Melissa wasn’t close to many of her peers anyway, so slipping away after school each day gave others fewer opportunities to notice anything different about her. Except her friend Kelly White.

Kelly had called and asked why she hadn’t seen Melissa after school. She seemed genuinely concerned and told Melissa she missed seeing her on weekends and at the lake.

“Yeah, I’m trying to get a part-time waitress job.”

“Are you okay?”

“Sure. I just need income right now. I’m good.”

Kelly had asked a few more questions that Melissa dodged. Then Kelly suggested they get together and go fishing again. Melissa said that would be fun and hung up the phone as quickly as she could.

When graduation came, Melissa arrived already in her robe, which she requested one size larger. She kept to herself until time to walk across the stage and receive her diploma. She was amazed that no one seemed to notice anything different. Even Brian acted like they had dodged a bullet.

All the changes in her body surprised Melissa. The nausea had lessened by the end of summer, which she was grateful for, but then came the increase in appetite. She felt ravenous most of the day, and Brian commented on the change.

“I guess you’re eating for two?” he said.

She rolled her eyes.

Fatigue was the other factor. She felt exhausted most of the day. She tried not to watch too much TV, remembering her father’s coarse words about her mind turning to mush from all the worthless programs. The daytime talk shows interested her, and since she didn’t have much interaction with anyone outside of the doctor’s office and the adoption agency, she found the shows comforting. At least she got a little human interaction, even if it was from a TV screen.

Through a friend, Brian had found a job at a golf course mowing and retrieving balls at the driving range and maintaining the golf carts. It wasn’t what he wanted to do the rest of his life, but it was a paycheck every two weeks. Brian talked about the rich people in their expensive cars who spent lots of money on greens fees and overpriced drinks and candy bars between holes.

“One day you’re going to be able join a golf club like that,” Melissa said. “You just wait.”

“If I ever make that much money, I’m not going to spend it on golf—I’ll tell you that right now.”

As fall approached, the course let him go. By then the strange flutter Melissa felt inside had intensified and made her call the nurse in the doctor’s office.

“I think something’s wrong. I feel weird.”

“What do you mean, weird?” the nurse said.

Melissa described the flutter and the nurse chuckled on the other end of the line. “Honey, that’s the baby moving. You do remember you’re having a baby, right?”