Monday, Second week of School

It was 6:00 am and Elisha woke up to the the sound of her annoying alarm clock blaring in her eardrums. She slowly opened her eyes and yawned before pulling herself out of bed. The only good thing about Mondays was seeing Reese. That gave her the motivation to get up.

After getting dressed and eating a light breakfast she waited for her mother to come downstairs. Elisha's mother was from South Africa and her father also had greatgrandparents from there but he was born in the U.S. The rule for their household was that a parent should never wait on a child, so Elisha made sure to be ready before her mother on school days. Her mother taught middle school science and started work at 8:30am at Rockford Middle. Her father was already out the house heading to work as a Chemistry professor at Broward College, a community college nearby. He was punctual and often got annoyed with Elisha and her mother for taking too long to get ready. Elisha had an older brother, Noah who was 21. He was attending college in California, at UC Berkeley, with dreams of being a pharmacist. Elisha and Noah were day and night. He was all about his books, did not take dating too serious, figuring the time would come for that in the future. He wanted to be successful and financially stable and make his parents proud. Their parents Amahle and Peter, did not have to worry too much about Noah. He was studious and responsible. Elisha on the other hand, was intelligent and creative, but madly in love with Reese, her first love. For her, the most important things in life were not career success and financial stability. Sure, they were things she wanted.. who wouldn't want them? But her heart's desire was to find true love, get married and have a family. Her parents saw this in her as early as eighth grade shortly after her heart was broken by a boy. They felt it was just puppy love though they comforted her through it, but it paled in comparison to how she felt about Reese.

They began dating in tenth grade. When she introduced Reese to them, her father nor her mother were impressed. They saw Reese as a cocky black boy from the hood. Her mother complained that he was just a smooth talker that would tell Elisha everything she wanted to hear to get her in bed and would leave her. Yes, Reese had a way with words. He possessed the ability to sweet talk any girl out of their clothes, but he had never used that ability. So when Elisha and Reese did have sex for the first time, and he was still around 2 years later, Elisha's parents perception of him started to change. They put two and two together, they were not stupid, they knew she had slept with him. They did have mini-melt downs but they got over it. They could see he was serious about their daughter and had strong feelings for her. Soon enough they realized he truly loved her. They allowed him to come over to their house, preferring it that way so the couple could be supervised. Eventually they let them have more privacy.

Fifteen minutes later, Amahle came down the stairs greeting her daughter, grabbing her protein shake from the fridge, and headed out the door with Elisha following behind her.

Elisha made it to school and walked into the senior hall to her locker to get her English Literature book for Ms.Brockmire's class. So far, Ms.Brockmire and her hadn't clashed and she was actually enjoying her class.
Ms.Brockmire stood up at the front of the class and greeted each student as they walked in, just like it was the first day of school all over again.

Elisha walked into the cold classroom and took a seat in the back.
As the students gathered into the class and took their seats chatting about their weekends, Ms.Brockmire tapped the bell on her desk to get their attention just before the late bell rang.

"Open your books to page two hundred and thirty. We will be reading Hamlet by William Shakespeare."

Elisha could hear some of her classmates sigh and groan. She snickered to herself.

Ms.Brockmire called on students alphabetically by last name to read.
Ten minutes into them reading Hamlet, Elisha's phone lit up on her desk. She turned it over to see a text message from Reese. She read it.

She blushed as memories from their date came to her mind.

"We're going to skip ahead and go to letter D. Ms.Douglas please read" Ms.Brockmire said blinking her eyes quickly, annoyed that Elisha was too busy reading something on her phone.
Elisha looked up at Ms.Brockmire who was waiting for her to start. Elisha had no clue where they were in the story. A girl sitting beside her, pointed to the sentence.

Elisha quickly darted her eyes to the girl's finger then back to her book and began to read.
"Ok thank you." Ms.Brockmire nodded for her to stop reading.
She then spoke to address the whole class but Elisha knew she was speaking directly to her.
" Please pay attention, you never know when I will call on you."
"And cell phones away." She raised her voice slightly while glaring at Elisha.
Elisha removed her phone from her desk.
Elisha mouthed "Thank you" to the girl next to her, who smiled back at her.

~~~~~ ~~~~~

Larissa and David did not get a chance to hang out over the weekend like they planned to do. His mom decided to work an extra shift on Saturday at the hotel and he had to be home to watch his younger siblings. On Sunday he went to church with his mom. Larissa spent the weekend with her parents. They went out to South Beach on Saturday and did some shopping and ate dinner. They also went to church on Sunday. Larissa thought of how much a hypocrite her mother could be. There she was at church trying to organize a fundraiser event to help homeless and low-income families, but yet she would speak poorly about David and his background, claiming he had nothing to offer Larissa.

Flashback

Tonight was the night Larissa was going to introduce David to her parents. She had already gave her parents a heads up that he was not black but he was a minority. They were all for black love and for seeing black people win, own businesses, and climb up the economic ladder to success. She thought that him at least being a minority was the next best thing for them.

David's cousin dropped him off to Larissa's house. He was in awe of how large and beautiful the house was. He walked up the steps and knocked on the door. Evelyn answered it.
"Hello Mrs. Moore, I'm David, nice to meet you" he smiled extending his hand for her to shake.
"Oh" Evelyn looked him up and down and feigned a smiled grazing her fingers across her pearl necklace, studying him.
"Nice to meet you" she said shaking his hand. After the handshake, she hesitated for a second and David kept a smile on his face feeling the awkward tension between them.
"Come on in" she finally said opening the door for him to enter.
Larissa's dad Andrew came downstairs with a smile.
"Andrew this is David, Larissa's friend" she introduced him.
"Boyfriend" David nervously smiled correcting her.
"Right.. boyfriend" Evelyn repeated before she turned on her heels and walked away to find Larissa.
"Nice to meet you" Andrew gave David a warm smile and a strong hand shake.
"Nice to meet you too Mr.Moore" David smiled, feeling some relief.

"Call me Andrew"

"Larissa!"Evelyn called out.

Larissa descended the stairs as David watched her. His eyes were fixed on her, his lips slightly parted as he was in awe of how beautiful she looked. She wore a long fitted black dress that complimented her figure and showcased her curves.
He had never seen her dress this way. She usually wore trendy clothes and was really into Nikes, and had them in every color combo you could imagine.

"Larissa dear, David is here" Evelyn said as she also took in how beautiful her daughter looked.

Larissa hugged David and they smiled at each other. It was obvious to her parents that they were in love.

Danielle came downstairs to meet David. She was nice and David thought she was beautiful just like her younger sister.

They sat at the long dining table and passed around the dishes Evelyn prepared.

"So David, what do your parents do?" Evelyn asked spooning a small amount of mashed potatoes onto her plate.

"Um, my mom she's a manager and housekeeper on the side".

"Where is she a manager at?" She asked.

Larissa silently sighed and rolled her eyes.

" McDonalds" David said.

"Oh..I see she's a hardworking woman." Evelyn said raising her eyebrows.

"Those customers are not easy to deal with" Andrew chuckled.

"Yea they're definitely not" David smiled.

" And what about your dad, what does he do?" Evelyn asked before placing a piece of broccoli in her mouth.

David felt his heart rate pick up.
He made eye contact with Larissa who was looking at him, with an apologetic expression. David quickly shifted his gaze back to Evelyn.

"Mo--" Larissa began to speak attempting to change the subject.

"He's in the service..the military". David spoke up.Larissa looked at him and he quickly looked at her before glancing back at Evelyn.

"Oh, thats wonderful, please thank him for me".

"I will" David smiled and nodded.

Evelyn continued to ask him questions about his future career goals and his interests.

Dinner came to an end.Andrew shook David's hand again and offered to drive him home. David thanked him but declined. They told him good night.
Larissa apologized for her mom's interrogation session at the table.

"Im sorry about my mom" she sighed rubbing his arm.
"Its ok, you warned me about her" he chuckled.
"That was a good comeback, your dad being in the military" she smiled.
"Yea..it sucks I have to lie about it" He looked down then back into her eyes. "I like your pops, he's pretty cool".
"Yea, he is. You have to be to deal with my mom." They laughed. Larissa waited with David until his cousin came to pick him up.

End of Flashback

Larissa sat in her first period class, Early Childhood Education, with David seated next to her. They talked about their weekends before the bell sounded and Ms. Adams began to speak. Ms.Adams was a very straightforward, blunt teacher. Her skirt was a little too small for her and she wore alot of jewelry. The guys definitely labeled her teacher bae. She was attractive and seemed pretty chill as long as you didn't disrespect her.

"So usually I save this to the end of the year but being that yall are seniors, and some of yall think you're grown, Im gonna pull out the babies now."

The class cheered.

"Babies?" David said confused.
"Yay! thats the only reason Im taking this class" a girl seated in front of Larissa said, not loud enough for Ms.Adams to hear.
"Javon come pick up this box for me please. Put it over there please"

Javon got up and lifted the box and placed it on a table. Ms.Adams and Javon began opening the box and pulling out the life-like dolls designed to cry when they were hungry, sleepy, needed attention or their diaper changed, or for no reason at all.

Larissa frowned "those are some ugly babies". David laughed. "They have some big ass heads". He added.
Ms.Adams called the students one by one to get their dolls.

David was called up and Larissa laughed as he was handed his doll. All the girls would laugh at the look on the guys' faces when they were handed their doll.

"Can I just share a doll with my girlfriend, she's in this class. She's right there." He begged Ms.Adams.

"Oh thats your girlfriend? Cute couple" she smiled. "And No.." she said, the smile quickly disappearing.

David sighed "Dang"

David returned to his seat holding the doll.

"Remind me again why I chose this class".

"For me" Larissa teased him.

"Its an easy A" she added.

"I didnt know I would be walking around school with a doll. This is not a good look." He shook his head.

Larissa hadnt thought about that part. He was a football player after all, and he would definitely look silly walking around with a doll, wearing his football jersey on game days. He would look silly carrying this doll around, period.

"Dont worry, it won't be so bad. Look at it as a chance to challenge male gender norms" Larissa smirked.

"You funny, so why dont you stop shaving your legs, and challenge female whatever you just said."

"Umm..I'll pass" she laughed.

"Thats what I thought". He smirked.

Ms. Adams spoke after everyone was given their doll.

"So this beautiful child will be yours until the beginning of October. They will eat with you, sleep with you, go wherever you go. They will cry when they need something and its your job as their parent to figure out what that is. If they are hungry and you give them their bottle, they are designed to automatically stop crying. If they need attention and you hold them just the right way they will stop crying."

A student raised his hand.

"What is the purpose of this? We all know babies have needs" he asked.

"Im glad you asked" Ms.Adams smiled.

"The purpose is to teach you all that sex has consequences, one of them being a baby. Teen pregnancy is still on the rise in this country. Teens sometimes dont think about the repercussions of unprotected sex which leads to higher abortion rates, mental health issues, more high school dropouts and single mother homes. The saying goes "momma's baby, daddy's maybe".

"What the fuck" David chuckled.

Some students started to laugh at Ms.Adam's last comment.

"We hope that this experiment will give you some insight into the stress that can come with having a child, especially when you're still one yourself". She said raising her eyebrows before she turned and walked back to her desk.

"Oh and all your teachers have been made aware of the experiment and they expect to have crying babies in their class. And they will let me know if you are neglecting your child."

The bell rang and class was over.