Time went by. For everyone. Grace went off to med camp and met many other aspiring doctors like herself. She even decided to live in New York permanently, so Tom and her mother moved there as well. Jack became the football star and class president, but never failed to call Grace every night. Amy and her family moved into a nice, big house in the middle of L.A., and she and Ashley started home schooling, which gave the family more time together. Ricky got his own apartment a few blocks away from them, enrolled in public schooling, and got a job as a valet at Amy's favorite restaurant. He hated the job; Amy had persuaded him to get it so she could eat for cheaper. Ben slowly drove himself mad, thinking of how Amy was moving on with her life and he was still desperately in love with her. He withdrew himself from others, laying low at school and going straight from school to home. Adrian worked as a waitress at the same diner for nearly five months, just barely scraping by. She went to one doctor and found out that she was not having a baby. She was having two. Two twin girls. About two months into her senior year of high school she had failing grades in more than half her classes, and usually didn't even bother showing up. The girl who had once been at the top of all her classes. The girl who had once dreamed of Harvard, and Yale. This girl dropped out of high school on October 31. She went home and looked in the mirror and wondered who she was looking at. She called Grace that night and told her what she had done, expecting a long lecture. She even looked forward to one, if only to have something comforting. But Grace didn't say a word in response to Adrian's news. So Adrian spoke up, breaking the silence.

"Well? Aren't you going to lecture me?" Adrian asked.

Grace sighed, "No. There's nothing more I can do for you , Adrian. I tried." I tried. The words hit Adrian like a ton of bricks. I tried. Everyone tried to fix her. But maybe she was unfixable.

On December 19, Adrian sat on the floor of her little living room in her apartment. The air smelled like a musty old basement. I should have listened to Grace, she thought miserably. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror across the room. She stared at her reflection and was disgusted with herself. But it was not her physical appearance that she found so revolting. For the past eight months she had hid. She'd hidden from everything. Grace's advice, Ricky, school, work, and reality. She had hid from the fact that he was going to be a mother. Ricky didn't even know and he was probably the father. And now, here she sat, all alone. Everyone had finally given up.

"I guess you really did it this time," she said softly to herself. She gave a small, sad laugh. She closed her eyes for a moment, and as soon as she did, the door burst open. She stood up so fast it made her stomach hurt. But she barely noticed the pain as she stared at Ricky, who looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"What…what's that?" He stammered, pointing to Adrian's belly with a shaking hand. Adrian couldn't look him in the eye. She averted her eyes to the floor as Ricky went on.

"You're…you're…"

"Pregnant." Adrian whispered, "Almost eight and a half months. My due date's January 23rd . And yes, I'm having twins."

Ricky was a complete loss for words. Before he could think of anything to say, he looked over at Adrian, whose mouth was hanging open, and she was staring at a puddle on the ground.

"I think my water just broke," Adrian said, a note of panic in her voice. She looked up at Ricky's face for the first time since he arrived. As she stared into the eyes of the young man whom she loved so dearly she melted a little. It'd been a really long while since she'd gotten to look at him.

"I swear to God," He muttered slowly, shaking his head, "You're going to kill me one of these days," and he grabbed her wrist and led her out the door, saying "Come on, we're going to the hospital."