Jade wouldn’t look at me. I knew she was affected by what her dad said, but it still irritated me. Mom was there, sitting stunned, looking at me like she’d never seen me before. I heard a door slam upstairs as he locked himself in his room.Since Mom married into his family, our family structure had changed. When it was just the two of us, unless it was something of great importance, I at least got a say. With this, just because that man said so, she would go along with what he said.“Mom—”“Don’t say a thing, Zach,” she said, her voice low and disappointed. “You know he’s right. You might not be blood-related, but as soon as Nell and I signed the marriage papers, you became siblings on paper, and that’s wrong. I expect better from you.”Jade sat there, listening in silently, then abruptly jumped up and ran out of the room. I listened to her feet stomping up the stairs, then a second door slam closed.I sat there for a few seconds, taking it all in, before getting up myself, and storm

“Aren’t you going to get lunch?”I waved off the question, never looking up from my book even though the class was over.“Just a little bit. You guys go ahead, I’ll follow you there.”“Okay, whatever you say.”They walked away, and I sighed as soon as I was left alone in the classroom. I wasn’t in the mood to see or talk to anyone, certainly not the idiots who still wanted to keep talking about how I got together with Jade. I was too busy feeling a little depressed that we might be over, just like that.No. We’re not over yet. It hasn’t been decided.Nell wasn’t my dad, so I didn’t care what he said, but he was Jade’s father, so to an extent, I had to care. Even if I could get through to him, though, if Jade decided against it…I shook my head, pushing away those negative thoughts. I’d been a little angry when I left the house yesterday, but I wasn’t the type of guy to give up so easily. If I waited long enough, Jade might even come to me on her own. We were both caught off guard beca

Getting to school, now that I lived at Monty’s, was a bit of an adventure. I usually got up early and left the house early, not because I was a particularly studious student, but it was so I’d have the decision to walk to school or take the bus. Jade usually ended up running late and had to rush all the way to school.Living with Monty, none of this was easy. Well, it was a little easy, because even after staying with him for nearly a whole week, I hadn’t once run into his family. So, I didn’t have to deal with any awkwardness, but Monty’s house was further from school than I was used to. So, I could get up early and go catch the bus, though it would take a bit of a walk, or I could get up a bit later and wake Monty up so he could drive me to school. He usually did it with not much time to spare before school started, but he was relaxed because he had a car, several of them in fact.This particular morning, I was feeling lazy, so he drove me to school. I was usually in class and revie

The days went by fast, and before I knew it, it was Friday morning. I’d gone to classes after skipping on Monday, but with the competition tomorrow, I was wondering if I could still skip. I woke early because I was a little too excited, and it wasn’t even the day of the competition, yet.I went through my morning routine quickly, and by the time I arrived downstairs, it was to find that stepmom hadn’t even left yet, which meant I was really early.“Good morning,” I called.The nervous excitement in my stomach was almost enough to make me miss the awkward air in the room. Stepmom was standing by the cooker making breakfast with her back to the rest of the room. Dad was seated at the dining table with his paper held up. He didn’t look up at my voice, but Stepmom shot me a look over her shoulder. She smiled, even though it looked a bit strained.“Morning, Jade. Please, sit down. I’ll have breakfast done in a minute.”I was silent as I went to sit at the table, not looking at Dad even tho

Since it was too early in the morning, there was nothing we could do about our suspicions. When I thought about it, I felt like my period could be late, but it wasn’t like I marked my period days religiously, not anymore, anyway. As long as I made sure to have some painkillers and pads at the ready each month, I just waited, and I would feel the cramps coming just before my period started. Plus, I had been late some months, especially that first year when it happened, so I wouldn’t think too much about it.This was different, though. Not just because I was puking, but when I thought about it, neither of us had ever thought much about contraception as we got so lost in each other, and sometimes, once was all it took. I wanted to hold onto some denial, because I didn’t want it to be true, but I could feel a rising dread in my chest.In any case, since we couldn’t do a thing about it just yet, I got to work. I worked better with the icing than Zach did, so I cautiously walked closer onc