Chapter 1
"God! How could I have been so stupid?!" I shouted as I paced the floor of my room. "We aren't ready for this! How can I take care of a kid?! I've never even had a dog for Christ's sake!" This is how my new life began. I, Derek Venturi, Co-captain of the varsity hockey and team and "Biggest Flirt" at Ocean Side High, was about to find out if my girlfriend of 2 years, Julie Thomas, and I were about to become teen parents.
When Julie had arrived earlier she had brought the test with her. That's when I started freaking out. I had gone upstairs with her, but had left her in the bathroom alone to do her business. I used the age old excuse that it was "Girl Stuff" and told her I would wait in the hall. But, in reality, I had returned to my room and began pacing, cursing at myself, and shouting in the process. I was losing it. I never do that! If Sam and Ben were here to see me right now, they would probably take one look at me and say: "Who are you, and what have you done with Derek?"
I had begun to worry. Julie had been in the bathroom for going on 20 minutes now. I was about to walk out and check on her when I heard her wail my name. "Derek!" I bolted down the hall so quickly, I knocked several things off the wall and slid right into the bathroom door. I opened it and was about to great her with a smirk. It quickly faded however, when I saw her. She was sitting on the bathroom floor, her head resting against her knees, which were pulled close to her body. The finished test sat on the counter in front of her wrapped in toilet paper.
When I saw that, I panicked aloud for the first time that day. "Tears...? Oh no... No, no, no! Tears are bad! You're not supposed to cry! Crying means bad news! Bad news means our parents are going to kill us!"
I took a deep breath and placed my hands in front of my face as if I was praying. "Please... Please tell me those are tears of joy." I know. I sounded desperate. Frightened even. To be honest, I was. No teenage boy wants to hear that he knocked up his girlfriend. And yet, here I was in that exact place. The very same place my parents had warned me I would end up if I wasn't careful. The look on Julie's face brought me back from my thoughts. She looked like she wanted to kill me."Do these look like tears of joy, Derek?!" She snapped.
"J... You can't be..." I slumped against the wall, not wanting to believe this was real. But it was. The test was positive.
I was going to be a father at 16.