Not My Daughter

'No one was supposed to know until we were starting to show,' Jessica said. 'This is all Abby's fault.'

Devastated, Susan braced herself against the desk. 'Abby was not in that bed, or wherever you were, when each of you had unprotected sex.'

'But we wouldn't be sitting here now if it weren't for her.'

'You made a pact?' Meredith asked, her melodious alto sounding dismayed.

'It wasn't a pact,' Lily said. 'We just agreed that this would be a good thing to do together.'

'That's a pact, sweetheart,' Susan said, having learned the lesson from Rick. 'You can play with words all you want, but it is what it is.'

'Why?' Meredith asked the girls.

'Because we love babies,' Lily answered.

'So do I,' the counselor replied earnestly, 'but I don't have a husband or the means to support a baby, so there is no baby, and I am done with school, and the perfect age to have a child.' She had been one of Susan's first hires, a spunky African American who seemed perfectly happy mothering high schoolers in lieu of her own kids. She spoke her thoughts freely, and while that upset some parents, it worked for the students. Kids didn't always like what Ms. Parker said, Lily had explained, but they liked knowing where she stood.

So did Susan, particularly since Meredith had brought up husband, money, education, and age, all issues Susan had raised herself.

Subdued, the girls sat on the sofa. Mary Kate, in particular, looked stricken. 'Did you find Jacob?' Susan asked.

Eyes tearing up, the girl nodded.

'How was he?'

'Angry. He stared at me, then walked way.' Her voice broke. 'I ran after him-I mean, he was one of the reasons I wanted this baby-but he wouldn't listen.'

In different circumstances, Susan would have gone to her, held her, reassured her that Jacob loved her and would come around. But Lily and Jessica were doing just that, now. This, apparently, was the purpose of the pact, to support each other when the going got tough.

Susan wondered what the father of Lily's baby was thinking. She hadn't allowed herself to think about him, was still having trouble visualizing her daughter with any boy. But he would surely know by now. She wondered if other students would guess his identity and whether Susan would learn it that way.

Angry at Lily for this, too, she wandered past the bookshelf that held the summer reading assignments for each grade level. Nearby were pictures of Lily in third grade, sixth grade, ninth grade, looking so innocent that Susan could have cried.

Continuing on to the girls, she took a chair. After a minute, thinking aloud, she said, 'We have three planned pregnancies in three seniors who would be the last ones anyone would expect to have done this. The question is how to handle it.'

'You can't kick us out of school,' Jessica cautioned meekly. 'I asked my dad.'

Susan sighed. 'I wouldn't kick you out, Jess. You need to graduate.' She filled in Amy and Meredith on what had happened at lunch. 'Word is spreading fast.'

'This is Abby's fault,' Jessica insisted.

'If you weren't pregnant,' Susan said, 'she'd have had nothing to say. But it's done, Jess. We have to figure out what to do now.'

The door opened. Kate and Sunny slipped in, both looking pale and upset. Kate closed the door, shaking her head when Amy rose to offer her a seat. Sunny stood by the file cabinet, radiating anger. There were glances at the girls, but they were brief.

This is not my daughter, Susan could hear them thinking. She shared the sentiment, but dwelling on the horror of what the girls had done wouldn't help. 'It would have been nice to have had a little more time, but the grapevine can be lethal. Everyone will be speculating and exaggerating.'

'How do you exaggerate this?' Sunny asked in disgust.

Easy, Susan thought. 'You say there are ten girls involved, not three. You say that the pact is among the boys to impregnate girls. You say that someone is going to parties, slipping Mickeys to sweet little things like you three.'

'None of that's true,' Jess said.

'Correct, which is why we need to define the story ourselves. Tomorrow's Friday. Students will be heading into the weekend talking-'

'Don't they have anything better to do?' Lily asked.

'That depends on how you define better,' Susan said. 'Change the parties involved. Think, say, Rachel Bishop, Sara Legere, and Kelsey Hughes. They're your friends, right? What if you suddenly learned that all three were pregnant-three good friends, top students, college-bound kids? Wouldn't you be talking about it? Wouldn't you be calling other friends to find out what they knew? Of course you would. It's human nature.'

'Your mother's right,' Meredith said. 'Kids talk. They text.'

'But it's all hearsay,' Jess protested.

'Not all,' corrected Lily. 'What Abby said was firsthand.'

'Unfortunately,' the counselor said, 'it's the classic case of a little knowledge being worse than none. If word is out, we've passed the 'none' stage.'

'Fine,' Sunny told Susan and folded her arms. 'What do you suggest?'

Susan was still trying to decide. One thing was for sure. 'I need to tell Dr. Correlli.'

'Can you tell him without giving our names?'

'What's the point? He already knows Lily's pregnant. If he doesn't guess that the others are Mary Kate and Jess, a call to any one of Lily's teachers will tell him.'

'Teachers can't give out names. What about our right to privacy?'

'It's gone,' Susan said, feeling a weight in the pit of her stomach. Her daughter would be named right along with the others. 'This is now a public matter. The superintendent is responsible for everything that involves his schools.'

'Dan won't agree,' Sunny said, but Susan knew the law.

'He'd have a case if a teacher went outside the school system, say to the papers, with a student's name. But Dr. Correlli is within the school system. Especially with my own daughter being part of this, I need him involved. It'd be best if I went to him with a plan.' It might even compensate for the incompetence she felt as a mother.

'What do you propose?' Kate asked.

Susan was on shaky ground. She would have given anything to have someone else calling the shots. She was way too emotionally involved for this.

But there was no one else. So she tried to imagine what she would do if she didn't know any of the girls. 'We have to contain the story. That means carefully defining it.'

'How do you do that?' Sunny asked.

'I'll send an e-mail to my faculty, then one to parents.'

Sunny made a strangled sound. 'You'd tell everyone?'

'If I don't, someone else will. This is as bad for me as it is for you, Sunny.'

'What will you say?' Kate asked, moving on.

'I'll confirm the rumor, say how many students are involved, and that the pact is self-contained.' Crossing Abby off the list of potential moms, she stared at the girls. 'That is right, isn't it?'

The three nodded.

Susan sat back. 'Only three, then. No epidemic.'

'For now,' said Meredith. 'Pregnancy isn't contagious, but pact behavior can be. That worries me, and it'll worry a lot of parents. Can you imagine if other groups of girls decide to do this?'

'Just because we did it?' Mary Kate asked skeptically.

'Just because you did it,' Meredith confirmed. 'You girls are respected.'

'The whole point,' Jess put in, 'was to do something different.'

'Something for us,' Mary Kate added.

'Would you name our daughters in your e-mail?' Sunny asked Susan.