Trying and failing to do so.

She didn’t know for sure if they were talking about her. Her mother had told her she was the talk of the town at the moment.

The good girl who ended up pregnant.

She didn’t like the vicious rumor, but there was nothing she could do about it. After all, it wasn’t like any of them were wrong.

No one had cared about her or what she did with her life, not until she became pregnant, and all of a sudden, people were all about making it their business when they didn’t have a right to.

Shaking off the feeling, she walked into the library.

It was quiet, and she found she loved it a hell of a lot more since getting pregnant. She put her books down on the table and opened them all up. She didn’t need to read any of the books.

She could have gone home and studied there, but she didn’t want to be alone in Preacher’s house. She also didn’t want to go home. There was something off about her mother. They’d never be close, which was why she found it hard to believe the kindness her mother was showing her now. It wasn’t real, and Robin kept on remembering that.

Staring at her biology book, she went through all the relevant stages of reproduction, moving onto to the reaction of enzymes, and then she changed the book because she didn’t want to stare at another picture of a slice open of the human body showing a vagina or penis.

Next was math, and her brain just wouldn’t work.

There were so many numbers, and it was all a jumbled-up mess of nonsense. Rubbing at her temple, she felt a little sick, and she was hungry.

She jumped as someone sat down beside her.

Looking up, she felt even more sick when she saw O’Klaren sitting close to her.

She lifted her head up and looked around.

No one was paying them any attention.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

“You’re here all alone. I’ve got to say I’m a little shocked. You’ve usually got your bodyguard, your dad, or Preacher.”

She sat back, hoping he didn’t see how nervous she was. She’d noticed him lingering around the high school, but he never approached.

“So you’re turning into a stalker. Isn’t there a law against that kind of thing?”

“There’s also a law about a pregnant minor.”

“I didn’t report anything. You can’t do anything unless I do, and I’m not going to.”