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Chapter 14:

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James tapped his pencil anxiously on his desk, waiting impatiently for class to end. Joe had never comes home last night, nor had he been at his house in the morning. Something was going on, and he couldn't imagine what. Wayne typically said that he was out with that mysterious girl, but James couldn't be sure. He wished Joe wasn't so dang mysterious himself. He'd always been that way when it had come to his love life. The rest of the Covenant usually didn't even know Joe had a girlfriend until the couple was already long over.

James began to nibble on the pencil now, something he didn't even realize he was doing. Glenn nudged him to pay attention to the lesson, but James was too far off.

At last, the bell rang, and James hurriedly gathered his things and rushed to a pay phone to try calling Joe's house. Still, it just rang and rang.

James sighed and put the receiver back on its hook. Glenn caught up with him by then, and asked if he had any luck.

"Still nothing," James admitted sadly. "It's like he's disappeared from the face of the earth. He's never missed classes before…"

"I'm telling you," Wayne called out as he walked past. "Joe's out getting lucky!"

"Shut up, Wayne!" James called after him. "That's not it. He'd at least tell us he would be gone."

"Would you?" Glenn asked. James stayed silent, seeing his point.

-

Joe peeked open his eyes to the bright light of the morning, peering into the sun through the trees, and immediately wondered where he was. He frowned at he gazed around at all the unfamiliarity, his heart beating fast as he tried to remember the night's events. He didn't recall having that much liquor, and he didn't feel like he had a hangover. So how had he wandered in here?

Then he felt the warmth next to him, and looked upon the woman curled up into his chest as they leaned against the base of a willow tree. At once, he remembered and relaxed.

He let out a sigh of contentedness, staring at the beautiful lady, still clothed in her long jacket to hide her revealing leather attire. He himself was also still in yesterday's clothes.

He let himself stroke aside her hair and wished hard that he could see her dark eyes again before he left. She was sound asleep, probably from her night's liquor consummation, which was probably twice that of his.

So, not knowing the time, or if he had missed school or not, he gently pulled himself out from her side.

As soon he did so, a firm hand reached out and grabbed him by the shirt, and pulled him back down next to her.

"Stay," she commanded like he was a dog, her eyes still closed in a replica of sleep.

Joe smiled, fighting laughter.

"We have school."

"No, we don't," she argued like a child. Unable to counter that, Joe needed no further convincing, and scooted back next to her indefinitely.

-

Beatrice sorted out her things in her locker, trying to stuff one more book inside, but it refused to cooperate. James waited patiently, leaned against the lockers beside her, his mind completely enveloped in his book.

"I didn't know this Dorian Gray guy was so arrogant," James said, pointing to the text. "He's completely ungrateful to this painter guy."

Beatrice huffed and angrily tried to jam the book against its will, but still it would not stay. It just was one more thing to add to the horrible morning she was having.

Suddenly, all her books lifted out of her locker, arranged themselves, and gently glided back into place, the locker slamming after them.

"Hey, Bee," she heard his all too familiar voice say.

"Wayne," she sighed, deciding her day was quickly going from bad to worse. She turned to face him.

"You shouldn't be Using in public," James scolded, not taking his eyes away from his book. "You know that."

Wayne placed a hand against the wall, just beside Beatrice's head, and leaned in close.

"You know," he said in a low voice. "We still need to finish what we started in those showers…"

James lifted his nose out of his book and quirked an eyebrow, and Bee immediately put up a hand to him in protest.

"Not what it sounds like."

Satisfied, James went back into his book.

"So?" Wayne pressed. "Did you sleep with Damien or not?"

"You're still on about that?" Beatrice chuckled in amusement.

"Beatrice," Wayne said, sounding a little annoyed now. "Answer the question."

"Hmm…" Beatrice said with a smile. "Looks like you will never know…"

Beatrice waved goodbye to him over her shoulder as she walked of with an extra swagger in her step. She seemed to be loving the fact that she finally had the upper hand over her everyday assailant.

"You know," Wayne said to James. "As much as I love that woman, I sure hate her a lot."

"Huh," James replied, barely listening as he turned the next page of his book.

-

"Hey, Glenn!" Rosalind waved Glenn over to where she stood. Glenn smiled at his girlfriend, and trotted over to hug her.

"Hey pretty lady," he said with a broad grin still firmly in place. Once he noticed the look on her face, though, it suddenly vanished.

"What's wrong?"

"Listen, I'm not going to be able to go out with you on Friday."

Glenn immediately frowned.

"Oh," he said sadly. "What about Saturday?"

"Not Saturday either."

"Well, what about--"

"--I'm afraid my whole weekend is booked," Rosie interrupted hurriedly. "I'm really sorry."

Glenn was confused. She seemed genuinely sorry, but why would she blow him off without a reason?

"Is there something going on?" Glenn asked with concern. "Anything at all?"

Rosie bit her lip.

"I can't tell you," she said in a low voice. "I wish I could, but it's not fair to you."

"You not telling me is unfair," Glenn countered. "What's going on? I can take it."

Rosie looked up at him, seemingly unsure. She studied him for several moments, then looked to the floor in shame.

"We'd better sit down."

Glenn went to the nearest bench, pulling her along with him.

"You wanted to know what my tie to Damien was…" she began. She hesitated, and Glenn took her hand encouragingly.

"It's okay," he assured her. "Go on."

She took a deep breath, and blurted out:

"I'm pregnant with his kid."

Glenn dropped her hand. He appeared stunned, and sat frozen in shock. He tried to act natural, like it wasn't such a big deal.

"Wow," he managed to say, standing abruptly on his feet. "Pregnant…"

"I've only known for about a month," she explained shakily. "Ever since that night you met me at the bar. I never drink, but I thought that seemed like as good a time as any to start."

"How…?" Glenn sputtered.

"I don't really know. Someone spiked my drink at a party. I woke up with him in his truck the next morning."

Glenn sighed in some small relief that she hadn't chosen this fortune upon herself. It was rather a cruel twist of fate than simply her being stupid with a guy.

"Damien…" he muttered angrily.

"Yes," she agreed sadly. "I've been trying to tell him I can do this on my own, but he won't leave me alone until he knows if it's a son or a daughter."

"Only concerned for the bloodline," Glenn growled some more.

"You mean the Concordat bloodline?" Rosie asked with surprise. "How do you know about that?"

Glenn looked at her strangely.

"I'm a part of something just like it. How do you know?"

"Damien," she replied. "You're a Covenant?"

He nodded, and she nodded back, as if finally placing the last pieces of the puzzle together.

"Wow, now it all makes sense…"

Glenn sat back down on the bench beside her. He considered his words carefully, going over every possible scenario in his head, and analyzing the entire situation for every pro and con.

"I want to do it," he said at last.

"What?" she asked in surprise.

"I'll take care of you. Of both of you. I want to do it—I want in."

Rosie grinned shakily and shook her head.

"Glenn, I appreciate it, but it's not that easy… Damien…"

"Leave Damien to me and my friends. Let me do this."

"We've only been dating for a month--"

"Stop it!" Glenn commanded. "Stop pushing me away because you're scared. I want to do this…I know I do. And I promise, as soon as I am old enough to sign my own documents, I will sign a marriage certificate. Any way you want me to prove it to you, I will. You want me to murder Damien, I'll do it."

Rosie laughed at that.

"You want me to jump off a building, I will. Anything. I'm yours."

He grabbed her hand very seriously.

"Please…"

Rosie smiled at him broadly, tears forming in her eyes. She looked completely honored by his words.

"Okay," she breathed. "But anytime you want to bail out, you can. I have no problem doing this on my own. My grandma is helping me too."

"I'm not going to bail out," Glenn promised. "My life is all about vows and promises. One more won't make a difference."

-

Meredith and Desiree are up now on my Covenant Album. Please review before you go.
Signed,
--RedRogue

PS. The character of Rosie, and her entire situation, is dedicated to my friend in Pasadena. God bless her and her baby.