Chapter 2

A coyote, a werewolf and a human went to Walgreens… now to think of a punch line. I was only doing this to appease Adam and because it wasn't too far from my garage and did not put me out of my way much. I walked through the store to the lane with Pepto Bismol and grabbed a bottle.

I figured since I was there and I wasn't too late, (10 o'clock isn't late right?) I could just pick up a few things. I told Jesse and Ben my plans and they wandered off, presumably to do some shopping of their own. I was strolling through the aisle of feminine hygiene products when my eyes landed on a box of Kotex tampons. I automatically reached for them to place them in my basket; that was when it hit me. I couldn't remember having my period. I counted the weeks in my head hoping I was just a few days late. My period had never been extremely regular and it was normal for me to be a few day "late". Upon counting however, I realized that I was not a few days late, but almost three weeks!'

I put the tampons back onto the shelf and power walked to the end of the lane where I saw a young girl in an apron.

"Pregnancy tests, where do you keep the pregnancy tests?" I managed to choke out as it felt as though my throat was trying to strangle the words. The girl took one small step back from me, eyes wide with shock.

"Aisle 5," she said quickly, "There is supposed to be someone there to help you choose the most reliable test for you," without waiting to hear the rest of what she was saying, I dashed off to aisle 5. My heart was racing as I power walked through the store. I kept reminding myself that I had to remain calm, or else risk alerting Adam prematurely. So what if I was pregnant, I thought, would that be the worst thing? Well not the worst, but it could be bad. Things between Adam and I have finally began to settle into a normal, comfortable routine. Jesse and I have had more good moments than bad lately; heck even things with the pack were getting easier. But who knew what a kid could do to that? To take something so fragile and put a baby in the mix might just be disastrous.

Apparently the woman who was supposed to "help" me was late for work, and so I was spared the awkwardness of refusing her assistance. Grabbed a couple boxes and dumped them in my basket, making sure there were at least a few boxes of "First Response" in there. I then power walked to the cashiers, thanking God that there was hardly anyone in the lines, that way I could try to cash before Jesse and Ben returned. The woman working the register gave no notice of my items (I guess she'd seen stranger things on the job) and bagged my items in record time. Jesse and Ben had still not turned up so I went to the entrance to wait on them. Ben was the first to surface muttering about America not having any good "shops". Thankfully he was too preoccupied by his rant to notice anything off about me. About 3 minutes later Jesse showed up with her basket and went to the cashier nearest to us. I walked over to her to offer to pay for her items, but she dismissed it easily, saying how much money she had mad waitressing and babysitting.

After paying for her stuff, we all made our way to where Ben parked his truck and piled in. I was silent the entire ride home which went unnoticed by Ben and Jesse who were locked in a heated argument about some controversy over a pop star. The drive home seemed to go on forever and I had never been happier to see the driveway.

I hopped out of the truck as soon as Ben turned the hand breaks. I held my bags tightly, and all but sprinted up the porch stairs. As I made my way to my room, I heard Ben call out that he would be leaving for work, and wondering if I needed anything else. "Nah, I'm good, think I'm gonna stay at home today though," I called out, and waited until I heard the front door close. Jesse was still here however. I dropped the shopping bags onto the floor and went into the kitchen to get something to drink. I had bought about 12 different tests and would need a lot of fluids.

I grabbed the first thing I saw when I opened the fridge, which was a can of Arizona iced tea. I was so caught up in my own head that I didn't hear when Jesse walked into the room.

"Mercy area you okay? You've been acting kind of weird today," she said tentatively. I jumped and turned to face her slowly, shutting the fridge door in the process.

"Yeah, I'm fine, just a little tired. I think I just need to go lie down for a while," I said hoping she wouldn't question me further. "Hey actually, can you call the shop and tell tad I won't be in today?"

"Sure, I'll probably skip today as well, I'm already late and you look sweaty and pale," she commented in a questioning tone. It was easy to tell that she wanted to know what was up, but didn't want to push too far.

I didn't want to say anything prematurely, but I also needed to tell someone, or risk my head imploding. My mother was out of the question, so were the females in the pack, for obvious reasons. Jesse seemed to be the safest bet.

"Jess, I think I'm pregnant," I blurted. I braced myself for her reaction. I did not expect the one I got.

"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh! I may be having a little brother or sister!" she hugged me suddenly, squealing unintelligible things near my ear. Releasing me she asked "Does dad know?"

"Nope, I only suspected today when we got to Walgreens. I didn't want to say anything unless I knew for sure, either way"

"Are you going to take a test now?"

"Yup, that's what the tea is for,"

"Then why are we still standing here?"