"And… there's your baby." The ultra-sound technician pointed out what looked like a tree stump: a perfect circle with many multi-colored rings. It was so tiny that Alice was amazed that anyone could pick it out from everything else on the screen: it looked exactly the same.
"Wow." Alice answered dryly, not knowing exactly what to say.
It had been a week since she found out she was pregnant – a full seven days since her life had changed forever. Today was her first doctor's appointment – basically all they were doing was drawing about a thousand samples of blood and a very short ultra-sound.
Alice had been matched up with a blond thirty-something that looked like an aged version of Rosalie. Alice could only imagine what thoughts had gone through her mind when she saw that Alice was only fourteen. Everyone in the waiting room probably suspected that Alice was here with her mother – no one wanted to think that someone who could not even buy a ticket to an R rated movie was having a baby.
"You take good care of that." The doctor ordered as she moved the picture on the monitor around so she was looking at the other side of the baby's head.
Alice wanted to tell her that she would do nothing but that; that this baby was her first priority in life. No matter how upset she was, Alice had loved this baby since to second she found out she was pregnant, but it still felt… wrong to be happy about it. Was there any option but misery when you were fourteen and pregnant?
"No matter what you do, this baby will always belong to you." The doctor told Alice, as if she was reading her mind. Her voice sounded like that of a caring mother, rather than of a judging doctor.
Alice pretended she did not hear her. Instead, she glanced at her mother, who was sitting next to Alice; watching the monitor screen with a detached expression. Mrs. Brandon had not taken the new good, but she had not taken it as bad as Alice had expected she would. Alice was looking forward to the day where she did not have to tip-toe around her parents, for fear of pushing them off the edge.
"Well, I've seen everything I need," The woman went on, wiping the ultra-sound wand off with a paper towel, "You are defiantly pregnant. I'd put at about nine and a half weeks, with a due date of March ninth."
"Thanks." Alice muttered as she started to wipe the sticky gel off her own stomach. To her dismay, it was the sort of thing that did not want to come off: it merely spread around into thinner layers on her skin.
"Now, because you are under fifteen, you have several risk factors involved with this pregnancy." She went on in a warning tone, as if she suspected Alice of reckless actions that would put her baby at risk.
"I'll be fifteen in ten days." Alice answered as she stood up, giving up on getting all the gel off and figuring she would just take a shower when she got home. Realizing as soon as the words left her mouth that she sounded like a first grader bragging about how old they were, Alice wished she had just shut up.
"Still, you are very young to be having a baby. I'm setting you up for another appointment next week so we can make sure everything is still going good, and you'll need to take prenatal vitamins." The lecture continued in a stern voice. Alice only nodded in agreement.
"Okay." Alice answered, wondering if she would ever get a chance to say more than one word at a time.
Setting up her next appointment did not take long, and soon enough Alice and her mother were making their way back through the crowded waiting rooms filled with sick people, broken bones, and woman much more pregnant than Alice.
"What did you think of that?" Alice asked once they were back in their car and pulling out of the mammoth sized parking out.
"Well… it was interesting," Mrs. Brandon answered, not taking her eyes off the road, "It's sad that you have to go through all this."
Alice bit the side of her cheek in response.
"Honestly, though," Mrs. Brandon went on with the slightest of smiles, "I'm the tiniest bit excited."
This surprised Alice. "Really?" She asked, confusion in her voice.
"Well, I would like to have another baby in the house," Mrs. Brandon answered, as if it was an obvious answer, "it's not like we can change the situation now, so we might as well look at the positive side of it."
"Okay, be honest," Alice challenged, "how upset were you when I first told you?"
"It would scare you if I told you the truth." Mrs. Brandon told her in a firm voice, as if her own anger had been as terrifying as horror movies that came out Halloween night.
"But you've calmed down?" Alice asked hopefully.
"Yes," Mrs. Brandon answered simply, "but you're still not going anywhere for about seven or eight years."
"Well… that's understandable." Alice chuckled, knowing that even though her mother was exaggerating, it was the honest truth. Once she gave birth, she would have a twenty four hour; seven day a week job. These months were really her last to have any sort of freedom, no matter how limited.
"I'm not even kidding Alice, you have to be an adult from now on. You have to be more responsible than anyone else your age." Mrs. Brandon lectured harshly, pointing out the fear Alice had been facing in the eye for the last week.
"Do you really think I haven't thought of that?" Alice asked, "It's all that's been on my mind."
"And it will be – for the next seven and a half months it will be." Mrs. Brandon told her, spoken like a true mother, "then, you'll be worrying for the rest of your life about your child, even after he is grown up and has a family of his own, you will think and worry about him each and every day."
"Can we stop talking about this?" Alice asked, ready to put the subject out of her mind for a few hours. It was still early in the morning, and with summer coming to a quick end, every day counted. Particularly when considering that very soon, Alice would have to tell Jasper that she was pregnant.
Deep down, Alice knew she would put this task off until the last minute – her parents had been easier to tell because they could never leave her. Jasper, on the other hand, could walk out of her life with a single word. More than anything, Alice could not handle a baby on her own. She needed the baby to have a father.
Although… if Jasper did not want to be a father, it was up to him. Alice would much walk away from this if she could, but she couldn't. Alice would be disappointed and pissed off if Jasper left Alice high and dry with a baby on her own, but she was not going to make him do anything.
As soon as Mrs. Brandon pulled into their driveway, Alice hoped out of the car and headed up to her room. She was grateful to finally be able to have some sort of peace and quite, after having people fussing over her for so long at the hospital. Honestly, they had tested her for every STD and vitamin deficiency under the sun, and then some. She could have told them on her own that she didn't have AIDS.
Plopping down on her computer chair, Alice logged onto her Myspace account with expert finger pricks. She never did learn how to type 'right' as some people called the Home Row format, but she was far faster than some of her classmates typing with two fingers.
Not many people were online right now: early morning hours and summer days did not mix for a bunch of fourteen and fifteen year olds. How people talked before the invention of e-mail and instant messaging went right over her head.
After finding no one she particularly wanted to talk to and toying around with her playlists for a few minutes, Alice quickly grew bored and logged off. She wondered if she should look for some information on pregnancy – or maybe even find a website full of baby names.
What would she name the baby? It seemed a waste of effort to consider it before she knew if the baby was a boy or a girl – but didn't a lot of people wait until birth to find out the gender? Alice didn't know how they survived for so long with the mystery – Alice couldn't wait to find out already, and she was only nine weeks along.
At least after her doctor's endeavor, she had a Zero Hour head of her: March ninth. That was as good a day to have a baby as any, Alice guessed. It wasn't like it would make her life any harder or easier depending on which day the baby was born. Still, spring was the most beautiful season there was.
Sighing deeply, Alice opened up her e-mail account, shifting through the dozens of spam, automated messages, and some guy who kept trying to sell her prescription meds online. There was one from Jasper, which Alice opened up immediately. It dawned on her that she had not talked to him in almost two weeks: he must be freaking out.
Turns out, he was freaking out for an entirely different reason.
Author's note: I know, it's been about nine months since you got an update (coincidence or irony?) and I really have no excuse for it, so I won't try to make one.
Although, I must say, this is easily the tenth draft of this chapter I have written. Luckily, it has given me many ideas, and I am now pumped and ready to write!
Hope you enjoyed!