Sharon walked inside the school building. She still had the morning sickness but she really needed to talk to Alden, so she told her mom that she was feeling well enough to go to school. She walked around the hall and tried to find Alden. She finally saw him standing by his locker and talking to his best friend, Brock Leighton. When Brock left, Sharon walked up to Alden and surprised him by kissing him on the cheek.

Alden turned around to see who this mysterious kisser was. "Hey Sharon!" He exclaimed as he hugged and kissed his girlfriend. "Are you feeling better now?"

"Um... no... not really."

"Oh... but you came to school today. That has to be a good sign, right?"

Sharon sighed. She knew she couldn't tell Alden right here, with everyone in the entire school listening. She had to talk about it with him alone.

"Listen" She said "I really need to talk to you about something. But I can't do it right now. Not here. Can we meet at the park after school lets out?"

"Okay, sure." Alden looked at Sharon, his blue eyes filled with concern "Are you all right?"

"No, not really. But don't worry about that right now. Just try to get through school today and we'll talk later."

"Okay..."

The bell rang and Alden and Sharon walked to home room together. Alden looked at Sharon one last time before walking into the classroom. He knew it was not going to be easy trying not to worry about her all day.


Sharon looked at her watch as she sat through her last class of the day. It was 2:45. In about 15 minutes, school would let out and she would be meeting Alden at the park to tell him what she was dreading telling him. Sharon sighed. This had to be one of the longest days ever. She could not pay attention at all in any of her classes. All she kept thinking about was how Alden was going to take the news and about how she was going to break the news to her mom later that night. She was definitely not look forward to it.

A few of Sharon's teachers had noticed how distracted she was and asked her if she was okay. She told them that she was fine, she was just still feeling a little sick.. Technically that was true since she still had morning sickness and kept going to the bathroom to throw up between her classes. Some of the teachers asked her if she wanted to go home and rest, but Sharon assured them that she was fine and would make it through the day. She also had to keep reassuring Alden that she was okay. It was so sweet the way he was worrying about her like that. Maybe he would react to Sharon's news pretty well after all.

Sharon's last class had finally let out. She noticed this when she saw everybody else getting up and leaving. She went to get a few things from her locker and then started to walk to the park. When she got there, she sat down on the bench and waited for Alden. When Alden arrived, he kissed Sharon and sat down next to her on the bench. He finally spoke up.

"So... what did you want to talk to me about?"

"I have to tell you something. Something very important... and its not going to be easy."

"Come on, babe. You know you can tell me anything."

"Okay." Sharon took a deep breath as she prepared to break the news "I'm pregnant."

"WHAT?"

"I'm pregnant."

"But... how? Well, I mean... I know how, but... shit..." Alden sighed as he ran a hand through his brown hair.

Sharon looked down as she felt tears spring to her eyes. "Listen, if you decide to break up with me because of this, I will understand." She started crying a little harder.

Alden hugged her tight. "Sharon, I am not going to break up with you now! Do you really think I'm the kind of guy who would get a girl pregnant and then abandon her? I thought you knew me better than that..."

Sharon hugged Alden even tighter and cried so hard that she didn't think she would be able to stop. "Alden, I am so sorry! I don't why I thought that! I'm just so scared right now. I'm really, really scared and I don't know what to do."

After breaking away from the hug, Alden looked into Sharon's tear-filled green eyes, which were now red and puffy from crying. A wave of uneasiness washed over him. He hasn't seen Sharon cry this hard since he had dumped her back in the ninth grade. He now realized that he was a complete and total idiot for ever dumping somebody wonderful as Sharon in the first place. This was the girl that he ended up losing his virginity to... and now she was pregnant with his child. He couldn't believe it. They were so young. After a few minutes of silence, Alden spoke up.

"Hey, listen. I just want to let you know that I'm going to support you in whatever you decide to do."

"Really? So... if I decide to have an abortion, you won't think I'm a horrible person?"

"Absolutely not. Its your body."

"I don't think I can do that anyway."

"Okay, that's fine. If you decide to keep the baby, I will help you take care of him or her whenever I can. But I won't let you go through this alone, no matter what."

Sharon smiled slightly through her tears. "Thanks Alden. That really means a lot to me. So I guess the next step is trying to figure out how to tell our families."

Alden hugged Sharon once again "Don't worry, we'll figure it out together. We'll figure all of this out. Everything is going to be okay."

The teenage couple continued to hug for a long time, keeping each other warm through the cold December air in Elkford.