CHAPTER TWO
Eight weeks later.
Carly, Sam, and Freddie all sat in Home Ec listening to another boring lecture on Families in Mrs. Cortez's class. How could they be interested in learning about happy families when Carly's Mom died and her Dad was away at sea, Freddie didn't know his Dad, and Sam's parents were divorcing?
"Being in love leads to marriage! And Marriage is always key and the first step to having children!"
"Uh, no its not." Sam spoke up. Carly and Freddie begged her to shut up. Sam always had things to say. Carly always wondered why she never applied any of this to her school work.
"And why is that, Samantha?" Mrs. Cortez asked.
"My Mom wasn't in love with my Dad. And they had me before they were married…"
"Well. Sometimes, people do things a little more untraditional than other people…"
"Are you trying to say my family is untraditional?" Sam pushed the envelope further.
"Sam, shut up!" Carly begged.
"Okay, that is enough Miss Puckett. In fact! You have led me into going into our next assignment! I am going to assign everyone babies and pair up people as couples!"
Freddie all of a sudden began to pray "Pair me up with Carly, pair me up with Carly, pair me up with Carly…" he chanted.
Mrs. Cortez named names "Carly Shay…" Freddie's ears perked up hearing her name "You will be Jake Crandal's wife."
Carly smiled huge and bright and looked back at Jake who was smiling as well.
"WHAT?!" Freddie stood up "If Carly is gonna be with Jake then I better be with someone better!"
"Freddie Benson, you will be Samantha Puckett's husband…"
"WHAT??" now Sam stood up "Oh come on! I take back everything I said please don't pair me up with Freddie!"
Freddie eyed Sam in disgust "You're disappointed? I should be the one disappointed! You would be a HORRIBLE mother!"
"Oh yeah? Well I don't think this kid would want a Dad who would try and turn it into a lonely little dork of a robot!"
Sam and Freddie continued their bickering as Carly rolled her eyes and didn't say anything.
Meanwhile, Leah sat at her desk at work typing up an article quietly when her friends came in her cubicle "Hey girl, are you going to club Utopia tonight?" Karen asked.
"Nah, I'm not feeling well…" Leah replied.
"You haven't gone out with us for two weeks now...are you really sick? Or are you just trying to avoid that hot golfer from that one night?"
"Kare, he wears a thong. I don't thi-" Leah started feeling sick "Oh god, I have to puke…" she bolted out of her cubicle and went to the ladies room.
"Geez, I have never seen someone get so sick thinking about guys in thongs…" Karen then went back to her cubicle.
Leah puked and puked her whole breakfast up. "Gross" she said wiping her mouth. She got up and then flushed the toilet. As the day went on, she shrugged off her accident as she went to lunch and then went to a meeting with the editor.
"Hey, are you okay?" Karen asked as she sat down.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Bad breakfast, probably."
As the meeting went on, Leah felt sick again. Five minutes later and off she went to the ladies room again and barfed. Afterwards, she left the bathroom and the meeting was already over.
"What did I miss?" Leah asked.
"Honey, I'm getting worried…" Karen grabbed her arm and walked her to her cubicle "You've been sick all the time and I didn't really believe you til now…what's wrong?"
"Nothing! Just had some bad Chinese probably…"
"Yeah, maybe. I almost thought you were-nevermind…" Karen smiled and then walked away. Leah all of a sudden turned concerned. At the end of the day, she went back to her place and as soon as she got inside, the sick feeling began to start again. She ran to the toilet and puked. Afterwards, she sat on her bed and looked over her planner and discovered she had missed a period. Then she started to think about that night she slept with Spencer.
"Knock knock!" Danica came into her room "Leah, we're just about to start dinner…you coming?"
"Great, I'm starving!" she stood up but then a thought made her pause.
"I made extra grilled chicken and linguini. You've been really hungry at dinner lately. Are you sure they're not working you hard?"
"Dani, before we get to dinner…I have to talk to you…sit down…"
"Sure, what's on your mind?" Danica sat next to her.
Leah took a deep breath "Okay, I think I might be pregnant…"
Danica looked at her as if she had seen a ghost "What? How? Do you have a boyfriend you're not telling me about?"
"No. Um, you're gonna think this really funny…that night you, Joey, and the kids went out of town, I was at a club and I met this guy and we got wasted together and one thing led to another and…"
"Oh god. See, I knew you should have went with us. Have you done a test yet?"
"Not yet."
"Alright, come on. Lets go." Danica grabbed her and then went off to the drugstore and bought a few pregnancy tests cause you could never be sure the first time. When they got back home, Leah peed on the first one and waited. Pregnant. She downed a bottle of water and went straight to the bathroom and peed on the second one. Pregnant. She tried a few more and by the fifth one, she cried into Danica's arms when it showed that she was pregnant.
"What am I gonna do?" she sobbed "I barely knew him…"
"Did you know his name, at least?"
"Spencer. And what's sad is that it's the only thing I know about him. That and his place had an elevator. That was kinda cool. Am I going to be alright?"
"You'll be fine, hon. Just call him and tell him."
"I don't have his number…"
"Wow. Holy one night stand, Batman."
"But I do remember where he lives."
"Alright. Well, tomorrow you go down to his place and tell him. Face to face is always good. Well, it depends on how he would take it…"
Leah sighed and closed her eyes. This was not going to be easy.
Next day, in the afternoon, Sam sat on Carly's couch starring back at the plastic infant doll that she had been assigned to take care of with Freddie. "You don't know how much I want to stick this thing in the oven right now..." she said.
"Relax, Sam. Its not a big deal." Carly replied sitting next to her "Its not like you're really married to Freddie…"
"That's easy for you to say, you have Jake Crandal. Hot, responsible, and…hot! I'm stuck with Fredweird the Dorkbot over there…" pointing at Freddie who was sitting at the computer.
"You think I'm happy being stuck with you? I wanna be with Carly!" he then stared lovingly at Carly "You wanna trade spouses??"
"We've been married for a day and you're already cheating on me…yup, this assignment already sounds like real life!" Sam sighed.
"Coming through!" Spencer came to the living room with two buckets of paint "Any of you guys wanna help me paint this giant baby bottle?"
"Oh, so that's what that is…I thought it was a space ship" Freddie said.
"It is not a space ship. I'm doing this sculpture for the Boogie Baby Bumper Boo baby formula company AND its going to be in my Washington Socialite feature!" Spencer beamed.
"You know what, Spence? You're a motivated, charming, and a good looking gentleman. If I could, I would so have you as a husband instead of Freddie…" Sam said.
"You know what, Sam? I speak for all of the men in the world when I say I wouldn't want you for a wife either…" Freddie shot back thus beginning the bickering. Carly and Spencer looked at eachother.
"How long does this go on for?" Spencer asked.
"Depends. Sometimes 5 or 6."
"Minutes?"
"Hours."
"I'm gonna go get some brushes…" Spencer went back to his room as the doorbell rang. Carly went in between Sam and Freddie to answer the door.
"Hi" Leah stood in front of her confused as she saw Carly "Um, I must have the wrong apartment…"
"Are you looking for Spencer?"
"Yes! Um, are you his daughter?"
Carly laughed a bit "No. I'm his sister. I'm Carly. Come in."
Leah stepped inside and sat on the couch as Carly closed the door and made Sam and Freddie be quiet. "SPENCER, YOU HAVE COMPANY!!" she yelled.
Spencer came out of room holding a basket of paint brushes pausing as he saw Leah on the couch "Leah…hi…I haven't seen you since…"
"I know."
He quickly came towards her "Leah, this is my little sister Carly. Carly, this is Leah."
"We've met. Um, Leah, this is Sam and this is Freddie. My friends."
"Do you have five dollars?" Sam asked.
"Uh…Carly, why don't you take them upstairs, yeah?" Spencer asked.
"Actually, um, I wanted to know if you wanted to go out. I actually have something to tell you…"
"Um, sure…"
"Or am I interrupting anything?"
"Not at all. So, uh, BF Wang's?"
"Yeah, sounds great."
"You coming, kiddo?" Spencer asked grabbing his jacket.
"I got some homework. Bring me back some Mu shu!" Carly replied.
"Okay. Later!" Spencer and Leah left the apartment.
At BF Wang's Leah sat across from Spencer nervous as hell. She wanted to get it over and just tell him but not knowing how he would handle it was holding her back.
"So what did you want to tell me?" Spencer smiled as he picked up his pot sticker.
"Um…well, how's your dinner?" she asked trying to dodge the question.
"Um, its fine. And yours?"
"Its good. Hows your sculpting going?"
"Coming along great! I'm doing this one sculpture right now, it's a giant paint splattered bottle for the Boogie Baby Bumper Boo company!"
"That's great! Are you psyched for your Washington Socialite feature?"
"Oh, I am as nervous as a carrot stick!"
"Uh, carrot sticks can't get nervous."
"Exactly."
The whole night, Spencer and Leah talked and talked. But she avoided telling him what she came to him for. "Hey, you never told me-"
"Uh…you wanna get some dessert?" Leah stalled.
"Sure…" Confused, Spencer and Leah walked a few steps to Jen and Barry's for a sundae. Leah dug into the sundae like it was her last meal as Spencer sat back and looked at her. She noticed him and then put down her spoon "What's wrong?"
"We've been out this whole night and you still haven't told me what's going on. It's not that I don't like being with you but I'm just getting a little curious and anxious here. And I start to itch when I'm curious and anxious…"
"Alright, I'm gonna need your full attention for this…"
"I'm all ea-ooh a cherry!" Spencer grabbed the cherry from the top of the sundae and popped it into his mouth "Go on…"
Leah sighed as her palms started sweating "Well…here goes nothing…I'm pregnant."
Spencer's jaw dropped and started making inaudible sounds. He was choking on the cherry.
"Oh my god...help! Someone help!" Leah pleaded. She cleared the table as she had him lie on the table "He's choking!"
"Move out the way!" the Jen and Barry's cashier, who was built like a wrestler, pounded on Spencer's chest and then out came the cherry hitting someone in the face. Leah took over and patted on his back "Are you alright?" she helped him stand up.
Spencer coughed "Yeah, yeah I'm good. I coulda swore I heard you say you were pregnant…"
"Um, I am…"
Spencer paused and then fainted.
Back at home, Carly was upstairs three hours on the phone with Jake as Sam and Freddie were sitting on the couch looking at the doll. "What do we do with it?" Sam asked.
"Um, we're supposed to change its diapers…and will you stop calling the baby an it?" Freddie replied.
"We don't even know what it is…"
"Just change the diaper…"
Sam grabbed the doll and started yanking the diaper off. And as if it were real, the baby started crying "Alright, what am I doing wrong?"
"You're supposed to be gentle with it." Freddie took the doll and laid it down on the coffee table. He removed the diaper "It's a girl" and then he wiped it, powdered it, and gave it a new diaper.
"Now what do you do?"
"Well, now WE are going to nurse it to sleep…" Freddie cradled the doll in his arms and rocked it to sleep.
"If only the world could see this…" Sam watched as Freddie handled the doll. She tilted her head back "That's kinda cute…" she murmured "A dork like you is pretty good at this…"
"I babysit sometimes…you wanna try?"
"Sure" Sam took the doll and cradled it. She thought the doll would start screaming its head off like every other real baby she held. But it was quiet.
"You're doing great." Freddie smiled.
And a minute later, Sam found herself kissing Freddie. It was slow, sweet and innocent. Then when they heard the door open, the two quickly jumped up off the couch and ran towards the kitchen counter to hide.
Spencer and Leah came through the door and sat on the couch. "How are you feeling?" Leah asked.
"I'm okay. I'm just a little shocked…how did this happen? Well, yeah I know how it happened but…are you sure this is mine?"
"I am one hundred and one percent sure. I haven't slept with anyone else and like I told you, I don't do one night stands…you didn't wear a condom…"
"I thought you were on the pill."
"See, no one here is to blame but us. You didn't wear a condom; I'm not on the pill…it was a heat of the moment thing…"
Spencer sighed "So what are we going to do?"
"Well, I decided that I want to keep the baby. And before you say anything, I don't need anything from you. No money. Nothing. I'm well off. I just…I just want you to be in the baby's life. I want the baby to know that they have a father." she began to sob.
"Leah, I don't know what kind of person you think I am but…" he hugged her "If that's what you want to do then fine. I'm going to support you. I want to support you. And I'm glad that's what you decided."
Leah smiled through her tears and kissed him "Great. You don't know how happy I am hearing that. Well, I have to get going…" she stood up.
"I'll walk you out" Spencer stood up.
"Um, I'd really like to see you again. Tomorrow…if that's fine."
"It's a date! Later, I'll call you." Spencer kissed her and she went on her way. When she was gone, Spencer sobbed "Oh my god, I'm a Dad…" he went to his room.
When he was gone, Sam and Freddie stood up and looked at each other shocked and taken aback. "Oh. My. God…"
(to be continued...)
