“That’s cool,” he said. Then he paused. “I guess you’re not going to that Ivy League school you told me about, huh?”

“Not now, but maybe one day. I didn’t apply to any for now, though.”

It was that time of year when all of my classmates were getting their application essays together for early decision admission. Weller had even set aside a few days in AP English to give us guidelines for writing what she called the perfect college essay. It was formulaic, but it sounded legit, and I wished I had more reason to care about it, but I was too busy trying to fit a baby belly in between my chair and desktop to give her much attention.

Your priorities shift when you’re pregnant.

To Weller’s credit, she’d noticed my discomfort, and miraculously, the next class we had two long tables in the back of the room with pull-out chairs. They seated two kids per table, and Leaf had taken to sprinting to class early to claim one for us. Thankfully, the other kids caught on pretty quickly it was for the preggo who didn’t quite fit into standard seating and never fought him.

Because Weller had done that, my other classes did it, too. She was a trendsetter. A mean one who called us stupid when we screwed up, but a trendsetter all the same, and I appreciated her consideration.

“However I can help, I will. My mom said she’d help, too. We’ll figure it out,” Jack said.

“Yeah, we will. Let me talk to my family and we’ll get a plan going?”

“Totally. Thanks for being cool. And I’m sorry again.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

I hung up and rolled over. My brain was on fire, doing that thing where I worried not about what Jack had said, but what he hadn’t said. About why his father wanted the DNA test. Did he think I was a slut? Was it because my last name was Rodriguez? Did it even matter what he thought because he was just the baby’s grandfather? Or maybe he was just being responsible for his son, making sure Jack didn’t get taken in?

I worried about the gender discussion, too. Was Mr. Ianelli anti-queer? And if so, how would he feel if he found out I was questioning my sexuality and leaning toward IDing as bisexual? Or that my best friend was gray ace? Or that Morgan was a trans girl? Would he teach my kid a lot of toxic things that would, ultimately, hurt people I loved a lot?