At Casper High School, it was like every other school in the world. Where teens worried about grades, popularity, getting dates, and what to do with their future, all the while battling the tortured hell that was puberty. At the lockers was a teen girl named Valerie Gray. She isn't worried much about her life since her dad got a high-paying job that made her teen life a luxury both at home and at school. Because if you were wealthy and attractive, you would be popular, or what Casper referred to as "A-listers."
Valerie doesn't mind being an A-lister; she's got friends who had parents that had connections to people with a lot of power in the town, plus she gets invited to a lot of parties. She took a health book out of her locker. She felt a tap on her shoulder; she turned around to see the resident techno-geek and wannabe ladies' man, Tucker Foley.
Valerie frowned; she asked the geek, "What do you want?"
Tucker tried to act sly, "Oh nothing, I was hoping that you and I would go out on a romantic date." He flashed a smile.
Valerie closed her locker. "As if I want to date a geek like you," she said.
She tried to walk off, but Tucker stopped her in her tracks.
"C'mon, think about getting hooked up with Tuckster."
"Ha, yeah, right now beat it."
Valerie walked away from the geek and headed to her class. She noticed Tucker walking back to his friends, the goth girl Sam and the freak Danny, who wore something different today. It was a black jacket with a red pentagram on the right sleeve and bat wings on the other sleeve. She would be lying if she didn't think that jacket was cool, but that doesn't make Danny less of a freak who has been acting weird for the past three months, like coming to school with some bruises with her friend Dash claiming that he had nothing to do with it. She ignored the boy and just kept on walking to her class.
Once she got to health class, she sat next to her friend Star. They chatted about clothes and the latest party coming up in four weeks. Once everyone came to class, including the previous trio, and the late bell rang, their teacher, Mr. Lancer, started talking about raising and taking care of a child.
Valerie thought about having kids someday, but that was when she got a career and met someone trustworthy.
At the end of his lesson, Lancer walked out of the class for a moment and then came back in with a cart full of flour that had diapers, speakers, and faces. This made everyone in the classroom wondering what the teacher was up to with the flour.
"Okay, class today, you will all be assigned a partner to take care of one of these babies." Lancer takes the "baby" out of the cart and shows it to the class. "The better you care for the baby, the higher your grade you'll get."
Valerie rolled her eyes at what a ridiculous assignment it would be, and she hoped she would partner up with Star for it. Mr. Lancer started assigning people to their partners, like a jock partnering up with a snobby girl, a neat freak with a weird kid who collects beetles. The most interesting pairing was Tucker and Sam; she would laugh at that until she realized that everyone was partnered up except one boy.
"The last pair would be Valerie and Danny," Lancer called out, leaving some of the students snickering while Danny shrugged it off.
Student pairs came up to Mr. Lancer's desk to receive it when Danny and Valerie came up to his desk; she asked her teacher.
"Can I switch partners?"
"What's wrong with Danny? "said Mr. Lancer.
"He's much freakier, no offense."
"No offense, but I'd rather work with fresh roadkill than you."
Valerie didn't expect Danny to talk back to her like that.
"No, there will be no switching whether or not you two are parents, so work out your difference, or you both get failing grades."
Lancer hands them their baby, who giggles through the speaker. The two walked out of class, and Danny gave Valerie the baby.
"Why are you handing this to me?" asked Valerie.
"Because I've got to work after school, so you take care of Bob for now," said Danny.
"Bob?"
"I couldn't think of a good name for the baby."
"Can't you watch while you work?"
"Oh no, there is no way I can watch it. Besides, it's safer in your hand than any of my co-workers."
"And what is this job of yours?"
"Taking care of people's last wishes."
"What?"
"Nevermind, just take care of it for now and come by my house in the afternoon. I'll take care of it. "
"But.."
"Good. I have to go see you later." Danny walked off, leaving Valerie confused, and the baby started to cry. She thought, "Fuck me."
Later in the day, she managed to get the baby to stop crying and head to Nasty Burger to hang out with Paulina and Dash. They sat at a booth near the window and talked about her baby.
"Wow, you have to take care of a flour like a baby?" said Paulina.
"Yes," said Valerie.
"With that Fent, that had to suck," said Dash.
"Yeah, he gave me this and went off to some job."
"What job?" asked Paulina.
"No idea, he just said, "taking care of people's last wishes."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"I don't even know."
"Maybe he's a janitor at some shithole around here," said Dash before taking a large bite out of his burger.
"Hm, probably maybe that way he's acting freakier. But I think I saw him on Instagram at a Verosika Mayday concert. "
"Oh yeah, what was he doing at the concert?"
"It seemed like two college girls were swarming him. Sluts. "
Please, that freak with two college girls only exists in his wet dreams. What do you think, Valerie? "
"Yeah, he can't be any girl here. There's no way he could be at some concert."
Valerie couldn't wrap her head around Danny being with two college girls, not to mention how pissed Sam would be if she found out that the guys she had a crush on got some ladies she wanted as well. It does make good ammo if the goth girl gets too mouthy about her. Later in the day, Valerie came by Danny's house to give Bob to him, but to her surprise, he arrived home with some confetti in his jacket and hair. He was talking to someone on his phone.
"No, I'm going to name the baby that…because I don't want my teacher and parents to have a heart attack... Ew, goodbye." He looked to see Valerie, "Oh, hi."
"Who were you talking to?" said Valerie.
"My boss."
"And why are you covered in confetti?"
"We're celebrating 150 days of the company."
"Alright then, here, Bob," said Valerie, handing the baby, who giggled when Danny held him.
"So how is he?"
"Fine for the most part, and try not to screw up my grade,"
"I wouldn't even dream of it."
Before Valerie left, she asked Danny, "Where did you get that jacket?"
"A co-worker from work who saw this jacket while shopping with her husband thought I looked good in it."
"Ah, at least she has good taste." Valerie walks away.
Valerie still thinks Danny was a bit of a freak, but he's an interesting freak rather than a boring one.