I Am My Own Cousin.

Chapter 36: Senioritis

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple."

Luke 14:26

On April fool's day Jennifer and Sylvester ran off and got hitched. I didn't find out about it until the next day. Jenni came into the library before school started with a smug look on her face, "I got married." "Stop being an idiot, April fool's day is over."She flashed a $5 Wal-mart sterling silver ring on her left ring finger, "I am serious." "WHAT?!" "We went to the courthouse and got married yesterday." "WHY DIDN'T YOU INVITE ME?" "Why would I invite you?" "Stop being a jerk Jennifer. You should have invited me to your wedding. Why didn't you tell me?" "I don't owe you anything. If I had invited you then I would have had to invite everyone else and we didn't want to have any people there." "Why did you get married on April fool's day?" "Because it's funny when people think I'm joking and I had to wait until Sylvester turned eighteen last month."I wasn't mad at Jennifer for getting married; but I was super pissed about not getting an invitation. When we were little girls we had always dreamed that we would get married to a set of identical triplet men, in a lavish triple wedding. But that had been reduced to only learning about her being married the next day like I was nothing more than an acquaintance. I became beyond furious when I found out that Sylvester's Mom, sister, our Mom, and Granny were all invited to the wedding.

Jennifer had called Granny, "Get dressed Granny, cause I'm gonna pick you up and take you to the courthouse. I'm getting married." "Okay honey I will", Granny giggled. When Jenni arrived at the government housing project Granny was still in her pajamas. "Granny you have to hurry up and get dressed, the courthouse closes soon." "But I thought you were just joking." "Ha-ha April fools; the joke is I'm not joking." Gran wasn't happy about it, "Well honey if it's what you want to do. But you don't have to marry him just because you are pregnant." Jenny told a bald face lie, " Granny I'm marrying Sylvester because I love him. I would marry him regardless of us being pregnant."

Jessica didn't find out about the fertile pair being joined in holy matrimony until she came to school on April third and overheard friends talking about it. She was not happy. She complained to me about how trashy it sounded when Jennifer corrected the teacher's when they used the wrong name during roll call, "It's not Kennedy anymore my last name is now Richards." Jessi held a grudge against me for pressuring Jenni to tie the knot with Sylvester. "Are you really so insane Jacqui that you want her to be stuck with that jackass for the rest of her life because of religion?"" Stop thinking like a whore for one minute will you.Getting married was the only respectable thing for her to do at this point. That baby needs to grow up with both of its parents. She shouldn't have had premarital sex if she wasn't ready to procreate." "You are a religious nut and really need to get laid so you stop being so weird and uptight."

Three months after we began dating again Jason Helbert had unexpectedly proposed to me. It was Christmas Eve and we had been working together at Hardee's all day. I brought in a huge rubber chicken and we took turn putting it in ridiculous poses; in-between sesame buns, dangling over the deep fryer, and tied up on the toaster conveyor belt. It was ridiculously cheesy but that is what made it so hilarious. We goofed off and flirted all day, I was head over heels for him.

After our shift ended Jason took me to my apartment to exchange gifts. None of my roommates where home which was breaking the rules of our courtship, but I knew I could trust Him to be a perfect gentleman. He hadn't tried to make a move at all; he completely respected the strict boundaries and rules that I insisted on. He said that it took all the pressure off of him that had been in his past relationships. We could just focus on getting to know each other. Our relationship was great because I could be myself around Jason, he didn't judge me for being weird. He wrote me love letters that said I was "unique, principled, and cute".