"Brooke, are you ready?" Veronica asked me as we got ready for our insane adventure.

"No," I responded honestly. "But I will never be. So let's just get this over with."

The two of us silently crept along the dark hallways. It was 2 am and the only sounds that could be heard were the creaking ones that came as a byproduct of an old structure.

We slowly got to the classroom wing and tiptoed to Mr. Wheeler's classroom. His door always made a sound so we had to try and be as slow as we could so the hines would make the least sound possible.

Just like Veronica had said, the bottom drawer contained keys to the teacher's lounge. We entered the uncharted territory and closed the door behind us, going through every drawer and cabinet. To our utter horror, we found no car keys!

"What are we gonna do now?" I asked her helplessly.

"I do have a plan B, but it's a lot more risky. We could break into the Principal's office. I am pretty certain I saw a car key in her drawer the last time I had to go down to her office for being snarky. She had opened her drawer to hand the key to the pool shed to the coach. Are you sure you want to take the chance though?" she asked me.

"I need to find out, though I think I already know the answer. I need to be certain. But, this has to be me. There is no need to get into trouble too. You just give me the play by play and I will do it," I answered after a moment of thought. I gave a tight-lipped smile at the end of it which made my dimples deepen.

"I'm here for you Brooke. You will not do this alone," she affirmed.

"I don't get it. You wanted nothing to do with me for the first week you were here and now you're willing to risk so much? You don't have to do any of this. Why are you helping me?" I asked her.

"Because nobody should have to go through what you are alone, okay? I had to. I had nobody. Heck, I didn't even remember what the father looked like. When I found out, that's when I realised just how alone I was. I was always surrounded by bodies, not friends. There were people I partied with and people I slept with and sometimes they were the same people. But, when I was in a major crisis and I was scared out of my wits, I could not go to any of those people for assistance. I have been where you are. So, I have nothing but empathy for you and I am behaving just the same way I would have wanted somebody else to behave for me. And, you have been an amazing friend to me, even though all I do is get you into buckets of trouble. This is my warped way of saying thanks, I guess," she answered truthfully.

I couldn't help myself as I flung myself into her arms for a hug. "Thank you," I whispered. "I really am so grateful to have you here. I would not have been able to do this alone. I don't know how you did it. This is so scary. I am so scared."

"I know. Now, come on. Let's do something that is for sure going to get us expelled!" she laughed before we made our way to the Principal's office.

The door was locked and Veronica literally snuck into her personal bedroom to retrieve a key while I hid behind a large plant. I was shaking so much from the fear and the stress.

Veronica came out seven minutes later with a shiny key in her hand. Sure enough, the door to the office swung open right in front of us! We grabbed the car keys from the drawer and quietly snuck out to the large grounds. It was going to be tough, we could not turn on the car lights until we were a safe distance away. And we had to pray like hell that we did not get caught.

Veronica drove because I was way too scared. I googled drug stores near me and found a 24 hour one about 20 minutes away from us. Being as soft as we could, we pulled out of the school gates, thankfully the guards on duty had fallen asleep in their cabin. It was after all raining outside, just like it always did. We turned on the lights once we were a safe distance away.

"So that was fun!" Veronica was the first to break the silence.

"I am so scared V!" I answered.

"Well obviously! We broke into the principal's office, stole her car and snuck out of school in the middle of the night to buy you a pregnancy test, at 16! If you weren't scared, I would call you psychotic!" she stated.

I couldn't help but burst out laughing. The whole situation was so scary, it was downright hilarious! It would serve as such a funny plot to a movie. Unfortunately, it was all real and I was sure as hell living it.

We parked outside the drugstore. I went to the pregnancy test aisle while Veronica picked up some chocolates for herself. I didn't know which one to test or which ones were accurate, so I bought one of every kind that was available in the store. We quickly finished paying and headed back to school.

"Okay, you go to the room and you know, start peeing on the sticks. I will go put all the keys the way we found them. Wish me luck! Don't come finding me, if I get caught," she said seriously.

"V, thank you so much!" I said, looking at her straight into her eyes.

"Love you too, Brooke. Now go before you get caught," she said, giving me a gentle shove to get me moving.

I slowly tiptoed my way to our room and finally let out a deep breath I did not know I was holding. God, never had I imagined this kind of an adventure. I drank some water and paced around the room for a bit, holding the various pregnancy tests in my hand. I read the instructions over and over on the back though there was nothing complicated about it.

I realised I was just stalling for time but I was just so mortified. What if it came back positive? What would I even do then? WHat would I tell Lucas? The one who had blocked me out of his life, the one who was thousands and thousands of miles away! Finally deciding that I just had to find out, I took them to the bathroom and did what was required.

Setting a five minute alarm on my phone, I continued to pace around, feeling that if I stopped, I would just burst. How was this happening? I was always on the pill. I had never missed a day and they had always worked for me. Yeah, Lucas and I were lousy when it came to using condoms because I liked feeling him in entirely, but I had never had troubles before so I always just assumed I wouldn't. God, what was I going to do?

Just a minute before the five minute ringer, Veronica finally walked into the room.

"Everything go smoothly?" I asked while continuing my pacing.

"Yeah, she sleeps like a rock and this place is too priss. I don't think anyone has ever tried to break out before. You get the results?" she asked.

"In a minute," I croaked. It was so hard to talk about this.

"Hey Brooke, either way it is fine. It is going to be fine. You have options, just know that," she said to me. Just as she said that, my phone rang indicating that the five minute wait time was over.

I dashed to the bathroom to check all the tests I had left on the counter. I was aghast to find that every single one of the tests had come back Positive!

"No, no, no, no! This has to be a mistake. They are inaccurate, right? Sometimes you get false positives, right?" I asked Veronica who had joined me in the bathroom.

"Sometimes, yes. But six times… no. I am so sorry Brooke," she whispered to me.

I walked out of the bathroom and flung myself on the bed. Clutching my yet tiny belly, I began crying vehemently.

"It's fine, Brooke. You're gonna be okay. You have me by your side for this, but I have to ask you. Have you thought about what you want to do about it?" she said to me while rubbing my back.

I nodded my head, still unable to speak as my body hiccuped from the incessant crying and sheer shock.

"I am gonna keep it," I whispered when I was finally able to. "I-I can't give it up. It's Lucas' and mine. I know I sound ridiculous, but I am definitely keeping it." My hands found their way to my still flat belly as I gently rubbed it. I looked down at it and felt fear and panic. I was so not sure whether the choice I was making was right or not. I knew I was not ready for the responsibility. Heck, I thought I would be an absolutely terrible mother if I was being honest. I had none growing up, whom would I imitate? Yet, I knew exactly how it felt to be abandoned, to be unloved by those who are just supposed to love you unconditionally. I knew first hand what it felt like to be unwanted and I was sure as hell not going to let that baby feel this way.

"Veronica, we cannot tell anybody about this, okay? This has to stay between us, that is at least until I grow to be the size of a basketball and can't hide it anymore. Hopefully I will figure something out by then, but for now… please," I begged.

"Don't worry, Brooke. Your secret is safe with me," she assured. "Now, just go to sleep. It is almost 5:00 am. Besides, you need your rest and sleep. You're not going to get much once that gremlin arrives."

"Hey! Don't call my baby a gremlin! He or she is going to be the most gorgeous baby. I mean just look at the genes," I joked.

"Already protective, are we?" she chuckled before hitting the lights.

"Brooke, you awake?" Veronica called out to me twenty minutes later.

"Yeah," I sighed. How could I sleep? I had just found out I was pregnant at the age of 16!

"I think that you're very brave. To do what you are going to do, I-I just think that you're extremely brave. I just couldn't!" her voice cracked at the end of that sentence.

"Hey, V! It's okay. You made the choice that was best suited for you and there is literally no right answer here. We have to deal with the consequences of our actions. You have to live with that particular grief and I have to grow up and become responsible way sooner than I should have to. In the end, it all sucks just the same," I empathised.

Ten minutes later, I could hear her breathing deeply. However, I was not getting any sleep. I was frantic and scared out of my wits. I spent the next hour on my phone researching everything. I could not go to a doctor, so google was going to be my best help. I was supposed to have prenatal vitamins and exercise. I would have to talk to somebody to get our travel privileges back on, I needed to get me all these things without drawing any attention.

Then another horror struck me. If it was even the last time that I had had sex that I would have become pregnant, it was still two months ago and I had consumed copious amounts of alcohol since then. All I did after my breakup with Lucas was get drunk. I researched about every single thing that could go wrong with my baby due to my idiotic mistake. Was I doing the wrong thing? I was already messing this child's life. Maybe, I was biting off way more than I could fit into my mouth, let alone chew.

— — –

A month passed this way. I had started wearing baggy clothes as I had already begun showing a little. My morning sickness had never gotten better and I would wake up every morning like clockwork, running to the bathroom to throw up. I had somehow managed to convince the matron to let us go to town one Sunday stating that Veronica and I had both run out of tampons and we needed to get more. She didn't argue much after we gave her a picture about how gross it would be to get on your period and have no sanitary products.

I had become more silent, yet I always seemed to have ridiculous mood swings. I would go and blow off on the Maths teacher for picking at my work and then feel cranky in History as they would show us a documentary about the Holocaust. In my defence though, who can sit with a straight face when learning about the Holocaust!

Veronica had started doing research of her own apparently. She would ensure that I was eating right and healthy and on time. We were working through things, most of the girls in school were terrified of us anyway, so they didn't ever bother us and the teachers were simply tired of our defiant attitudes so they ignored us when they weren't required to teach us.

Then something happened that changed everything. I was feeling more tired than usual. My feet were aching and I kept feeling dizzy. I had felt dizzy before, especially after I had finished emptying the contents of my stomach in the bathroom, but this made me feel more light-headed. It did not help that I was busy presenting my assignment for Chemistry. I tried to concentrate on the words, but ultimately the fogginess in my brain won and I succumbed to the floor.

"Oh god, where am I?" I asked when I finally woke up. I looked around me to find Mrs. Singh, our art beside me and an IV in my arm.

"Hey Brooke, you finally woke up. How do you feel?" she asked me kindly. She was always very very sweet to the girls, calling us 'beta' a term of endearment for children in the Hindi language.

"Better, I guess. What happened since the moment I passed out?" I asked her. I needed to know whether she knew the truth.

"We took you to the nurse's room but you were out cold and so pale. We tried to get you to wake up, but your blood pressure was abnormally low. So, the principal was called and she made the call that you should be admitted to the hospital. We just got you in and started the IV. The doctor has drawn some blood to run a few tests. Don't worry beta, you will be alright," she said calmly.

"Mrs. Singh, I don't think any of this is required. I genuinely and truly feel fine. I just skipped a few meals, that's all, due to the er- stress of the Chemistry presentation. I will take better care next time!" I promised. I needed to get out, they could not know that I was pregnant!

"Brooke, calm down. If the doctor clears you, I will take you right back to school. Just relax, take a nap," she suggested in her heavy Indian accent.

I was doomed. I could feel a chill settle into my bones as I waited with bated breath for the doctor to arrive with the test results, the results which I already knew. The results which would surely get me into some major trouble.

After thirty minutes, a female doctor walked in. "Hello Brooke, I am glad to see that you're awake. Unfortunately, I have some bad news. Brooke, we tested your blood and found out that you are pregnant. That is the reason that you fainted. It is a fairly common symptom. We would like to take you to the gynaecology wing to get you an Ultrasound and get you checked out, before we discuss your options," she said in the most professional manner, yet her eyes told a different story. Her eyes showed that she was in fact sorry for me. A sixteen year old knocked up child, alone in a foreign country.

Mrs. Singh looked like she was about to pass out. I, on the other hand, just stayed quiet.

"Wait, you have known for a while, haven't you?" the doctor asked me, this time in a maternal voice.

A single tear slipped down my check as I gave a small, yet firm nod.

"Have you seen a gynac, honey?" she continued.

"No," I whispered. "I only did a test at home, but I've been trying to eat right. I got myself some off the counter vitamins, whatever google said to get."

"Okay, do you know how far along you are?" she asked me.

"No, but I'd have to assume somewhere beyond three months," I responded honestly.

"Okay, we need to do an actual ultrasound, and get the baby checked out. Okay, Brooke? It is important, just to make sure everything is okay and that the baby is healthy. Here, let's get you on this wheelchair, and I will take you up," she said to me.

"Will you stay, please?" I asked her childishly. I am sure, I was behaving like a five year old myself. Not someone who was having a child.

"Sure," she said, as she pulled the bag of fluids from the stand and helped me get onto the wheelchair.

Mrs. Singh still sat there, completely stunned out of her wits.

"Okay, what do we have here?" the Doctor asked me as I entered the examination room.

"This is Brooke. Age sixteen, a blood test came back with results of pregnancy, but she has not consulted a Doctor yet. She says she might be at least three months," the doctor whose coat read Dr. Hendrix told the old man who was waiting for us in the room.

"Hey Brooke, I am Dr. Rhodes. You don't need to worry, okay. Let's get you checked out," he smiled.

He first sat me down and took a detailed family history for me and Lucas. I answered the best I could since I had no idea about either of our families' medical histories beyond the basics.

"Don't worry, we will conduct all the tests to rule out everything that we can about the baby," he said as he noted down my height and weight. He then went on to check my back, abdomen and breasts.

"Okay Brooke, we need to do a pelvic exam. So just get onto the table and put your legs up in the stirrups. I promise you it won't hurt too bad. It's just to make sure everything is okay," he said to me.

I felt so shy and vulnerable, all I wanted at that very moment was to hold Lucas' hand. For him to give me a kiss on my head like he always did and tell me that everything will be okay.

"Just try to relax and hold still," the doctor said as he inserted his fingers to check everything out. "All looks good. No for the final bit, let's get to the ultrasound. This will feel cold."

He put on the freezing gel on my exposed belly and then picked up a wand to check out my baby. I was transfixed at the sight even though I really could not tell much.

"Looks like you're almost at four months, Brooke. Let's check out their heartbeats,"he said to me. The sounds soon filled the room. "Wait, I seem to be getting two heartbeats."

"That's normal, right? I mean, mine and the baby's?" I asked the doctor.

"Well, let me rephrase it. If we're counting yours, I seem to be getting three heartbeats," he said to me.

"Are you sure, doc? I mean, does that mean…" I trailed off.

"Well, I've only been doing this for 30 years, but, yes. Congratulations. You're carrying twins!" he said to me. "Here, see, you can see two foetuses. Would you like to know the genders?"

"Yes, I think I have had enough surprises for a lifetime," I said as I just stared at my belly. "I would very much like to know something beforehand for once."

"It's one of each. A boy and a girl. Congratulations Brooke." he said to me before letting me know that I could get change back and get discharged. That was the first time that I cracked a smile in weeks.

"You did well out there. I know it looks scary, but do you want to discuss options, look into adoption and things?" Dr. Hendrix asked me.

"No, I am keeping them," I answered before wrapping my arms around my belly. I don't know how I will do it, I think I have a good idea of what comes next and it is all very very bad, but things were already bad. And they just made my heart flutter. I - I don't know. I just can't give them up, even though I am sixteen."

"Well, good luck. Let's get you back to your chaperone and get you to school. Here is a prescription of the medicines you need to take. The instructions are all written out. Call me if you need anything, alright? My number is on this card," she said to me.

"Thank you Dr. Hendrix. Umm, do you have children?" I found myself asking her.

"Yes, I have a son. He will turn four in a month," she said smilingly.

"Was it worth it?" I asked.

"Every second of it," she responded before seeing Mrs. Singh walk up to us.