Just One Time-Teen Drama [0][1]

“Why hasn’t he called?” I whined to myself in my bedroom which Karen helped me fix up to suit my personality. It had been two weeks since I moved in with Karen and Benny. That’s 336 hours which I wasted hoping when the phone would ring it would be him. How come most boys are slackers? When I say that I will call someone, I usually call back the next day. I didn’t understand what could possibly be so important in his life right now that he couldn’t call me.

I tried to think if there was anything that I had done to make him hate me. I couldn’t think of one. The two of us left in good terms-too good of terms. We tried to stay in touch as best as we could. Could he be mad that I hadn’t tried hard enough to talk to him?

There was a knock at my door which caused me to break free from my thoughts.

Karen smiled when she appeared from the doorway. “Are you ready for the doctor’s visit?”

Karen was so calm about me having a baby. It was weird; I would have thought this would be something to stress about however she saw the baby as a blessing. I did like that she wasn’t judgemental, but I still felt awkward driving in the car with her towards the doctor’s office.

Wellford is a small town so it didn’t take long for Karen’s white mustang to pull up to the hospital, but it did take forever to wait for the doctor to call my name. As we waited, I was forced to watch sick little children playing in the floor, coloring in coloring books, or crying. There was lots and lots of crying. I was sure that every direction my head turned there was a baby or child crying because they didn’t want to be there. Me and you both, I thought to myself.

Karen’s warm hand rubbed my arm, making me look up to her. “How you feeling?”

I looked down to my chipped pink nail polish. “Nervous. I just can’t wait to get all of this over with. You know, put the baby up for adoption then just forget this ever happened.”

Karen seemed a bit surprised. “It’s not going to be that easy to forget. You know that, right?”

“I know, but I’m going to try.” I chipped away more of the polish off of my thumb. “I mean - I like kids, but it’s not for me, especially at age seventeen. I just can't be a mom right now.”

“You’re still going to be a mother. It doesn’t matter if you give the baby away or not. What matters is what you think is right for the baby, Kate.”

“Adoption is the only option, Karen. I’m sure Adam would agree with me.”

“Would? You mean, he doesn’t know?”

I shook my head staring off to a toddler sitting in his mother’s lap.

“Kate,” She said with a gentle sigh. “you have to tell him.”

“I haven’t even seen him. He was suppose to call me, but he never did. I guess he just doesn’t want to see me.”

Karen was quiet as she was in thought. I remained quiet also.

It took almost an hour to be in and out of the doctor’s office. So far, everything was good with the baby, and I was perfectly healthy. Since I would be staying in Wellford for a while, Karen thought it would be a good idea for me to find extracullar activities throughout the neighborhood, so after our discussion, I figured that theater would be the best for me. I had never acted before, but I didn’t think it would be too hard. All I had to do was memorize lines, and chances are I wouldn’t have a lead role which would cause me to memorize many lines. Plus, this would take my mind off of Adam for a while.

Karen dropped me off at Wellford’s Players, a small community theater which put on a different show every few months. As soon as I walked in, people were rehearsing a play. I knew which play it was too-Crazy For You. I had seen this play twice at my old high school, but the people here were so much better. I guess it was because they wanted to be there. They weren’t being graded on whether they showed up to rehearsal or not.

“Can I help you?” I heard a woman ask, startling me.

I turned around and smiled. “Yes, I wondered if there was anything that I could do around here like anything I should audition for?”

“Can you sing?”

“Yeah,” I smiled, “but the real question is if I can sing good.”

She laughed at my small joke. “Well, can you sing good?”

“Nah, not really. If you need help with designing sets, I’d probably be better at that.”

She nodded. “What’s your name?”

“Kate Neal.”

“Kate, go back stage and see what needs to be done. Tell them that Olivia sent you back.”

When I walked backstage, there were people busy everywhere. Working on microphones, fixing lights, working on sets, and have a fitting for some of the actors. No one even noticed that I had walked back so I wasn’t sure who I needed to speak to. I searched the faces trying to find the friendliest one. I always hated talking to strangers. I could make a conversation with them, but only if they spoke to me first. I always felt odd just walking up to someone to introduce myself.

“Did Olivia send you?”

I turned around to see a Hispanic girl my age with dark brown eyes and long black hair. She was wearing a Paramore t-shirt, which I knew instantly that I could easily get along with this girl.

“Yeah, I’m Kate.”

“Hey, I’m Isabella. You can help me if you want. I need to paint in the scenery.”

I followed Isabella to her work station, and we talked nearly the whole time. We had so much in common that it was scary. We mainly talked about music. When she told me if I wanted to come with her to see some of the local bands playing a concert the next night, I told I would love to go.