Life class. Josie thought it was completely pointless and a waste of time, but it was compulsory for all students in her year group and being the mayor's daughter wasn't going to get her out of this one.
It was a Monday afternoon and half the class were drifting to sleep at the sound of Mrs Smith's soft and painfully slow voice droning on and on and on. "Adulthood comes with many responsibilities," the woman stated the obvious like it was a golden nugget of awe-inspiring wisdom. The Pussycat covered her mouth tiredly, letting out a discrete yawn. The teacher gestured toward the teenagers staring back at her uninterestedly. "Statistically, over half of you will go to university. At least one person in this room will spend some time in prison."
Reggie Mantle suddenly burst out into a fit of exaggerated coughs. "Jughead!" He called out between his fake wheezes, resulting in the laughter of his peers. The rest of the Core Four turned to glare at him.
"That was quite unnecessary, Reginald. Moving on to a more joyous fate, at least 52% of you will become parents…" On that note, she strolled toward one of the several boxes stashed at the front of the classroom, reaching inside and extracting a doll modelled to resemble a human baby. Its presence caused an array of different reactions. "Oh my gosh, it's so cute," Melody gushed.
Mrs Smith explained what was to happen over the bursts of chatter that had broken out. "I'll be sorting everyone into pairs and together the two of you will act as parents to a BabyBot for the next 2 weeks. This assignment counts for 45% of your grade, so I expect to take this experience seriously." 45 percent? Josie cringed. Nobody cared about this class.
"The pairings are as follows," her teacher announced excitedly, "Alexandra Cabot and Jughead Jones, Melody Valentine and Ginger Lopez…"
The Pussycat's phone vibrated in her pocket and she sneakily withdrew it from her jeans to take a look at its screen underneath her desk, no longer listening to the Mrs Smith. The band had just created their own YouTube channel where they uploaded both original songs and covers. Josie had been keeping track of their channels stats, receiving a notification every time someone left a comment. They'd been supportive for the most part—
"…Josie McCoy and Reggie Mantle…" Wait. What? Josie's head whipped up at the mention of her name and her partner's.
The musician looked across the classroom apprehensively at the footballer notorious for his athleticism and douche-iness. Their eyes met. The arrogant jock nodded in her direction cockily, his suggestive smile causing a hot flush to run over her skin. Josie frowned and snatched her gaze away.
Great. This was definitely going to be interesting.
…
"He's a looker, huh? He definitely takes after his parents," Reggie joked flirtatiously, waggling his eyebrows and bumping his shoulder against hers whilst he held the small human-like device in his arms.
Were they really expected to treat this thing like it was real? Josie sceptically gave the fake baby a once over and it stared back at her with its black beady eyes and tiny, eerily perfect symmetrical facial features. Plus, the child was white. This whole scenario was just so unrealistic.
"We should name him Reggie Jr.," He partner guffawed, his massive chest puffing up with pride. For emphasis, he raised the BabyBot up into the air in an attempt to recreate the iconic scene from Disney's "The Lion King". However, the one-man celebration was cut short as his brow furrowed in realisation upon the real sex of the baby. "Oh wait, I think this a girl."
"Whatever," the lead Pussycat rolled her eyes. There was no point in getting emotionally attached to a doll, they were teenagers. "You can look after it from Monday to Thursday, I'll do Friday and the weekends," she ordered him.
"It?" The footballer raised an eyebrow. "Her name is Regina," he corrected his partner, protectively holding the BabyBot to his massive chest and tenderly stroking it's back.
"Um…okay," Josie smirked at how seriously he was taking his role.
"Besides, that doesn't really work for me, I have practice on Wednesdays."
"It's not a real child, Reggie. Just put it in your locker," she suggested nonchalantly, shrugging. Besides, there was no way in hell she was looking after that thing for more than three days. Josie and the Pussycats were her number one priority right now.
The baby suddenly let out a series of loud and long heartbroken cries, causing both of her parents to jump in surprise. What the hell, this thing made noises too? Josie desperately wanted to bail—and she was given the perfect opportunity to do so when the bell rag signalling the end of the period. Hurriedly pushing back her chair, the Pussycat collected her backpack from the floor and made a beeline for the door.
"I'll, err, see you around," she threw over her shoulder as she adjusted her bag strap and walked away, leaving Reggie to console the wailing infant.
…
They met again on Friday as agreed.
The baby had a tiny pink playsuit on and a little hat to match. Reggie appeared to know everything about the child and was currently giving his partner the run down whilst cuddling the infant with the tender loving care of a real father. As much as Josie hated to admit it…it was kinda cute. "Regina loves being held and cuddled. Oh, and a word of warning, she cries a lot—like a lot a lot—at night so…"
Josie's interest drifted and before she knew it, she was too busy checking her phone notifications again. "Candy Girl" was blowing up; it was around 50 thousand views right now. All the biggest artists had started out this way. Gosh, what if Beyoncé had seen it and wanted to sign The Pussycats to Parkwood Entertainment just like she had Chloe x Halle?
"Look, Josie, I can't fail this class, so could you please make more off an effort?"
"Mmm?" That definitely caught her attention once more. She was slightly shocked by his grave tone; he was usually the joking carefree type. What was up with him?
She hesitantly took the Bot from Reggie's arms whilst still gripping onto her phone. Was she even holding this thing correctly? Regina gurgled appreciatively. "Sure, whatever…it's only life class, it's really not a big deal. Plus, I'm really preoccupied with my music right now." Josie shrugged, avoiding eye contact.
"I'm serious, my parents will kill me if I don't ace this class." Damn. Parental pressure was definitely something that she could relate to. The sudden strain of his voice indicated that he had a hunger and a desperation to impress his family just like she did. She looked at him tentatively, she never wouldn't thought that he could be going through something similar to her.
"Really?" She asked gently.
He nodded curtly, swinging his arms back and forth, his fists clenching and unclenching as he focused on Regina's snug wool-covered head. Josie read his facial expression and the intensity of his clenched jaw suggested that he was missing her already. "Really," he uttered.
Fine, I suppose I could try a little bit harder. "Okay," she sighed before looking down at their child. "Um, sorry."
…
Regina wouldn't stop crying. It was 1 AM.
The baby girl's distress had been constant for the last 15 minutes. Josie was still bleary-eyed from sleep and she could barely remember Reggie's detailed instructions from the day before. "Shit, why didn't I just listen to him?" The Pussycat groaned, rubbing at her tired eyes. She was lucky that her mother slept like the dead.
Finally she caved and called her partner.
In typical Reggie fashion, he was determined on making things difficult for her. "Hey, babe!" he chirped knowingly upon answering the phone, "It's a little early for you to be calling don't you think?" His tone of voice just oozed smugness, she could him imagine him right now lying on his bed with his beefy arms tucked underneath his stupid big head doing his stupid sexy smirk.
She sighed in defeat, closing her eyes. "I know. But the baby won't stop crying…"
"Okayyyyy?" Josie could practically hear his smile grow in magnitude. Of course he was laughing at her misfortune, "I'm still unsure as to why you are calling…"
"Well, you seem to be really good with her," the stubborn Pussycat bit out, rolling her eyes.
"Why thank you, Pussycat." He chuckled huskily, "Your compliments are totally making me blush right now—"
"Reggie, I need your help, okay?" She finally admitted. Placing an exhausted hand to her forehead, she glanced wearily at the howling infant laying on her bed, "I just thought you would know what to do." There. She said it. Her skin heated up with embarrassment, she was really asking Reggie freakin' Mantle of all people for help. He was painfully quiet—too quiet-on the other end of the phone, but he was probably overcome with glee at her incompetence. "You know what, forget it. This is stupid and I shouldn't have even called—"
"I sing to her," he said casually. The Pussycat cocked her head to the side in surprise as her irritation subsided.
"Really?" She blurted out in surprise. He could sing? "What do you sing?"
"Err, she loves Beyoncé so I sing 'Love on Top'," he explained factually, causing her to scoff. "C'mon don't laugh at me Josie."
"I'm not." She couldn't believe her ears right now. He wasn't bad to look at and he liked Beyoncé? "I just…"
"Can't manage the challenging key change during the chorus?" He queried jokingly, sounding dead serious. He made clicking sound with his tongue, "It's fine, I wouldn't expect your vocals to be on par with Queen Bey's anyway."
"My vocals are just fine, thank you!" She snapped back, holding up a finger.
"Anyway, you know I'd talk to you all night if I could but Papa Mantle needs his beauty sleep," Reggie announced in wholehearted seriousness. "Try not to dream of me," were his parting words before hanging up.
Josie let out an incredulous laugh as she ended the call. Gosh, he was such a jerk.
Yet she had come to realise that he was an asshole of the bearable kind.
The Pussycat gathered the crying child into her arms and bobbed her up down gently. "Err…shhh," she whispered in an attempt to calm Regina Mantle-McCoy down, however the squeals persisted. Then her mother began to sing quietly, "Baby, it's you, you're the one I love…"
...
I can't get enough of McMantle, I can't wait to see their scenes together on Riverdale. What did you think of baby Regina?
Please don't be afraid to leave a review, even if it's just two words or something. Don't be shy lol