Broken Hill Hearts (Broken Hill High 4)

Jesse rolls his eyes as Jackson glares. “Your favorite little lap dog decided to start a fucking fight in the middle of the locker room today and now I’m fucking stuck with him until school goes out.”

“Wait… what?” I question again, turning my attention on Jesse, hoping in his angry state, he’s able to make a little more sense of the situation than Jackson can.

“I fucking tried,” Jesse says, throwing his hands up and holding the fake baby by the leg, making it cry. “Kaylah wanted me to be nice and I fucking tried.”

“What happened?” I ask as he tries to shove the baby in my face.

I push the baby back at him and he groans before Jackson rips it out of his hands and takes over. “I saw him go into the locker room, so I went in to talk and the fucker freaked out.”

“I didn’t freak out.”

Jesse scoffs. “You thought I was coming to fight. You instantly went on the defense and threw a fucking punch.”

“What do you expect?” Jackson scowls. “It’s not like you have a great track record.”

Jesse rolls his eyes. “We got busted fighting,” he explains. “Watkins doesn’t think the usual forms of punishment are working on us, so he gave us a fucking baby to look after for the next two weeks. It’s apparently some bonding experiment type of bullshit.”

“It’s supposed to get us to work together as a team,” Jackson offers.

“It’s fucking bullshit is what it is.”

Brooke howls in laughter. “By being daddies together?”

“Shut up,” Jesse demands.

“Ok,” I say, trying my absolute hardest to keep a straight face as I spy Nate and Puck at the other end of the hallway, making their way towards us. “So, why are you still fighting?” I question.

“Because,” Jesse groans. “I want to call the baby Christy, and this fucker thinks it looks like a Lucy.”

“I’m not calling my baby Christy,” Jackson demands.

“It’s our baby,” Jesse seethes.

“Careful,” Brooke grumbles beside me. “If we’re not careful, Jessica is going to start lactating.”

Jesse narrows his eyes on her. “I don’t know what the fuck that is but I know an insult when I hear one.”

“Calm down,” I groan. “She was just suggesting you need to relax.”

“I can’t fucking relax. This baby won’t stop crying.”

“What the hell is that noise?” Nate questions, peering around Jesse to see Jackson with the baby, trying his hardest to rock it as Jesse glares at his brother.

“You need to change her diaper,” Jesse orders.

“I already changed her diaper,” Jackson scolds. “She needs a bottle.”

“She needs a diaper,” Jesse shoots back.

I swear, I could watch this shit all day.

“Holy shit,” comes shrill laughter from behind me. I look over my shoulder to see Kaylah watching her big brother and her boyfriend fighting over this fake baby’s ass while she nearly falls to the ground, unable to control herself. “So, it’s true? You fuckers have to look after a baby for the next two weeks.”

“What?” Nate demands. “You’re not bringing that shit home.”

Jesse blanches. “I’m not leaving her with Jackson to fuck up.”

Kaylah laughs as she wipes at her watery eyes. “I don’t want it waking me up in the middle of the night either.”

“What?” Jackson demands of his sister as Elle appears at his side.

She takes in the baby and surprises us all when she slips it out of his hands, holds it up over her shoulder and pats it’s back, making it instantly stop crying. “What?” she questions. “I took this class last year. It’s easy.”

Jesse grins down at her and she shakes her head. “No way in hell, dude. Just because I said it was easy doesn’t mean I didn’t lose a shitload of sleep over it.”

Jesse groans and steps aside so he can fall into the lockers. “I’m already exhausted and it’s only been an hour.”

“Serves you right for bombarding my brother in the locker room,” Kaylah reprimands. “Don’t think for one second I don’t know about that.”

“Are you kidding me?” He demands. “I went in there to smooth shit out. He’s the one who threw a punch.”

This goes on and on for the majority of first break, until Jesse cracks the shits, steals the sleeping baby from Elle’s arms and storms off down the hallway with Jackson hurrying after him.

“Um,” Nate says, pulling me into his arms. “What the hell was all that?”

“You don’t want to know.”

Nate drives me back to his place after school and I’m not surprised to find Jesse, Jackson, and Kaylah already here. I mean, it’s normal for Kaylah to be here now, but Jackson? I’m not going to lie. When I saw him lounging on the outdoor couch by the pool, I did a double take.

Nate’s phone screeches to life in his pocket and he digs in and pulls it out. “It’s Puck,” he announces before bringing the phone to his ear and walking straight out the back to join the others.