A few months have passed since TJ and I found out that we were expecting. We told our friends and their reaction was not what we expected.

"Are you kidding? What about your future? Your plans?" Gretchen stormed around my room, fists clenched.

"Hey, it's not like I planned this! Give me a break." I flopped on the bed. Gretchen stopped moving and turned to me.

"You were going to go to school for art. Become a cartoonist, maybe even work for Disney."

"Like it matters," I mumbled, mostly to myself.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"I mean, it doesn't matter. Everything I've ever wanted is being ripped from me and no one else seems to notice." Oh boy, did I start something I shouldn't have.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Gretchen slapped my leg. Now I'm mad. I sit up and glare at her.

"You're leaving next month to Massachusetts! Gus is being shipped off to boot camp, again. Vince already left for school two weeks ago and God knows where Mikey is going to end up." I sighed, suddenly feeling overwhelmed with emotion. "I'm losing everything that I care about and it seems like I'm the only one that realizes nothing will ever be the same, that we will never stay friends forever." Tears flowed down my face. Everything was out in the open, cards on the table. I finally opened up and it didn't make me feel better, in fact, I felt worse. Gretchen's arms wrapped around my body and I cried harder. "All I have now is TJ and this baby," I sobbed into her shoulder. Gretchen stroked my hair and held me closer.

"It's okay Honey. It'll all work out, you'll be okay. I'm sorry for what I said. Everything will be fine."

We probably sat in my room like that for a good hour while I let all of my bent up emotions out in the open. When I finally calmed down, we decided to have a girls night, just the two of use before she leaves next month. We ordered the biggest cheese pizza the local pizza spot had, bought soda and energy drinks. Gretchen called up her cousin who works at the local candy shop and hooked us up with some good chocolate. We sat around my bedroom, eating junk food and watching classic black and white films, like Rear Window the original and Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. We put ourselves into a sugar-coma by five in the morning.

"Ashley? Hey Ashley-" Two little hands pressed against my face and squished my cheeks together. "Ashley, wake up."

I opened my eyes and all I saw was a small face, Sebastian's face.

"What is it, Little Man?" I yawned.

"TJ's here for you. He gave me these!" He shoved some cards into my face. Pokémon cards to be precise.

"That's nice, send him up please." I yawned again and rolled over.

Seb scampered off out of my room. I stretched and rolled back over, noticing Gretchen had already left. Jesus, what time is it?

"It's three in the afternoon," TJ said, like he was reading my mind. He walked through my door and sat on the edge of my bed and kissed me on the cheek. "You look hungover."

"Lot's of candy and good old classic films," I chuckled while sitting up. "What are you doing here?"

He looked at me like I had lost my marbles. "We have the ultra sound today to find out the due date."

I slapped my forehead like I was an idiot. "How could I have forgotten?!" I slumped out of bed and walked over to my closet. I pulled out a nice oversized gray T-shirt and a pair of black leggings. "Now get out of my room so I can change," I walked over to him and pushed him out the door and closed it. I changed my clothes and threw my dark hair into a matted bun, being too lazy to actually brush it. I pulled my boots onto my feet and grabbed my tote with all of my medical information inside for the OBGYN.

"Are you ready yet? Jeez, you're such a girl!" TJ whined when I opened the door.

"Shut up," I rolled my eyes and headed down the stairs.

"Ashley, are you sure you don't need me there?" My mom asked, stepping from the kitchen. Her face was covered in flour which meant she's baking cookies with Sebastian.

"No, it'll be fine. When we schedule for the sex ultra sound, I'll have you come with." I smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Okay, call if you need me." She gave both me and TJ hugs and went back into the kitchen.

"Is this your first time?" A woman who was seating across from me smiled. She looked about thirty or forty with extremely short blonde hair.

"Um, yes." I coughed. There's something about complete strangers talking to me that always makes me uncomfortable. TJ grabbed my hand and squeezed.

"You'll do fine, just sit back and let the nurse do her thing. I'm on my sixth child right now, the oldest is seventeen, at home taking care of the other four while I'm here. It's kind of like a mini vacation, coming to the doctors without any screaming kids, or having my hair pulled or cooking and cleaning non stop, because all they do is make a mess and when one mess get's cleaned, another one is made, its non stop, go, go, go with kids, whether you have one, two our six..." She just kept going on and on about children. I suddenly felt sick. I was about to just say forget it, lets make it a surprise, and leave, when the door opened and the nurse called my name.

"Thank God," TJ mumbled under his breath as we got up.

The nurse took us to a back room and set me up in the chair. She ran over the same procedures as when I went to the ER, the pulling up my shirt, the gel, the cool sounding machine. TJ sat next to me, holding my hand.

"See that, there's your baby," the nurse pointed to a splotch on the screen. "Now, according to your charts, you're unsure of when your last period was, why is that?"

"I take birth control, sometimes I get my period, some times I don't." I explained.

"Well, by the looks of it, you're about three, almost four months into your pregnancy."

"Why haven't I gotten any bigger?"

"The baby is growing, but sometimes they position themselves in a way that won't stick out. Coming up on the sixth or seventh month will you see a big difference in weight and belly size." The nurse said. She paused the screen and clicked some buttons. "I'll just print this out for you. By the looks of things, you'll be due by mid to late December. Now, in about a month and a half, we can find out the gender of the baby. Would you like to set that appointment up?"

"Yes,"
"Yes," TJ and I both said.

The nurse cleaned me up and walked us to the reception desk where we made the appointment for the gender, on September 29th.