The Pregnancy Club °A Teen Pregnancy Story°

The Pregnancy Club - Chapter 17

November

Chastity

Four months. Five to go.

Aimee, Sadie and I had been putting off going to get our ultrasounds. Number one we were busy, number two we really didn't know each other that well, and number three because we were nervous. I don't know why I asked them. It kind of just popped out. I knew for sure that Erik would want to come, but I didn't want to be alone with him for some reason.

We were all sitting in the waiting room, listening to the whirs of medical equipment. It felt strange to be in the hospital again, but at least we weren't giving birth quite yet. A woman of about thirty walked out of one of the rooms. She had a smile on her face, but when she saw three pregnant teenagers in front of her she scowled, silently judging us.

"Sadie?" The doctor came out and scanned her clipboard, then looked around. Sadie stood up. She was wearing a baggy Bud Light shirt that I doubted belonged to her and sweatpants. Aimee looked perfect as always, and I was in my new, conservative maternity dress. Becky had taken me out to buy maternity clothes last week, for my bulge was slowly showing through my usual shirts.

"That's me." Sadie gulped. She was crossing her legs together, for an hour before we were all downing gallons of water. I've never had to pee so much in my life.

"Come with me." The doctor said over her shoulder. Thank God it was a girl. I probably couldn't deal with a guy other than Erik staring at my stomach. Speaking of Erik, he wasn't able to come after all. He had gotten a job at Boston Pizza so we could get our own apartment, and he was stuck at work.

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"And there's your baby." The doctor said as she rolled the device over Sadie's stomach. On the screen, we could see a blurry, rolling thing. "There's it's head." The doctor zoomed in on an even smaller blurry ball. "And there's it's hand." This time the scream showed an oddly shaped, clenched thing. Sadie only nodded, taking this in slowly.

"Do you want me to tell you if it's a boy or girl?"

"No!" Sadie said quickly. The doctor looked taken aback. "I mean, I want it to be a surprise." Sadie had told us that she was planning on giving away her baby. So far she hadn't been having that much luck.

"Well then you're finished. Congragulations." The doctor actually sounded genuinlly happy for Sadie, which surprised me after the reactions that we had been getting. Now everyone at school was ignoring me, shunning me for the crime of being pregnant. Even the teachers gave me dissaproving looks and mocking smiles.

"Alright, now Chastity, lie down here" She instructed as she turned to grab the green goop that was supposed to be put on my stomach. It felt slimy, but it was also scratchy, like their were little pine needles in it. The doctor grabbed the strange device and began to slide it over my stomach, until something appeared on the screen.

"Well here it is. Your baby." I looked up to the screen to see a similiar-looking blurry shape rolling inside of me. It took my breath away. It was living, breathing. It had fingers and toes. Heck it probably had fingernails too. It had eyes and ears and a mouth, just like every other baby, and yet mine felt special. It was unique and perfect in every way, and suddenly I forgot about the cold glares and the kicking pains, I just saw that tiny, perfect creature on the screen, inside of me.

"It's beautiful." I whispered. I felt like I had no voice, that the baby had stolen it, taken it away. Kept me silent forever so I could only express love in thought.

"Wait till you actually see it." The docotor chuckled. She zommed in on a couple of body parts, pointing them out for the rest of us. "Do you want to know if it is a boy or girl?"

Me and Erik had discussed this the night before, debating the pros and cons. I had made a list:

                                                            Finding out our baby's Gender

                           Pros                                                                                                 Cons

      - Know if we should choose boy/girl names                       - Ruins the surprise at the hospital

     - Be able to buy colour co-ordinated clothing                     

We couldn't think of anything else, so we decided to find out. "Yes." I said firmly.

The doctor zoomed in on something, studying it silently. The rest of us leaned in. "It's a girl." Yes! I thought. I knew I had wanted a girl. The names I had thought of ran through my mind. Hope? Faith? Joy? Something not God-related?

I remembered when my dad told me the meaning of my name. Basically it was a word that meant abstinance before marriage was highly encouraged. Ironic, eh?

"Alright you're done. Hop on, Miss Tulley." Sadie snickered. Aimee shot her a death glare.

Aimee carefully laid down on the stretcher, and went through the same procedure as the rest of us, until the doctor stopped suddenly.

"Wait, I see something else." She murmured, zooming in. "Oh my God."

"What?! Is something wrong with it?" Aimee sounded urgent.

"No, not at all. Congragulations, Aimee, you are the proud mother of twins." Aimee's face froze, as if all the thoughts in her mind had halted, one by one.

"Excuse me?" She exasperated.

"You have twins, you know, two babies?" The doctor explained.

"I know what twins are! I just . . . just . . ." Aimee lay back down, slowly, as if the news had been punch in the gut. The doctor realized that Aimee wasn't too happy about the news, so she finished up silently.

"You're done. Thank you all for coming. Please come to the front desk so I can give you the pictures." Aimee was like a ghost, imune to all the noises, thoughts and sights. Neither Sadie or I said nothing. We made our way to the front desk where the receptionist handed us each our pictures. The doctor came back into the lobby.

"Alright girls, Sadie, you're due date is April twenty-second, Chastity your due date is April fourteenth, and Aimee your due date is April sixth. All of you are about thirteen weeks along. You are almost in your second trimester, which means your baby is beginning to resemble and infant. Keep coming back for regular check-ups so I can see how the baby's doing." Swiftly, she turned and went back to her office.

"Aimee . . . are you okay?" I asked the blank-faced Aimee. She looked up at me, her eyes frozen, her mouth in a tight line. In a flash, she turned and ran out the door.

"Aimee! Where are you going?" I called after her, causing all the pregnant women in the lobby to stare at me like I just grew a tail. I turned to Sadie. "What should we do?"

Sadie paused, considering. " I think we should just leave her alone. It's a lot to take in."

"But we're supposed to be there for each other." I argued. 

"Nobody wants to be around people all the time." I was about to say something, but then I realized I couldn't argue with that statement. Silently, both of us made our way to the car and went home. 

SORRY THIS CHAPTER'S KINDA BORING :$
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