Another snow day. Nobody reads these, so I don't know why I waste my time writing them, but whatever. As long as you like the story under them, right? Enjoy.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Max

My Mom was obsessed.

I love her to pieces and all, but she was obsessed.

The second we got back to her place, she insisted that she drag me out to her clinic to run a bunch of useless tests on me. We already knew I was…going to have a baby, didn't we? The sticky-jigger thing said so. But she forced me though blood tests (ow) and more "urine samples" before finally deducing that I was "pregnant."

"Can we leave now?" I asked after my mom had finished all the tests. She sighed.

"Yes, I suppose we can," she said. I jumped off the table I'd been sitting on and headed for the door. We walked painfully slowly through the halls to the parking lot where I slid in the passenger side.

We managed to drive about half of the way home in peaceful silence before my mom said something.

"I still can't understand how this happened," she said for the bajillionth time.

"Fang and I did it and then I was pregnant. That's how it happened," I explained. She shook her head.

"That's not what I mean. I mean why did you do it?"

"That's not what you said."

"It's what I meant."

"Well, that's because I love him and we wanted to."

"But you didn't think about the consequences?" she asked me. "Like, you didn't think about getting STIs or getting pregnant?"

"I talked to Ella about the STIs since you completely lost me on those," I told her. "She said that you can only get those from people who have them, and you can't be born with them. And Fang and I have never been with anyone else, so—"

"You can't guarantee that, Max."

"Yes I can," I protested. "I've been with Fang for fifteen years of our lives!"

"And in the three years he was gone?"

"No, I just decided I'm not having this conversation with you anymore," I declared. "I'm just going to go back to sitting in silence, thanks."

My mom pursed her lips but said nothing else for the rest of the drive home.

When we got home, we found Nudge, Iggy, and Ella vegged out on the couch in front of the television. When we came in the door, Nudge glanced up, acknowledged us, then returned her gaze to the TV.

"Something interesting?" I asked. Nudge nodded.

"A bunch of kids burnt down a building that turned out to be associated with Itex," she explained.

"This is the third time this year," Iggy added.

"People are saying that it's a form of youth delinquency," Ella said. "They're probably right."

"No way," I said, walking over to look at the TV. "I don't buy that for a second. It's a protest."

"And I can guess who's behind it," Iggy said, slightly bitterly.