Chapter 1

Plano, Texas - May 17, 1953

"Let me go!"

The teenage boy ripped his arm away from the grasp of the girl chasing him.

"Paul, please stop, we have to talk about this!" she pleaded, nearly running to keep up with his quick strides

He stopped and whirled on her. "What Diana, what else do we have to talk about?!". He fought back tears as he stood looking at her both hands pressed to his temples. He had to get away from her. Had to get out of here. This was too much. This couldn't be happening.

Momentarily taken aback by his sudden and harsh acknowledgement of her, Diana stood stunned for a few moments. She recovered and with a voice obviously straining to remain calm she began.

"Look, I know this is hard for you to take in. It was hard for me too. But its true and we can't change that, Paul, as much as we'd like to." She paused. Her carefully prepared speech that she had practiced all morning took a sudden departure from her memory. She fought for more words, anything that would keep Paul standing in front of her.

Unable to stand the silence any longer, Paul let out a frustrated sigh and turned to walk away again.

"No!", Diana shouted, again grabbing the sleeve of his letter jacket. Her carefully worded speech abandoned, different words started tumbling from her mouth.

"You can't just walk away, this baby is just as much yours as it is mine, and we are going to deal with it together whether you like it or not!", she said, a little less calmly than before. She stopped, waiting for a reaction. She got one.

"How do I even know it's mine?", Paul yelled almost hysterically. "That kid could be anyone's for all I know!".

Now it was her turn to be angry.

"Oh Jesus Christ Paul, you know you're the only one I've ever…" She trailed off not wanting to actually say it.

"I don't know that! You hang around with lots of guys!", he accused angrily. He let out a harsh laugh. " What about that guy Danny? And your lab partner in chemistry, and that guy that hangs around you all the time while your cheering at the games? How do I know that I'm the only one!". His biting words echoed in the empty high school gym. The verbal tirade over he stood silently his green eyes glaring at her intensely, his chest heaving from both fighting back tears and the stress of the situation.

Both teens turned suddenly as they heard footsteps. The janitor poked his head around the corner where the kids had been arguing,

"Everything ok?", he asked awkwardly, taking in both of the teens unhappy appearance.

Paul ran a hand through his blonde crewcut. "Yeah, we're ok, sorry for yelling".

The janitor nodded and continued to look at Diana, unconvinced by Paul's answer.

Noticing his inquiring gaze, Diana snapped out of her silent reverie. "Uh..yes sir, we're fine, just a little argument", she stammered.

Apparently satisfied with her answer, he nodded again. "Ok, well I need to lock up the gym, its after 7 and you kids better be running along home."

"Sure thing.", Paul said quietly. He looked at Diana and motioned to the nearby door with a tilt of his head. The two teens bid goodnight to the well meaning janitor and walked out the door and to the student parking lot without speaking. Diana turned to look back at the gym and saw the lights go off through the window. It got much darker. Paul's hand on her shoulder brought her attention back to the situation at hand.

"I'm sorry, babe, I was a real jerk back there." he said softly, turning her around to face him. The interruption from the school janitor had given him a few seconds to realize how childish and stupid he had been acting. Diana's news had shocked him. Up until that moment fifteen minutes ago, this had been the best day of his life. He was in his senior year of high school a month shy of graduation and had played varsity basketball since his sophomore year. A tall, well built and athletic young man, Paul played many sports but really shined at basketball. As team captain, he had seen the college scouts at many games that season and a few had even come up to him after games to talk to him. That morning he'd gotten a letter from the University of Texas informing him that he would be awarded a full scholarship if he would play basketball for them in the upcoming year. Now he felt that all slipping away from him. He couldn't sacrifice all that to stay here and take care of a baby.

Diana nodded, biting her lip. She willed the tears not to come, but they did anyway. She was unaware of Paul's scholarship and inner conflict. She was only fifteen years old. A slim, pretty girl with long wavy dark brown hair and big brown eyes. She was only a sophomore in high school but she had found her niche as a cheerleader and dancer. Her world was ruined by this unwanted pregnancy. Her mother had cried when the doctor had told them the news. She hadn't told her father yet but she was sure he would disown her when she did. Pregnant in high school, she would be a teenage mother and that would be it for her and all of her dreams. Her parents would pull her out of school and send her off somewhere to avoid the shame that this scandal would bring to her family. She never dreamed that this would have happened when she first met Paul.

Tall and handsome, she had had a crush on him since the moment he had taken the seat behind her in algebra class. She had been placed in a senior level class due to her outstanding aptitude at math and had been so nervous that first day of school until he had tapped her shoulder to ask to borrow a pencil. Turning around to give him one, she noticed three sharpened pencils on his desk. He had laughed and then with a shrug, admitted that he had just wanted to talk to her. They had flirted for weeks before he had finally asked her out. They had gone to a drive thru movie. If asked, neither could probably have told what movie they had seen. They had spent the entire time talking and laughing. He had been the perfect gentleman, and when he had dropped her off that night, she thought for sure that he was the man of her dreams, the man she was going to marry. Now it looked like that was definitely going to happen, though not at all the way she had wanted it to be, she thought bitterly. They had dated all throughout the school year and for the first few months, he was a gentleman, so kind and sweet. Then they had gone out to Lake Travis with a bunch of friends for a weekend during spring vacation. It had seemed so right then, the moonlight, the stars, and the sound of the lake gently lapping the shore, and she had given into him without too much hesitation. She had felt so guilty the next morning, and he had comforted her, promising that they would never do it again until they were married. Now that day looked to be much sooner than either of their teenage fantasies could have comprehended.

Paul drew her into a hug. "Look, I'm sorry. For everything. We'll work this out. I'm just so..so..are you sure your pregnant?" he blurted out stupidly.

Diana lifted her head from his shoulder and glared at him indignantly.

"Ok, Ok, have you told your parents?" he asked.

"My mom knows, we haven't told Daddy yet." She trailed off, her brown eyes again welling with tears.

"How…" he stopped, unsure how to ask his question. "how…pregnant are you?" Well that wasn't it.

She gave him a puzzled look, then suddenly understood. "Oh, the doctor said that I was about eight weeks along."

Paul closed his eyes. They had only done it once, two months ago. It all fit, the baby was his. Not that he really expected otherwise. He knew she had been faithful to him. Diana let out a soft sob.

"We'll figure it out, I promise, please don't cry." he pleaded hugging her tightly.

"I have to tell him soon though, and-" she paused and withdrew from his embrace, " I think you should be there when I do".

Paul recoiled in horror. "Shit, babe, he'll break my neck! I can't be there! Are you crazy!?"

Diana wiped her eyes and let out a disgusted sigh. "So you just plan to avoid him your whole life then? I still live there you know. I guess we could work around that though, maybe I'll move into your room, I think a crib would fit in there, or better yet we could pass the baby between each other over the fence every week before my dad gets home.", she retorted sarcastically, glaring at him with her arms crossed in front of her.

Paul groaned and threw his head back. He hated her sarcasm. "Fine, I'll talk to him with you. When do you want to do this?"

Diana thought for a moment. " Tomorrow. Come over for dinner and we'll talk afterwards when he's in a good mood."

Paul nodded. "Should I maybe bring something? A dessert or something to butter him up?"

Diana laughed derisively. "Sure, you got his only daughter pregnant. A pie should fix it. Better make it apple".

He looked hurt. She sighed, " I'm sorry. Sure bring something over.", she looked down at her watch. " It's getting late, can you give me a ride home? I told Marla to go on without me after the game so we could talk.."

"Yeah sure, of course." He took her hand and guided her to his beat up old Chevy truck. They rode the five minutes to Diana's house in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Paul pulled up to the side of her house, put the truck in park and jumped out to open the door for her. He helped her climb out of the truck. The couple stood there in front of the idling truck awkwardly not knowing what to say.

"So, I'll see you tomorrow evening then?", Paul finally said quietly looking out into the street.

"Around six, yeah if you can." She was looking down at her feet. How much longer would she be able to see them? She looked back up towards Paul, who was still gazing out into the dark street, hands in his pockets. "Hey, tell your mom tonight huh?"

That earned her some eye contact.

Paul's gaze met her. He hadn't thought of the fact that his mother would have to be told sooner or later. He stammered uncertainly, then muttered a curse under his breath. "Yeah ok, I'll tell her." he agreed looking back out into the street.

She rocked back and forth on her heels, wondering how to word her next phrase.

"You know they're gonna want us to get married, right?" she said quietly.

She might as well have swung a baseball bat into his stomach. His head whipped around to stare at her in disbelief, his green eyes open wide in panic. That had yet to cross his mind. He quickly caught himself and cleared his throat trying to play off his horrified reaction. He opened his mouth to say something, but the lump in his throat prevented it. He merely nodded and again ran a nervous hand over his closely cropped hair.

"Goodnight, Paul." Diana said turning on her heels and walking through the lawn to her front door.

"Goodnight." Paul answered back in a voice that wasn't even recognizable to him.

Diana opened her front door and walked in. She was disgusted. She had expected Paul to be upset, but he acted as though she was giving him a horrible disease instead of a baby. She was the one that had to carry the baby, she thought angrily. No one would see him on the streets in six months and automatically know that he was going to be a father. The least he could do was own up to the responsibility without acting like she had purposely ruined his life.

Outside, Paul watched her enter her house. Muttering curses to himself he shook his head and put his face in his hands. How could this have happened? One minute he was on top of the world, and the next his dreams were shattered and he would have to be forced to give up his scholarship to marry his girlfriend and have a baby. To be stuck in this town for the rest of his life. He got into his truck, slammed the door, and pulled out into the street, heading in the opposite direction of his own home but not realizing it.

He couldn't get married. He couldn't be a father. It wasn't fair. There had to be some way out of this.