How Exactly Are We Supposed to Do This?

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Monroe had put off taking home ec class until his senior year for a reason. He sucked at everything it involved. Cooking, sewing...carrying around a flour baby. Actually he hadn't known that was part of the class until he was randomly partnered with a girl and told that they had to take care of a sack of flour, which Monroe really didn't understand. Couldn't they just leave it sitting in their dorm and it would be fine? What exactly did "taking care of it" mean?

He stopped in front of Rain's dorm room, his partner in this project. She had taken the flour baby to begin and he knew that he just couldn't avoid the situation and they needed to figure out a schedule or something. The whole thing was just very strange.

He knocked on the door, shifting from one foot to the other.

[Rain Tseung]

Rain was super excited for this project, just because she loved the idea of being a mom. And being sixteen wasn’t a good age for having an actual baby, so she had to make do with a practice round with the flour baby. Though she was kind of hoping for Jack and John to be her partner/s in this, and she really didn’t like who they had actually got partnered with hearing the rumors about both of the people’s. She knew it was horrible to judge people from rumors, but this was Jack and John! She had to be judgey with them, what if this project made them not like her anymore? And move on to being friends with their partners. No she didn’t like it, she didn’t like it at all.

If Monroe would have asked her why they couldn’t just leave the flour in one place, her answer would be because a few teachers could read their minds here and they could totally fail. Not to mention there were teachers and janitors watching them to make sure they had their flour sack with them.

She heard the knock on the door and skipped over to it, yes she was this excited. Opening the door with a grin on her face, she waved at Monroe, “Hi! I can’t believe we are doing this together!” The up side to this was that she got to make a new friend! And that was always exciting.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

When Rain opened the door, Monroe raised a hand in an awkward greeting, a sort of half wave that showed just how much energy he didn't have. She on the other hand, had a lot of energy. "Hey," he replied. "Yeah, me neither..." Man, this was awkward for him. "So, where's our baby?" He rubbed the back of his neck and wondered how she could be so excited about this? The project just wasn't very realistic. Nothing against Hammel or the curriculum, but he just wasn't feeling it. A bag of four?

[Rain Tseung]

Rain frowned a little at how…. Unexcited Monroe seemed to be. It made Rain a little sad, how was she supposed to be happy and excited when he wasn’t? Should she be less happy? She should try less happy….? Would that make a difference? Could she fake being not happy? This was hard! She hasn’t meant someone who wasn’t some sort of happy before. She started thinking that maybe it was her… Was it her? Did she do something wrong? Maybe he didn’t like her.. Could that be it? Could he actually not like her? Maybe it was because she was too excited… However, she was excited to be making a new friend, yeah they were in the art club together but they never really talked to each other… “Hmmm in my room, Follow me. Oh uh close the door behind you, please?” She lead the way to her room, which had shelves on the walls with plants littered along them. Her rabbit cage sat on her dresser however her rabbit Ribbon roamed around her room, who was now chewing on a thick slice of carrot on her bed. “Be careful of Ribbon…” She walked over to her desk, “Here!” She held him up or Monroe to see. “I crocheted him a diaper! See.” She pointed to the flour’s ‘butt’. Oh, was she being too excited again?

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Monroe didn't need to be a mind reader to look at her and know that she had a million things running through her head at the same time. Her face told him that. It was a minute before she spoke and when she did, he nodded. "Yeah, sure." He shut the door behind him and followed her to her room, chunky combat boots clunking. He felt slightly awkward, maybe it's because she was a girl and while she was in art club, and he'd seen her before, he didn't really make much of an effort to befriend anybody, which was probably something he should work on. He was just so tired.

His eyes widened as they landed on the rabbit just sitting on her bed eating a carrot. Was that allowed? And what did be careful mean? Did Ribbon bite? Or did she not want him to sit on him? Did girls assume all guys were careless and going to break things?

When she crossed to her desk, he was still looking at the rabbit as she held up their flour baby and when he finally looked over at her, he smiled sheepishly. A crocheted diaper. She'd really taken the time to do that? Talk about committment. "Oh, wow. You must have a lot of time on your hands," was his reply. Shit! Why did he say that?

[Rain Tseung]

She did not think that he was going to sit on her baby. She had only wanted to let him know that she had a rabbit, and that he was roaming around her room. If he didn’t sit on her baby, she would never forgive him, and he would have to deal with a crying girl… Ribbon did not bite, he only bites on his carrots and toys, and some plastic stuff…

His reaction to her dipper was not one she had excepted. “I…” She felt so defeated, she was trying everything, and Monroe just didn’t seem to care. She sunk into her computer chair, “I.. mean not really..” She tried to think of an excuse to have made it, “I had made it to put on my Etsy.. To sell… Hmm I was using him as a model..” ‘him’? Did she really just call the flour a him, she should have just said ‘it’. The guy already didn’t like her, he must think she was just some stupid little girl…

Rain picked up her phone and sent a group text to John, and Jake, ’I don’t think my partner likes me… How are your partners?’. She looked at the sack of flour. The guy really didn’t seem too set on this project… Maybe.. “I.. Hmm I can keep it… For the length of the whole project..” She turned around to look at him. “I mean, it would be an easy A for you…” Why wouldn’t he take it? It would be an easy A for her too, she didn’t mind taking care of the flour.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Monroe could tell he'd hurt her feelings and he instantly felt bad and scrambled to make it better. "I didn't mean it like that," he said, rubbing his temples. "You're just really committed to this project. It surprises me. Nobody is really taking it seriously." There. That was better, right?

Now she was texting on her phone, probably avoiding him. Man, he was really messing this up. "I don't take advantage of my partners," he told her. That's what he'd made her think of him, that he was just some user. Man, his apathy from being so worn out really gave people the wrong idea. He didn't mean to come off that way at all. "I like to earn my grades. And that's really unfair to you." He sighed. "Honestly, I'm sorry if I come off rude or something. My power...it leaves me really exhausted."

[Rain Tseung]

Rubbing the back of her neck she shook her head, “No no it’s fine.. I know I am.. I’m pretty committed to everything I do.. and it’s just doesn’t help when I dream of being a mother in the future..” She looked tenderly at the sack of flour, she couldn’t wait to make things like booties, and baby blankets, and dresses, and jackets, and just be a mother who cares. She looked at him, “So, I’m different, but you’re not, because you aren’t taking it seriously either, I can tell. You’re just like everyone else.” She turned away from him again, he didn’t care, and it wasn’t just about the project. “Would you be like this if you got some girl pregnant? Would you end up not caring and just being there because you had to?” Wasn’t that what the project was really about?

“You have a funny way of showing it.” She said softly, he didn’t seem like he couldn’t care less about this project, and here he was saying he didn’t take advantage of his partners… To Rain not taking advantage would be to actually care, and show it. She got up and then picked up the ‘baby’, walking over to Monroe, “Fine, earn it then. It’s your turn right? That’s why you’re here, and why you’re still here, so take him.” She took a deep breath and sighed, “it’s fine, not a big deal, right? Cause no one’s taking this seriously, so why should you, or me for that matter.” She gave a small shrug, repeating his words, he wouldn’t have come off rude if she hadn’t been taking the project as seriously as she had, so maybe she should stop caring.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Monroe practically stood there with his mouth agape. The girl really didn't hold back, she told him exactly what she thought. For a moment, he could have sworn he was talking to Eloise, only Rain wasn't blonde or as seemingly high maitenance. What she was saying actually got to him though, because it wasn't true. Did he really give off that impression to everyone he met? "I'm not like everyone else, okay? I'm just--" What? Tired? He was sick of telling everybody how exhausted he was and how much it took a toll on him. If they couldn't see the bags under his eyes, that was them missing something vital. He shouldn't have to explain himself. It wasn't a lame excuse like everyone thought it was when he said he was tired. He wasn't just tired, he was deprived of sleep and sort of unhealthy because of it. But this girl didn't seem to care and thought of it as bullshit, which he couldn't blame her for. He was a teenage boy, wasn't that what girls her age thought they were like?

He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped when she continued, mentioning a hypothetical pregnancy. His eyes widened. "First of all, I would not get somebody pregnant." Not to mention, it wasn't like he slept around or had slept with anybody. "And if I did, I would take responsibility." She was really making him feel like a bad person. And he was actually getting defensive.

He took the sack of flour before she threw it at him (which is what he imagined would happen). "Yeah, okay. It's my turn." He thought maybe she was coming around and then...she wasn't. "That's not what I meant. I just meant that most people's attitudes about this project aren't like yours." He wanted to face palm.

[Rain Tseung]

No! There was no excuse to be lazy, she didn’t care if he was tired, it wasn’t a good reason to be lazy. If he really had a hard time sleeping then he should try sleeping pills, or energy drinks to help him stay awake or something. There was no excuse for someone being lazy or uncaring. “You aren’t showing it… You don’t care, and no one else does either..” No one understood… they just thought she was some little girl who found joy in everything, they didn’t see the importance of this project.

She looked at him with stern face, almost a death glare. “Take that back! Because that’s a lie! You don’t know what would happen, you don’t know if you will or not. Unless you never ever have sex till you get married and actually plan on having children. Birth control is not a hundred present protection, neither are condoms, and the people who think they won’t get a girl pregnant because they use protection are dumb.” Though, unless he was gay.. then he won’t be getting anyone pregnant… “Taking responsibility, and caring are two different things. And that is what this project is about. You might be taking responsibility for the project but you don’t care about it.” Why didn’t anyone see that? If they aren’t going to care now with a flour project, than what would make them care if they had a baby. Tears started to form in Rain’s eyes as she thought about how her birth parents probably hadn’t cared about this project either.

She turned away from Monroe, going back to her desk and sinking into her chair as she whipped away her tears. She didn’t know what to say to him, and she wouldn’t have thrown it at him, she wasn’t a violent person. “That’s because most people don’t get abandoned by their birth parents…”

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

Monroe wasn't sure how exactly he'd set this girl off, but he'd sure done it and it occured to him that this project was not going to go well. "You can't tell me I don't care." How was she supposed to know how he felt about things? She was assuming things, and him saying he was exhausted had no effect on her. It didn't make her sympathetic at all. He wasn't used to making enemies. Most of the time people liked him enough to make small talk or just leave him be. But Rain was a different story...

"How do you know that I'm not saving myself for marriage? I could be gay for all you know, and I really don't think I need a sex education lesson from you." This was completely uncalled for, and while Monroe's voice wasn't being raised, mostly because he just wasn't one to express anger, he sure felt it. "I'm taking responsibility for this project, because it's the right thing to do and it will get me one step closer to graduation. I don't understand how that's uncaring in your book." She'd turned away from him violently to sit down in her desk chair.

Well, shit. What she said next... Was that where all of this was coming from? Is that why this project was so important to her? "That's rough," he said, unsure of what to really do in this situation.

[Rain Tseung]

“Then tell me, do you really care about this project? Outside of your grade? Do you ever understand it?” To her, all he cared about was a grade, that’s all everyone cared about… They didn’t see the underlining issue of this project.. They all just passed it off like it was nothing. Being exhausted was not a good excuse for this project, so no she wasn’t sympathetic in this situation, in another she might have been. Taking care of a baby was exhausting, and yet the parents still had to go on, even with very little sleep, they still had to take care of the baby, they still had to live on. And it was expected, and it was something parents rarely complained about because it was a part of the package.

“Temptation is a powerful thing, saying you’re saving yourself for marriage is a very unrealistic motion… Certain woman are very good at being seductive. As for the gay thing, well think about this situation, what if you boyfriend was bisexual, had got a girl pregnant before getting into a relationship with you. Would you still be committed to the relationship even though the situation changed? Would you really be ready to possibly take care of someone else’s baby? And the same goes to a relationship with a woman, if she got pregnant and the baby wasn’t yours. Would you want to make that commitment? Would you be ready to?” She laid out the situations more calmly, she had found her head again… But there was nothing he could say to her that she couldn’t disapprove. “Because you don’t get it, at least you don’t seem to. This project is about much more than just responsibility for a grade. “


She didn’t look at Monroe, she was too angry to. “I’m not trying to be ungrateful for the life I have had. But this project makes me think of what would happen if I got pregnant at a young age… Would I keep the baby? Would I even be able to…” more tears found their way to Rain’s cheeks, “And then I start to wonder if I would get an abortion, or give my baby up for adoption… And those thoughts scare me… So I want to be ready… I want to be ready to have a child, at any age…”

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

"Do I really look like the kind of guy that girls are going to want to have sex with?" Monroe asked, gesturing to himself with his mismatching, wrinkled clothes and bags under his eyes. "I get what you're saying, okay?" He said after a long moment and a deep sigh. "There's an underlying lesson in this project. It prepares us for things that could happen and something that could very well happen in the future. I take that seriously. Another human life is a serious thing, but I'm having trouble attaching that lesson to a sack of flour." He held up the flour baby. "It's just not the same." He understood that it wasn't just for a grade. He just couldn't explain himself accurately. He'd just managed to make her upset and make himself look like a total ass.

When she sat down in her chair, he thought he'd really done it and he was worried. "I think that's what this project is supposed to do." That's what she'd been getting at this whole time, hadn't she? "That's a good thing, I would think." He shrugged his shoulders. Had things finally toned down?

[Rain Tseung]

Rain blushed, thinking he actually meant what he was asking, “I… I mean… Uh… Yes? I mean not that I would want to… You.. well you aren’t John and Jake..” She blushed a little harder, “And I should not have said that out loud.. But I do think your attractive, you should probably wear make up to cover the darkness under your eyes… But your cute.. just I.. uh… Can I stop now?” She whinned the last part where she asked if she could stop… This was just torture … why did he have to ask.

Rain stood up and took the sack of flour, and then grabbed her scissors and placed them near the bag. “Would you not freak out if I punctured the sack of flour my scissors?” She was trying to show him some of the ways it could be the same. “If I cut the flour open, you get an F, I get an F, and the ‘baby’ is now dead, or bleeding out. If something happens to this flour sack, then the same thing could happen to a baby, just without the fact that someone would cook it. If you lose it, you will lose your own baby. If it tears, a baby could just as easily get a cut. If you are able to take care of this flour, then you are able to not kill a baby.” Babies were a lot more fragile than a sack of flour, and all though her explanation might be a bit gruesome, that is how she saw it. “Did that help?”

She looked at him with an unamused stare. “Well I know that! Thanks. But then I think about all the other people like you who don’t really see the meaning of the project, or don’t care, or can’t comprehend it, or isn’t taking it seriously. And I get to thinking, how would they handle actually having a baby, would they still have the same mentality? I get that the sack of flour is lifeless… and it’s a lot easier to not care about.. But it’s still a thought, and it’s a sad one..” She nodded slightly, she guessed for herself it was a good thing.

[Thomas "Monroe" Montgomery]

When Rain actually started answering him, Monroe put his hands up as if to tell her to stop, but the words wouldn't leave his mouth. None left his mouth until she'd stopped talking. "I never told you to start," he told her when she'd finished, feeling sufficiently awkward. "It wasn't a question that was meant to be answered." He was now avoiding eye contact like the plague, because he couldn't even handle what the young girl had just said. "Well it's good to know that I'm still sexually appealing even with the bags under my eyes." That was his segway, as if wanting to push on to another subject.

He was glad when she did, even if she was now holding scissors to their flour baby, threatening the life of the little sack of baking flour. "What are you doing?" he asked slowly, turning back towards her. And then she launched into a very grotesque explanation that made Monroe actually feel sort of uncomfortable. When she finished, he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "I'm not sure if it helped or made me slightly afraid of you," he commented. He understood. Life was fragile. That's what the flour was supposed to represent.

"It is sad, but there's nothing you can do about it," Monroe told her honestly. "You know what you believe and you can control how you react or what you see. Their mentality isn't yours to fix. And mine isn't either."