Beautiful Mistake

ii

The first few chapters are horrible as hell but please give this a chance. I have pretty big dreams for this book and I'm hoping everyone enjoys it! So, thank you for even choosing to read :)

Also a big thank you to @irelandinamerica for this beautiful cover :)

-

One Month Later

"Mom! I'm leaving for school!" I yell as I take a water bottle from our refrigerator.

"You're leaving this early? How come?" I hear her come off the last steps and I am greeted by her face when she turns into the kitchen.

I shrug, "I just feel like being early today."

"If you want to sweetheart," She grabs her keys and purse, "Listen, later I need to talk to you about something."

My heart begins to beat unsteadily and I try to calm myself, "Why? Is dad okay?"

"Dad's fine. He'll be back soon. But no, it's about something else," I nod subtly and she kisses my cheek as she walks by me. "I'll see you later, lovely."

-

"Caroline, can I speak to you after class?" My first-period teacher, Mr. Santiago, asks before the bell rings.

I nod and start with packing my belongings. Mr. Santiago waits for the classroom to be empty before he gets up and shuts the classroom door.

I'm not getting why everyone is wanting to talk to me today, jeez.

My heart beat immediately picked up as I sit at my desk. What if my grades are dropping? "What do you need?" I ask, taking a shaky breath.

"Well, you are open to say no to this Caroline, but this is a very important project and you are the perfect candidate." I raise an eyebrow and egg him on.

"Keep going, sir," I say, mindlessly tapping my fingers on the table.

"Lately teenage pregnancy has become a very big deal. I need you to broadcast that to the world." He explains, "Every month I will give you silicone bellies that look like a natural, pregnant belly."

"What is this supposed to mean? Won't someone notice that every month my stomach randomly gets bigger?"

"With the attention span of teens these days I'm pretty sure you're going to be fine. Anyway, we need you to be the poster girl. Although you're pregnant, you still go to school, get good grades, and is coping well." Taking all this information in was hard. He wants me to fake being pregnant for 9 months and then say, 'Just kidding!'

"Uh." I rub my forehead and sigh, "Can I at least tell my parents?"

"No! Nobody must know. If they ask who the father is, say it's Collin Bronze." He starts waving his hands everywhere. "And also, wear the belly at all times we need to let parents know that their children even with the best protection could get pregnant..."

"Does Collin know that I am faking it?"

Mr. Santiago nods, "He's a part of this too. That's another thing, I need the both of you to be seen together here and sometimes in public like the mall."

"I'm hoping you know that Collin and I are on the opposite sides of the social chain."

"You two have known each other since kindergarten, it's not like you're strangers." Mr. Santiago says factually. I sigh, slightly annoyed but he's right. Collin and I have known each other since kinder, I've even had a crush on him since 5th grade. So the chance that I can be "pregnant" with his baby sounds... not horrible.