Paper crunched into a small ball in the back of the classroom while Mr Dougald paced the front of the room in a sleepy lullaby rhythm, his voice was dead and slow as he read the lecture to the class of thirteen year olds. Sleepy and bored teenagers lined up in the vertically aligned desks, doodling in their notebooks or drifting off to sleep; even on a bright and sunny morning like today. The smart kids were inhabiting the front rows, the preppy kids and jocks were in the middle, finally the punks and misfits lined the back rows.
And like a good misfit, that small paper ball that had a doodles and a statement written on it was lying playfully in the palm of a pale hand before it was launched from the soft flesh and rolled off the long fingers. The white paper ball glowed of purity when it was in eclipse of the sun, shadowing the kids in the sun's direct rays. Nobody seemed to have cared though, it was being sent from the back row after all. That paper ball of folded spikes landed in a curly bush of medium brown hair with a crinkling sound. Matty jerked his hand up to take hold of the ball after almost an entire class of drifting between sleep and wake. He knew that it was Eliese who created and sent the ball of notes. He carefully unfolded the ball of paper to see lots of small drawings and an important note.
I NEED 2 TALK 2 U @ LUNCH BEHIND SEX ED BUILDING IT'S SERIOUS. ~LIES.
Matty furrowed his neatly groomed eyebrows before twisting around to face the brunette sitting diagonally from him. The girl's eyes glowed a golden brown in the morning light, same did her skin. Matty admired the Native American culture, ever since Eliese took him to a powwow when they were kids.
"Why?" Matty mouthed with a puzzled expression. He didn't know what was so serious that they couldn't talk about it at the lunch table like they always do. Eliese leaned in towards the boy with a sullen look darkening her features.
"Just do it, please Matty." Eliese begged him in breathless words. Matty has never seen or heard Eliese beg someone to do something for her. It was a feeling that made his stomach twist. He saw urgency on her pale brown face. He's never seen that on her face. Matty realized that this must be important and he needs to comply to her request. Matty pursed his lips and swallowed hard before giving her a short nod.
"Okay." Matty sighed heavily.
"Mister Busek, Miss St Clair, is there something more important for you two to be discussing that is not of the lesson I'm currently teaching?" Mr Dougald questioned the two misfits from the front of the classroom, he stood in front desk the green chalkboard in a white dress shirt, an old knit vest and beige dress pants. Eliese and Matty turned their attention to Mr Dougald slowly with pouting expressions masking their faces.
"No Sir." They both said flatly. Mr Dougald frowned at the two of them before turning on the heel of his brown leather dress shoes; he plucked up and piece of chalk of the ledge then wrote Matthew Busek and Elizabeth St Clair under the word DETENTION. Eliese frowned when she saw that even after more than half a year of knowing her, Mr Dougald still doesn't know that her name is just Eliese and not a nickname for Elizabeth. Matty snickered to himself along with the rest of the class. Mr Dougald spun around to face his seventh grade class with a deathly sharp look.
"I will see you two after School today." He reminded them that they have detention with him today after School.
Eliese licked her chapped lips then sat back in her desk with a restless feeling in her legs and razor winged butterflies in her stomach. Her wrists cramped from forcing her hands not to shake violently and her ankles twitched at light speed, the heel of her shoe tapped the tiled floor quickly, anxiously. This was the last period before she and Matty had lunch, she was unsure of how her best friend was going to react to the news she was about to give him. She hoped he'd take it well but that's just a hope.
Matty frowned and sat back in his seat, he didn't mind getting into trouble with Eliese. He was sure the other guys have detention too so there's not much of a problem here. But there was a problem; Eliese didn't correct Mr Dougald for getting her name wrong again, usually she gets up in the middle of class and erases 'Elizabeth' and writes 'Eliese', thus getting herself another dose of detention. Matty noticed she was acting strange. They hung out last night and she was fine but when they got on the bus this morning she was extremely quiet. That's not like her.
'Maybe she's just sick, or on her period.' Matty thought as he jotted down the notes Mr Dougald wrote on the chalkboard. He couldn't resist the urge to crane his neck so he was looking over the shoulder of his checkered but mainly white button down short sleeved shirt with a blue long sleeve shirt underneath. He saw Eliese sitting at her desk with her head somewhere else. Her dark brown hair was curtaining her face on the left side while the right side was twisted behind her pierced ear. Her brown eyes stared longingly at the notebook in front of her. Matty was curious about where she'd go when she got lost in her thoughts, did she imagine her future with the perfect career, the perfect house, the perfect husband and a minivan full not babies? Did she imagine him apart of her future? He certainly hopes so, but she was so much better than him.
Matty furrowed his eyebrows and pursed his lips before turning around to face the front. He was worried, was CFS threatening her mom again? Matty couldn't imagine attending life without his best friend by his side, getting them both into trouble. Child and Family Services have threatened Eliese's mom on more than one occasion; Eliese is Megan's only child and they need each other.
Eliese jumped out of her heavy thoughts when the lunch bell rang. Matty jumped too but then he closed his binder and shoved it into the beaten up backpack. He noticed his friend was being slow today; usually she's the first one out the door. But today she dawdled severely. Matty waited behind and watched as the Native American girl fiddled with her blue backpack before they both exited the classroom. He was taller than her by an entire six inches, but he wasn't the tallest, she was just really small. They both slipped through the hallways and across the sports field to the sex education building; that lived up to it's name in more ways than one.
Elise threw her backpack onto the dead grass then fell onto her knees; Matty planted himself down onto the ground with a heavy sigh. They were quiet for a few minutes, Matty tapped his black Chuck Taylor's while Eliese ripped the grass out of the ground.
"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" Matty asked his friend curiously. Eliese's stomach dropped when she remembered what she was going to tell him. She bit at her lip and yanked at the grass with a heavy hum. She narrowed her eyebrows and looked at her dorky looking friend.
"Well, ugh, this isn't easy to say, but, um, I think I might be pregnant." Eliese finally let out the secret that she's been keeping since she realized she missed her period this morning. Matty was taken back by that announcement but he shook it off quickly. He saw the hurt written on Eliese's face, that made him move over to her side. He draped his arm over her shoulders and pulled her into his side.
"Are you sure?" He asked trying to comprehend what he was just told. He couldn't even think of Eliese having unsafe sex with the dickbag of an ex-boyfriend she has. She's too smart to do something like that.
"I've missed my menstrual cycle this month; it's not stress or my diet. It has to be that." Eliese muttered to him softly with a large amount of disappointment in her voice.
"What are we going to do?" Matty questioned sincerely. Eliese shrugged and shook her head.
"I don't know. I can't afford an abortion right now. And I need a parent signature for the clinic where it's free. I can't let my mom know as this." Eliese's voice was getting shaky with emotion. Matty frowned and rubbed her arm gingerly.
"If you can't afford an abortion then you can't afford a baby. Y'know I can get my mom to sign the papers for you to get the abortion." Matty was trying to help but Eliese was dead set against letting anyone besides Matty know about this.
"I don't want anyone else to know unless I have to keep the baby." Eliese scolded Matty coldly. Matty flinched and sighed softly before going to give her a hug. Eliese didn't even realize how badly she needed to be reassured until she was wrapped around her best friend sobbing hard into his shoulder.
-8 months later-
The crowded hallway opened like Mosses parting the sea when Eliese came walking by in a sweat shirt and maternity jeans. Her backpack hung off of her shoulder while Matty walked behind her with her books piled on top of his. They were given strange stares and disgusted looks, as if they lay down and made this baby together. Matty stayed a true friend and stuck with Eliese, just like the guys but Eliese's female friends vanished into different cliques since Eliese came out and announced that she is pregnant in March last year. Eliese found out in February and announced it in March. Since then her mom has won $10,000 on a lottery ticket and got promoted at work.
Matty set down Eliese's books onto the lunch table where Charlie and George were already eating their lunches amongst their insults towards each other. Eliese sighed and sat down on the bench. Matty parked himself on the bench in front of her.
"Do you have any idea of who is going to be the baby's godfather?" Charlie asked from beside Eliese, offering her a can of apple juice. Charlie was only giving her the juice in attempts to get Eliese to chose him for the role of godfather. She kindly took it and nodded in reply.
"Yeah, I have. I decided that all of you are going to be the godfathers." Eliese actually had absolutely no idea who she wanted to be her baby's godfather, so the only logical thing to do is to make all of them the godfathers. Either way the baby was going to be born to a loving group of friends and family.
Eliese caught sight of Matty glowing at the dreamy thought of being a part of that baby's life. He wants a family one day, not anytime soon though but in the future.
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