Julianne's pov
So the baby was an accident. It makes sense, I guess.
Everett and Grayson are excited about the baby. They both want a boy, and went on to suggest names of every superhero possible. This had gone on all through dinner. I had been glad to leave.
I had only gone out to apologize to Mom. I hadn't meant to listen to their conversation, but it captivated me.
I haven't told my friends yet. I hadn't really felt like it. I'd tell them tomorrow, when we're at school in person.
I smile thinking of my friends. It's only been a week, and I texted them a bit, but I miss them more than anything.
I have two really close friends. The first one I met was Callie Wilson.
I've known her since kindergarten. She's shorter than me, has brown skin, and her hair is always done in perfect box braids or cornrows, except for special occasions when she'll smooth it out and leave it down. She loves math and is practically a genius in the subject. We know every detail about each other, and she always picks up the phone when I call, no matter what time it is or what she was doing before. She wears glasses, ones she got three years ago that are teal with small flowers on them.
The next is Preston Ross. About five inches taller than me, with messy, dark blonde hair, tan skin and the clearest blue eyes you've ever seen, everyone who's attracted to boys in the grade has had a crush on him at some point. He couldn't care less, though. Romance is last on his list of things to do. We met in second grade, when he moved from Arizona. He loves science. He's got the Periodic Table memorized, despite never being forced to do it. He plays soccer and football, and has gotten two concussions from the games. Although he's usually playing sports, he'll talk on the phone with me and Callie for ages.
The three of us are rarely seen apart. We're as close as friends can be. We've gone through everything together, from Preston's parents' divorce to Callie's uncle's death from a stroke, and plan on going through everything else life throws at us together.
After sitting alone on my bed listening to music for a while, I decide to paint something. I get my brushes and watercolor paper out and sit at my desk. After looking online for some inspiration, I lightly sketch some cactus on the paper. I then fill them in with paint and trace over the outline in sharpie. It's rather simple, but I like it.
It's then I realize that it's almost 11 p.m., and I have school tomorrow. I quickly clean everything up and get in bed.
The next morning, I had to rush even more than I normally do. I'm slightly jet-lagged because California is three hours behind here, and I had forgotten to pick out an outfit last night. Everett was especially affected, and could barely drag himself out of bed.
We made it to school on time, though, and I met Callie on the bench we always sit at.
"How was your trip?" Callie asks, smiling broadly.
"Amazing," I reply. "How was your break?"
"Nice. We went to the beach twice, and my cousins came over," Callie answered.
"I have something I'll tell you when Preston gets here," I say.
"Ooh, what is it?" Callie asks, looking at me excitedly.
"I just said, I'll tell you when Preston gets here," I say, laughing.
"It was worth a shot," Callie says, shrugging.
"You'll never fool me," I tell her, making us laugh harder.
"I'll get you some day," she counters.
"Never," I reply, smiling.
"Juju, Callie!" someone shouts.
"Preston!" I call, and Callie and I run over.
"How were your breaks?" he asks.
"The best. Except the end," I reply.
"What happened at the end?" Preston asks, looking at Callie to see if she knew.
"Don't look at me, she hasn't told me yet. She said she'll tell us something when you get here, and now you're here, so spill, Jules," Callie says.
I take a deep breath. "My mom's pregnant," I tell them.
"Oh, congrats!" Preston says at once, then sees my expression. "Wait, is that not a good thing?" he questions.
"I don't really want another sibling," I reply
"They really are a pain," Preston says, and Callie nods. Preston has an eighteen year old sister and a ten year old brother who could barely pass as his cousins, they look so different from him, and Callie has a seven year old sister who looks exactly like her. "But is that the only reason?" he asks.
I shrug. "I thought about it a lot on the plane ride. It's a few things. First of all, babies are loud, toddlers are destructive. I'll never get peace again. Second of all, my parents teach the eighth grade, meaning we'll be in the school with them next year, where she'll be super pregnant. Everyone will know my parents had sex. Third of all, I'll be thirteen years older than them. That'll be boring. And nowhere in my plans does it say 'make time for younger sibling'," I rant.
Callie puts her hand on my shoulder. "If the baby really turns out to be super loud, you can do homework at my house," she says. We live three streets away from each other, which is very convenient.
"And no one cares that your parents had sex. Everyone's parents do it," Preston tells me. "Well... except mine. My mom and stepdad do, though."
I wrinkle my nose. "Ew, why do you know that?" I ask.
Preston rolls his eyes. "I stay up late and they're not exactly quiet," he answers.
"I'm genuinely sorry," Callie tells him.
"Anyways, back to Juju. So, do you know anything about the baby? Due date... whatever other stuff people know about their babies?" Preston says.
"No. I don't think my mom has gone to the doctor yet. All I know is that the baby was an accidentm" I say.
"They told you that?" Callie asks, shocked.
I shake my head. "No, of course not! I overheard my parents talking last night, and my dad said something about their 'carelessness', which obviously means they didn't plan it," I answer.
"Oh, yeah..." Preston says. "Wait, how old are your parents again? Because mine are like... fifty."
"Thirty," I answer.
"Wait, so your parents were seventeen when they had you?" Callie asks.
We'd never really talked about our parents ages much, and I usually forget my parents were so young when they had me.
"Um..." I say, doing the math in my head. "Yeah, seventeen."
Preston raises his eyebrows. "Woah," he says. "My parents were thirty eight with me and forty with my brother" he says. "Thirty with my sister."
"Mine were twenty seven with me and thirty three with my sister," Callie says.
"Seventeen with me, twenty one with Grayson, and twenty four with Everett," I say.
The bell rings. "We'd better get to class," I say, and we rush inside.
"So," Callie says at lunch that day, "would you rather it be a boy or a girl?" she asks.
I sigh. "Neither," I reply, biting into an apple.
"Bit rude, isn't that?" Preston asks, opening a bag of chips.
I roll my eyes. "As long as the baby doesn't hear it, I'm fine," I tell him. "Oh, I almost forgot, my aunt is adopting a baby," I say.
"Oh, really?" Callie asks. I nod.
"That's good, right?" Preston asks.
I scoff. "Yes, that's good, because that baby won't be screaming while I try to sleep," I reply. "And they live in San Francisco."
"Just checking," Preston says.
"Guys, only two months left until we're done with elementary school," Callie points out.
"I can't wait," I say.
"Me neither. They've got sports teams at the middle school," Preston says.
"And we won't be called babies anymore," Callie adds.
"No, we'll still be called babies by the high schoolers," I say.
"Dang it," Preston says.
That weekend, my mom had her first doctors appointment. Only she and Dad went, and Grandma came over to watch us.
"Grammy, can I go to Callie's house?" I ask after lunch.
She sighs. "Sure," she agrees.
"Thank you!" I say. I run to my room and pull on my shoes then run out the door.
It only takes a few minutes to get to Callie's, and she's waiting outside when I get there.
"So, your mom's at the doctors?" she asks as we walk up the stairs to her room
"Yeah. She told us we could go to an appointment later on, see the baby on the ultrasound," I reply. "I don't think I will."
Callie shrugs. "It might be cool," she says.
"I doubt it," I reply. "Besides, it could be a false positive."
"How often do those happen?" Callie asks. We're now sitting on her bed.
"No clue, but it's gotta happen sometime," I say.
"She probably took more than one test, though. She'd wanna be as sure as possible before telling everyone, I'd assume," Callie reasons.
I groan. "Stop being reasonable," I tell her sarcastically.
"Just what I do," Callie replies. "Anyways, have you finished Outer Banks yet?" she asks.
"No, I'm on the last episode," I reply.
"Wanna watch it together?" she offers.
"Sure," I say, smiling.
Callie takes out her computer and opens Netflix.
"Oh. My GOD!" I say when we finish. "Can season two be released tomorrow?"
"They haven't shot it yet, sadly," Callie says.
"I don't care, I'll read the script," I joke.
"Have fun with that," Callie says. "I'll just be patient, like a normal person."
I roll my eyes. "You and your normal-ness," I say. I check my phone to see if I have any texts, and see one from my mom. "Oh, my parents are home and my mom wants me to come back," I say.
"I'll walk you," Callie volunteers.
"Thanks." I smile, and we begin our walk to my house.
"Why d'you think she wants you home?" Callie asks.
"Maybe a false positive," I say hopefully.
"Ooh, what if it's twins?" says Callie excitedly.
I grimace. "I hope not."
"I'll take one, if it is," she offers.
"I'd gladly hand one over," I laugh. "But my parents wouldn't."
"Darn," Callie says, and we both burst out laughing.
We make it to my house. "Want to come inside?" I ask.
"Sure," Callie agrees. We step through the door and walk into my living room.
"Hi, Juju. Oh, Callie's here too," Mom says.
"Hi, Mrs. Jones," Callie says. "Congratulations."
Mom smiles. "Thank you," she says warmly.
"So, why did you want me to come home?" I ask.
"I just wanted to tell you that everything is perfectly healthy. I'm due in December," Mom says, smiling at Dad.
"Oh" I say. "That's good."
Mom's face falls slightly at my lack of enthusiasm, but I don't think anyone else notices. "Also... we were thinking of waiting to find out the gender," she adds.
"What?!" Everett cries, jumping up from the couch.
Dad chuckles.
"So, we wouldn't know if it was a boy or girl until they're born?" I ask.
"Nope," Dad answers, smiling.
"How do you guys feel about that?" Mom asks.
I shrug.
"I wanna knowww," Grayson whines.
"Me too!" Everett agrees.
"Jules, what do you think?" Mom asks.
"I don't know," I reply, shrugging again.
"Well, that's what we're most likely going to do," Mom says. I nod.
"Okay," I say.
"Callie, do you want to stay for dinner?" Dad asks.
"I'll ask my mom if I can," she replies, and takes out her phone to text her. "She says I can," Callie tells us a minute later.
"Great," Mom says, smiling.
"We'll be in my room," I say, and Callie and I disappear into my bedroom.
"Well, it's not twins, and it's not a false positive either," Callie says.
I sigh. "I just..." I pause, trying to put it into words. "I don't know. I don't want another sibling. My mom is already busy enough doing other stuff, with Gray and Rhett, and then she's grading papers and stuff, and we barely have time to go shopping or bake as it is, and now a baby..." I say.
"Yeah. It's understandable. But, you'll have a little baby! That's, like, so cool!" Callie says.
"Not really. Sure, they're cute, and yeah, I love my two year old cousin, but she can also be a nightmare. And I don't even see her too much, but I can't imagine trying to do all of the homework and projects they tell us are happening next year with a screaming, crying baby in the house," I complain.
"Like I said, you can come to my house," Callie repeats.
"Not every night, though, my parents'll want me home and yours'll get tired of having a guest over all the time," I reply. "And going to your house doesn't free up my mom's schedule."
"Well, I'm willing to help in whatever way I can," Callie says.
I smile weakly. "Thanks," I tell her.
"It's what I'm here for," Callie replies.
"Anyways, let's please stop talking about this baby and go back to Outer Banks theories," I say, and we talk all the way to dinner.
so I like... watched outer banks because my friend told me to totally not expecting to like it and it's actually pretty good? but I'm not obsessed with is like she is. I hate cliffhangers tho but I honestly don't think about it much so idrc. anyways I hope you enjoyed!