“Mum! Do we still have Steffie’s baby carriage somewhere?” Sarah called out when she opened the front door and kicked off her shoes. Tim safely cradled on her arms, she dropped her school bag on the floor and headed to the kitchen.

“What do you need it for?” asked mum who was sipping her afternoon tea. “Why do you have a doll?”

“We have a project. We have to take care of it like it was a real baby. It’s supposed to teach about parenthood.”

“The things they come up with nowadays… When I was young, they barely taught us about the birds and the bees… Are you taking care of it alone?”

“No, it’s pair work.”

“Oh, who are you paired with?” mum asked immediately.

“Castiel.”

“Castiel? A boy?” Sarah could already see a sparkle in mum’s eyes.

“Yes, a boy. Many girls are paired with boys. There’s nothing special about it.”

“Is he handsome?” She clearly ignored Sarah’s words.

“Mum…” Sarah muttered.

“Well, is he?” Mum was not about to give up on this. She smelled a chance of a romance. This was the closest her daughter had been to a boy in months, maybe years.

“I guess... But don’t start imagining things. We’re just doing schoolwork together. Nothing more.” Mum pushed her to get a boyfriend, unlike most mum’s who wanted their daughters to stay away from boys for as long as possible. “You’re almost eighteen and have never dated!” she kept saying. But trying to find a boyfriend didn’t interest Sarah. She wouldn’t do it because mum wanted it and she certainly wouldn’t go around looking for a guy. Sarah believed that if she was meant to be with someone, she’d meet that person without having to run around looking for them. So far, she hadn’t had luck, but it didn’t bother her much anyway. Mum was more worried about it than she was.

“Will I ever meet him?”

“I don’t know. Probably not unless you run to him on the streets,” Sarah sighed. Introducing Castiel to her mother wasn’t her top priorities. It’d probably be better if they didn’t meet. It’d save Sarah from worrying if mum would say something embarrassing. She had basically no filters and she talked way too openly about certain topics, mostly embarrassing ones. “But anyways, do we have the baby carriage? I don’t want to carry this around all the time.”

“They’re probably in the storage. I’ll go take them out later. What do you have to do with that doll?”

“Most things you do with a real baby. Feed, change the diaper, hush them quiet when they cry.”

“Feed? Change a diaper?”

Sarah nodded. These weren’t any normal dolls. They drank water and the water came out as “pee”. How wonderful.

They found the baby carriage in the storage. They also took some old baby clothes with them too. Tim couldn’t feel cold (probably) but Sarah liked the idea of dressing him into some cute sweaters for when they went outside. Apparently, autumn had decided to make way for early winter. They were close to November, but it was chillier than usually at that time of the year. A real baby would need some warm clothes outside, summer outfits wouldn’t be enough anymore. Tim was around the same size as a few months old baby so some of their old clothes would fit him. Sarah could already imagine Castiel complaining about dressing up Tim with anything else than the basic romper he had on. He probably wouldn’t take care of the doll or write the diary either and then they’d get a bad grade. The thought alone made Sarah annoyed. Maybe she would take care of Tim by herself and let Castiel be. She was sure that he’d be perfectly fine with it too.

Sarah lied on her bed, doing homework and listening to music when someone shook her shoulder. She jumped and saw her mother. She took her headphones off and heard baby’s cry.

“Your doll has been screaming for at least ten minutes,” mum said and sounded annoyed. “Can you shut it up please?”

Sarah peeked over the edge of the bed. She had put Tim on a doll bed she had “borrowed” from her younger sister. He had been quiet when she left him there, but now he was screaming.

“Oh boy,” Sarah sighed and picked up Tim. “I wonder what’s wrong?”

“Might be hungry,” mum guessed when shushing didn’t have any effect on the doll. Sarah sighed and took out a feeding bottle from the diaper bag their teacher had given them. It had a few essential items inside, mainly the feeding bottle and few fabric diapers. Since it was water that came out of the doll, they only needed to put the wet diaper to dry and they could use it again.

Mum went to fill the bottle with water and Sarah put it in the doll’s mouth. Immediately Tim shut up and the water disappeared from the bottle. Sarah was impressed. She knew these kinds of dolls existed and normal kids had them too, but it was still cool to see. The doll felt more like an actual baby but the glassy eyes that stared straight into Sarah bothered her still. She started to understand Martha’s uncomfortableness with dolls. Tim emptied the bottle and Sarah put him back to bed. Hopefully Tim wouldn’t cry about a wet diaper anytime soon. Because surely, he’d do it as well if he knew to complain about hunger. Modern toys were so advanced.

Tim made more noise few more times during the evening. Once it had a wet diaper and two other times it seemed to cry just for the fun of it. Sarah started to think the doll would cry if it was left alone for too long, but she wasn’t sure. But she quickly picked up the habit of checking on the doll at least once an hour and holding it a for a while. It made Tim stop crying as much and it made her believe her own theory.

“That doll is much cooler than any of mine,” Stefanie said when Sarah fed Tim for the second time.

“Just don’t take him to any of your plays. It’s not a toy. It’s my school project,” Sarah warned.

“I won’t. I’m not dumb,” Stefanie said with the utmost confidence of an eight-year-old. “But you’ll have to pay me back for taking the doll bed. Mari-Anne has to sleep with Mr Cuddles and he snores a lot.”

“I’ll apologize to Mari-Anne later. Perhaps I’ll get her some chocolate as well,” Sarah said and put Tim back to his bed.

“Mari-Anne wants peanut butter chocolate and strawberry gummies.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Hopefully she remembers to eat her veggies as well.”

“She will. She’s going to be a boxer, so she has to eat healthily.”

“Oh, a boxer? An interesting choice. Sounds fun.”

“I know. I was surprised but she is great at punching. She once broke a watermelon with her punch.”

“Wow, that is pretty good. Tell her I want to see her box sometimes.”

“I will! She’ll be happy because now it’s only Mr Cuddles and Boris in the audience because Millie doesn’t like boxing.”

Stefanie spent another thirty minutes explaining her dolls’ lives. A lot had happened since the previous catch up. Mr Cuddles was on a diet because he had eaten too much honey and Millie the Manatee was planning a holiday to meet her family. Sarah came to the conclusion that her sister’s toys led more exciting lives than she did.