-CHAPTER FIVE-

“Mr. McNeil, I presume?” A tall, thin man said in a nasally voice.
Amy saw Lucas look at the paper he had that had all the classes and teachers listed on it. “Mr. Forbes, I presume?” Lucas replied sarcastically. The class burst out in soft giggles.
Mr. Forbes looked slightly embarrassed to have been talked back to by a boy from North Ireland. Which everyone knew. Amy timidly smiled as she and Lucas took their seats.
“Well,” Mr. Forbes started. “Welcome to Sophomore and Junior Grammar and Literature. I am Mr. Forbes, as I am sure most of you know by now. Being as this is a rather small class with only thirteen students in it we are going to go around and say our names, where we're from, how old we are and something interesting about ourselves. We'll start with you Miss James.”
A pale girl with jet black hair softly began to state her name. “Um...I'm Kyrna James and I'm from Liverpool, England, um...I'm fourteen years old and I...uh...play the piano.”
“Very good, thank-you,” Mr. Forbes said smiling as he looked on his attendance list to see who the next person was. “Mr. Kilny? If you please.”
“Jacob Kilny,” The muscular young man with brunette hair and green eyes declared loudly, obvious to everyone that he was not shy. “I'm seventeen and I'm a local boy from here -Dublin. Also, I'm playing football for the school and I'm the goalie.”
“Chris Boles,” said another smaller, less energetic boy behind Jacob. “I'm sixteen and I'm also from Dublin. I have fourteen brothers and sisters.”
When Chris stated this the class begin to whisper excitedly among themselves until Mr. Forbes quieted them down.
“Fourteen is quite a lot of brothers and sisters, you must handle it very well.”
Amy listened quietly as other students quickly spoke their names and the other few facts about them There was a Jenny O'neill from O'Kare who was fifteen. After her was a handsome junior with brown hair who was surprisingly from Canada. But even as she was listening the words began to blur in her mind till she was no longer paying attention and her mind began to wander. She soon found herself thinking Jack. She had left so suddenly she wondered if he was worrying about her. She soon made up her mind that she would call him when school was over. Suddenly she heard her name being called sharply and was quickly brought out of her trance-like state.
“Miss Prackett, I do believe it is your turn,” Mr. Forbes said sternly.
Amy felt her face go hot. She was embarrassed as she saw a few of the girls whispering and giggling amongst themselves.
“I'm Amy Prackett and I'm from Kohannen. I just turned fourteen and I...uh...” Amy paused nervously. What was he supposed to say about herself? First of all I'm pregnant, I'm adopted, my parents have disowned me and I've been kicked out of my house. Anything else you want to know? She really had now idea. She wasn't good at anything and she didn't even know what her favorite colour was. She finally decided on something that sounded both foolish and corny. “My favorite season is Autumn.”
The girls who were already whispering and laughing began to do so even louder. Amy didn't know what else she was supposed to say. She should've known better than to say a dumb thing like that. Most people probably wouldn't have thought twice about it, but compared to what all the other kids were saying it just sounded lame.
“Oh, well alright. That's very interesting.” Mr. Forbes said as though he was very uninterested. “Well, Mr. McNeil you're the very last person.”
Lucas sat up straight in his desk and began to speak loudly with pride. He knew he had an accent and as soon as he spoke everyone would know where he was from. But he really didn't care.
“I am Lucas McNeil and I'm from Belfast, North Ireland. I'm sixteen and I like to draw.”
Suddenly, Amy thought that many of the kids were looking conspicuously at him with an evil eye. Did they now resent him just because he was from North Ireland? If that was so what would people think when they figured out that she was pregnant. She looked up at Mr. Forbes. She knew that he knew. To Amy's dismay, all of the faculty had been informed of her condition. That's what they called it anyway. A condition. She was painfully introduced to this word in her 5th period Geometry class when her teacher, Mrs. Hopstack kept her after class a minute to speak with her.
“You know Amy, I'm not going to treat you any specially or give you any less homework just because of your condition. I hope you understand that.”
Condition? Amy thought. So, that's what they call it here. It's not pregnancy. It's a “condition.” It almost sounds like I have some sort of disease.
“Yeah, sure,” Amy replied nonchalantly as she walked out of the classroom. When she got to Christy's house she was so glad the day was over. Nothing too terrible had happened, but she already knew that she was going to be resented at school and she wasn't even sure if she really knew why. At least she had a friend there. She didn't really know Lucas to well, but she was sure she could call him a friend. He seemed nice enough. Amy decided she would get to know him a little bit better before telling him that she was pregnant. She also figured that he would probably hear about it before she would even get the chance to tell him. Somehow someone would hear about it. Maybe from one of the teachers. Then it would spread like wild fire and before you know it the whole school would be in an uproar, whispering things like, “Did you hear about Amy Prackett? She's only fourteen and she's pregnant,” or “Who knows who the father is. She probably sleeps around.” She was terrified to think about the awful things people would say, but she decided she would just have to deal with it. She tried not to think about it too much and soon enough she was thinking about Jack again.
Picking up the phone, she dialed his number. It rang twice before someone picked up.
“Hello?” Said a familiar voice.
“Hey Jack, it's Amy.”
“Amy? Oh thank God!” He replied sounding a little panicked. “I've been trying to get a hold of you for days. Your parents said they had no idea where you were although they did sound a little smug about it. Where are you? Are you alright?”
Amy laughed softly to herself. She admired Jack's concern. She wasn't sure if she loved him but she definantly felt a great affection towards him.
“Yeah, I'm alright. I'm at Christy's in Dublin. I've settled in with her.”
“Settled? Why? Why aren't you with your parents?” He asked curiously.
“Funny you should ask. I told them I was pregnant and they kicked me out. But everything's alright. Christy said I can stay with her until the baby's born and then she'll help me settle on my own.”
“Settle on your own? Are you crazy Amy? You'll be a fifteen year old single mum with a new baby. Where are you supposed to go where you'll ‘settle on your own?' I don't know about this. Maybe I should come up there and stay with you.”
“That would be nice. But you've got school and your parents and your friends and your life. I don't expect you to just drop your life for me.”
“I wouldn't be dropping my life Ames. You know that after a little convincing my parents would let me. I can change schools and Kohannen is only a two hour drive away. I can still see my friends. This is my doing to, ya know. It's not like you got pregnant all by yourself. I should have some say in this. Besides, I'm a senior now, so by the time you have the baby I'll be out of highschool and we can get a place. You know, build a foundation. You need something steady.”
Again Amy was touched by Jack's deep concern. Most guys wouldn't react like this at all. They would probably want the girl to get an abortion or something and they wouldn't want to take responsibility. Amy figured it was probably because Jack was so mature. He was quite a bit older than her at eighteen, but she had known him since she was seven and he was eleven. They started to like each other around the time Amy was twelve and and he was sixteen. Then, they began to be intimate with each other. Not sexually of course. At first they would just hold hands and kiss a little. Then, one night it got a little carried away. That happened only three or four times, but it was enough to make their lives change forever. When Amy told Jack she was pregnant he handled it quite well. Amy felt he was ready for a responsibility like this. She felt he could do it. Of course that didn't make any of this right, but it still put to rest an unsettling fact.
“I appreciate it Jack, I really do. It's just...”
“Just what Amy?” Jack asked, cutting her off. “Come on, just think about it. I want to be there for you and the baby. After all, I am the da.”
“Yeah, I suppose,” Amy replied with a sigh. “I'll have a talk with Christy about it.”
“Thanks Amy, you're a doll.” She could here the happiness in his voice.
“Yeah, whatever, it's not final yet.”
“I'll see ye later, okay?”
“Sure, see ye later.”
As she hung up the phone she began to get a little nervous about the idea of Jake coming to live with her. She didn't even know if Christy would buy it. But secretly, deep down inside she hoped he would come. She hoped.