The Art of Being Emily - Katie MacAlister Page 0,165
why I was stuck with him.
One of the girls—Sephora, I think—took a deep breath like she was going to scream or something, then let it all out in a gushy, “That is the verruh coolest thing Ah’ve evuh seen! Ah just wish Ah had a baby doll, too. Sebbie, isn’t that the verruh coolest thing?”
“Yas,” Sabine said. “It looks so real, too! And it cries!”
“Incessantly,” I said, but with a teensy bit of pride. After all, no one else in the program had a baby with them. I started to see how Jack might be a bit of fun after all. “But he’s a very good baby normally.”
Right at that moment, as if on cue, Jack shut up. The girls squealed again and begged to hold him. Holly shot me a “Told you so!” look while I was giving them Jack-holding instructions.
“Is this all the clothes he has?” one of the twins asked as she rocked him.
“Yeah, although I have reusable diapers. He only pees water, and the diapers don’t take long to dry out.”
They looked disappointed. “Ah was hopin’ we might be able to dress him up,” the nearest one said. “Y’all should get him cute things, as long as y’all are heeyuh in Paris.”
“Baby clothes!” Holly said brightly. “That would be fun. You could get him a couple of stylish Parisian baby outfits, Em.”
I gave her a look. “Are you kidding? Don’t you remember the baby budget we did? Baby clothes are expensive.”
“Not if y’all looked at the market,” Sephora (I think it was her) said. “We were theyuh this morning. It’s called le marché aux puces de Saint-Ouen, and it’s huge! Y’all will love it to bits.”
“The Puces of Paris!” Holly said, all excited-like. “I’ve heard of that. It’s a giant flea market, Emily. Oh, we should go! I’m dying to get a sexy French outfit, something that will make me look all wicked and temptressy.”
See what I mean about her? She never wanted to be a wicked temptress before she met Ruariadh.
“I suppose we could go,” I said with a yawn. “We have time tomorrow morning, right? After we do some test or other?”
“Afternoons are freeyuh only,” Sabine said. Oh, all right, I have no idea if it was Sabine or Sephora, but I’m just going to guess from here on out. They’re practically the same person, it really can’t matter too much which is which, right? Right.
“We’d be happy to go with y’all to the market if ya like,” Sephora added.
We decided to go right after lunch. I figured it would be a good introduction to Paris, and who knew what I’d find? Maybe I’d see something that would drive Devon into a crazed frenzy, not that I’m sure that would be a good thing. It sounds like it would, but you know, after all my experience with Aidan and Ruaraidh, I’ve learned that what sounds good isn’t necessarily good in person.
Anyway, I pried Jack from the twins’ grips.
“He’s just so darned cute,” they gushed as I stuffed him into his carrier and set it next to my bed. “He’s so perfect! He’s just a doll!”
They laughed hysterically at their little joke.
“Oh, yeah, he’s a doll all right,” I said as I rolled my eyes. Honestly! You’d think they’d never seen a fake baby before!
I crashed then, not having gotten too much sleep because of Jack and my smoky room and everything.
Three hours later the twins weren’t saying Jack was a doll. They were yelling at me for him waking everyone up. I dragged him out to the hall and sat in the bathroom for twenty minutes until he went back to sleep. He woke everyone up again a few hours later, so I ended up sleeping on the couch in the lounge.
This morning when I got up...oh, poop, have to go. They’re done testing everyone and we’re going to get our class assignments. I’ll be back as soon as I can.
Tell me what’s going on with you guys, I miss you all, especially now that I’m in a foreign country. Well, OK, England was kind of foreign, but not really because I’m used to it, but France is really foreign!