Chapter 8 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I was right, Paris and Billy did start going steady. The two of them, me, and Rich double dated a lot. Soon Thanksgiving was upon us. Ace, Aunt Polly, and me had a nice quiet dinner at home. Well as quiet as you can get when Ace is around. I guess it was the day after that when I noticed something was kinda strange. It was almost my time of the month, if you know what I mean. But nothing happened. I had skipped my time before, so I just chalked it up to teenage hormones. Then I got so busy planning things, I forgot about it. We were all planning to have Christmas dinner together. By "all" I mean us Merrill's, the Chambers, the Duncan's, the Tessio's, the Hogan's, the Moore's, and the Deaton's. A full house, let me tell you!!!We had planned it so every family was going to bring two or three things. Well, anyway, I guess it was, oh, about two weeks into December when I woke up sick three morning's in a row. As I sat beside the toilet on the third morning, wondering what was wrong, it hit me. "No, oh, God, no. Please not that." But I knew it was that. I was pregnant. My first thought was 'Tell Rich, he has to know.' So I made my way down to the phone and called him. He answered on the first ring. "Hello" when I heard his voice I couldn't hold back my sobs any longer. "Marti? Is that you?" he asked in confusion. I wiped way my tears. "Yeah, it's me." "Baby, why are crying? What's wrong? Tell me." "Oh, Rich I have to see you right way. Will you please come over?" "Yeah, I'll be right over." He was at the house in a matter of minutes. I was glad no one else was home. Aunt Polly was at work as usual and Ace was over at Shannon's again. I let Rich in the door, and we sat down on the couch. I started talking before he even had a chance to open his mouth. "It's terrible, so, so terrible." "What is it? What's the matter?" I looked at him. "Rich, I think I'm pregnant. His eyes got really big and he sat there, looking shocked. "But, why, how?" "Why? Because we weren't careful enough. I think you know how it happened. I mean, you were a big part of it." He smirked. "Ha, ha, real funny. You said, you think your pregnant right? Your not one hundred percent sure?" I nodded and he continued. "Well, I have a cousin over in Duron who's a doctor. We can go see him and find out for sure. God, I hope your not." "Me too. But what if I am?" he sighed. "Well, I guess we'll get married and have the baby. There's no way I'm letting you put our child up for adoption." I smiled, thinking about the two of us as parents. "When can we get into see your cousin?" I asked. "Well, let me give Daniel a call. He may be able to fit us in to day." He called his cousin and before I knew it we were on our way to Duron. When we got there Daniel gave me my examination and confirmed my suspicions. "Martina, you're about a month and a half along. I take it this wasn't a planned pregnancy, so I'm not going to tell Richards parents, or you're Aunt. I'm going to leave that up to you two." I nodded and said ok. I found Rich pacing around in the waiting room. When he seen me coming up, he ran up to me and said, "Well, are you?" I just nodded again and burst into to tears. He led me out to the car. "Honey its ok. Everything will be ok." I looked at him. "How are we gonna tell our folks?" he seemed to be in serious thought. "Well wait and tell them at the Christmas dinner. That's when we'll tell them."