It took a lot of time for Cami to convince Kaci not to reveal to their mother that she was pregnant. However, she was hell-bent on telling their mother the truth because she really believed that River had raped her sister. After she was convinced by Cami that this didn’t occur, she promised her that she wouldn’t say anything. Hearing this relieved her because she wanted to be the one to tell her mother that she was expecting her first grandchild.
As Kaci stood up to return to her room, Cami remained sitting on the floor in the living room teary eyed. Kaci glanced over her shoulder and one look at her sister’s face was all that she needed to see to know that the tears were on the way. Within seconds, Cami was sobbing uncontrollably. Her shoulders shook as the tears spilled onto her cheeks. Everything that she had been keeping bottled up inside was finally coming out. The secret that left her stomach tied in knots, made her heart pound, and gave her constant headaches was wearing her body down. While she cried, Kaci knelt down beside her and held her in her arms and repeated to her over and over that everything was going to be okay. After hearing this so many times, Cami began to believe that it was true.
Later that night when Cami awoke, she was in her bed. She read her alarm clock that was sitting on her nightstand. It was 3:37 A.M. After all of the crying that she did earlier, she couldn’t remember how she had managed to get into bed. Her mother wasn’t home at the time so the only person that could’ve helped her was Kaci. She smiled to herself as she thought about how she had comforted her earlier. Everything’s going to be fine. You have to believe that,” she recalled Kaci saying to her.
She suddenly found herself thinking about the time that Kaci had defended her when they were kids. She was nine years old, and Kaci had just turned eight. They were playing on a playground that was near their home when out of nowhere, an older girl around age eleven ran up to Cami and pushed her. She fell to the concrete ground and scraped her knee and hands.
Kaci witnessed this incident occur and was angered by it. No one was allowed to do that to her big sister but her. She jumped off the slide and made her way towards the girl who was now making her way towards the monkey bars. When Kaci approached her, neither girl said a word. Instead, Kaci let her fist do the talking for her. Then, she pushed the girl onto the grass. Cami couldn’t believe what she had seen! Her younger sister had actually stood up for her. She was grateful and happy that she had someone in her corner. “That’s for pushing my sister. Next time I’ll break your arm,” she recalled Kaci saying to the girl.
The young girl then burst into tears and ran towards her mother who was sitting on the park bench. Her mother had seen her daughter push Cami and injure her, but as long as it hadn’t occurred to her daughter, she was perfectly fine with it.
After Cami and Kaci told Diane about the incident, she had some words with the other girl’s mother. After their conversation, the woman was as scared of Diane as her daughter was of Kaci.
Cami chuckled to herself. Her sister was always going to have her back no matter what. Thinking about this made her think about how strong her mother and sister were. She wanted the strength that they had. She needed to learn how to be strong not only for herself but for the baby as well.
She slowly got out of bed and quietly made her way to the kitchen. Her taste buds were eager to taste orange juice. Normally she didn’t drink it because she didn’t care for the taste; she only wanted a taste of it because of her pregnancy cravings.
After quietly walking into the kitchen, opening the fridge, and reading the orange juice carton, she realized that it contained pulp. She hated pulp! It made her feel as if something was crawling inside her mouth. However, orange juice was rich in vitamin C so it couldn’t hurt even though it contained pulp. She flipped on the light switch and carefully took a clean glass out of the cabinet and poured a small amount of orange juice into the glass. As she swallowed the first gulp, she realized that she couldn’t bear the feeling of pulp in her mouth. She opened the fridge and set the orange juice carton inside on a shelf. She then took her glass and poured the remainder in the sink. She didn’t understand how people could bear to drink it. Regular orange juice was okay, but when pulp was added to it, it became disgusting.
She didn’t want to return to her room without something so she took another look inside the fridge. All her eyes spotted were leftovers and that simply wouldn’t do. She pushed everything on the bottom shelf over until she spotted some vanilla yogurt. Then, she searched the cabinets until she found a pack of almonds and poured the yogurt and several almonds into a bowl. Afterwards, she went to her room and brushed her teeth and washed her face.
Although it was still very early, she decided that it would be best for her to get ready for the day. Besides, she was wide awake now. There was no way that she could fall asleep even if she tried. As she made her way out of the bathroom, she opened her closet. Anything that was fitted was definitely out of the question. Ever since Cami had discovered that she was pregnant, she was against wearing any clothing garments that would hug her body too tight. As she searched her closet, she found a pair of dark denim jeans, a black blouse with gold sequins at the bottom of the hem, a leopard print cardigan, and a pair of gold flats. She then went to her jewelry box and pulled out a gold necklace that simply read “Cami” and put it on. Her mother had given the necklace to her as a birthday gift when she was thirteen.
After she had gotten dressed, she looked at herself in her bathroom mirror and then sat on her bed and flipped through the career book that her mother had given her all while eating her yogurt with almonds. She had a baby on the way, and she wanted this baby to have everything. She still wasn’t sure what she wanted to do with her life but she had to do something. First off, she knew that she wanted to get a high school diploma and college degree. After all, she did want to bring home the big bucks—or at least have enough money to care for the baby and herself. But she still wasn’t sure about what field she wanted to pursue.
After flipping through several pages of the career book, the word “Actor” caught her eye. When she was younger, she wanted to be an actress. She closed her eyes and tried to picture that becoming a reality, but the only reality she could picture was auditioning for roles and the baby getting in the way of her trying to accomplish anything. She then thought about herself having her own television show. Yeah, like that’s ever going to happen. She smiled as she thought about Marissa trying to get all of the camera time. She sighed as she closed the book and laid her head back onto her plush pink pillow. Then she closed her eyes and said aloud, “Everything’s going to be fine. I have to believe that.” Then, she opened her eyes.
It was time to study for calculus. She had to pass this class because she didn’t want to repeat her last math course. In addition to that she wanted to earn at least a “B” in the class, and she knew that she had a lot of studying to do in order to pull up her “F” average. There was no time like the present.
That morning at school she found out the dreaded news. Her secret was out. She was so embarrassed and humiliated. Students whispered and giggled as she walked past them. She didn’t want anyone at school (except Marissa) to know about this.
Who could have possibly told the entire Crossroads High her secret? The only people that knew were Kaci, Marissa, and River. She knew that Marissa and Kaci wouldn’t tell anyone so that leaves River. She wanted to think that he wouldn’t have told anyone but apparently he did. Or did he? It could’ve been someone that overheard Marissa and her talking but they were careful. So who could it have been?
She later found out from Marissa that Tammy had told a lot of people at school that she was pregnant. She had overheard Marissa and Cami’s conversation in the girls’ restroom.
Throughout the day she continued to received whispers and stares from everyone. Whenever someone (other than Marissa or Kaci) did talk to her, they would ask how far along she was or who the father was. She didn’t want to answer any of those questions because it wasn’t any of their busin
ess. Instead, she would ignored the pregnancy questions, politely smile, and walk away.
Near the end of the school day, Marissa took her by the hand and led her outside near the old oak tree where a group of girls were eagerly listening to Tammy speak. Inside Cami was secretly hoping that it was not about her but she knew that it was.
“There she is,” Marissa whispered. “She’s in the center talking to all those...”
Cami cut her off. “Don’t even say it.”
Marissa studied her best friend’s face. “What are you going to say to them?”
“I don’t have anything to say to those girls but as for Tammy…That’s a different story,” Cami replied, returning the eye contact.
“Want my help?”
“No, just tag along.”
She lightly nudged Cami in the shoulder. “Is this shy little Cami speaking?” she joked.
She glanced at Tammy standing in the center of the crowd of girls. For a second, their eyes locked on each other. Maybe this is shy little Cami speaking.
Marissa followed her gaze. “I saw her at a salon the other day getting her hair done. It’s so sad. Her extensions are cheap,” she babbled.
“Oh, really?”
“That’s not even the worst part. She tried to copy my hairstyle,” she continued.
“Oh, no, it must have been the most horrible thing ever,” Cami said while trying her best to sound interested. Marissa, please shut up.
“She even tried to get her hair dyed the exact same colors as mine.”
“I hate her,” Cami said, as she stared at Tammy in the center of the circle.
“Oh, look everyone. It’s Cami and Marissa!” Tammy proudly announced. All of the girls turned around to look at them and began to laugh hysterically, and Tammy was enjoying every single moment of her fame. Enjoy this while you can Tammy because fame doesn’t last forever.
“When is your baby due?” she asked, with a wide grin across her face. Cami didn’t like her grin. She was happy at the expense of her being humiliated in front of all of these people.
She usually didn’t play dirty but Tammy left her no choice. “I don’t know, Tammy. When is your baby by Kelly’s boyfriend due?” Cami heard herself aloud.
Everyone gasped.
She looked from Cami to Marissa and then at Cami again. “Don’t make this about me. This is about you and—and what you did with River even though you knew he was engaged!”
More gasps. Now several guys were approaching them which made the small crowd become even larger.
All eyes were once again on Cami. “Well, Tammy,” she began, “all of that’s right except for the part about me sleeping with him while he was engaged. You see, River and I had sex before we broke up.”
“You are so stupid,” Marissa said to Tammy.
“Several weeks after we broke up, he started dating his current fiancée. So as you can see, I had sex with River while he was still mine. I didn’t have to sleep with another girl’s boyfriend,” she continued.
Some people booed Tammy while others simply walked away. Her less than fifteen minutes of fame were up. Tears fell down her cheeks as she shamefully walked away with Cami and Marissa following closely behind her. Cami wasn’t going to let her get away that easily. She wanted to know why Tammy would do something like this to her.
“Hey!” Cami called to her as she sped up her pace to catch up.
Tammy slowly turned around. Her head hung low and her eyes were focused on the grass. “What do you want?”
“What were you hoping to gain by telling everyone that I’m pregnant? Were you hoping that it would take you out of the negative spotlight so that everyone would forget what you did?” Cami asked her.
There was no answer from Tammy. Only tears.
Cami frowned. “I hope that you got what you wanted, but let me tell you something. I’m going through hell right now. I have my own problems to deal with, so the best thing for you to do is to shut up and focus on your own problems. I don’t want to hear my name come out of your mouth,” she said.
Tammy didn’t say anything. She couldn’t even look at her. She just turned around and sadly walked away. Cami actually kind of felt sorry for her, but then she dismissed those feelings as soon as she thought about what Tammy had done. If she hadn’t opened her big mouth, none of this would have happened.
“When did you get so tough?” Marissa inquired, with a surprised look on her face. Today she had seen a completely different side of Cami that she didn’t know existed. In all of the years that she had known her, she had never known her to get this angry with anyone or that she was this strong. The Cami that she knew would’ve avoided speaking up for herself because she hated the attention that came with it. But today she was the complete opposite of that person…She was even better because she had stood up for herself.
“I don’t know. I didn’t know that I could be this way,” Cami answered. “Then again, it could be my hormones.”
“Won’t Kaci be proud?”
“Oh, please. Kaci’s so mad at me.”
“Why?”
“River came by yesterday and I gave him a piece of my mind. I told him that I was pregnant. Kaci sort of overheard…” Marissa raised her eyebrows. “…and got angry,” Cami added.
“I can imagine. She hates him.”
“I just hope that she doesn’t hate this baby.”
“I’m sure she’ll come around.”
“Yeah,” Cami said, as she looked towards the sky, “I hope so.”
“When are you going to tell your mom?”
Cami closed her eyes as if trying to shut the thought out of her telling her mother. Then she opened her eyes and found Marissa staring at her intently. “When I get home, I’ll tell her.”
Marissa patted her on the back. “I’m glad to hear that.”
“I just wish I could’ve chosen my own time to tell her instead of Blabber Mouth Tammy choosing it for me.”
“Want me to come over?”
She thought for a moment before replying, “No, I have to do this on my own.”
“Just stay calm while you’re telling her and don’t raise your voice. That’ll just make it worse,” Marissa stated. Cami found herself feeling uneasy and as if sensing it Marissa quickly added, “Your mom loves you very much and she’ll help.”
“Sounds like you’ve been through this before. You haven’t, right? You would tell me, right?”
“Chill, Cami. Of course I would. I just happen to be great when it comes to giving advice.”
Cami took a bottle of water from her purse and swallowed a small gulp of it. Her nerves were definitely on edge. She knew that her mother would be upset with her. She just didn’t know how upset. “I can’t even imagine how upset my mom’s going to be.” She twisted the lid back onto the bottle and began to tap the bottle with her free hand.
“Then don’t,” Marissa said, grabbing her hand. “Don’t think about the bad stuff. Think about the good stuff. Think about getting pre-natal care for the baby. Think about how good it’ll feel to realize that you’re not alone—to realize that someone who really cares about you is going to be there every step of the way.”
Cami hoped that her mother would be there for her every step of the way. If she wasn’t, she didn’t know what she was going to do.
Chapter 9