It couldn't be, it couldn't be. Manny stared at her calendar, Paige's party noted in thick black marker. The night she and Craig had…well, you know. No, no, no.

"Paige, how do you know if the guy…used something?"

"A condom? Did you hear him open it, maybe? Or feel it?"

The girls' washroom, the wall of mirrors reflecting her pale, worried face back at her. She didn't hear him open anything, she was sure she didn't feel a condom. No period, no condom. Oh God, it only meant one thing. One thing. Her parents would kill her, or send her away. Emma was so lucky, so lucky. If it was her Spike would totally understand. But Emma wasn't dumb enough to be pregnant in ninth grade.

Glimpses of Craig all day, playing soccer with Spinner, eating lunch at the picnic table. Walking in the halls. She couldn't ask him if he used a condom. She couldn't talk to him at all.

"Manny, is everything okay?" Emma, all concerned, being her friend again.

"Yeah. It is,"

"You sure?" Emma, her worried eyes, her blond hair pulled back like a ballerina.

"Yeah. I started today. Thank God,"

"Yeah? That's great!"

Manny smiled and tried to believe her lie. She had a good five or six months before anyone would know anything.

00000000000000000o

Spinner knew, like everyone knew, that Craig had fooled around with Manny. He knew Manny wouldn't even look at Craig, had seen her turn around and go in the opposite direction when she saw him. He'd noticed, too, that Manny seems to have gained some weight.

"Craig?" Outside for lunch, the arctic cold finally relenting, Craig digging a sandwich out of a paper bag.

"Yeah?"

"Have you talked to Manny lately?"

"No. Why?" Craig's sharp suspicion, brows knitted over his eyes.

"Well, she looks sort of, sort of pregnant,"

"Sort of pregnant?"

"Yeah. So you should maybe talk to her,"

"Why? If she is pregnant it isn't mine,"

"No? It could be,"

Craig held his sandwich but didn't eat it, looked across the yard and toward the blue sky. Into the blue sky.

"What should I say?" he asked softly.

"Dude," Spinner said, "that's for you to figure out,"

00000000000o00000000

The next day Manny sat in her homeroom in the morning, the large T-shirt billowing over her growing stomach. The baby moved and she felt it. It had been easier to lie to herself and everyone else when the baby was smaller.

Craig stood in the doorway, his eyes glued to her stomach. He hadn't seen her in awhile, rushed by her, ignored her like she ignored him. Spin was right. She was pregnant.

"Manny?" he said, his voice catching and cracking on just her name.

"Yeah?" She wanted to keep it casual. She wanted him to go away.

"Can I talk to you?" He shifted from foot to foot, and she closed her eyes for longer than a blink.

"Okay,"

She got up, followed him outside and around the side of the building where they could be more or less alone.

"Manny, are you…?"

"Am I what?" She said it sharp and fast, looking at his worried dark hazel eyes. In the bright morning sunlight his eyes looked nearly green.

"Are you pregnant?"

She bit her lip, felt her hard stomach with her hands. Felt the baby move again like it was doing flips in there, dolphin baby. It wasn't going away. She wasn't hiding anything. Her parents were going to kill her. Craig would be so mad. Her eyes filled with tears and they spilled over.

"Yeah. Don't be mad,"