Laugh It All Off

“Alright class, I'm going to separate you into groups of two for this assignment. Seeing as the parenting teacher no longer works here I've been told that this assignment will be for two lessons – this lesson and that one,” Frank and Mikey's English teacher announced to the class.

It wasn't uncommon for two separate lesson's assignments to be combine together; Mikey once had a Maths and P.E assignment combine because his Maths teacher had been off school with the flu so his P.E teacher had taken over the class and decided to kill two birds in one stone and get the assignments over and done with.

“Alright, so each pair are going to be given a doll to look after. You have to look after them well because if they come back broken your parents will be getting a bill in the post of it. Anyway, you'll have to take turns in looking after the doll; boys that does not mean dump it on the girl and leave it with her. Every other day I expect you to swap as to who looks after it and such.”

There were groans around the room when she announced that. The dolls that the school had were probably the only things that were semi-decent but they never stopped crying. When Gerard brought it home when he was in the year Mikey's in now all it did was cry during the night which not only made him and Mikey cranky but also their parents.

Needless to say, it didn't come back in the house because their parents didn't allow it.

“You will be keeping it for two weeks,” when she said that it made the groans even louder. A fortnight with the babies from hell? Mikey could almost imagine how his parents would react when he brought it home. “Oh shut up it's not even that long; it's only for seven days each. With a real baby you have it for twenty four hours, seven days a week.”

Frank nudged Mikey in the side before leaning over towards him. “Sounds like someone regrets having children,” he sniggered which made Mikey snigger as well. They sat almost at the back so it wasn't like the teacher could hear what they were saying most of the time unless one of them spoke in a semi-loud voice and didn't whisper.

“After the two weeks you will have to write up a three page essay on what exactly you learnt during the experience. That will be the English part of the assignment so it has to include detail so it means that none of you can get away with slacking during this fortnight,” she concluded, lifting the box that was by her feet from the ground and setting it on the desk. “Alright, when I call your names you come up here and I'll give you the doll.”

Frank rolled his eyes before turning completely to Mikey. “I can't believe that they still do stuff like this. You'd think that since this school is turning shitter as the days go on they'd at least drop the dolls and everything. But no, instead they drop music.”

“You just don't want the doll.”

“Genius, Mikey, genius.”

The two boys were brought from their conversation by loud voice. They looked across the room to see their teacher staring at a boy who had a look of disgust on his face.

"I am not being partnered with her! She'll probably put a curse on me or something like that - she's a freak!" he exclaimed, looking at Angharad.

She wasn't even looking up at the commotion; her notebook was far more fascinating for her.

"Now Nathan--"

"I don't care whether I fail; I'm just not being partnered with her!" Nathan exclaimed again which made the teacher sigh.

"Fine. Nathan and Samantha you're partnered together. Come get your doll."

He got up and so did another girl and they made their way to the front of the class.

Mikey shook his head. "Can't believe he done that."

"C'mon Mikey, would you want to be partnered with her? She seems the sort to put a curse on you," Frank said. All Mikey did was glare at him which made him roll his eyes. "I mean it Mikey, she does. She even intimates me sometimes, and I don't even get intimidated over any of the bullies and they're hellva bigger and tougher than she is."

"You're just a wimp."

"And you're saying you're not intimidated of her?"

"I never said that."

"So then you're just as much as a wimp as I am then." Mikey rolled his eyes at what Frank just said.

"Frank and Angharad, you're partnered together." Mikey couldn't help but snigger at Frank's expression when he heard that.

"Don't say anything, Mikey." Frank gritted his teeth at his friend before getting up from his seat and going to the front of the class. Angharad was there too. She wasn't looking at the teacher but rather the doll in her arms.

The teacher explained everything to them, gave them the bag of necessaries that they would need before giving the baby to Frank and letting them go and sit back down.

It seemed all the boys were getting the babies first.

Mikey ended up being partnered with a quiet girl in the class called Alicia. And seeing as they were to discuss how they were going to swap at weekends and stuff, he invited her to sit with him at lunch so they could talk it all over.

Frank didn't invite Angharad mainly because he didn't think she'd appreciate it. And plus seeing as she did snap at Mikey yesterday, he didn't think it'd be too wise for him to just go strolling up to her and invite her to sit with them at lunch.

When they got to the lunch table at lunchtime they saw that Gerard was there already and he had a weird expression on his face. Angharad was standing by it, looking like she was waiting for them. Frank groaned slightly.

"Please tell me she's not actually there, Mikey."

"Okay, she's not there."

Frank narrowed his eyes at Mikey before sticking his tongue out at him. Mikey rolled his eyes at his friend before they approached their table. Angharad looked up from where her gaze was fixed on the ground.

Whether she was wondering as to where the doll was or not, there was no expression on her face.

"If you want, you can give me the doll, I'll note down anything that you need for the essay and I give it back to you at the end of the two weeks so that we don't need any form of socialising," she launched straight into what she wanted to say, no skirting around it.

"Ur.. are you sure?" Frank asked, eyebrow raised at the girl in front of him.

She scoffed. "I'm not doing it for you. I just don't want to talk to you and if we done it like the teacher said then I'd be forced to talk to you, and there's no way I'd tell you where I live either."

“I guess you'll need my address then,” Frank said which made her roll her eyes before calling him a fucker and walking out of the canteen.

“She's such a nice girl,” Gerard piped up.

“Tell me about it.”