Recap time! (:

There's a new substitute teacher. She's kind of creepy. She likes Percy. Oh boy.
Thalia went to her first prenatal appointment. She told Luke she got an abortion. She really didn't. Uh oh.
Chris told Clarisse that he doesn't date during basketball season, and now she really hates him. But Silena and Luke are together now. Oh, things have odd ways of working out.
Percy got told he should watch out for an electrician turned mayor turned governor turned senator turned ambassador. Yeah, it's quite the resume. Intense.
Annabeth has been her normal know-it-all self. She'll never make friends if she doesn't change her attitude.
And Thalia and Bianca are now friends. Yeah, it's weird in a strangely perfect way.
And that's what you've missed. ;) [And man, it feels like a lot!]

Chapter Twenty-One
The Kind of Teacher Women Would Desire

"Very developed ideas, Becky. Nice introduction, Grover. Travis...interesting topic." Mrs. M made her way around the room, slowly handing back the rough drafts of our papers and finding something nice to say about everyone.

"I'm Connor." The Stoll brother said, grabbing his paper from her. She didn't notice.

"Good word choice, Lea. Annabeth…pay attention to the notes I wrote on your paper. You have a long way to go." Annabeth's face turned bright red and it looked like she wanted to start screaming. Or throwing things. Or maybe just strangle Mrs. M.

That girl scared me.

"Very nice paper, Percy. Make sure to see the note I wrote on your references page."

My essay was about global warming. And even though my mom had practically written half of it for me, it wasn't a very nice paper. I could have plagiarized Green Eggs and Ham, turned it in, and gotten praised for being a genius. Mrs. M worshipped me.

She would ask me to stay after class to help her sort out papers.

When she passed by my desk, she would linger for a few seconds too long.

And even though she always wore those giant oversized sunglasses, I swore she was always looking at me.

So needless to say, I was kind of scared to look at what the heck she'd written on my paper.

The bad feeling I had about her increased when I saw the message written in bright red blocky handwriting.

Percy, I think we need to talk one on one about things. Please see me today after school. –Mrs M.

On the last day before winter break? I wasn't staying a second longer than I had to. Especially with a creepy stalker of a teacher.

"Look over the corrections I've made on your papers. I want you to come back from your break with a second draft finished." Predictably, a few people groaned. "You can have the rest of the hour to start working."

She hadn't written any corrections on my paper. Any. I knew someone like Annabeth would find a million things wrong with it. It was creepy how much Mrs. M idolized me.

Like, really creepy.

I looked at her sitting at her desk out of the corner of my eye. She was focused right on me.

There was no way I was going to be anywhere near her room when the last bell rang.

The winter concert was the worst school event in existence. The only thing worse than Christmas music was Christmas music being butchered by pitchy junior high kids. I'd been going to these since middle school – I knew what to expect.

I should have known to knock on wood or something.

Mr. Sol promised me we could run through my solo a few times if I got there early, so I showed up half an hour before the other people were scheduled to arrive. Nico had decided he wanted to stay home, and our dad wasn't home…again. I wondered where he was, but then again, I really didn't want to know.

The music room was completely empty. "Mr. Sol? You there?"

This would have been a good time to turn around and wait in my car. I knew what had happened last time I'd shown up early. But, you know, stupid me. I went poking around before I decided to check his office.

He was sitting in there with his headphones turned up so loud I could hear them from ten feet away. Some dub step song was playing. Classy.

He didn't notice me so I got closer. His phone was vibrating on his desk. There was a new text message from Daphne…the bitch from the last time I'd caught him on his phone. He seemed pretty resolute on ignoring it, or maybe he just didn't hear it going off. When your music was that loud, you could easily ignore a nuclear war.

I tapped his shoulder.

"Jesus!" He whipped around, yanking out his headphones. I noticed his eyes were bloodshot.

"Should I be offended that you keep mistaking me for a middle-aged bearded man?" I retorted. "You said we could run through my solo, remember?"

"Bianca. Your solo's fine." His speech was obviously slurred. "They don't really care about how you sound. They care more about…" He stood up. I felt like he was just a few inches too close. "…the way you look. The way you act. They don't care about right notes if they can.." He brushed a piece of hair away from my face. "...feel the passion."

He kissed me. And I swear, the way I kind of leaned into him and went along with it for the first few seconds was just a stunned reaction. His lips were really soft, and he tasted minty…like mouthwash...like, when you washed out your mouth because you were trying to hide something.

I pushed him away. "Are you drunk?"

"No," he said defensively. I glared at him. "Okay, maybe a little," he conceded.

My drunken music instructor had just made out with me and all I could think about was whether or not he thought I was a good kisser. Something was wrong with me. "You've got a bunch of kids depending on you to direct them, and you're drunk."

"They'll be okay."

"You could get arrested."

"Not really. You're 18 and I'm 24." His confidence seemed a little shaky.

"The school board probably wouldn't really care."

"The guidance counselor comes to school drunk all the time." He was getting really defensive. I had him nervous.

Good. He deserved it.

"I don't think those girls who pretend to be suicidal during calculus tests are going to his office for a romantic rendezvous."

All of the sudden, he was kissing me again. Like, hands knotted in the hair and tongue down the throat kissing. And I liked it. Like, really liked it. "What are you doing?" I whispered when he pulled away for a second. Like, one of those little breathy sighs. I hated myself. I was so screwed.

"If the school board's gonna find out, I might as well get everything I can."

If that didn't make a girl want to swear off guys and become a nun, I don't know what would.

I pushed him away. "You're a pig."

"Wait, that came out wrong. I'm sorry. Bianca, will you just listen to me?" He grabbed my wrist as I tried to dramatically storm out of his office.

"Don't touch me," I hissed.

He finally got the picture and backed off. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah, so am I."

I sat on the choir risers for a few minutes, painfully aware of the fact that he was in his office not even twenty feet away. I pretended to play on my phone so he wouldn't get any ideas about coming out and talking to me.

Grover was the first person to arrive. "If you're here to get help with your oboe solo, don't even think about going in his office," I said loud enough that I was sure Mr. Sol could hear me.

Grover sat down next to me. "Giles gave me a ride. He works nights at his job. Trying to save money so he can go to college out of state when he graduates. My parents don't come to my concerts."

That made two of us.

A few people slowly arrived and grabbed their instruments. Things didn't get interesting until Silena walked in hand in hand with her brand new boyfriend.

"Thanks for the ride," she cooed, kissing him.

He seemed stiff around her, the opposite of how he'd been with Thalia. Not that I wanted those two back together. The guy was an asshole.

"Poor Thalia," Grover said to me. "I have to go get my oboe ready."

I must have been glaring at Silena, because she gave me the jealous much? look and leaned into her boyfriend for round two. "I'll text you when I'm done," she said.

"Sure. See you then."

I tried to remind myself that he didn't know he had a pregnant ex-girlfriend who was going to a prenatal appointment tomorrow instead of enjoying her first day of winter break.

But it didn't work.

I really wanted to punch his face.

"Ten weeks. You're a fourth of the way done, Thalia." Doctor Zatari walked in to the room, smiling.

It didn't exactly make me jump for joy. I tried not to groan. "Yeah, but the worst is yet to come."

Doctor Zatari took a seat next to me and looked at my chart. I'd had a different nurse this time – thank God. "You've gained three pounds since we last saw you." She looked mildly concerned. "Let's see if we can't hear a heartbeat. Pull up your shirt please, dear."

I leaned back and did what she told me to. "But I thought you can't hear the heartbeat yet. I don't want to hear the heartbeat yet." On every pregnancy website, the expectant moms talked about how magical it was hearing their baby for the first time and how it made them really bond with their child. I did not want that. Not yet.

"Thalia, it's okay. I just want to make sure everything's okay with the baby." She was using her soothing voice. It wasn't helping much. "I know you're scared, but there's nothing to be worried about."

After she told me she needed to check that everything was okay. Yeah, reassuring. Even if I didn't want to love this baby, I didn't want anything bad to happen to it. Terrible mother in the making, I know.

The thing she was using looked just like the ultrasound thing, except it was connected to what looked like a giant Walkman instead of a computer screen. She nodded to herself as she moved the sensor around. It all sounded the same to me, but she seemed to notice something.

"Is that the heartbeat?" All I could hear was this whooshing sound. It didn't exactly connect with the image of a baby. Thank God.

"Yes."

A few minutes later, she set the machine down, looking less than satisfied. "We're going to do an ultrasound."

"I'm not going to look." According to the websites, the only thing more magical than the heartbeat was the actual image.

"That's fine."

She squirted goo on my stomach and grabbed a different machine. Okay, I hated myself for it, but I got curious and peeked. It was an old-fashioned ultrasound, not one of those creepy new 3D ones. All I saw a little blob of a head and a little blob of feet. Or at least I thought that was what it was. Again, no magic moment.

"Thalia, I have a surprise." Her tone was that same soothing one. At that moment, I hated it because I couldn't tell if good or bad news was coming.

"Okay."

"There's two."

"Surprises?"

"No. Babies."

I felt like I'd been punched in the stomach. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

She pointed to a spot on the screen. "There's Twin A." She moved her hand a few inches over. "And there's Twin B."

"Are you sure it's not one that's just really-"

A nurse poked her head in the door. "I'm clocking out for the night." Her scrubs had little dancing babies on them. "Oh, twins. Aren't you the lucky girl?" she winked, looking at my ultrasound. "Enjoy your weekend, Narissara."

If Doctor Zatari were the type, I knew she'd have an I told you so look on her face.

"Okay, Carol. See you Monday." Doctor Zatari had only been able to fit me at the very end of the day, the time when she would normally be checking out. I probably should have felt blessed or something.

She handed me a towel and set her equipment back in its place. I tried getting as much of the goo off as I could and forgot the images of the two little blobs.

"Tell me how you're feeling."

I glared at her. "How would you feel if you were 17, pregnant with twins, and the father was with someone else because he didn't know about any of it?"

She met my eyes. "I can't have children."

I'm a terrible person. My first instinct was to laugh. An OB/GYN who couldn't have kids? It was ironic in a way that inspired pity and humor at the same time.

"I'm sorry."

"You know the look people give you when they find out you're 17 and pregnant? You're giving me the exact same one right now, Thalia." She snapped on a pair of gloves. "I'm going to draw blood for a few tests." I guess that was her way of changing the subject.

"I don't like needles."

She smiled faintly as she stuck the needle in my arm. "You'll get over it by the time we're done. I assume you've narrowed down your options for this pregnancy, since you're here."

"I'm not getting an abortion if that's what you're asking." Was it still just an abortion if there were two babies? I tried not to shudder.

"But you're not sure what you're doing postpartum?"

"Nope." I was still trying not to think about it.

"Thalia, believe me when I tell you I'm not saying this just because you're a teenage mother, but there are lots of couples who would love to adopt twins." She pulled the needle out of my arm. "Couples who have been waiting for years."

"Like you and your husband?"

"No." Her tone was as close to icy as I imaged someone like her could get. "Have you considered how you want to deliver? Of course, that will probably all change now that you're expecting twins." There was the faintest trace, almost imperceptible, of envy in her voice.

"I thought you only had one option. A C-section."

"You can plan whatever you want as long as you stay flexible." I didn't say anything. Doctor Zatari sighed deeply. "I'm sorry, Thalia. It's been a long day."

"I know the feeling."

"Would you like to go out to dinner with me? I'm sorry Thalia, but I did a little digging in your medical history and saw that your mother passed away…and I know this is a difficult time for you. I want to make sure we make this pregnancy go as smoothly as possible."

Yeah, like that would ever happened.

I was trying not to let the twins thing sink in. Trying really, really hard. But reality was crushing in on me, and I had no idea what to do, and it was just really nice to know someone cared, or at least felt bad enough for you to pretend to.

"Sure. That would be great."