Sitting at the table during her morning break, Jade opened TheSlap on her phone and sent out a PSA to all her followers:
To answer the rumors, yes. Now back off before I stab you.
Mood: wazzed
With that, Jade shoved another bite of burrito in her mouth and refocused on her friends at the table. To her liking, they were completely avoiding all talk of pregnancy. Then, conversation died down. Robbie started playing around on his PearPad.
After a few moments of silent chewing, Robbie looked up at Jade tentatively. "Jade, does it have a name yet?"
Beck almost spat a mouthful of water across the table, which Jade found almost amusing; however, she sent a dagger-like glare at her curly-haired classmate. "It's a she. And no, not yet."
"It's a girl?" Cat jumped to her feet in a flurry of applause. "That's so cute!"
"Yeah," Beck smiled a little, "we're having a daughter."
He and Jade could both agree, if not aloud, that not keeping the secret from their friends anymore lightened their emotional burden.
"Hey, here's to a healthy baby girl." Andre raised his water bottle.
"Cheers," all the teenagers chorused, tapping their bottles together.
As the bell rang, Jade returned to the building for an almost painfully long English class.
After school, Sikowitz's class met in the Black Box Theater to discuss the next play.
"An Alien Inside" caused some confusion when dividing up the roles, since there was really only one main character and several minor ones.
Jade gave Cat the lead role, which left Tori playing assorted other roles including mugger at the beginning and nurse at the end. Robbie ended up playing the evil alien and voicing/working the alien baby due to his ventriloquism abilities.
Despite Jade wanting to paint Rex to be the baby, Robbie refused and offered to buy a different prop instead. Regardless, he was fine with using the puppet on-stage.
Andre ended up playing the other mugger, Cat's father, and the doctor.
In short, the cast roles were confusing as anything.
During the read-through, Jade leaned back and let the blocking of the scenes play out in her head. Beck, however, leaned forward with his elbows on his knees and watched each line be delivered.
After rehearsal, Jade went back to Beck's RV for the night. She was fine with her friends knowing her deepest secret, but letting either of their parents know was going to be a completely different story.
On Thursday, Jade had another doctor's appointment after school. Right as Beck and Jade climbed into his car to head out, Jade's phone vibrated with a text from her mother.
Come home tonight. Big questions for you from Jon and me.
Quickly, Jade mentioned that she and Beck "had to run a few errands" but that she would come home by dinnertime. It seemed to appease the woman and Jade continued with her plans.
At the check-up, Dr. Yu did the usual measurements and asked typical questions of diet and pregnancy symptoms.
Since Jade and the baby were both clearly healthy, the couple left earlier than planned and stopped by Nozu to assuage Jade's sushi craving.
As his girlfriend shoved pieces of sushi in her face, Beck watched with a smile plastered on his.
"What are you grinning at?" the girl asked with a cheekful of spicy tuna and tempura shrimp. "You look like an idiot."
"I was admiring how beautiful you are." Beck reached across the table and grabbed the hand Jade wasn't using to eat.
A small smile adorned her plump lips. "Sap," she chuckled.
"It's true," he defended. "You're so amazing and I'm so lucky to be able to call you mine."
Grinning now, Jade slid out of her chair to run around the table and kiss her boyfriend quickly on the cheek.
"I love you," Beck sighed happily as Jade returned to her seat.
"I know," she smiled. "And I love you too. Almost as much as this thing inside me that makes me doubly hungry." She patted her belly.
Beck grinned. "I love that little thing too."
After their early dinner, Beck dropped Jade off outside her house. Despite having her license, Jade rarely drove when she could ride with her boyfriend.
"Text me if you want me to come get you," Beck offered as he pulled Jade close and kissed her lovingly.
"Yep," was Jade's response. "See ya, Beck."
He watched as she almost waddled up the steps to her porch and disappeared inside the house.
"Mom, I'm home," Jade called and dropped her bag on the floor by the hall closet. "You wanted me?"
"Yeah!" the woman's voice echoed from the east side of the house. "I'm in the kitchen!"
Jade made her way to her mother, careful to avoid waddling as she came into view of the woman sitting at the kitchen table with her laptop in front of her.
"Sit down, Jade." The blonde pulled a chair beside her and tapped the seat.
Jade would have been worried had two trivial details not have existed. For one, Jade wasn't afraid of her mother under any circumstances. Secondly, if she was in trouble, she would have been "Jadelyn August West" and not simply "Jade."
Carefully, the teenager lowered herself into the chair and looked at the screen: wedding gowns.
"What did you want?" the noirette asked brusquely, not worried about formalities.
"Jade, I'm getting married on the fourteenth of July and I have to choose my bridal party. You're my daughter and you'll be almost eighteen then, so I wanted to know whether you would be my maid of honor. Don't worry, the dresses won't be pink or yellow."
Jade almost smiled at the thought. Then she realized how big her baby belly would be by then. "Yeah, I would like to, but there's something you should know first."