"Moooom," began Nora, through a mouthful of meatloaf, "what are we going to tell everybody?"
"How d'you mean?"
"We can't tell them I'm I'll forever, can we? I'll start to show soon."
Kate contemplated this a little.
"We're gonna have to tell them the truth, aren't we?"
"What, even about Hank?"
"Well... yes. Have you even spoken to Hank, Nora?"
"Uuuuuh, yeah! Sort of! Well, not really... no."
"Oh, Nora! You really have to. C'mon honey, go now!"
"Now?"
"Now. At least it will be all over and done with, right?"
Nora pulled her faux fur jacket reluctantly over her shoulders.
"Right," she sighed, as she slunk out of the door.
"Hey."
"Hey, said Hank, looking up from his guitar. "You OK? What you doing here?"
"I've, I've got something kinda... important, to tell you."
"Oh," moaned Hank, "don't worry honey, I know about the new Tommy Max ad being cut. It's OK, I'm getting over it, slowly."
"NO, Hank!" snapped Nora, "this is something much more important! More than any stupid commercial! I-"
"What?" persisted Hank, "what?"
"Hank," began Nora, grasping all her courage between her teeth, "I'm pregnant."
After a very, very long silence, Hank finally spoke.
"Oh... God," he breathed.
"Hank," Nora said, firmly, "I know that you value you your party lifestyle, and don't think I don't value my independence, and I did NOT want to get pregnant, especially by you, but I need to know whether you are in the least bit interested in being around for this kid, alright?"
"Right," croaked Hank, staring at his guitar. "Right. Well, Nora, this is all, kinda, y'know, WEIRD for me, and –"
"Oh, so it's not weird for ME?"
"I'm not saying that, babe, calm down. I just, I just, I just don't know what to say, you get me?"
"Hank, I need to know! I'm not saying you have to be with me and look after it all day, I just want to know if this kid can have someone called 'Daddy' that it can go and visit from time to time? Hank?"
Nora looked at Hank, pleadingly, and he melted.
"Nora, I'll be there. Right? Now you know, I'll be there. If I've got a kid, I can't, can't, y'know, escape that, and-"
Nora saw tears in Hank's eyes, for the first time since he got the bill for the paint job that the garage had presented him with after a certain disastrous visit to the Baker house.
"C'mere," she whispered, and hugged him again. "Listen, I gotta, um, go, but I'll get back to you on this, obviously. OK, see you."
Nora walked out of the apartment, into the elevator, then out into the street. For some reason, she felt totally liberated, despite being unable to get her head around the fact that she was with child. In a childish way, she couldn't wait to tell Kate what had happened.
Nora came back in the door quietly. Kate rushed over to her.
"How d'it go?"
"He was great," Nora answered quietly, unable to hide a smile, "for him. He said he'd be there."
"Well, that really is good, sweetie. Just be careful, you know what he's like."
"Yeah, I know. I'm just happy, I expected him to look at me as though I was some kinda untouchable and throw me out of the flat."
Kate smiled.
"You're lucky, then."
"Suppose I am."
"I think they're OK."
"They are not! The girl's a bitch and the boy's a bastard, Mark!"
"Sarah, that is so harsh!" replied Mark. The latest debate was about the pleasantness of Simon and Stephanie. Sarah was in favour of the motion to ignore them.
"If we're nasty to them, they'll be fifty times worse to us. They look like they could be pretty frosty, what's the point? We'll lose!"
"Whatever," Sarah muttered.
"Hey," Kim put in, passing, "have you noticed that their Dad's at work for days on end, and their Mom's never in, always shopping? I reckon that's why they're like that."
"Just because you have parents that ignore you and leave you to fend for yourself, doesn't mean you have to be a little smartmouthed brat!"
"They can't help being clever!"
It was true, Simon and Stephanie were, in fact, just as clever as Jessica and Kim, whose brains were legendary in the Baker household.
"Yeah, well, you'd know all about being know-it-alls," replied Sarah. Kim glared.
"Could we just change the subject?" she asked.
"Motion carried," Mark laughed, sensing that generally most of them agreed with Kim.
"Hank got Nora pregnant?" gasped Jessica, incredulously.
"Um, yes."
"Argh, that's... urgh!"
"Mike," warned Tom, "don't be like that!"
"A baby doorknob," Lorraine said, "we could use it for one of Jessica's old Barbie houses!"
"That's not funny," hissed Nora.
"Witty for Lorraine, though," laughed Henry.
"When are they gonna grow up, Mom?" squealed Nora, storming out angrily. The others looked around, guiltily.
"See," seethed Tom (still secretly shocked and angry himself), "now look what you've all done!"
"Kids, come on, just go through and, play, or something, this isn't the time to play up your father or me."
They all obeyed, reeling from the news...
Right, thought Sarah, pulling on another outfit of her sisters' that she had smuggled from the clean washing. It was half past ten, and she was meeting Alex in 15 minutes. She puffed out her chest, and tried to fill herself with confidence. She was furious with herself when it wasn't working. "What is wrong with me?", she hissed to herself, before sneaking out of her room, being careful to be extra quiet outside Jake's part of the corridor, and lowering herself out of the window. Before long, she was at Alex's house. Her head was in a complete spin, but she just managed to get a really good look at the house. It was quite big, about a quarter of the size of the Baker house.
"Hi," Alex said, as he opened the door.
"Hey," Sarah replied.
"Come in," Alex replied, smiling smarmily.
"Uh, sure."
"You wanna come upstairs?"
'Oh God oh God oh God!' thought Sarah, 'Now what?' Yet all she could come up with was:
"Yeah, OK."
And before she knew it, she was upstairs, sitting on the wooden chair next to his bed.
"What do you wanna do?"
"I dunno, talk?" she suggested naively.
"Yeah, OK. But I've got something much better in mind..."
Alex's face closed in as he came in for the kill. Sarah nudged him away.
"No, Alex," she mumbled, "please, not now."
"Come on," he rasped, cupping a hand under her small breast. She pushed his hand away.
"Alex!" she snapped, "It's way too soon, you can't expect this of me. This isn't going to be right!"
"Oh stuff right, Sarah! Don't tell me you haven't been thinking about getting your leg over."
Alex was, in a sense, right. Since she had started going out with him, she had been vaguely wondering about how fast things would go. But this was getting out of hand. Alex started fiddling with her buttons, his short blondish-brown hair getting sweaty with excitement.
"No, Alex. No."
Alex looked at Sarah hungrily.
"You frigid little cow. Is this deliberate or something. Just leading me on and throwing me back when it gets too scary for the silly little girl?"
Sarah was horrified.
"What do you mean? You were moving way too fast! I just didn't wanna, you know, do that with you."
Alex's face was red with fury, and, noting this, Sarah edged against the wall.
"Get out."
"What?"
Alex glared wildly at Sarah and swung his hand through the air, then slapped her face, hard.
"OW!" she yelled, tears filling up her eyes.
"You heard," he snarled, "get out of my sight. Get out of the house! I don't wanna see you again, you stupid little brat. I mean, what did I ever see in you? You don't have any tits, you don't have many friends, and you're only interested in yourself! I could kill you!"
Sarah got up and edged towards the door, tears streaming down her face.
"OUT!" he bellowed, jabbing her in the back. Sarah did not need telling again. She flew down the stairs, out of the cream front hall and out of the door, where she began walking briskly, and brushing the endless stream of tears off her face, she knew she had no choice but to go home.
Meanwhile, at the Baker house, Jake had indeed noticed that Sarah was missing. Tearing angrily at his hair, and cursing to himself under his breath, he worried more than ever about his sister, where she was, whether or not she was alright. He'd kill her when she got home...
About 2 blocks from home, Sarah sat down on a wall and cried her eyes out. Why? she thought, What did I do that was so terrible, and how am I self-centred in any way? Why did he hit me? The questions whizzed around Sarah's head in a blur, and more and more tears streamed down he face. She got up giddily, and continued home, not thinking, not knowing, how she'd get in and what she'd do when she got there...
There it was. It loomed up above her, same as ever, yet for some reason, this starry night, it looked different, in an unexplainable way. Shakily, Sarah slunk round the back, onto the tallest trash can, and yanked herself through the window. When she got up into the corridor, she stood still by her bedroom door. Jake was standing there, with no expression on his haggard face but sorrow, from seeing her distraught, tear-stained and bruised face. Sarah suddenly realised what she had done to her brother, what had happened to her, and broke down, sobbing, running into Jake's arms. Jake squeezed her tight, and neither or them said anything. No words were needed, both of them understood well enough.
"Sarah, sssh, c'mon," Jake whispered, worried that a parent or another sibling would hear them, "let's go to my room."
Sarah nodded, and as floppily as a cloth doll, allowed herself to be led into her brother's room...
It was 7 o'clock in the morning, and it had been a long night for Jake and Sarah. After both of them had calmed down, Jake wanted an explanation, and Sarah, after a little persuasion, gave him a very detailed one, through her tears. His fury grew with every word she uttered, and inside he swore bitter revenge on the unspeakable bastard who had treated his sister like this. Around one o'clock in the morning, Mark and Kim had woken up, overhearing a little of the conversation, and had come through to Jake's room. They were all up talking for a good deal of the early hours, comforting Sarah, and working out what to do, and had consequently all fallen huddled up to each other. When Tom and Kate came in in the morning after they couldn't find Sarah, Kim or Mark, their anger and worry melted. It looked like one of those adorable family paintings, and they fetched the rest of the family to see, cue a good deal of 'Awww's and 'Sweeeet's.
Now everybody was at breakfast, Sarah feeling a good deal better.
"Who wants Mike's waffle, guys?" Tom called.
"Why don't you want to eat, honey? Are you feeling OK? Have you taken your medicine?" Kate enquired anxiously.
"Yeah, I took it," he grumbled, a little red in the face, "and I'm fine, just lay off, Mom!"
Kate muttered something about the teenage years coming early to Mike and walked off, brandishing his adjourned waffle.
A little while later, the Bakers all went to school, and everything was peaceful, the drama over. At least until that very evening...