Always His Baby

Chapter 2
Games

Chapter Description: Dan isn't the only one who thinks Sheridan is out of control. But will she get what is coming to her?

Sheridan cools off somewhat by the time she meets her friends at the cafe. Jake is there, eyes lighting up at the sight of her as she approaches, almost smug that he was going out with one of the fittest girls in school. She’d filled out very nicely in the past couple of years, her supple breasts and hips always shown off well in that school uniform. Of course she was well aware of that and made sure to check each morning that her shirt was tight enough and if her skirt could do with re-hemming.

Even though she had her man, it was important to make sure she looked the best for him to stop his eyes from straying to any other girls. As they sometimes would.

Grandma had told her that if a guy really loved her then she wouldn’t have to worry about her looks in order for him to stay faithful. But poor Gran didn’t know what she was talking about. Guys weren’t interested in personalities. Not at this age. They wanted a girl who looked the part and could show they could have some fun with. All that ’inner beauty’ stuff came later if she wanted to settle down and have a family when the two were more mature and ready for all that rubbish. So she just had to focus on keeping Jake interested for as long as she could. And oh, was she going to make sure of that. No way was she going to lose the hottest guy in town.

And anyone who got in her way had to watch their backs.

Which was why, come lunch-time, Hannah Crane was stomping over to their table, her eyes red with angry tears.

“You bitch! How could you do that?!” Hannah shouts for all of the canteen to hear.

Sheri’s lips quirk as she already knows full well what Hannah is on about, while her friends don’t have the slightest clue.

“Hey, I’m not the one who cheated on my boyfriend.” Sheri smirks, taking a bite of her sandwich. “Thought he had the right to know he was dating a slapper.”

And what better way to make it known than by posting a picture of the event on Facebook?

That will teach her for flirting with Jake at their drama class. She’s spotted her trying it on with him enough times now. And seeing her drunkenly kiss a random bloke last night showed that one boy just wasn’t enough for her. How long until she tried to get her claws into Sheri’s man?

“You know I wasn’t cheating on him! I was off my face, I had no idea what I was doing! You promised you wouldn’t say anything.” Hannah hisses, not caring about the scene she’s causing.

The students love the drama anyway.

Sheridan shrugs; “I didn’t say a word till you started having a go. Just uploaded a pic. You’re the one making it out to be something you say it wasn’t.”

“Because Darren just broke up with me, because of you.” She gives Sheridan a harsh shove in her chest, pushing her back and nearly making her stumble.

But Sheridan never lets anyone push her around. Especially literally. She gives Hannah a fierce shove in return and, unfortunately for Hannah, she ends up falling back against another group of students table. And landing back on a plate of tomato pasta, getting sauce on her skirt and up her shirt. The students laughed as Sheridan proudly took her seat back amongst her friends.

Hannah is seething, her face bright red and tears of anger in her eyes as she stands back up. She looks ready to go for Sheridan a second time, but a girl with a purple bag who Sheridan doesn’t remember seeing in their year before comes over and gently tries to coax her out of the canteen and to the bathroom to clean herself up. The girl turns and gives Sheridan a piercing glare that makes her shudder, as if a cold finger was being run down her spine, before she turns back to her friends. Some of whom look just as entertained as the rest of the school. Others, not so much.

“That was a bit out of order, don’t you think?” Tess asks, being a fair-weather friend of Hannah.

Sheri shrugs; “She was the one being out of order, going around snogging other guys.”

“Like you’ve never done that when you’re wasted?” Jake mutters a little.

Sheridan gives him a firm glare; “No. I haven’t. You know I would never.” Not seriously, anyway.

The others scoff and share off looks but Sheridan just ignores them. Screw them all.

Jake not trusting her irks her a little. If he started behaving like Dad and always expecting the worst of her then they would have a problem to deal with. So she wanted to have a bit of fun, what was the big deal? Everyone always had to be so serious all the time. Part of her yearned for the days at Primary school when she could be forgiven for doing silly things because, hey, that’s what kids get up to. Now she’s almost sixteen everyone expects her to be a mature adult. Even other students who think they’re so much more grown up than her.

They were just jealous; the girls anyway. Because she was the one who developed early and had the body of an eighteen year old rather than fifteen.

She stays at Jake’s that night, not bothering to text her dad as she already told him what her plans were that morning and didn’t need to check up on him like a convict on parole. But her and Jake end up having an argument when she confronts him about what he said at the canteen that lunch-time. Jake very rarely blows up at her about anything. It’s what she liked about him, his laid-back attitude to almost anything. Dad used to be a bit like that when she was younger - before he turned into a grouchy, interfering old git. So when Jake finally does react to her pushing him, it obviously means something big.

He finally makes it clear how it pisses him off when he sees her flaunting her body about, not understanding (or believing her) when she says it’s mainly for his benefit. And yes, he has seen her kissing other guys on occasion and calls her out when she attempts to say they’re nothing but harmless, drunken fun. How does that make her any different than Hannah? Sheridan wants to slap him. He just doesn’t get it. And there’s no way she’s going to change for him or anyone else. She’s a free spirit and does what she wants, screw what everyone else thinks.

Like mother, like daughter.

After the argument, she’s tempted to go back home but she knows Dad will give his whole ’I was right speech’ which she’s not in the mood for. Jake agrees to sleep on the sofa and let her have his bed when it’s clear they’re both too mad at each other to share for tonight.

She changes into his Arsenal football shirt to sleep in for the night and goes to his bathroom to clean off her make-up, not wanting to wake up tomorrow with a set of panda eyes.

When she opens the door, she finds it’s occupied by Jake’s sister, Robin, brushing her teeth.

“Get out, I need to wash my face.” Sheri snaps at the brat. Well, Robin was only a year younger than her but she always seemed less.

Not interested yet in boys or fashion. Fourteen years old and still playing her video games and watching dvds of Doctor Who. That and she was shorter and less shapely than Sheridan and her friends. Easy to mistake her for twelve or maybe thirteen. Robin turns and frowns at Sheridan, indignantly. She knew the kid had a problem with her dating her brother, not that it made a difference.

Robin spits into the sink and wipes her mouth; “You and Jake had a fight then? Saw it coming.”

“Mind your own business.” Sheridan pushes past her to get into the bathroom and to the sink to use her make-up wipes.

To her annoyance, Robin keeps standing in the doorway, frowning at her.

“What?!” Sheridan asks after a while, noticing her stare. “Take a picture, it will last longer.”

Robin shakes her head; “Why do you always have to be so angry?”

Sheridan clenches her jaw. She isn’t sure why she bothers answering the question.

“Not my fault everyone else pisses me off. This town is boring as Hell. Can’t wait to leave it and all its loser people behind.” She admits, aloud.

“Won’t you miss anyone? Not even your dad?”

Sheridan scoffs, scrubbing the eye-liner away; “Please. He’ll probably be glad to be rid of me. And vice versa.”

“I don’t think you mean that.”

“Well I don’t give a toss what you think so just piss off and go back to playing your little kiddie games with your lame mates on your Wii!” Sheri snaps, almost throwing a bar of soap at the brat.

Robin shakes her head and begins to walk off, not rising to the bait.

“At least I’m happy with my ’kiddie games’.” Is the last thing she says before closing her bedroom door.

Sheridan frowns at her reflection in the mirror, continuing to roughly wipe her face clean.

She was happy. At least...she would be. If everyone just stopped getting on her back. If she could just be free and have fun again with people being happy for her doing so instead of setting so many rules and restrictions and unfair expectations.

As she goes back to Jake’s empty room, she goes to close the blinds before spotting something.

A girl. Standing opposite the street, holding a purple umbrella to protect herself from the light drizzle. Sheridan can’t see her face but has a strong suspicion it’s the same girl who comforted Hannah in the canteen. The same one who she bumped into that morning. What the hell? Was she stalking her? This was getting creepy. Sheri turned her back to grab her phone but by the time she went back to the window – the girl was gone. Sheri blinks. Had she just imagined her there? Who the hell was she? This was really the last thing she needed on top of everything else lately. Some crazy girl hounding her. Probably someone she played a joke on in the past and wanted her own back. Wouldn’t be the first.

Some people had no sense of humour.

She sighs and flops down on the bed, curling beneath the cupboard. Her phone beeps with a text message from Dad but she puts it on silent. Even if he was calling to apologize for being a git that morning she was not in the mood for it. Or for yet another lecture or demand to come home. In a year or two she would have her own place anyway and not have to answer to anyone. Not even Jake.

Her mind gives into the exhaustion as she falls into a dreamless sleep.

When she opens her eyes and slowly remembers why she’s in Jake’s room alone, she feels as if a huge weight is lifted off her chest. All the anger and raging hormones from yesterday seem to have died down. Instead her heart buzzed with a yearning to get up out of bed and go outside into the sunshine. It was so rare they had such nice summers in this town after all. Jake would probably be feeling better as well. It never took much for them to make up when they did have an argument.

Sheridan sits up and stretches, head still a little disoriented, and her boyfriend’s shirt feels a little heavier on her than usual.

The door opens and she smiles up as Jake stands in the door. Frowning down at her.

“Rob!” He calls down the hall; “I told you not to let the sprog in my room!”

Sheridan giggles, not realising how high-pitched it sounds at first; “Who’re you calling a sprog?”

What’s wrong with her voice?

Jake glances back at her, looking somewhat exasperated; “Why are you wearing my shirt? C’mon. Out. I’ve got to get to school and I don’t have time for this, kiddo.”

Kiddo? Sprog? Sheridan frowned and touched her hand to her throat.

Her...tiny hand. She held it out in front of her, seeing how her typically long, manicured fingers were now short and stubby, her fingernails blank. She then padded at her own chest, only to find that the metaphorical weight she’d felt lifted earlier was more than just that. Her breasts were completely gone. Nothing but flat skin leading down to her not-so-thin middle. And the bottom of Jake’s shirt brushed over her knees as if it was a dress.

Sheridan was frozen as she gazed down at herself. This was a nightmare. It had to be.

The bedroom door opened again and Robin enters, laughing a little at the sight of Sheridan sat on the edge of her brother’s bed, drowning in his football shirt.

“What are you doing, little monkey?” She coos down at her and Sheridan fumes. Robin nudges her brother; “Suits her better than you, don’t you think.”

It hits Sheridan then that both Jake and Robin are looking down at her. Jake, she could understand, as he was always taller but Robin was a head shorter than her. And they were both speaking to her as if...as if...No way.

Sheridan jumps off the bed, brushing off the surprise of how big the jump is, before running and finding the bathroom. The sink and the mirror is too high for her to climb up to.

“Oh, god...”

Instead she runs into Robin’s room to find her full-length mirror. That’s when she sees it.

The silky, straight blond hair now a mess of curls and an immature fringe over her big brown eyes. Her perfect cheekbones gone and replaced with the fresh face and chubby cheeks of a little girl, to match the tiny hands and little legs. Going by the old photographs her dad kept around the house she would guess she was five or six. But she’d always looked small for age until reaching her growth spurt at age eleven. Sheridan just continues to stand there, waiting for the nightmare to end now that it’s reached its climax and for her to wake up in Jake’s bed. Full-size, once again.

Please. C’mon, please...

It doesn’t end.

She tugs at one of her angelic curls. And screams.