Marriage Daze
Chapter
2: Step by Step
By: Cimmy
Warning: (Yes,
I thought of one.) This story does not contain any slash, but there are some
references to gay-couples, so if you can’t deal with that, well tough. Don’t
read this story if that’s the case.
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Notes: From Fred’s point of view.
There were five different types of groups.
Ms. Adams described them first, before she told the pairings.
“The first couple is a family with two
children who both attend elementary school. Your salary is a common 30 000
dollars a year. Your assignments are to arrange somewhere to live, find something
to drive, locate a suitable school for your children and write a budget that
won’t exceed your income. This will be handed in at the end of these two
weeks.”
“Only 30 000 dollars? With two kids? You’re kidding.” Julie seemed
startled. Fred smiled. To people like her, 30 000 must sound like the value of
her latest outfit. He couldn’t really blame her though; he was also ‘people
like her’.
“The second couple,” Ms. Adams continued
without paying attention to Julie’s comment, “is a well-paid, rich, newly wed
couple. You’re expecting your first baby in two months, and your job is to have
everything nicely done before the due-date. Money is no object. You also have
to decide which one of you is going back to work, after the baby’s arrived.”
“What kind of job is that? Where money’s
not a problem? I want a job like that,” Cecilia said.
“I’ll let you know in soon enough. Now, to the next couple. Couple number three is a
middle-class family, you earn 80 000 dollars a year, you have three children, regular
jobs and you live in the suburbs. Where you want to live is up to you. Your job
is to make a budget of your upcoming expenses, and you should also make a decision
about if you want another baby.”
“Hell no,” Cecilia objected. “If that’s my
group, I can tell you now; I’m not gonna bring another
brat into the world. Three is enough. Way enough.”
“Hey, you’re not the only one deciding
that,” Guy told her. “Don’t we have a saying in the matter?”
“No, you don’t, since it’s our bodies,”
Julie answered. “Besides, since when do you have an urge for children?”
“I’m just putting my foot down,” Guy
smiled.
“Well, nice try, Germaine.” Julie rolled
her eyes.
“The fourth group,” Ms. Adams interrupted,
“is a couple who’s suffering from marriage trouble. You’re supposed to work out
your problems and decide if you should get a divorce or continue to go to
marriage counseling. You have one child, and there’s another one on the way.”
“Bummer,” Adam smiled. “I vote for the
divorce. It’s easier to sign a couple of papers, instead of spending two weeks
at the therapist.”
“You forgot about the children, Mr. Banks.
You have to agree on who gets what in the divorce.”
“She can have it all, if I get the car. I
hope it’s a Ferrari,” Charlie grinned. “So, the groups can easily be described
like this; struggling, happy, normal, and dysfunctional?”
“If you want to trivialize it, yeah,” Ms.
Adams replied. “I have paired you after my own opinions on how you should work
together. Now, to the fifth and final couple.”
“Are we supposed to be pretending, or are
we really getting married?” Guy asked.
“Let her finish, for crying out loud,”
Charlie sighed. “I wanna get out of here, before I
die.”
Ms. Adams gave them a tired gaze, and went
on with her list. “The last couple is a struggling gay-couple. You want to have
a baby too, so you have to turn to an adoption center. Also, one of you wants
to tell your parents about your relationship, and the other one is in doubt.
You’ve recently married each other, and are looking for a house to live at.”
Fred sighed. This seemed so hard. He wasn’t
going to get married at all when he grew older. And since Cecilia seemed to be
quite resentful to the fact of having children, he could manage to live without
that too.
It downed on him. What if he wasn’t going
to spend the rest of his life with Cecilia? Would everything
be different if she hadn’t been so ‘anti-marriage’? Maybe he should
volunteer to be in that ‘gay-couple’, just in case everything else went wrong?
“Tell us, then,” Connie said nervously.
Jeez, it’s only a project, not an actual marriage!
“First couple out; Mr.
Holland and Ms. Gaffney.”
“Rats,” Julie moaned. “Are you allowed to
change partner?”
“Why are you moaning? I’m just as stuck
with you, as you’re stuck with me,” Scott hissed. It was obvious that those two
hadn’t worked out their problems yet. Maybe teaming them up weren’t such a good
idea?
“Scott, you’re a cashier...”
“And if this were the army, that would be
exactly what he’d end up as,” Julie mocked. “Right, Scottie?”
“And you Julie, is a cleaning-lady at the
high school nearby,” Ms. Adams continued.
Julie just gaped. Scott laughed with
amusement. “Guess you’re still a bit trashy, Jules.”
Julie looked like she was about to strangle
him, and she stood up. “This sucks. I want a divorce!”
“But, think of the children!” Scott yelled
after her when she stormed out. “This is great!” he grinned at the others. They
laughed while he followed Julie out in the hallway.
“Moving on; Mr. Lindsay, Mr. Banks, you get
the honor of being the struggling gay-couple. Good luck. Mr. Lindsay, you’re a
successful lawyer, and Mr. Banks, you’re vice president of a large marketing
company.”
“Why do I have a feeling
that those two will get very good grades at this assignment?” Charlie sighed. “Can’t you trade with me, Banks? I need an A on
this project.”
Adam seemed very content with the settings.
He had his ‘A’ pretty much ready, and he didn’t have to bitch with the girls
for the next two weeks. Fred actually felt a little jealous. And that was a bit
disturbing; wanting to marry a guy, just to get an ‘A’ on a project and not
having to marry a girl instead. Fred smiled. If his Dad only knew what he was
thinking... If he wasn’t too approving of Cecilia,
just imagine what he’d say about this...
The thought went through his mind once
more. To become gay just to be rebellious against your
father? Nah, that was a little far out, even for him. He was just too
much in love with Cecilia to do something like that.
“Next couple is Ms. Cuthbertson and Mr.
Germaine.” If she could just stop using their surnames when she referred to
them! It was annoying. “Sarah, you’re a journalist. Guy, you’re a photographer.
Sarah’s seven months pregnant with your second child.”
“Which couple are we?” Sarah asked.
“Couple number
four.”
“The dysfunctional ones,” Charlie added.
“Great, Sarah, maybe you’ll get to learn something of value before you marry
Travis. If Travis doesn’t feel all too comfortable with his
new lifestyle, of course.”
“A bit homophobic there,
Charlie was about to say something clever
back when Connie intruded. “There are still some couples left,” she reminded
them.
Fred closed his eyes. To be honest, he
already knew who the last two couples were going to be. Ms. Adams had obviously
separated them from their usual groups and put them in the couple they most
likely were going to learn the most from. Scott and Julie became a struggling
family with little money, even though they both had more money together then
the whole team combined. If Fred didn’t count himself in, of
course.
Guy and Sarah got to experience the down parts
of marriage, and maybe that’d be a good lesson, especially for Guy. Fred
couldn’t really motivate that thought any further; he just thought it sounded
appropriate.
Now, besides from Travis and Adam, there
were only four people left. Cecilia, Connie, Charlie and himself. What was most
likely? To put him together with his girlfriend and let them live happily ever
after in that rich family? That would teach them nothing. Plus, it would be far
too easy to put the childhood friends Connie and Charlie together in that
middle-class family.
“Mr. Conway, I’ve put you with...”
“That lunatic Cee,
right?” Charlie said. “What else? What couple
are we?”
“The second.”
“Wow, I’m rich,” Cecilia grinned. “I have
to start shopping at once, before the market sinks.”
“What are you talking about? ‘Market
sinks’?”
“Well, how should I know how things are
done in the business world? I leave that for you, darling. I’m going to party
all that money away.”
“You’re pregnant, remember?” Charlie told
her. Cecilia shrugged.
“So, to hell with the baby, there’s always
some sucker who’s willing to adopt. I’m a living example for that. Hey, Trav...”
“Don’t even think about it,” Travis cut her
off. “No one would want a baby that you’ve brought into this world.”
“That’s harsh. Besides, Charlie had
something to do with it too,” Cecilia objected.
“Are you sure there’s no way I can change
partner?” Charlie moaned.
“The only way is to file for a divorce...”
Ms. Adams began.
“Great, then consider it done. I’m leaving
you, Cee.”
“A divorce means that you’ve given up on the
project, and you’ll get an F,
Charlie seemed very annoyed and was
obviously already starting to plot on how to kill his wife in the easiest sort
of way. Fred smiled. Being married to Cecilia must be hell, at least when she
was deliberatively trying her best to ruin it. Besides, she’d already told him
several times that she wasn’t into marriages and weddings. It had been a
serious conversation, and Fred knew that she’d been sincere.
“Leaving only us two to be the third
couple,” Connie pointed out. “What am I? A regular housewife?”
“Actually, you’re a kindergarten teacher.
And you, Fred, are a chef at a restaurant.”
“Great, make me a sandwich,” Cecilia said
happily. “I’m hungry.”
“Tough. Buy yourself a sandwich, you’re
rich now,” Fred pointed out. Cecilia smiled and kissed him on the cheek. Connie
stood up.
“Hey, he’s my husband now, so don’t go
smooching on him, Cecilia.”
“Fine, I won’t.”
While the girls were bickering, Ms. Adams
passed out their ‘children’, the eggs they had to protect. “You can name them and
decide the sexes by yourself, but I want to see them in your report later.
Hopefully, they’ll live that long.”
Fred rolled his eyes. It wasn’t so bad to be paired with Connie. She was a smart girl, and they would probably get good grades. It was obvious why Ms. Adams had put them together. Connie wasn’t rich, and he was definitely too rich, so they would both experience something new, living in a middle-class family. Although, he wasn’t so happy about all those kids.
Maybe he could trade some of them off to
Travis, in exchange for some lawyer-help, because he would certainly need that
after Connie had figured out what he’d done to their children, and decided that
she wouldn’t want to be married to someone who traded her kids off?
Or maybe he just wasn’t ready for marriage,
period?
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