(Adele - Someone Like You)
"He cannot remove your scholarship and any claim to the contrary is false and without foundation, however, should you feel unable to fully commit to the duration of your studies in light of your.. recent development Ms. MacKenzie, it may be prudent of you to withdraw at this time and allow allocation of that funding to benefit another student who isn't in such a medically compromised position," Professor Stevens had advised her.
Pregnancy could take its toll on even the most promising students, he'd apparently seen it all before, and he advised that she should start contacting women's aid charities and looking into her long term housing situation in case her parents didn't take it well. The whole thing made her feel belittled.
They couldn't have been more apologetic or reassuring but the gesture made her feel like they were already writing her off and getting ready to clear out her things for the next student.
So much for pastoral care.
Mac had been informed by the resident R.A. Courtney that due to the recent incident at Hearst involving a student slipping an abortion drug into her roommates tea, until she had made her choice over what to do next, that she was being removed from the dormitory for her 'safety' and put up in a hotel for the next few nights. They had been very implicit in making sure this had nothing to do with the campus assaults by student radio DJ Mercer and his accomplice. Parker had text to tell her she'd been informed to attend a mandatory counseling session and sign a waiver with them promising not to turn into a baby killer.
Hearst Administration was also pretty adamant that they should contact her parents, which because she was over 18, they could not do without her consent. She had refused.
"Labor should be painless because Jesus died and erased the 'pain during childbirth' penalty women got from Eve, so if you feel pain, it's because you don't believe in Jesus." Lola the Hearst counseling volunteer told Mac enthusiastically while they sat at dinner discussing her options.
Mac cursed her luck at being trapped here with no exit strategy. Seems Lola took her counselling duties to the extreme and was insistent on not leaving her side until she was settled in at the Sea Sprite Motel.
Veronica had offered to ask her father's friend Cliff McCormack to do some pro bono work reviewing the NDA and legal documents that the courier had given her that morning. She'd also offered to have Sheriff Keith Mars raid the nearest fraternity party where no doubt her newly single ex was probably having a tinder party swiping right on everything willing with boobs, and haul her baby daddy off to the drunk tank to cool off for a few days. It was tempting, but she wasn't the vindictive type.
"I also heard eating tomatoes will give the baby heartburn," Lola whispered loudly, looking down at Mac's salad.
Outrage flashed in Mac's eyes but she didn't voice it.
Food shaming already?
If it had been Dick showed up in that office, the girl probably would have offered him a cigar and baked him a pie. Double standards or what! It was emblematic in a system of flippant men drunk on the approval of telling women to take a seat, to go home, stay silent and stop stirring up trouble.
"I'll bear that in mind" Mac retorted with sarcastic sweetness. Would everyone be keeping tabs on her meals now, or had Dick hired Lola the Moron here as his replacement spy?
Between the don't-sue-us measures being taken by the administration and the alpha male chest thumping from her just plain-beautiful to look at ex-boyfriend motherhood was beginning to feel like jail sentence.
Who'd have thought under all that carefree blonde sexiness that Dick was just a macho thug?
Calm down reality, you are being ridiculous.
No, ridiculous was the stuffed dinosaur in her rucksack that thrummed like the ticking of a metronome counting down the days to impending diapers and breaking her parents hearts. Pushing her college plans aside to embrace single motherhood made her sound like a sympathetic hero, but right now it felt like the narrowing of a cage. Unplanned motherhood alone would have been enough to deal with, but unplanned motherhood under these circumstances was pretty terrifying.
Was Dick going to use the surveillance tapes of them in the elevator to accuse her of drugging him and that this pregnancy was premeditated? Was he out there with other girls right now as a self-proclaimed bachelor?
Everything about them had been wrong, the kind of wrong that felt so right. But none of that mattered now. No computer algorithm could have predicted the way he was going to react.
Maybe she should try and convince him the kid wasn't his? Or take off to Europe someplace and live in a Yurt?
They only had 6 to 7 short months to figure things out.
Mac was glad she was sitting down, another spell of being light-headed made the room spin. The rush of emotions made her queasy. Most of that first night was still a little blurry. The denial and hope she'd been operating on over the last few weeks that the lab results had been wrong, and praying for minus signs on little plastic sticks had been obliterated with the ultrasound images bombshell.
She wasn't one to really think too hard about Roe v. Wade but as her companion rattled on about the miracle of Jesus welcoming an outcast pregnant woman, Mac knew what side of the debate Lola came down on.
"I'm going to Bible study group in an hour, you should join us" Lola smiled, her silence seemed to rile the strawberry blonde even more. "It's over at the Evangelical Pregnancy Center!"
"I'll think about it," Mac replied dismissively that any fool could have interpreted as a resounding, no thanks. The first hint of anger she had shown towards anyone in a horrendously long day. Lola gave her a suit-yourself shrug and a you'll-regret-it-later-if-you-don't quirk of her brow as the prim, buttoned up strawberry blonde stood with her tray and walked to the ice-cream station. Even if she felt lost and alone, she knew she could always call her parents and avoid the cult brainwashing.
God, what is wrong with me? This immaturity isn't me… I should be calling Dick to sort this out.
"Hello, paging Ms Distracted, I told you I have to go now. This is Tim, Tim Foyle. He is here to take over your situation," Lola smiled making an annoying waving gesture. "Best of luck." Mac looked up a strawberry-tint staining her face in embarrassment as she looked up at the short brown haired man, feeling like an idiot. Rolling her eyes Lola took off with her tub of ice-cream.
'Tim' was dressed oddly, like a dollar store Cosplay of Rupert Giles, as if a kid had tried to put on a tweed costume of what a professor should look like from only watching reruns of Saved by the Bell.
"You're Mac?" he offered sliding into the seat opposite her. His silver framed glasses assessed her in an awkward friendly manner. Nodding she brushed tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear and slumped back into her seat. "Uh-Ms Farmer.. umm Lola, had to go take care of something" Tim smiled shyly.
"Sure," Mac shrugged quietly in response, forcing a smile then scooting her plate away. In truth, she'd barely eaten anything today.
Being at college really made her miss family dinners.
Would her parents even accept her after this? She could barely afford her life, let alone give them another mouth to feed.
"I uh-I have to stay around for a little while, around 45 minutes or so until the night staff come on duty, do some last minute lock up because I'm fire warden for this building in light of recent events, then I can escort you to the motel, get you checked in if that's okay?" Tim smiled reassuringly. She could tell he was trying awkwardly to be non-threatening in a dorky charming sort of way.
"That's fine, I have to collect my class project from the computer lab, I could meet you in about an hour?" Mac shrugged. Anything was better than staying here listening to Piz churn out another ballad like Sinead O'Connor – Nothing Compares 2 U.
"Sounds perfect" he nodded.
