OOC/ So today I opened my email and… SHAZAM! Ten reviews! Thanks, y'all! That means a lot to me :)

Brace Yourself:
Triumph Over Tragedy

Chapter 10:
This Is Your Life

Yesterday is a wrinkle on your forehead
Yesterday is a promise that you've broken
Don't close your eyes, don't close your eyes
This is your life and today is all you've got now
Yeah, and today is all you'll ever have
Don't close your eyes

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be?
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Yesterday is a kid in the corner
Yesterday is dead and over

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed that it would be?
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose

Don't close your eyes

This is your life, are you who you want to be?
This is your life, is it everything you dreamed it would be?
When the world was younger and you had everything to lose…

--

She was definitely beginning to grow up. It was happening faster than she ever imagined it would, but it was certainly there.

She was now twenty weeks pregnant. Five months. Halfway done with the experience that was making her more of a person than anything had prior.

She was showing- she was showing everything. Her mother had turned her old jeans into maternity pants because they didn't have the savings to go out to one of the maternity stores and purchase anything new. Besides, her old jeans were worn in and comfortable, and her mother had added small patches around the cuffs to make them more unique and fun.

She was growing used to having a person growing inside of her. It almost filled her with a sense of peace that nothing else could. Like maybe it was supposed to happen. Maybe it was all fate.

If God, or someone else, was trying to get a hold of her they were, without a doubt, doing it in a very strange way.

"Earth to Mia? Hey, let's keep going. You're on the last question."

Mia looked up. It was four o'clock, a Thursday evening. She was seated at a table at the library, looking out into space. Beside her, Emma was prodding her latest math homework assignment that she had received earlier that day,

"One more? Right." She picked up her pencil and leaned forward in her chair. She placed her free hand, her left one, on her stomach and braced herself.

"A train at the Sault St. Marie station leaves at 9:30. It is traveling at a steady pace of thirty kilometers per hour. It is scheduled to reach its destination at 10:10. How many kilometers does it need to go?" Emma's soft brown eyes bore into Mia, and she began to think.

She had been meeting Emma every day after school since their first meeting at Lake Hill two months prior. She was taking advantage of Emma's mentor status, and she had not only been providing someone to talk to, but she was also helping her in school. Her grades were improving and everyone, including herself, was noticing a big difference.

"I think…" She paused. "Maybe eighty?" She looked at Emma, who nodded, a grin passing over her lips.

"Right! See, the thing about math is that it really isn't hard as long as you show all your work." She pointed to the pencil marks Mia had made during her calculations. "That way, if you are wrong, you can go back and try to find where you went wrong."

Everything was beginning to get easier- school work, her relationship with her mother, and her relationship with Jackie. A lot of the burden had been lifted from Jackie, and she was able to focus on herself and her own studies, and help Mia with the baby when everything else was taken care of. Her mother was taking even more shifts at the bakery and her other job at a department store to bring in more money to set aside for when the baby was to arrive.

Mia was lucky to have the support of both Emma and her mother Christine. A few days prior, Emma had invited her out to an early dinner with her mother, who had recently had a baby herself. Mia had felt a connection with the young mother- not only did she share a very similar experience to her own, but she was understanding and helpful to Mia's questions, thoughts, and concerns.

Overall, life was looking up for everyone.

"Emma?"

The blonde girl was putting Mia's homework back into her math folder.

"Yeah?"

"Today, in like an hour, I have a doctor's appointment. My mom is working and Jackie has a hard English test tomorrow so I was wondering if maybe you'd like to come with me? If you can't, that's fine. I was gonna go by myself in the first place anyway so it's really no big deal-"

Emma cut her off. "I would love to come. Let me just check and make sure it's okay with my mom. You never know when I may need to babysit Jack for a few minutes while she goes for a run or something." She dug for her cell phone in her jacket pocket and quickly dialed her mother's number.

"Mom? It's Emma. Yeah, I'm with Mia. She has a check up today and she invited me to come along. Is that okay?" She paused, listening to her mother on the other line. "Okay. Will do. Bye Mom, love you." She hung the phone and replaced it into her pocket. "She said it's fine. I just have to be home by eight so she can get a quick run in. When's the appointment?"

"Five. It shouldn't take long. Just a check up and stuff like that." She stood up, grabbing her backpack and swinging it over her shoulder. "Do you know what time the bus comes to head toward the clinic?"

Emma checked her watch, "Every fifteen minutes, I believe. And it's almost 4:30, so we should hurry."

Mia nodded and gathered the rest of her things before heading out of the door and toward the bus stop, with Emma close behind her.

-x-

The gel that was on her stomach was so cold.

Mia gripped the edge of the bed to keep herself from squealing out from the chill. The small instrument that would tell her everything she ever wanted to know was trailing around her abdomen, finally stopping when a clear picture of her womb appeared on the monitor before her.

The doctor, the new OB/GYN she had been seeing since her pregnancy, smiled. "Here's your baby. Everything looks great, Mia."

Mia looked up at the monitor and felt her heart melt. Her eyes took in the beautiful picture before her. Unlike the last time, where she hadn't been able to tell anything without the doctor pointing it out, she could see the outline of her child. If she looked close enough, she could tell where the head and torso were separated at the neck.

"Wow, it's gorgeous!" Emma sighed, leaning back into the chair she was seated at. "I can't believe it." She looked over to Mia, who was smiling. "I've never seen an ultrasound before. I wasn't ever interested when my mom was pregnant." She paused. "I wish I had been."

Mia's stomach fluttered as she continued to study the picture before her. "What can you tell from this?" she asked the doctor, who took another look at the ultrasound. "At this age, I mean."

"Well…" She turned the monitor to face her better. "Let's see here. I see fingers and toes. Here's the outline of the nose. See how it juts out from the face? And here's the ear. And… oh!" She smiled. "I can tell the sex."

Mia's breathing ceased. "You… you know if I'm having a boy or a girl?" She grasped Emma's hand, who squeezed it tight.

"Yes. But if you don't want to know, I can keep that information private. Many people chose to make it a surprise, and don't find out until the baby is delivered. If you want to know, however, I will gladly tell you."

She pondered. When her mother's friend Melissa had been pregnant, she had decided to not know the sex of her baby. They had had a fun time thinking of baby names for both genders, and had made bets about the sex. She pursed her lips, thinking hard. On the other hand, if she knew if her baby was a boy or a girl, then she could begin to pick out appropriate baby clothes and make sure everything was ready for when he or she came.

Of course, she also knew people who had been told and had had it turn out wrong. Her mother's coworker Nancy had recently had a boy, but the doctor had claimed that he was a girl. Nancy had gone out and painted her child's room pink and had purchased many cute pairs of pink booties and clothes. Now her son was stuck wearing the pink clothes and living in the pink room until she could afford to redo his living arrangement and wardrobe.

She looked to Emma, who just shrugged. "It's up to you, Mia."

"Okay, I don't think I want to know. Not yet."

"That is just fine. Now, do you have any other questions or concerns? How is your breathing? Some mothers report that around this time breathing becomes more labored as the baby grows and expands toward your lungs."

"No, my breathing is fine. I am starting to pee a lot more than I ever thought I would." She blushed slightly. "But other than that, everything is fine."

Everything wasn't just fine. Everything was going smoothly. The morning sickness is gone, I'm not nearly as fat as I thought I would be, my grades are improving, I have Jackie back, I met Emma, and my mom and I are so much closer. This is… perfect!

Fifteen minutes later, they were back on the bus. Mia sat next to the window with Emma on her left side.

"Hey, Mia? Have you thought at all about names?"

Mia looked up. "Not really, no, Have you?"

Emma laughed. "It's not my kid, stupid!" She gave Mia a little sock in the shoulder, and they both burst into giggles. "You haven't thought about them at all? Gosh, I would be going crazy, trying to find the perfect name."

"I guess names just never crossed my mind." At one time, she had had a boys name picked out- Hunter Anthony, after her grandfather- but it didn't seem right anymore. Whenever she did succumb to thinking about names, nothing stuck out. Emma was right. It had to be perfect. The name she ultimately decided on would be with her child for the rest of his or her life.

"If you were pregnant, what would you name it?"

Emma was silent for close to two minutes. "My friend Manny and I once had names picked out for our future children. Now we don't talk about kids at all." Mia knew that Manny was Emma's friend who had recently had an abortion. "I think I would name a son Michael Sean."

"What does the name represent?"

"I like the name Michael. And Sean… Sean is someone special to me." Her eyes glazed over as though she was recalling something wonderful that had happened in her past. "Sorry. Anyway. For a girl, maybe Marian Christine. Robin Hood was always a favorite movie of mine. And Christine after my mom, obviously."

The younger girl nodded, her hands placed on her lower abdomen as the bus continued to roll along the Toronto streets. "You wouldn't happen to have any ideas for my baby, would you?"

"Sorry, no. Want to go back to the library and pick out a baby name book?" The bus was approaching the library. Neither girl had planned to get off there; they were both going to get off near Degrassi Community School because it was a central meeting point between both of their houses. Mia was nearly in the Degrassi district, but more so in the Lakehurst one.

Mia grasped the pull string above her and the bus made a stop at the library. The two girls hopped off of it and hurried back into the library to check out as many baby books as they could manage before it closed at 6:00.

With their arms full of books, the two took their separate ways and Mia headed back towards home.

-x-

The books were overwhelming.

She sat in her room, the moon shining in through her window, providing enough light to see the small black font upon the worn tanning pages.

It was nearly eleven. Mia was supposed to be asleep. Her mother, exhausted from her shift, was sound asleep in her room down the hall.

A pad of paper lay near her feet. She had split the page down the center with her black pen. On the top of the left side she had written "Boys" and on top of the right side was "Girls." So far, only one name in each column was exposed- Amber Lori and Benjamin Anthony. Both were nice names, but neither had the special ring that she was looking for. She didn't want her child to grow up hating its name. When she was in elementary school, there had been a boy in her grade named Boxer Adams. She was afraid that her child would end up with a name like that.

She continued to flip through the first book. Abigail was Hebrew for "Father in rejoicing." Alexander was Greek for "Defending men." Her head was spinning. She just needed a glass of watcher.

Quietly, she tiptoed downstairs and into the kitchen.

With her water glass filled, she turned to head back up to her bedroom.

Suddenly, her chest filled with concrete. She couldn't breathe. Her world was spinning. Was she falling? She couldn't tell. She clutched onto the table, trying to regain herself.

Vertigo. Sweet, sweet vertigo continued to pulse through her veins until there was nothing left but complete and utter fear.

OOC/ All right, my lovelies! Please read and review. I am currently on vacation, so help my keep my sanity while I die of boredom. I will definitely have another chapter up by Sunday, I do believe. But please review or I will just delay it a little longer……

-ELPHIE (the horizontally challenged)