Everything I've Never Had (COMPLETE)

EINH chapter 17*

*Chapter 17*

{Month 9}

"If two or more ideas are parallel, they are easier to grasp when expressed in parallel form. SIngle words should be balanced with single words, phrases with phrases, clauses with clauses."

Professor Adams was explaining a powerpoint about parallel structured sentences as I sat in the auditorium that Wednesday. I was being a good litle student and copying the simple powerpoint slides, adding my own notes when he said something that I figured I should remember. Finals were coming up in a few weeks and I was cramming a lot of studying into my schedule, not that it was really busy anymore.

"Readers expect items in a series to appear in parallel grammatical form. When one or more of the items violate readers' expectations, a sentence will be needlessly awkward," he continued and I scribbled notes down in the margin of my paper and copied the slide into my laptop. "For example, in the sentence, 'After assuring us that he was sober, Sam drove down the middle of the road, ran one red light, and two stops signs,' is gramatically incorrect. The third example presented should read, '...and went through two stops signs.' This revision adds a verb to make the three items parallel."

I sighed as he went on explaining gramatical errors in two more sentences. I copied them down easily, but didn't pay much attention to his corrections. I had learned about parallel structure thoroughly in my freshamn year Intro to Literature class.

I winced slightly as a slight pain shot through my lower abdomen. It felt likes cramps, but that was impossible since I was pregnant and had been for nearly nine months now. I had been feeling this pain for a couple days now, on and off every few hours. Along with them was the pain in my lower back that was making it uncomfortable to do anything but lay down.

My eyes widened slightly as I realized I was nine months pregnant. I was able to go into labor at any time now and the babies would be perfectly healthy. My due date wasn't until early next month, but the doctor had said I was at a higher chance of delivering early since I was carrying twins.

Even as I thought this, I passed it off, knowing if I was having contractions, they were short lived and only happened every three or four hours so far. Though, as I thought about it, the last time I had felt the constricting pain was at the beginning of the class. My English course had started barely twenty minutes ago. I shook my head slightly and hoped that the contractions wouldn't speed up. I still had another class after this, and I really wanted to get through the day.

Fifteen minutes later, only two-thirds of the way through class, another contraction ripped through my abdomen, and I squeezed my eyes shut. This one was longer than the previous ones I had been experiencing the past couple of days. I kept my eyes closed for almost two minutes and had to breath for another few seconds after it passed to recooperate myself. I let out a breath of air and tried to concentrate back on the lecture.

Apparently, the babies were set on having my complete and undivided attention because when it wasn't contractions, it was my back. I squirmed in my chair to try to find a comfortable position to sit in. People around me eyed me curiously as I rearranged my body a few times. After a few mintues of failing at trying to get comfortable, I let out a huff and just sat there, gritting my teeth.

Ten mintues after my failed mission, another contraction decided to show up and I groaned a bit, trying to squelch the sound with my hand. Apparently it worked, since only the people closest to me looked over. Some were staring at me like I had grown a second head and others were looking at me with concern.

Kelsie, the girl sitting to my immediate left leaned over toward me and whispered, "Are you okay, O'Reilly?"

I held my breath as the final remnants of the contraction passed before I nodded and glanced at her. "Yeah, I'm fine."