding it at arm's length. She tuts but doesn't bother to correct him, instead she inspects all the items in the basket that are their only aids for the following seven days.
'I can't wait to see you wear this.' She cackles, pulling out something that resembles a straight jacket.
'And that is?' He asks, unsure that he wants to hear her answer.
She smiles, 'Like a hands free baby carrier.'
His face contorts into a look of disgust as though he can't imagine anything worse than having the scary doll strapped to him for any length of time.
Miss Lloyd's doing her clapping thing again and Nathan can barely look at her in fear of what horror she's about to unleash on them. As he glances up he sees her sickly sweet smile which he's tired of seeing by now.
'I'm about to activate the babies now.' She informs them, Nathan clenches his fists when she refers once again to the dolls as real life children.
He looks at the doll in his arms and waits as though it really is a grenade and about to explode at any moment, his anticipation making him the only student in the room who's not shocked when his baby bursts into an outburst of deafening wails.
He's not surprised but he's still clueless, having no idea how to soothe a baby. Peyton sighs at his ignorance and pulls the doll out of his hands and bounces it lightly in her arms. Almost instantly the howls turn to low whimpers and snivels, he has no idea how she knew to do that but he's sure that he's not going to let her leave him alone with the doll all week.
'So have we got this thing all the time?' He asks, 'Like at lunch and in class and stuff?'
Her eyes snap to his and he can see in her olive almonds teasing him, 'It's not a thing, it's a him. And unless you've got any childcare suggestions then I guess we're stuck with him.'
'Well I was going to go shoot some hoops at lunch.' As soon as he says it he regrets it. Her glare is boring into him and she seems to be ignoring the cries of Lloyd which are intensifying rapidly. 'Okay, I'll stay with you, just shut the baby up.'
She purses her lips but follows his instructions as the bawling is aggravating her no end. Settling the baby in her arms she rocks him gently and watches as his eyelids flutter and close.
'Not as creepy for you now, you take him.' She says, pressing the doll into his arms.
Nathan, having no choice, takes it from her and blushes from head to toe at having to be witnessed with a doll nestled close to him.
'Oh that's one for the album.' Peyton grins pulling out her cell, 'Say cheese, Daddy.'
He scowls menacingly, 'If you call me Daddy again, I swear,'
'You swear what? You need me to pass this class.' She's enjoying this and not bothering to hide the fact. Although she too thinks the idea of a week with a pretend baby is dumb she'll go along with it just to infuriate him. He's going to have to sit back and take it because as much as he hates to admit it he really does need her help, desperately.
'Can we make this as painless as possible?' He pleads, 'I'll help out, just don't start making out like this is real, that thing's freaking me out enough already.'
'That thing is our son.' She shoots back, obviously having decided to pay no attention to his request.
Nathan groans into his hands, only seven more days of this nightmare he thinks glumly. Through the gap in his fingertips he can see Peyton loading a bag full of baby junk and heaving what he's sure is some kind of car seat onto the desk. He wishes he hadn't laughed at Miss Lloyd saying that this day was going to change his life because she was right, he's just been given his idea of hell in a basket; for the next week his life is officially over.
'Lloyd.' She's turning the name over with her tongue, 'Sorry that you're stuck with us, I hope you like basketball and good music.'
Nathan snorts at that, 'Babe, no one likes your loser rock.'
'As you can see, your Dad's a charmer.' She continues, hoping that it will annoy the crap out of Nathan, which it does. 'Yes, isn't he charming? He even likes charming other girls, nice, huh?'
'Peyton,' He sighs largely, 'I'm sorry, really, really sorry. What can I do to make it up to you? Whatever you want, I'll do it, I, I don't want to lose you.'
Her eyebrows arch at his admission, 'Because you'll fail Health Class without me?'
'No!' He says it with such intensity that he surprises himself, 'It's you I want to be with, you just get me, you know? Like with my Dad and all, and you're funny and independent and smart and well, freaking hot.'
She narrows her eyes, 'I'm just hot?'
'Gorgeous, the prettiest girl in the school, Peyton, I fancy the pants off you.' He feels his cheeks reach a deeper shade of crimson as he grovels, begging her to end the torment sometime soon.
'Okay.' She concedes, leaning in for a quick kiss, 'You've got this week to prove your worth.'
He goes to argue then realises the stupidity of that idea, instead he's just going to have to do as she's asked and live a week in the surreal world that Health class has so kindly thrown him into.
He looks to the "baby" in his arms and then back to the girl he really doesn't want to lose, 'Start looking cute, Lloyd, I might need some help from you.'
She shakes her head in laughter and Nathan feels a little bit of his anxiety about the following week slip away.
It's lunchtime, Nathan's gazing longingly at the court and Peyton's trying to feed a grizzling baby Lloyd as everyone else around them sees to be having fun messing around on the quad.
'The kid doesn't want lunch.' Peyton says in a worn out tone, 'You have a try, I want a chance to actually eat my food.'
Reluctantly he takes Lloyd and the bottle from her and sits in full view of everyone as he, Nathan Scott, star player of the Ravens feeds milk to the doll in his arms. His eyes widen as the crying ceases and finally the baby is happy and eating. He's not even ashamed when he lifts his head, and reveals his proud grin to an amused Peyton.
'You're a natural.' She says, her eyes glimmering.
He shakes his head, 'This is a fluke.'
The couple share a few blissful minutes of silence in the warm sun, enjoying a break from the relentless cries that have been plaguing them for the past few hours. Their pleasure doesn't last for long though as they're invaded by their best friends who have a screaming infant in tow.
'This is insane!' Brooke whines loudly as she plops down opposite Peyton, dropping the carrier onto the floor beside her, an ear piercing screech wailing from the car seat.
Nathan smirks feeling smug that their kids behaving, 'Brooke, your little monster's going to wake Lloyd up if you don't shut it up.'
'Lloyd?' Brooke raises her eyebrows, 'We got a girl.'
Peyton and Nathan look to the other half of the "we" and instantly feel for Brooke.
'I'm going to kill someone before this is done.' Brooke says shaking her head, 'And it's going to be Tim.'
'What's the matter, Wifey?' Tim asks, leaning towards her as though he's going to peck her on the cheek but is slapped away before he gets close.
She rests her forehead on the table and clenches her fists, 'Tim.' She growls, 'Sort. Out. The. Baby.'
He shrugs and lifts the doll from the carrier in a motion that would make any parent's heart stop.
'Do I want to look?' Brooke asks, apprehensive.
'Best not.' Peyton advises, popping a french fry into her mouth to hide her laughter.
Tim moves away from the group, Nathan and Peyton can only assume that he's about to try and teach the kid basketball or something equally insane.
'So I'm getting an F for this assignment.' Brooke says, apparently beyond caring. She cautiously raises her head as though her eyes will meet the sight of her baby on fire, 'How's it going for you guys?'
'Not too bad.' Peyton says, offering her tray to Brooke who looks plain exhausted, 'We're not having sex for a long time though.'
Brooke snorts but Nathan's face is agape.
'Babe, come on.' He says, astonished.
'I don't want a Lloyd any time soon and no offence Brooke but I really don't want whatever it is that you have.' Peyton shivers at the thought.
'Evangeline, Evie for short.' Brooke offers, 'Or Satan if you prefer.'
Peyton smiles, 'Definitely no Satans.'
'Peyt, I don't want a kid either, there's a reason birth control's there you know.' He reminds her, not ready for sex to be withheld in his week of hell.
'Double Dutch.' She reasons and he sighs in relief.
Brooke blows her bangs in boredom, 'I did not come over here to listen to you two talk bedroom antics, can someone start cheering me up already?'
Peyton rolls her eyes but turns to her best friend, 'Okay well Nate's got practise after school, as has Tim, maybe we could go to the mall?'
'Do I have to bring Evie?' Brooke asks, turning her nose up at the thought.
'How are you going to dress like a yummy mommy without the most important accessory?' Peyton questions, knowing exactly how Brooke's mind works.
The brunette bites down on her lip and thinks it over, 'It is very In right now.'
'All the cool kids are doing it.' Peyton points out, sharing a smirk with Nathan as she says it.
'You're right.' Brooke agrees, 'I'm going to need a whole new wardrobe for this Mom thing. Plus Evie totally needs some pretty dresses, no wonder the kid's miserable; those rags Miss Lloyd gave us are disgusting.'
Peyton shakes her head at her friend, only Brooke would want to spend money on a school project for the sake of looking stylish doing it. 'I'll meet you after practise then, Nate? We can go grab my stuff then go to yours.'
'Sounds good.' He tells her, moving Lloyd from his arms to the nearby car seat.
'Why can't I have that?' Brooke sighs, 'Instead I get Dim and a foghorn for a kid.'
Nathan and Peyton just smile.
Nathan emerges from the locker room after a particularly good practise to find his new "family" waiting for him. Peyton's face is thunderous and he gets the feeling that the trip to the mall was not an enjoyable one.
'Have a good night.' Whitey chortles as he passes, an extra spring in his step.
Nathan sneers but doesn't retaliate, he's in enough trouble with the coach as it is.
'Try to drown yourself in the shower?' Peyton snaps, clearly unimpressed by how long it's taken him to change.
He's beginning to see that it might have been an idea to take even longer considering how long the night before him has suddenly become. He knows he should ask her how the mall was, or offer to take the baby from her but he can't bring himself to. Instead he puts his arms around her shoulders and gloomily walks to the lot.
'This kid is a nightmare.' She tells him, 'Everyone was just staring and I couldn't shut the damn thing up.'
'That thing is our son.' He teases using the same words she fed to him earlier that day.
In response he receives daggers, which if he's honest he fully expected.
'Maybe my Mom will take him when we get home.' Nathan suggests optimistically.
'If she's insane.' Peyton mutters, not holding out any hope.
Nathan sighs, wishing she was in the same mood as when he'd left her but it's all part of the Peyton Sawyer charm to swing though the scales of emotion at a hundred miles an hour, he should be used to it by now.
He takes the car seat from her and straps the grumbling child into the backseat with more difficulty than he ever imagined to be possible; clips and straps running across and behind in a tangle that frazzles Nathan's mind. Peyton turns to look on in amusement as he struggles.
'Anyone would think that you care about this doll getting injured if we crash.' She mocks him.
He feels himself pouting a little, 'Do you want it to fall into the foot well when I turn a corner sharply? I don't think Miss Lloyd would like to see her namesake decapitated.'
'How sharp is this corner?' Peyton asks, her anger melting upon seeing him being over cautious with their doll.
He ignores her taunts and turns to Lloyd, who's still moaning, 'Ready to meet Nanny Crazy and Grandpa Dread? Good, me neither.'
The drive is a tense one due to the constant cries from the backseat and Nathan banning Peyton from putting any of her music on the "soothe" the kid. By the time they pull up at the Scott household all three of them are exhausted.
Peyton grabs the baby and Nate brings everything else which is a lot of stuff when there's an infant and a week's worth of girl's things to move in.
'Nathan, you didn't tell me I was about to be the world's youngest Grandmother.' Deb smirks as they pad into the kitchen, she's hugging her coffee cup and watching in a smug kind of pride as she watches her son battle with all the things she had to do for real when she was just out of High School.
'Not funny, Mom.' He says, 'He hasn't stopped crying in ages.'
'You'll get it.' She tells both teens who are looking to her desperately, 'I'll start fixing your dinner.'
They had been hoping that she'd offer to take the baby from them for a while, six days maybe, but it seemed that Deb wasn't going to be much of a help when it came to Lloyd.
'I'll go get settled in.' Peyton sighs, knowing that as tired as she is it's only going to get worse.
'I've still got Nathan's old crib if you'd like it.' Deb offers kindly but Peyton says they'll make do with the basket they've been provided with. She has a feeling that waking up in the night to see a crib across the room would be a bridge too far.
She heads upstairs to throw some of clothes into a couple of drawers she knows that Nathan doesn't use, fill his bathroom with all her toiletries and basically invade his space. She leaves the car seat downstairs along with Lloyd who's strapped into it wailing. While Nathan's distracted with the baby she takes the opportunity to replace his pitiful CD collection with some of her favourites that she grabbed in her hasty exit, sure that he'll moan about it when he realises.
As she dancing about to the sounds of Radiohead, she hears the front door slam; her alert that Dan's home. She wonders for a minute what Dan will make of the artificial grandchild but doesn't have to wait long for her answer. There's a kind of roar followed by a shout from the lower floor; apparently Dan is unimpressed by the disruption to his quiet sanctuary. For some reason this pleases Peyton somewhat. She wisely hides out in Nathan's room until she's called for dinner, taking as long as possible to unpack, hoping that Dan will have calmed down by the time she sees him.
'Miss Sawyer.' Dan greets her frostily, 'Any more invasions besides the cheerleader and the howling Tiny Tears?'
'Dan!' Deb scolds, 'It's for school.'
'What teacher has told them to shack up together for a week?' Dan asks, tearing into his bread roll, 'Some of us have jobs and need our sleep, Nathan has to get a good eight hours to be fresh for training, it's irresponsible.'
'It's one week, Dan, better that than eighteen years.' Deb says evenly trying to show him the good it could do their sometimes careless son.
Dan grunts in reply and moves his attention to his steak.
Peyton's eyes too are trained to her plate, not exactly feeling welcome, she's not surprised as such but wishes that Dan would learn a little table etiquette and not talk about her as though she's not there. She feels a socked foot brush her calf and instantly feels better, glad that Nathan is at least offering her a silent show of support.
She begins to enjoy the meal and then a desperate wail breaks through the silence and the happy moment is ruined. Dan's cutlery clatters down to his plate and instantly Nathan and Peyton are on their feet, hoping not to enrage Dan any further. Deb just smiles at what she perceives to be enthusiasm to their schoolwork.
Peyton scoops the doll up into her arms and together she and Nathan rush away to his bedroom where she's dumped all the baby things. She seeks out a bottle, whilst Nathan crashes down onto his bed, and tucks into the roll he snatched on their way out of the dining room.
'I've had him all afternoon, isn't it your turn?' Peyton asks, throwing a scattering of clothes and diapers across his floor in her hurriedness.
'I fed him earlier.' He moans as though he's done his shift.
She sighs at his ignorance and settles beside him on the bed, Lloyd in her arms hushed with the offering of dinner.
'How was the mall?' Nathan asks, finally ready to hear what had made her so mad.
She gazes into his deep baby blues, 'Hideous. Brooke was like a woman possessed and spent all of her time chasing about crazily, leaving me with sulky and sulkier and a whole bunch of staring. Brooke spent a heap of money though so I think she's a bit happier now so it wasn't a complete waste of dignity.'
'What time does this kid go to sleep then?' Nathan asks, slipping his hand to the back of her neck and beneath the material of her shirt.
'He's not a robot.' Peyton reminds him, 'He doesn't have a bedtime and he's not going to sleep through the night.'
'I can barely wait.' He jests, cursing Miss Lloyd for the umpteenth time that day, 'Doesn't this thing have some batteries we can remove?'
She arches her brow, 'Don't you think Brooke's already tried that? There's no stopping it.'
'Seven days.' Nathan mumbles, 'I don't know if I can make that.'
'You've got a lot riding on this.' Peyton jogs his memory, 'If you can't handle this week with a doll you could get kicked from the team, no more games, no more championships, no more Duke.'
'Pass me the damn kid.' He growls in response to which she smiles. 'How hard can it be to pass health class?'
'I guess we're about to find out.' Her eyes glitter with the anticipation of what lies ahead for them in the next week.
So I really shouldn't be starting another story but this is just going to be a short one...oh well!
Anyway let me know what you think, guys, I love to hear from you!
Lexie :)