So just a quick note, I have to change the story around a bit so I won't be uploading for about a week or two (I have school work and normal work and stuff to add in) so don't worry my princes and princesses, I have not abandoned this story.
P.S: Sorry for cliff hanger, in advance.
14: Gray Days. ((gray chapter?))
By the second week of February Mal was close to herself again as before winter break. She had managed to keep up with her schoolwork so her return to classes wasn't as bad as she thought they would be. But she did receive wild looks from her classmates. But Mal ignored them and continued her studies to stay focused. She had caught up pretty quickly in her classes too. She enjoyed being with her friends again and if she felt...weird, bad feelings...or felt a flashback was coming to her Mal would make an excuse to change subjects and focus on someone else. Usually on Evie since Evie always had a new piece of clothing she had made. It happen less now than before, but still happened.
At least Mal was back to sleeping normally. She had learned from Lonnie about meditation, something Lonnie's parents did very so often when they prayed to their ancestors. Mal meditated before bed and as soon as she woke up in the morning. It calmed her internally and emotionally. But at least she was able to sleep all night and wake up in the morning to go to the breakfast hall. Her diet had come back too, something that seemed to please a lot of people. Mal found it a tiny bit weird that everyone was obsessed with her diet but she didn't notice too much.
Mal was with Jane, Jay and Doug for a group project one afternoon. They had divided it all up; Doug do the research, Jane organize the poster boards for where the research would go, Mal did the artistic pieces that they would need and Jay...well he was suppose to be helping Doug with research, but Jay was doing his own research; fancy places to eat for Valentine's day on a small budget. Mal would usually call out Jay for his unreasonable work ethnics, but Mal was a little bit in her own world today. She rarely noticed that her paint brush went off the poster and ended up on the wall. Or that she held her small paint bucket in an angle and some of the floor became covered in pink. Jane had to wake her up three times from her daydreams to stop the paint from hitting her dress and the floor...again.
"Sorry." Mal said again. She finished working on the skyline and began to paint the second coat of the ground. She heard her stomach roar and she knew lunch time was nearing soon. She could already taste what she wanted for lunch since it's been the same for three days now. Nachos, pizza, strawberries, a peach and a glass of warm water. Not cold water, warm water. She wanted this class to end soon so that she could get to the cafeteria and eat.
Not too long after that the sound of a dog barking echoed the hallway. The teenagers turned and saw Dude running towards them...Carlos running behind him. "Dude! Dude!" The blonde boy kept running as he chased his canine friend. He saw Mal on his run and remembering the message, he pulled out a note and handed it to her quickly as he jumped over the poster boards and kept running after Dude. "Dude! Dude! Slow down! I can't catch up! Dude!"
Mal opened the note to a map and grinned.
"Ben?" Mal called out. She had followed the note's direction, from her location near the library to where Ben said to meet, and followed the route. Mal ended going into this theater that the school use for performances. There, inside, she saw on the stage was a large blanket used for picnics. There two yellow plates set up as well as blue cups and a pitcher of water centered. There was a brown basket too. Mal laughed as she walked towards the stage. "Ben?" She called out.
Out of the corner of the stage walk in Ben, holding a napkin in his arm, and smiling. Mal laughed. "What are you doing up there?"
"Ma cherie Mademoiselle. It is with deepest pride and greatest pleasure that we welcome you tonight. And now, we invite you to relax, let us pull up a chair as the dining room proudly presents—"
"You know that song of that makes no sense right now?" Mal laughed.
Ben laughed back. "You're lunch." He held his hand out as Mal climbed the stairs and brought her over to the blanket. "I thought we could celebrate this Valentine's Day week with a romantic lunch."
"Aw, no Friday dinner?" Mal asked, obviously joking.
"That's tomorrow night silly. And I have to ask you something Saturday night." Ben said as he helped her sit down. "I know you've been craving certain food so I got those for you."
"You got a burrito in there?" Mal asked. She wanted a burrito so badly right now.
"What? Oh, no I have the cheese, mayo, bacon and French fries." Ben said. "You were craving it last night in the kitchen when you were searching for the fries."
"Right. That sandwich." Mal said. She really wanted a burrito now...and a taco. And strawberries. "Smells good."
The two of them sat on the picnic blanket enjoying their little lunch together. Mal loved Valentine's Day and Ben's idea of Valentine's Day week was wonderful. Monday he made Mal a scavenger hunt list, map included, back to where their first date was to ice skate on the Enchanted Lake. (Why he didn't tell her straight forward was boring, apparently, so he made a scavenger hunt for fun). Tuesday Ben and Mal had gone stargazing at the park for a couple of hours. Wednesday he had brought her out to a movie that was playing and now this? Valentine's Day was nearing them and Mal couldn't wait for the day.
Near the end of the date Mal was laying down on Ben's lap looking up at him while Ben played with her hair, twirling it in his finger, and smiling at her. They were enjoying the moment. Ben leaned down and placed a soft kiss on the top of Mal's nose. Mal giggled. She played with a loose button on his shirt.
"Oh there you guys are." Jane's voice rang from the other side of the theater. Realizing she had ruined the moment she apologized rapidly. "Sorry!"
"No problem." Ben said as Mal sat up. "What is it, Jane?"
"My mom wants to see you guys in her office." Jane said. "Now."
"Way to ruin a date, Fairy Godmother." Mal muttered as she pushed herself off the ground.
The two walked hand-in-hand to Fairy Godmother's office at the very end of the school, at the very end of the hallway. The wooden door had gold decorations around the door and a glass doorknob. Ben knocked on the door gently then looked back at Mal, giving her a confident smile. Fairy Godmother called them inside and to shut the door behind them.
Mal had an idea what the office looked like. Lots and lots of books. True it was. "Nice office."
"Oh, thank you Mal." Fairy Godmother smiled as she sat up from her chair "I just wanted to talk to you both alone about something important."
"Yes?" Ben asked.
"I've been watching you both." She said. "I mean, I watch everyone here on campus." She laughed. "But I've kept a closer eye on the two of you mostly. I just wanted to remind you, Ben, about certain...expectations."
"Expectations?"
"Yes."
"Like what?"
"Well I know you and Mal are both young, but a lot of the royal families had married around your age before. And then not too long after that they have a child, that child of either gender is to take reign when the current one is unavailable too any longer." Fairy Godmother said. "But that was all in the past and I know that these days, things have changed. Marry young, marry old, being...sexually active before marriage." Mal and Ben both sort of blushed pink at that mention. "But there is one important factor to be brought up that never changes."
"What's that?" Mal asked.
"Your future children." Fairy Godmother said. "If you bore a child outside of marriage than that child is illegitimate to the thrown."
"Don't worry. We're going to be careful." Ben promised.
"Yeah. Besides, I can promise you that the idea of that sort of thing to make a baby...not my sort of thing." Mal said. Her stomach twisted when she said that. And she really had to use the john.
"Well just in case, I know I have a spell somewhere in this mess that it a birth control spell. When I find it I will use it on Mal. And, Ben, I do suggest you still use a 'you know what' just to be extra careful."
"I will. Thank you Fairy Godmother." Ben said, Mal nodded.
"You're welcome. Now, off to the world of learning children!" Fairy Godmother smiled.
Mal and Ben decided to skip their next class, geometry, and so sit outside to watch the snow fall. They sat on a white bench holding hands and Mal resting her head on Ben's shoulder. It was perfect and serene for them and hardly nobody else was around them. Just the two of them. Ben then suddenly laughed at an idea.
"What are you laughing at?" Mal asked him.
"Just an idea I thought of." Ben spoke up. "It's a little funny."
"What is it?"
"Well just when Fairy Godmother talked about children," Ben began. "I remember when my parent were expecting me. First off they were told I was a girl—"
"Oh a girl? So Benjamin Florian would of been—"
"Bella Fiona." Ben laughed. "Still a lot better than Mal Bertha."
"Oh shut up!" Mal laughed.
"So my parents, even before they were told the wrong gender, were excited. My mom is super nice and caring as you know, correct?" Mal nodded. "When she was pregnant with me she was kind of...evil to Dad."
"Evil?" Mal sat up.
"Well not really evil, just hard on him. She was fine the first trimester but the second and third she hated him. Her back hurt, her ankles swelled up, she complained behind closed doors, she felt fat, she hated that she waddled like a duck ((Mal laughed loudly at that part)) and she would blame dad for all of it. She told him to stay away from her and not touch her and that she would never have a child with him again if they were blessed a second time. She would take the newspaper and hit him with it."
"And this is BELLE?"
"Yes M'ame." Ben laughed. "So if a compassion and kind woman like my mother turns like that during a pregnant...what was your mom, Evie's mom, Carlos mom were like." Mal then laughed too. "What?"
"Evil times a zillion degrees more." She said. "I can guess that only though. Evie's mom only wanted one child and she was lucky to have a girl, and Carlos mom just wanted one so she was lucky to have a son—no one to take and wear her clothes—and my mom was just lucky to have a girl." Mal smiled. She then remembered her family curse and frowned. Ben obviously noticed.
"Mal? Why are you sad?"
"Oh...nothing."
"It is something. Tell me what's wrong."
"Ben? How many kids would you like to have? Be honest."
Ben though for a moment. "Realistically?"
"Yes."
"Two. Maybe three. Why? How many do you want? If you want more than that's fine and if you just want one than that's fine too."
Mal let out a haughty breathe and muttered something so precisely low it was almost a whisper. Ben looked at Mal confused and asked her to repeat herself. A tad bit lighter Mal said, "I just get one."
"You want one? Okay," Ben grinned. "Fine is perfectly fine." Mal glared at him. "Okay, we'll find out how to have a girl if that's what you want. I doubt you can decide what you want." Mal kept glaring at him with the same expression. "Am I missing something?"
Mal groaned. Might as well tell him now. "You wanna hear a story?"
"Oh, sure." Ben said.
Mal told him the story of her thirty-fifth great grandmother and how that woman did stupid things to get a second child for free, thus causing Mal's family to only be blessed with one child only. The first time she told this story to someone, minus Evie who was the first overall to know about this curse, was to that bastard. It hurt to even tell the story for a friend or a stranger, but with Ben it hurt a million times more. By the end Mal was almost in tears. "And because of that stupid bitch, I can only have one child! I mean sure back in the past I use to think I'd end up having no kid or adopt a kid, but now that I'm with you I just realized that I care more. I do care."
Ben pulled Mal into a deep embrace, rubbing her back as Mal's tear rolled down her face. Ben rubbed her back in small circles and soothed her, rocking her in his arms. "It's okay Mal." He whispered. "It's okay." Mal sobbed a tiny bit. "Don't cry...I know this isn't your fault." Ben kept cuddling and reassuring the sad girl. "Please stop crying." Ben whispered in her ear. "Please stop."
Mal stopped crying although she was still upset. The whole thing just sucked to be honest. She sat up and wiped off her tears.
"Feel better?" Ben asked, helping to wipe off her tears.
Mal nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine." She said. "I just sucks that I can only have one. I'd like to have two so that they have a sibling to play with."
"I know. I wished my parents had a sibling for me too. But hey, they've always got our friends children as their siblings."
"That's true." Mal smiled.
A couple of hours later the two teenagers arrived back onto the campus and inside of the building walking towards the dining hall for dinner. Mal's stomach began to turn and twist like she was going to vomit soon but at the same time she didn't feel like she was going to vomit either. Her head began to hurt a little bit and she felt sweaty allover. Just eat the dinner, skip dessert and go straight to bed. She'll just wake up early and do her homework then. No problem.
As soon as the two of them entered the dining hall, Mall barfed all over the floor, and on her shirt and pants, with all eyes landing on her. She turned bright red in embarrassment before feeling soft hands land on her. "Well you're a mess." Evie said. "Let's go to the bathroom and clean you up."
Evie brought Mal to the further girls bathroom they could find and walked inside. Evie took paper towels, soaked them under the running sink water, then handed some to Mal and helped her clean up. "Thanks E."
"No problem M." Evie smile. "So, I have to ask you something."
"No Ben and I were not making out."
"Funny. Not that." Evie said. "Do you have a tampon on you? I feel it coming and I don't have any on me. But since you are always a week to three days earlier than me, I know you have one if you have it on you."
"Sure." Mal said as she reached into her bag, opened a new box that rested in there and pulled one out for Evie as she finished up her pants leg. Mal held the tampon in her hand...then stared at it. Wait a second. She had to open a new box? Shouldn't the box be opened by now? Mal checked inside the box again and counted the total inside the box, plus the one in her hand, and she counted enough to know that she had not opened this box earlier. Why did that feel so strange?
The girls finished cleaning up. Mal made an excuse to go back to their room and change into something that didn't smell like acid and throw up. Mal jogged to the room once she knew she was out of Evie's sight.
Mal ran inside and immediately dug around in one bag that held all of her feminine bathroom materials. She found the old box and counted. If she was correct (and she hoped she was wrong) the last time she counted how many she had left, she had eleven in total left. She dumped them onto the floor and counted them by twos. Five sets plus an extra. Eleven. Impossible. She had to of had it recently, right? Damn it, why couldn't she remember? Oh, wait, her little diary she kept inside. Mal dug inside some more and found her little diary with calender dates inside. She opened up to January and looked for the little mark she made to tell the day she had it.
Blank.
She went to December and looked for the dot that would tell her when she got hers that month. She saw that she got hers on the fifth, marked with a circle, then saw her mark for the ending date; a smiley face. The smiley face appeared on 13. Sounds about right for Mal. But why was January blank? It was February now. Mal sat down on the ground and wondered. Maybe her body was going through another (horrible) teenage change? What the hell was left to change in this body? She sat there and pondered all the idea. If she remembered correctly, as an idea emerged, someone from back on the isle said their own periods were never exact. One month she'd get it at the beginning then the next she'd get it at the end, or she'd get it for a whole month. (Shit, that had to kill for that one girl). Maybe Mal was being one of those girls now with expecting periods.
Her stomached roared for a second time. "Stupid stomach. You're always hungry." Mal said. She rubbed her stomach with a hand...then she slowed the pace down. One idea came to mind. "No." She said. "No! No! No! No! No!" Mal threw her hands to her head and leaned back, laying flat on the ground. "No! No! No! No! No! It's not that! It's anything but that! Please, no!" Mal held back some of the tears, but some slipped.
She couldn't be pregnant. She just couldn't. If she was pregnant, she knew who the father was. Oh crap! Why!? "Damn it!" Mal yelled. She laid there for five minutes before getting up and cleaning up her half of the room. She took her jacket, scarf, wallet, a bag that Evie had designed, a large bottle of water that belonged to Evie, a hat and sunglasses. She had to go to a store. Now!
Two hours later Mal made it back to the school. She worried the entire time to the store about two things; being caught by someone and the newspaper find out, and finding out she was positive with that bastards baby. After successfully buying ten of them (she wanted to be sure) Mal walked back to the campus chugging down the water.
At the campus Mal found a single toilet room with just a toilet, sink and mirror for one person and went inside. She pulled her pants down and she read the directions on the box. She had to time it all out so that she didn't urinate too much on one stick or whatever. Within minutes Mal was finding out her future on these sticks. The boxes said to wait five minutes. Mal put her alarm on to go off in ten minutes so that all the sticks were ready to read.
She waited. She panicked. She bit her fingernails.
The alarm went off.
Mal looked over the toilet seat and looked at the tests...