Chapter Seven

A Select Few

Conner woke up early on Friday morning, still in Elizabeth's bed.

They'd talked until almost midnight, talking about the future. He'd fallen

asleep with Elizabeth in his arms. For a moment, he considered going

back to sleep, but decided against. It wasn't a school morning, they had

they day off because of teacher workshops. Not that he was complaining.

Trying to be silent, Conner began to get up, but he caused the bed to

squeak. Elizabeth woke up, and looked at him sleepily. "Good morning,"

she said, half muttering. Conner leaned in and gave her a soft kiss.

"Do you feel better this morning then you did yesterday?"

Elizabeth nodded, and sat up. "I don't have morning sickness, thank God."

Conner nodded, and got off her bed. He offered her a hand. "Want to go

and get some breakfast? I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

"I'm pretty hungry, too." Elizabeth leaned against Conner, and he

wrapped an arm around her waist.

A few minutes later, Elizabeth and Conner appeared in the kitchen,

surprised to see Mrs. Sandborn already in there, banging around pots and pans.

"Good morning, kids!" She greeted them cheerfully. "Do you want some

breakfast? I was making Megan and I some pancakes. I'd be glad to make you some too."

Conner smiled. "Fine with me. Liz?"

Elizabeth smiled. "That sounds great. Thanks Mrs. Sandborn."

"You're welcome, Liz." Mrs. Sandborn said, smiling back. "Also, I

talked to your mom last night, and let her know that it's fine for you to

stay over here for as long as you need."

"You don't know how much I appreciate you letting me stay here."

Elizabeth said quietly. "Did she mention anything about my dad?"

Mrs. Sandborn nodded. "I'm afraid that he's still very angry. You're

mom's been trying to talk to him about it, but he's doesn't want to

listen." Elizabeth's face fell, and Mrs. Sandborn nodded sympathetically.

"I'm sorry."

Elizabeth shook her head. "You don't need to be. After all, he has the right to be mad at

me."

"Well, I feel bad that this is happening to you. But let's drop the

subject for now, okay?" She smiled. "What's done is done, and it's in the past."

***************************************************************

Jessica pulled down the hem slightly of her short, baby blue dress and

cocked her head slightly so she could see her reflection on the glass

on Jeremy's front door. She looked great. She rang the doorbell.

Since they both had the day off from school, Jessica had decided to go

over to Jeremy's house that morning and surprise him with breakfast.

He'd mentioned the night before that Emma and Trisha were sleeping over

at his grandparents, and his parents were visiting some friends in San

Francisco. So she'd picked up food at the bakery nearby and driven over to his house.

Jeremy answered the door, looking like he'd just rolled out of bed. His

hair stuck up on one side, and he was wearing boxers and a wrinkled tee

shirt. He looked around for a minute, and his eyes lit up when he

focused on her. "Jessica!" he exclaimed, smiling. "What are you doing here?"

Jessica smiled. "Bringing my man breakfast." She held up the bakery bag as proof.

"Come on in. Nobody's home, and I just got up."

Jessica walked in, and looked him over. "The just getting up part was apparent."

Jeremy laughed as they walked into the kitchen. He moved over to the

cabinet, and took out two plates as Jessica unloaded the bag's contents.

Jessica looked at him from the side studying his face. "Okay, come over

here. I want to see how bad the damage is."

Jeremy obeyed, and bent his head down. Jessica looked it over. He had a

bad bruise running across the left side of his jaw, and a black eye

bruised a purplish black. The cut on his cheek was starting to scab, and

it formed a long jagged line. His lip was slightly swollen. "You poor

thing." Jessica gave him a little frown. "I don't like my man to get all beaten up."

Jeremy laughed. "Really, it's not as bad as it looks. It barely hurts."

Jessica smiled, and gave him a quick kiss. "Okay, you're going to be

fine, so let's eat. I'm starving." She sat down at the counter, and

Jeremy sat down next to her. He grabbed a bagel and began to drown it in cream cheese.

"Jess, I do have one question. Did you come straight home from work

last night? Because I called when I got home, and your mom said you weren't there."

Jessica grabbed a muffin and gave an absent-minded answer. "Oh, I went

over to Conner's house to check on Liz." At that moment, she realized what she'd said.

Jeremy frown. "Wait a second, I thought that you said your sister was sick yesterday."

Jessica grimaced. Might as well tell him the story, he'd find out soon

enough. "Actually, Elizabeth's living over there for awhile. Um, it

turns out that she's pregnant." Seeing the shocked look on Jeremy's face,

she rushed on. "And when dad found out, he kicked her out of the house.

So she's staying with Conner's family for awhile."

"What? Are you kidding me or something?"

"No, dead serious. It was an accident, and I know Liz is really upset about it."

Jeremy shook his head. "Whoa. That's big news. I wasn't expecting something like that."

Jessica nodded. "Liz told me not to tell anyone, so please don't. I

wasn't supposed to tell you. Only a select few know about it."

Jeremy grinned. "Tell me what?"

Conner crossed the bathroom into Elizabeth's room. He'd heard her get

out of the shower about ten minutes before, and hoped she was in the mood to talk.

"Hey baby." He greeted her, moving across the room where she was

brushing out her damp blond hair. Elizabeth turned around and gave him a genuine smile.

"Hey yourself." she gave him a kiss. "So, what's up?"

"Nothing, really, I just wanted to talk." Conner said, sitting down on

her bed. "I forgot to mention it last night, but I told Tia what was happening. I hope that you

don't mind."

Elizabeth shook her head, and gathered her hair in a clip. She turned

to face Conner. "That's one less person that I have to tell."

Conner nodded. "What about everyone else? When are we going to inform them?"

Elizabeth bit her lip, and looked away for a second. "I'm not sure."

"Well, they'll know eventually, as soon as you start gaining weight."

Elizabeth frowned. "I know. But I think that our friends deserve a little more than that."

Conner sighed. "I know. It's just I don't really want to have to deal

with it. It just makes it seem too real."

"Well, it is real, and it's our future, so we're going to have to take care of it." Elizabeth

said softly.

Conner nodded. "Of course I know that. It's just it's pretty big news.

Not something that we can just yell out over the lunch table."

Elizabeth laughed. "Yeah, that's the best approach." Conner smiled.

"Anyway, I'll probably need to go over to Tia's sometimes today. Tia,

Maria and I need to work on our French project."

*********************************************************************

That afternoon, Elizabeth walked up Tia's driveway, and up the front

step. The door swung open before Elizabeth even rang the doorbell. "Hi

Liz. Let's go up to my room. Maria just called and said she'd be a few minutes late."

"Okay." She followed Tia as she bounced down the hall towards her room.

Once there, she shut the door, crossed the room, and plopped down on

her bed. "Conner told me what's going on. It's too bad."

Elizabeth gave Tia a small smile, and sat down next to her. "You're one

of a select few to know."

"Are you mad at Conner for telling?"

Elizabeth shook her head. "One less person for me to tell. I'm sure

everyone will find out soon enough."

Tia nodded. "It's a shock. I barely believed him at first."

"Funny, that's been a lot of people's reactions."

Tia smiled. "How long have you known?"

"Only since Tuesday, so not that long. I'm about four weeks along."

Elizabeth said, anticipating that would have been her next question.

"Do you know what you're going to do yet."

Elizabeth paused, not knowing whether she should tell what they were

thinking about. "Well, I think we might end up keeping the baby."

Tia nodded. "That sounds like a good idea. But it's still hard to

believe that you're pregnant…" Tia's voice trailed off, her eyes glued on

the door.

Elizabeth looked up. Maria was leaning against the door frame, eyes

wide, mouth gaping in shock. "You're pregnant?"