Complete Chaos

023

Summer break had started a few weeks ago when the last school bell rang.

Many of the students found things to do right away.

They would spend hours at the community pool or at the Startcourt mall that had recently opened.

The mall was the new favorite spot for many. It had several stores for teens, children and adults. The mall also had a food court, making it easier for families to stay for a long period of time.

The large building had colorful signs all around, getting the attention from anyone that passed nearby.

The mall was a great opportunity for the community giving more options for jobs.

Steve was able to find a job at Scoops Ahoy! by the food court.

Steve was sad he didn't get into Indiana Tech College. He never thought about his future goals and careers, but he had a child on the way he wanted to be able to give his child the best he could.

With everything going on, it was going to take him longer than expected. For now, he had to wear an embarrassing sailor costume. He wore a white cap with Scoops Ahoy embroidered across the front, a blue shirt and shorts with white striped hems, a long red bow, and long white socks that stopped midway up his calf.

He hated it, but there were sacrifices he needed to make to provide for his little family. Julia thought he looked cute the first time she saw him come back home after his shift.

Julia, on the other hand, didn't have much luck finding a job. Once they saw her almost eight-month growing belly, they wouldn't even interview her for the job, saying they weren't hiring anymore; when there was a clear big sign outside the door stating they were hiring.

Others were more rude, telling her that she was incompetent, weak, and less committed to the job because she was pregnant and she would give birth soon. To top it all off, they wouldn't even pay her for the days she would stay in the hospital after giving birth. It was unfair and frustrating. How was she going to be able to provide for her child when she couldn't even work, and Steve's minimum wage wouldn't be enough.

Because she didn't work in the mall, she had a lot of time on her hands. Julia decided to occupy her time by doing what she loved the most, bake and sell her creations around the neighborhood.

Kimberly helped her by spreading the voice to her other friends and people around the pool. Her most frequent customers were Mrs. Henderson and Mr. Wheeler.

Some days she got lucky and got big orders earning a good amount of money.

She saved what she could for the baby, the rest of the money she used to buy more ingredients.

Since the Fourth of July was coming up, she had booked two different gatherings. She was going to bake two large cakes, cookies, and cupcakes.

Julia didn't have any orders that day; she went to the mall instead of staying in the house, looking at the same walls all day.

Julia and Steve were in Scoops Ahoy; a whiteboard was on the counter, on top of it was written boy|girl Steve moved the marker between his fingers.

They were trying to come up with names for their child.

Julia was only a few weeks from giving birth. "How about for a boy Julius," Steve suggested writing it down. Being the first name on the boys side.

Julia scrunched her nose. Seeing her reaction, Steve scratched it out, "Okay, how about Paul."

Julia shook her head, "No, I kissed a Paul in first grade. He told the whole class I got him sick from the kiss," she said rolling her eyes.

Steve thought for a second, coming up with a name that both agreed on. It was harder than he thought. They had been thinking of names for the last two days.

"How about Julia for a girl," he suggested, writing it down on the girl's side. It was the second name.

The first name was Kimberly. Both of them agreed that they weren't going to name their child after Kimberly, but the young girl had a day off from the community pool and stopped by and offered a suggestion, they didn't want to be on Kim's bad sad, so they wrote it down.

"I don't want our child to have our name. I want them to be their own person. Besides, it's going to get hard when we call them, and both of us turn around." 

"Have you kissed a Matthew," Steve asked.

"No but Matthew Green made fun of me in third grade."

Julia looked ahead to a table where a family was sitting down eating their ice cream.

"Pearl," Julia said, looking at Steve. Steve wrote it down unenthusiastically, "I dated Pearl Jenkins in middle school," he said once he was done writing it down. "Scratch it out," Julia said in a flat tone.

They were going to get nowhere at this rate.

"How about Mia." Steve repeated the name, nodding his head, "I like it."

They didnt know if they were having a boy or a girl. The pair wouldn't know until Julia delivered the baby.

Coming up with a name for their child a few weeks before meeting him or her might not have been the best idea.

Julia thought it would take an hour max but naming a human was difficult. Mostly if they didn't want to name them after a person they already knew.

They didn't want to associate their child with an ex or a bully. Steve leaned against the counter, putting the lid back on the marker, "I was thinking maybe we should give our child a unique name. For example, River for a boy or Melody for a girl. Do you know anyone with those names?"

Julia was thoughtful for a second; that could make things easier. It was true she didn't know anyone with those names. She had no memories with someone with that name.

"Write them down. I like them." Steve felt proud coming up with those names on the spot.

"What do you think about Blue and Ivy for a girl?"

Julia tapped her chin, thinking of names for a boy "Ottis and Atlas for a boy."

"I would have never thought of Blue as a name, I like it. I especially like Atlas for a boy." Steve wrote the four names down. They were finally going somewhere.

"You know what I would like," a new voice said. "For you to help me out with the customers," a girl with the same sailor uniform as Steve said.

Both teens looked at the girl; she looked unimpressed and tired.

"I'm on my break Robin," Steve reminded her. "Your break ended 15 minutes ago, you dingus."

Steve looked over his shoulder and saw the clock on the wall; his break, in fact, had ended.

Robin took the whiteboard from Steve "we could be using this for other things."

She got the marker from the counter and pulled the lid, writing something on the board. She turned the board around, facing Julia and Steve.

The name Robin was in bold letters written in the middle lower part of the board.

Steve crossed his arms over his chest "there's no way I'm naming my child after you."

Steve wasn't the biggest fan of Robin. Steve found her weird and hyper. They had been working together for the last three weeks, the longest three weeks of his life.

Their quest to find the right name for their baby was put in pause as more customers arrived.

𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞
𝙲𝚊𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚐𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎?
𝙷𝚒𝚗𝚝: 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚋𝚘𝚊𝚛𝚍.