Lili went out with Greg several more times before his family moved away. They went skating and to a few more movies. The day before he left, the Brimmers had him over for dinner. He and Lili went for a walk afterwards, and he kissed her goodbye.
It was her first kiss.
The following Friday night, Robin came to pick Paula up for a date. After they'd left, Lili burst into tears.
"It's not fair!" she wailed. "Paula still has Robin, but I'm all alone now!'
Ginny sat beside her daughter on the sofa and put her arm around her.
"Paula's two years older than you, sweetheart, and your senior year is about to start. You'll soon be busy with that, and who knows? Maybe you'll met someone else soon."
"I doubt it," Lili mumbled.
Her senior year started, and she and Hope went to football games and dances afterwards. Hope didn't tell her parents about the dances. She told them the football games went into extra innings. Greg wrote to Lili twice. The second time was to tell her he had a new girlfriend.
At one of the after-game dances, Hope met a boy named Neil.
"My parents don't approve of me seeing him," she told Lili. "He doesn't go to church, and he plays in a band. Mom asked me if he was a Christian. That was the first thing she asked about him. I told her I didn't know. He never talks about things like that."
The two girls were walking in the mall, going into the different stores to look around. They reached the pottery store at the end.
"This is the store your sister used to work in, isn't it?" asked Hope as they walked inside.
"Yeah." The girls reached the floral department. "That was just for Christmas. She still works in an office at the college now."
"I think I'd like working here," Hope said wistfully. "I love flowers."
"I'd love to work anywhere," Lili replied. "Greg never talked about religion either. The subject just never came up."
Hope rolled her eyes.
"Well, you know how my parents are about that. You still miss Greg, don't you?"
Lili picked up a mug which had a cartoon on the side of it.
"Yeah. I was getting to like him a lot, and then poof! He was gone."
"Wow, those jugs are really big!" Hope was looking at some large clay jugs in the gardening department. "I wonder what people use them for?"
Lili shrugged.
"They put plants in them, I guess."
Hope laughed.
"I'd say small trees, more likely. Want me to ask Neil if he knows anyone?"
"No!" snapped Lili in a harsher voice than she meant. "I'm not desperate!"
Hope shrugged.
"I was only trying to help."
The holiday season came and went, and one day at lunch in January, Lili came upon Hope sitting alone in the cafeteria, crying her eyes out.
Lili slide into the seat beside her.
"Hey, what's wrong? Did something happen with Neil?"
Hope turned red-rimmed eyes toward her friend.
"Not exactly." She wiped her nose on her sleeve. "I think I'm in trouble."
"What kind of trouble? Are you failing one of your classes?"
Hope shook her head.
"Oh no, it's a lot more serious than that. My period's over two weeks late, and it's always been right on time or early before!"
"What!" Lili's jaw dropped. She could never have imagined such a thing happening to her conservative friend from a devoutly religious family.
Hope sniffled.
"You heard me. I think I'm - pregnant!"
She shuddered, as if saying the words made it a reality.
"Well, what are you gonna do?" Lili wanted to know.
Hope sighed.
"Well, I can't have an abortion, that's for sure. My folks would kill me!"
"Does Neil know?" asked Lili.
Hope shook her head.
"I have no idea how to tell him!"
"But you don't even know for sure," Lili pointed out. "You need to see a doctor!"
Hope turned pale.
"I could never talk to our family doctor about it! I've been going to him since I was six years old - what would he think of me?"
"Maybe you could go to the health department," Lili suggested. "I think they do pregnancy tests there."
"But how would I get there? You know I don't have a car, and my Mom wouldn't let me use hers."
Lili thought a minute.
"I'll ask Paula."
Paula only had one class on Thursday, so when it was over, she drove to the high school to pick Lili and Hope up. They were about halfway through their lunch period at the time. When they heard her horn beep, they tossed the remainder of their lunches into the trash can and ran to meet her. They both got into the back seat, and Paula drove away.
"I'm so scared!" said Hope.
"Don't be," said Paula. "However it turns out, it'll be all right."
"Ha! You don't know my parents," said Hope.
At the health department, the three young women walked in the front door. Paula asked the receptionist where the pregnancy tests were done. The woman told her, and the three girls walked down a long hallway and then turned right. They found themselves in a smaller waiting room with a sofa and a couple of chairs.
Hope signed the register, and they sat down to wait. After about twenty minutes, they heard Hope's name being called.
Paula and Lili looked at magazines while waiting for her to return. The exam took about half and hour, and when Hope re-appeared, her eyes were filled with tears, and her bottom lip was quivering.
