The Pregnant Scam

Chapter Twenty-Five

I groaned loudly into my pillow as Justin Timberlake's song 'Cry Me a River' blared from my alarm telling me it was five o'clock and time to get ready for school if I was going to make it to Anthony's in time.
With my eyes still closed I reached over to my bedside table to smack my alarm off, I missed it by an inch and ended up smacking it a second time to turn it off. I avoided turning on my bright bedroom and instead used my flashlight on my phone to get ready for school. Besides who wanted to wake up at five in the morning and be blinded by a light, definitely not me. I yawn as I pulled on a pair of jean leggings and a red maternity shirt. I longed for a cup of caffeine, but that was out of the question since I'm pregnant. I rubbed my baby bump, "You're really killing me you know that little one?" I murmured to my baby, I should probably start thinking of baby names, but for now I'll stick with little one. I still had seven months to think of something.
After I was ready for school I drove the forty-five minutes to Anthony's house. Once there I immediately grabbed my backpack and jumped into his car where he drove us to Harrison High School. This whole faking relationship really sucked, not that I didn't like being Anthony's pretend girlfriend. Just the fact that I had to wake up early just to ride into school with him, because that's what REAL couples do.
Quietly Anthony and I walked to homeroom together. I sat at my desk and listened to Mr. Grass drone on and on. Once the bell rang I was out of my seat before you could say hot chilly peppers wowza! Being pregnant made me walk slower than I usually did, besides that I still had to grab my books out of my locker, avoid the sea of students, and make it to speech class all in fifteen minutes.
"Hey Jules!" Anthony ran up to me, he took my hand in his and we walked towards my locker together. He leaned against the lockers while I pulled books out of my backpack and switched them for ones in my locker.
"What's cookin' good lookin?" I asked causally trying to seem flirty like girls do when they with their boyfriends.
He smiled amused by my lack of flirting because clearly I didn't know how to flirt with a guy. "It's a good thing you don't know how to flirt, that way I don't have to worry about your cheating on me with someone else."
"Hey! I can flirt!" I said smacking him arm playfully.
He raised an eyebrow, "Really, fine show me your best flirt." He challenged.
I sighed as I rambled my brain for a good pick up line, I smiled at him and batted my eyelashes for good effort. I leaned close to him and gently traced my finger along his arm, "Honey, I'm looking for a key and you look like the one who holds it. Do you have the key to my heart?"
Anthony couldn't help himself, he burst out laughing, "What was that?! That flirt won't even work!" He said between laughs.
"Ha-ha." I replied rolling my eyes as I started walking away from him down the hallway, "It would work if you made keys in a hardware store and I was a customer flirting." I pointed out as Anthony followed me.
"Maybe." Anthony said chuckling, "Oh hey, would you want to watch me try out for basketball after school today?
"Weren't you on the team last year? You've never needed me to watch you before." I said as we rounded a corner and weaved our way between students.
"Yeah but they make you try out each year even if you were on the team before, and I never needed you too because you weren't my girlfriend till now that is."
I laughed, "What do you need me to boost your confidence or something? I'm sure you'll make the team."
"No, just that girlfriends come to try outs and you know......" He his voice trailed off as he let me finish the sentence.
Yes I did know what he meant. We're suppose to be a couple totally in love. If this pregnant stratagem was going to work then obviously I had to watch Anthony try out for basketball and go to every game to watch him play. "Sure I'll be there." I said as we neared my speech class.
"Great, I'll see you at lunch!" He said before walking down the hallway towards his next class.
Right, lunch with his buddies. I didn't know which was worse having to eat lunch with his friends or being partnered up with Lexi for debates in speech class. I sighed as I sunk down in my chair in the back of Mrs. Jones speech class. I still had no idea what my first debate topic was since Lexi wouldn't even talk to me in class. We only had a week and a half now to prepare for our first debate, so we needed one fast.
Lexi sat down in her assigned seat beside me, she made a point of not evening making eye contact when she sat down. Then she pulled out her pen and notebook.
"Hey I know we're not exactly on speaking terms, but we really need to think of our topics to debate about." I whispered to her as Troy and Tiffany slide past us to get to their seats.
She sighed dramatically, like I was a big bother to her.
That's it Lexi! I fumed in my head all the ways she treated me, the way she talked to me, the way she avoided me, not to mention the cruel posters she made and spread around school. I get that she was angry for seeing me and Anthony together, but Anthony and I were just doing the scam so everyone will believe he's the father. Because I didn't want anyone to know the truth that I was raped. She's treated me like crap and I've had enough of her bitchiness. "Fine , I've already picked my topic, I want to do communication and focus on how it's the key to making every relationship work." I didn't tell her I thought of it because of the lack of communication she gave me and how it was destroying our relationship.
"Oh like you've made all your relationships work?" She rolled her eyes, "It seems to me the only thing you know what to do in a relationship is make it crash and burn to the ground. Guess that makes my topic keeping things to yourself makes relationships work. Which is what you should have done with your feelings for my brother." She mumbled as Mrs. Jones got everybody's attention at the front of the room.
"I hope you guys are finding out your debate topics, because next Friday will be your first one. Yay! Now let's get started on today's speech topic." Mrs. Jones said as she clicked the mouse on her computer to move to the next slide on the PowerPoint.