Chapter 15: Four Months Later
A/N: Big shout-outs go to my roomates for their help and input on the development of this chapter. Four months have passed since the senseless death of Matt. Things with the seniors of Hidden Rocks are about to get that much more shaken up.
Halle was nervous. More nervous than she had been when Ty asked her to marry him. Life in the last four months had gone from worse to slightly better. Once school finally started for most of the seniors, there was an emergency Student Council election. The teachers and staff placed their nominations and the students were able to cast a vote. Jesse and Marc were in the running for president and Halle and Mollie for Vice-President.
Emma had been out of school for the first two months of school on her court ordered rehab. She was kicked off the cheerleading squad and all her other extra activities. From what Halle could tell from the brief times she saw Emma, she had become a shell of a person. She would walk into school with her head down, not saying anything to anyone and taking in all the glares and hateful comments without once firing back like she would normally do. The only person in the whole school that stood by her was Cohen. He took a lot of crap from people but he stayed with Emma. In the end Halle and Jesse won the re-election.
At this point in the school year, the first quarter had ended and the seniors were getting closer to the granddaddy of all events: Graduation. It was hard for some to know that they were going to be graduating without Matt. With Christmas break apporaching the week everyone was really looking forward to was Winter Formal Spirit Week. The football team had made it to State and beat the crap out of Sheridan. At the Winter Recogniton Assembly Marc was awarded MVP for the season and he actually shared his award with Sebastian.
What was making Halle nervous had nothing to do with school or anything school related. It had everything to do with her and Ty's five month marriage. Winter Formal. Even a year later just the words sent chills down Halle's spine. Halle knew that no one was plotting to steal Ty from her but it still made her nervous that something was going to go wrong.
The other issue, the major issue of her nervousness was the fact that she was hiding her pregnancy from her friends and her husband. Halle had discovered she was pregnant three weeks and two days after Matt had died. Ty suspected his wife was hiding something from him. He had ideas of what it could be but wasn't exactly certain. Since Matt had died Ty had been hanging out more with Casper and the other guys. He kept in contact with his other friends in Greeley who were less than supportive of Ty's decsion to marry Halle. There were days when he wished he was back in Greeley hanging out at his buddy's comic book shop or playing Zela with his friend Greg, then Halle would look over at him from her laptop and smile and he was sure he had made the right choice.
Mollie and Casper had become practically one person after the boys got back from California. Mollie was still clueless after four months as to how Casper was outside waiting for her after each of her classes. She hadn't spoken to Emma at all since the accident. It was hard for Mollie to shun her former best friend. It went against everything that made her who she was. It was hard to have classes with Emma, even if it was only one. The good part was that most of her friends had the same class. That was until Jesse transferred to second period with Marc and Casper.
Life was slowly getting better for Becca. She avoided Emma at all costs, mainly to keep from slapping her across the face. Her friends did their best to get her talking again. Becca told Mollie that Matt loved the sound of her voice and it hurt her too much to talk. Mollie understood and knew that when something inside her made her feel like she was ready to say something she would. Becca supported all of Jesse's plans as Student Council President, secretly wishing she didn't have to. SC ran smoothly with Jesse Valmont and Halle Morris in charge.
The Social Planning Committee met with Halle every Saturday for a month before the Winter Formal. Halle asked her bosses, the Lang's, if the dance could be held in the ballroom again. Landon had said no and Halle understood his reasons. The year before a massive food fight broke out and the ballroom had been trashed. Halle decided that they would use the quad of the school with the fountain as a centerpiece. Halle, as Social Chair, led most of the meetings with the various representives from the other classes. The dance was a week away and the committee were having their last prep meeting at Halle and Ty's apartment.
"All right ladies and Troy," Halle said, bringing the meeting to order. "We have exactly $234.57 alloted for decorations. What do we have going?"
"Montrose Printing deducted twenty percent off the printing price for the large outside banner," Kellie Anne Hutchins, a sophomore replied. "It will save us about $75."
"Good work Kellie," Halle said writing it down in her planning binder. "All right then, sound and music? What do you guys have?"
"I talked to Pepper and Piper Dennis and they agreed to play the piano and the harp in the entry way for the first hour of the dance," Shaya Peterson replied. "And I talked to Ty and he said as long as he had help he'd let us use his sound system."
Halle froze at the mention of Ty's sound system. It brought back memories of the day Matt and Ty had set the system up.
"Step forty-seven: Connect the third blue wire to the second red stickered speaker. Do not, I repeat, do not connect the third blue wire to the base. You will short circut the mainframe and I will then have to kill you," Matt read from the instruction manual. "Is it just me or does each of the instructions end with 'And then I will have to kill you'?"
"That's just how Kevin was," Ty explained. "He may be buried in Arlington but his ghost will come back and kill us if we do fry the mainframe."
"Good to know. And once more for the record, I am so not helping you take this apart when you move."
"Noted."
"That's not the best idea," Halle said. "It took Ty and Ma-Matt almost four hours to set this up. We'll just use the sound system the school has. But I am sure that Ty will run it for us."
Halle took the status updates from all the sub-committees, gave out the last minute assignments and ended the meeting. After they left Halle began to figure out how she was going to tell Ty that they were going to be adding another member to the Morris family tree. Halle stood in front of her mirror and tried to plan out what she was going to say and come up with responses to what Ty may say back to her. She didn't just want to come out of the bathroom and tell Ty she was pregnant like Haley did on One Tree Hill. Halle wanted to make the moment as special as she could.
Ty wasn't sure how he managed to have two jobs, perfect grades, hang out with his friends and spend time with his wife. After moving to Hidden Rocks with Halle, the first thing he did was try to find a job. He got the one up at the lodge that he still had. Then he found Comic Kingdom, a local comic book store in town. There were three people that worked there with him. Kurt, the owner and manager; Luke, Kurt's seventeen year old son; and Eddie, the middle aged super nerd who still lived with his mom. Luke only worked on the weekends when he he visited his dad from Cody. Kurt and Eddie worked during the day and let Ty manage the place from one until closing at seven. Ty's job at the lodge was on a "when we need you" basis. For the most part he worked so he and Halle could survive with minimal help from their parents. Halle also worked. She was a server at the lodge.
Both he and Halle were very smart and very, very diligent with what little money they had. They were surviving. Halle cooked a lot, which saved them on eating out. What the young couple wasn't ready for was a baby. A baby would change all of their plans. Halle decided the best way to tell Ty was by feeding him first. Feed him his favorite food: Homemade Halle Pizza.
The first thing that Ty noticed when he arrived home that evening was that the lights in the living room had been dimmed. Upon further investigation he could smell the distinct scent of garlic and tomato sauce.
"Halle?" Ty called. "Something smells great."
"Homemade pizza and garlic knots," Halle replied from the kitchen. She set out the plate of garlic knots and the pizza on the table. "How was work?"
"Eddie was supposed to be there today but something came up with his mother or cat, I don't know nor did I ask so I had the place to myself. Luke stayed in Cody due to the crappy roads. Reorganized the Marvel section and finished reading how to beat that one level on Zelda:Twilight Princess that was bugging you. How was your day?"
"The Dance Committee came over and we put the finishing touches on the dance," Halle replied taking a bite of her pizza.
"Coolness. Anything else going on?" Ty asked, taking a large bite out of a garlic knot.
"Well I do have some news that is going to affect us for the rest of our lives," Halle said, very slowly, trying to form the right words. "Ty, I'm pregnant."
Ty paused mid-bite. He looked like a deer in the headlights; shocked and confused. "You're what?"
"Pregnant. With child. Knocked up. A bun in the oven. Expecting. The stork. Going to the cabbage patch. Stop me when you get it."
"We're having a baby?" Ty questioned, the light bulb finally clicking on. "What? How? When?"
"Well Ty, when a boy really, really loves a girl," Halle began sarcastically.
"You're not funny," Ty retorted.
"I wasn't trying to be. Ty, I am really freaked out here. Will you please tell me what you're thinking?"
"I am thinking that this is the coolest thing to happen to us. Sure I am just as freaked out by all this as you are. I am very happy about this." Ty took his wife's hand and squeezed it tightly. He could see the fear and uncertainity in Halle's eyes.
"There is no way we can do this," Halle said. "We are barely making it as it is. We owe the Admiral and Lillian more than we can ever hope to pay back for helping us with rent and replacing your car. We can't afford a baby right now."
"Halle, we can pay back the Admiral and Moms back whenever we can spare it. They enjoy helping us," Ty argued. "Baby, we can do this."
"You're taking this better than I thought you would."
"Did you think I was going to be mad? Halle, we eloped in Vegas three days after your eighteenth birthday. What have we ever done that has been in the realm of normal teenage behavior?"
"This was never part of the plan! We were going to college and live happily for a few years before considering kids."
"Plan? Halle, we threw out the damn playbook the second we drove into Vegas. None of this was in my quote on quote plan! Everything I have done since I met you has been crazy and impulsive! What makes you think that I wouldn't be on board with this?"
"Ty I am not ready to be a mother! We are not mature enough to raise another life in this fucked up world!"
"What are you saying Halle? Are you pissed that you're pregnant or are you pissed off that it's with me?"
Halle paused long enough to think but too long for Ty's patience. He took her silence as the latter. He stood up from the table, grabbed his keys and was out the door before Halle could stop him. She buried her head in her hands and started to cry. Ty pulled open the door to his car and just stared at the steering wheel. He had no intention of actually leaving the parking lot of the complex he just needed time to think. Halle sat up and reached for her phone. She didn't bother to look at who she was calling, she just hit the button and hoped for the best.
"Becca's phone," Halle heard Becca's soft, lispy voice answer. "I can't get to my phone right now. Leave me a message or IM me. Later gator!"
Halle hung up her phone without leaving a message. She wandered over to her laptop and logged onto her AIM account. Scanning her buddy list for someone to talk to. As fate would have it Becca was online as well. Halle clicked on Becca's name and began to type.
Zelda'sTutor: Hey Becs. Can we talk?
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: Hi Halle. What's up?
Zelda'sTutor: Ty and I got into a major, huge, life altering fight.
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: You are married. Fights are going to happen. What caused it?
Zelda'sTutor: I'm **PREGNANT**!!!
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: OH MY GOD! Halle that's great! Amazing even!
Zelda'sTutor: How is this great? A sodding nightmare is what it is! A BIG FAT DISASTER!
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: It's not a disaster. When God takes one home with him he always sends someone new.
Zelda'sTutor: I'd rather have Matt.
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: In a way we will always have a bit of Matt with us.
Zelda'sTutor: What are you talking about? Becca are you-?
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: Yes. I have my own little miracle.
Zelda'sTutor: Oh my God. I wonder if Emma's head will completely explode when word of this gets out.
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: I don't want anyone to know yet.
Zelda'sTutor: Of course. It's nobody's business but your own. Are you ok though?
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: It hurts to know that Matt won't be around to see his child grow up but I'm getting to ok.
Zelda'sTutor: We could talk Monday at school.
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: that would be good. And Halle let Ty off the hook.
Zelda'sTutor: Ty's not the one in trouble. I am.
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: How can you be in the one in trouble? What happened?
Zelda'sTutor: We were arguing about the baby and one thing led to another and Ty finally asked if I was pissed becasue I was pregnant or because it was with him.
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: What did you say back?
Zelda'sTutor: Nothing. He left before I could fully answer him.
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: That's bad. What was your answer?
Zelda'sTutor: I am happy that it's with Ty. I'm just not ready to be a mother.
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: Neither am I. But at least you have Ty to talk to about this and have him there with you. I have to do this all alone.
Zelda'sTutor: Becca you are not I REPEAT you are not alone. You have me and Mollie and Jo. Three of the best friends you could ever ask for.
AlwaysMatty'sGirl: Thanks Halle. Look when Ty comes back, you guys need to talk. Really talk without yelling and shouting. It will do you both some good. I know it doesn't sound good right now but it will. I have to go. Mom and I need to talk about this.
Zelda'sTutor: I'll talk to you later then Becca.
Both Becca and Halle logged off and Halle pushed away from her computer. She looked over at the door and wished for Ty to walk through. She started to get up and go out the door after him. She reached for her coat and Ty came back inside. She ran into his arms and held him tightly. Becca's revelation and her own stress of everything finally collided and Halle began to cry. Ty wrapped his arms around Halle.
"I love you Ty," Halle whispered. "I love you and I this baby and I are going to be around forever. So you better get used to the idea."
That Monday at school Becca and Halle seemed to be joined at the hip. Everyone noticed that the two girls were talking very quietly to each other and not letting anyone else in the conversation. People who didn't know either girl that well figured something was going on but not sure what. Mollie was just happy that her friend was reaching out to someone. Happy that she was interacting with everyone again.
Dance Saturday arrived much sooner than everyone wanted. Halle and her dance committee worked for seven hours after school on Friday and then came back early on Saturday morning to put the finishing touches on the quad. They had decorated the fountain with Christmas lights to make it more festive. They had transformed the quad from a drab meeting center of the school into a winter wonderland.
Mollie and Maddie invited all their friends over to Maddie's before the dance to get ready. Maddie's mother Ariel, a stylist and make-up artist offered to help the girls with their hair and make-up. After her husband had died that summer she had decided to stay in Hidden Rocks. She managed the salon at the lodge and even did coloring for people in her home. Maddie was happy to have her mother around more. It was a chance for her and Ariel to get past a few of their issues. Maddie was still a little shocked that Ariel didn't take her share of Eric's estate and run off. It was a nice change.
Because of her newfound friendship with Mollie, Maddie's other "friends"; Odette and Leah were scarce. Maddie found the one nice thing about Emma getting kicked off the cheerleading squad was that Maddie got her spot back. Things for Maddie were going great. Her car was now not street legal and she and Frankie were going to the dance together. Sure it was weird that her boyfriend was the dropout working at a garage but she was smitten.
Mollie and Maddie or M&M as they were lovingly called by the cheer squad, never seemed to be without the other. The two girls balanced the other out. For every mean, nasty or dirty comment Maddie would make, Mollie would be right there to give Maddie that "look" and Maddie would sometimes apologize. It was an odd friendship but for some strange reason it worked. Not sure how but it did.
Mollie's sister-in-law/step-mother always made Mollie's formals. It was the first time that she made a dress for one of Mollie's friends. Maddie was having issues finding something that looked so much different than the rest of the dresses they saw in Casper or even in Sheridan. So Mollie made a call and Amy sent Maddie a beautiful, skin tight one shoulder black dress with gold beading. Maddie looked stunning and she loved it. Mollie's dress was a little more vintage in look than Maddie's. For Mollie Amy drew on her love for the movie Titanic. Mollie had a decent reconstruction of Rose's dress from the end of the movie. Mollie loved it and she look amazing.
Once all the girls were ready and beautiful Ariel posed them in front of the fireplace. Becca and Halle stood in the back of the group. Halle was showing but Becca was still hard to tell. It was getting harder for Halle not to tell anyone about her pregnancy. At that moment only Becca and Ty knew that Halle was pregnant. Halle wanted to keep it that way until the end of the dance. The boys agreed to pick up the girls at Maddie's place. From Maddie's headed off to Brannegan's for dinner.
At the pub, the boys ordered a huge plate of Brady Brannegan's flaming, burning, volcaneo hot wings. These were the wings that the sauce was so hot and spicy it marinated itself in the chicken that even dipping them in the coldest ranch dressing did not a thing to soothe the burning. The boys would egg each other on until the one would get mad enough to take a large bite. Then they would laugh hysterically as the one doing the eating would down an entire glass of Sprite. Mollie looked over at her boy and just shook her head. It was reminscent of times past with Matt. Jesse sat back in his chair and thought of a time, one year prior to a day much like this one. He began to smile as he thought about it.
One Year Ago...
Matt, Becca, Jo, Marc, Sebastian, Mollie, Emma, and Jesse were sitting around their table at the Lang Lodge for the Winter Formal. Halle and her dance committee got the lodge to host the dance and even had food served. Of the food being served was a fresh sushi bar. Matt had gotten up to go through the food line. When he came back he was holding a small dish heaping with wasabi. he had that "I'm-Up-To-Something" grin on his face.
"Who's ready for this year's Winter Formal Bet?" Matt asked.
Marc and Jesse groaned. Every year Matt would come up with a crazy dare for his friends to try. Matt always won and would make the loser do something humilating.
"What's the idiotic thing we have to do this year?" Marc asked.
"Whoever can hold a spoonful of wasabi in his mouth the longest makes the loser do the dare the winner comes up with," Matt said.
"No way," Marc argued. "Last year you made me do a striptrease in front of the whole dance to 'I'm Too Sexy'. I'm not doing it this year."
"You will and you'll like it," Matt teased. "Where's Casper? He has to be in on this too."
Matt and Jesse looked around the room and located the fifth member of their merry little band. Jesse waved Casper over to their table. He took the empty seat next to Mollie. The two shared a smile but nothing more. "What's the bet this year?" Casper asked.
"Spoonful of wasbi," Matt said. "You in?"
"Hell yes. You are so singing 'Believe' this year Montgomery."
Matt handed each guy a spoon. They each dished up a bit of wasbi. While they were dishing it up Matt's hand vanished under the table. They came back up with his spoon of "wasbi". He looked over at Becca. "Becca my dear, would be so kind as to time this please?"
"The Third Annual Winter Formal Idiot's Bet will begin in three, two, one, GO!" Becca announced starting the timer on Matt's cell phone.
And soon the race was on. For anyone who has ever ate wasbi straight knows the burn. Marc was the first to spit out his. For being a big, bad footballer he was not one for spicy foods. Jesse soon followed suit and then Sebastain. It was down to Casper and Matt. Two minutes and forty-five seconds later Casper's eyes were watering and Matt was ginning. Casper's eyes grew and steeled into a glare as he spit out the wasbi.
"You lying, cheating manwhore!" Casper yelled. "You dirty, rotten, low down, yellow bellied, jerkface, cheating liar!"
Matt swallowed his "wasbi", grinning like the Cheshire Cat. "What?"
"Whatever you just ate was not wasbi!" Casper accused.
"Sure it was," Matt retorted.
"Bovine fecal matter Montgomery! Admit you cheated right now or so help me God I will shove ten pounds of wasbi down your throat!"
"Avacado," Matt laughed. "It was avacado."
"Oh you are so dead! Come here!" Casper shouted lunging across the table for Matt. Matt ran from the table and the chase was on. Jesse and Marc joined the chase and cornerd Matt by the karaoke stage. Marc grabbed him by the left arm and Jesse held fast to Matt's right. Casper whispered something to the karaoke deejay and grabbed the mike.
"Now singing Madonna's 'Like a Virgin' is Matthew Edward Montgomery III," Casper announced.
"You three are going to burn in hell for this," Matt muttered. The song came on and Matt began to sing. "I made it through the wilderness Somehow I made it through Didnt know how lost I was Until I found you..."
Jesse snapped out of his memory. He cocked his head, his eyes deep in thought. "You know, something has been bugging me for almost a bloody year," Jesse said to no one in particular.
"What's that?" Marc asked, stealing a shrimp from Jo's scampi.
"How did Matt manage to switch his wasbi spoon with avacado?" Jesse said.
"Of all the things to obess about over the past year, Matt's wasabi switch makes the top of the list?" Casper retorted, stealing a cruton from Mollie's salad and flicking it at Sebastian.
Marc was quiet for a moment. "Come to think of it, I would like to know how he got away with it."
Becca looked down, trying very hard not to smile. She knew exactly how Matt got away with the switch. All eyes at the long table turned on Becca. Mollie smiled at her friend. "Hey Becs?" Mollie called. "You wouldn't happen to know how Matt pulled the switch?"
Becca looked up and smiled over at her friends. "He had given me a spoon of plain avacado just before he set down the wasbi on the table," Becca explained, with Mollie translating the signs. "The year before I switched his bottle of hot sauce with watered down ketchup and the year before that it was chocolate covered rasins in place of the real chocolate covered grasshoppers."
"Son of a bitch!" Casper exclaimed. "That little manwhore! He rigged every winter formal bet since freshmen year."
Jesse began to laugh. Big hearty, from the bottom of his feet laughs. Laughs that would send him flying if he was in Mary Poppins. Jesse began to laugh so hard he began to cry.
"Jesse, what the bloody hell is so sodding funny?" Halle asked her brother.
"Matt managed to punk us all the time and the best we could do to get back at him was force him to sing Like a Virgin karaoke at the school dance? God we suck!" Jesse laughed. "We have to be the worst sodding prankers on the planet. Ashton is so embarrassed by us now."
"Matt was the king," Marc sighed.
A pall fell over the group. Casper raised his glass up and nodded. The rest of their food came and the teens ate in silence. The joyfulness of the group didn't return until they got to the dance. Halle smiled as she and Ty walked into the quad. She and her team had done such a wonderful job that you couldn't tell that thirty-six hours ago it had just been the quad of the school.
This was the second school function that Mollie had attended without Emma. Homecoming had been hard. With each passing day Mollie realized how much of her life was, not so much controlled as it was dictated by Emma. With Emma out of her life, Mollie felt less stressed and worried. Worried about what Emma would do next. Worried that Emma was leading her down a path that she didn't want to take. She finally felt like she was her own person and not just Emma Ross' best friend. She was able to think for herself without Emma's judgemental and harsh views.
Once inside the school the couples broke off to be alone. Maddie waited by the door for Frankie to arrive. Jesse met with Kate by the punch bowl. Becca hung out with Halle and Ty as they made the rounds to the different groups of people standing around. Marc and Jo joined the other members of the foorball team for pictures. Mollie and Casper sat by the fountain.
"Is it just me or has both Becca and Halle been acting strange lately?" Mollie asked, lying her head on Casper's shoulder.
"All you girls act strange," Casper teased.
"So not what I meant," Mollie chided. "They have been hanging out together a lot more."
"You worry too much, Mollie. Come on, dance with me."
Mollie nodded and Casper helped her stand up. He led her out to the dance floor and held her close. Around them time seemed to stand still. Everyone else around them seemed to vanish. Mollie felt like Giselle did when she danced with McDreamy. It was the first dance in a long time that Mollie was having fun.
Something had been bothering Jo for a few days. Joella Constable had enough credits to graduate last year but chose not to so she could spend her senior year with her friends. Jo took three classes in the morning and then worked in the afternoon at her moms' OB clinic doing the billing and scheduling. For the most part Jo spent more time in her mother's office talking to patients and to the hospital. Barely did she ever see people when they came into the office. Three days prior Jo had two charts come across her desk. One for Halle Morris and one for Becca Cornwallis. It didn't suprise Jo that her friends were going to her moms for GYN care because most of the teenage girl population of Hidden Rocks went to Drs. Constable and Grantland. What shocked the hell out of Jo was the fact that her two best friends were pregnant. Both due three days apart.
Jo looked across the quad in search of her friends. The mindless conversation that she was enduring from some of the other "football girlfriends" was getting to her and she excused herself seeing Halle and Becca sitting quietly beside each other on the other side of the fountain. Passing through the line for the karaoke stage Jo slid in next to Becca.
"Hey JoJo," Halle greeted. "You want to grab Mollie and get in the lineup for a song?"
"Not right now," Jo answered, politely. She had something she needed to ask and wasn't going to wait anymore. "There is something I need to ask you."
"Before you say another word Jo, you already know the answer to your question," Halle said. "Look this has to remain between the three of us."
"Oh my God!" Jo exclaimed. "This is amazing! This is great!"
"Yeah we know," Becca said. "JoJo please don't say anything. We want to be able to tell people in our own time and in our own way."
"Of course. My lips are sealed," Jo replied. "I will say that Mollie will be rather hurt that you two didn't tell her."
"Tell me what?" Mollie asked from behind Jo.
"That we chose 'Love Shack' for our group karaoke song," Halle covered.
Mollie paused. Winter Formal Karaoke was a traditon that Emma had started. It felt strange doing it without her. "Are you going to tell me what you were really talking about?"
Halle looked over at Becca and Becca gave her a nod. "We're pregnant, Mollie. Becca and I are," Halle blurted. "We weren't going to tell you because we know how you still feel about Emma and we didn't want to cause you anymore stress."
Mollie was silent. She began to process the information that just got spat out at her. She began to digest the shock and turmoil stirring inside her. Not only did Emma destroy the hearts of so many people she took a daddy from his child. She killed a daddy before he could ever become a daddy. Mollie had no idea what to say or even how to act. She was literally at a loss for words.
"Oh my God," Mollie breathed. "This is huge. Life altering huge."
"Yeah we know," Becca said. "But we are both very happy about this."
"It's the greatest gift life has to offer. A precious, wonderful gift," Mollie said, beginning to tear up. "Wow."