This dedication goes to all the people that I called crying about my story, and gave me the best advice ever. To Roxanne of the Red Light District, thank you for telling me that what I write at first doesn’t have to be the last thing I write. Thank you for listening to me complain about every single character until I had it right, and thank you for being they’re when I needed to cry a little. Thank you for the criticism that you gave me and for the compliments. To Rebekkah, for making me write the story. It’s about time, huh? I hope you’re not disappointed and I love that you care enough to help me. To Hinel, thank you for helping me with my ending and caring about my characters as much as I do. Thank you for reading my mind when I was thinking about the ending and thank you for being just as crazy as I am. To Helen, thank you for knowing everything and keeping me grounded when I wanted to send my characters to space while I was writing at three o’clock in the morning. You guys mean more to me than you will ever know, and I thank you for more than what you help with the story, but how you help me in life.

Katherine woke with a start at four that morning to the sound of a three-year-old boy screaming. She slowly rubbed her eyes so that she might wake easier. She stepped off her small bed and stepped into her son’s room.

“Mommy!” Little Jacob stood up in his crib and reached out for his mother. Katherine walked over, picked up the little boy, and cuddled him tightly. “I had a bad dream!”

“It’s okay baby.” Katherine softly stroked the little boy’s soft blonde hair and kissed his peachy colored skin. “It wasn’t real.”

“Yes it was! Because you were in it!” Jacob let go of his mother’s neck and propped himself up in her chest. “You said you wanted to go away and you didn’t love me any more. Then a monster tried to eat me!”

“Oh baby I could never stop loving you. And see, here you are. The monster didn’t eat you. So try to Katie go back to bed.” Katherine, or Katie, started to put Jacob back into his crib but he kicked, screamed, and held onto her neck tighter.

“No! I’m afraid!” Jacob clung tightly to his mother’s pajamas and accidentally grabbed her nipple. Katie winced from the pain and quickly slapped Jacob’s hand.

“Honey, you’re going to have to stop being afraid. You have to be my big strong boy.” Katie kissed his head gently and started to rock him back and forth.

“I want my daddy!” Jacob said loudly.

This stung Katie’s heart more than anyone could have ever said to her. She didn’t know what to say or how to comfort her son. The only thing that she could think of hurt her more than help anyone. “I do too. Now go back to bed.”

After struggling for about thirty minutes, Jacob finally was persuaded into sleeping. Katie stumbled into the kitchen/living room and started to make a cup of coffee. She was too awake to go back to bed so she decided it was time to catch up on bills. Now after reading this much you might think that Katie is in her twenties and divorced, well you’re wrong. She’s not widowed or middle aged either. She’s never been married, and she’s a senior in high school.

When Katie was a freshman, she was dating a boy that was named RT. He was a junior and he swept her off her feat. One night, he talked her into having sex with him. Since she thought that he loved her and they would get married one day, she broke all promises she made to herself and slept with RT. He told her that they didn’t need protection and so she got pregnant. When RT found out that she was pregnant, he tried to do the right thing. He still paid child support faithfully to this day and occasionally saw Jacob. But he never married Katie. Instead he married a woman that he met in college. So Katie lived by herself in a small apartment on her parent’s property. Katie, however gullible she may be, was too proud to let her parents take care of her. So she paid rent, and when her mother watched Jacob during the day she paid her for babysitting. Katie worked hard at the small diner that was walking distance from her house. She would sometimes work ten hours straight on the weekends then take an hour off and work a little more. Her boss was always willing to give her over time, since she had gone through the same thing when she was in high school. She hated when people pitied her, because if she could do it all again she would make the same mistakes. Yes, sometimes she wished she could have her childhood back, and yes she would love to go out on the weekends, but she would never give up her little boy. He’s who makes her life worthwhile. It always sickened her when she saw the teen pregnancy movies and the girls say they would rather never have sex then have their child.

Katie pulled out her schedule for this new school year. They had sent it in the mail the previous day, and now she finally had time to look at it. Katie was thankful that her school had block scheduling and she had been able to double up throughout high school. She was able to goof off this last year and it felt relaxing to know that she wasn’t going to need any brain cells, she didn’t have many left to spare. First block it was speech and debate second block she had theatre, third block was a computer class, and forth block she had family/community/careers. She could sleep through the third and last class and still get a one hundred. She slowly sipped her cup of coffee with gingerbread creamer and looked around the small room. It needed cleaning badly, but she didn’t have time to do it and when it was clean it was instantly trashed when Jacob wanted to play. Since that time was most likely going to be the only day she would have time for a while, she started to pick up toys scattered across the cheap, brown carpet. Today was her day off that was forced on her by her boss and the day before school. She smiled sentimentally at the blanket tossed carelessly into the cracks between the couch cushions. It was the blanket that she had carried Jacob home in and it was the only blanket he had for about six months of his life. Even though she had money problems now, they were nothing compared to the problems she had when her family had started. She used to remember being thankful that all she needed to eat was macaroni and cheese and all Jacob needed was free milk.

When the living room was semi-decent and Jacob’s bedroom seemed to have a floor, Katie went to fix breakfast. By that time it was nine o’clock in the morning and she was famished. She fixed the sausage, eggs, and grits as quickly as possible and had to restrain herself from eating everything she had cooked with one bite.

She then went to take a shower. She took quick showers these days, now that she knew how much water costs. She remembers taking thirty-minute showers when she lived with her parents, and then she lived by herself those showers were cut into five minutes. She stepped out of the shower and wrapped the towel around her damp body. She had realized earlier that having a baby had great pros on her physical appearance. Her breasts had almost doubled, or even tripled, in size and she felt a bit more mature. Maybe it was the fact that she had sex, or maybe it was that she was in charge of someone’s life, something so frightening, but so spiritual all at the same time. Either one, she knew that the day she had said yes to RT was the day she became a woman.

Katie quickly dressed and stepped out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. She dressed and when she was finished she walked into Jacob’s room and started to rub his back and she quietly whispered to him. She then started to sing her morning song to him. “Good mornin’, good mornin’. It’s great to stay up late, good mornin’, good mornin’ to you. Good mornin’, good mornin’. Sun beams will soon smile threw good mornin’ good mornin’ to you.”

Jacob started to open his eyes and he rubbed them quickly. “I don’t want to get up. I was a shark and I was swimming in the water.”

“Oh that sounds like fun.” Katie picked her boy up with quite a bit of strain and carried him into the kitchen. “I cooked this morning, aren’t you happy?”

Jacob nodded with great enthusiasm, slithered from his mother’s grasp, and ran to the table. Katie wished that she could have that much energy in the morning. He quickly ate what was on his plate and begged for more. Katie gave him what was left and slowly finished her breakfast. When they were finished Katie dressed Jacob and set him in front of the television so he could watch cartoons. The phone on the wall next to the refrigerator started to ring and Katie reached over to get it.

“Hey!” answered the girl on the other line. It was Katie’s best friend since birth, Rebekkah. Rebekkah was a party girl who spent more time at a club than she did anyone else. Katie used to secretly believe that the creators of the show Sex and the City had her in mind when they were writing the party scenes. “I’ve got a great surprise for you!”

“RT’s wife died?” Katie said jokingly. She never got along with her, since she was extremely snooty and hated Jacob.

“Not that great, but close enough. Today is going to be Katie day!” Rebekkah screamed. “I have gotten everything planned out. Your mother has known about it forever and Hinel and Helen are helping me too. First, we are taking you shopping. We will buy you whatever you want, and it will be an early Christmas/Birthday present. Then we will be sending you to a spa, that will be your mother’s present, and my present will taking you to this great club in Atlanta. Oh and while we’re at the mall, I have to get you a cookie, that’s Jacob’s present. What do you think?”

“I don’t know. This is my only day to spend time with Jacob. Wait, is this why Roxanne gave me the day off today?” Katie started to remember how she had forced her to take the day off, and refused to let her go any other day. Everything was starting to make sense now. That is why Helen and Hinel, her friends since she was a freshman, were all of a sudden busy today.

“Yeah, she knew just as we did that you need this day to yourself. You haven’t had one in three years.” Rebekkah smiled to herself as she pulled into a parking spot. “Now I’m at your house, if you don’t come out now I’m going to go in there and kidnap you.”

“Well who’s going to watch Jacob? I can’t just leave him here.” She said in watching the boy who was smiling slyly at her. She recognized the smile and thought of RT. “Did you know about this?” She shouted over at him.

He nodded his head quickly and his smile widened, almost to the point were he had no head, just a giant smile on top of shoulders.

“Well, first your mom is, then I am, and then Helen will watch him until you get him tonight. They’re taking him to the zoo, then to the movies, and then they will take him to the video store and let him watch whatever he wants, that’s rated under PG.” Rebekkah said walking into the house. She turned off her cell phone and leaned over the bar that separated the living room and the one and a half-person kitchen. “Wow, you cleaned up in here. It looks really nice. Too bad you won’t be around here long enough to enjoy it. Now let’s go, the longer you stand here the less we can be at the mall because your mom made reservations.”

“How long have you planned this? Jacob turn the TV off and get your shoes, your going to granny’s.” Katie grabbed her purse from the back of the kitchen table chair. “Turn off all of the lights and don’t forget socks baby.”

“For about a month. We told Jacob about it yesterday and that’s when he asked us to buy a cookie for you. He said your favorite was the double chocolate chip cookies with frosting on top. Nice!” Rebekkah led Katie and Jacob out of the room. Rebekkah had already placed Jacob’s car seat in her car, and Katie went to go and buckle him up.