Marissa walked into the lunch room at sat down at her new usual table. At Newport Union, they were not allowed to leave the premisses for lunch. Her lunch room was a large cafeteria. It had gray, rectangular tables with stools to sit on. There were three different lunch lines. The usual school lunch line. The choices in this line changed every day. Then there was the sub line, and finally there was the grill line. She had gone through the sub line, which also made salads, which is what she got. There were also three different lunches at her school to accommodate all the kids, unlike Harbor, where there was only one lunch for all the kids.

"Hey, guys," Marissa said to the other kids.

"Hey, Marissa, what's up? We were just talking about doing something after school? You want in?" Casey asked her. Marissa looked up at her. She was chewing a bite of her salad that she had gotten.

"Oh, I don't think I can today, guys," Marissa told them.

"Why not?" Casey asked. "Got plans with Newpsies?"

"Well, I wouldn't call them Newpsies, at least not yet, but uh... sort of, I mean, if Ryan counts as one," Marissa replied.

"Ryan can come. We like Ryan. I think he's cool," Casey said.

"It's not like that. He's... getting his son for the weekend, for the first time, and I thought I would go over to help out, and to make sure he doesn't kill Theresa," Marissa replied.

"Your boyfriend has a kid?" Casey asked in disbelief. "And who's Theresa, the kid's mother."

"Yeah, she is, and it's a long story," Marissa replied.

"I bet. How are you taking it?" Casey asked.

"As good as I can. I guess Ryan didn't know anything about it 'til last week either, so we are really both at the same place, emotionally," Marissa explained. She picked at her salad. Talking about this, although it was good, had made her lose her appetite.

"Well, we can do something some other time, but I'd love to meet the mini Ryan sometime. Can I come over and meet him?" Casey asked.

"Sure, I guess. I mean, probably not tonight, but maybe sometime during the weekend," Marissa told her.

"Cool," Casey said.

"Maybe you and Ryan want to catch a movie with us next week?" Jack, Casey's boyfriend, asked.

"Sure, sounds great," Marissa replied. "I'm doing something with Summer on Monday, but after that looks good."

"Cool," Casey replied.

"Can I ask you guys something?" Marissa asked.

"Sure," Jack replied.

"Do many kids have babies here?" Marissa wondered.

"Yeah, sure, plenty of kids have babies. It not uncommon here. There's like a ton of girls that are pregnant," Jack replied.

"Really, but I don't see any," Marissa said.

"You don't know that many people, so you aren't going to get all the gossip, first of all. Second of all, it's only November. Wait 'til spring. Then they'll be blooming," Casey informed her.

"Gosh, I never realized how prevalent teen pregnancy was," Marissa replied.

"Well, that's because you went to like a cult school for like forever. They would kick you out if you got pregnant," Jack said.

"True," Marissa answered. She finished her lunch silently. She wondered how that night would go.