Marriage Daze
Chapter 3: Hang Time
By: Cimmy
(Un) Important babbling-notes from Cimmy: Every chapter is named after a TV-series. (In case you haven’t figured that out yet.)
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Notes: From Connie’s point of view.
They all decided to start with the project the day after they got paired.
Connie was actually quite content with being paired with Fred, since they were close friends and all. She just had to get used to the fact that he was going to be around a lot the next two weeks. Instead of Guy, she had Fred. Well, not exactly, but if they were going to get good grades, she’d better start thinking like that. Just not too much.
As usual, they all met up at breakfast. Cecilia looked like she was on top of the world, while Charlie seemed very homicidal. Connie could tell that their marriage wasn’t going to last very long.
“How is my favorite newly weds today?” Fred asked. “Any argues yet?”
“No, just this feeling of intense humiliation,” Charlie answered and sat down by the table. Cecilia, still standing behind him, cleared her throat loudly. “What?”
“You have to pull out the chair for me, Charlie. I’m your wife.”
“It’s a little funny that you two got married after you knocked her up,” Adam grinned. “You’re supposed to be the perfect couple. Isn’t that a little hypocritical?”
“Nah, it was my money from the beginning, so Charlie has himself to blame.”
“I want a divorce,” Charlie growled for the third time that morning.
“Well, you can have it, if you’re prepared to take the F along with it. How’s it gonna be?”
Charlie sighed, got up and pulled the chair out for her. “Here you go, honey.”
Connie laughed. “Marriage is a bitch,” she grinned. “Right, Guy?”
“I honestly don’t know yet. Mine and Sarah’s marriage is a silent marriage. We deal with our problem by shutting up. Maybe you should try that method, Charlie?”
“Good freaking luck to get him to shut up,” Cecilia giggled. “He’s the most talkative husband I’ve ever had. Oops, did I say too much now?”
Charlie actually smiled a little, but decided to be mad at Cecilia anyway. “I’m using our money to buy myself some peace and quiet.”
“Well, it’s mostly my money, so you have to ask for my permission first.”
“It’s so not your money; we earned it together, fair and square. Now, I wanna have some peace and quiet, so shut your pie-hole and leave me alone.”
“I thought we were supposed to be the dysfunctional couple,” Guy said to Sarah.
“You wanna trade?” Charlie asked tiredly. “I’ll buy myself out of this marriage if I have to.”
“Keep her; I’m happy with my wife. Well, technically I’m not, but I’m very content anyway.”
“Anyone else who wants to trade with me?” Charlie shouted to the rest of the Ducks. They laughed.
“No, she’s your wife. Deal,” Portman grinned. “I’m very glad that I have my own cheerleader to be happily married to.”
“Thought you two were cheating on each other,” Averman pointed out.
“Well, no marriage’s perfect. But Charlie should now that, shouldn’t you Charlie?”
Charlie looked at Fred. “You want her?”
“Hey, I’m not some product you can just toss around,” Cecilia objected. “I have feelings too, you know. Ouch!”
“Obviously.” Charlie grinned evilly and turned to face Fred again. “She’s yours if you want her.”
“I already have her, thank you very much. I’ll have her back in two weeks, so please, feel pity for me, okay? And don’t hurt her too much, I don’t want her back if she’s broken, understood?”
“Hey!” Cecilia shouted. “I’m not an object; I’m a person, with feelings. Charlie?”
“Yeah?”
“Why’d you pinch me? I can have you arrested for assault, you know.”
“Pipe down, Cee. We’re supposed to be newly weds, not some old bitching couple. I really do feel bad for Fred. I’ll only have you for the next two weeks. He’ll have you for a much longer amount of time. Poor guy. Ouch!”
Cecilia bounced up and down in her chair. ”I’ll kick you again if I have to, so behave now.”
“The couple most likely to end up in custody,” Connie joked and waved at them. “Please, write us a card from there.”
“I’ll do that,” both Cecilia and Charlie answered at the same time.
“Hey, she’s my friend, don’t be so intrusive,” Charlie said.
“Well, get your hands off my friends, and I’ll stop intrude on yours,” Cecilia responded.
Just watching them in action was highly entertaining. Connie hoped that she and Fred would stay on good terms with each other for the next couple of weeks.
After all, it was fifty percent of their final grade, and Fred took his grades very seriously. Connie waited until the rest of the Ducks had packed their things together and left the table, so she could talk to Fred in privacy.
“You’re not gonna dump me already, are you?” he teased her.
“Nah, I don’t think I’d like having an F in science. My parents would kill me if that happened.” Connie opened her notebook. “Let’s get started, okay? Where do you wanna live? Do you really wanna have another baby?”
“Jeez, Con, can I have a minute to think about it? I mean, the three other little brat... - I mean kids - were unexpected, so why drag another one into the world?”
“You’re supposed to be an upbeat husband! Let’s just be a positive couple, okay?”
“You really think I can pull off such a thing?” Fred asked sarcastically. “I’m good at faking, but to pretend to be positive? Gosh, that’s a lot to ask from a guy who’s brought-up to be negative. And with a girlfriend like Cecilia, you can just imagine.”
“Just pretend that she doesn’t exist, okay? She’s not your girlfriend, she’s Charlie’s wife. And you don’t wanna end up like them, do you?”
“Hell no. Okay, I’m pretending.”
“Pretend that you had a decent childhood too, while you’re at it.”
“I can only pretend, Connie. Not perform some freakin’ miracle.”
Connie smiled. Yeah, they were going to get along just fine.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Notes: From Scott’s point of view.
Since Scott didn’t have any lessons with Julie until that same afternoon, he’d decided to get a head start on their assignment. Ms. Adams should’ve made them be that ‘dysfunctional couple’ instead. That would’ve suited them just perfect.
Yesterday he’d had a trust fund of the same amount as the annual income of Fred and Connie’s marriage. Now he was stranded with two children and a bitchy wife. With only 30 000 to live on for a whole year, divided on four people. That was going to suck pretty badly.
He and Adam still had some work left on their last science project, so they’d decided to meet up in the library. Cecilia had tagged along too, probably to get away from Charlie for a while.
“How’s the project going?” Scott asked them both.
“Great!” Cecilia exclaimed.
“Not too bad,” Adam said a bit more calmly. “I’ve talked Travis into changing jobs with me. I hope Ms. Adams won’t discover it, though.”
“She’s too busy trying to keep Portman off the cheerleading squad. I think he’s trying to cheat on his wife by having a huge ménage à trois with the whole squad. More like a ménage à neuf, I guess.”
Scott smiled. Cecilia was in her most crazy mood. Annoying, but entertaining. Better then being defensive, quiet and without self-confidence. She used to pull that off quite often too. That girl had more mood swings than anyone Scott had ever met.
“How’s it going with you and Jules?”
“She’s pulling off that ‘absent wife’ routine. She’ll turn up in time to send the kids off to school.”
Adam smiled. “It’s that serious?”
“Sure. Actually, Julie’s pissed because I teased her about being a cleaning lady.”
“Why?” Cecilia asked, looking insulted for some reason.
“Well, I don’t think Julie’s ever cleaned anything before. Except when she’s forced to, but that doesn’t happen too often either.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being a cleaning lady,” Cecilia replied. “They work their asses off for practically nothing. My Mom used to clean at our school, but she had to leave, because she busted her shoulders from cleaning all day long.”
“I didn’t know that,” Scott told her. “Besides, this is just for fun. It’s not a real thing; it’s just... fake.”
“Well, still, don’t make any stupid comments, unless you’re sure you’re kidding.”
“Jeez, calm down, it was just a joke,” he thought, but decided to say something else out loud. “I thought you were the upbeat one, Cee.” For the moment anyway...
“Well, there’s a point to which I’m upbeat to. And to be honest, Charlie got me moody when he threatened to smash our ‘kid’. I’m thinking of making a delicious omelet of the little rascal when it’s grown to an ‘eatable’ size.”
“That’s just disgusting,” Adam said, wrinkling his nose. “We’re trying to convince someone to give their kid up for adoption, and you’re eating yours? I have to call the Child Protective Service and rat on you guys. This is awful!”
Cecilia gave him an amused grin. “Well, you can baby-sit our egg if you want. It’s not even born yet, so it’s easy to look after.”
“Why do you have an egg, if it’s not actually born yet?” Scott asked.
“Ms. Adams thought it would be good for us to work together and look after the little feast. I hope Charlie hasn’t smashed it yet, though. I’m looking forward to introducing the little brat to the stove and our new frying-pan.”
Adam couldn’t keep a straight face any longer, and started to laugh. “Seriously, you can’t torment Charlie like that, Cee.”
“No, but he’s mad at me for wrecking his precious practice, so this is my way of saying ‘get over it, you spoil-sport’.”
“Yeah, coz he’ll understand that message for sure,” Adam said sarcastically.
Scott whined. “I can’t wait to get this assignment off my back. And Jules too, for that matter. Did you know that I actually have to work as a cashier in the school’s cafeteria? The only good thing about that is that I get to see Julie clean our hallway. I’ll have a big laugh at that.”
“Just don’t laugh at the real ones, ‘key?”
“You got it. Let’s start with this instead. Maybe some hours without our ‘spouses’, will make us better as husbands.”
“And better as a wife,” Cecilia added. “I’m Charlie’s loving wife, don’t forget about that. Damn, I’m never getting married,” she laughed. “This is just too disturbing.”
“I’m not getting married until long after I’m out of college,” Adam agreed. “I hate high school. Just look at the stuff they make us do!”
Cecilia doubled over, bursting with laughter. It was hard to tell why she’d begun laughing in the first place, it was just a fact that when she got started, it was almost impossible to make her stop.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
~*~*~
~*~*~