Watermelon

Horny Mints

"I'm freaking out," Chloe whispered to Jace as he stood next to her at her locker. She was frantically putting books in and pulling other books out.

"What's wrong?"

Chloe dropped her voice even quieter. "I feel like everyone is staring at my stomach. Am I going crazy? Am I just paranoid? Is it that obvious already?"

Jace tried to subtly glance down at her stomach, attempting to gauge how visible the tiny bump was through her crewneck. He couldn't see anything.

"I don't notice anything. Did someone say something?"

"No," she sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I'm just losing my mind. You'd tell me if you heard someone say something about it though, right?"

"Of course. I really don't think anyone has noticed anything yet." The bell rang, causing Chloe to huff out a disappointed breath and shut her locker.

"I hope not...speaking of, I wanna talk to you about that later — after school."

Jace nodded. They both started walking to class — not the same class, unfortunately, but the classrooms were near each other. "Have you heard from your parents?"

"Just a text from my mom asking if I was at school. Haven't heard anything since I replied, though. Unless they say I have to come home, I'm just gonna go back with you after school."

"Okay," Jace smiled softly. He gave Chloe a sneaky kiss on the cheek before they separated for their next class.

—

Back at home, Camila had just put Posie down for a nap when Shawn came home from work. Maggie was all dressed and ready for their shopping date. Since he had mentioned shopping for Christmas ornaments that morning it had been all Maggie had been able to think about. She even picked out her own outfit: a pair of striped, Christmas-themed leggings and a baby pink t-shirt with a big flamingo and the words 'summer fun' printed on the front. Sure, it clashed — but Camila thought the juxtaposition was a creative approach.

"What kind of ornaments do you think we should get, stinky?" Shawn asked as he drove to the store with Maggie in the backseat.

"Um, a mingo...and a princess for mommy...and a little baby for Jace."

"Hey! What about me? Do I get an ornament?"

"Um..." Maggie giggled. "A book?"

"A book ornament sounds nice," he replied with a smile. "What about the round ball ornaments? What colors should we get?"

"Red and green." She replied with an eye roll as if it were obvious.

They found the red and green bulbs almost immediately after entering the store. They had some plain metallic ones, but Maggie wanted the sparkly patterned ones so that's what they got. Next, they made their way to the large aisle of unique single ornaments. Of course, she managed to almost instantly find a flamingo ornament — complete with glitter and pink feathers. She also found a stack of books ornament for Shawn. Maggie gave up on the idea of a baby ornament for Jace once she saw what was available; she decided the bag of cool ranch Doritos would work just fine for him. She also ditched the idea of a princess for Camila and instead got her a pancake ornament and a taco ornament, since those were two of Maggie's favorite foods that Camila made for her.

"Daddy!" Maggie squeaked, excitedly grabbing a colorful ornament and holding it up for him to see. She pointed back and forth between the ornament and his arm. Shawn smiled; it was a butterfly. He nodded and set it in the cart.

"I like that one."

Maggie found one more ornament that she thought Shawn needed — a coffee pot. He couldn't decide if he was proud or embarrassed that he drank enough coffee for a three year old to automatically think of him when she saw a coffee pot. She was in the middle of admiring some candy-themed ornaments when Shawn saw one he couldn't help but add to the cart himself, a subtle smile tugging at his lips.