The first thing Ricky did after arriving at school was go to Amy's afternoon classes and drop off her homework. His second task was to find Lauren and Madison and figure out who was picking up Amy's homework assignments for that day. As Ricky headed towards Lauren's locker, Adrian was heading to her own. Another student came running around the corner quickly and bumped into her just enough to make her drop her books.
"Watch it!" she called out angrily at the student's back as he continued running down the hallway. "Carrying precious cargo here!" She looked at her dropped books contemplatively for a moment, trying to decide the best way to go about bending down to retrieve them and then attempting to stand back up. Being pregnant really throws off your center of gravity. Before she could make a move to bend, however, Jack came jogging over, having seen her get bumped, and picked them up for her.
"Here you go, Adrian."
"Thanks, Jack," she said, her eyes filled with gratitude.
"No problem."
"So how've you been?" she asked conversationally as they began walking together towards her locker. Jack shrugged.
"Okay I guess. Just trying to stay outta trouble and get my head on straight."
"Come again?" Jack sighed.
"I'm taking a break from dating to figure out what I really want in a relationship?" Adrian smiled mischievously.
"Plotting another way to try and get Grace back?" Jack shook his head sadly.
"No. I burned that bridge a long time ago." Adrian chuckled as they stopped in front of her locker and she began spinning her combination.
"Since when did that stop you from trying?" she asked with amusement.
"Since I realized it's not fair of me to date someone unless we're on the same page about sex," he admitted.
"Ah," Adrian said as she placed several books and her purse in her locker.
"Plus I'm trying to figure out how to square away my faith with the fact I like having sex." Adrian suddenly felt a twinge of guilt and it made her feel a little uncomfortable. She closed her locker and placed a hand on her belly.
"Sorry. Can't help you there," she said apologetically. Jack chuckled.
"I know. This is just something I've gotta figure out for myself." Jack looked up and saw Ben headed their way. "See you around, Adrian," he said with a slight nod before walking away. She smiled when her eyes fell on Ben.
"Hey, Benny," she said cheerfully as he approached. Ben arched an eyebrow when he noticed her mismatched shoes and then smiled in return.
"Hey yourself." He glanced down at her shoes as he asked his next question. "Are you tryna start a new fashion trend?" Adrian looked at him with confusion.
"What do you mean?" Ben looked back up at her.
"You're wearing two different colored shoes."
"What!?" Adrian did her best to look past her belly and see her toes. She had to strain a little but she was finally able to see that she had in fact put on one black and one blue slip-on style shoes. As she suddenly realized her mistake, she felt an overwhelming wave of embarrassment and it was quickly followed by tears, which alarmed Ben. He pulled her into a hug.
"Don't cry, Adrian. It's not a big deal," he tried to reassure her. Adrian pushed him away.
"Yes it is!" she shot back, furiously wiping at her wet cheeks. "I'm wearing two different colored shoes because I'm too fat to see my feet anymore," she wailed as fresh tears began pouring down her cheeks. Ben pulled her back in for another hug and she cried into his shirt. He felt two small wet spots growing on his chest but he didn't have the heart to pull Adrian away from him. In another hallway several feet from Lauren's locker, Ricky spotted Lauren talking to a sad looking Jesse.
"But you've come to all my games so far," Ricky heard Jesse say sadly.
"I know, Jesse. But this time I can't make it. While I had fun at the dance, when they rescheduled your guys' game no one bothered to ask if the new schedule conflicted with any of the player's girlfriends' schedules," she told him with a small smile, attempting to soothe his disappointment. "I've got my ballet recital that night at that time so I can't make it." She moved closer and kissed him. "I'm sorry." Jesse sighed.
"I know it got changed last minute and all. I just like knowing I've got my own personal cheerleader in the stands," he replied, giving her a small smirk. Lauren smiled back and kissed his cheek.
"I'll be cheering for you in spirit," she promised.
"And I'll be cheering for you in spirit," he promised back. "See you at lunch?" Lauren nodded and then Jesse walked away. Ricky jogged up to her right away.
"Hey, Lauren." She turned to see who had called her name. "Did Amy text you?" Lauren nodded.
"Yeah. Madison and I've got it covered, but we were wondering if you could drop her assignments off though. We've both got things to do after school and we won't get done 'til late. We were gonna run it by you at lunch if we didn't see you before then."
"Yeah, no problem. I'm taking Ashley home after school anyway." The five minute bell rang.
"'Kay. We'll meet you at the band room after school and give you her assignments."
"Sounds good." And with that they went their separate ways.
The morning passed by quickly and soon lunch rolled around. Ricky eagerly walked out of his last class and speed dialed Amy as he headed to his locker.
"Hi 'ya, handsome," she said cheerfully but tiredly.
"Hey, gorgeous. How you guys doing?" he asked worriedly.
"Okay. John's tired out so he's been napping on and off but the runs make it hard for him to stay asleep for long."
"And how are you holding up?" he asked as he spun the dial on his locker and opened it.
"Okay. I could just use a nap," she admitted. "How are you doing?" Ricky chuckled as he grabbed his lunch and shut his locker.
"Just worrying about you two," he said with a soft smile as he headed outside to find the gang. "You need anything?"
"No. We're good."
"Okay. Call if you need anything, and I mean anything, okay? Oh, and Lauren and Madison said they could get your assignments but I'll be dropping them off when I drop off Ashley 'cuz they've both got things to do after school 'til late."
"Okay. I'll see you after school then."
"Okay. I love you." Amy smiled.
"I love you too." Ricky ended the call and noticed Ben quickly approaching him.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" Ben asked nervously. Ricky could tell something was seriously weighing on Ben so he nodded. Ricky followed Ben outside to the courtyard and they had a seat on one of the benches. Ben put his head in his hands, rested his elbows on his knees and sighed.
"I don't know how much more of this I can take! The guilt is gonna eat me alive!" he groaned. Ricky empathized with Ben. He and guilt were still very much acquainted and he knew all about the guilt a guy could feel towards the mother of his child. Ricky put his right hand on Ben's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.
"I'm not sure what you want me to say here, Ben."
"Just tell me how to deal with it!" he pleaded, lifting his head to look at Ricky. "I thought it'd be easier on Adrian if we were married and living together but my dad said no so that's out." He ran a hand through his hair with frustration and then his voice began to waver as he continued. "And this morning I made her cry just by pointing out she'd put on two different colored shoes. I'm still making a mess of things it seems." Ricky chuckled and Ben glared at him. "What's so funny!?" he demanded.
"Nothing," Ricky said, a smirk still on his face. "At least she didn't try to bite your head off."
"Huh?" Ben asked with confusion.
"One morning at school a little after John was born I asked Amy why she was wearing bedroom slippers to school and she nearly bit my head off." Suddenly Ben was glad Adrian had had the opposite reaction, but only for a moment.
"Okay, but I still made her cry and I didn't mean to," he said woefully.
"You didn't do it on purpose, right?" Ben shook his head.
"No. So I just held her until she stopped crying."
"Been there, done that."
"Okay, but we were at school and I didn't want her to go to her first class upset so I just told her not to cry and it wasn't a big deal. I just don't know if it really helped or not."
"Like I said, been there, done that. When Amy was pregnant I told her I didn't know how I was gonna go through with an adoption, holding and seeing my son then just handing him off to strangers and she started to cry. I told her I didn't mean to make her cry and gave her a hug. I just hugged her 'til she stopped crying." Ben sighed.
"This is hard." Ricky laughed and opened his lunch bag, realizing if he planned to eat lunch today he had better get started.
"It's not supposed to be easy. There's a reason people keep trying to tell teens you should be outta college and married before you bring a kid into this world. Being a parent's a huge responsibility and a lotta hard work," he replied, taking a bite of his ham and cheese sandwich. Ben glanced at Ricky before opening his own lunch bag and pulling out a small sub sandwich.
"I don't know how I'm gonna handle the next month and a half. I'd ask my dad for advice but he and my mom were in love and married before they had me so he's not exactly qualified to give me advice about all this," Ben said before taking a healthy bite of his sandwich.
"He's still your dad and he loves you. He may not have become a dad as a teenager but he is a dad and he's had experience worrying about the mother of his kid," Ricky told him with a shrug. "Seems to me any advice he would give you would still be good advice." He took another bite of his sandwich and then reached in his bag to open his fruit cup.
"I'd still rather talk to you about it," Ben admitted as he took another bite of his sub. They both chewed in silence for a moment and then Ricky spoke again.
"Look, Ben, if any two guys had a reason to not be friends, it would be us, given our past with Amy and our current situations." Ben nodded glumly. "But there also aren't a lot of people we know who can understand what it's like to become a parent in high school so if anything I'd say that's a stronger reason we should try to be friends." Ben looked up at Ricky hopefully and Ricky smirked. "I'm not saying we're gonna be best friends overnight but I don't think we need to walk on eggshells around each other all the time either."
"I like the sound of that," Ben said gratefully.
"Although we're probably gonna need a few ground rules," he said, spearing some of the fruit in his cup with a plastic fork and then eating it.
"What kinda rules?" Ben asked warily.
"Let's do a quick recap here, Ben. I'm dating your ex-girlfriend and you're having a baby with mine. I know things about Adrian you might not know yet but I'm not comfortable telling you those things so please don't ask me for advice on how to deal with her mood swings or personality; you'll have to figure that out on your own. I'm willing to give you advice on how to approach her about something, but that's as far as I'm comfortable going. Deal?" Ben nodded.
"And I'm willing to do the same for you."
"I also don't wanna know any specific details about your and Adrian's relationship."
"Like what?" Ben asked, taking several carrot slices out of a Ziploc bag and eating them.
"Ben, what happens between you and Adrian should stay between you and Adrian, just like I did my best to keep what happened between me and Amy just between the two of us. You two will have plenty of talks about your kid and what you guys work out is nobody else's business unless you wanna make it their business. I won't ask and please don't tell me."
"But you just told me how you accidentally made Amy cry," Ben reminded him. Ricky nodded.
"Yeah. That particular conversation wasn't exactly private and you already know I didn't want John adopted back then."
"Right." Ben sighed. "It's gonna be a long month and a half."
"One day at a time." Ben nodded in agreement. The lunch bell rang and the boys made their way inside to head to their respective lockers. Grant and Grace were headed towards his locker discussing their weekend plans.
"So do you need a ride tomorrow?" he asked as they reached his locker. Grace shook her head.
"No thanks. After the test I've got some errands to run for my mom so I'm taking my dad's car." She leaned her back against the locker next to Grant's. "I can't believe it's time for the PSATs already! I know I'm ready but I feel like I could use an extra week just to study some more." Grant chuckled.
"We've been studying for this test since the end of August, Grace. We're ready." He shut his locker and smiled at her. "Besides. It's only the PSATs. We've still got another year to prep for the real thing," he reminded her. Grace laughed as they headed to her locker.
"I know I'm psyching myself out but the better I do on the test tomorrow the less I'll have to work on for the SAT." In another hallway at Ashley's locker Griffin was waiting for Ashley to grab her books for their afternoon classes.
"So what time's your drive?"
"9:00," she answered, grabbing her books and shutting her locker. She began walking down the hallway slowly, Griffin right beside her.
"Mine's not 'til 10:00 and why are we walking so slow, Ash?" She smiled sweetly.
"Oh, just because." Griffin noticed they were approaching the counselor's office and he smiled.
"Ah. Waiting to bump into boyfriend Toby again I see."
"Maybe," she said with a smile. And sure enough, just as they reached the counselor's office Toby came out. He smiled when he spotted Ashley.
"Hi, Ashley. Griffin," he said pleasantly. "And how are you both this fine Friday afternoon?" Griffin chuckled. I like this guy. He's perfect for Ashley.
"Good. So how'd the meeting go?" she asked.
"Good for another week," he said with mock pride, causing Ashley to smirk. "So," he said pointedly to Griffin. "Did I pass the best friend inspection at the Halloween dance?" Griffin nodded and Toby looked back at Ashley. "Do you think I'm ready to meet the 'rents then?" Ashley arched an eyebrow and gave Toby a blank expression so he couldn't guess what she was thinking.
"Give me another week to feel 'em out and I'll let you know." Toby smiled.
'Deal. Same time next Friday?" Ashley laughed and nodded. Toby saluted them and headed down the hallway.
"I like him. He's good people," Griffin said as they headed towards their next class.
"What's that mean?"
"It means I think he compliments your personality perfectly. Plus, for a homeschooled kid we don't know, he seems pretty grounded, with a sense of humor to boot," he told her while wiggling his eyebrows. Ashley chuckled and shook her head at her friend's antics. The warning bell sounded and everyone scurried to their next class.
As Adrian sat in her physics class, she had a hard time paying attention. Instead she was still feeling a little down about how much her body was changing. I used to be sexy she thought sadly as she doodled on her notebook, occasionally looking up so her teacher would think she was just taking notes. Now I look like a small whale and nobody looks at me twice. Even Ben avoided me at lunch today after my mini meltdown this morning. She heard a ruffling of pages and glanced around. Realizing her classmates were turning their textbook pages Adrian focused in on her teacher's words for a moment so she wouldn't look so lost if she got called on. Maybe I'll ask Ben to come over and hang out with me tomorrow. She smiled a little as she remembered how enjoyable it was to just hang out and watch movies with him. When the bell rang she determinedly made her way to Ben's locker, smiling when she spotted him.
"Hi, Benny," she greeted him cheerfully, looking forward to an afternoon with him. "I wanna ask you something."
"Yeah," he said, closing his locker to face her.
"Wanna come over tomorrow after work and hang out for a bit? We could watch a bunch of non-scary movies this time." Ben smiled at her suggestion but then his smile slipped slightly.
"It would have to be tomorrow night actually." Adrian's spirits dipped a little.
"Why's that?"
"After work I've got the PSATs and then my dad and I have a father-son thing scheduled," he told her apologetically. Her smile fell.
"Oh," she said dejectedly.
"But I'd be happy to come over and join you for dinner. How's that sound?" he suggested. Adrian perked back up a little. At least I'll get to hang out with him for a little bit.
"I'd like that." Ben gave her a smile.
"I'll see you tomorrow then." Adrian nodded and then Ben headed off to his next class. Adrian made her way to her next class a little letdown. I guess everyone else's life doesn't stop just because I need to be cheered up.
Back at the Juergens residence, Amy had just finished changing John's diaper, happy to see his bowels were becoming less runny, and pungent. She placed her freshly diapered toddler on the floor of his bedroom and cleaned up the changing table, keeping an eye on him with her peripheral vision to make sure he didn't walk out of the nursery without her. Once her task was finished, she picked John back up and headed towards the bookshelf in the nursery to select a story to read to him.
"Okay, John. Story time," she informed him as she sat in the rocking chair with him. She gently rocked as she read the story and by the end of it John was yawning. Amy placed the book beside her and scooped John up to carry him to his crib. She laid him down and covered him with his blanket, tucking his bear beside him. She put the book back on the shelf and grabbed the baby monitor before quietly heading out of the room. Since John had mastered doorknobs, Amy set up the baby gate just in front of the door and made sure it was snuggly against the frame so John couldn't wander around the house if he climbed out of his crib again. With John down for his nap, Amy had time to finish up the breakfast and lunch dishes, which were still soaking in the sink from earlier as Amy had been preoccupied cuddling and changing her toddler and attempting to nap when he did. Her task complete, she let Moose out into the backyard to relieve himself and then refilled his food and water dishes before heading to her room, baby monitor in tow, to take her first real nap of the day.
By the time Ricky and Ashley came home from school, John was wide awake and back to his usual happy self.
"Aunty! Daddy!" he squealed when he saw Ashley and Ricky come in the back door. He was buckled into his high chair and 'coloring' while Amy was busy baking brownies. The smell assaulted Ashley and Ricky's noses as they walked in. Ashley dropped her backpack by the kitchen table and then went over to John to kiss his cheeks repeatedly, causing his to giggle. Ricky headed to Amy to greet her with a kiss too.
"Hey, gorgeous." She kissed him back.
"Hey, handsome." Ricky headed over to kiss John while Ashley took a brownie off the platter Amy had set on the counter.
"Hey buddy," Ricky said to John with a smile. "How you doing?"
"Good," John replied, causing Ricky to chuckle. He turned towards the counter and opened his backpack, taking out several papers. "Here's your homework, Amy."
"Thanks. Want a brownie before you go?" she asked, holding the platter out to him. He looked at it warily and Ashley laughed while Amy looked at him with irritation. "I know I suck at cooking but baking's different." Ricky arched an eyebrow at her skeptically and John, spotting the platter, reached out for one, opening and closing his hands as he did so.
"Bwownie peas!" Amy walked around Ricky and handed John a brownie. John took it from her hands before she could set it on his try and attempted to shove the entire thing in his mouth in one bite, with the result that it crumbled in his hands and only a small portion actually went in his mouth on the first go. He smiled happily nonetheless, his face smeared with brownie. "Tank you!" Everyone laughed at his joy and Ricky took a brownie from the platter. His eyes glazed over with happiness the moment the first bite hit his tongue.
"Wow! You weren't kidding," he said with surprise. Amy gave him a triumphant smile and set the platter back on the counter to finish washing up the remaining dirty dishes. Ricky quickly ate the rest of his brownie and then kissed her cheek. "Sorry I doubted you."
"I forgive you," she said with a small smile, plunging her hands into the sink of soapy water.
"I'll call you later," he promised heading out the door to go to work.
"So how was your sick day," Ashley asked as Ricky shut the door behind him and she took a seat at the table to begin her homework.
"Tiring," she stated, placing several soaped dishes in the second sink to rinse them. "But thankfully by naptime John was doing much better so we both got some sleep. How was school?" Ashley chuckled.
"Good. I think I ran into my future boyfriend." Amy gasped and spun around to face Ashley excitedly, sloshing water on the floor in the process.
"Spill." Ashley laughed at her sister's excitement and told her about Toby.
"So back in September this guy bumped into me pretty hard. I didn't run into him again so a couple weeks before Halloween I paid Joe to find out who he is." Ashley pushed her hair back and then continued. "Turns out our school has a home school program where home school kids come to the school once a week to go over their work with the teachers and Toby stops by every Friday. I 'accidentally' bumped into him again and we talked for a bit and he said he'd be at the Halloween dance."
"Since this is the first I'm hearing about him I take it you're hiding him from dad?" Amy asked cheekily. Ashley shrugged.
"Not exactly. Griffin wanted to check him out first so the three of us mainly just hung out at the dance while Griffin gave him the third degree, then Toby and I danced for a bit. I figure I'll bring up Toby this weekend and work on dad next week. If all goes according to plan, Toby wants to come over and meet mom and dad." Amy chuckled.
"Wait, he wants to meet your parents?" Ashley nodded with a smirk.
"I know. Weird right? But Toby says he'd like to hang out with me, possibly date me down the road but he's not comfortable doing that if the 'rents don't know who he is."
"The 'rents?"
"His word, not mine." The sisters shared a laugh and then John made his presence known again.
"Mommy. I wet." Amy dried her hands and unbuckled John from his highchair. She picked him up and noticed that his backside was in deed warm.
"It might be time to start potty training you sweetie," she informed him as she headed towards the stairs.
"Potty?" he asked curiously.
"Yep, potty. Right after we find you a big boy bed," she said as she reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Big boy!" John said happily, raising his arms to emphasis his point. Amy smiled and tickled his tummy.
"That's right, John. You're mommy's big boy." She kissed his forehead as she climbed the stairs. "Man how time flies," she said, the realization leaving her with a bittersweet feeling.