Chapter Seven: Hookey

I sat on my bed, hunched over starring at my sneakers while Mandy paced back and forth. I was shaking my head, my lip quivering and my head spinning so fast I thought I'd explode.

"M-Mandy, I can understand if you don't want…want me here anymore." She stopped, looked up and over at me with glassy eyes.

"No, no," she whispered and came and sat next to me on the bed, "I would never do that to you. You're family now and the Lord only knows where you'd end up in another home. We're just gonna have to work a little harder around here. I understand if this is taking a toll on you, but I know if you choose to, you can do it, Colette." I felt a little tear roll down my cheek and I sniffled. This really wasn't how I'd planned my future to be. I wasn't just a regular teenager. I was a teenager who was put through hell. And now I was pregnant.

"I can do this," I said. I nodded, "I know I can. And I will."

When Doctor Marla told Mandy and I the news, we had two different expressions; Mandy looked pissed. Not at me, at Jesse.

"I'll kill that son of a bitch!" she said emotionless, starring into space, "He did all of this to you! You didn't deserve it, Colette. You really didn't. He's – oh God! – I can not wait until he's gone. Juvy just isn't enough!" That'd been the most hateful thing I'd ever heard Mandy say.

My expression had been shock. I couldn't believe the words the doctor had just said to me.

"Wha-excuse me?" I had said. Mandy knew I'd refused to take the pill. She supported it after I told her actually, telling me I did the right thing. And that's when I'd realized that this was what my mother was talking about when she said he'd take care of us. My…baby and I were us. But I still didn't know who the mysterious "he" was.

I had been being home schooled for the past two months because Mandy thought I'd be better off, but I'd recently made the decision to go back to a regular high school and I was starting Friday. Wrong choice. Especially now. If I would've known I was pregnant, I wouldn't have chosen to go back to school. I knew how mean kids could be. Tomorrow was Friday and I was nervous as hell. I could tell Mandy was nervous for me too. She'd called the principal and told her about my "condition" and we were assured I'd be safe. Could I trust anyone? No. I couldn't let my guard down.

And that's exactly what I did my first day which was the worst thing I could have done. I walked up to the intimidating, large building and opened the door. That's when every pair of eyes were on me. I was the senior who should be a junior; having straight A's, perfect attendance, and being a complete social-outcast really pays off, especially when you get to graduate early and that's all I wanted to do. Graduate. That and raise my baby to be perfect with my three families; Mandy and Carlie, everyone from the BAU team who I'd come to be so close to thanks to Mandy, and my family who could be with me only in spirit and I was okay with that. I'd made holding my still-flat stomach a habit already and when all those scary eyes were starring at me I remembered to drop my hands and play it off like there was something on my shirt. A girl approached me. She was blond with hypnotic blue eyes and looked waaay too preppy. She was followed by two matching brunettes.

"Hi there," she said and I looked behind me to see who she was speaking to. There was no one but me, so I quietly answered with a "hi" back. I'm pretty sure they could sense fear…like dogs.

"I'm Alyssa and these are Liz and Kerri." The two back-ups smiled perkily.

"I'm Colette. I'm new here." Alyssa nodded, "Well, duh! Aren't you a senior?" I bit my lip and nodded, saying, "I'm graduating early because of my grades."

"Cool, cool." This was just an awkward conversation, but Alyssa seemed to know how to handle it. She knew everyone in the school or so it seemed. Just another popular to make fun of me…or so I thought until she told Liz and Kerri to back off and offered to take me to my classes. Since I had no map and was completely lost, she was a lot of help for a while.

A little while later at lunch we stopped in the bathroom and Alyssa pulled out a box of cigarettes and a little glass bottle. My eyes widened slightly and I looked over at the door, wondering and hoping someone wouldn't walk in. But that wouldn't happen because Alyssa was street smart; she had locked the door behind her. From her Coach purse she took a BIC lighter and lit one of her cancer sticks. I tried the best I could to hold my breath. She noticed my slight discomfort.

"Want one? It'll help you relax," she said. I shook my head a little too quickly and she looked confused, but didn't bother questioning me further. She crushed the butt on the marble counter top of the bathroom where the sinks were and directed her attention to the little bottle.

"Its straight whiskey," she giggled, "You know you want some." She grinned.

"I can't." I knew from health class that you weren't supposed to drink or smoke during pregnancy. Alyssa looked disappointed.

"Well, we can always mix in a little water for you," she added.

"No, really. I can't." Convincing her was not going to be easy.

"Why not?" she whined. She seemed like an okay kind of person. Should I trust her? My head was racing. My mind went blank. Why not? I checked the stalls to make sure no one, but us were in the room and looked back over at the still-locked door. No cameras, no recordings. I leaned in close to her, "You absolutely can not – I repeat can not – tell anyone what I am about to tell you." Hell, here goes nothing. "I-I'm pr-pregnant." Her eyes widened and then thinned out again, they were met with the same grin from earlier. Oh God, what've I just done? Maybe she wasn't like that. Maybe she'd keep it between us. Not a chance.

"Really?" she said sharply. I hesitated, but nodded. And what she did next I wasn't expecting; she straightened herself up, took a quick shot of whiskey, packed away the bottle, lighter, and cigarettes, and walked out without saying a word to me. Oh no.

I hate actresses. Why? Because actresses are liars and that was what Alyssa was. She hadn't agreed to not saying anything. She just walked out, but I could almost see a preppy light bulb form above her pretty little head. I picked up my light blue school bag and opened the bathroom door, taking a breath to ready myself for what was about to be thrown at me. As soon as I walked out a million and one eyes were starring at me. I didn't know what to do. My eyes scanned the room, looking for someone friendly enough to help me, but there was no one.

"What?" I said quietly, but loud enough for the closest people to me to hear. They all held questions, I could see the looks on their faces and I heard someone scream, "Slut!" A tear fell.

"No," I said, but all hell broke loose. "Whore! Slut!" All of these hateful words rang through the hallways and cafeteria. I could make out questions from some people, "Who's the father? How far gone are you? Are you gonna abort it?" No. No. No. No. No! I needed to get out of here. I took off for the main office and had the secretary – a kindly old woman by the name of Mrs. White – call Mandy. She was at work while Carlie was at kindergarten. The second emergency number on the paper for school was the BAU's number. I shook my head, asking Mrs. White to forget it. A group of jokes strode by the glass windows of the office and I could make out one talking about me. They were debating who'd slept with me. No one! I wanted to scream. They didn't even know me! I left the office and did something that I'd never done at my old school; I left. I just walked out and wasn't planning on coming back. Goodbye, traitor. I wanted to yell at Alyssa, but the sooner I go out of spitting distance of this school, the better. I hadn't spent my lunch money so I decided to take a bus somewhere. I just stayed on until I recognized a place I knew. That place happened to be a coffee shop. Penelope went there almost every morning. That's when I remembered that I could go to the HQ. Or couldn't I? Was anyone even there? Penelope always was so maybe I could stay with her for a little while. The team still hadn't heard about me. I asked Mandy if I could tell them, but I wanted to do it in person and they were in another state working right now. All except Penelope, who didn't know either. I was still red in the face and crying a little when I got to the door. I spoke into the speaker, "I-I'm here to see a Ms. Penelope Garcia." I sniffled. Penelope was called and she came to the door, surprised at the least to see me.

"Col-what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school? What's wrong?" she was full of questions, but I didn't answer any. She was persistent until we got closer to her office where we heard a phone ring from her desk.

"That's probably Morgan." She ran as fast as her teal heels could carry her and snatched the phone, "Hey, what's up?" She put Morgan on speaker.

"What? No inappropriately catchy greeting?" he said from the other line. I looked at Pen who blushed.

"Colette's here," she interrupted him. There was silence from the other line.

"…Oh. Hey ya, sweetheart. Shouldn't you be in school?" I remained quiet.

"She's a little shaken up right now. Not sure why, but I'll give you updates later. Anyways, what can I do for you?"

"Run background checks on Peter Raise, Ryan King, and Michael Carver. They were reported missing and three male bodies were found recently at different locations in Albuquerque. Thing is we can't identify them."

"Burnt?" Garcia asked.

"Decapitated first. Then they were taken to different sites by our killer, who mixed their parts. Then he burnt them. We think he's just trying to buy himself more time by causing us the confusion, but we're leaving the identification process to the medical examiners. He definitely has some major disrespect for the deseased." Three male faces came up on Garcia's computer screen.

"I'm sending pics to Prentiss now and from what I can see they all have a big property in common; they're all doctors. Different ages, but all graduated from med school. They were in three different radiuses as far as homing and worked in different hospitals, but top ones."

"Any similar contacts?" She shook her head, "No, I'm scanning their cell numbers now and no matches so far, but I can check hospital records." She typed and worked fluently with her computer. "This could take a little while if its not distinct, Morgan," she said while working.

"Soon as you get something, hit me up, Garcia," he said.

"Will do, baby cakes!" and she clicked the phone before entering a new number.