This is set a few months later
It was a Thursday morning and Poppy had just woken up but as she was lying in bed she was starting to realise she felt really sick.
It wasn't long before she realised she was actually going to be sick so shot out of bed and into her en suite where she started being sick into the toilet.
Rachel had just come into her room to make sure she was starting to get up when she heard her in the bathroom being sick so rushed into her and started rubbing her back.
Once she'd finished being sick Poppy flushed the loo before sitting on the bathroom floor.
"Oh dear looks like it's a day off school for you today, when did you start feeling ill?"
"Just this morning when I woke up"
"Are you going to be okay here on your own or…"
"Rach I'll be fine"
"Okay if you're sure"
Poppy had looked really pale when Rachel first saw her but now she'd sat there for a few minutes she was definitely starting to get more colour in her cheeks.
Rachel left so Poppy cleaned her teeth before climbing back into bed and closing her eyes.
She'd been laying there for about 10 minutes when she realised that she actually wasn't feeling ill at all now. Now that she'd been sick she felt absolutely fine so she decided to go into school as she always did hate having the day off, because she always felt like she was really far behind after.
Poppy got out of bed and got dressed and did her makeup before going downstairs where Rachel was getting breakfast for everyone in the kitchen.
Rachel was surprised when she saw Poppy dressed and with makeup on.
"I am going to go into school today I'm feeling fine now, it must just have been something I ate"
"Don't you think you'd be better off having the day off, you might start feeling poorly again"
"If I do I'll just come home then, but I've got four lessons today so I'll have loads to catch up on if I don't go in"
"If you're sure, I hope it's not a bug you've got though the last thing I need is something else being spread around school"
"I'm sure it must just have been something I ate"
"Well if you do feel ill again when you're at school just come and find me"
"I will do"
Poppy had her breakfast with the others and was glad that she was still feeling okay once she'd eaten.
Once they'd all finished Poppy went back upstairs to finish getting ready. She did her hair and packed her bag before going back downstairs.
When she got down there Rachel and Lucy were both ready to go so they were just waiting on Amy now.
"Amy hurry up we need to go" Rachel shouted up the stairs to her for the fifth time
Eventually Amy materialised downstairs but Rachel noticed she was looking quite pale.
"Are you alright love, you're not looking too well"
"Thanks" Amy said sarcastically
"I didn't mean it like that I just wanted to check you're okay that's all"
"Yeah I'm fine"
"Come on then let's go"
The four of them got into the car and did the usual school run.
"Have a good day you two" Rachel called once they got to Waterloo Road
"Bye Rach" Poppy called back but Amy had already gone off
It was lunchtime and Poppy was really glad that she hadn't had the day off because she was feeling absolutely fine now.
Poppy was sat with Chlo, Janeece and Maxine talking about the party that Chlo was having at the weekend when the bell went so they all made their way to their PSCHE class.
"Right we're moving onto a new topic this week, we're going to be starting teen pregnancy" Kim said causing a lot of moans and groans
"We've done teen pregnancy a million times before miss, your not going to tell us anything we don't already know" one girl called out
"You don't know that, and it's my job to educate you on these things and I wouldn't be doing my job properly if I didn't would I?"
Poppy had stopped listening to everything that was going on now because she'd started putting things together in her head and realised that actually she could be pregnant.
She didn't know how she hadn't thought of this before, how she'd been so stupid to not think of it.
Poppy picked up her bag and started heading for the door.
"Poppy where are you going?"
"Toilet miss"
"Go on quickly then"
Poppy went out and quickly made her way to the toilets.
She looked at her reflection in the mirror with all the thoughts going through her head. She hadn't had a period in a couple of months and although she hadn't said anything to Rachel that wasn't the first morning she'd been sick this week.
Tears starting filling Poppy's eyes as she had no idea what to do now. She felt so scared and didn't know how she was going to handle this if she was pregnant.
Poppy had been gone for about 10 minutes and Kim was starting to get a bit concerned so sent Chlo to go and check on her.
Chlo went into the girls toilets and Poppy walked out of one of the cubicles just as she did so.
"You okay?" Chlo asked
"Yeah fine why?"
"It's just you've been quite a while that's all"
"Oh yeah I was sick this morning and I wasn't feeling very well again but I'm fine now"
"Are you sure? Are you coming back to class or shall I tell Campbell you've gone up to Miss Mason's office"
"Yeah can you tell her I've gone up to see Rachel" Poppy said before slipping past Chlo and going out of the toilets
Poppy had no intention of going up to see Rachel though, she just needed some air and time to think things through so went and sat on a bench outside.
The more she thought about it the more she convinced herself she was pregnant, after all it did all fit. She just couldn't believe that this was happening to her.
How could she possibly carry on with her A levels and go to University carrying on living a normal teenage life with a baby. It felt as though all of the plans she had for the future were just disappearing because she'd ended up being the girl who got herself pregnant.
She knew there was no point in thinking like this but she couldn't seem to help it.
Eventually Poppy managed to pull herself together though and realised first of all she needed to find out whether she was actually pregnant or not because she could be getting herself all worked up over nothing.
Part of her wanted to skip her last lesson and just head into town now however she knew Rachel would end up finding out and she didn't want her knowing anything about this, not yet anyway.
Poppy wasn't sure whether to tell Jack yet or not either. Part of her wanted to but the two of them didn't seem to be getting on too well at the moment so she didn't feel like talking to him about it.
The bell went so Poppy made her way to her English lesson and sat down in her normal seat next to Chlo.
"Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah much better now thanks" Poppy smiled
Poppy could barely concentrate the whole way through English, she was so relieved when the bell went.
She headed up to Rachel's office where Rachel was already to go for a change.
Once Amy had come up too they made their way to the car.
"Do you two still both want to go shopping tonight?"
"Yes please" Poppy said, really she would have rather gone into town on her own to buy one but she knew Rachel would get suspicious about her not wanting to go with them
"I don't want to go Rachel" Amy said
"How come? Are you not feeling well?"
"No it's not that I've got loads of homework to do"
"Well can you not do it when we get back?"
"No I've got too much to do"
"Well I feel bad leaving you at home on your own, do you want us to wait and go another day?"
"No it's okay you can all still go, I don't really feel like shopping anyway"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah it's fine"
They went and picked Lucy up from her Primary school before going home so they could all get changed.
Rachel was getting changed out of her work stuff when Lucy came running in.
"Rachel I've got the zip stuck"
"How've you managed that then"
Rachel sorted out the zip on her pinafore before Lucy went back to her bedroom to get changed
About half an hour later and they were all ready to go again so went and got into the car.
Rachel was going to take them out for tea after but she wasn't now that Amy wasn't coming.
Once they got to the shopping centre Lucy said she wanted to go into Claire's so they went in there first.
After Lucy had had a look around there they went into boots as Rachel needed some new makeup and a few other bits. She picked up a basket as she knew there was quite a few things they needed.
They walked through the isle with the pads and stuff so Rachel put some into her basket.
"I haven't bought you any pads or tampons for ages, you must need some more don't you?"
"Urmm yeah I think I do actually" Poppy said but actually she still had the last pack that Rachel bought her in her bathroom cupboard
Poppy wanted to go and buy the pregnancy test while they were in here but she knew it would be too risky with Rachel and Lucy in here too so knew she'd just have to come back on her own later.
Once they'd got everything they needed Rachel went over to the tills to pay.
"We still need to get you a dress for the wedding Luc, shall we go and have a look in Next?"
"Yes"
The three of them headed to Next and started looking round the children's bit.
"Rach I'm just going to nip to the loo" Poppy said thinking she could go back to Boots quickly
"Okay love"
"I need a wee too" Lucy said just as Poppy was about to go. Poppy sighed knowing that she was going to have to take Lucy with her now.
"Can you take Lucy with you too?"
"Yeah that's fine"
"I'll have a look around the women's bit while you go" Rachel said
Poppy took hold of Lucy's hand and walked to the toilets with her.
"Poppy slow down your walking too quickly"
"No I'm not just hurry up"
They got to the toilets and both of them went before washing her hands. There was no way that Poppy could buy the test while she had Lucy with her so just walked back to Next.
Poppy was really annoyed because now she had to find another excuse to go off on her own.
Rachel found Lucy a nice dress for her to wear to the wedding so took Lucy into the changing rooms to try it on.
"I'm going to have a look around while your in there"
"Okay love"
Poppy made her way to the boots as quickly as she could. However when she got there she felt really embarrassed buying a pregnancy test however she didn't really have another choice so picked it up and went over to the till.
She paid for it as quickly as she could and hid it in her bag before going back up to Next.
She saw Rachel and Lucy at the till when she came in so went over to the shoes and pretended to be looking.
"Seen anything you like?"
"No not really"
"Well that does make a change"
The three of them stayed there for an hour or so before heading to the food hall in M&S and picking up some food for tea.
They then went back to the car and drove home again.
"Poppy you wouldn't mind taking the washing out of the machine and spreading it so I can get on with tea would you?"
Poppy wasn't facing Rachel so rolled her eyes when she said this but agreed to do it anyway.
"I don't mind"
"Thanks love"
Rachel took all the bags upstairs before going into the kitchen where Amy was sat with all her school books out. She had a maths test tomorrow and she was starting to feel really worried about it as she hadn't done very well in the last one so she really wanted to do better this time.
"Hey love how's the homework going?"
This just caused Amy to burst into tears.
Rachel saw this so rushed over to her ad sat down on a chair next to her.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing"
"Oh right, so I guess I'm imagining those tears falling from your eyes am I?"
"I'm fine" Amy snapped before picking all of her books up and going up to her bedroom
Rachel was a bit concerned but could tell she just needed a bit of time to herself so put the oven on ready for the pizzas to go in and then started making a salad.
Just as she was doing this Lucy came downstairs wearing her new dress.
"What've you got that on for?"
"Because it's pretty"
"I know it is but you don't want to get it all dirty before the wedding do you?"
"Fine I'll take it off"
"Come here and I'll help you, you couldn't get it off on your own when you tried it on"
"But then I'll just be in my knickers"
"It's only me you, Poppy and Amy here and you can just run straight up to your room and put your clothes back on"
Reluctantly Lucy let Rachel take her dress off before running up to her bedroom.
Poppy had just finished spreading the washing for Rachel so went up to her room and went into her bathroom and locked the door behind her.
She put the lid of the toilet seat down and sat there for ages reading the instructions. She knew exactly what she had to do she was just putting off finding out the result.
Eventually she took the test out of the box and carried out the instructions before laying it face down on the sink.
Once Rachel had done the salad she decided to go up and check on Amy.
"Amy can I come in?" Rachel asked knocking on her bedroom door
When she went in she was happy to see that Amy wasn't crying anymore.
"What happened before love why were you crying?"
"I don't really know but I'm fine now"
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah"
Rachel wasn't entirely convinced but it was obvious Amy didn't feel like talking to her about it.
"Okay tea will be ready in about ten minutes" Rachel said before going out and closing the door behind her
About ten minutes later the tea was ready so Rachel called the girls down.
Amy and Lucy had both come down stairs and sat at the table but there was still no sign of Poppy so Rachel decided to go up and check on her.
Rachel went up to her bedroom and found her lying on the bed.
"Tea's ready love"
"I'm not hungry"
"Are you not feeling very well again?"
"No I've started to feel a bit sick again" Poppy lied
"Oh that's not very good, probably best you don't eat then. Just shout if you want anything"
"Thanks Rach" Poppy said smiling
As soon as Rachel left Poppy burst into tears, she was going to be so disappointed in her when she found out.
After turning the test over and seeing the positive result, Poppy had never felt so scared before. She regretted Jack convincing her they'd be fine not using protection just that once, every other time they'd been so careful.
Poppy hadn't decided if she wanted to keep the baby or not yet. She'd never been particularly fond of the idea of having an abortion, but now she was in the situation she was beginning to think that it was the right thing to do. After all she was in no situation to give the baby a good life, a life that she would want her baby to have.
And if she did have an abortion there would be no need for anyone else to find out, so then there wouldn't be any disappointment.
After tea Amy got all of her homework out again and carried on studying.
"Don't you think you've done enough now Amy, you've been doing it for hours"
"No I still haven't finished"
"Okay well just do another half an hour or so and then it's definitely time to stop"
Amy didn't say anything just continued with what she was doing.
"Right then Lucy let's get you bathed and ready for bed"
"But you said I can stay up to watch the end of the film we started last night"
"And you still can, I just want you all ready for bed that's all"
The two of them went upstairs and Lucy went into her bedroom to play with her toys for a bit whilst Rachel ran the bath.
Rachel started the bath running and then went into check on Poppy.
Poppy had heard Rachel coming upstairs so had locked herself in her en suite as she didn't want Rachel to see her tearstained face.
"Poppy are you okay in there?"
"Yeah I'm feeling okay now I'm just going to have a shower"
"Okay do you want anything to eat afterwards?"
"No I'm still not hungry"
Rachel went back to the bathroom and continued on running Lucy's bath. When it was ready she called Lucy through.
Rachel got her undressed and then put her into the bath.
"Rachel are you coming to watch me in assembly tomorrow?"
"Of course I am darling why wouldn't I be?"
"Because it's for Mum's and Dad's so a boy in my class said that they wouldn't let you in because you're not my Mum"
"Well then he's talking rubbish isn't he? I know I'm not your real Mum but I still think of you as like my daughter"
"Do you want to come and see me?"
"Of course I do, I'm really looking forward to it actually"
Lucy's class had been working on a little play over the last term so they were performing it tomorrow for all of the parents.
Rachel let Lucy have a play before filling up a jug and getting her wet.
After washing her hair Rachel got Lucy out of the bath and wrapped her in a fluffy towel before taking her back to her room and changing her into some pyjamas.
"I'm just going to go down and put a load of washing on and then I'll be back up to dry your hair off a bit"
Rachel went downstairs into the utility room and put on another load of washing on, no matter how many loads she did she never seemed to be able to keep on top of it.
When she went back up she went into her room expecting Lucy to be there waiting for her to dry her hair but she wasn't.
"Lucy" Rachel shouted
"I'm on the toilet" Lucy shouted from Rachel's en suite
A few minutes later Lucy opened the door and walked out and sat down at Rachel's dressing table so Rachel started drying her hair.
Once they were done the two of them went downstairs into the lounge.
"Can I have a snack Rachel?"
"Yes I suppose so, I'll go and see what I can find shall I?"
Rachel went into the kitchen where Amy was still working.
"Time to stop now Amy"
"But Rachel"
"No buts you need time off to relax, you can't just go to school all day and then come home and do homework all evening you'll make yourself ill"
"Fine then"
"We're going to put the film on that we started watching last night, are you coming into watch it?"
"Yeah okay"
Rachel went up and asked Poppy if she was coming down too. She said she would so quickly put her pyjamas on before going down.
Poppy wasn't concentrating on the film at all, she had way too much on her mind.
Part of her did want to tell Rachel, even though she knew she'd be mad to start with she knew that she would help her but she just couldn't face the disappointment.
Rachel let Lucy watch to the end of the film but it was getting quite late now so she knew she needed to get her up to bed.
"Come on then let's get you up to bed little miss"
"Just one more cuddle first"
"You can have one more cuddle once you're in bed. Say goodnight to Amy and Poppy"
Lucy said goodnight to her two big sisters and then went upstairs with Rachel.
She went into the bathroom and got ready for bed before climbing into her bed.
Rachel climbed in next to her and gave her a big cuddle however it didn't take long for her to drop off to sleep because she was really tired.
Rachel closed her eyes and probably could have drifted off to sleep herself but after a few minutes she carefully got out of her bed and went back downstairs.
Poppy was in the lounge staring into space when Rachel came in.
"Where's Amy?"
"She's gone up to bed she said she was tired"
Rachel then went and sat down next to Poppy.
"Is everything okay love you've seemed very quiet and not really yourself tonight?"
"I'm okay, just not feeling very right"
"Maybe you should have the day off tomorrow then, going into school again is only going to make you feel worse"
"Yeah maybe I will" Poppy said because she thought she could maybe go out to the clinic and get it over with
"I'm just going to go up and say goodnight to your sister"
"Okay"
Amy was lying in her bed when Rachel came up so Rachel went and sat down on the bed next to her.
"Goodnight my love, see you in the morning"
"Night"
Rachel kissed her forehead before going out and closing the door behind her.
Amy knew Rachel would come up to say goodnight which is why she'd pretended to be going to sleep.
As soon as she'd heard Rachel go downstairs she got out of bed and turned the light back on and then sat down at her desk to carry on with some revision.
Poppy stayed downstairs with Rachel and the two of them watched Eastenders. Poppy knew if she went up to bed she wouldn't be able to sleep and she always did hate lying there on her own if she couldn't get to sleep.
The two of them went up to bed at about 11. Normally Rachel would stick her head behind their bedroom doors before she went to bed to check on the girls but she just went straight to bed tonight and forgot about it.
Rachel woke up at about 1 with a bit of a sore throat so decided to down and get a glass of water.
It wasn't until she was on her way back up that she saw the light through the bottom of Amy's bedroom door so wondered why that was.
She opened the door and was shocked to see Amy sat at her desk surrounded by school books.
Amy had been so engrossed in her books that she hadn't even heard Rachel come in.
"What on earth are you doing at this time of night or morning should I say?"
Amy was a bit startled after hearing Rachel's voice and turned around to face her immediately.
"I- I couldn't sleep"
"Right and studying some more is really going to help you to switch off"
Rachel then noticed that tears were starting to form in Amy's eyes so realised that she needed to have a chat with her as she was clearly upset about something.
"Are you going to come downstairs with me and I'll make you a hot chocolate or something?"
Amy nodded before walking down the stairs in front of Rachel. She was glad that Rachel had suggested it as she could tell she was about to burst into tears.
Rachel went into the kitchen to make them both a hot drink and Amy went into the lounge. Once she sat down on the sofa she immediately burst into tears.
When Rachel came in a few minutes later she was surprised to see Amy laid down on the sofa crying.
She put their drinks on the table and then perched on the sofa next to Amy.
"Now are you going to tell me what this is all about?"
"I'm just worried about tomorrow"
"Why what's happening tomorrow?"
"I've got a maths test"
"You can only do what you can do sweetheart there's no point getting yourself this worked up about it"
"But I need to do well because Miss said it's to see if we're in the right set or not and I did really badly on the last one so I need to do better on this one"
"Your hardly going to do your best if you stay up all late are you"
"I don't feel ready though"
"Why not I know you've been revising loads this week for it"
"I just want to do my best because I want to stay in the top set"
"I know you do, but it's not the end of the world if you're moved down a set is it, who's going to be bothered about it?"
"You"
"Me, why would I mind?"
"Because your always telling me how important school is and how I should do the best that I can"
"Yes the best you can, as long as you try your hardest I don't care what set your in or what grades you end up with but what I don't want is you getting yourself all worked up like this and worrying that I'm going to be disappointed with you"
"I wish I was as clever as Poppy"
"Your just as clever as what she is my love, honestly you are"
"No I'm not there's no way I could ever do any of the stuff she does"
"That's probably because she's five years older than you are and you haven't been taught any of it"
"I guess"
"Now drink your hot chocolate and then straight up to sleep because you're going to be shattered tomorrow and you know what you get like when your tired"
Amy sat there drinking her hot chocolate whilst Rachel had her coffee but she couldn't seem to stop crying.
"I'm sorry I don't even know why I'm crying"
"You don't need to be sorry, it'll be because you're so tired though that always makes you teary"
The two of them stayed down there chatting for a few more minutes and Rachel did manage to calm Amy down so they went upstairs.
Rachel went into Amy's bedroom with her and tucked her up in bed.
"Promise me you're going to go to sleep now and not do any more revision?"
"I promise" Amy said yawning
"Good girl, just remember I'll be proud of you no matter what the result"
"Thanks Rach, I love you"
"I love you too darling"
Rachel sat with her stroking her hair until she fell asleep. She then went back to bed and didn't take long to get back to sleep herself.
Poppy was still lying in bed wide awake. She hadn't been to sleep at all yet, no matter how hard she tried she just couldn't get thoughts of the baby out of her head. It all still felt so surreal, she couldn't believe she had a little tiny baby growing inside her tummy.
By the time the morning came Poppy had only had about an hours sleep.
Rachel came up to check on her and noticed how tired and pale she looked immediately.
"I definitely think it's a good idea you having the day off today love, you're not looking very well at all"
"I don't feel very well either" Poppy said before having to jump out of bed to be sick
Rachel followed her in and held her hair back for her.
"Oh dear"
By the time she'd finished being sick Poppy was in tears.
Rachel took her back to bed and sat down and pulled Poppy into her chest where she had a good cry.
"I know it's horrible feeling poorly, hopefully you'll feel better by the end of the day"
It felt so nice having Rachel there for her, just cuddling into Rachel was making her feel loads better but there was still no way she was telling Rachel about any of this. It was just something she was going to have to deal with on her own.
Rachel felt bad leaving Poppy at home when she was so upset but she had to go in first thing for a meeting but she thought she could maybe come home after depending on how Poppy was. She knew how much Poppy hated being sick.
Now that she'd started crying into Rachel Poppy didn't seem to be able to stop, but she knew she needed to or Rachel was going to guess there was something else up.
Soon it was time for them to leave to go to school leaving Poppy alone, so she knew this was her chance to go to the clinic and get rid of her baby.
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