Clara woke up feeling awful. That feeling lasted all day, through AP English and Calculus. She didn't want much lunch and finally before she started cheer practice, she threw up. Usually that made her feel better and for a while it did but the sour feeling in her stomach came back right at bedtime. She must be coming down with the flu or have some sort of virus. After forcing down some soup, she went to bed.
The next morning, she woke up early and barely made her way to the bathroom before throwing up what little contents she had in her tummy. Whew! What a way to wake up! Her mom came to the door to ask if she was all right. Clara answered that she would be fine but was probably going to stay home from school and get over this illness.
Her mom agreed and left for the store to get some ginger ale, crackers, Popsicles, and soup. She had seen Clara sick with the flu and knew that it was going to be nasty. She hoped that it came and went. When she got home, Clara was watching day time TV and reclining on the couch. Her mom touched Clara's forehead and it felt cool. Whatever this sickness was, flu was not its name. A thought formed in her mind but surely that could not be correct. She was 17, for Pete's sake! Not her Honor Roll cheerleader who was going to college on full academic scholarship. She pushed the thought from her mind and took care of her baby girl for the rest of the day.
The next morning, Clara had the same thought that her mom had had the day before. But, something like that couldn't happen to her! She was too smart and she had way too much going for her. She couldn't be pregnant!!!! She emptied her stomach and headed to school. On the way, she called her boyfriend, Alex and told him to meet her that afternoon. She could barely concentrate the rest of the day at school. She told her cheer adviser that she had an emergency and left school to meet with Alex. They met and decided to go to the pharmacy and get a pregnancy test. They took the test to his house and carefully read the directions. Clara followed them to the letter. The 15 minutes that they had to wait was agonizing! She cautiously walked into the bathroom and looked at the test. There was no denying, even to her inexperienced eye that she was pregnant!! She felt like she had taken a blow to her stomach and she began to retch on the floor and cry. What were they going to do? She didn't want to get married yet and she knew she couldn't raise a baby all by herself. She felt Alex's arms around her shoulder giving silent comfort to her letting her know that all would be ok. Then, she had a moment of sheer terror!!! What was she going to tell her parents? They would be furious! Would they still love her? Would she still be wanted in their home? What about school and college? Amazing that so many thoughts could fly through her brain in such a short amount of time!! What was she going to do?
To be continued..........
