Teen-Adulthood 101

Chapter Twelve

After hanging out at my place for a few hours, the girls and I went to Dr. Lancaster's house for the support group, where there were a lot of girls sitting in the living room, some were pregnant and some with kids. Jana and Carly introduced Amanda and me to them one by one; then, Dr. Lancaster entered the room, asked us to take a seat, and announced, "Well, as you know, we have three newcomers with us. Why don't you come up and tell us about yourselves?"

I took the floor first. "I'm Haley Richardson. I just turned fifteen a couple of weeks ago, a junior a Louisville High School taking college classes, married, and almost three months pregnant. I love school, writing, and music, mainly rock. In addition to being a wife and mother, I want to be a writer for teens and young adults, a musician, and maybe a nurse or counselor."

"That is a great goal!" Dr. Lancaster replied. "Any questions for Haley, anyone?"

Anna Larkson, a fellow pregnant girl, spoke. "Haley, are you writing short stories, poems, novels or all three?'"

"I write all three. So far, I have written sixty-five short stories, over three hundred works of poetry, twenty novels, and over a hundred songs. I want to publish them and make them available to the world, but want to find an agent I can trust."

"Cool! The next time you come, we should hear some of your work."

Everyone unanimously agreed.

Laughing, Dr. Lancaster asked Rain to speak next.

Rain just nodded and arose. "I'm Rain Hale and like Haley, I am a fifteen-year-old junior at Louisville, almost three months pregnant, married, and love rock music. However, unlike her, I don't like school too much, but make straight-As and take college courses to get done faster. I am an aspiring artist; I love drawing, painting, and sculpting and in addition to being a wife and mother, I want to become a professional artist and perhaps an interior designer."

Kelly Danes, a fifteen-year-old holding her son, replied, "That is great, but what motivates you to do well in school if you don't like it too much?"

"My mom motivated me to excel in school before she died and Haley pushes me into doing more than just above average."

Finally, Amanda introduced herself. "My name's Amanda Morgan. I'm from New York and a fifteen-year-old junior, along with Haley and Rain. I am neither pregnant nor married, but I am with a great guy and I love him to pieces. Like Haley, I want to be a writer and musician, but would also like to become a lawyer, like my dad. He and my mom instilled in me that I could have a career in the arts, but still have a stable career at the same time. I do want to get married and have kids, but I want to wait until I get established before doing so."

"Are you and your boyfriend having protected sex?" Anna asked.

Amanda shook her head. "We're not having sex, yet. We want to wait until we're both ready."

"Good," another girl shouted, "but if you do decide to have sex, get birth control and wait a month before you do to give it time to take effect and make sure he wears a condom because one slip up is all it takes to get pregnant or a disease. There's nothing wrong with taking too many precautions when it comes to this because once you start having sex, you better be prepared for what happens next."

We all agreed with her. It may be too late for us, but not Amanda. She can have a carefree life and do what she wants, but the rest of us can't; that part of our lives is over. Now, we have to become adults at an early age and think seriously because we have other lives depending on us to care for them. I knew this when I found out I was pregnant and knew I had to make sacrifices for the choices I made and as I looked at Rain, I knew she realized it, too. Things were going to be harder for us because not only were we pregnant, we were also married and we can't turn back the clock and make it so this did not happen; plus, I don't think we wanted to.

After a few more minutes of talking, we took a break to eat some supper. Annabeth had cooked some baked chicken parmesan, with pasta and zucchini for side items, and it was delicious. She also made some dark chocolate apple dippers coated with nuts for a healthy dessert and that was great. I saw why everyone came over with empty bellies because she made sure that we had our fill and a healthy one at that.

After supper, Allie (Dr. Lancaster insisted we call her that) grouped us by trimesters and sent us to different rooms to watch videos on what happens to our bodies during that time, what we need to do and watch out for, and suggested we take notes. Amanda wanted to join us, but Annabeth had her help clean up the kitchen and they hung out in the room with Jana and Allie.

As I was watching the video, Anna Larkson came up to me and asked where I went to school, again.

"I go to Louisville High School." I answered, taking notes from the video. "What about you?"

"I go to Noxapater High School," she replied. "I used to go to Louisville, but had to leave because they found out I was married."

"Why?"

"I really don't know. They started doing this at the beginning of the year, making it hard for married teenagers to attend school. When they found out I was married, they started calling me to the office to suggest GED classes, telling me the statistics of a married teenager finishing school, or just leave me in a room all day without saying a word to me. My husband and I tried to talk to the school, but they were being unreasonable. So, we considered legal action, but the lawyers won't touch our case. So, I just transferred to Noxapater and they treated me like any other student. Nanih Waiya does, too, but Noxapater was closer to his work, so I go to school there."

I was curious about her story. "Are you saying that they'll come after me?"

"Yeah," she nodded. "They're going after every married teenager until there is none left, which makes no sense. To them, if a student has a baby and unmarried, they need an education because they don't have help from the other parent, but a married teen mom has nothing to worry about because supposedly the man has a good job to take care of her and the baby. That is totally stupid. Every teenager has a right to an education, whether they are married, single, with or without kids, and who's to say the marriage is stable or will last? I mean, my marriage is good and Brady makes good money working at Taylor's, but I want to finish school, go to college, and become a teacher.

"I want to finish school, and go to college to become a writer," I replied, "but now with a baby on the way, I still plan on writing, but I'm thinking about studying Nursing or Psychology."

"That's a great goal, Haley, but be careful about school. They're going to make it hard for you to stay there."

I gave her a hug. "Thanks, Anna."

After the movie was over, we spent a few minutes talking about what we've learned, but I was also thinking about what Anna was saying. Why would the school turn away a student just because they were married? That's just stupid and discriminatory. If what she's saying is true, then they could come after Rain and me and that will be a real fight.

"So, Haley," Allie asked. "What have you learned from watching the video?"

"That what you put in your body is important because if you put something bad in your system, then it could hurt the baby."

"That's good, Haley. What about you, Rain?"

Rain cleared her throat. "That exercise is important for the baby's health, as is gaining a certain amount of weight."

"Great! Well, that's enough for tonight! Why don't we spend the rest of the time hanging out or if anyone has schoolwork, use the time to do it? Annabeth, Amanda, and Jana, would you mind helping me babysit the kids?"

They agreed and we all got our work out.