CHAPTER SIX
December 13th
16 weeks
"Make sure you wear something appropriate," Tara said.
"When have I ever not worn something appropriate?" Cat asked.
"Um, you wear short as fuck dresses all the time," April said. "Even with the baby. You tryna prostitute the both of you?"
"You nasty," she said, throwing a pillow at April.
"Alright, you girls stop," Tara said. "Get up, get ready for school. April, I want you out of detention today. Cat, I want you to let me know if you start feeling dizzy again, I do not want another repeat of last night."
Cat had been feeling fine yesterday, but after she took a shower, she started getting dizzy and could hardly function. Tara wanted her to stay home from school today, but Cat insisted on going so she could go to the flower shop after school in hopes of Mrs. Vega hiring her.
"I'll be fine, I feel alright," Cat said.
"You felt alright yesterday too and it still happened. I mean it. If you get dizzy, you stay put and you have someone call the office and call me."
"I'll be fine. Don't worry about me. It's April you should worry about, she's the one that's gonna end up in detention anyways."
"Your low faith in me hurts," April said.
"Tell me I'm wrong."
"No, you're right. It'd just be nice for my own sister to be supportive."
"Now you know how she feels," Tara said. "Now go get dressed for school, both of you. I don't want you to be late."
Just an hour later, the Valentine twins arrived at school. As they walked into the building, April rolled her eyes while Cat stalked away from her with a scowl upon her face.
"What did you do to her?" Jade asked, appearing next to April.
"Apparently I was driving too fast," April said. "I was going four miles over the limit."
"You know how she gets about cars. She doesn't even like being in them, don't give her anything to stress out about. She's already a mess, with the baby and everything."
"It's been four years. She needs to get over it."
"You don't just 'get over' the death of your father, April. Even you still have your days."
"No I don't. I'm over it."
"Is that why you were at my place last month crying because your dad would have been disappointed in you for not a first, but a second pregnancy scare?"
April looked at her for a few seconds. "Shut up, don't talk about it. My mom doesn't know. If she found out, she'd flip. And I was only crying about it because Dad would have killed me if I ended up pregnant, especially with Cat being pregnant, cause come on - two teenaged daughters having babies? That's not exactly something a parent would be proud of. And Mom only knows about the first scare from this summer, I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention the other one around anybody. Especially Cat."
"You didn't tell Cat?"
"She cries at everything, I don't tell her shit anymore."
"She's hormonal."
"She's annoying."
"She's still your sister. Give her a break. And stop making her cry, she called me when she got home yesterday and said you called her stupid."
"I didn't call her stupid, I said her idea was stupid. She wants to turn her closet into the baby's room. That's stupid."
"No it's not. That closet is huge, it'd be the perfect size for a nursery."
"Yeah, what about when the baby gets bigger? She'll have to move everything into another room once it's older."
"There's like, a good three years before she'll have to upgrade."
"I wouldn't wanna have to move all of that furniture into a new room."
"That's because you're fucking lazy," Jade said as they started walking towards Cat and the rest of the group. "So, what's up with you and Ryan? I haven't seen you two all kissy on each other in a while."
April sighed. "He broke up with me. He didn't want to, but his mom found out about Cat, and... well, you know his mom, you've met her."
"Bible thumping bitch," she said as they joined the group. "What's up? Why is Cat crying? Did you try to play Pirates with her?" she asked, hitting Robbie's arm.
"No," Robbie rolled his eyes. "She forgot her pencil pouch at home."
"Oh my god," April said, digging into her backpack. "Here, stop crying. They're just pencils," she said, handing a mechanical pencil to Cat.
"I can't help it," Cat sniffled. "You know how I am."
"Yeah. I know. Cheer up. It's not the end of the world, I promise. Your teachers don't care what you use to write with as long as it isn't crayons or magic markers again."
"I was eleven, I needed something to write with, how was I supposed to know you couldn't use a magic marker on a scantron?"
"It was eleventh grade, and you should have known because they told us to use a number two pencil."
"Whatever," Cat said. "I'm going to class. I'll see you guys at lunch," she said, starting toward the stairs.
As she got to the landing, Kelly stopped in front of her, making her sigh.
"What do you want, Kelly..."
"For you to keep your mouth shut about my personal life," Kelly said.
"I haven't said anything about you."
"You told my mom and Aunt Tara about the abortion. You swore you'd never say anything about that."
"Yeah well, you were calling me names and bullying me, so I wasn't gonna look like the only fool. They would have found out eventually anyways."
"They wouldn't have if you'd kept your mouth shut. Considering you don't know how to keep your legs shut, I'm not surprised that you can't keep a secret."
"That doesn't even make sense, Kelly. Can you move please? I need to get to class."
"Can you stop telling people my business?"
Cat sighed. "Come on, Kelly, I need to be early for this class so I can finish the homework for it."
"Maybe you should have done it last night."
"Maybe you should let me worry about my own academic habits," she said, pushing past her cousin and walking up the left staircase.
Kelly followed her, stopping her as she froze in front of her. "I think you're about due to learn a little lesson."
"I could be learning a lesson if you'd let me go to class."
"This is more... karma."
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Before Cat could move and protect herself, she felt her cousin's hands shove her, and before she could grab the railing of the staircase, she felt herself topple backwards. She screamed as her back hit the edge of a step and that caught the attention of other students.
The group's attention directed toward her and the second they saw it was Cat, they all rushed to her, Robbie kneeling on the ground and reaching out to touch her but being stopped by Jade.
"Don't," Jade said. "Don't touch her, she could have spinal injuries," she said, kneeling next to the crying redhead.
"It hurts!" Cat sobbed.
"What hurts, Cat? Tell me what hurts."
"Everything!"
"Did you hit your head, your stomach?"
"I don't know!"
April's eyes filled with tears, but she quickly blinked them away as she looked towards Kelly, who was still standing at the top of the stairs. She growled and rushed up the staircase, punching her cousin and making her fall to the floor before she sat on top of her and wrapped her small hands around the other girl's throat.
"You wanna keep fucking with my family?" April shouted. "You think it's funny to push a pregnant girl down the fucking stairs!"
"Get off!" Kelly said with a strained voice.
April's grip got tighter around her neck. "You hurt her!"
"Get off of me!"
Jade looked from Cat towards April and she stood up, walking up the stairs. She pulled April off of Kelly and pulled the girl up by her hair, dragging her halfway down the staircase and making her lean backwards over the railing. "You're gonna listen to me, bitch," Jade snarled. "You're gonna keep your fucking hands off of that little girl. You're gonna stop fucking with her. You're going to leave her the fuck alone."
"I swear to god I'll press charges if you hurt me!" Kelly said.
"Yeah? How you gonna do that if you're dead?" she asked, making Kelly lean further back, causing her to grip the banister. "You could have fucking killed her! You could have hurt that baby!"
"I don't care! She doesn't deserve that baby!"
"Just because you killed yours doesn't mean hers deserves the same fate!" Jade yelled.
"Jade, that's enough," Beck said. "She gets it."
Jade stared at Kelly for a few seconds before pulling her towards her and letting her go. "Stay the fuck away from Cat. This is your only warning. The next time you even look at her, I'll snap your fucking neck."
"You're all talk and no action. If you were going to do anything to hurt me, you would have already," Kelly said.
"She doesn't have the time to, because I'm beating her to it," April said, grabbing Kelly's hair and slamming her head into the railing of the banister before letting her cousin fall to the stairs.
"Girls!" Beck shouted. "Leave her be, we have more important things to worry about."
April and Jade made their way back to Cat, kneeling next to her.
Jade pressed around on Cat's stomach. "Have you been feeling the baby start moving or kicking at all yet?"
Cat sobbed and shook her head. "I haven't felt any - anything, I'm not far enough along."
"Fuck," she whispered.
"What? What's wrong?"
"Nothing that I know of, it'd just be a lot easier to tell if the baby's okay if you were feeling movement. Somebody needs to call 9-1-1 and someone needs to go get Helen and fast, we have to get her to the hospital. April, I want you to call my mom and tell her to meet us at the hospital if she isn't already there at work and make sure you call your mom and let her know what happened. We don't have all day people, get moving!"
"There we go," Grace West said as a whooshing sound emitted from the sonogram machine. "There's a heartbeat, you can relax, Momma."
Cat sniffled and let out a small breath. "I was so scared something bad happened... she's okay? Everything is good?"
"Everything looks great. Strong heartbeat, she's sucking her thumb. She's just chillin' in there, she probably thinks there was an earthquake when you fell."
"She was pushed," Jade said.
"That bitch is gonna fuckin' pay," April said.
"Watch your mouth," Grace said. "I know you're upset, I would be too if my sister got tossed down the stairs, but she's okay and so is the baby. There's nothing to worry about anymore."
"I'm just... god, I wish I could kill her and get away with it."
"I tried," Jade said.
"Jadelyn August West, I want you to stay away from that girl, she's nothing but trouble that you don't need to get involved in," Grace said.
April snorted. "August... God, you must have hated her when you named her."
"Your name is April, you were named after a month too," Jade said.
"Yeah, but August?"
"At least you guys have creative middle names," Cat said. "I got stuck with Hannah. I hate the name Hannah."
"Hey," Grace said. "My name is Hannah."
"Your name is Grace, you feelin' okay there?" April asked.
"Hannah Grace."
"Why do you go by Grace then?"
"Cause I hate the name Hannah."