by Keelan Storm
Isabel nodded to let the woman know she was following the conversation, but she was fuming inside. Did she have no choice in this? Ms. Lane and her mom just automatically assumed she needed extra help? True, things were going to get harder for her, but she was doing fine so far.
“I’m not trying to upset you, Isabel, but I’d really like to know. Do you know who the father is?”
She looked at her reluctantly. It was so insulting the way she asked if she knew who he was rather than just asking her for a name. “My boyfriend.”
The insistent counselor gave her an expectant look, and Isabel sighed, “Tucker Patterson.”
She heard a sharp intake of breath from Ms. Lane before she bent over the journal to make another note. “Of course people, including the teachers, apparently, will be upset that the school’s basketball star has a baby on the way. How will it affect his game?” Isabel thought sarcastically as she rolled her eyes.
The factual questions ensued for several more minutes, each answer being noted in that journal. Isabel was beginning to feel like she was in some sort of psych session with the constant note taking on her every word.
“Alright, I believe I’ve gotten all of the necessary information out of the way for our first visit. Is there anything else you’d like to talk to me about while you’re here?”
“Do you think you could tell me how you found out?”
Ms. Lane pulled her lips into a thin smile and shook her head slowly. “No, I’m sorry. That information is confidential.”
Isabel nodded. She’d thought as much, but she still thought she’d try.
“Is there anything else? Perhaps how you’re feeling about the situation? What some of your plans are?”
“By plans you mean?”
“What are you going to do? Do you plan to keep the baby? Have you considered other options like adoption? These decisions will make a dramatic difference in our conversations throughout the next few months.”
“Tucker and I plan to keep our baby. I know that means I’ll most likely have to go to summer school to finish high school, and I’m okay with that. Whatever we have to do to make it work, we will. That’s about all of the plans we have so far.”
Ms. Lane again jotted down the newfound information. “That’s going to be a huge responsibility, having and raising a baby so young. Have you weighed all of your options to know that this is definitely what you want to do?”
“There is no other option for me, Ms. Lane. It would be against who I am as a person to give up my child.”
The counselor’s lips pursed then. “Well then, you and Mr. Patterson have a lot to consider over the next few months, but you won’t have to go to summer school. We have a homebound program that will let you keep up with things while you’re out.”
Isabel nodded again. That was actually good news and one thing off her list of unknowns. She knew she and Tucker had a lot to plan still, but neither of them seemed to be able to sit down and make the other one do it. Just the thought of the conversation was terrifying.
“Can I go back to class now?” she asked then, suddenly having no interest in continuing the present conversation.
Ms. Lane looked up at the clock above her door. “Well, there’s only ten minutes left of class. I tell you what. Why don’t you wait in the office until the bell rings and then head over to second period? You can look over this packet I have for you.”
Isabel took the small packet she held out and looked down at the title, In High School and Pregnant. “Great,” she thought with cynicism.
She stood then, grabbing her bag and purse from the floor. A few minutes of looking through the packet couldn’t hurt while she waited for the bell.
“Oh, by the way, I’d like for us to meet on Mondays after lunch for now on. Feel free to drop in during that time on another day of the week as well if you need to.”
Isabel stopped, looking back. “That’s when I have my dance team class. Shouldn’t I come in during homeroom or something?”
Ms. Lane looked up and smiled, almost laughing softly under her breath. “Oh, no, dear. Ms. Teiger won’t allow you to keep performing in your condition. Especially now that you’re getting further along.”
“I have clearance from my doctor, though.”
“Well, perhaps some of your captain’s duties will be fine for now, but I just don’t see Ms. Teiger approving much past that.”
Isabel stood there stunned, her mouth hanging open. She felt as though she had been kicked in the gut. Dancing was her world here at school, where she fit in. Where wasn’t just Annie’s twin or Jet’s best friend or Tucker’s girlfriend. She had thought she would at least be able to dance through football season. This could not be happening.
“I can’t dance anymore?” she squeaked. She recognized how pathetic her voice sounded, but it was the only thing she could muster at that moment.
“Not with the team, dear, no,” Ms. Lane replied. “Ms. Tieger is only looking out for your safety. You’ll still go to class and the games, but you won’t be participating in much.”
She could feel the tears welling up under her eyelids. She had known this was coming, but to have dance cut out so soon? What else was going to change? People were going to start talking and speculating after practice today, and it wouldn’t be long before they figured out why she couldn’t participate.
Before her tears could spill over, Isabel pushed her way through the door and out into the empty hall, her heels making loud clicking sounds on the tile floors. Forget reading the stupid packet. All she wanted to do now was cry. Cry about nothing and anything and absolutely everything.
She burst through the red, metal door to the girls’ restroom and rushed to the far back corner where she collapsed into a tight ball. Her bag and purse flung against an adjacent wall.
Her tears flowed then, hot and fierce down her cheeks. How could her day suddenly turn so awful when it had started out so wonderful?
19
Confrontations
“Alright, get going! Focus! Move, move, move!” Coach Lyson yelled to the guys who were running sprints.
“Great plan, coach,” Tucker thought as he pushed his legs to move even faster against the paved track, “but it’s hard to focus when I know why everyone’s staring at me today!”
He’d been concerned when Izzy said she’d been called to the counselor’s office, and his fears were confirmed by the end of second period when the big topic of the Homecoming cancellation was already overrun with the running rumor about him and Izzy.
Tucker didn’t know why he was letting everyone’s stares get to him so much. He’d known that everything was eventually going to come out into the open, and really, he and Izzy were lucky it had taken as long as it had, but it was driving him crazy that everyone was so ready to buy it when Izzy still looked normal.
He wondered how she was holding up right then. Her dance class would have just gotten over, and he knew that whatever teammates of hers hadn’t heard the news that morning were sure to know now. If the staring he was getting was bad, Tucker hated to imagine all of the looks Izzy must be getting.
“Get it together, Patterson!” he heard the coach yell. “Hustle!”
“Damn it! This sucks! I can’t concentrate,” he thought as he willed himself to focus enough, attempting to ignore the inquiring looks coming from his friends up ahead.
Tucker felt as though he could feel every pair of eyes boring into his back while he showered at the end of class, but he knew that was all in his head. The guys still understood the concept of creepy, no matter how curious they were.
He shuddered. He still couldn’t shake the feeling, so he finished washing as quickly as humanly possible and hurried out of the showers. When he stepped back into the locker room, he was surprised to see David Vasquez already heading outside. Weird. Tucker had thought for sure he was the first one out of the showers.
He blew it off, heading over to the row where
he’d find his things. What did he care if someone wanted to get out of here early? He should have thought of it himself. “If I hurry, I can still make it out before the others finish,” he told himself just as a locker door shook open from somewhere across the room.
He glanced around the corner to see who else had neglected the use of the showers that day and saw someone ducked inside a locker.
He wondered who it was when Jet called out from behind him.
“You okay, dude?”
Wesley’s head jerked up, catching Tucker watching. He shot him a dark look, and slammed the locker door shut to dart outside.
“Yeah, I hate you, too,” he thought.
“What was that about?” Jet asked then. “You know Izzy would be pissed if she found out you were trying to pick a fight with Wesley.”
“Nah, man, I know. I didn’t even know he was out here.”
“Okay… ‘cause it really looked like you were in a hurry to get out here for something.”
“No, I just had to get out of the showers.”
Jet gave him a funny look.
“Don’t ask, man.” He didn’t feel like going into the weird rationalizations of his mind right now.
His friend shrugged and headed over to his locker to change. “Alright.”
Tucker had just finished pulling his clothes on when some of the guys started to trickle in. He grabbed his sneakers and sat down on a nearby bench, hoping that he could get them on fast enough to avoid a lengthy interrogation.
“So, is it true, man?” Kyle asked not a moment after he had sat down.
“So much for getting out of here before it started,” Tucker thought as he bent over to pull on his right shoe. “Is what true?”
“You know what I’m talking about. It’s going around the whole school that Izzy’s pregnant,” Kyle retorted.
“Ugh, I guess there’s no point in denying it. It’s gotten out somehow, and Izzy’s clothes aren’t going to hide it much longer anyway,” he thought, deciding to accept the situation and just deal with it.
He let his foot drop back to the floor, his shoelaces still untied, and looked up at the small group of guys that were waiting anxiously for his response. He sighed. “Yeah, it’s true.”
“I can’t believe it!” Noah exclaimed. “We were hoping it was just a rumor. It is Izzy, after all.”
Tucker exchanged a look with Jet. It would have been great if that were the case, but… “No, it’s not a rumor.”
Shouts and groans erupted from his surrounding friends. “Dude, how could you be so stupid?” Hector asked once the commotion had died down. “Carrying around condoms is one of the main purposes of a wallet.”
“It’s not like we planned on it,” he snapped. “It happened too fast for me to really even think about it.”
“It happened too fast, huh?” Hector asked with a smirk as he nudged Kyle in the arm with his elbow.
“Well, you’d be an expert on things happening too fast, wouldn’t you, Hector?” Tucker retorted, bringing into play a rumor from their junior year when his friend had managed to get some action.
Hector scowled and started grabbing his clothes from his locker. “I still say she exaggerated.”
“You’re not going to quit basketball over this, are you?” Noah asked, ignoring their grumbling friend.
“I think I can manage to still play ball even though my girlfriend’s pregnant,” Tucker scowled.
“Just checking, man. I’d hate to see you lose focus over this. Scouts will pick up on that, even if you’ve got more talent than anyone else on the team. I mean, you haven’t officially signed with anyone yet.”
“So are y’all going to take care of the situation?” Kyle asked more seriously then.
By his tone, they all knew what he meant. Tucker shot the ignorant redhead a look of disgust and went back to putting on his shoes.
“Just a question, man,” he said defensively.
“Well, most of the guys at school have been wondering why Tucker Patterson decided to settle on one chick when just about every girl at school still drools over him like fucking candy. I guess now we’ve got our answer,” Noah commented while running his comb excessively through his light brown hair.
Tucker stood up at that and snatched his bag from the floor. He had had enough. Like hell they had an answer. They didn’t have a clue about anything.
“Fuck off,” Tucker spat at them, giving them the most furious glower he could manage. He turned to storm out the doors, pushing so hard they slammed into the outside building wall as he left.
Before the doors closed, he heard Jet say, “Y’all are all idiots.”
* * *
“Oh, come on, Ems. It wasn’t anything personal,” Annie said in an attempt to pacify the small, athletic blonde as they walked down the hallway towards their lockers. “We didn’t tell anyone about it.”
“I don’t see how I’m not supposed to take it personally, Annie. I really thought that we were becoming good friends…that all five of us were. Why couldn’t I be trusted with this secret? I didn’t rat Tucker and Izzy out when he let it slip that they were having sex. Why would I do it about this?”
Annie pursed her lips and breathed out a small huff of frustration. Emma had felt really affronted when she found out Izzy was pregnant that morning. They hadn’t meant to upset her, and it was nothing against her, but how could she get her friend to see that?
“Emma, you are a good friend, and it wasn’t that we didn’t trust you.”
“Then, what was it? I’d really like to know so that the next time there’s some big secret, I’ll know why it’s being kept from me,” Emma retorted just as they reached Annie’s locker.
Izzy was pulling a book from the adjacent one when they walked up. “I’m sorry, Emma,” she told her, wanting to help explain when she overheard. “I just wanted to keep it under wraps for a while. The more people that knew, the easier it was for one of us to slip up and let the news out. Not on purpose, of course. It’s just that…Tucker and I wanted to hold off on the drama as long as possible.”
Emma looked at her for a few seconds before her frown relaxed into a timidly understanding smile. “I guess I can see that.”
The twins sighed in relief. “Thanks,” Izzy replied.
“Yeah, it sucked having you mad at me,” Annie added.
“Well, I’m still annoyed, but I’ll get over it.” Emma looked down at her watch. “I’ve got to run to my locker. I’ll see you and Jet in health class in a few minutes, Annie. Later, Izzy,” she said before she walked off.
“Later,” they both replied as they dug through their lockers.
“So how was dance team practice?” Annie asked cautiously.
Izzy closed the locker door and leaned her head against the red painted metal, a look of emotional exhaustion across her face. “Horrible. I had to sit up in the bleachers and watch the whole time. Ms. Teiger didn’t call attention to me or anything, but everyone was still watching. I couldn’t even pass it off as being sick or hurt since people seemed to already know this morning.”
Annie hated seeing Izzy down like this, but really, she felt a bit better knowing her sister wouldn’t be pushing herself so much at school anymore. “It just doesn’t make sense how it got out,” she commented, shutting the door to her locker as well.
“Does it really matter? It’s out now. There’s no going back,” Izzy said as they started walking back down the hall.
“I guess not…” she replied, still skeptical. “Are you going to hang out at Tucker’s today, or are you gonna come home after school?” Annie asked then for a change of subject.
“I think I’m going over to Tucker’s for a little bit. I’ve still got some stuff to tell him about.”
“It’s killing me that you won’t tell me,” Annie complained. Izzy had been so excited earlier, it had to be good.
“Later. I promise. It deserves a setting where we can let out o
ur full enthusiasm.”
“Okay…”
They walked slowly, neither of them excited about going to another class after the long day, and they paused at the main split in the hall where they would have to separate when a group of girls walking towards them came into earshot. In the center of the group was a mess of quivering, strawberry blonde curls chattering excitedly.
“Oh, I know,” she drug out the word. “I couldn’t believe it either at first, but trust me. It’s true!” Lisa said animatedly, clearly thrilled to be spreading a round of gossip and have people hanging on her every word.
“What’s she going on about?” Annie wondered, growing suspicious.
“How do you know? It could just be a rumor,” one of Lisa’s listeners asked.
“Because I saw it. This morning in the parking lot. She has a little baby bump and everything!”
Annie stiffened, and she felt Izzy pause beside her. “How could Lisa have seen? The pink dress Izzy is wearing does a damn good job of hiding things.”
“Maybe she’s just getting fat. Remember how tight her clothes were getting last month?” the same listener argued.
“No,” Lisa insisted. “She had her hand pressed against her stomach, and I heard her tell Jet that she felt the baby move. She’s definitely pregnant. The office even called her in.”
Annie looked over at her sister. Izzy was staring at Lisa in shock. “She and Jet must not have realized anyone was listening,” she thought, realizing this had to be the news Izzy was so excited to share with her and Tucker later. “And I just bet Lisa couldn’t wait to run her mouth off about it.”
“It all makes so much more sense now. I could never understand why Tucker decided to stay with her. At least I wasn’t desperate enough to try to trap him into a relationship by getting myself knocked up. I would never do that to him. He’s got too much potential to be stuck with an unwanted baby. A guy like Tucker could never be happy like that. If she really loved him, she would have known that.”