Finding Acceptance
Disclaimer: I do not own "The Covenant" or any of its characters; I only own Peyton, Allie, Alison, and Ashley. Don't sue!
How will Mr. and Mrs. Parry take the news Peyton has to tell them?
Chapter 9
*~Peyton's POV~*
My mother and father were staring at me from behind the desk. Pogue was sitting beside me and I was staring at my hands. "Y-You're… pregnant?" my mother choked out. I nodded my head even though I was looking down.
"Chase Collins…" my father spoke. I nodded my head again and felt a feeling of dread go through me; and it was making me nauseous. "So that tape…" he trailed off; once again, I nodded my head.
Before I knew it, I was being swept up into a pair of arms. When I looked up I saw my mother with her arms wrapped around me with tears leaking out of her eyes. "Oh, honey!" she cried.
It was almost an hour before we exited our father's office and went back into the living room. Allie walked over to me as soon as Pogue and I entered the room. Pogue whispered something to her and she nodded her head; I, on the other hand, went and took a seat next to Tyler. Our mother and father re-entered the room and took seats on a couch. Allie walked over to our mother and handed her a piece of paper.
Suddenly, I realized that it was one of the sonogram pictures. "Allie…" I started, but Pogue stopped me.
"They know now, Pey. Don't you think they should see the pictures, too?" he asked. I was uncertain as to wanting them to see the pictures; I was afraid of what they'd think. "If they didn't flip out about it when you told them, why would they flip out now?" I nodded my head slowly and glanced back at them. My mother and father's eyes were glued on the piece of paper that was held in my mother's hands.
I noticed the other parents glancing at ours and I looked at Pogue. He shrugged his shoulders and I settled down into Tyler's side as his arm wrapped around me. "Wayne, Heather, is something wrong?" Mr. Simms asked gaining their attention. Mom handed the picture back to Allie and she nodded her head. Allie came back over to us and sat down on the floor in front of Reid.
"Actually, there is." My mother spoke. She glanced at me and made eye contact with me. "If Peyton doesn't mind us telling you, that is." I thought through all my options, but knew that there was only one option that would have a good outcome. I nodded my head slowly at my parents and watched them.
Our father looked at our mother and then back at the others present in the room. "The tape that Pogue showed us… wasn't fake." The room became a roar of voices and I buried my face into Tyler's shirt. "And it seems that Chase Collins has caused more trouble now than he did several months ago with Caleb and the boys." The fathers looked at him curiously, silently telling him to continue. "He's pulled the girls into this and taken advantage of Peyton."
"Because of Chase… Peyton is pregnant…" my mother stated. The other mothers' mouths dropped open and the fathers eyes widened. I tried to bury my face further into Tyler's shirt as he wrapped his arms around me protectively.
I felt eyes boring into my back as I continued to avert my gaze. "She's pregnant with the fifth bloodlines child?" Mr. Garwin questioned. I heard my father voice the confirmation and I felt my heart beating a bit quicker.
"It's not like I want to be…" I muttered.
"What, Peyton?" Tyler asked. I raised my head from its spot on his chest and looked around at the parents.
"It's not like I want to be!" I repeated louder. "I didn't ask for Chase to rape me! I didn't ask to get pregnant! It just happened!" I outraged.
Allie shared a look with Pogue and then looked back at me; everyone's eyes were on me. "Peyton… nobody's saying that what happened was your fault." I looked at my sister, but I couldn't stop the adrenaline pumping through my veins.
"Are you sure, Allie? Because it seems like that's exactly what's happening!" I said standing up. "No matter how much I want to refute the fact that Chase raped me and left me pregnant, I know that I can't! I didn't ask for any of this to happen, it just did!" I rushed out of the room and up the stairs.
I heard footsteps on the stairs but I didn't stop until I got to my bedroom door. I opened the door and stopped in my tracks. Eyes, black as night, which belonged to a certain brown haired ass glared at me from inside my room. I slammed the door shut and turned around, heading back toward the stairs. "Pogue, Tyler, help me!" I called frantically. I heard the footsteps thundering on the stairs and heard my bedroom door slam open.
Ignoring the curiosity to look behind me, I kept running for the stairs. I felt something tug on my leg and knew Chase was using on me. I let my own eyes bleed black, and the feeling on my leg stopped. I ran for the stairs and tripped on the top stair, beginning to fall down. Arms wrapped around me and I looked forward to see Pogue holding me. "What's wrong?" he asked me.
I pointed behind me and Pogue steadied me on my feet. He stood in front of me as the rest of the boys and the fathers came up the stairs quickly. I told them and Pogue and our dad stood in front of me while the other boys and fathers stood behind me. Pogue and dad led the way into the hall and stopped at the opening. Pogue flipped the light switch and it illuminated the whole hall; but there was no one there.
"No!" I exclaimed. Pogue and dad looked at me as I pushed my way through them. They all looked at me quizzically as I stood in the hall. I turned to face them, "He was there! I swear it!"
Pogue looked at me confused. "What? Who was there, Peyton?"
"Chase!" I replied. All of their eyes widened as I explained. "I opened the door to my room and he was in there. As soon as I turned and ran, he followed me. When I tripped on the stairs, he was right behind me in the hallway!"
Our dad and the other fathers made their way to my bedroom, and dad threw the door to the room open. After a couple of minutes, they looked back at me. "Peyton, there's no one here." I looked at Pogue with a terrified expression on my face.
"Pogue, you have to believe me!" I choked out. "He was in there, I swear it." Wrapping his arms around me, he nodded his head and turned around. He led me back downstairs and into the living room once more. He sat me down on the couch and my twin came to sit beside me. She wrapped her arms around me and looked at me worriedly as my body trembled from my scare.
The fathers came back in the living room and looked at me. "Nobody leave tonight. I think it's best if we all just stay here tonight." My father spoke. All the mothers nodded their heads and I just looked at my baby sister. Allie sat on the couch with me as the other girls came over to us. Our mother came over and sat near me as the boys exited the room at once. Glancing at the fathers, I knew they were confused as to why the boys left, and soon they went in search of them.
A couple minutes later five mattresses dropped in the living room, scaring the crap out of me and making me jump three feet into the air. The boys and fathers appeared moments later and looked around at us. "Pogue Matthew Parry, how dare you Use!" our mother screeched, getting up from her seat and gliding across the room to our brother; Pogue looked at her with a wide eyed 'I-didn't-do-it' look. "Young man, don't you dare try getting out of this!"
"Mom, seriously, I only Used to send my own mattress down here!" Pogue argued. She still looked skeptical, but I knew that Pogue was being truthful.
I looked at our mom, "Pogue's telling the truth." She looked at me and I nodded my head at her. "As long as he doesn't do it again…" I trailed off, hearing my twin cough to cover up her laughter. The boys laughed out loud and began pushing the mattresses together.
"What is all this for?" Mrs. Simms asked the boys. Tyler looked at his mother before Reid pushed him forward and towards one of the mattresses.
"Well, since we're all staying here for the night," he began. "All of us might as well just sleep together in one room."
Caleb glanced at me before helping Pogue push the mattress next to Reid and Tyler. "If Chase really did come after Peyton a couple minutes ago upstairs, it's probably best if we stick together."
Our mother's eyes flew to me. "Chase was here? In our house!?" our father moved to stand beside her. He whispered something to her and they both left the room, talking in quiet whispers. After they left the room, the boys continued to fix the mattresses together in a straight line and we all looked at them with questioning glances.
I cleared my throat, making all eyes turn to me. "Um… who's sleeping where?" the rest of the parents in the room looked at the boys, who in turn looked at each other with question in their eyes.
"We can always…" Pogue started and then cleared his throat. "Figure that out later. Ya know… like when we feel like going to bed." I spared a glance at Kate who was shaking her head.
After three more hours of talking, and the fathers insisting that they take rounds, all of us decided it was time to hit the sack. Caleb closed the living room sliding doors and we all stood around the mattresses that had been pushed together. All of us girls stood on one side of the mattresses and the boys stood on the other side. We all glanced at one another questioningly, as if silently trying to one up each other. My gaze went to each of the boys slowly.
"Well, I'm sleeping near Peyton." Allie spoke up, making us all look at her. She wrapped her arm around me and smiled goofily.
Reid looked at me, "I'm sleeping near Allie."
"I got Pogue!"
Sarah laughed and looked at her boyfriend. "Caleb's mine."
Alis and Ash looked at one another and smiled back at us. "We'll take the last mattress then." We all nodded our heads and finally decided where we'd all sleep; Caleb and Sarah on the first mattress, Pogue and Kate on the second, Reid and Allie on the third, Tyler and I on the fourth, and Alis and Ash on the last mattress. The room was engulfed in silence as we all tried to sleep, but I just couldn't settle down enough to actually do it.
"Anybody else still awake?" Reid mumbled some time later. The room chorused with answers as we all sat up from our spots. I saw the TV screen turn on and saw Pogue getting to his feet.
"Pogue, what are you doing?" Allie asked.
He looked at her and opened the DVD player. "Might as well put on a movie since we're not sleeping. It beats sitting in the dark." The other boys agreed with him as the movie began, and Pogue turned the surround sound down so it wouldn't disturb the parents. I don't remember the exact time, but I finally felt my eyes get heavy as they closed and I fell into a deep sleep.
We stayed at home the entire weekend, only going to Nicky's and the movies. When we returned to the dorms on Monday, Allie and I began packing our stuff. Mom and Dad would be coming to see the Provost and request that we turn in our dorm keys and move back home until we graduated; they were even letting Alis and Ash move in with us. We skipped classes to pack our things and by the time school was out, we were all packed up and ready to go.
A knock sounded on our door and we called for whomever to enter. Tyler and Reid walked through the door with Alis and Ash behind them. "What's up, ladies?" Allie walked over and pecked Reid on the cheek. "Ready to pack up the hummer?" we nodded our heads and we started picking up the boxes.
As I was going to pick up the box that was filled with my books and CDs, Tyler snatched the box from my grasp. "No heavy lifting." He said smirking. Reid and the girls all laughed and I frowned at him. He pressed a kiss to my lips before telling Reid to put another one on top. Reid complied and added another box, and then Tyler turned and walked out of the room. I followed behind him, making sure he didn't drop either one of them and we made it downstairs and outside to his hummer.
He stuck the boxes in the back and then turned around; I was standing behind him and I quickly wrapped my arms around his waist and slipped my thumbs through the loops in his belt. "Miss Parry, you know that PDAs aren't allowed on campus, right?" he teased. I stuck my tongue out as he wrapped his arms around me and laughed. Our lips met and time seemed to stop, like it always did when we kissed; at least until Reid and the girls got outside.
"Oh, god! I'm blind!" Tyler and I broke apart to see Reid, Alis, and Ash laughing at my sister's joke. I flipped her off and turned my attention back to Tyler. He turned his head and then let out a groan.
"What's wrong?" instead of answering me, he pointed to the parents who were now approaching us. We stood side by side with only one arm wrapped around each other and we greeted the approaching parents.
Our mother and father stopped in front of us; our father looked at Tyler as he wrapped an arm around our mother. "I wanna talk to you later, Tyler. You, too, Reid." He raised his finger and did a 'come hither' motion. I kissed Tyler's cheek and then me and my twin began walking after our parents, who were now walking toward the main office. We made our way to the office and walked inside, stopping behind our parents at the receptionist's desk.
The girl behind the desk, who was clearly a student assistant, looked up at us with question in her eyes. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, we have a meeting with Provost Higgins." Our father spoke. The girl grabbed something from in front of her and a highlighter.
She flipped the top page over and then looked back at dad. "Your name, sir?"
"Wayne Parry." He replied shortly. She looked down the page and then highlighted a square.
The girl looked back up at us. "Okay, sir. I'll go let the Provost know that you're here." Our parents nodded their heads as she got up and walked down the hallway. A moment later she came back into the main area and took her seat once more. "The Provost will see you now." Our parents looked at us and we walked in front of them and led them to the office.
I knocked on the door and heard the Provost call for us to enter. I opened the door and held it open for my sister and parents. Our mom and dad walked into the office behind Allie and I entered after they did, stopping briefly to shut the door. Allie and I stood behind the chairs that our parents were sitting in and folded our hands behind our backs. Provost Higgins looked at our parents with question in his eyes, but didn't speak.
"Thank you for seeing us, Provost." Dad spoke. Provost Higgins nodded his head and looked at Allie and I before looking back to our parents. "We'd like the girls to return home. Peyton has been ill as of late, as I'm sure her attendance can show you." We watched as the Provost nodded his head, showing us a folder with my name across the top.
Provost Higgins cleared his throat, "Yes, we noticed that she's been absent a lot. I have been having doubts of her being able to graduate this year with the rest of the seniors." My eyes widened slightly as I shot a worried glance to my sister. "However, I've even spoken to her teachers about her attendance. They all assure me that every bit of the work she missed is turned in on the day she returns to classes. She's never missed a test or a midterm exam, so I no longer have any doubt about her graduating."
I let out a quiet sigh, contented in knowing that I would be allowed to graduate with the others. My mother looked up at me and I just looked at the Provost. Allie looked at our father and nodded her head. "We'd like them to return because of Peyton's illness. We're unsure if she's contagious, so she's been seeing a specialist in Boston. We'd hate for someone to catch whatever it is she has if it, indeed, is contagious."
The Provost voiced his agreement and our father continued. "We will pay for their dorm room for the rest of the year. We wouldn't want it to be a burden." Allie and I watched as our father pulled a bank envelope out of the inside pocket of his suit jacket and set it on the Provost's desk. Provost Higgins took the envelope, opening it and looking inside.
"Very well, Mr. Parry." Provost Higgins spoke. "It's no problem at all. As long as Peyton continues to keep her grades up, she will surely be able to graduate. It is, also, important that she begin to feel better." Our parents nodded their heads and exchanged farewell pleasantries with the Provost. A few minutes later, we all walked out of the office and back to the parking lot.
Caleb and Pogue, along with Kate and Sarah, were standing at the hummer with the four we'd left earlier. All of our things, Alis and Ash's things too, were packed in the hummer. "We'll see you kids at home." My mother spoke, kissing Allie and mine's foreheads. Our dad followed suit and they made their way to their car. We all watched as they drove out of the parking lot and let campus.
"So, we going to Nicky's tonight?" Kate asked. We all nodded our heads in agreement with her.
"Yeah, we just have to make a stop at home and drop our things off." Allie spoke.
Pogue looked at us as he led Kate away from us. "All right. See you guys at home, then."
Caleb offered Alis and Ash a ride since there wasn't room for all six of us since the hummer was packed full. Caleb and the three girls were the next to depart, leaving only my twin and I with our boyfriends. "Shall we?" Reid gestured to the car. I nodded my head and we all got in the hummer and left Spenser.
We got to the manor in fifteen minutes and immediately the others started unpacking; I, unfortunately, had been ordered to sit my butt in the living room while all the boxes were being unpacked. I wasn't too happy about being ordered around; plus sitting around was really boring. Tyler came into the living room ten minutes later telling me that all my boxes were unloaded in my room.
I offered him a spot on the couch next to me and he took a seat. He turned the TV on and flipped through channels until I had him stop on Animal Planet. We sat on the couch watching a program called 'Growing up Lion' while everyone helped Allie, Alis, and Ash. It was almost an hour before they all came into the room.
The boys shot Tyler glares and he just shrugged his shoulders, turning his attention back to the TV. We sat in the living room for a while, until the girls decided it was time to start getting ready to go to Nicky's. I groaned but got to my feet and made my way upstairs to my room. Kate went with me to my room and I slowly pushed my door open, peeking my head inside. Once I made sure there was no one in my room, I told Kate she could go. She left my room and I went to my closet, pushing the door open and grabbing a sweater and a pair of dark blue stretch jeans. I got dressed and then made my way downstairs and into the living room again.
Once the other girls came downstairs, we left to go to Nicky's. The dads stopped us on the porch and gave the boys strict instructions to keep their eyes on us. I rolled my eyes and waited for Tyler to get to the hummer. Once the boys made it to the cars, we all got in and drove off quickly.
When we arrived at Nicky's the boys kept their eyes on us, like they were instructed. I was on the dance floor with Tyler and the other couples, except for Alis and Ash who were watching us from the table. After a couple of dances, Tyler and Reid stalked off to the pool tables to play Aaron and Bordy. I walked back to the table with the three girls while Caleb and Pogue went to get more drinks.
Alis and Ash looked at me as I sat down. "Can I help you?" I asked them curiously. They both shook their heads and laughed. I crossed my legs and took one of my shoes off, rubbing the pad of the foot. All of the girls looked at me with question. "Hey! I'm pregnant, and my feet happen to hurt!" they laughed at me as the boys returned with a waitress in tow. She set the drinks around the table and, after giving flirty looks to my brother and Caleb, sauntered off back to the bar.
I put my shoe back on my foot and grabbed my drink, sipping some of it through the straw. We sat at the table, talking and joking, until Tyler and Reid returned. I yawned and Tyler looked at me. "You okay, babe?" I nodded my head in response.
"Just a little… tired." I said, trying to hold back another yawn. He wrapped his arm around me and I set my head on his shoulder. Alis handed me a paper and I looked at it then back at her. "What is this?" I questioned.
She took a quick sip of her soda before answering me. "The art teacher wanted me to give you that. It's about the art exhibit we're having at school." She told me. I nodded my head, looking back down at the paper; it had the date and time of the event. Alis and Allie switched chairs and Alis leaned over near my ear. I leaned in a bit toward her so it would look like we were having our own small conversation. "She also wanted me to tell you to read the back of it. There's supposed to be a note or something she wrote on there to you."
She straightened back out and she went back to her regular chair. I put the paper underneath the table and flipped it over. On the back in her own script was a note from the art teacher.
Peyton,
I hope that you are feeling well. Your sister and friends have been keeping me informed. As you know, we only have three more days of class to work on our exhibit pieces. I hope that you will be in class, so that you might finish your pieces; the class voted on the slots and they all voted that you be in slot number one. Even though you are slot one, your exhibit will be the last on the list because you will have so many pieces. You have made some wonderful art while in my class and I want you to display it proudly. I hope to see you in class soon.
Feel better!
Miss Andrews
I smiled at the note and then folded the piece of paper. I stuck it in my back pocket and I put my head back on Tyler's shoulder. We sat at our table until it ten minutes until closing. We were all standing and grabbing our jackets from our chairs when a girl approached us. She had straight brown hair with blonde streaks through it and chocolate brown eyes; she wore an outfit that consisted of a purple peasant top with flared cuffs on the upper arms and a blue jean mini skirt with blue flip flops.
Allie looked at her with suspicion in her eyes, but I gave her a stern look. Knock it off, Allie. I projected to her. She rolled her eyes and we all looked at the girl curiously. "Hello." Her voice had a quiet lilt to it and we returned her greeting. "I'm sorry to be interrupting you. But you see, I kind of ran away from my police escort. I'm looking for Tyler Simms… do any of you know where I can find him?"
We all looked at one another and then back to the girl. I shot my boyfriend a weird look and he shrugged confusedly at me. "I'm Tyler." He spoke up. The girl launched herself at him and I went rigid. Who the hell does she think she is!? He's my boyfriend! I'm gonna rip her face off! Allie, Alis, and Ash grabbed at me at the same time I took a step toward Tyler and the young girl.
"I'm so glad I found you!" she cried, hugging him tightly. Pogue, Caleb, and Reid gave him matching 'what-the-hell' looks.
He squirmed and got out of her grasp. "Who are you?" he asked incredulously. The girl smiled brightly; a smile that kind of resembled Tyler's. It was quite eerie, in fact.
"My name is Amanda Simms." She answered. All of our jaws gaped open when she spoke. "Your sister, silly!"
Tyler has a sister now!? What's going on? Find out in the next chapter! Reviews are welcome, as always!
TAYLORandTOBYfreak88
