I really had no idea how we were supposed to tell our friends, which was probably my biggest concern. I didn’t know how Johnny felt about me, and I knew Kate would freak out since I didn’t tell her right away. Not to mention Aveline was probably going to try to kill me…

Now that the project I had been partnered with Aveline with was over, our teacher was now assigning us new partners. I knew he wasn’t going to make the same mistake by making Aveline my partner again, but I heard that this partner had to have a boy and a girl as partners.

Mr. Ranch was going through all the names on his clipboard, and I could only hope that I’d be partnered with Zach this time. I didn’t know what this project was, but I knew it’d be so much better with my fiancé as my partner.

It was really weird to think that he was my fiancé. We were both still so young, still in high school, but it was something that we both wanted. And, if you haven’t noticed by now, both Zach and I were really impatient. We didn’t like waiting.

“Alright,” Mr. Ranch now said as he stood in front of the class. “This is going to be your final project in here, which I’m sure all of you are very thrilled about.”

I heard a few kids snickering, but I wasn’t exactly that happy. I actually liked projects when I was partnered with someone I could actually stand…

“I'm going to be putting you into boy a d girl partners and giving you one of these…”

Mr. Ranch then took out a baby doll and I heard people groan, me being one of them. I noticed Kate turn completely white from across the room, and I knew she wasn’t going to be looking forward to a project that was going to be like the rest of her life.

“This is actually a very fun project, if you get along with your partner,” our teacher smirked at all of our faces. “Every senior has to pass this assignment or they can’t graduate.”

How great. Knowing my luck, I’d probably get partnered with someone I couldn’t stand, just like last time. Luck had never been on my side.

“Alright,” Mr. Ranch now said as he looked back down at his clipboard. “Here are the partners. Madison and Sean, Erin and Manny, Cornelia and Sam...”

And I completely zoned out after he had said other names, not one of them being mine. I already mentioned how impatient I was, and right then was no different. I was completely zoned out and I didn't even hear when my name was called.

When I zoned back in, I saw Kate on the other side of the room with a guy named Duke, but they weren’t my main concern. I had to figure out who my partner was before Mr. Ranch found out I wasn’t paying attention and I got in trouble.

When there was a tap on my shoulder, I nearly jumped right out of my seat. I turned to the person who had tapped me, annoyed, only to see that it was Zach smirking at me.

“What?” I snapped at him, and this only made his smirk grow even bigger.

“Wow, so mean to your husband, aren't you?” he smiled now, and I almost gasped as I looked around to make sure no one had heard him.

“We’re not married yet,” I reminded him, in case he had somehow thought that we were already married and not only engaged. “Don’t go around saying we’re married so easily.”

Zach rolled his eyes at me now, as if I was the idiot.  I looked around now, trying to find someone who didn’t have a partner, but found everyone paired up? Was my partner not there, or…

“Are you my partner?” I asked, actually feeling excited for this project now when he nodded and took a seat next to me. “Hmm… This project just got a lot better...”

I looked over to see Aveline scowling at me, and I couldn’t help but feel uneasy around her now that I knew her favorite letter was S, which seemed to be the symbol of the guys that had kidnapped me. I was almost sure that it had something to do with my mother’s family, but there was still a chance I could have been wrong. I had never met my mother’s family before, but I knew for a fact that Aveline hated me. If I was out of the picture, she could have Zach all to herself…

I shook my head, trying to think of something else. I was safe for now, and that was all that mattered to me. As much as I wanted to go to the cops, I knew that I couldn’t because I’d then be putting Zach into danger. That was the last thing I wanted to ever do.

“The first thing we should probably do is name the baby,” Zach informed me once Mr. Ranch placed the doll on the desk in front of us. “Even though we got to skip the best part about having a baby.”

I punched him in the arm, knowing exactly what he was talking about. He laughed, and I couldn’t help but do so as well. I didn’t know when we’d get around to doing something like that, but I was sure it wouldn’t be too soon. We really never had any chance to be alone now that our parents knew that we were together.

“Well, the baby’s obviously a boy,” I informed him, looking into the blue diaper and making a face at what I saw. “That’s just disturbing.”

Zach laughed, picking the thing up and moving it around shaking it around a little bit. Suddenly, an ear piercing scream erupted from the doll and Zach dropped it onto the desk, only making it wail even louder.

“Nice going!” I shouted at him, covering my ears as everyone else in the room did the same. I already wanted to chuck this thing out the window, and I couldn’t believe we were stuck with it for weeks.

Mr. Ranch let out a sigh as he picked the baby doll up, as if the screaming had no effect on him. He rocked it a few times, and it finally quieted down after about a minute.

“These things have sensors, people,” he informed us as he gently put the baby in my arms. “You have to treat it as though it is a real baby. That means you have to feed it, change it, and carry it as through it’s real. There’s also a sensor inside that tells me how much it has cried and how much it’s been fed. This is getting you ready for the real world, everybody.”

The only person that really needed that training during this point of our lives was Kate, since she was the only person out of all of us that was really pregnant. She was supposed to have the baby soon, and she was getting more and more nervous about it as the days went by.

“We need to keep this thing away from Ethan,” I informed Zach now as I placed it carefully back on the desk. “I know for a fact that he’d sabotage it on purpose so we’d get a bad grade.”

Zach laughed at the thought of his younger brother. “Hah. Yeah, you’re right.”

After school, walked around to see that all the seniors were in couples with a baby doll attached to one of their hips. Since they had been assigned to Zach and me during our last period, we didn’t have to walk around school with it like a lot of other kids had to.

But now that it was after school, Zach and I gathered all our friends together so we could tell them about our engagement. He also invited Aveline, which I didn’t think was a good idea at all, but I knew she’d find out eventually anyway.

All of my friends, and Aveline, had their babies with them, since their partners had stuck the dolls with them. It annoyed me greatly that Kate’s partner didn’t take the baby, since she had a real baby inside her and everything, but she didn’t seem really bothered by it. She almost seemed excited.

Both Johnny and Logan were holding their babies while Aveline held her doll over her shoulder. I was surprised that it hadn’t started crying yet, but I was also jealous because I was holding mine like it was actually real so it wouldn’t start crying again.

Todd looked awkward holding his baby, and it would have made me laugh if we weren’t there to talk about something serious. It was obvious that all of us didn’t like this project, but that wasn’t what we were discussing right then.

“So,” Zach started, looking at all our friends and then at me, “Maxynn and I wanted you guys to be the first to know, after our family, that we’re planning on getting married.”

No one said anything at first, and it scared me for a moment. I knew Aveline liked Zach, I knew Todd had liked me, and I didn’t know how Johnny felt about me anymore. He did love me, at a time, so I had no idea how he’d react to knowing that I was going to marry his best friend.

“What?” Kate shrieked, suddenly dropping her baby onto the ground. It started wailing, and Logan quickly bent over to pick it up for her so she wouldn’t have to.

“When you have shocking news to tell us in the future,” Logan started now as he handed the baby doll to Kate, “make sure she isn’t holding our child.”

I nodded, none of us saying anything until Kate’s baby stopped screaming. After a few more moments of awkward silence, Aveline stepped toward me angrily.

“There’s no way I’m going to let that happen!” she shouted, and I was surprise her baby hadn’t started screaming yet. “I’ll stop this no matter what I have to do! Even if I have to kill you, I’ll stop this!”

She turned and stormed away then, and all I could do was stand there in complete and total shock. I now wasn’t so sure if it had been my mother’s family who wanted me dead anymore, and that scared me a lot.

“Congratulations,” Todd smiled at me now, placing his hand on my arm after Aveline ran off like a crazy person. “And don’t listen to Aveline. She’s psycho.”

“Agreed!” Kate grinned, looking like she was so happy that she could have passed out. “Oh, Maxynn! I knew the two of you were going to get together! This is so exciting! You’re going to get married! It’s so cool that you two get to be partners for this project, too!”

Logan smirked at us now that he knew that we were assigned as partners. I didn’t think I wanted to know what he was about to say to us.

“So, you two are like... husband and wife, right?” he asked us in a suggestive manner.

“I guess,” I shrugged, hoping he wouldn’t continue on with this awkward conversation. Even though no one else seemed to think that this was awkward, I definitely did. Especially when we were in front of my ex-boyfriend.

Logan now grinned as he said, “Are you two going to do things that husbands and wives do?”

I blushed deeply and shoved the baby into Zach's chest out of embarrassment. I could have hit Logan, but I knew that I wasn’t going to. I had already hit him before, and I nearly broke his nose.

“Stop talking like a pervert,” was all I said to him now, hoping that my face wouldn’t give away how embarrassed I felt about what he had just said.

I now turned toward Johnny, seeing a look I had never seen before on his face. It bothered me a little bit, because I didn’t know if I was hurting him or not, and I wanted to ask him if he was okay.

“Johnny…” I started hesitantly, not really knowing what I was supposed to say to him. “Are you okay?”

He smiled at me now. “Of course I am. I’m just kind of shocked, that’s all.”

I didn’t know if I believed him or not, but I had to at least act like I did. Johnny and I weren’t going to get back together, and both of us knew that for a fact.

Suddenly, my baby started screaming as Zach held it. I glared at him for a moment before taking it from him, rocking it back and forth in my arms a couple of times.

“This thing only cries when you’re holding it,” I informed him, and he smiled at me sheepishly. “It better not be like that when it comes to our real baby.”

Kate squealed, and I knew she would have been jumping up and down if she could. “Oh, my gosh! You guys are talking about having kids! You’re going to have kids!”

My blush deepened, and I grabbed Zach by the arm and turned us toward the parking lot, shouting, “I’ll see you later!” at my friends before anything else embarrassing could be said to me.

“Well, that’s went a little better than I thought it would,” Zach informed me as he got into the driver’s seat and I got into the passenger’s seat of his car, the stupid baby doll sitting in my lap. “I thought Johnny would jump me or something.”

“Or Aveline would have attacked me,” I sighed.

We drove the rest of the way home in silence, only because we were afraid we were going to make the baby cry if we said anything more. Once we got back home, Zach took the baby from me as we made our way toward the front door.

And it immediately started crying.

“You’re not allowed to hold him anymore!” I shouted at him as we walked through the front door, just wanting to throw this stupid baby on the floor and be done with him. “He only cries when you touch him!”

“It’s not my fault!”

“Obviously it is!”

Everyone in the living room were looking at us strangely, and Zach and I only stared right back at them at first, neither of us knowing what we were supposed to say to them.

“You guys just got engaged!” Brianna cried, looking like she was about to faint. “How could you possibly have a baby? Unless…”

“No!” I cried, not wanting her to think that I had somehow been pregnant all this time. “It’s fake! See?”

I dropped the baby onto the carpeted flooring, which only caused it to wail even louder. I now realized that that was probably a bad idea, since our grade was getting lower and lower as it continued to cry, but all I did was stare down at it.

“And you say I’m the bad parent,” Zach sighed as I quickly picked the thing up and began rocking it.

I now looked at everyone to see what they had been doing before Zach and I got home. I was surprised to see that they were looking through old yearbooks from when they were in high school and old photo albums as well.

“Remember how you had a huge crush on Jessica, Steve?” my father laughed, clapping his hand down on his best friend’s shoulder. This caused Steve to look uncomfortable, but no one seemed to notice this but me.

“How could anyone forget that?” Brianna laughed now, and this surprised me. “He liked her all throughout high school! I thought he was never going to forgive you for dating her!”

“Who said I did?” Steven now said seriously, and this caused the entire room to go completely quiet. I looked at the two other adults in the room, and the two of them looked at each other worriedly. Before any of us could even react, Steve started laughing. “Just kidding!”

He might have been just kidding around, but it was still weird to me. I didn’t even know that he had had a crush on my mom, and I couldn’t help but think that that was a little weird as well.

“Anyway!” my father continued, cutting off the silence that I thought was very awkward. “I’m glad the two of you are home. We were all wondering if you two have decided on a date for the wedding yet.”

I gulped, knowing that the answer was no. I had no idea when Zach and I were going to get married, and I assumed that he didn’t know either. It wasn’t something that we talked about at all. All we knew for a fact was that we were going to get married, even though we didn’t know when.

“As soon as possible,” Zach answered almost immediately, and it made me almost drop the baby again.

My dad and Zach’s parents looked surprised as Brianna nodded. “I agree, I agree!”

It wasn’t that I disagreed; it was just that I wasn’t expected Zach to be the one that wanted us to get married so badly. For the entire time I had known him, he was with a different girl every week. It was strange thinking that he wanted to be with me for the rest of his life so badly.

“But I need to get Maxynn a ring first,” Zach informed his family, and the thought of a ring on my finger made me blush. “I don’t have a lot of money for one right now, but I’ll find a way to get her a nice one.”

“I don’t want you buying me a ring if it’s too expensive, Zach,” I told him, my eyebrows furrowing at him to let him know that I was being serious. “A ring would be nice, but I’d be fine without one. I don’t need a ring.”

Zach shook his head. “No, I’m going to get you a ring.”

I knew there was nothing I could say to make him change his mind, so I didn’t fight back. Even though I did want a ring, I didn’t need one. I didn’t want him spending money that he didn’t have on something that I didn’t even need.

“Her fingers are probably too fat to even fit a ring,” Ethan chirped from his spot on the couch now, and I made a face at him. Instead of making a face back at me like he usually did, he only turned back toward the TV and totally ignored me. Something wasn’t right with him, and I seemed to be the only one that noticed.

“How about this,” my father started now, leaning back into the couch now as he grinned at the two of us. “You can have Maxynn’s mother’s ring. All it’s doing right now is collecting dust.”

I stared at my father in shock, since I didn’t even know that he had my mother’s ring. I thought that it had been destroyed in the fire, but I guessed that I was wrong. Not to mention the diamond on that ring was freaking huge.

“Are you sure?” Zach asked, saving me from having to do so.

“I insist,” my father nodded, and then he smirked when he saw the look on my face. “I’m sure your mother would want you to have it, Maxynn.”

I nodded, still in shock. The thought of having my mother’s ring made me happy, and I couldn’t wait to wear it in memory of her. It would be like I had a piece of her with me for the rest of my life.

“Thank you,” Zach and I smiled, both of us laughing afterwards.

We now heard footsteps coming down the stairs, and we turned to see that it was Elizabeth, who smiled when she saw the baby doll I was holding.

“I had to do that same project,” she told us with a laugh. “Have fun with that.”

I made a face as I looked down at the stupid thing. “We’ll try.”

“Do you have a class right now, Elizabeth?” Brianna asked her daughter once Elizabeth turned toward the front door. “I thought you told me you didn’t have any classes today.”

“I don’t,” Elizabeth shrugged, grabbing her purse that was by the door. “I have a date.”

Every member of her family looked absolutely shocked, and I didn’t understand why. Elizabeth was a beautiful girl, and I couldn’t tell if them looking at her like that was an insult or not. I definitely would have taken it on an insult.

“You have a date?” Zach asked his sister now. “You don’t date! All you do is go to college!”

Elizabeth rolled her eyes at her brother now. “Things change.”

“Who is it with?” Brianna now asked, practically pushing Zach out of the way now to get closer to Elizabeth. “Tell me who it is, tell me who it is! Is it a boy from one of your classes?”

Elizabeth laughed as she opened the door and took a step outside. “I’ll tell you about it later,” she smiled. “I’m going to be late if I don’t leave now.”

The rest of the Deveraux family looked completely stunned, and my father and I just looked at each other in confusion, since neither of us thought it was that big of a deal.

And I thought my family had been the weird ones…

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Some of you don't like that Maxynn and Zach are getting married so soon, but it's really not that big of a deal. Last year, a senior at my school married her boyfriend while she was still in school. So it's possible.

This is for the 2012 Watty Awards! Please COMMENT, VOTE, and SHARE! Don't forget to NOMINATE for Ethan as Funniest Character! Thanks, guys! <3