Hi again, so I was supposed to be writing Clueless, but I couldn't help missing Everything Changes... So I'm going to write another one! This is the third in the series 'Everything Changes III - The Baby Boom', whether this will be any good I don't know but I'll give it a shot. I will continue writing clueless so look out for uploads of that as well, for now though, enjoy this chapter and I'll try to update ASAP. Please review and tell me what you think, I always get stressed out at whether a new book will be any good so I need your feedback. Thanks guys and enjoy :) x
Chapter 1
The sun rose bright and early on the quiet mountain town in the outskirts of Colorado. By Stark's pond, where the water was less clear and the bulrushes were dried out and dying, the South Park cattle stood in the field over looking, welcoming the dawn of a brand new day. The town was peaceful, for now, the streets were empty except for the odd homeless person and the queue of elderly outside of Country Kitchen Buffet.
The town had aged over the past few years, snow still lined the streets and the children still wore their hats, coats and gloves to protect themselves from the cold weather. But the town was different, the atmosphere had changed, there was a different feeling to the town, which was not the same as the times when South Park was thrown into total devastation once a week and mysterious adventures occurred. Though this was probably because the children who had experienced this, had now grown up and so now, years later, the towns atmosphere depended on a group of thirty year old adults...
Kenny pov
"Scarlett, put it down, that's your sisters you know that." I sighed.
"Daddy..." Ruby whined.
"I am getting it for you Ruby, just eat your breakfast, we have to go to school in a moment." I told her and she continued to stir her porridge unenthusiastically around the bowl. "Scarlett, give me Ruby's ribbon."
"It's mine!" Scarlett yelled and I put my head in my hands.
"Daddy!" Ruby screamed.
"Daddy!" Scarlett imitated.
"Daddy." I heard Red's voice in the doorway and turned to see her standing hands on hips.
"I am trying to sort them out, but it's just not working." I told her before she could say anything and she then walked towards me and the twins.
"Scarlett?" She held out her hand and Scarlett instantly handed her the red ribbon. Red then walked over to Ruby, who had abandoned her breakfast, and tied her red hair up in a ponytail. People might think we are obsessed with the colour red; sending our twin daughters to school in their rouge parkas with the hoods down to reveal their bright crimson hair, tied with red ribbons. Not to mention their names. We didn't dye their hair, even though it was a very rare shade of sierra, they had inherited it from my wife and ever since we found out we were having twins, we had the names picked out from the start. It was cheesy, I know, but I grew up in a family of children all with their names beginning with 'K', drinking root beer at the age of five and living in a run down shed so to be perfectly honest, our family was not that weird. It was our daughters first day of first grade, summer vacation was over and the snow was already beginning to fall again. You may think we were stressed out about the new semester, but I could think of family's who were way worse...
Wendy pov
"Hope, have you put your school bag by the door, polished your shoes, made your lunch bag and labelled your gym kit?" I yelled.
"Yeah, sure whatever." I heard her mumble from inside her bedroom.
"Hope?" I continued. "It's your first day of high school, you need to make a good impression."
"Wow..." She muttered as she opened her bedroom door, still in her pyjamas. "First day of high school? Did not realise this..."
"Oh my life, you're not even dressed yet?" I nagged. "You need to be out of the door in ten minutes."
"Oh damn..." She sighed and walked into the shower room. Since she had turned fourteen, she had been so difficult to communicate with, but I guess that was what to expect from a teenager. I planned to walk downstairs and make Hope's lunch bag myself but I was tackled by Harry, our three year old son, who began waving his bottle in my face.
"Its empty mommy." He told me and I nodded.
"Yeah and you're not having anymore baby." I shook my head. "You've already had two bottles this morning and I need to get you off bedtime nappies as soon as possible."
"But mommy..." He looked at me sullenly and I sighed.
"Okay Harry, but you have to stop at some point. This time next year you'll be going into Kindergarten and I don't want to have to send you there with a loaded nappy and potty training kit. The teachers have enough on their hands already." I grabbed his bottle and he followed me downstairs.
"Mom?" Harvey emerged from the kitchen with sugar around his mouth. He was our seven year old son and was going into third grade.
"Oh Harves, what have you done now?" I snapped.
"I was eating breakfast." He told me and I raised my eyebrows.
"Which consisted of?" I questioned.
"...Butter and sugar." He stared at the floor.
"Jesus Christ." I sighed. "I can't leave any of you for one minute without-"
"Waaaa!" I heard Belle scream from upstairs.
"Oh God, I left her in the crib." I dropped Harry's bottle on the counter and ran upstairs to my bedroom where Belle, our youngest child, was crying in her crib. I lifted her out and rocked her gently. "It's ok, mommy's here now." I whispered and I turned to see Hope sitting on my bed, straightening her hair and reading a magazine. I hadn't even noticed she was there. "Hope?" I snapped. "If you were in here, why didn't you help your sister?" She didn't look up but just shrugged.
"...Cba..." She mumbled and I glared a her.
"Ok, that's it. Go and get dressed, make your breakfast and get out of the door." I yelled.
"Reece is picking me up for breakfast." She informed me.
"What?" I spluttered. "Who's Reece?" She looked at me for the first time and raised her eyebrows.
"My boyfriend..." She shook her head as if I had memory loss.
"You're boyfriend?" I repeated.
"Oh... Did I not tell you?" She asked absent mindlessly.
"...No, you missed that part out." I snapped. "I thought you were going out with Jordan?"
"Ah..." She cocked her head to one side again and shrugged. "On and off." I stood in silence for a few seconds and then decided to let this conversation pass by.
"Ok go and get ready." I fussed. "It doesn't matter anyway, all high school relationships are just fun and games."
"Yeah... Like getting pregnant? Was that a fun high school game too?" She asked, smartly and I stood there in shock. I couldn't believe she had thrown that in my face.
"Hope." I gulped, not looking at her. "Go and get ready and we will have this conversation later." She knew she'd gone too far then because she leapt off the bed and walked out of my room. I watched her go, picked Belle back up out of her cot and went downstairs to sort my other kids out. Stan was at work, he worked full time at the office he had inherited from his dad, where he was now manager. It was a geographical company, where he worked as an environmentalist and the office was located just on the outskirts of town so he didn't have to walk far. Him being manager meant that I didn't really need to work, which I wasn't now as I was on maternity leave after having Belle, who is six months old.
Me and Stan have five children; Hope, Hannah, Harvey, Harry and Belle. I fell pregnant with Hope at a very young age, after a party with Stan. I had been sixteen then and still in high school, which is why there was such a big age gap between Hope and the other kids. It was stressful, particularly at this time of the year, but my best friend Bebe can often help out with her husband Kyle. They got married last year, and first got together a few days before my wedding. Now Bebe was four months pregnant, I guess she just felt like mine and Red's families were already forming and so she wanted to get into the swing of things as soon as possible...
Bebe pov
The house was peaceful, much quieter than what I imagined everyone else's houses would be like right now. Our house was small compared to everyone else's, I guess because it only has to fit the two of us for now, not seven family members like Wendy's. I liked this though, it made it feel more cozy, especially when I could sit here, by the fire at eight in the morning. I knew this would not last long though; I had a baby coming in five months and I knew that would liven the house up a little.
My friends Red and Kenny both worked; Red in a local clothing store and Kenny worked in a restaurant in Denver. For a while, Kyle, Wendy, Stan, Red, Kenny and I lived in New York about ten years back and so when we moved back here, we kind of had to start over. I worked in the elementary school, as I had been working in a school back in New York and so it was easy to pick up as I had been to school there myself. I had helped Red and Kenny with the twins a lot last year, they dropped them at mine every morning and I took them to school with me.
It felt weird to be pregnant, I had seen all my friends go through it, Wendy particularly had been pregnant multiple times and Red grew really big with the twins, but it was weird to be pregnant myself, probably because all my life I had been stressing about becoming fat and now it was the realisation that I was going to be and there was nothing I could do about it. My stomach was not massive right now, but I knew that in this month it would really kick in, I was almost half way through my pregnancy and would have to grow at some point. Wendy's old maternity clothes were clogging up my wardrobe and when I tried some on, it was scary to see that they almost fit.
There was a knock on the door then and I hauled myself off the chair to answer it. "Hi," I greeted as I opened the door, seeing the girls in their matching parkas and matching ponytails made me smile, behind them stood Red in her black pencil skirt and blazer and Kenny in his jeans and T-shirt, ready to put on his chef jacket and hat. They were such a cute little family, so much more organised than the Marsh's, but to be fair they had three more children.
"Hi Bebe!" The twins chorused, each holding a little red lunch bag.
"You doing ok?" Red asked me after giving me a hug and she put her hand lightly on my belly. "You're getting there." She winked and I sighed.
"I know, I hate it!" I smiled and welcomed the girls inside.
"Ah, you'll be fine." Kenny reassured me. "Thanks for doing this again."
"Yeah, you're a great help." Red added. "I don't know what we're going to do when you go on maternity leave. We will have to ask Wendy, even though it looks like she has her hands full already!"
"Yeah I know, she's not planning on having anymore is she?" I asked. "She'll end up like the flipping Von Trapp Family!"
"Well she did try to get Stan a singing coach, you never know." Red grinned and I nodded. "Anyway, we better go, be good girls."
"Have a good first day." Kenny kissed them both on the forehead and then they waved to me and left.
"Ok girls." I turned to them. "You ready to go-"
"Is it a girl or a boy?" Scarlett questioned. I could tell the difference between them both because Scarlett had Kenny's green eyes and Ruby had Red's blue ones.
"I don't know yet... Well, we can know if we want to, but me and Kyle want it to be a surprise." I smiled.
"Why?" Ruby asked, looking confused.
"Because that way it will be exciting." I shrugged.
"What are you going to call it?" Scarlett asked again.
"Again, I don't know, I think you need to see your baby first, you can't name it before knowing what it looks like." I smiled.
"I hope it's a girl." Ruby fantasised whilst twirling her red ribbon between her fingers. "What do you hope it will be Auntie Bebe?" I didn't know the answer to this question, I mean, I had thought about what I wanted to be but I really didn't know...
"What is this question time?" I shook my head, just talking about this made me nervous. "Come on, we need to get going." I grabbed my coat and headed out of the door. I would have enough of these questions at school anyway, I taught the second grade and I was sure they would be interested to find out what had happened to me over the summer...
Stan pov
"Yes, ok, ok, that's fine." I nodded. "I will inform him now, ok thanks bye." I put the phone down and sighed, being manager of a company was hard, especially when you have to be in the office, answering the phone at four am. This wasn't my dream job, but it had been my dads and when he retired the company was handed down to me, besides it got good pay which I needed to keep our rapidly growing family alive. Plus, I got to work here with one of my best friends...
"Kyle?" I yelled and he entered almost instantly.
"Yep." He nodded, sat down and put his feet up on my desk. You wouldn't have thought that I was his boss.
"Did you file those papers? The office in Utah has not received them yet." I asked, taking a sip of coffee.
"Yeah, I filed them and gave them to Butters to post." He nodded again and leaned over to drink some of my coffee. Back in New York, Kyle had been head of his office and I had been someone's assistant, which was one of the worst experiences I had ever had. I worked in the marketing department with another woman named Kitty, who to be perfectly honest had been a very creepy woman, I'd never been able to figure her out and in the end, Wendy somehow got the idea that I was having an affair with her. In the end however, we had resolved things after her and my boss had been on some sort of lie detector programme... It was an eventful few months.
"So Butters posted the papers?" I inquired, Butters was Kyle's assistant, I had employed him out of pity when he was made redundant at his old workplace... 'Sit n Knit'. I was surprised Cartman was still with him to be honest no wait... I was surprised Butters was still with Cartman, theres no way I could have put up with that for fifteen years.
"He should have." Kyle shrugged. "Maybe they just haven't arrived in Utah yet."
"Yeah probably." I nodded. "Butters!"
"Yes fellas." Butters replied nervously, instantly appearing in the office.
"Did you mail those papers to U.N.?" I asked and he began bashing his knuckles together, a habit he had had for years.
"What papers?" He questioned, looking at me with big puppy dog eyes.
"The ones I gave you." Kyle hinted.
"Oh, well those ones... Those ones I forgot to send." He admitted, bashing his knuckles together even more vigorously.
"Ok..." I sighed, raising my eyebrows at Kyle. Butters was a pathetic little man, even at the age of thirty. His very few strands of blonde hair stuck upwards at odd angles as if he had been permanently electrocuted and he still wore the same pale blue fleece he wore in elementary school. Well not the same one, it was now in a bigger size.
"I'm sorry boss..." Butters apologised and Kyle shook his head.
"That's alright, one little screw up doesn't matter." He told him. "Now go get me a muffin please."
"Yes boss." Butters nodded and ran out of the room.
"What are we going to do with him?" I put my head in my hands.
"I don't know." Kyle shrugged. "You hired him as my assistant."
"Big mistake." I muttered and then decided to change the subject. "So how's everything going with the baby planning? Bebe doing ok?"
"Yeah, she's fine." Kyle nodded. "We went for the scan the other today, you can see the bump forming, it's happy and healthy and we have decided to keep the sex a surprise."
"Wow really?" I asked. "See how long that lasts, trust me, Wendy and I planned to do that for every kid we have had and one of us gave in at some point. Besides, we had to paint the room and Wendy's parents always wanted to know which colour the baby grow would be this time so we always just went and found out in the end."
"Were you ever disappointed?" Kyle questioned, taking a biscuit from my tin.
"Nah." I shook my head. "I mean, when we had Hannah, I guess I was kind of hoping for a boy, but when it comes too it, you'll find you're happy with anything, as long as it was healthy I didn't mind. Besides we had two boys after that so we have a nice even number."
"And then you had Belle?" Kyle pointed out.
"Well... Yeah." I nodded.
"You planning on having any other kids? You have five now and none of us knew you were planning on having the last one, we thought you were stopping at four!" Kyle joked.
"Yeah so did we..." I looked at him and he frowned.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"Belle was an accident." I admitted. "We weren't planning on having anymore after Harry, but someone's birth control went on the blink and we didn't even realise until two months in!"
"Dude, you're telling me this now?!" Kyle exclaimed. "No wonder we were all so shocked."
"Yeah well, we don't want Belle to ever find out really..." I trailed off.
"Hope knows she was an accident, she seems fine with it." Kyle shrugged and took another biscuit. "That means your first and last child were both accidents, unless you are planning on having more?"
"No, hopefully not!" I laughed. "But don't say accident, it makes them sound less important and I love both Hope and Belle with all my life, I'm glad we had them now."
"So... How come Belle's name doesn't begin with a 'H' then?" Kyle inquired.
"Don't know really, guess we couldn't think of another one!" I shrugged.
"Dude, there's loads; Harriet, Helen, Henrietta, Heidi..." He pointed out.
"I guess..." I frowned. "But Wendy's great grandmas name was Belle so I think we named her after her, it all seemed quite rushed."
"Yeah well life seems too rushed at the moment!" Kyle sighed. "I mean, don't you ever stop and think; woah we're adults?"
"Dude, I was thinking that when I was having a kid in high school!" I exclaimed and he nodded.
"Yeah, I guess you must have been freaked out by that." Kyle smiled.
"Well, yeah." I shrugged. "But I mean, we may be thirty but there's still loads to look forward to, you're having a baby, that's going to be exciting for you and I'm... I'm... Well there's got to be something new waiting round the corner, it is like a brand new story book, there's surprises ahead all the time, our thirties is just a new chapter... Isn't it?"