|
Post by Bella Swan on Feb 1, 2009 17:00:17 GMT -5
(Late Twilight)
Bella pulled up outside Mike’s house in her louder than life truck, ready to begin this torturous parenthood project. The robot child thing was laid haphazardly on the passenger seat, uncovered, unbelted and completely ignored. She wasn’t feeling very enthusiastic about this project at all, their last before the spring break, though she guessed she could have a worse partner than Mike Newton. Despite his dislike of Edward and the sometimes freaky attraction he had to her, he was a good guy and conscientious enough to not put the doll in the washing machine. She glanced down at the doll and twisted her lips as she picked it up. To be honest, she wished she had this class with Edward, she wished she had all her classes with Edward. In fact, she wished that they had no classes so that she could have more free time with him. But this project, she felt, ought to be hers and Edward’s to share. It wasn’t though.
With a sickening twist of the stomach she remembered that it was Amber Jefferson that he had ended up ‘married to’. The stab of needless jealousy faded and left an uneasy tingling with the pit of her stomach. She knew that she ought not to feel inferior to Edward’s friend, but she really couldn’t help it. She had never pegged herself as the jealous type, the type of girl that felt inadequate in comparison to others. But then, when she thought that, she wasn’t dating a godlike vampire who could have any girl he looked at. She almost swooned when she even imagined that smouldering look, any girl in school could be his. How was she supposed to live up to that? Amber was prettier than her, intelligent; she had bubbliness that Bella’s personality just lacked altogether; she was naturally smiley and seemed to have some kind of connection with her boy. She had been told that humans were naturally repelled by vampires, something to do with survival instinct, which made it so unusual for her to be so open to who he was, but Amber seemed to lack it too – what did that mean? What if he had jumped to conclusions too early when he thought he loved her, what if Amber had the same head freakiness – could he hear her thoughts? She’d never asked.
She hated this feeling, it made her feel ill and she could never talk to anyone about it. She knew she was being ridiculous and she didn’t want to appear to be unreasonable. The feeling had really stepped up the last few weeks as well, when she had begun to join Edward and Bella on their walks between classes. Bella had always enjoyed Edward picking her up at one class and dropping her off at the next, but with Amber there it had changed a little. Though Edward was never shy about public shows of affection, Bella did feel self conscious about it with others around. And they had so many classes together, where she had to make do with biology. What was she supposed to do, rely on her own appeal to him? How could that possibly do?
She took a few deep breaths, closing her eyes to banish the thoughts from her head. If she wasn’t careful she would make herself hyperventilate, or worse, cry. Stupid, pointless, insecure tears. She didn’t want to enter Mike’s house like that, it would only add fuel to the fire. She scooped up the doll in her arms, forgetting to handle it in a sufficiently gentle manner, which set its yelping off. Bella sighed and gritted her teeth a little, dreading the readouts that the monster would give her at the end of the assignment. She hopped out of her truck and marched up to Mike’s front door, without even bothering to lock the truck. She’d be able to hear anyone try to start it a mile away and she had her arms full. She raised her free hand and rapped loudly on his door, her cheeks a fetching shade of scarlet as people looked towards the squealing baby in her arms. This must have been what her mother felt like.
She wondered if she would find it so mortifying if this was Edward’s fake baby that she was carrying. And she wondered if his friend was at his house just then, doing the same thing. She wondered how the other Cullens would take it, she wondered if she would be easily replaced. She knew that Carlisle, who meant so much to Edward, already worked with Amber at the hospital. She allowed herself a small groan to expel the poisonous energy, and, instead of allowing the distracting, useless thoughts from poisoning her expression, she fixed a helpless smile on her face and awaited her ‘husband’s’ assistance in quieting their young.
|
|
|
Post by Mike Newton on Feb 7, 2009 13:24:44 GMT -5
Mike stood impatiently in his bedroom, pacing the floor, waiting for Bella Swan to arrive. He couldn't be anymore ecstatic about this new project. Well, not so much the project but more so his parter, or "wife". Mike had to have been blessed to be able to actually be paired with her, he would be forever grateful to the teacher that had paired them. It wouldn't have been any fun if he had been paired with another girl. Mike could live with the constant crying, screaming, dirty looks, and sleepless nights he would receive from this project thanks to his partner.
He was instantly aware of Bella's arrival, simply by the loud roar of a familiar sounding truck. No doubt it was her that was now parking out in front of his house. Simultaneously with the engine roar Mike swung the door of his bedroom open, causing it to slam hard into the wall, causing a loud slam. That would definitely leave some indentation in the wall, Mike was silently glad that his mother wasn't home, she would have killed him.
He skipped down the stairs, only hitting every other step as he reached the front door. He brushed his pale hair in an attempt to make himself presentable, making sure every gelled spike was in it's correct spot, as he waited for the knock on the door. He could hear the cries coming from the robotic baby that was their project, the sound caused shivers to crawl up his spine. Mike was definitely not one for babies, and he instantly wanted to take back everything he had thought before, about not minding having to care for the electronic monster.
The signal to open the door came quickly and Mike pulled the door open. He grimaced at the doll Bella held in her arms before pulling his gaze up to her face, the grimace replaced with a smile. "Hey," Mike greeted. His eyes went back down to the monster. "Why is it crying?" he asked, knowing that the longer it cried without being cared for the worse their grade would get.
|
|
|
Post by Bella Swan on Feb 15, 2009 21:59:51 GMT -5
“Hey Mike,” Bella responded, glad that he had been quick to open the door. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that he would be waiting for her to get to it, the doll’s crying was taking up far too many of her thought processes and she still wasn’t used to being admired by the opposite sex. She shook her head a little, not waiting for him to invite her in before stepping over the threshold into his house – she was very eager to get the squalling doll out of the public’s eye.
“I have no idea why it’s crying…” she said, in a resigned tone, taking her key and pressing it to the thing’s back in an attempt to make it stop. She shifted uncomfortably, the robot cradled in the crook of her arm and she looked up at Mike with big, brown, pleading eyes. “I might have broken it…”
She swallowed, feeling guilty in case she had inadvertently already failed this assignment for both of them before they had even started it. Maybe that little jerk that it had gone through when she picked it up before had broken something in it. Was it supposed to sound so… unreasonable? She bit her lip a little, taking a couple of deep breaths. “Maybe we should just try to do this logically… do you remember how to feed it and change it? And burp it… what else is there?”
|
|
|
Post by Mike Newton on Feb 22, 2009 23:23:17 GMT -5
"Are you serious?" Mike asked, his eyes popping in alarm. Great, just when he thought he might actually have a chance in this class he gets stuck with a girl that just might have broken the project. Now he didn't expect Bella to be the motherly type, but he also didn't think she'd break the thing. He closed the door after she had stepped through and turned to her.
"Has it been crying the entire time you've had it?" he asked, still worried about the possible fail he would receive. He tried to remember back to the class and what the teacher had been telling them. He probably should have paid attention, but at the time he had found flicking a paper football between himself and a classmate more enjoyable. "What did the teacher say about it in class?" he asked.
The baby had barely been in his house for a few minutes and he was already getting a headache from it's whining. He lifted his hands to rub at his temples when he noticed the red band that was wrapped around his wrist, a metal piece attached to it. He held his hand out in front of him, twisting his wrist willing himself to remember what it was for, when another wail from the robotic monster sounded in the room. Then it clicked what the metal device was for. "Don't we just slam this thing into the back of the kid and then do whatever we need to do?" he questioned, eying the doll that Bella was still holding.
"Here, let me try," he said, taking the monster from Bella's hands. He flipped the baby so it's stomach was resting on the palm of his hand, it's back facing him. He lifted the shirt of the still screaming doll and found the hole that matched the key on his wrist. Slamming his wrist against the baby's back, harder than was necessary, a single beep ceased the crying before it started again.
"Now, don't we have like three minutes to figure out what's wrong with it?" he questioned, looking at Bella again. "Where's the bottle and diapers and stuff the teacher gave us?"
|
|
|
Post by Bella Swan on Mar 2, 2009 21:41:05 GMT -5
Bella grimaced a little and nodded at Mike’s response to her admittance that she may have broken the robot. She knew that he would have been hoping to get a semi-decent grade from this – it was health, not exactly advanced calculus. This wasn’t like other subjects though, this was something that had a physical element and she was endlessly clumsy with everything. She bit her lip, facing Mike in the hallway and shook her head, though she still blushed in embarrassment. “No, I just… uh… well I kind of forgot it wasn’t just a doll back in there in the truck. I think I might have ‘hurt’ it.”
She twisted her lips and looked down at the doll with misgiving, really not enjoying the raspy screams that were getting louder and louder by the minute. She had a sneaking suspicion that these were the ‘neglect’ screams they were warned about; this really wasn’t going well and it had only been a day. One day. “Hmmm… Well, it has a thing in its back to show it what we’re doing to it, but I can’t get to mine without dropping it on the floor…”
She really was clutching on to the doll with clawed fingers – she didn’t need an excuse to drop the thing and seen as she’d already handled it so poorly she figured that dropping it on the floor would be the last straw. Her eyes flicked back up to Mike’s baby blue ones as he twisted the key in front of him and she breathed a sigh of relief. She nodded, quickly agreeing to his assessment and shoved her arms out, the wailing device balanced precariously on her forearms. She watched as he treated it exactly like the inanimate object that it was and she pulled her lip back into her mouth in apprehension.
“Oh Mike!” she exclaimed, gratefully, grinning at him as the robot stopped making the horrible sound. Her face fell as she realised that it wasn’t the end of it, though and she brought her hands up to her head, raking the tips of her fingers into her hairline. Her mouth formed a small, ‘o’ before she turned, threw the door open and ran back out to her truck to fetch the bag of accessories that the wailing robot had made her forget. “Here! We have bottles aaaand diapers aaaand blankets…”
She held up each item as she called it out, now crouched at Mike’s feet. “Ugh, I’m so sorry, I’m rubbish at this. I guess we both have only child syndrome, right? I bet Angela and Ben are acing this right about now.” She rose back up to her full height with a bottle and leaned over the child in Mike’s arms to push the bottle to the doll’s lips. She glanced across at Mike, just inches away from him as she concentrated on what she was doing. “Is this right? How do we know? Should we just do everything?”
|
|
|
Post by Mike Newton on Mar 13, 2009 1:10:06 GMT -5
He watched in disbelief as Bella bolted back out his front door and to her truck, his hands still wrapped carelessly around the doll, not supporting it at all and holding it slightly away from his body. The ring in his ears continued as the brat wailed on, his head throbbing uncomfortably. He stared as Bella quickly returned, the baby's items in tow. He silently feared for the life of any children Bella would produce, unsure if she was graced with an ounce of mothering capabilities. Most of the girls in this class had been ecstatic and looking forward to this project, and here Bella was, causing both of them to fear for the life of their fake doll and the grade they would receive.
Mike couldn't help the uncomfortable chuckle as Bella mentioned Angela and Ben. Those two were honestly made for each other, complementing the other well. Extremely quiet and shy, keeping to themselves, and both having siblings. This project was probably heaven to them, those two would definitely make good parents. "Yeah, you're probably right," Mike agreed, wincing slightly as Bella approached the monster doll from hell with the bottle, fearing that the gesture might possibly cause it to explode in his arms, or make it shriek louder.
But he was relieved as the thing's crying ceased, being replaced by another noise that could quickly get as annoying as the shouting; the sound of suckling sounded from the speaker box within the doll's plastic frame. "I'm going to take a guess and say that is right," he breathed a sigh of relief, still keeping the now slightly quieter doll an arms length from his body. "Here, take it," he grimaced, holding the baby out to Bella, "Hopefully it'll shut up now."
|
|
|
Post by Bella Swan on Mar 26, 2009 19:33:39 GMT -5
Bella’s expression matched Mike’s perfectly as she shoved the fake bottle at the doll, worried that it wasn’t the right thing to do. She couldn’t see what harm over feeding could do, other than make her fake baby grow up to be fake fat or something, but even so… She sighed in relief as the thing quietened down, her shoulders moving down an inch or so as the tension ran out of them. To be honest they had probably already failed, it only took one instance of true neglect and the way that Mike was holding the baby probably wasn’t in any parenting manuals. Her brown eyes flicked up to Mike’s as she kept the bottle in place, wondering if it would stop sucking when it was full. It would be pretty dumb if it didn’t; a real baby would, wouldn’t it?
“Looks like it,” she said, her eyes moving gingerly back down to the robot; it couldn’t spit up could it? Or was that something they were supposed to encourage? She remembered one of the dolls that she had gotten for her birthday when she was little that you fed water to and then had to change its diaper. She hadn’t like it much then, either.
“Ooph, Mike!” she exclaimed, dropping the bottle on the floor as the robot was one again shoved into her arms. Her dark eyes moved in alarm back to Mike’s face and a light blush stole over her cheeks. “I don’t think this is such a good idea… I can’t even keep hold of a volleyball, never mind a squalling child.”
As if on cue the machine began to out put a small whimper, a warning, she was sure, to a full on cry. “Oh no! Now what?”
|
|
|
Post by Mike Newton on Sept 21, 2009 0:48:09 GMT -5
The grade from this project would not be benefiting Mike's grade. He could already tell. The wailing doll was already giving him a headache within fifteen minutes of being in his house. He was done and far past ready to return the simulation doll to the teacher. And by the look on Bella's face he assumed the same was true for her.
It was a relief when he found his hands empty of the baby, he couldn't be held responsible for any damage that may happen. But the calm was soon forgotten as he watched the fake bottle clatter to the floor. He gritted his teeth and winced slightly, waiting for the loud wailing to ensue.
When nothing immediately happened he bent down to scoop up the bottle, just in time with the doll's first warning cry. His hands fumbled with the bottle a bit before he shoved it toward the doll.
"Here, hurry, give it back it's bottle," he said in a panicked tone. He held the bottle carefully to the doll's lips, praying the suckling noise would return. Breathing easier when it did.
"Why did I even sign up for this class?" he mumbled under his breath, looking down at the robot. He was not a kid person. This little project was definitely not for him. Shifting his feet slightly he looked back up at Bella.
"You're holding the thing fine now. Just don't move," he told her. A few more moments of the annoying suckling noise and the doll made a new one, something that resembled a coo and got silent. "Does that mean it's done?" he asked, staring wide-eyed up at Bella he pulled the bottle away.
|
|
|
Post by Bella Swan on Sept 30, 2009 7:43:03 GMT -5
Breathing a sigh of relief as the doll’s whimper ended up easily quashed by Mike’s quick thinking, Bella took the bottle from the blonde boy and held it in place. She glanced across at him, wondering if there was anyone less suited for motherhood than she. From the looks (and sounds) of things, Mike was no more into this exercise than her and yet they had what seemed like an eternity left of this project.
“I don’t know,” she muttered, her tone low as if the quiet baby would hear her talking and react against it. She shook her head. “It seemed like an easy pass at the time – I didn’t realise there would be proper parenthood tests – the theory is easy... I’m never good at practicals.”
She nodded a little, agreeing that she was, for that moment, holding the little robot right, in a way that wouldn’t break bones or cause her to drop it. Her brown eyes immediately dropped from Mike’s blue ones, at first worried about the new sound, but then reassured. She looked back up at her partner, a happier smile on her face as she considered the fact that she could probably put the thing down for a while.
“It sounds like it,” she said, still keeping her voice quieter than normal. “You reckon I can put it down now? I think my arm’s falling asleep…”
|
|