3: Mimi's Rescue
"You did what?!" Sora exclaimed as her eyes widened furiously. Tai was over Sora's house the next day after school to explain their little problem.
"Not my fault. Blame my mom," Tai said cowering like a dog. Sora was so angry and frustrated after hearing the accident that took place at the Kamiya residence.
"Your mother knew about this project didn't she?" she asked viciously.
"Yeah. But I forgot to buy her that bag of flour since we got a bit preoccupied chasing that old woman," Tai said trying to come up with a legitimate excuse. Sora didn't want to accept it but it was true they got side tracked in the grocery store. She let out a heavy sigh and retreated to her room. Tai followed seconds after. They stood five feet from each other with an awkward silence that accompanied them. Sora turned her back on her boyfriend as she crossed her arms.
"Sora, I'm sorry. You can call me an idiot and irresponsible," he announced. Upon hearing his words she spun and took a step forward. A slap landed on Tai's left cheek.
He flinched. "Ouch! What was that for?" He rubbed his cheek. Sora responded. "You're an idiot." He simply let out an 'Oh' dumbfounded. But Sora wasn't done, at least not yet. With her left hand she gave a quick slap on Tai's right cheek to even it out.
"Sora!" he exclaimed.
"You're irresponsible!" cried Sora who waited for his reaction. When she received none she continued, "You gave me permission remember?"
"Are you done yet?" he asked rubbing both his cheeks.
"Pretty much for today," replied Sora smiling.
………………………………………………………………………….
February was over and March approached awfully fast. Matt and Mimi have been equally taking turns caring for Lauretta. It was a Saturday afternoon when Math and Mimi decided to see a movie.
"Two tickets please," Matt said from behind the glass that separated him and the ticket man. The man took his cash and exchanged it with two tickets.
"No Matt it's three," corrected Mimi from behind.
"What?" he asked. "There's three of us," she argued shoving Lauretta in front of Matt's handsome face.
"No Mims. That thing doesn't count!"
"Matt you have to pay for her!" she exclaimed.
The ticket man stared at the couple. He leaned closer towards the glass window and spoke. "Excuse me Miss, you're holding up the line." Mimi responded rather quickly. "I don't care about the line. If Matt won't pay for Lauretta, I'm not going in."
"Uh sir, who is Lauretta?" the man asked Matt. Matt pointed to what Mimi held. "That good for nothing crap."
"Oh, well I'm sorry but you can't bring that in. Only food are allowed in the theaters."
Mimi gave a disapproving look. "You can't do this to us. We paid for our tickets, plus my Matt is willing to pay for it." Matt shook his head as Mimi looked at him.
"Not from what I saw," the man said. Mimi asked for the man's name and it turned out to be a simple Bob. "Look Bob," she exaggerated. "You think you can stop me here? I don't think so! My baby will not be discriminated against just because it's an inanimate object." She stared at Lauretta, "Isn't that right my sweet wittle baby?"
Matt's embarrassment accumulated that he slowly walked away. He wanted to get out of the humiliating situation and considered the thought that he should just drop the class and get a big fat F.
"Move it up there!" said an angry voice from behind. The people waiting in line started to get impatient and cranky.
"Get your damn flour out of there!" a woman said with a baby at hand. Mime whipped herself around to face the angry woman who made that remark. "Let's see how you like it when someone says that you have one ugly, fat, and slobbering baby!" The woman cursed at Mimi who wanted to strangle her. Matt thankfully wasn't out of earshot so he came back to save his 'family'.
"Let's go Mimi. You're making a scene here. I see some securities approaching," uttered Matt while he tugged on Mimi's arm. The couple left the ticket area and returned to the car. He slid the tickets inside his back pocket in dismay. He started the engine when Mimi suddenly stopped him.
"I formed a brilliant idea Matt!" she said, her eyes sparkling with joy. Matt was worried at the thought of his girlfriend's astounding creativity.
"What is it this time?" he said uninterested. He leaned back in his seat to listen.
……………………………………………………………………………
Mimi walked out of the car looking larger than before. Her stomach bulged out as if she was a pregnant woman. Well, she pretended to be one. She was lucky she wore a knee length skit or it would not have looked real. She borrowed Matt's gray sweatshirt, which was bigger than her petite size. How she supported the flour on her tummy was a mystery. When she donned Matt's sweatshirt, it fit perfectly when it came down to her belly. Now all she had to do was act like a pregnant woman and walk like one.
"Ok Matt, you be my eyes. Tell me if Bob sees us and I'll walk with my back turned on him."
"Don't worry about it. I'll cover you." Matt surveyed the area to check if the coast was crystal clear. When it was, they proceeded into the theater. The man who punctured their ticket stub suggested she shouldn't watch the movie they picked because of some very horrific scenes. Mimi reassured him that she'd be fine.
Inside the theater they spotted a place to seat before the movie started. She sat down and made herself comfortable. Ten minutes into the movie she complained how she can't enjoy herself sitting down and Lauretta was bothering her. Matt told her to hush up since the movie just started. Mimi couldn't resist and left for the bathroom. She arrived at her destination and picked a stall at the very end. She went in, locked the door and faced the toilet. She wanted to remove Lauretta to ease herself.
First, she had to take off Matt's sweatshirt. She grasped the side of it, her hands cross-wise and began lifting it up. When she was about to pull if off all the way, the inevitable occurred. She heard a bigplop. The sweatshirt was off and stared down inside the toilet. Lauretta was cradled by the water and almost instantly she wanted to cry. She panicked, not knowing how to save her daughter's life.
"I'm not dipping my bare hands into that water. For all we know deadly bacteria are swimming in it. Matt is so going to break up with me!" she said to herself. She unlatched the metal lock and stepped out the stall. She hustled back and forth in the bathroom looking around to see what miraculous object could be of use to her. She found none. Then it occurred to her. Matt's sweatshirt.
She studied the water's level and to her assumption it went up a bit. She slid her hands in each of the opening of the sleeves. The body of the sweatshirt hung low. Cautious not to dip the sweatshirt, she started twisting her wrist outward, making the fabric thicker on her hands. She stopped when there was just about enough length to cradle the flour bag from the water. She submerged the loose end of the little "hammock" she made and carefully dragged it on one side of the flour bag. She tugged a little and the bag fell on top of it. She untwisted her wrist twice enough to make the "hammock" wider to support the flour. She lifted it up as water poured out from all sides. She hurried out the stall into the sink. She held the sleeves up and freed herself. Mimi made a single knot and carried the flour over to the blow dryer holing the cuffs of the sweatshirt. She pushed the button and hot air came out. She did the cycle five times to dry both the flour and sweatshirt to the best of her ability. Finally she gave up.
She returned inside the theater grabbing the flour by the dry cuffs. She sat down next to Matt who missed her. She set her bundle on the floor.
"Did you have a pleasant adventure while in the bathroom?" questioned Matt as he put his arm around Mimi. "I had quite an interesting adventure actually," she replied.
He glanced at her. He didn't see Lauretta and asked what Mimi had done to her. He was hoping she finally got rid of her. "I thought you'd never ask," she said. "She missed you, you know." Mimi giggled as she grabbed the bundle from the floor and placed it on Matt's lap. He was taken a back when he felt something cold and wet on his lap.
"What the hell is this?" declared Matt surprisingly with a hint of anger.
"I dropped her in the toilet, I didn't want my hands getting dirty so I used your sweatshirt to scoop it up," she said as she stared at the screen. Matt wanted to cry. "Geez Mimi! This happens to be my favorite sweatshirt!" he cried as he took off the wet bundle. "Did you piss before you dropped it?"
"No. I didn't plan to anyways. The water looked bad as it already was!"
"Aw damnit. I can't believe you did that Mims!" Mimi simply laughed.
………………………………………………………………………….
The weekend flew by so quick it was already Monday. Parenting class barely begun. Ms. Vynne walked into classroom pushing a cart covered by a whit cloth. She cleared out her desk and approached the back of the room. She ordered two boys to help her with a couple of medium sized boxes. She had them set it on the floor next to the desk.
"Welcome back to parenting class. I'm glad you survived the first three weeks." She smiled as everyone let out heavy sighs and groans. She asked the class to take out their logs to be collected. "Mr. Kamiya and Mr. Ishida," she addressed. "I see both of you were having a bit of trouble handling your babies. But don't worry, all of that will change."
Tai sighed in relief. "I hope it's for the better." Ms. Vynne laughed. "I'm not so sure if I could say the same to that Mr. Kamiya. But I promise you, it will such an exciting experience for the next three weeks." Tai's relief faded exchanged by the feeling of disatisfaction.
"Ms. Vynne, I'll take the grade I have right now," Matt said. "Which is a C-?" she replied while she took Matt and Mimi's log. Mimi glanced at him sideways and shot daggers at him.
Mimi raised her hand to protest. "Excuse me ma'am. There must be a mistake. I can't have a C-! The fashion business will not accept it!"
"Don't complain to me Ms. Tachikawa. It's best that you and Mr. Ishida have a good talk from now on." Mimi glanced at Matt again, this time with an evil look that could rip your heart out. Matt gulped.
"Ms. Vynne, I think me and Tai-"
"Tai and I," the teacher corrected rapidly.
"Uh..right," Sora said. "Tai and I need a new flour baby. As you can see, it is…half empty."
"Half full," Tai interrupted. "Half empty," said Sora. "Half full!" argued Tai.
"Both of you stop. It doesn't matter whether you think it's half full or half empty. And you will not need new flour for that instance. I have something better," she said smiling. "Today's technology have been cutting edge and one of the best. So, in order to relate that to our class, our school made a contract with the Kozai Corporation. They are the best in artificial intelligence. They took part in making those poochi pets that could respond to your voice and do what you want. And now," she said as she pushed the cart she brought in earlier to the center of the desk. "I have here what would be your most prized possession for the next three weeks."
She took off the white cover and a dozen of what seemed to be like replica of balls, but with a more oval feature, was right before the eyes of the student. They were astonished to what mysterious object their teacher brought them. "I present to you, the Egg Baby 07."
"Why 07?" Mimi asked. "I don't know, they couldn't think of a suitable number so they picked it out of a hat," Ms. Vynne answered. Mimi looked at her confused but shrugged it off.
"Soo…what does it do?" questioned Matt.
"This Egg Baby is the replacement of your flour baby. The rules I have given earlier before I gave your first assignment still applies to this part of the project. However, you are to treat this baby just as if it was real. And I mean real." She took one egg baby from the cart and turned in on. The thing started crying, which sounded like the real deal. "As you can see, this baby was made by the Kozai Corporation. They programmed this egg baby to be like a real baby. It's better than your silent flour baby. It's programmed to cry when you forget to bottle feed it, change it's diaper, and all those other good things. Be like a mom. Act like a mom."
"Soo..what you're saying is this Egg Baby, it's like having my real baby cousin with me? She cries non stop! Can it do that?" Tai asked.
Ms. Vynne nodded. "If it's not taken properly your egg baby will make your life miserable. I suggest you be responsible parents." Sora shot Tai a look.
"And most importantly, do not I said, DO NOT make your Egg Baby crack. If that is unavoidable, you fail," she said. She had everyone get up and take one egg baby per couple and some supplies from the medium sized box. When everyone sat down she said her final words.
"Now the real fun begins."