Chapter Nine- Just another manic Monday

Emma leaned in and kissed him as she smirked.

"What?" he mumbled as he pulled back.

"You taste like syrup," she teased.

He had come over that morning to give her a ride to school and she had been eating her waffles. He stole one and now she wasn't going to let him forget it.

He rolled his eyes and stopped the car as she looked around.

"Couldn't find a spot further away huh?" she asked teasingly yet confused.

He shrugged. "Need the exercise," he said as he got out.

She shot him a look. Jay Hogart saying he needed exercise? Uhh…who was this guy and what did he do with her boyfriend? She pulled on her bag and chased after him for an explanation.

"Excuse me?"

He lit up a cigarette and turned to her. "What?" he asked innocently.

She made a face. "You know I don't like it when you smoke," she said quietly.

Jay just shrugged. "So walk away?"

"What is wrong with you?"

He sighed and turned to face the blonde, one hand on her hip with a look of pure exasperation on her face.

"What are you talking about?" Play it dumb. Yeah, that was the road to go.

"Oh I think you know. First you kiss me and then you act like I'm a disease!"

He arched an eyebrow at her. "I'm not treating you like you're a disease…"

"Exercise? Bullshit Jay ok? Bullshit. And smoking in front of me? When I'm pregnant with your kid? Smooth Hogart, really. A for effort," she snapped as she stalked past him.

"Emma!" he called after her.

She just waved a hand in the air behind her without turning around. "Don't even bother. Talk to me when you've grown up."

He rolled his eyes at her and took a drag off his cigarette. Count on her to blow things way the hell out of proportion. And now since he knocked her up…she was just going to get bitchier and bitchier.

"Fucking women," he muttered to himself as he started to walk towards the school.


"Where's Jay?" Ellie asked as she approached her friend at her locker. Emma shrugged bitterly.

"Smoking, being an asshole…take your pick."

"What happened?" Ellie rolled her eyes.

"Nothing. Jay's just…being Jay. But I guess I have to get used to it right?"

"Or he could," her friend pointed out.

Emma looked at her. "What do you mean?"

"Why should you get used to him? I mean he's the one that knocked you up, said he loved you, wants to spend the night at your place…I say he should get used to you," Ellie said shrugging.

"Who should do what?" Manny asked as she approached putting on her lip gloss as she did.

"Jay needs to get his head out of his ass," the red head filled the other girl in.

"Ok…."

Emma rolled her eyes and shook her head, blonde hair flying. "Don't ask. Please…just don't ask."

The three girls tittered a little bit at that as a shadow started to from over he locker. From the form of it, slim figure, hair down, hand on hip, sneakers, Emma knew exactly who it was. "Didn't know Satan had shadows," she mumbled before she turned around.

"Excuse you?" Alex said rudely.

"If I wanted you to hear it, I would have said it louder," Emma said bluntly.

"And if I wanted you to fuck my boyfriend, I would have just thrown him at you. We all do things we shouldn't," Alex said smiling sweetly yet jabbing at the blonde.

"I can't tell you how much I love these little chats that we have but is there a point to all this?" Emma asked as she shut her locker and leaned against glancing at her two friends.

"Nope. Just wanted to make sure you know you're still a slut, a fucking fat one at that too," she smirked as she glanced at her protruding stomach before stalking off.

"Lame?" Manny asked as she raised her eyebrow.

"Lame," Ellie replied rolling her eyes.

The three girls walked into their classroom and settled down in their seats, Emma turned to ignore Jay who was glaring at her. JT and Liberty came in holding hands as usual and sat down in front of her. Liberty tossed her brown hair over her shoulder and turned to her old friend.

"Hey Em, not to be rude or anything…"

"What Liberty?" she groaned.

"Well, you know Raditch won't let you stay here once everyone knows you're pregnant. I mean well, everyone already knows…but now that you're starting to show…"

"It's not that bad," Ellie said trying to reassure Emma who was looking down at her desk.

"Au contraire. I, and many other people, could tell that she's….larger than usual," Liberty said glancing at her stomach.

"Why are you doing this?" Manny asked.

"Because it's the rules."

"Riiight. Well how come when I got pregnant, you didn't do this shit?" she leaned forward on her desk waiting for answer.

"Nobody knew….plus let's face it Manny. We knew you wouldn't go through with it," she said turning around obviously ending the conversation.

Manny jumped up at that remark and was about to round the desk to have some serious face time with her old friend with Mrs. Kwan walked in.

"Manny take your seat please," she said motioning toward the chair that was pushed back about five feet.

"Oh my God this is so not over," Manny growled under her breath.

"Just ignore it."

"Em! She's going to get you kicked out of this school! I'm not going to just sit here and watch you go because you're pregnant!"

"Well it's my own fault right?" Emma said rhetorically as she looked down at the paper on her desk.

"No!" Manny cried.

Mrs. Kwan looked up at her sharply and Manny ducked her head. "It's not just you hun. Jay had a major part in it as well."

Emma snuck a glance at him to find him leaning his chair back against the wall and sleeping.

"Oh yeah, there's a keeper," she smirked.

Manny just looked at her. "You love him."

"That's the problem," Emma rolled her eyes with a smile


"So why aren't you hanging all over little Ms. Do-Good? I mean you are together…" Alex said as she plopped down next to him at lunch.

He looked over at her through his sunglasses and snorted. "And why aren't you fucking my best friend? I mean since that's what you do best…"

She just rolled her eyes. "Jay come on. We're too old for this shit."

"We're 17 Alex."

"Exactly. We're going to be graduating…you're going to be…..a father…."

"Do you have a point or do you just like hearing yourself talk?" he asked bluntly.

"I want to be friends."

"And I want to date Britney Spears but you don't see that happening," he laughed out loud.

She punched his arm. "Seriously Jay!"

He looked around and sighed. "Why? After all the shit that happened this year, why?"

"I dunno. I mean you were always the one guy that I could count on…"

He got up suddenly. "Save your shit Alex. I've heard it way too much," he said as he started to walk away.

"Ask yourself this; if I'm going out with Emma Nelson, then why is Emma hanging out an awful lot with Craig Manning?" she smirked.

"Because for some Godforsaken reason they're friends. What else?" he asked boredly.

Alex kept her mouth shut for once and said nothing. "Great, glad to hear it," Jay snapped at her and walked off. Emma and Craig. Whatever. They were just friends…hell they grew up together. It was natural for them to hang out…


"So do you know what you're having?"

Emma shook her head.

"You knew and you didn't say anything?" Manny yelled at her.

The others around her winced at her volume but looked at Emma for an answer. "I just wanted to surprise you guys."

"Great. We're surprised. Now it's time for this…" Craig said pulling out a book.

Manny rolled her eyes. "Oh great. The infamous baby book. Make sure Ashley isn't around…"

Craig just rolled his eyes and tugged on her arm for her to sit down.

"Alright so what is it?"

Emma just smiled. "It's a girl."

"Oh my God! You're having a girl! That's awesome," Manny cheered.

Even Ellie looked happy. "I would hug you…but you know…"

"Right. You have this weird aversion to it," Emma nodded jokingly.

"Moving right along," Craig said opening the book to a random letter. "How do you feel about…Sunshine?" he laughed.

"I am not naming my daughter Sunshine!" Emma laughed.

"Daisey?"

"Barbie?" Ellie joked.

Emma swatted at her friend. "Seriously guys! We need a good name."

"I got it," Craig spoke up.

The all looked at him expectantly. "Darlene."

Manny and Ellie started cracking up and Emma just stared at him. "Darlene?" she asked wondering if he was serious or not.

He stood up and walked over to her. "Yes Darlene. You love that name don't you little one? We can call you Dar-Dar for short," he was now cooing at her stomach with his hand over it.

"Jar Jar Binx!" the two other girls nearly fell off the bench from laughing so hard and Emma was trying hard not to.

"Craig…." Emma was trying to say something but was just talking away and calling it Dar Dar which eventually made Emma join the other two and start laughing.

Jay stood in the doorway watching them all laugh as Craig caressed Emma's stomach. His Emma. His baby. Craig Manning was touching his child. To hell with all this. If she was going to let Craig touch her…maybe he should let him as well. As he turned to leave he caught site of the baby book on the table. They were picking out baby names. Emma hadn't even told him yet what they were having and they were picking out baby names. Wasn't that something that THEY should be doing? Together? Yet here he was by the door, left out of everything; including what's going on with his child.