Read Fabulous Five 006 - The Parent Game for Free Online

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you can't use it, Whitney and Curtis. Very good. All right, Clarence Marshall,
what have you chosen for your baby?"
    "This mouse," said Clarence, holding up a small,
gray, hairy mouse for everyone to see. He squeezed it and it went Squeak!
Squeak! The rest of the class broke up laughing.
    Mrs. Clark frowned but finally she said Clarence could use
the mouse. He stuck it back in his jeans pocket.
    Each of the students took turns showing their make-believe
babies. When it was her turn, Jana took the rabbit from the bag and was about
to show it. Clarence Marshall, who was seated in front of her, twisted around
to see.
    Squeak! Squeak!
    "Clarence, don't hurt your baby!" veiled Joel
Murphy.
    "Mouse abuse!" veiled Shane. The whole class
started yelling at Clarence not to hurt his baby.
    Clarence grinned as he dug into his pocket and pulled the
mouse out by its head.
    "Clarence, next week you'll have to treat it better,"
scolded Mrs. Clark. "Think of it as a child. Class"—she looked at
everyone as she spoke—"I want you all to understand that this is to be
taken seriously. If anything happens to the toy or stuffed animal
that you have chosen, you could fail the course. You are responsible for it and must follow the rules and keep a detailed schedule of feedings,
bedtimes, and so forth. If you have chosen to be partners with someone else, it's
up to both of you to make sure it is taken care of properly, or you both could fail. You can get a sitter for your child, but it cannot be one of your
parents. Is that perfectly clear?" The room was so quiet you could hear a
pin drop. Jana smiled to herself as she saw Clarence lay his mouse very
carefully on a tissue as if it were a tiny bed.
    "All right, let's continue. Shane, what do you have in
the box?"
    Jana had been wondering about the box ever since Shane had
brought it into the classroom. It had two or three holes punched into it on
each side.
    Shane untied the string and gently reached into the box. Out
came a large iguana with its legs and tail protruding through a small diaper.
Its tongue flicked out at Mrs. Clark, and she pulled back in surprise.
    "IGOR!" everyone in the class shouted. "It's
Igor!"
    Jana threw her head back and laughed as everyone in the room
shrieked at the sight of Shane's pet lizard. I should have guessed that Shane
would try to use Igor as his baby, she thought.
    Mrs. Clark was struggling to regain her composure. "Shane
Arrington, what is that?"
    "It's Igor," said Shane with a cool smile. "He's
my iguana."
    "Humph!" Mrs. Clark said softly. "Live
animals are not to be used in the Family Living project, Shane. You will
just have to choose something else."
    "Gee. He really wanted to be a part of it," said
Shane. Then he spoke to the lizard. "Sorry, old buddy. I told you it
wouldn't work."
    As they were leaving class, Shane came up to Jana. "Hey,
Jana. Would you like to be partners?"
    "Partners?" Jana echoed in surprise. Being
partners with Shane would probably be lots of fun, and now that Randy was going
to be partners with Taffy, it was probably all right if she had a partner, too.
"I guess so," she said, "but only if we don't use Igor, as Mrs.
Clark said. And . . ." she added, remembering what Katie had been telling
Melanie about boys trying to get out of all the work, "if I don't have to
take care of it all the time."
    "That's cool," he answered. "I believe in
equal opportunity. Remember my folks were liberated a long time ago."
    Jana knew his mother and father had been hippies in the
sixties and still wore beaded headbands and patched jeans, so it was probably
true.
    "When I'm playing football, you can take care of them,
and when you're working on the yearbook, I'll take care of them. Otherwise we'll
switch off evenly."
    "That sounds okay." A warning bell went off inside
her head. " Them? But Mrs. Clark said Igor can't be used."
    "I know," Shane replied with a grin. "But I
thought it would still be fun to have a boy and a girl. Your bunny can be the
girl,