"Now, for your next big assignment-"
"AWWWW!" Mrs. Brown's class groaned before she could even finish her sentence.
Mrs. Brown waited until her class was completely silent before continuing her sentence.
"For your next big assignment", she continued, reaching for something behind her desk and bringing it to the surface.
It was a carton of eggs, "I am going to pair you off into couples and give you an egg which will represent a baby to teach all of you responability."
Immeditaly, the students started whispering to each other, smiles on thier faces.
"This is gonna be great!" 17 year-old Lillian Maxwell whispered to her best friend, Tracy Howard who was sitting next to her.
Tracy smirked at her.
"Oh course it's gonna be great!" she said teasingly. "You're hoping to get Sodapop Curtis."
"Shhhh!" Lillian hissed her, hoping Soda, who was sitting two seats ahead of her wouldn't overhear.
"Do you wanna ruin my WHOLE life?"
Tracy pretended to think about the question but putting a finger to her chin and rolling her eyes to the cealing.
"Hmmm, yeah maybe", Tracy told her with a smile.
"Oh, shut up", Lillian said playfully, a smile on her face.
"Ok", Mrs. Brown announced, a baseball cap in her hand. "I'm going to pass this hat around and whoever you get, that person is your husband or wife."
A Soc boy raised his hand, a playful smile on his face.
"What happens if you get the same gender?" he called out, not even bothering to get called on.
"You pick again, idiot!" cried a Soc girl from the back of the room.
The rest of the class mumbled agreements.
"Oh, great! cried the Soc girl sitting next to Soda in disguest as she pulled a piece of paper out of the hat, looking at the name.
"I got Bob!"
"C'mon, Stacey!" Bob cried from his seat a row away in a sing-song voice, a grin on his face. "You know you like me!"
The class erupted in giggles, causing Stacey's face to turn red.
She turned around in her chair, facing him, a look of anger on her face.
"Where in the world would you get that idea?" she demanded.
"Remember last Summer at the town festival where you-"
Bob was cut off by an orange pencil case hitting him in the head.
"Ow!" Bob cried, looking up at Stacey to see her shusing him.
"I thought I told you NEVER to mention that night to me EVER again!" she hissed at him quitely. "EVER!"
"Who'd you get, Soda?" asked Soda's brother Ponyboy who was sitting on the other side of him.
Soda looked at the tiny slip of paper with the magical name on it one more time before putting it in his jacket pocket.
"Can't tell ya, Pone", Soda told his younger brother with a grin.
"You'll just have to wait and see."
"Sodapop?" asked Mrs. Brown, causing Soda to jerk his attention back to the lesson.
"Um, y-yes, ma'am", he stammered, a little embarrsed.
"Who did you get for your assignemt?" asked his teacher.
'Damn it!' Soda thought.
He couldn't keep it a secret anymore.
And besides, he thought with a smirk, why would he want to?
"Lillian Maxwell, Ma'am", Soda replied, causing Lillian's eyes to widen and her heart to quicken.
Right then she wanted to yell out YES and jump up out of her chair, knocking it over, but she didn't.
Instead, she just sat there, knowing her secret crush's and best friend's eyes were on her.
"Ok", said Mrs. Brown, walking over to a boom box sitting on a stool by her desk.
"Now that everyone's been paired up, let's have our first couple come up to recieve their 'baby.' "
She pressed a button on the boom box, the Wedding March filling the classroom.
"Our first couple to become parents is", said Mrs. Brown, dragging it out for as long as she could before saying, "Sodapop Curtis and Lillian Maxwell."
Tracy nudged Lillian playfully.
"Congragulations, Mommy", she whispered.
Lillian smiled. "Shut up", she said teasingly. "You'll get one, too."
She stood up and was about to walk down the alse to her teacher's desk, when she felt someone grab her arm.
Turning her head back, Lillian saw that it was Tracy again, still grinning from ear to ear.
"If it's a girl", she whispered, "name it after your best friend!"
Lillian laughed a bit.
"We'll see", she whispered back before walking down the alse to Mrs. Brown's desk, Soda already there.
Lillian saw Soda glance over at her and give her his 2,000 watt movie star smile.
The one that made her go weak in the knees.
And now, even if it was for pretned, he was her husband.
Mrs. Brown smiled at them before handing Soda an egg from the carton.
"Look at the bottom of the egg", Mrs. Brown told Soda.
He did as he was told and saw that there was a tiny neon pink sticker on the bottom of the egg.
"It's pink", Soda told his teacher in a confused tone.
Still smiling, Mrs. Brown nodded and turned her attention to the rest of her class.
"I should have told all of you this before you got paired up", she said.
"When you get your 'baby', look at the bottom of it. If it has a little blue sticker, it's a boy. If it's pink, you have a little girl. Understand?"
The class nodded, even Soda and Lilliian.
"Also", Mrs. Brown added.
"You will all take on the role of parents. One of you will need to have the egg with you at all times and I need you to record when you feed it, play with it, put it to bed, things like that in a notebook. Any questions?"
A Greaser boy who sat behind Tracy raised his hand.
"How are we gonna do all those things?" he asked. "It's an egg."
"You don't really have to feed an egg", Mrs. Brown told him.
"Just write down an experience similar to it in the notebook."
The class was just about to go into full-talking mode again when Mrs Brown cleared her throat.
"Oh, and one more thing", she said loudly, over the noise, making the kids hush down a bit.
"If any one of you breaks your egg, it is an automatic zero for this course. Understand?"
"Yes, Mrs. Brown", said the students in perfect unison.
That afternoon, Lillian went home with Sodapop so they could get started on some homework.
"We're home!" Soda sang out happily, their 'baby' in his hand.
"Hey, Soda", Darry greeted his little brother, coming out of the bathroom.
"Hey, Lillian."
Lillian smiled at him.
"Hey, Darry."
Darry looked at the egg in Soda's hand.
"Uh, Soda", Darry said to his brother with a small chuckle.
"We have eggs. You didn't have to get Dally to steal one for you."
Soda smiled at his older brother, holding his 'child' closer to him.
"No, it's nothing like that, Dar", he said, walking over to the couch and sitting down, smiling down at the egg as Lillian looked on.
"It's for a school project", she explained to Darry.
She quickly told Darry about their project while he listened and nodded.
"Well, I'm here if you guys need me", Darry told them, walking into the kitchen.
Lillian looked at her 'husband' who was still sitting on the couch, looking at their 'daughter' with a loving look on his handsome face.
'This project is gonna be so much fun' she thought.
'It'll be just like playing house with Sodapop.'
Boy was she wrong!
It was now day six of their two week long assignment and the alarm clock that sat on the beside table between Soda and Pony's beds was going off at 2:00 a.m., making Lillian's red, almost blood-shot eyes pop open.
She was staying with the Curtis' until the project was over, making it feel like a real marriage.
"Soda!" she managed to gasp out under tiredness from her cot across from Soda's bed.
"I-It's your turn to feed Janet!"
"Don't you mean write in that stupid notebook?" asked Pony, though a yawn, his back to them.
Soda yawned, his eyes halfway open.
"Lillian, it's your turn to do it", he yawned.
"No, it's your turn!" she told him, too tired to just get up and do it.
For the next 15 minutes, the couple fought over who was going to 'feed Janet' until Lillian threw the warm covers off herself and stepping onto the cold floor.
She walked over to where Janet lay, in a neat little crib thing Pony had made out of popsickle sticks painted three diffrent shdes of pink, and opened the nearly full notebook to a blank page, writing in the time.
"I hope you know, Sodapop Patrick Curtis", she said angrily, writing in the notebook.
"We're supposed to grade each other on this assignment and as of right now, you're looking at the ugliest F you've ever layed your eyes on!"
"Mm-hmm", Soda muttered, almost asleep.
"Sure thing, Babe."
"ARGH!" Lillian cried as she finished the entry, slamming the book shut and throwing her pen down.
"Bob was THE best husband anybody could ask for!" Stacey gushed to the class a week and a day later.
Lillian looked at Tracy, both of them rolling their eyes.
"...and that's why", Stacey concluded.
"I give my sweetheart an A !"
The classroom applauded as Bob stood up, a proud smile on his face, and took a bow.
"Um, thank you, Stacey",said Mrs. Brown, who was a little freaked herself.
"Our last couple is Mr. and Mrs. Sodapop Curtis."
Lillian stood up and walked to the front of the room, looking down at Soda who was smiling at her once she stepped up front.
Taking a deep breath, Lillian began.
She knew she couldn't tell a lie!
"Sodapop was a great, husband, father, and buisnessman", she said with a smile.
"He works hard at the DX."
Soda smiled, proud of himself as Pony patted him on the back.
"He was also very responable, caring, considerate, hardworking, and honest."
She smiled at Soda, the love she had for him building up all over again.
"He's an A in my book."
The class aplauded again as Mrs. Brown, smiling, said, "Ok, thank you, Lillian, Soda, is there anything you want to say about Lillian's grade?"
Still smiling, Sodapop grabbed Lillian by her arm before she could walk back to her seat.
"Nothing she hasn't already said about me", he said.
"She was an amazing wife, mother, worker, sweet, caring, and everything a guy could ask for."
He looked her right in the eyes.
"I don't want it to end."
Then he concluded, "I'm glad I picked you."
THE END