p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Standing in the dressing room was so surreal she buttoned up her top and found that her belly had grown even more in the past weeks, the top still fit and no one else would notice but she noticed. She honestly didn't know if that was worse or better, Max glanced at her face she was wearing way more makeup than she ever would be happy wearing, her fridge was pushed to the side and her hair topped with a headband, a look she'd never pick for herself. Nervousness clouded her head, so many things were on her mind. 'I can't worry about all that now, everyone had worked too damn hard on this Max pull it together.' Max thought to herself. As a smiling Kate walked in, she was playing Diane which was so hella her. br /"Hey, Max all ready?" Kate askedbr /"As ready as I'll ever be" Max smiled back at herbr /"Well we have warm up in the drama room in a few let's go" Kate smiled taking Max's hand they walked out of the dressed room laughing and they so just happen to run right into none other than Mark. Max looked up at him then down to the ground br /"Oh hi Mr. Jefferson" Kate said sweetly br /"Hiya Kate break a leg tonight, you too M…" before he could speak Max pushed past him quickly and walked towards the drama room. Kate looked at her former teacher then back to Max, "I'm sorry Kate I have to get these over to the stage lovely chat though" He finished with a mumble walking past her. br /"Max!" Kate called out "what was that about?" she asks "Did Mr. Jefferson do something to you?" br /"Um no I just, am really nervous. He has always made me nervous so I needed to get away. I'll say sorry to him after the show." Max said quietlybr /"Oh okay I get that, if you ever need to talk about it you know I'm here for you" br /"I never did ask how do your parents feel about you being in this show with what it's about?" br /"Oh they aren't coming, I told them it was a necessity and that they wouldn't like it" br /"Ahhhhh okay" br /All the actors moved to the sides of the stage ready to enter, the show had begun. Max upon entering the scene spotted her mum and her dad sitting a row back from the front. She sighed thinking of how they would react, she was more than terrified./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The show was underway and Max stood side stage, her heart thumped worse than ever before, her arms felt numb and she felt almost frozen, she knew though when the time was to come she would move. Max was about to go onto stage and sing her solo song 'All grown up' and what the song was about hit too close to home at this point. She gazed over and noticed Mark on the other side of the stage for the 100th time that night. Max knew he was there but it didn't help, her thoughts wandered to how she would tell him, what would happen if it came to light in the press would people question the timing. The soft piano sounded around her which meant it was her cue, softly she walked out holding tightly onto the photo album. br /"Hi" Max mumbles to the girl playing Nadia br /"If you say so…" The scene continued from muscle memory for Max trying her hardest not to connect with the words leaving her mouth, as she knew she would sob on stage. But as soon as she sang "Face the music, take a bow" Her head turned as she had practiced for all those weeks but what wasn't planned was her eyes meeting Marks "Just another unwed mother… One more sad statistic now" Her heart leaped she looked down and kept going. She moved downstage further towards the end of the heavy song, she dropped to her knees softly at "...17 how will I manage, how can I…" She softly sobbed "I'm just… a girl" she looked around at the people clapping she saw her mother cheer for her. It become too much she quickly ran off stage. When Max re-entered side staged she got congratulated for a moving performance and the realism from many of the side stage crew as well as fellow cast members but she was focused on one thing and one thing only. She turned around looking for him and when she faced Mark she walked right up to him and stood on her toes and whispered over the music that was playing from 'Promise'. She quickly yet clearly whispered "I'm pregnant, it's yours, I'm keeping it" fast as the speed of light Max was gone again singing on stage as she entered the scene for she had almost missed her cue to enter./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Mark quickly mumbled to one of the kids' side stage he was going to go get something, he briskly walked around to where he knew no one would at this time and punched a wall "Fuck!" He yelled out of pain and pure frustration. "Fuck fuck fuck." He turned around and slide to the ground his bloody fist in his lap he reached up and took off his glasses tears already streaming down his cheeks. 'I'm going to be a father, but I'm never going to see my child… what if someone finds out what happened between us.' He panicked br /'I'll have to fight for custody but its too shady cause of the timing of when this baby will be born, unless… we could say it was premature...FUCK' he screamed internally. Every thought imaginable ran around his head. 'I… I need to do something, I can't leave this child alone in this world, I can't leave Max alone' The tears quickly turned into soft sobs, he hadn't cried in years all his emotions flowed out. He was truly terrified for the first time since he was a child. He was reminded of when he would cry as a child and how his father would tell him; nobody in the world cares about boys who cry, they care about what they leave behind whether good or bad. His thoughts flashed to the day his father first showed him how to prepare needles, as well as how to take pictures. Of course, his father wasn't good at it, but mark learned quick and quickly got better, 'I need to know this child won't face the same fate I did with him' Mark thinks to himself./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Mark walked back in through the dressing room area to see if he could leave a note asking to talk to max, but instead what he caught was the dressing room door open a jar, just enough for him to see max, she was in nothing but her bra and black shorts he could see her belly was out slightly, it was rounder than the last time he had seen her. It hit again like a ton of bricks no way in hell was she lying. This way he knocked on the door quietlybr /"Give me a second," she said sliding on the graduation robe for the end of the show. "Okay" br /Mark pushed open the door br /"Max… I, please can we, I mean, please let me talk to you about this. I need… yo... I need to talk to you" He stumbled out looking at her like the broken down man he was. Smiling softly "We will talk," she said, moving swiftly she kissed his lips before running off to the stage ready for the finale./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"The show was underway and Max stood side stage, her heart thumped worse than ever before, her arms felt numb and she felt almost frozen, she knew though when the time was to come she would move. Max was about to go onto stage and sing her solo song 'All grown up' and what the song was about hit too close to home at this point. She gazed over and noticed Mark on the other side of the stage for the 100th time that night. Max knew he was there but it didn't help, her thoughts wandered to how she would tell him, what would happen if it came to light in the press would people question the timing. The soft piano sounded around her which meant it was her cue, softly she walked out holding tightly onto the photo album. br /"Hi" Max mumbles to the girl playing Nadia br /"If you say so…" The scene continued from muscle memory for Max trying her hardest not to connect with the words leaving her mouth, as she knew she would sob on stage. But as soon as she sang "Face the music, take a bow" Her head turned as she had practiced for all those weeks but what wasn't planned was her eyes meeting Marks "Just another unwed mother… One more sad statistic now" Her heart leaped she looked down and kept going. She moved downstage further towards the end of the heavy song, she dropped to her knees softly at "...17 how will I manage, how can I…" She softly sobbed "I'm just… a girl" she looked around at the people clapping she saw her mother cheer for her. It become too much she quickly ran off stage. When Max re-entered side staged she got congratulated for a moving performance and the realism from many of the side stage crew as well as fellow cast members but she was focused on one thing and one thing only. She turned around looking for him and when she faced Mark she walked right up to him and stood on her toes and whispered over the music that was playing from 'Promise'. She quickly yet clearly whispered "I'm pregnant, it's yours, I'm keeping it" fast as the speed of light Max was gone again singing on stage as she entered the scene for she had almost missed her cue to enter./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Mark quickly mumbled to one of the kids' side stage he was going to go get something, he briskly walked around to where he knew no one would at this time and punched a wall "Fuck!" He yelled out of pain and pure frustration. "Fuck fuck fuck." He turned around and slide to the ground his bloody fist in his lap he reached up and took off his glasses tears already streaming down his cheeks. 'I'm going to be a father, but I'm never going to see my child… what if someone finds out what happened between us.' He panicked br /'I'll have to fight for custody but its too shady cause of the timing of when this baby will be born, unless… we could say it was premature...FUCK' he screamed internally. Every thought imaginable ran around his head. 'I… I need to do something, I can't leave this child alone in this world, I can't leave Max alone' The tears quickly turned into soft sobs, he hadn't cried in years all his emotions flowed out. He was truly terrified for the first time since he was a child. He was reminded of when he would cry as a child and how his father would tell him; nobody in the world cares about boys who cry, they care about what they leave behind whether good or bad. His thoughts flashed to the day his father first showed him how to prepare needles, as well as how to take pictures. Of course, his father wasn't good at it, but mark learned quick and quickly got better, 'I need to know this child won't face the same fate I did with him' Mark thinks to himself./p
p style="border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15.12px; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; list-style: none; margin: 1.286em auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; color: #2a2a2a;"Mark walked back in through the dressing room area to see if he could leave a note asking to talk to max, but instead what he caught was the dressing room door open a jar, just enough for him to see max, she was in nothing but her bra and black shorts he could see her belly was out slightly, it was rounder than the last time he had seen her. It hit again like a ton of bricks no way in hell was she lying. This way he knocked on the door quietlybr /"Give me a second," she said sliding on the graduation robe for the end of the show. "Okay" br /Mark pushed open the door br /"Max… I, please can we, I mean, please let me talk to you about this. I need… yo... I need to talk to you" He stumbled out looking at her like the broken down man he was. Smiling softly "We will talk," she said, moving swiftly she kissed his lips before running off to the stage ready for the finale./p