• tab Tick, tick, tick, tick.
    tab Oh, for the love of, would someone please tell John the clock was off-beat and 23 seconds fast? Please? For little Charlotte? The most perfect, innocent girl in the world who couldn’t harm a fly? Gentle, sweet, sweet Charlotte, who caressed flowers like the girls who caresses boy’s lips. Please?
    tab Question 27.
    tab I’m faced with a problem. It’s multiple choice, with three possible answers. Three circles, perfect and round, and flawless.
    tab A) The most logical and almost perfect answer
    tab B) Similar to A, but different enough to be considered wrong, if it is wrong
    tab C) The most absurd, random, crazy answer that the teacher could have put to mess us up, or it was a trick question and it was actually the right answer.
    tab What?

    tab September 3, hot, breeze from the north. Kids gathered around the front of the school, waiting for the door to open for the first day of school. Me? Out around the back, making out with Adam Delcraft. No, you might say, Charlotte? She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. Could she? But she was. During the summer, she had gotten an aim, found him, and had stayed up till 4 each night chatting with him. Romantic huh?
    tab Yes, that was how I spent my summer. I had rid myself of that nerdy, goody-goody Charlotte, and turned into Charlie, the punk, spunky girl who wore trendy clothes and had a dirtier mouth then the school toilets. And people wanted me. I was popular, but not the way you think. Girls would come up and chat with me for a while, then drift off; to tell all their friends they had been my “best bud.” Whatever. I was Charlie, and guys loved it.
    tab Adam. He was a bas**** now that I realize it. He never cared about me once, but that didn’t stop me from making out with him in the hallways. He wasn’t even cute. He had major acne, and his laugh would make any evildoer cringe. But he was rich. His dad practically owned half the town, and he could get into any college he wanted. Lucky.
    tab And then It happened. It is more of a verb then a noun, but what the hell, It is It. And it wasn’t like I didn’t see it coming. The heavy breathing, sweaty hands, and all the smelly crap he put on his neck he called cologne. But I was in the moment. We were at his house, and I was on the bed, tracing the stitching on the spread with my black fingernails. He was supposedly doing homework, but knew he wasn’t. We both knew what he wanted- what we both wanted. He just came over and kissed me, and from there, it was just us wildly kissing and doing It. It was pretty gross, now that I remember it, and for it to be my first time doing It, he was pretty rough. Not rough enough to make me bleed, no, his di** wasn’t big enough for that, but it wasn’t pleasant. I snuck out of his house after It while he was asleep. I knew he didn’t want me anymore, now that he had done me. I thought it was over, but it wasn’t.
    tab Babies: Little bundles of pooping, screaming, drooling life. Don’t get me wrong- I love babies. They are warm and cuddly, and I especially love this one baby my neighbor has where it just looks at you with big eyes that make you wonder what’s going on in their head. But those loud, obnoxious babies, god, it makes me want to reconsider being a mother.
    tab I’m guess you probably know what I’m really trying to say.
    tab I was pregnant.
    tab Only a few weeks along, but still, I was pregnant. Ugh, what an icky word. Pre, but all French like, and guh, then nant, but if you say the word fast it’s like nat. Yuck. Who would make a word like that? Is there a job like that? Didn’t have booth on career day.
    tab So what do I do?
    tab A) Be the holy, goody-goody girl that you have been forced to be the past 15 years of my life.
    tab B) Don’t take a pill, but drink a lot of boozes and have It more, then I can’t say I took the pill and can blame life, not my conscience.
    tab C) Take the pill. It’s fast, easy, and totally unregrettable.
    tab Sure, I could be holy and nice, and get killed by my parents and live in total shame about getting pregnant a week before my 16th birthday, or…
    tab I colored the C circle black.

    tab I’m 16 now. I had a huge party. I memorable one. I gave a toast, and believe me, it was the best da** toast ever given at anyone’s sweet sixteen party because:
    tab A) The whole school was there.
    tab B) My parents weren’t.
    tab C) Adam was.
    tab ”Good evening everyone! I would like to say, that this is the best birthday party I’ve had since Jenny threw up my mom’s cake when we were ten.” (Jenny laughs and gives me the finger.) “Anyway, I would like to dedicate this next song to a special boy who was stupid enough to wear     Florle, have sex with me, and even impregnant me because he can’t wear a condom because he’s allergic to the plastic!” Everybody laughed like hyenas. “Remember folks, that’s all before I’m sixteen!”
    tab Revenge is sweet.