Raising A Child (Mexico)

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

Mathias walked slowly into the “How to Be A “Super” Homemaker” (Read: Home Econimcs for the heroes.) classroom. He had skipped the last two class periods to hang out with his friends, and if he were to be honest with himself, he’d probably skip a lot more, especially because this class was so boring. But he had heard that there was some kind of project today. He wasn’t exactly sure what it could’ve possibly have been… other than that it was a huge part of their grade, and that it would probably be who of him to attend these next few days if he was hoping to pull off a decent score.

He sat in his usual spot, which was towards the middle-back of the room and scanned over the students that were already there. Of course there wasn’t too many as of yet, as Mathias had the “good” quality of almost never being late to class. He would’ve preferred to just skip class than miss a few minutes of it anyway!

Quietly setting his things to the side, he placed his chin on his hand and twirled a pencil around his finger, watching as the room slowly filled with various super powered teens. He didn’t think that the school itself was that big in comparison to the schools back where he was from, as there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of students in his classes. However, how many people around the world had crazy super powers anyway? It didn’t seem like it could be too many, could it?

He snickered slightly to himself just as the tall thin man who called himself the teacher of the class pushed through the door. Mathias was tempted to wave at the man, but he didn’t seem to be so pleased. It was almost as though he was pissed off that he had to spend any more time teaching these spoiled brats how to care for their home… or whatever it was that you were supposed to learn in these classes. That was understandable. Although the young Dane wasn’t really sure if he shared that outlook on things.

When the bell went off, the teacher cleared his throat and set his bag upon his desk. The bulk of the class turned their attention to the teacher, Mathias included, and listened as the man began to quickly say his greetings before he went right into the project.

“You are to be raising a child with a partner.” Mathias raised his eyebrow. A… child? Hell, Mathias knew he loved kids but from what he could tell, there was a stunning lack of any kids at this high school. Unless this teacher had some kind of weird power that made kids appear. What a creepy power. And with a partner no less? Mathias chuckled. This seemed like fun. He was mostly glad he didn’t get the baby appearing power.

He listened to the teacher explain that they did these kinds of projects in “normal” high schools quite a bit, and that it would teach them life skills and other things like that. To be honest, Mathias was only half-listening as he scanned the room for his potential partner. Ana Maria was in this class. In fact, she was probably his only friend in the class, even though he knew quite a number of people in the room.. But she didn’t seem to be there at the moment.

He continued to look over the other students while the teacher rambled on about the doll being able to cry, and that it was basically a living baby without all the nasty things other babies did like poop and pee and vomit and things, and that this baby did need to be changed and fed and among other things, could starve and… Mathias noticed a cute Asian girl sitting across the room from him. Had she always been there? She seemed like she would be kind of nice to raise a baby with. He guessed anyway… She did look kind of shy so she probably wouldn’t be very much fun…

Mathias’ eyes wandered over to the student in front of her. Maybe he would raise a baby with him. Hah. That was a funny joke. Why would such a nerdy looking kid raise a baby with someone like him!? Even if it was a fake baby…

The teen let out an audible sigh as he opted to simply just doodle blindly into his notebook.

[ANA MARÍA CAMPOS HERNÁNDEZ]

"¡Mierda! ¡Mierda! ¡Mierda!" Ana María kept repeating all kinds of spanish course words as she ran through the hallways to get to her next class. She was late, as usual, but this time it wasn't her fault. She actually had a pretty valid excuse. The teacher from her previous class had asked to have a word at the end of the period and time just went by. Not that anyone would believe her. So rude.
That day she had attended every single one of her classes. Why? She had no idea. Maybe because she had woken up with the need to be productive and achieve her life goals. Pfft. Yeah right. She had attended all her classes because her teachers had threatened to flunk her in every single one of them if she so much as arrived a second late to class. Such a nice motivational speech. It wasn't all her fault. They could always make their classes a little less boring. Just a little. She wasn't asking for much. One can only dream.

A skirt wasn't the most comfortable piece of clothing to wear when one is gliding through the corridors praying to God to not be caught by someone who would make her absence much more noticeable. Normally Ana María wouldn't even bother to run if she knew she was already late. A few minutes weren't going to make the time to back and have her arrive on time. Either way she was going to get a nasty look or a scornful speech. Plus unnecessary sweating was such a bummer, especially when she had woken up extra early to do her hair right. Tame it a little, making it look as pretty as possible. Because sometimes a girl needs to feel like a girl.

Ana María wasn't even sure what she class she had at the moment. She had never learned her schedule, she just followed the routine of every day and somehow ended up in the right classroom. The girl prayed that for some unknown mythological reason, the class had started late and she could smoothly make her way inside without her previous absence being known. Yeah right. It's her luck we are talking about. Some times, when Ana María was resting in bed at the end of a long day, she thought about why she hadn't simply travelled through the shadows. It was much easier and faster than running. But the shadows had to be on a meaningful size, and with the sun glowing through the hallways, there wasn't much she could do with them.

Sighing, Ana María finally made her way into the classroom. She opened the door just to get the oh so adorable glare from the professor. There was always the one teacher who thought of his students as nothing more than spoiled brats who got everything handed to them in a silver platter. Such stereotypes. If the teacher knew even a glimpse of the lives of his students, what they went through and the such, he wouldn't be so judgmental. It's amazing how oblivious we are to what people around us are feeling.

Nodding, she made her way to her seat. The teacher had started writing some stuff on the board that Ana María had no idea what they meant. She had missed the opening statement, oh lovely. The girl looked around for any familiar face and smiled when she saw someone just a few seats away from her. She took out a piece of paper and gently tore the edge of it. With a pen, or what was left of it really, she wrote a nice note.

Hey Mathias! Do you have any idea what is going on?

She folded the note four times almost perfectly and draw the outline of a letter envelope that had the Dane's name on it. Such a nice touch, if she might add. Ana María turned to look at her friend and motioned for the person next to her to pass the letter along. Of course she could've sent a text or something, but what was the fun in that? Besides, if we were talking about her luck, Mathias could've might as well have his phone blasting on full volume. Now that would've not been pretty.

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

Mathias was in the middle of drawing the messy hair of a familiar friend when a boy with scraggly orange hair bumped his arm in order to drop a small scrap of paper folded into the shape of an envelope on his table. He stuck his tongue out (maturely) at the other student, before plucking up the paper and taking a look at it.

Well, it seemed that whoever delivered him the note was good at paper folding! A small chuckle escaped his throat and he inconspicuously unfolded it, and read it.

Hey Mathias! Do you have any idea what is going on?

He glanced back upward to see who passed the note, grinning wildly when his eyes met with Ana’s. Had she come in late? He wouldn’t be surprised. That was just a thing she did. She really was a cute girl, making a habit of running late all the time. Even though he himself was never late, (A trait that seemed to surprise most people.) he wasn’t really sure why he found it so endearing.

But shaking those silly thoughts aside, Mathias flipped the note over and wrote back in his small squiggly handwriting, YEAH I SURE DO. WE ARE GONNA RAISE BABIES, AND YOURE GOING 2 B MY PARTNER RIGHT? ;) He then winked back at the smiley face he drew on the paper, before passing the note back over, as the teacher continued to ramble on and on about taking care of the “babies”. Okay, maybe it was a bad idea to not listen to this, especially if he was planning on raising a baby with the girl who walked into class late… But Mathias loved children!! What could possibly go wrong?

Mathias chuckled to himself, before he started to erase the jagged line that stretched across the little doodle on his page. It was actually a pretty good doodle too!! Hanging around with Antonio so much had actually helped him improve his art skills… or so he liked to think. Maybe he wasn’t actually any better, but he felt like he was!

Of course the deeper he found himself in his drawing, the more time went by that he just simply wasn’t paying attention to anything the teacher said. He stuck out his tongue in concentration, and pretty much spent the remainder of the lecture doodling. That was, until the teacher shouted the magic words that caused the entire class to jump up out of their seats in a hurried frenzy to find their potential partner, usually leaving the guys to try and find the hottest girls they could so that they could walk around the school with some type of eye candy.

“Once everyone in the class has found a partner, I will then assign you your dolls- er… babies to you, and you will then walk to Mrs. Sanchez’s room to retrieve them. Each of them are named, so please remember the name you are given.” Once he finished speaking, Mathias hopped upwards and ran to stand in front of Ana’s desk.

“Good morning Ms. Late-To-Class-Everyday! How do you feel about being the mother to my baby? Or the mother to my father… or something like that?” He flashed her a proud grin, “I’m really good with kids so I’ll get us an A for sure!”

He just hopped he knew what he was doing, now that he thought about it. After all, it wasn’t like these were real babies!! And if he got upset or angry, there was a chance that his powers could go haywire… and although by now he mostly had that under control… that would spell byebye for the little robot baby.

[ANA MARÍA CAMPOS HERNÁNDEZ]

Ana María waited excitedly for Mathias to pass down her note. She loved writing notes. It was one of those things that always reminded her of her childhood. It was a rush in passing them without the teacher noticing and being eager to know what the other person had answered. Texting just made everything so easy, and what was the fun in easy? Besides, she had such a beautiful handwriting. She turned her attention towards the teacher for a moment and wrote the date on the top side of her notebook. Ok, was it a Wednesday now? She then felt a small nudge on her arm and she turned to smile at the messenger. Taking her beautifully folded note she opened to see what the boy with gravity defying hair had said.

YEAH I SURE DO. WE ARE GONNA RAISE BABIES, AND YOURE GOING 2 B MY PARTNER RIGHT? ; )

Raise babies? Like actual babies? How where they going to raise babies if they were no- Oh no. They couldn't be serious right? They certainly didn't expect a bunch of teenagers to get together and procreate, right? Wasn't that against school rules anyway? Sure, she wasn't much for rules but this wasn't one she minded following. This is what happens for arriving late at class. She missed the whole explanation. Maybe she was overreacting. Certainly there was another way to do this without touching Mathias, or whoever else that wanted to fight to be her partner.

She was about to write a response to Mathias. Had actually started to write a big alarming WHAT?! when said individual was suddenly standing in front of her desk. She had been so buried in her surprised, and most likely false interpretation of the note, that she hadn't even heard the teacher call out to make groups. She wouldn't had minded really. Normally it wasn't Ana María who chose her group, but others who wanted her in their group. She didn't mind going along with it. It made her feel special especially since she had no abilities whatsoever to really contribute in the group.

"Good morning Ms. Late-To-Class-Everyday! How do you feel about being the mother to my baby? Or the mother to my father… or something like that?"

She stared at his proud grin now really wondering what this was all about. He was right, it was probably wise to attempt to arrive early from now on. For her own mental stability in avoiding the creative conclusions her mind seemed to draw to.

"I'm really good with kids so I'll get us an A for sure!"

Ana María stared at Mathias for what seemed like hours.

"En la madre, ¿y ahora que hago?" (Shit, what do I do now?) She muttered to herself. "Please tell me you don't mean a real baby."[/color] She said looking at him. Raising a baby. Ok, even if it wasn't a real baby, which she hoped not, how was she supposed to take care of it? She knew nothing about raising babies. What if they started crying in the middle of the night? Or were hungry? Or had to be changed and cleaned?

Ana María really had no idea what to do when it came to youngsters. All she knew was how to hold them and that was difficult enough. If it was a project then she really needed a passing grade. She looked down for a moment and blinked. Wow, her mind was actually blanked. No random ideas or creativity came. It was like she had nothing to go on, even if it was stupid. Well, at least it seemed that Mathias knew a little about children. She sincerely hoped so, because otherwise she was screwed.

[MATHIAS ANDERSEN]

"En la..." Mathias repeated the words to himself quietly, "What..?" He wasn't no expert on Spanish, and even though his Spanish was getting a bit better because his best friend was from Spain and Ana herself was Mexican, when people let out strings of profanities, it left him quite baffled.

"Please tell me you don't mean a real baby" She gave him a rather befuddled stare, and Mathias stood in place for a moment, before he bit his lips in an attempt to hold back his laughter.

It didn't work.

Almost immediately, Mathias felt himself enter into a bit of a laughing fit.

"A-Ana!! I don't know if you're asking me this seriously or not, but, man, I don't know if you want to raise a real baby with me... Plus, I'm pretty sure I'd get into trouble or something if I had a baby with you.." Mathias grinned at her reassuringly, before sliding to sit on top of her desk.

"But I guess you could say that it is close enough to a real baby. It's like a... robot baby thing..."

A robot baby??

"Oh geez..." Mathias scratched at the top of his head in what was a semblance of frustration. He may have been good with babies, children and the like, but Mathias was quite possibly the worst person he knew when it came to technology. Well he did know someone worse but that was beside the point.

And not only was he terrible at using technology, but his powers at times could completely ruin the stuff. Although Mathias was pretty good at keeping his powers and emotions under explicit control, being a senior and all, there were still times when he felt like his magnetic strength could pull a fast one on him.

After a moment of not saying anything, he shook his head.

"Well anyway, it's this robotic baby made to emulate a real baby, the teacher told us to name it when we pick one... but maybe we should think of a name now!! I really like Andrea and Charlotte for girls! And for a boy... maybe Magnus or Elias.. What do you think...?"

...Wow. He had been rambling a very long time, not giving Ana a single chance to let it all sink in... Maybe he should've given her a moment to ask some questions or something before they started picking names...

"I got a bit ahead of myself there Ana, but anyway, do you have any questions about anything..?"

He smiled warmly at her, sincerely hoping that she wasn't feeling overwhelmed by anything, despite the feeling in his gut that said she was probably more confused now than she was in the first place.

But what was done was done, and it was almost their turn to pick a baby too!

[ANA MARÍA CAMPOS HERNÁNDEZ]

Ana María looked at Mathias with surprise and a small touch of indigence as to why he was laughing at her. It almost felt like he was laughing at her question, and while it seemed like a perfectly normal question to her, she was no stranger to the oh so famous words of "there are no idiotic questions, just idiots who ask questions". His small laughing fit took a turn that had never appeared in her head until now. She was actually annoyed by it. Annoyed! That alone was a new experience to her, for despite the fact that Ana María knew that Mathias was a loud individual, she was always amused by him.

It was slightly discouraging to be feeling this now and she had to understand the situation before saying or doing something she might regret. Perhaps she felt annoyed because she was also confused, and confusion generally irritated her. Yes, that seemed to be the best explanation. She had no clear or coherent idea of what she had to do and why, so everything else just seemed to add more to the fire to keep her burning.

"A-Ana!! I don't know if you're asking me this seriously or not, but, man, I don't know if you want to raise a real baby with me... Plus, I'm pretty sure I'd get into trouble or something if I had a baby with you.."

Mathias grin did, however, make her smile. Okay, crisis adverted, great. The girl opened her mouth to speak, but before she could manage words the blonde with peculiar hair kept talking. For a moment, all Ana María could see was the movement of his mouth. Words stopped having meaning to her. She was almost tempted to place her hand on his mouth if only to take a break of being bombarded with words.

"But I guess you could say that it is close enough to a real baby. It's like a... robot baby thing..."

Was this how other people felt when she took on a talking sprint and just rambled on nonsense time and again? It was quite tedious really, because the more he talked, the harder it was to keep up. She understood several segments, but hardly the whole picture. Specific words ringed in her head and they drew in her attention. The more attention she placed on one word, the more words that passed her by without her consent.

"Oh geez..."

As the dane kept talking, she noticed something she hadn't quite before. Had Mathias always had perfectly straight teeth? He seemed to be smiling all the time, even when he talked. She wondered if how her teeth looked. Did people also noticed her mouth when she spoke? Maybe Mathias wouldn't notice if she took the mirror from her bag and made sure she had nothing potentially discomforting in her mouth. Wait, had she even brought her mirror along? Did she take the red bag or the white bag? Maybe she had left it at her dorm while she was running out. Oh right, her phone! She placed a hand on her pocket and was relieved that she had brought that along. Did she have any messages? If so from whom? It was a nice day outside, maybe she could spent it with her friends.

Friends. Was Mathias still talking? What did that geez mean? Robot baby thing. Did they even make some of those? That would be a weird and unpleasant birthday gift. Would it need charging? What a tedious job to be bringing a heavy charger everywhere. And if the thing peed wouldn't it cause a spark? Like it would come in contact with water and just not work? That wasn't such a bad idea. Sink it in water and just say that it died. But that would make her a robot baby murderer. That would suck.

"Well anyway, it's this robotic baby made to emulate a real baby, the teacher told us to name it when we pick one... but maybe we should think of a name now!! I really like Andrea and Charlotte for girls! And for a boy... maybe Magnus or Elias.. What do you think...?"

What? Name the thing? But you only named things that you were gonna take care of. Like a parent or something. Oh shit. She was now realizing it. The robot baby thing was supposed to make them parents! Why? That seemed to be like such a stupid assignment. They weren't ready to be parents. She was seventeen for goodness sake. Besides, where was the fun part? If she was going to take care of a silly thing then wouldn't she at least enjoy the sex part? Leave it to a teacher to take the fun out of everything.

"I got a bit ahead of myself there Ana, but anyway, do you have any questions about anything..?"

Ana María stared at Mathias' smile, realizing that it was now finally her time to speak. It probably would be rude of her to ask him to repeat what he said. Besides, he would ramble on forever and she had other things to do.

"Um,"[/color] She sincerely hoped that the look of clear question was not visible. She looked at him putting small pieces together. Her eyes drifted towards the box of the things and watched as other students took one and held it. They held them in a very particular position like a, like a... baby. Oh joy. "Okay let me get this straight."[/color] Her words came out with clear and strong sounds, especially in the t's and r's. "We have to take care of that things and be parents? B- but I don't know anything about being a parent. I don't know anything about children. And besides, even if I did I wouldn't exactly be the best uh, the best well you know."[/color]

Ana María wanted to say the word mother but nothing inside her helped her. She never had trouble with that word before. She never put much attention to it. But now that she to take the roll of the thing she never had, it gave her a very significant feeling of abandonment. One that she wasn't ready to quite talk about yet. Especially since she was supposed to be having a good time, not reminiscing about her childhood. Feeling she had left room for question, she attempted to try and hide her mistake. "You want to name the baby Magnus and Elias? Andrea and Charlotte are okay, too English in my opinion, but the first two... Do you want our kid to be beaten at school? No, no, Magnus and Elias are out of question. If a boy, we can name him Javier, or the better variation of your name and be Matías. If a girl, I love Raquel."[/color]