The Bookworm Next Door: The Expanded and Revised Edition (29 page)

              Aimee Kirkland was steaming.  For once she had created a truthful rumor and nobody appeared to care that Hannah Stanfield-Johnson was actually pregnant!  They’d asked her when she was due - “Late May or Early June” - and if she knew what she was having yet - “We decided we wanted to be surprised.”  They were “oohing” and “aahing” over her rings and asking what married life was like. 

              She was pregnant for crying out loud!  Nobody believed that “Birth control can fail” or “It was only one time” crap.  Nobody Aimee knew was that gullible.  Yeah, sure, she had tried to use that against David months ago, but nobody believed her because they knew that birth control was infallible. 

              To make it worse whenever she tried to discuss this with Kelly the other girl would shut her down.  She’d say things like, “Hannah is my sister now.”  Or, “I don’t want to talk about Hannah.”  Then Kelly would walk away. 

              So she would find Will Cooper.  Only he was still bitter about the whole, “You knew Hannah was in a serious relationship and was still willing to barter her for my cooperation.”  He wouldn’t even look at her as he walked away. 

              That didn’t mean that Aimee didn’t hear him apologizing to Hannah for his part in Aimee’s schemes.  He even handed over a wedding/peace offering/apology gift of a gift card to Wal-Mart.  It was embarrassing hearing that he apologized for her.  Her!  Like she did something wrong!  All she did was state the truth!

              “Can you believe that?”  Aimee asked Candy, turning to look at the girl after her rant.  Candy was nowhere to be seen.  “If you are going to blow me off at least have the courtesy of doing it to my face!” she shouted down the hallway. 

              From behind her Wesley Pitts started laughing.  “That’s funny.  The Queen of the Backstabbers,” he stated as if that was her title, “wants people to diss her to her face.”

              Slamming her locker door shut, Aimee stared him down.

              “You honestly think that glare is going to scare me?”  Wesley laughed.  “My father is retired military.  You could learn a thing or two from him.”  Then the infuriating guy walked away.  Over his shoulder, “Learn some compassion and humility.  You need it.”

              It didn’t help that somebody started clapping. 

              Hannah sat there staring blankly at the book she was supposed to be reading.  She was lucky.  She knew she was lucky.  Out of all of the possible books she could have been assigned
Pride and Prejudice
was it.  She could have been assigned
Great Expectations
. 
Jane Eyre
. 
The Picture of Dorian Gray
.  Not that there was anything wrong with the other novels, but she had already read
Pride and Prejudice
  thanks to Aimee’s attempt at getting David Carver’s attention a few months before. 

              It was the class’ second novel – they had been assigned
Frankenstein
as a class – and this one was a solo read.  She found being assigned an already read book made things easier on her homework load.  She just wondered if the teacher knew about the fact that Delilah Davis had stated which movie was closest to the book in the middle of the hallway during a confrontation with Aimee.   

              The problem was that she couldn’t focus.  The “dining room table” was littered with textbooks.  Half-finished Trig problems were in front of her.  An assignment that needed recipe research for Culinary Arts sat to her right.  Her only relief was that Coach Barnes had her walking laps in aerobics instead of working out to the exercise video like the other girls.  On occasion another girl could join her, but mostly she was alone.  The yoga segment would be a welcome change.

              It wasn’t that her doctor said that she couldn’t work out to the dance DVD’s the teacher was using.  In fact he encouraged it, telling her to be careful right now.  She was only four months along, but the coach didn’t want to run any risks despite the doctor’s note approving the activity. 

              But she only had three more weeks in the semester and the yoga unit was next.  That still left her English IV book report and presentation.  It left math problems that were getting increasingly difficult.  A recipe project that included cooking one of the recipes as a final. 

              That barely changed the fact that she was having trouble focusing.  Brady was at his night class.  Kelly had come over to study and keep Hannah company, but her new sister-in-law left at 7:30.  She’d enjoyed the meal Hannah had made, but Kelly couldn’t keep her company until Brady came back from class. 

              Looking down, she could see her stomach beginning to round.  Soon she would be showing and all of Aimee’s nasty rumors from September would return. 

              She doubted Aimee had learned any lessons.  Hannah knew that Aimee still asked Kelly how David and Delilah were doing; it barely mattered that Kelly was trying to avoid Aimee.  She had a new loyalty now: her sister-in-law.

              But Hannah knew that Aimee would never let getting knocked off her mean girl throne set her back, not that anybody cared.

              “Hey, Peanut,” Hannah whispered.  “I hope you never think that you weren’t worth this.”

              The jingle of Brady’s keys in the lock told her it was after nine. 

              The nurse wrote down a few pieces of information for Hannah’s chart.  Her blood pressure was slightly high, but everything else was at reasonable levels.  She made a note to monitor the teenager’s stress – Senior Year could be stressful – and blood pressure levels before getting down to the reason both parents were in for this appointment instead of just Hannah. 

              “So…” she looked at Brady and Hannah, “are you wanting to know the sex of the baby?” 

              Hannah looked at Brady for a moment before looking back at the nurse.  “No.  If I found out what the baby is going to be then I’d want to decorate and do all those other nesting things.  I really don’t want to decorate until we move into the apartment we are planning on living in during college.  If we find out that we’re having a boy I’ll be tempted to put little baseballs on the walls with the bears that I’ve already bought.  While I know they are vinyl and I can reuse them, they just don’t stick the same way after they’ve been used and we’re only supposed to be in the apartment for a few weeks after the baby is born.” She thought about the green and yellow pieces she was putting together in her Baby Wish List like the fitted sheet for the crib that had little bears with green and yellow bellies and ears.  Or the yellow stuffed duckling she wanted when the baby was a little older. 

              “I understand that,” the nurse responded, nodding her head.  “Plenty of parents want that moment of surprise.”  Pouring the gel on Hannah’s stomach, she pointed out something that neither parent had thought about, “Just keep in mind that sometimes the baby does not want to cooperate with the parents’ wishes.” 

              “We understand,” Hannah responded while Brady nodded his head.  “We still want to see the Peanut.”

              Looking at the screen they saw a clear image of their growing baby, including the very part that they had hoped to avoid.  Nothing needed to be pointed out and there was no confusion about the sex of their little Peanut.

Tugging at her pants, Hannah started panting as she tried to get them pulled up.  “I can’t get my pants on!  Not even with the rubber band trick!” she called out to Brady. 

“You’ll just have to wear a skirt today,” Brady called back from the bathroom.  “The hem is long enough it won’t matter.” 

Peering around the door frame, “I wore one yesterday and Aimee ‘accidently’ spilt something on me at lunch.”

Brady growled.  He was getting tired of hearing about the little things that Aimee had done that may or may not have been an accident.  “I wish something could be proven against her.”

“She’s just mad that I’m still liked and nobody wants to be seen with her.  I’ve taken to using Heather, Jennifer, or Delilah’s lockers instead of mine.”  Hannah disappeared to scan the closet for another skirt.  “I wish I could wear my stretchy pants.  I guess I’m going to break down and ask for written permission from the principals.” 

“Why are you using the other girls’ lockers?”

Hannah looked at him while sniffing a skirt she finally found in the dirty laundry hamper. “Somebody spilled perfume in front of my locker last week and the smell makes me nauseous.”  Looking up, “It wasn’t Aimee; just some annoying freshman who was trying to act like her older sister.”  Moving to pull the skirt on over her tights Hannah finished explaining, “Besides, their lockers are actually closer to my classes.”  She didn’t want to mention that she was concerned that Aimee would attempt some of the tricks she’d done to some of Brady’s ex-girlfriends.  Hannah knew that she was on Aimee’s short list if only because Aimee hadn’t reduced her to a public mass of sobbing tears yet. 

Staring at the scented lotions and body sprays, she considered camouflaging the slight dirty laundry smell before deciding to toss a pair of stretchy black pants into her back pack.  She’d ask if these pants would be okay for her to wear and if they were she would change at school. 

“I guess that makes sense,” Brady slowly answered.  He took so long to respond that Hannah had forgotten what they were talking about.  “Your mom is planning on dropping off some money for clothes this afternoon.”

“Good.  I need some more pants before I’m completely out of clothes that I can wear.” 

              “Look..,” Wesley started to say to his ex-girlfriend; they had been dating ever since their friends had all started to date.  “It’s not like we haven’t gone to things together before.”  He didn’t want to admit that he was having trouble keeping up with Jennifer on their daily Christmas Break run.

              She wanted to keep in shape and be prepared for her last Track and Field season.  Jennifer had State and scholarships on her mind. 

              So focused on trying to keep up, Wesley barely noticed as Jennifer rolled her eyes as she asked, “What’s your point?”

              Will you go to David’s party with me?” he finally asked.

              “No.”

              “No?”

              “No.”

              Impatiently, Wesley asked, “Why not?”

              “Because,” Jennifer answered him while channeling one of her older brothers.

              “Why?” he repeated?

              “I don’t have to answer that,” Jennifer retorted, picking up her pace intentionally. 

              For the hundredth time that night Jennifer sighed, “I can’t believe I agreed to this.”

              “I can,” Wesley answered, handing her an orange drink can.  Deciding to make a joke, he jested, “You just want my body.”

              “You aren’t that good.”

              Grinning, “How would you know?” Wesley asked her. 

              “You’re right,” Jennifer reluctantly agreed.  “I wouldn’t.”

              Scanning the room, she observed for a few minutes.  Delilah was scanning Mrs. Carver’s bookshelves.  Kyle and Grace were sitting on a sofa; occasionally he would rub his scar on his knee.  Kelly had been allowed to come and was talking to her date - from her Bible study class – and Penny.  The look of annoyance and Kelly’s crossed arms caught Jennifer’s attention. 

              Almost everybody had paired off.  David and Delilah.  Kyle and Grace.  It was sad.  Certainly she’d go out with Wesley if the need called, but they’d agreed back near Christmas that they were better off as friends, occasionally friends who dated when they needed a plus one, and exercise partners.  She would have been ill-prepared for the first week of Track practice without him. 

              He thought nothing of it when she let out a string of curse words that would make her military trained brother blush – even though she had learned most of those words from him.

              Wesley thought nothing of their secret bets on how long each of their friends’ relationships were going to last. 

              One bet they constantly had to revise: Grace and Kyle.  Jennifer expected Grace to get swamped with the ACT and the college application process and push Kyle away.  Wesley expected Kyle to get bored and decide to stay on the baseball team.  Both of them were wrong. 

              There were no bets placed against David and Delilah.  At least they didn’t place any bets for during high school.  They both predicted that half of the couple would decide that Delilah would need to date other people before settling into a long-term serious relationship.  Jennifer gambled that it would be David making that motion.  Wesley placed his money on Delilah ending it with David.  They didn’t know if they would be able to discover the outcome of that relationship, but they made the bet anyway.  Their lives were filled with little and big bets.

              Jennifer thought about those bets while Wesley shared his annoyed look with her while Penny looked wide-eyed at their language.  Years later and the newspaper editor still had not been able to get used to the others’ harsher use of language.