November 18th, 2011. 11:15 A.M.

Wilke wasn't sure when he'd decided that Daphne was the girl he wanted, but he found himself standing just a few inches too close to her during their cooking lab, or winking at her when they passed each other in the hall. It was the last day of school until Thanksgiving Break, and he was psyching himself out, thinking maybe today she wouldn't show up for class, or maybe she was just late, or she decided she was sick of his sexual innuendos and crass jokes and went back to Carlton full time.

When 11:30 came around and she still hadn't shown, he resigned himself to making his souffle alone.

At the same time, Daphne was hunched over a toilet in the girls' bathroom, dry-heaving. She'd been nauseas all morning, and had barely choked down a bowl of cereal for breakfast, which was now starting to make its way back up. She leaned back against the stall and tried to swallow her bile, then pulled her phone out of her pocket and started to text her mom.

sick school. going 2 c nurse n go home

...

3:02 P.M.

At the end of the day, Wilke still hadn't seen Daphne, and neither had Toby or Bay when he asked. He flipped open his phone and sent her a text asking if she was okay.

Daphne had come home from school to find Kathryn was home, so she decided to camp out on the couch in the main house while her bio-mom doted on her. Kathryn had her hand over the girl's forehead, and had her brows furrowed.

"Well, you don't feel like you have a fever," she sighed. "You probably just have a stomach bug, I'll go get you a ginger-ale and some crackers, okay honey?"

Daphne nodded and leaned back, looking for the remote to the television, when another wave of nausea came over her. She scrambled to the downstairs bathroom, gagging. After she had flushed the sick away, she grabbed the last bit of tissue to wipe her mouth, and started to dig around under the sink looking for more. Hand soap, cotton balls, tampons. She paused. When had she last had her period? It had been a while, and she tried to count back the days. One month, maybe a little longer? That wasn't unusual, so she shrugged and kept digging. In the back of the cabinet, she found a crushed pink box, and she pulled it out to inspect. A pregnancy test. A really old one, older than her, by the looks of it. She turned the box over and looked at the manufacturer's date: February, 1995. For an instant, she wondered if it still worked, and shoved it into her pocket without thinking.

When she left the bathroom, suddenly feeling much better than she had before, Kathryn was sitting in the living room, a glass of ginger-ale on the table in front of her.

"Okay?" she signed.

Daphne nodded, "I actually feel better now that I've gotten it out. I think I might go lay down, though."

"Well, take this with you, it'll help settle your tummy," Daphne took the glass and made her way back to the guesthouse, where she collapsed into her bed and quickly fell asleep.

...

11:43 P.M.

Daphne awoke to pitch black, all the lights in her room were off, and only moonlight came through her window. She had crashed pretty hard. The redhead sat up and reached for the lamp next to her bed, flicking on the light. A glance at her clock told her it was almost midnight. She stood and realized she still had her jeans on, and her sneakers, so she started to get undressed. When she took off her pants, her cellphone and a crumpled box fell out of her pockets and landed on her feet. She picked up her phone and checked her text messages, and Wilke's name was the first that flashed on the screen.

u ok? nvr showed 4 class. left me 2 fend 4 myself ;)

She smiled and sent back her reply.

sick at home w stomach flu :(

Flipping her phone shut, her eyes landed back on that old pink box. The pregnancy test. The really, really old and expired test. She didn't know why she'd taken it home with her, some sort of morbid curiosity she supposed. The thought of using it crossed her mind. Just for fun, she thought.

She changed into her pajamas and padded down the hall to the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. The box was already opened, and she figured there must have been more tests in there, used up when Kathryn discovered she was pregnant with Daphne sixteen years ago. She took the last one out, and read the information on the side of the box. Pee on a stick and wait ten minutes, easy enough. Squatting on the toilet, she held the stick between her legs and hoped she was aiming right. Afterwards, she left the test on the counter and started to take her makeup off and brush her teeth, then wandered off to the kitchen. The glass of soda from earlier was still sat on the edge of the counter, flat and lukewarm. Daphne dumped it out and made her self a pb&j, then got a glass of water and sat at the table, scarfing down the first real food she'd had all day.

It was past midnight now, so she set her dishes in the sink and went back to sit on her bed. Her phone was flashing over and over, indicating she had another text. Wilke again.

want me 2 come over? we can play doctor

Yeah right, she thought, letting out a snort. She realized she needed to brush her teeth again, so she headed back to the bathroom. The test still sat at the edge of the sink, and even though she knew it would be negative, she picked it up to look. One line, negative, two lines, positive.

Of course, it was one single line. Negative, duh, she thought. Yet, the more she stared at it, the more it was beginning to look like there was a second, very faint line there.

"There's no way," she mumbled to herself, and held it closer to the light. It was an old test, it was probably wrong. But she couldn't deny it, there was definitely a second line; barely there, but it was there.

Daphne sank to her knees, gripping the test in both her hands. What the hell was going on?