“You’re fucking kidding me, right?” I scoff.
Jackson shakes his head. “This is ridiculous. Do you realize that I’m a senior? After this next two weeks, I’m out of here.”
“So be it, but I’ll be discussing this punishment with your parents, and after having to deal with them so regularly, I’d believe they’d be more than happy to continue this into your summer.”
“Fuck.” He’s right. Mom would be so down for this.
Watkins grins to himself, clearly very proud. He grabs the baby doll and goes quiet as he gets it set up for the next two weeks of hell. A minute later, the baby starts crying and he looks up at us expectantly.
I let out a sigh as I reach for the stupid thing. “You’ve got to be kidding,” I grumble under my breath.
Principal Watkins stands and Jackson and I raise to our feet as the baby screams in my arms. “You’re going to want to settle that baby,” he warns. “This will show up on your report.” I scowl and curl the baby into my arms, giving it a soothing bounce as I go.
Watkins looks thoroughly pleased and waves his arm toward the door, dismissing us. “Stop by Mrs. Greyson’s classroom. You’ll need to pick up a bag of supplies to be able to achieve satisfactory results. Oh, and one more thing.” Jackson and I look back at him, each of us more pissed off than the other. “Your baby is going to need a name.”
Chapter 12
Jesse
I glance in the back of my Range Rover, looking at the baby in the car seat who’s finally sound asleep. That thing has been crying all afternoon, but lucky for us, Elle has already completed this course in her Early Childhood class and was able to show me how to get it to sleep. Though I’m dreading when it wakes up again. Jackson and I have already had three arguments over this shit, and two of them include how to put a diaper on a baby.
The next two weeks are going to be awful.
I don’t know what Principal Watkins was thinking of pairing me and Jackson up like this. I don’t know what’s worse, having to parent this loud as fuck doll for two weeks or having to do it side by side with Jackson Millington.
I pull into my drive and hash in the code for the gate as Jackson pulls in behind me. The massive gates open and as I slowly make my way down the drive, I find my eyes on the dick behind me.
This is going to be interesting.
How the hell am I going to make it through the next two weeks? Hell, and to think if we don’t pass we’ll be repeating this shit over and over until we can get it right. I have to give it to Principal Watkins. Up until now, his punishments have seriously been lacking creativity, but I can’t fault this one, this is the act of a desperate man who’s begging for peace within the walls of his school.
I bring my car to a stop right by my front stairs. I jump down from my Range Rover and hurry around to help Kaylah who’s struggling to get the baby out without waking it. I grab the bag of supplies from the backseat and we make our way up to the house with her brother wordlessly trailing behind us. Seeing mine and Kaylah’s relationship up close in person like this probably isn’t going to be a walk in the park for him, but I don’t really care. In order for the next two weeks to work, he’s going to need to get over it.
We’ve only had this baby for two hours so far, and they’ve been some of the most challenging hours of my life. Just trying to settle on a name for this baby with Jackson was torture. He wanted Lucy while I like Christy. I can just see it now, it’s going to end up with a hyphenated first name and last name; Lucy-Christy Ryder-Millington. It’ll be horrendous.
We make our way into the house and Kaylah lies the baby down on the couch before pulling a rug over it and making it a nice little bed, and in our desperation not to wake it, we crack the window of the den and make our way outside to lounge around the pool. I keep my hands off Kaylah for the time being just to make shit easier, but it’s killing me. I hate having her so close and not being able to touch her.
I’m not going to lie, chilling here with Jackson is certainly not my idea of fun and it doesn’t go unnoticed that Kaylah is always right there, acting as a buffer between the two of us. Kaylah babbles about random shit, trying to keep the peace, but the scowl on both mine and Jackson’s faces aren’t going anywhere.