The Cuteness of Asher

~Chapter One~1

Teenage Pregnancy2

Samantha Johnson clutched the porcelain bowl, holding on for dear life. She opened her mouth and her veggie burger, in a mushy liquid form from the night before, made a sploosh sound as it landed in the toilet. Sam had been like this for little over a week. Her parents were extremely worried about her, too worried. She stood up slowly, her arms wrapped around her stomach.3

‘What’s wrong with me?’ Sam asked herself. Maybe it was that party three and a half weeks ago. She could hardly remember anything. However, Sam does remember making out with that random guy. Did they do something else? If they did, is that something else festering inside her small uterus? But Sam thought, ‘No, I would never let anything like that happen. No matter how wasted I became.’4

Sam looked into the full-length mirror on the back of the bathroom door. Her face looked pale and her short medium dark brown hair was in a mess. Not that it was never in a mess, but more so. Sam looked into her tired brown eyes. They were red and puffy from her puking episode.5

Sam’s gaze moved down the rest of her body. Her breasts were medium sized so quite a few guys whistled at her in the halls at school. Her stomach was small and her legs thing and long. She pulled at a lock of her hair.6

There was a knock on the door, “Honey, are you okay? Do you want to go to school today?” asked her mom in a worried voice.7

Jean Johnson was forty-two, quite large, had grayish-brown flyaway hair, and menacing brown eyes. Sam half expected her to ask if Sam wanted her to pray for her.8

“Samantha,” said her mom when she didn’t answer, “are you in there?”9

“Yeah. I’m fine and I want to go to school,” responded Sam loudly. Her parents never called her “Sam,” always “Samantha.” Her parents would say, “We named you Samantha, not Sam.” They hated it when her friends called asking for Sam. It pissed her off when her parents would tell them, “I’m sorry. There is no one here by that name. Perhaps you have the wrong number. Good bye and God bless.”10

Sam left the bathroom to find that her mom retreated downstairs. She could hear them talking. She walked across the long hallway towards her bedroom. All the while listening to her parent’s conversation.11

“Yes, she’s going to school,” said Mrs. Johnson. “I don’t know why, I could hear her throwing up.”12

“Well, she wants to get good grades. She made a very smart decision,” said John Johnson.13

John Johnson was forty-seven with a beer belly and gray hair that was slowly receding. He also had uncaring brown eyes.14

Sam always thought that she was born into the wrong family. Her parents were Christians to the extreme, and Sam was agnostic. She went to a Christian school until high school where she begged her parents to transfer her to a public school. They finally agreed after many arguments.15

Sam closed the door to her bedroom. She picked up a couple of saltines off her desk and ate them while she slid out of her pajamas. Sam chose her ripped jeans and her favorite AeroSmith T-shirt. She put the rest of her saltines in her backpack, grabbed her CD’s and car keys, and left her bedroom.16

She walked down the stairs to find the house empty and spotlessly clean. Her parents had already left for work. Sam took and apple from the fruit bowl. ‘Well, here’s my breakfast,’ she thought.17

Sam locked the door and left the house. She got in her car and flipped through her CD’s. She chose the Just Push Play album by AeroSmith. She started her car and popped in the disk. Sam backed out of the driveway as the CD started to play. She hit the skip button to the cover song as she put the car in drive.18

As she was stopped as a red light, Sam searched her pockets for her pack of cigarettes. ‘Damn,’ she thought. ‘I left them in my room.’ The light turned green and Sam hit the gas. The school was only ten minutes away so there was no need to hurry. Sam took a few saltines out of her bag. Her stomach was acting up again. She popped a few in her mouth.19

‘Sweet salvation,’ Sam thought. Her stomach went back to normal. Sam approached the school and pulled into the parking lot. She parked near the front. It was still early when she arrived so not many students were here yet.20

Sam slapped her backpack around her shoulders and marched into the school. She walked through the doors at the same time her favorite teacher came out of the office.21

“Hey, Mr. Strover,” said Sam. Austin Strover was Sam’s English teacher. He was a really cool guy and gave Sam the idea of being vegetarian. Sam couldn’t go veagan like Strover because she loved Cheese too much.22

“Hello, Sam. How are you feeling today?” he asked. Strover is one of those kind and caring teachers who like to be more involved with his student’s lives.23

“I could be better. How are you?” responded Sam. She enjoyed talking with her teachers about everything. They helped her out where her parents couldn’t, which was most of the time.24

“I feel tranquil today,” he stated. Storver’s and at ease-go-with-the-flow kind of guy. Sam could tell that he wanted to talk more about why she wasn’t feeling great, but Sam didn’t know why herself she was feeling like she was going to throw up and second.25

Luckily, her best friend Joanne showed up and stole her away. “See you later, Mr. Strover,” Sam yelled over her shoulder.26

“See you, Sam,” he responded with a sigh.27

They would see each other during the last class. Sam had his senior speech class at the end of the day. She was really looking forward to his speed class. It was so fun and funny.28

“Did you get the trig homework done?” Joanne asked. She never got her homework done. Joanne was always copying from one of her friends. This is one of the things that pisses Sam off. She was a straight ‘A’ student and Joanne was just scrapping by, with the help from her friends.29

“No, sorry. I was way too tired to concentrate last night,” Sam lied. She was always on top of her homework.30

“It’s alright. I’ll just copy from Jessie,” responded Joanne. Jessie was Joanne’s boyfriend. He did everything for her. Jessie was really stupid too. He had five classes and he was failing three and was close to failing his other two.31

“What did you do this weekend?” Sam asked.32

“Not much,” said Joanne. “Not as exciting as your weekend a few weeks ago.”33

“Shush. Keep it down. I don’t even remember what happened,” whispered Sam.34

“So, did you hook up with that guy?” she asked. Joanne had this knowing look in her eye.35

“What guy?” asked Sam. ‘What was she talking about?’ thought Sam. ‘Does she know something that I don’t?’36

“That guy you met at the party? Man, you really don’t remember,” stated Joanne.37

“Tell me,” commanded Sam. She wanted to know every detail so she wouldn’t sound stupid when some one else asked her.38

“Well,” started Joanne, “you drank a lot of alcohol. This guy took you upstairs and you didn’t come down for about two hours. I followed you after thirty minutes and I heard….um….I heard moaning.”39

“No! No, no, no!” screamed Sam. “I didn’t! I wouldn’t!” Sam paused a bit to catch her breath. “I did, didn’t I?”40

“Yeah, I think so,” responded Joanne. “But I wouldn’t worry about it. I’m sure you guys used protection.”41

Sam wasn’t so sure, and she was worried. Therefore, she decided to go straight to Wal-Mart and buy a test. She just had to know.42

“Sam, where are you going?” asked Joanne. Sam was walking back the way that they had come.43

“I’m going to Wal-Mart,” stated Sam. She walked past the library while Joanne hurried after her.44

“For what? And why now?” demanded Joanne.45

“I have to get a pregnancy test,” responded Sam in a low whisper. “I have to know.”46

“Let’s go after school,” Joanne whisper as the principal, Mr. Grover, waltzed by. “Besides, we don’t have any money. I’ll get some from Jessie.”47

Sam stopped and breathed deeply. She know that it would be stupid of her to skip school when it can wait till after classes get out. And it was true that they didn’t have any money. Sam turned around and walked to her locker at the far end of the school. Joanne followed.48

Sam took her trig and history books out of the bottom of her bag and placed them on the tannish metal top shelf. She wouldn’t need them till after lunch. Sam placed her notebooks for her morning classes’ insider her almost empty, multi-colored backpack.49

Squirrel walked by as Sam closed her locker. “Hey, Sam,” he said.50

“Hi, Squirrel,” Sam responded. Squirrel was one of Sam’s very close friends. Squirrel’s real name is Jeremy Author, but everyone calls him Squirrel. He is built like an average body builder and he’s the rebel type. He rocks out on base guitar and loves to draw.51

When Squirrel was out of sight, Joanne said, “I hate him. He is such a dickhead. Why do you hang out with him?”52

“He’s nice to me,” stated Sam. “And he’s a really good artist and bass player.”53

“He’s still a dickhead,” whispered Joanne. Sam sighed. She was always like this when Sam hung out with some one Joanne didn’t like.54

“I’ll see you at lunch, Joanne,” said Sam as she walked up the stairs to her first class, Drawing.55

“See you, Sam!” yelled Joanne over her shoulder. Joanne was on her way to Earth Science.56

Sam turned left into her art class and sat in the empty seat next to Squirrel. H was already at work on his new brilliant piece, a drawing of immensely detailed pirates. Sam watched as Squirrel drew scars, piercings, and tattoos on the captain that was standing behind the wheel of a crashed ship.57

The bell rang and Sam jumped out of her stupor. She took out her sketchbook and drawing pencils. Sam hated drawing with these, so she also took out her favorite black, number two, pencil. ‘This is how real art is created,’ she thought.58

“We have a sub today,” whispered Squirrel. Sam looked up to find that he was correct. When a sup shows up for this drawing class, it is a free day. They get to work on what ever they want, but they have to be doing something.59

Sam loved days like this. All she has to do is doodle mindlessly so that she could think or daydream. Her doodles were also some of her best work. The teacher often asked why her other stuff isn’t as inspiring as her doodles. Sam told her the same thing every time.60

“I don’t like being creative on demand,” Sam would say. “That kind of creativity never turns out to be good, no matter how hard I try.” the teacher, Mrs. Gurnish, would always sigh and say no more on the matter.61

“That is really cool,” said a voice far away.62

Sam pulled herself back to earth. “Huh?” she asked.63

“That’s a really cool drawing,” repeated the sub.64

Sam looked down at her sketchbook and, to her surprise, saw a very highly detailed drawing of a girl running though a forest. “Oh, thanks,” responded Sam in a quiet voice.65

Squirrel looked over after the substitute teacher walked back to the other side of the room. “There is a deeper meaning to this doodle,” he said. “Do you want to talk about it?”66

Squirrel always knew that this was Sam’s doodling-thinking time. “I don’t know,” sighed Sam. “What do you think it means?”67

“Well,” started Squirrel, “I think that you are lost inside and you are trying to find a way out.”68

“You know me too well, Squirrel,” stated Sam. “You should be a counselor.”69

Squirrel laughed at that. “No, I would tell everyone to get over themselves,” he said.70

Sam laughed so hard and loud that the sub yelled at them to be quiet and get back to work. She and Squirrel sniggered softly. They always got into trouble when there was a sub for this class.71

Sam looked at the clock and saw that there was only five minutes left until the bell rang to signal the end of the first class. She closed her sketchbook and packed away her pencils. Sam put her sketchbook in the back of her backpack as the sub tried and failed to quiet the very loud class. A headache was forming in her left temple at the same time her stomach gave a huge lurch. Sam quickly stuffed some saltines into her mouth, chewed, and swallowed.72

The bell rang as Sam strapped her backpack on. She walked out of the door with Squirrel. For some reason, Sam wanted to tell him that she might be pregnant. She thought it would be better not to tell him just yet. ‘I’ll tell him when I know for sure if I am or not,’ Sam thought.73

“I’ll see you at lunch. Bye, Sam,” Squirrel said at the stairs. He had English on the first floor with Mrs. Gram. She was a really boring teacher. Half the class falls asleep during her lectures.74

“See ya, Squirrel,” responded Sam as he walked down the stairs. Sam had Child Development with Mrs. Robinson. She was a fun teacher, even though she was like a hundred years old.75

If Sam was pregnant, than Child Development would come in handy. Sam chuckled in spite of herself. Here she was, looking on the bright side of things. But Sam was very scared. She had no idea how she was going to tell her parents if she was pregnant. ‘They would be extremely pissed off,’ she thought as she made her way to the classroom.76

Sam got to the door and saw that her class was being held in the library today. So she turned around and started to the library. The library at the school was gigantic. It had two floors full of books and quiet rooms for independent class time. Independent class time is sort of like a study hall, but it was only for seniors. They could listen to music and play games during this time. Sam had her independent class next period.77

She walked into the library and spotted her class right away. They were heading into the largest independent classroom. Classes were only held in here when they had a speaker come in.78

“Samantha, good. You made it,” said Mrs. Robinson near the door. “Our speaker today is going to talk about teenage pregnancy. Please take a seat.”79

Sam took the only seat left. It was in the back, away from the speaker. ‘This is so ironic,’ thought Sam. ‘I might be a pregnant teenager and here is some one talking about teenage pregnancy.”80

She buried her head in her hands. ‘This might come in hand,’ thought Sam. ‘I should pay attention.’81

The speaker was loud and annoying. The only things that Sam understood were “Sexually active and “Pregnancy” and “Morning sickness.”82

Sam already knew that morning sickness could last all day long. And that she could have been sexually active and that she might be pregnant.83

“So, if you are pregnant,” said the speaker, “don’t be afraid to go to some one. They can help you. Thank you.”84

Everyone clapped, even Sam; though she hardly heard anything that the speaker said. The bell rang and the class chatted as they gathered their things. Sam was the first one out the door. She didn’t go very far; just to the smaller room next door.85

Sam closed the door behind her. She placed her backpack on the table, sat down, and put her head on top of her soft and comfortable backpack. Sam drifted slowly off to sleep.