Aelita sat at her desk staring at the monitor. Her eyes glazed over the screen as she was presented with her email client and a list of recent emails. At the top of the list was an email from Jeremie Belpois dated a few days before she found out she was expecting. Th email held nothing of real importance. Jeremie simply relayed to her that things were getting busy over at MIT and that the experience was proving itself to be worthwhile so far. Yet this was the last time the couple had talked to each other No one had said anything since.
A blank page sat on top of the email client. The address field had Jeremie's email address on it. The subject line was blank and the body of the letter was blank as well. It was like this for several minutes. Aelita sat there with a glazed look on her face. She had no idea how to tell him what had happened over the past few days. As she continued to sit there, she heard a knock on her door. Quickly shutting off her monitor, she turned her attention to the knocking. "Who is it?" she asked.
"It's me, Odd," he answered.
Aelita smiled. She needed a distraction at this moment and Odd's arrival was perfect timing. "Come in."
"Um, I can't," he replied. "My hands are full."
Aelita raised an eyebrow in confusion. She got up from her desk and opened the door. To her surprise, Odd stood there holding a stack of books in his hands. It was the first time she could remember him holding more than one book at a time, let alone a stack that reached from below his waist to just below his chin. She smiled, trying to hold back a laugh at the sight of her friend holding the contents in front of him. "Oh my gosh. Do you need any help?" she asked.
Odd leaned back a bit to position the pile closer to his body. "No, I'm good," he said as he continued standing at the doorway. "But I'll be much better if I could put this down somewhere."
The pink haired girl stepped aside to let him in. "Just drop it on the bed," she said.
Odd nodded and walked inside the room. He went to the bed and dropped the stack as instructed, the books falling where they may as soon as they made contact with the furniture. He breathed a sigh of relief before turning to his friend. "I didn't realize that so many books would be so heavy," he stated.
"That's why girls find it flattering and amusing when guys offer to carry their books for them," she noted as she closed the door. "So, you are going to tell me why you, a guy who barely tries to even look at a book, are carrying so many of them to my room, right?"
Odd scratched the back of his head. "Well, these aren't really mine. They're for you."
Aelita had a puzzled look on her face. "You bought me a stack of books?" she asked.
The blond haired boy shook his head. "I didn't buy them for you," he said. "I just went the the library and borrowed them. They're all books on pregnancy and how to take care of yourself when you're expecting a baby."
Aelita grew even more puzzled. "Um, why does our school library have books on pregnancy?" she asked.
Odd stopped for a moment and thought about it with Aelita. Most schools, if not all of them, weren't exactly in favor of having pregnant teenagers as part of the student body. This was especially true of Kadic where, for the most part, the students were left without any real supervision outside of the school faculty. Having books like this in their libraries seemed a bit questionable. "I have no idea," responded Odd, unable to think of a good reason why they were there. The two stood there in awkward silence for a moment.
"Well, there's no sense in you getting those books if no one's going to read them," she said, breaking the silence.
Odd nodded as they both sat down and sorted them all out. The duo saw several books covering different subjects, including ones about pregnancy myths, different childbirth delivery methods and the art of lamaze. Odd picked out a book at random and showed it to Aelita. "Check this out," he said. "A book on how to name your baby. I won't need this one," he said as he put the book aside.
"You already know what you would name you first child?" Aelita asked.
"Sure I do," he proclaimed. "If it's a girl, I'm going to name her Jeanne. It just sounds cool."
"And if it's a boy?" she inquired.
"Odd," he said. "I mean, he'll have the same personality as me. Why shouldn't he have my name, too?"
"You know, some kids turn out differently than their parents did when they were that age," she informed him. "What if your kid is nothing like you?"
Odd beamed. "Then the name still fits because it's kinda odd for him not to be like his cool old man. What about you," he asked. "Any ideas on names for your baby?"
Aelita's smile faded away. "I'm still not sure if I want to keep the baby or give it up for adoption," she said as she stared off into space. "Even if I decide to keep the child, I'd want Jeremie's input on what name to give it."
Odd regretted asking that question. He came to her room to both help her out and cheer her up. Bringing up topics that would cause her to think about Jeremie was the opposite of what he wanted to do. Trying to turn the situation around, he quickly sifted through the pile of books and pulled out another one at random. "Here's a book on recommended pregnancy diets," he said.
"Oh? What does it say?" she asked.
He opened the book and flipped through a few pages before he began reading any of the material. "According to this, you should have a healthy well rounded diet consisting of all of the food groups. Anythings with fiber that's enriched is good like cereal and pasta. Oranges, strawberries and anything with lots of vitamin C is good and carrots and spinach are good vitamin A sources." Aelita nodded as Odd continued reading. "It also says to stay away from shellfish, raw fish, caffeine and diet soda since they all contain elements that can be harmful to the baby."
"What about... unusual cravings?" Aelita asked.
Odd flipped through a few more pages and found the entry in the book. "Unusual cravings are a common thing as two-thirds of pregnant women tend to have them. Unusual combinations of food include pickles with ice cream and peanut butter as well as chocolate covered hamburgers." He looked away from the book and looked at Aelita. "That actually sounds pretty good right now," he said. "Let's go get some."
Aelita looked at him strangely. "Are you sure you're not pregnant?" she asked before both of them burst into laughter and continued reading through the stack of books.
Chapter 9 is complete. Some people would say that this would be a filler chapter. Others would see this as a bridge to something else. All I can tell you is that you'll see about 1 or 2 more chapters of this stuff happen before the story ends. I've already written out the last 2 chapters of the story so the ending has already been set. Now the only thing left to do is write out how the story reaches that conclusion.
