TITLE: All The
Way
AUTHOR:
Tassi
DATE WRITTEN: January 28,
2000
DATE OF STORY: May
24th, 2010
SERIES: first (at the moment) in the
"Natalia Series"
BACKGROUND: Natalia is
seventeen years old, and has a large problem to face. Will she get the help and
the emotional support she will need from her parents?
DISCLAIMERS: The following
characters are not mine, everyone else is: Amanda, Lee, Phillip, and
Jaimie.
FEEDBACK: Yes please. Good
and bad.
ARCHIVE: Ask if you want it.
Otherwise, here, on fanfiction.net and soon to be on the site I am creating for
the Stetson family which will have stories from all of their
lives.
ALL
THE WAY
May 24th, 2010…
Seventeen year old Natalia Stetson slammed the front door of the 5 bedroom colonial shut, signaling her return from another eventful day at Arlington High School. Amanda was about to greet her from the kitchen at the back of the house, knowing exactly who it was because she had slammed the door, but thought the better of it when she heard Talia's heavy footsteps stomp up the stairs. Amanda shook her head and wondered what had happened to make her youngest and most moody daughter so angry, and continued to chop up onions for her pot roast.
Less
than a minute later, the door opened again, and was shut, without being slammed,
by Talia's twin sister Kate, and her boyfriend Spencer Drummen. Kate and Spencer
had been 'going out' ever since the sixth grade, and he was practically part of
the family.
"Hey
Mrs. S," he greeted cheerfully, walking into the kitchen behind Kate, and
instinctively finding the cookie jar that Amanda always kept stocked for
him.
"Hey
Mom," Kate greeted with a smile before pouring herself and Spencer a glass of
milk.
"Hey
Spencer, hey darling," Amanda replied giving them each a quick hug. "What's
wrong with Talia?"
"I
don't know. She wasn't in school for the whole morning. She and Kristopher broke
up after cheerleading practice and I saw her and Michael yelling at each other a
minute later," Kate answered her mother's question before she and Spencer
disappeared up the stairs to her room to do their
homework.
Amanda
sighed. This year had been so hard on Talia. She had been dating this great kid
named Will until the previous October, when they had suddenly and unexplainably
split. Since then, Talia had been bitter, angry, and unable to keep a boyfriend
for more than two weeks max.
She
was a beautiful young woman, and smart, when she used the remarkable brain that
God had gifted her with, but she had changed so much in the past seven months
that she was a different person. She was constantly talking back to Lee and
Amanda, and defying them, breaking ever rule that she could think of. She had
dyed her hair purple and gotten a belly button ring among other things. Lee and
Amanda didn't know how to handle her. None of their other children, 37 year old
Phillip, 34 year old Jaimie, 22 year old Rebecca, 22 year old Elisabeth, 17 year
old Kate, and 14 year old Timothy, had been, or were, like this, and the only
one close, Elisabeth (Lee-lee), seemed like a saint in comparison. Amanda didn't
know how much longer the family would be able to take this. Lee, especially, was
taking it hard since Talia had always been Daddy's girl. Now she just pushed him
away.
* * * * *
Natalia angrily pulled the pins out of her long purple hair (that would have been brown if she hadn't dyed it in a fit of rebellion), and threw them at her dresser, letting her mane fall down around her, almost touching the bottom of her extremely short cheerleading uniform. She stripped out of that and kicked it across the room, swearing under her breath before she slipped into a pair of jeans and a turtleneck. She looked at herself in the mirror. How could she have done this? Why did it happen to her? She had made sure to take every precaution. Maybe the doctor had been lying that morning when she had visited her during the time she had skipped class, but she ruled that out. Doctors didn't lie.
"Why, God?" she cried out as she flopped back onto the bed. "Why me? What have I done?" The tears of anger, confusion, and hatred slipped down her face as it all sank in. She was pregnant. At seventeen years old, she was pregnant.
What was she going to tell her parents, her teachers, her siblings, her friends? She had told her boyfriend Kris after cheerleading today, and he had immediately broken up with her since the child obviously wasn't his. They had only been going out since a week before Valentine's day, and Talia was already two and a half months along. She had thought back to who had been her boyfriend then. Michael. He was part of the local gang that vandalized everything they could find. He was cute, and had seemed nice when he wasn't around his friends, so when he had asked her out, she had given him a chance. They dated in secret because Talia knew that her parents would definitely not approve of her dating a gang member. Their relationship was seemingly going great, and Talia had even felt confident enough to take it to the next level for the first time ever, but he found someone else two weeks later.
She was a regular teen, and she just wanted to find a love like the one that her mother and father shared, but she knew that that was a once in a lifetime thing, extremely rare. She would even settle for the love that her mom's ex and new wife shared. It seemed to run pretty deep as well. Kate had a perfect boyfriend. Spencer was always there for Kate, would never pressure Kate into anything that she didn't want to do, and their love was true. They already knew that they would get married. Everyone knew that as soon as this senior year was over, they'd announce it officially. Why couldn't she find a love like that? All of her older siblings were either happily married or soon to be happily married. She just wanted true love! Was that to much to ask? Why was she always failing in relationships?
Talia decided that the best thing to do would be to leave. She couldn't face her mother and father's disappointment. She quickly packed a bag and started to descend down the trellis quietly, but when she reached the bottom, a hand on her shoulder stopped her from leaving. She turned around quickly.
"Mom!" she exclaimed guiltily. Nothing ever escaped her mother's watchful eye.
"Good evening, Talia. You're just in time to help me set the table for dinner," Amanda said firmly, letting her daughter that there was no room for arguments. Talia followed her mother into the house, dropping her bag behind a bush before she went through the French doors that led into the dining room.
"Take these things and set the table, Spencer and Janea will be eating here tonight," Amanda instructed, handing her daughter a tray with eleven place settings on it. "Nicholas, Becca, Jason and Holly will be here too."
Amanda disappeared into the kitchen to watch her daughter at work. Janea was Spencer's sister and her son Timothy's best friend. Becca, her oldest daughter had married Jason Sturden two years before, and Holly was there 14 month old daughter.
The Sturden family lived five blocks down the road, and often came over for the evening. Lee-lee was a senior at Harvard University and lived in Boston. Her fiancé' and high school sweetheart, Nicholas, lived next door to the Stetson family though.
Amanda's eldest two children, Jaimie and Phillip, from her previous marriage lived away from Arlington, Virginia. Phillip lived in Bath, England, with his wife, Leah, and their two children, Renee and Peter, and Jaimie lived in Boston with his wife, Kristen, and their three children, Heather, Brooke, and Michelle. Lee-lee was staying with them while in Boston.
Talia finished her chore as the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it, Mom," she called to her mother, and hurried to the door. Becca, Jason stood before her, Becca bouncing Holly up and down in her arms.
"Lia!" Holly exclaimed at the sight of her aunt, a trail of drool slipping out of her mouth. She reached out to Talia, and Talia took Holly in her arms, cooing at the little girl.
"A baby, I'm going to have a baby just like Holly," she thought as she rocked the little girl dressed in a pink silk dress back and forth in her arms. "Hey Becca, Jason, come on in." She put on her best front, Becca could always tell when something was wrong, and she would bug you about it until you told her. As her sister and brother-in-law entered, she felt Becca's eyes scrutinizing her. She smiled.
"What?" Talia asked.
Becca just sighed, shook her head, and followed her husband into the kitchen to see her mother. No sooner had Talia shut the door when the doorbell rang again. She opened the door while hugging Holly tightly, and was greeted by Nicholas' ever smiling face.
"Hey Natalia!" he exclaimed, leaning over to kiss her cheek. He never called her Talia, her always used Natalia. His smiling face always seemed to make her feel better too, as long as he wasn't smiling at Lee-lee. Then the smiles just reminded Talia of how alone and miserable she was.
"Nick?" a young boy's voice called out from behind the man. Talia and Nicholas both looked towards the voice and saw Timothy and Janea Drummen running up the driveway. For a moment, Talia let a disgusted look pass across her face. Even her little brother had a girlfriend, and had had since kindergarten!
"Hey little buddy! Hey Jae!" Nick exclaimed, giving Janea (Jae) a hug and Timothy a high five. The trio entered the house and Holly scrambled out of Talia's arms, leaving her alone, staring out the front door. She stepped outside and closed it behind her. She slowly walked over to the giant oak tree in the front yard that used to be her favorite thinking spot, and decided that she could use it one more time. She hoisted herself up onto the first branch and climbed the rest of the way up into the leafy limbs.
She just sat there, watching the cars on the street below for a few minutes until her father's precious silver Corvette that he had had when he and Amanda had first been dating. Talia knew what was to come, it happened every day.
Exactly on schedule, Amanda ran out the front door, still as lively as ever at 59 years old and ran into her husband's arms. Talia watched with bittersweet tears gathering in her eyes as they kissed just as passionately, if not more so, as they had fifteen years before when she was a young girl. It was so wonderful to have parents that loved each other with every fiber of their being, but it made her angry too, because it reminded her that they both had something that she wanted and had tried so hard to get, but had failed. The tears turned to sobs, and they wracked her body as she was unable to contain them. What had she done wrong? And why was she going to have a permanent reminder of a failed relationship?
Amanda and Lee heard the sobs and broke their kiss to see who it was and where it was coming from. The leaves in the big oak tree rustled, and Lee and Amanda made their way over, hand in hand. They looked up to see their daughter's tear-stained face wet with tears.
"Natalia!" Amanda exclaimed. "What's wrong honey?"
"Go away, Mom, Dad, you won't want me here in your family if you knew what I'd done!" Talia exclaimed, tears spilling from her anguished soul. Lee reached up and helped her out of the tree, and he and Amanda each stood on one side of her and wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
They led her over to the steps leading to the front door, and sat down with Talia in between them.
"What do you mean?"" Lee asked gently, wiping a tear from her cheek.
"I don't know how to say this, so I'll just say it," Talia sniffled. She buried her face in her mother's sweater and cried. Amanda rubbed her back, trying to soothe her daughter.
"What is it, sweetheart?" she asked. Lee put his hand on Talia's back too.
"I'm- I'm pregnant," Talia wept quietly, clinging to her mother's body. Amanda tried to hide a gasp, and closed her eyes so she could calm herself. Lee was stunned, he had no idea what to say to Talia. "I'm sorry, Mama, for the way I've been, I'm sorry! It's just that I want a love like you have and like Becca and Lee-lee and Phillip and Jaimie and Kate and even Timothy have! I just wanted him to love me!"
"Calm own, Talia," Amanda whispered into her daughter's hair. She now understood why Talia had been in so much pain, why she went from person to person. She understood and knew what it was like to be craving for love. "Do you know who the father is?"
"Michael, you don't know him," Talia said, lifting her head to look at her parents. Lee was following Amanda's choice to take the news calmly and not be angry about it. Every child made mistakes once and a while.
"Yes, Talia, we do," Lee replied, hugging her close, "I know that you tried to keep him a secret, but we're your parents, and we know these things. We also know that you cut class this morning."
"I went to the doctor's," Talia explained, regret showing in her puffy eyes.
"I'll go with you from now on," Amanda offered, and Talia nodded and smiled gratefully. The threesome watched a mother wheel her baby carriage down the street. "Are you going to keep your baby?"
Talia watched as the mother lifted the baby out of the carriage and put her inside the car that they had stopped next to. She nodded. "Definitely, I was wrong in conceiving the child, but I'm going to bring him or her up right."
"We'll be here for you all the way, honey," Lee assured her as the three embraced before getting back up. "All they way."