Chapter 7:

Sam POV-

That night, I went home, and being as exhausted as I am, I went to bed. I'm not going to say I slept well, but I slept.

The next morning, I woke up, feeling as if I had gotten no sleep at all. I glanced at the clock, 9:30. Danny would be here to pick me up at 10:30, so I decided to start moving. Jazz would not need her car today, so, she told him he could use it to transport both of us to the mall. Jazz must sense Danny's growing responsibility too (either that or pity over our situation), because she doesn't let most people even touch her car. For anyone else to drive it was absolutely unheard of.

I rolled out of bed, grabbed some clothes and headed into the bathroom.

I only had to puke three times before I could get my shower. I've been sick for two days and I really, really wish the morning sickness was over.

After my shower, I put on a loose black t-shirt and picked up my favorite pair of jeans off of the floor. When I tried to put them on, they would not fit. I tried again, sucking in, and still I could only get the button within a centimeter of the hole. I huffed in frustration.

I'm only four weeks! This kind of stuff was not supposed to happen to me yet! I knew at this point it was probably just bloating, but that didn't change the face that I would start to show in one to two weeks. But at the same time, all of the sources I had read stated that we shouldn't have been able to see the babies' heartbeats until ten weeks. This, I guessed, meant that they were progressing about six weeks ahead of schedule, due to Danny's ghost powers, no doubt. So now, not only would I be showing sooner with twins, but I now had twins that grew at a faster rate than other babies, so it would become blatantly obvious that I am pregnant even sooner. The thought itself was terrifying.

I removed the jeans, tossing them onto the floor with the promise that I would pick them up later, and grabbing an older, more worn, and a heck of a lot looser pair from my closet, putting them on. There was a rip in one of the knees, but I didn't really care, I wasn't exactly dressing to impress.

I dried my hair, not bothering to straighten out the natural wave that it has when it's wet, and pulling half of it up into a pony tail. Then I reconsidered, taking my hair down again, and leaving it that way.

I went downstairs. The house was empty, as usual. Before my grandma died, I at least had the chance of having a conversation with her that would bring some warmth to our giant house. But now, there's no one for me to talk to, that is, except for the housekeepers scurrying all over, tidying things to my mom's expectation. The only problem was that most didn't speak very good English.

I noticed that a stack of pancakes had been wrapped in foil and left on the countertop next to a note.

'Samantha,

Your father and I went out. We should be back at around six. Remember you have to come with us to the banquet tonight, so I want you ready to go by the time we get back.

Rosie made pancakes and your father and I were not about to eat all of those extra carbs. Enjoy.

-Your Mother.'

She had always been that formal, even in our conversations. Also, I was pretty sure that we had no housekeepers named Rosie, but my mom refused to learn their names, calling them whatever she deemed fitting at the moment. I sighed, picking up the plate of pancakes, removing the foil, and placing them in the microwave.

I pulled a bottle of syrup out of the pantry, and grabbed the pancakes out of the microwave the second the timer went off, sitting down at one of the ten never-used barstools to eat.

Realizing that I was suddenly starving, I dug in, devouring the whole plate in ten minutes.

I glanced at the clock. It was 10:26, but when I heard a series of different car alarms go off down the street, I knew he would be a little late. So, I popped one of the berry-flavored pre-natal pills in my mouth and sat on the couch and turned on some cartoons. Isn't it funny how I'm pregnant but I'm still watching childish cartoons?

Danny walked in the front door approximately fifteen minutes late.

"Sorry, Skulker," he smiled sheepishly twirling the Fenton Thermos in his hand.

"I figured," I laughed, getting up, "Ready to go?"

"Yep! Jazz's car is out front," he told me and we descended down the front steps of the house.

I slid into the passenger seat, clicking my seat belt into the slot as Danny got in on the other side.

"Hey we need to be back by at least 5:30 because I have to go to this stupid banquet with my parents at six," I told him.

"Okay, we should have plenty of time," he replied, starting up the car. I turned on the radio, tuning it away from Jazz's poor pre-sets to my favorite radio station.

Danny POV-

I chuckled silently to myself, watching Sam loose herself in the music. I recognized the song as Afterlife by Switchfoot. Which, I like too, even though I find it a little ironic considering that I am half-ghost.

She was casually and comfortably dressed with her hair down and her eyes closed, with her head back against the seat.

I smiled and turned back the face the road.

Twenty minutes and only one near –accident (yeah, we will not be telling Jazz about that) later, we arrived at the Fairview Mall.

At this hour of the day, only about ten minutes after eleven o'clock, there were very few crowding the mall. Aside from several single moms toting multiple kids, the mall was relatively empty, and, thankfully, we saw no one from our school.

Because Amity Park had its own mall, not many people from our town actually take the thirty minute drive out here to go shopping, but it wasn't unheard of, so I was made sure that I was on alert for Paulina and her satellites.

I could tell Sam was on alert too, as she glanced around suspiciously, as she pulled me into a children's boutique.

It didn't take long for Sam and me to decide on one furniture set. The set had a modern feel with the sleek, black-painted wood, but at the same time, it was also timeless, with curved lines and intricate carvings in the headboard. We ordered two cribs (which could also turn into beds when they get older), and one changing table/dresser, to be delivered about ten weeks from now. We also ordered a twin stroller and two baby carrying things that could be attached to a base in a car and made into car seats. All of this was ordered via Sam's account, so that neither of our parents would notice.

Of course, we don't know what we're having yet, so we couldn't exactly pick out sheet sets and color schemes for the cribs, but it wasn't difficult to see which ones Sam already preferred.

We started first in the boys section. She pointed out a lot that she liked but one stood out over the rest: it was a dark blue, but covered in light green, light blue and yellow stars in a spirally pattern.

Then we moved onto the girls section, and the one she picked out was lavender with a design of a fake splatter of neon paint colors all over it.

I liked these too. And I thought that both were pretty representative of our personalities.

Assuming that my parents don't disown me, and actually let us stay at our house with the twins, they would, hopefully let us turn the guest room into a nursery.

Painting the guest room would be the issue. Sam already had made it very clear that she wanted the kids to be raised with their own individuality, even if they ended up being identical twins, so, the room would have to be divided in half, one side with a theme for one of the babies and one with a theme for the other, in different colors. This would be a lot easier if we had a boy and a girl because then we could just use the sets we already picked out. But if we get two of the same gender…well, that's a little harder. For girls especially. For one thing, Sam hates pink. We must have found the only bed set in the entire store that wasn't entirely pink…and considering Sam would no buy two of those, it would not be easy for us to find another bed set for the other girl. Boys were a little easier, because they also had a lot of green bed sets that were different enough from the blue one we had already picked out, but, apparently, it couldn't be green and brown because that would clash with the black crib, so that made finding a different boys set a little harder.

I guess I never realized exactly how much stuff there is for babies.

And there is definitely a lot of stuff.

"Who buys fake baby hair anyway?" I questioned holding up the fake hair attached to a band designed to go around the baby's head.

"I have no idea. But isn't that the epitome of shallowness if you can't even tolerate the fact that your baby hasn't grown hair yet?" Sam exclaimed, "Oh, wait, I spoke too soon," she said, holding up a pair of little tiny baby girl shoes. It took me a few seconds to realize that the shoes actually had heels, "Does this scream Paulina or what?"

"Haha, yeah, nothing like a pair of tiny high heels to permanently mess up your kid's feet," I laughed.

Sam grinned, tossing the shoes back into the shoe bin.

Connected to the baby store, through an open archway in the wall, was a maternity clothing store.

"I guess, I should go get some clothes, huh?" she asked, I didn't say anything, really not wanting to (and more importantly, not knowing how exactly to respond to that without it sounding bad). Sam must have taken my silence for an answer because she walked closer to the archway.

"I already can't fit into my jeans," she said, although I got the feeling it was more to herself than to me, "And, Danny," she lowered her voice, "I think that they're growing faster than normal babies."

"Well…I guess that makes sense because if they inherited my ghost powers they probably inherited my extended rate of healing too…which could make them grow faster…how do you know?" he wondered.

"Well, most websites say that we shouldn't have been able to see the heartbeats until ten weeks. I'm only four," she whispered.

"Wow, six weeks ahead of schedule…" I noted.

"Yeah, that's pretty significant," she insisted.

"I'm sure it's just because they're developing all of their organs and stuff right now…it should slow down," I said hopefully. The last thing we needed was for Sam to only be pregnant for like a month and then give birth to completely healthy babies. I'm sure that wouldn't make people suspicious at all.

"I hope you're right," she sighed, then looked into the adjacent store again. "I don't want to buy all maternity clothes right now, but I do need something to wear to that stupid event tonight, and nothing I have is going to fit."

So, she walked forward, looking through the aisles of maternity clothes until she came to a rack for women only in their first few months, before pulling several dresses off and heading into the dressing room.

Eventually, she decided on a dark purple dress. It was relatively conservative, for Sam anyway, coming down to her knee with sleeves that went to her elbows. She purchased the dress, on her parents' account this time. She told me it was two sizes bigger than what she usually wears but, honestly, I didn't notice a difference.

We walked out, and I carried the bag for her. We were only about ten feet away from the store, when I heard a very familiar voice.

Paulina.

Sam heard her too, and the expression on her face was somewhere between annoyance, anger, and embarrassment.

I instantly understood. Sam did not want Paulina to know that she had just been shopping in a maternity store, so, I reacted, instantly making the bag with the obvious logo in my hand, invisible. With my other hand, I grabbed Sam's.

"I see you two losers finally gotten together," Paulina sneered coming up to us, her hands on her hips. Behind her, her "friends" laughed in a fake tone. Then Paulina looked behind us at the maternity store, "I see that you finally found a store that will fit your fat ass, Goth girl," she laughed, thinking she was clever. I felt Sam tense, obviously angry. Hoping to avoid confrontation, I looked behind us, pretending to not know the store she had been referring to.

"Oh," I said with false realization, "No, actually, we were just looking for something for your mom. They just released her from the zoo, right?" I smirked.

Paulina's cheeks got red with anger.

"Oh, Paulina," Sam joined in, "I heard you were pregnant. Is that why you're here?"

"No," Paulina lied, "Actually, I had a miscarriage." She pretended to get choked up, obviously expecting us to pity her, but clearly that was not going to happen.

"So, basically, he never slept with you," Sam started crossing her arms.

"And you couldn't actually get him to sleep with he obviously had higher standards than some shallow, spoiled, stalker," I continued.

"So now, you're just telling people that you lost the baby. That's pathetic," Sam finished with a smirk, because we both obviously knew it was true.

"Listen, Goth girl, I'm more popular than you or your loser friends will ever be, so don't you dare call me pathetic," and in a huff, Paulina turned around and stalked away.

The second she was out of ear shot, Sam and I burst out laughing.

After a few minutes, we finally managed to stop giggling and calm down.

"How did you ever have a crush on that?" Sam asked after we continued walking.

"I don't know. I guess I must have been stupid. Can you believe she is telling everyone she had a miscarriage?" I shook my head in disbelief.

"Yeah, there really isn't a lower level of pathetic she could have possibly stooped to," Sam agreed, "Hey, do you want to go to the food court? I'm starving."

Sam POV-

We headed to the food court, but something was still bothering me. Danny had told Paulina that she couldn't actually get him to sleep with her, but did that mean she tried.

"Danny," I questioned, "What did you mean when you told Paulina that she 'couldn't actually get you to sleep with her?'"

"Well, this morning, she must have either paid Skulker or waited around for me to show up, but either way, she was trying to be all seductive and get me to go back to her place. Obviously, I said 'no,' but that's what happened," Danny shrugged.

"Wait, so at this point, the whole town knows that you are obviously with someone, and she still asked you to sleep with her just to prove a point?!" I exclaimed in disbelief.

"Apparently," Danny shook his head, rolling his eyes, "What do you want to bet that she will have some other boy at school get her pregnant, just so she can still claim that I got her pregnant?"

"Well, judging by how nuts she is, I would say that's a pretty good bet," I agreed, "Who do you think it will be. Dash?"

Danny shook his head, "No, any kid they have will be too…Dash. I wouldn't be surprised if she actually asks me again at school on Monday, just because I'm dating you. But when I say no, she'll probably choose someone else on bottom of the social ladder, because they will definitely do it, and they will definitely not tell, mostly because no one would believe them," Danny guessed.

He was probably right. She wouldn't choose someone in her own social group because they were all big mouths and they were all blatantly obvious to the rest of the school, just like any kid they had would be.

"I guess we'll see," I laughed.

We arrived in the food court, and I was overwhelmed with about a thousand different smells.

That's another thing about being pregnant. And the fat guy at the table directly in front of us, who smelled worse than the boy's locker room, was the worst smell of all.

Danny, with his overly sensitive senses, must have smelled this too, because he crinkled his nose and we walked over to a different table, much farther downwind.

"What do you want to eat?" Danny asked. I looked over the different food stands. I know what I usually get when we go to the mall: steamed veggies and a tofu burger, but for some reason, it didn't sound good.

"I don't know yet," I told him honestly, "Why don't you go get something, and I'll get something when you come back."

Danny shrugged, and headed over to the barbeque stand, before returning with a pulled pork sandwich.

'Oh shit,' I cursed, when the tangy smell of the cooked pork and barbeque sauce hit me, 'No!' I ordered myself, 'I have been a vegetarian for eight years and I'm not going back now!' But it really did smell good, and my mouth began to water.

I swallowed. Danny looked up.

"Sam are you alright?" he asked arching an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I swallowed again. This time Danny smirked, moving his sandwich a little closer to me.

"Sam, are you craving meat?" he asked, grinning.

"No!" I protested, but I didn't sound as confident as I wanted to.

"Are you sure?" he asked again, pulling out a few pieces of meat from the ends of his sandwich.

I said nothing.

"You know, Sam, if they babies are craving meat, you should eat it," he grinned again, wiping barbeque sauce off of his chin.

"Ugh, fine," I surrendered, taking his sandwich and biting down on it. Danny laughed in triumph, and got up to go purchase another sandwich.

"I blame you by the way," I told him through a mouth full of food when he sat back down.

"Me? Why?" he asked.

"Because you must have passed on liking meat to our kids, who are now making me go against everything I believe in!" I exclaimed.

Danny rolled his eyes.

"And just so you know. This is only because I'm pregnant! After this, I will never, ever, eat meat again!" I told him.

"Um hum," he smirked agreeably, like he didn't believe me.

"I'm serious!" I exclaimed.

"Sure you are, Sam," he grinned. I huffed in frustration, before the two of us went back to eating our sandwiches.

Eating, not enjoying. I was not enjoying this. Even if it did taste good.