"For this next homework assignment, you will be partnering with a classmate. The assignment is to take care of a robo baby. " Our Health Teacher, Ms. Gibson, pulled out one of these babies from a large box and held it up for everyone to see. Oh boy, this should be a fun assignment.
"Each baby is going to start with one hundred points, as seen here." She turned the baby so its back was facing the class and lifted the shirt to reveal a red screen with a 100 on it. "Every time you fail to take care of the baby, for example you drop him, a buzzer will go off and you lose one point." A kid raised their hand and asked how both students would take care of the baby overnight.
"One student will take the baby home and the other will come up with a plan for your family's future. I'll hand out a paper that explains what needs to be included."
Setting the baby back in the box, Ms. Gibson went over to her desk and picked up a clipboard. "I've already assigned each of you partners." I zoned out as she called out names until mine was said. "Harper, your partner will be Chase."
I dropped my head into my hands and groaned quietly. And I knew Chase must be doing the same thing even if he's sitting behind me and I can't see him. Really, out of thirty students I get partnered with him?
Once everyone was paired up the bell rang and each couple had to pick up a baby on their way out. I let Chase get ours and hurried out of the classroom to try and avoid a conversation. Unfortunately I wasn't fast enough and Chase called my name while jogging to my side. I glanced at him and did a double take when I saw that he was wearing a baby carrier.
"You're kidding me with that thing right?" I asked with an amused look. It was quite a thing to see, a teenage boy using a baby carrier for a fake baby. Chase rolled his eyes.
"I don't want to lose any points." He explained with a duh tone and I couldn't hold back a chuckle.
"Well lucky for you, I have to get a good grade on this otherwise I'll fail health so…" Chase nodded.
"Good. So what should we name him? I was thinking Chase Jr." I raised an eyebrow.
"You do know it's not a real baby right?" Chase sighed.
"Of course I do. But for the report he has to have a name." He explained and I shrugged.
"Whatever, you pick the name I could care less. If you want it to be Chase Jr then fine." After a second I spoke up again. "But his last name will be McCallister. "
"Uh, if you're my wife then your name would be Harper Davenport which would make it our baby's last name too. " I scrunch my forehead at his explanation.
"Who says I had to take your last name when we got fake married? I think Chase McCallister has a better ring to it. " Chase shook his head and adjusted the carrier before answering.
"When a couple gets married, the girl always takes the guy's last name. " he reasoned with a smirk in my direction. "So for this assignment, your full name is Harper - whatever your middle name is- Davenport. " I visibly shivered at the idea of sharing a last name with a cocky, annoying guy like him.
"Maybe in the old days, but it's the 21st century. I'm not about to be Harper Davenport. And that's final." Chase and I had stopped walking to have a staring contest until one of us gave in. After a few seconds Chase broke his gaze and groaned.
"Fine!" I smirked in triumph until Chase raised his pointer finger, "But I get to choose his career path."
"And what would that be." I asked.
"An astronaut." He stated proudly and I hummed in thought and started walking again.
"I'd disagree on the account of money, but your dad is a billionaire. We'll have to figure out how to convince him to pay for the training or get rid of him." Glancing at Chase whose eyes were the size of saucers I roll my eyes playfully. "I'm kidding!" He relaxed. "Kind of." I smirk at him while he gapes at me.
At this point we've reached the common area and run into Bree, Leo, and Adam.
"Hey guys." Chase said cheerfully. Three sets of eyes land on the baby that was bouncing in its carrier, courtesy of Chase. Leo smiled in amusement.
"Chase, have you been stealing from five year olds again? " He asked jokingly. I blinked and wondered if he was serious or not.
"Ha ha." Chase said dryly, "It's for health class." He explained walking around to sit on the round bench, "Harper and I have to baby-sit a robo-baby for a night." Suddenly the baby started crying and Chase gasped.
He started to speak in a baby voice. "Are you hungry? Yes, you are, my snoogie-woogie-boogie!" I looked at Chase with a blank expression, unsure what to think of this side of Chase.
"Just when we thought he couldn't get any creepier." Bree said and I bit my tongue to prevent a sarcastic remark from leaving my mouth as we watched Chase cradle and bottle feed the baby.
"It cries when it's tired or hungry. Harper and I have to take care of him, because if we don't, we lose a point. Which, of course, we haven't. " He turned the baby and lifted up the shirt to show the 100 on the back. "And we won't, because I have downloaded every childcare book available. I even know how to rescue a baby out of an alligator's mouth." Bree and I glanced at each other weirdly. "Happens more often than you think." He finished, completely serious.
"Where did you download all those books? And when - we just got the assignment." I asked. Chase quickly panicked at his slip and tried to cover it up.
"Uh, Ms. Gibson told me about it yesterday. " he fibbed, and I squinted at him suspiciously. He gave me a nervous grin and rolling my eyes I decided I'd rather not know the truth.
"Ok sure. I'm going to get lunch. "
"I'll join you in a bit so we can talk about the baby profile. " Chase said and I gave him a half-hearted thumbs up before heading to the cafeteria.
Once Chase and I got together we talked - ahem argued- about who'd do what on the assignment. Finally we agreed that he'd bring the baby home because he apparently got into a competition with Adam about who'd have the most points by tomorrow. I'd make the baby's portfolio as long as I let him look it over before class tomorrow. I was fine with that only because I needed a good grade.
I actually started working on the profile and was kind of having fun with it. Weird I know.
Chase and I walked side by side in the common area because he insisted that I at least take a couple of shifts in taking care of the baby when it cried.
It was his turn now and he held the baby on his shoulder and sang softly to it while bouncing his shoulder up and down gently while I watched in half annoyance - half amusement.
" Rock-a-bye, baby, on Chase's shoulder. When you fall asleep, I'll beat Adam at this assignment just like I beat him at everything else " I rolled my eyes as Chase held the baby in front of him and tapped it's nose affectionately.
"Seriously-" I was cut off by someone shouting "Baby on board!". Chase was pushed by a janitor's cart from behind which caused him to drop the baby. The buzzer goes off as the doll cries.
" Hey!" Chase and I shouted angrily when we swiveled around and found that Adam was behind this.
"We just lost a point because of your stupidity!" Adam waved off Chase's complaint and took out a plunger. What is he going to do with that?
" Relax. It was an accident." Both of us watched in horror when he used the plunger to pick up the baby, causing the buzzer to go off again. Adam held the side of the plunger with the baby up to Chase with a satisfied grin.
"Here's your baby." Chase quickly grabbed the robo baby and looked at our score. 98.
"Now I've lost two points! " He growled quietly and pointed to Adam's baby, "And so should you. Give me your baby!" Adam scoffed.
"No!" Chase went for a grab," Too slow!" Adam held up the baby above his head and Chase jumped but it was pointless. "Too short! Too Chase." When he brought the baby down to our level I took the chance and grabbed the baby. Adam was quick to retaliate though and we ended up in a tug of war.
After going back and forth a few times I smirked and let go. The baby went flying and its head ended up wedged into a compartment in the vending machine. The sound of the buzzer and crying was like music to my ears.
"Aw, da liddle guy musta been hungry." I mocked in a baby voice and I heard Chase laugh from behind me. With a smirk I turned to face my partner and we high fived.
"Nice work." Chase said and my cheeks warmed at this. I think this is the first time he's ever praised me for anything.
"Thanks." Tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear I became serious once more. "Uh, are you sure that the baby will be safe with you?"
"Of course!" Chase said confidently.
"You sure? Because we need to get a good grade." Chase assured me again that everything would be ok, "I'm trusting you with our pretend child."
"Trust me. The baby will be perfectly fine and in one piece."
Now, imagine this was a TV show and it swipes from this scene where I am semi- smiling at Chase and trusting him with our robo child to one where I'm holding a beaten and mangled thing by its left foot in mid air and my expression is one of horror.
The poor robo baby looked like it had been cooked alive! Its entire head was black and smelled of burned plastic. It no longer had distinct eyes or a nose, nor a mouth. The plastic had melted and formed a disfigured face that was the product of a nightmare.
Some of the clothing was even singed!
"What did you do to our baby?!" I exclaimed, a small hole burning in my heart like the one on the baby's forehead. I'll never admit it outloud but I'd actually grown attached to our hypothetical child. Poor Chase Jr.
"I can explain! It wasn't my fault! " I scoffed bitterly.
"Oh really?! Let me guess: Chase Jr escaped from his crib in the middle of the night and decided to play with matches?!"
"Actually statistics show that-"
"Chase! " He jumped when I shouted and then pointed to his brother.
"Adam shot him with a laser!" I direct my glare to Adam.
"How dare you turn our child into - creme brulee!"
"Hey, Chase said the same thing. " he said, not caring about how upset I was.
"Oh I'm glad we finally agree on something! Our kid looks like a French dessert!" I throw my hands up and go back to glaring at Chase. "You are the worst father in the history of the world! "
"Hey, you didn't have to take care of him last night! I had to get up every time he cried and do I get a thank you?! No!"
"Oh so now I don't do enough?" I waved the folder in my hands, " For your information, I spent half of the night planning our child's future and now he'll never be an astronaut!"
"It doesn't matter what he looks like! As long as he works hard and is a genius like me he can be whatever he wants! " I rolled my eyes.
"Well he would have learned that anyways since he'd be short, like his father! " I snapped and Chase gasped loudly and took the baby out of my hands.
"How dare you insult me in front of our child! I don't want him to develop your sarcasm!"
"We are going to fail this assignment!"
"Wait, if I turn him in right now, I can still beat Adam." Chase said, totally disregarding my comment. Adam and him looked at each other and sprinted to the door, both trying to open it at the same time. Chase even jumped on top of Adam.
I shook my head as I watched the two of them scramble out the door.
Getting an idea I opened the profile that was still in my hands and scribbled something on the last page.
Chase Davenport mysteriously disappeared on his 20th wedding anniversary, leaving behind an enormous fortune that his wife would inherit.
Satisfied with this I went to leave the Cafeteria, only to step into a weird situation. I squinted my eyes from the random tornado that was in the common area. Hundreds of tiny specks swirled around in the heart of it and gradually went into a strange metal canister beneath them.
Eventually the tornado died down and my jaw dropped when Bree appeared, seeming to be the cause of this sudden unnatural phenomenon. She's able to run at insane speeds and create tornadoes?
I stood there in the doorway, gawking at all this. It wasn't until Bree and Leo who had been nearby turned around, saw me and gasped that I snapped out of my shocked state. I probably looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
"Harper! H-how long have you been standing there? " Bree asked with a nervous voice and I took a step back while shaking my head.
"Long enough. " I said quietly and before they could say anything else I ran back into the Cafeteria and out the back door. I didn't hear them come after me, probably just as shocked as I was from being caught.
I ran as far as my legs could take me, ending up inside an abandoned warehouse near downtown Mission Creek. I ran up a couple flights of stairs before finally collapsing against a wall in a fit of gasps and coughs.
"Ok-Harper- calm - down." I said out loud in between gasps. I put a hand on my chest and felt how fast my heart was beating.
I wasn't out of whack because of what I saw, after all I'd seen Adam hold an air conditioner that was twice his size. The reason why I ran was because I'd been caught seeing them do these weird things. Who knows what they'll do? Hunt me down? Make me disappear? Eliminate me?
My mind was spiraling with all these ideas and I began to panic even more. I hugged my knees and was rocking back and forth.
Come on, get a hold of yourself.
After a few minutes I was finally able to calm down some, enough to realize my phone was buzzing which meant I had either a voice-mail or text message.
Getting my phone out I see that it was a combination of 5 missed phone calls, 3 voice-mails, and about 20 texts. Most of these were from Chase, which meant that Bree and Leo had informed him about what happened. I skimmed the texts from Chase.
Call me.
We need to talk. I can explain.
Please don't tell anyone.
Harper, please answer me! This is serious.
All of the texts from Bree were similar to her brother's. As I was reading the last few messages my phone began buzzing as another call came from Chase. A part of me wanted to answer just to see what he would say, but I knew that would be a bad idea.
I realized that they might try to track my phone and was quick to take the battery out. There. I was off the grid, for now.
Now I need to figure out what my next move is...
This chapter was soooo fun to write. Spy Fly is one of my favorite episodes!
And I loved writing the banter between Harper and Chase over their robo child!