Sarah trudged towards the school with shadows under her eyes and hair carelessly tied into a bun with strands of hair already escaping. She usually enjoyed school but today all the motivation for going was missing. She had lied awake for hours, tossing and turning in bed. Once again, images of Castiel had filled her mind and made it nearly impossible to sleep. She was embarrassed of running away from him. She didn’t know why she had done it. What should she say to Castiel when she’d see him? Apologizing would probably be the best idea. He hadn’t done anything wrong. Sarah just had panicked a bit.

She arrived at school and parked the baby carriage for the last time. Inside, the hallway was filled with excited students, happy to get rid of their dolls. Sarah was also happy the project ended. It was so inconvenient to carry Tim around everywhere. But she was sad too. She had become a bit attached to the doll.

She looked around but didn’t see Castiel anywhere. There was still time before the class, so he’d probably arrive just in time for it to start. Sarah covered her mouth to hide a yawn. She would’ve loved a nap.

“Hey Sarah!”

Sarah looked around a spotted Amanda and Leon heading towards her. She waved her hand.

“Hi!”

“Today’s the day, huh. Have to give up our babies,” Amanda said. “It was a hard project, but I liked it.”

“Same. I think it was nice. Much better than real kids,” Sarah laughed.

“Definitely. Not having a baby anytime soon thanks to this,” Amanda chuckled.

“But you aren’t ruling out the possibility?” Leon asked and smiled softly, placing his hand softly on her back.

Amanda looked at Leon and smiled. “Hmm, no, I’m not. Since you now know how to change a diaper.”

“Oh, are you suggesting that would be my job?”

“Well, I’d carry the baby for nine months so I think you could do something after it comes out.”

“Of course. I’d do anything you want,” Leon said and kissed Amanda’s forehead.

Sarah smiled looking at them. They were so soft and so in love with each other. She started to understand what Castiel had meant when he had said they could melt teeth with their sweetness. But speaking of Castiel…

“Umm, by the way, have you heard of Castiel? He isn’t here yet and it’s almost time for class?” she asked.

Leon looked around and indeed, no Castiel in sight.

“I haven’t heard of him this morning,” he said. “He’s probably coming late as usual.”

“Yeah, probably…”

Sarah wasn’t convinced. Castiel had been on time for every class during the project. It was weird that he’d be late on the last day. What if he was so upset at Sarah that he couldn’t come to school? Maybe she had hurt his feelings. It didn’t sound very plausible. Castiel wasn’t a person who got his feelings hurt easily. Or at least Sarah thought so.

Miss Cassidy arrived and let everyone is class. The mood was much more positive and excited than on any other lesson. Soon they’d be free. Castiel still hadn’t arrived. Sarah took out her phone. Maybe she was overreacting, but she wanted to know if everything alright. What if something bad had happened?

Is everything alright? You aren’t at school? She typed and sent the message. Her stomach twisted, and she regretted the message immediately. But she couldn’t undo it now.

“Good morning everyone. So nice to see so many happy faces. Today’s our last meeting and the end of the baby project. I would love to hear everyone’s experiences and thoughts about this, so let’s do a round around the class and everyone can tell what they’ve learned.”

Amanda and Leon started the round. Sarah listened to them with half an ear. She kept looking at her phone, but the message box was empty. A pair after pair told their experiences, and Sarah’s phone stayed still silent. Then it was her turn to share her experience.

“Oh, looks like Castiel isn’t here today. But you can tell about your thoughts, Sarah.”

“Yeah, sure. Well, I don’t know if I learned much about baby care since I have a younger sister, so I’ve seen a lot of diaper changing and nightly wake ups. But I guess I learned how much time a baby can take. Like, you have to take it everywhere and you can’t really leave it alone, not for a long time at least. So, it was pretty tough but having someone to help and take care of the baby sometimes helped a lot. It wasn’t as hard as it would’ve been if I had to do it alone.”

“That’s nice to hear. Support from others is really important with raising a baby. It is not impossible alone, and many people choose to raise a child on their own, but it is tremendously easier if there’s someone to share the responsibility with. Because parents need breaks too, as you all probably noticed during this project.”

The round continued to Jaime and Lucy. Sarah looked at her phone again. No message from Castiel still. She started to worry. What if something really had happened to him?

“What did I learn from this? That babies are dumb and I’m never having one.”

Mercedes’s voice pulled Sarah back to reality.

“This was super annoying. It kept screaming all the time. And having two in the house was so tiring.”

“Well you weren’t the only one suffering from that,” Jaime commented. His twin brother, Quinn nodded. It had been awful.

“Yeah, well anyways. I’m never having kids,” Mercedes said. Sarah felt slightly bad for thinking that it’d be for the best.

“Well, yes that is a valid opinion to have,” Miss Cassidy said and hurried the round along.

Finally, the round came to an end. Miss Cassidy clapped her hands.

“Thank you for sharing you experiences. You can talk more about how you felt about this project in your diaries which have to be returned next Wednesday at the latest. You can email them to me or bring them to the teacher’s lounge where I have a mail box. But now, it’s time for a sad good bye. If you have given any clothes to your dolls, take them off because it’s time to return the dolls to me.”

Sarah looked at Tim and sighed. She had already left all the baby clothes she had used home, and Tim was wearing his plain blue romper. She checked the diaper bag to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. Few students started undressing their dolls and changing their clothes, but it didn’t take them long to get ready.

“Okay. You can bring your dolls and the bags and then you’re free to leave. Thank you very much for this course. I will be instructing the Cooking 2 course in the spring, hopefully I see some of you there.”

Everyone rushed at the teacher’s desk at the same time, eager to get rid of their plastic children. A pile of dolls grew on the desk and the bags were thrown on the floor. After the biggest commotion disappeared, Sarah stood up as well and went to give Tim back. She put him on the top of the pile, hoping it wouldn’t collapse.

“Thank you,” Miss Cassidy smiled.

“Thank you. And bye,” Sarah wished and walked out of the room. Her eyes stung slightly but she blinked the tears off. How silly to get emotional over a doll.

Sarah looked around in the hallway. Amanda and Leon had gone somewhere already. Maybe she should just head to her next class. As she climbed up the stairs to the next floor, she couldn’t help but feel a bit lonely. The project had just finished but Sarah felt like things had already changed. She didn’t have anything common with others anymore. She had one less chance to bump into Leon and Amanda and Castiel. And one less topic to talk about. Sarah sighed and sat down on a bench. No message from Castiel yet either. She felt dumb. She was definitely overreacting.

Castiel’s message arrived two hours later.

Overslept. Won’t come to school since I have only one class left.

Okay. I returned Tim today. We have to bring back the diaries on Wednesday at latest. Thanks for the project. It was fun.

Yeah, thanks to you too.

Sarah stared at the screen with thumb hovering over the keyboard. Should she say something more? Ask about yesterday? What would she say? Apologize? Act like nothing had happened? Offer to bring back homework? No. She couldn’t do it. With a sigh Sarah closed the phone. She was hopeless. Why was it so hard to say anything? But maybe Castiel would send a message. Maybe he had something to say.

He didn’t.