The ride back to the Brown residence was mostly silent, except for Hope's soft sobs.

"Mom's gonna kill me!" she wailed.

"Maybe not." Lili couldn't think of anything else to say.

"At the very least, she and Dad will kick me out."

"If they do, you can come live with us," Lili offered.

"Yeah, your folks would love that, I'm sure," Hope snorted.

"We could work something out," Lili insisted.

They arrived at Hope's house at last. Lili looked over at her friend cowering in the seat beside her.

"I can't go in!" Hope cried. "I'm scared!"

"Want me to go in with you?" asked Lili.

"No!" Hope opened the door and flew out.

"Poor girl," said Paula as she drove back home. "I feel so sorry for her."

"I was more shocked than anything when she told me," Lili replied. "As strict and devoutly religious as her family is? She's the last person I'd expect this to happen to!"

"It's probably her way of rebelling." Paula turned a corner. "I can't really say I blame her. I probably would have rebelled too, if I'd grown up having all that shoved down my throat all the time. Maybe not by getting pregnant, but some other way. She should have been more careful, though."

"Yeah." Lili was silent for a few minutes. "You know what, though? In a way, Hope's ahead of me. I've never even been with a guy before, if you know what I mean."

Paula had reached the family home. She turned and stared at her sister.

"Are you saying you'd like to trade places with her?"

"Oh no, of course not," Lili said quickly. "It's just that sometimes I feel like the only virgin in the whole school."

Paula laughed.

"Believe me, you're not. That isn't something to be in a hurry about, Lili. It'll happen when the time is right. For now, just have fun dating, and when the right guy comes along, you'll know it."

Lili longed to know whether or not Paula had lost her virginity to Robin, but she knew she could never ask.


For several days after that, Lili met Hope at the cafeteria for lunch. Hope always had her head down, a woebegone expression on her face. Anyone who looked at her could tell she was carrying a heavy burden on her shoulders.

Every day Lili asked her the same question, and every day she got the same response.

"Have you told anyone yet?"

Hope's eyes would widen in horror.

"Of course not! Like I told you, my Mom would kill me!"

"You know you'll have to tell someone eventually. And what about the doctor? You know you'll have to see one soon."

On one such occasion, Hope burst into frustrated tears.

"Oh, Lili, I don't know what I'm gonna do!"

"Didn't you know how to keep this from happening, Hope?"

Hope shook her head.

"Neil told me it would be all right, and I believed him."

Lili picked up a French fry.

"Did he use a condom?"

Hope gave her a blank stare.

"A what?"

"A condom. You know, to cover the end of his you-know-what so you wouldn't get pregnant. They told us about it in Family Living. Don't you remember?"

"Mom didn't let me sign up for that. She said teaching kids about birth control was the same thing as telling them it's OK to have sex before marriage."

Lili shook her head, feeling a flash of anger toward Mrs. Brown.

"It isn't."

"It isn't?"

"Of course not. If your Mom had let you take that class, you would have known how to keep this from happening, but it's too late now."

On Friday, Hope told Lili she had a date with Neil.

"You are gonna tell him, aren't you?" Lili asked her.

"If I can get up the nerve," said Hope.

Lili thought about the situation all weekend, turning it over and over in her mind. She couldn't wait to find out the outcome. Would Hope be brave enough to confess her secret? And if she was, what would Neil's reaction be? Would he support her, or would he just walk away?

As it turned out, she didn't have long to wait, as when she saw Hope again on Monday, her friend was all smiles.

"It's all right!" Hope cried happily. "He said we could get married over the spring break. I'm not due until September, so that'll give us plenty of time to get ready for everything."

"That's great!" said Lili. "I'm happy for you."

When she saw Hope again several days later, however, her friend was far from happy.