Katie's Quest

Chapter One

Eighteen-year-old Katie Petersen had a skip in her step and a smile on her face as she headed for the bus stop one cold and clear February morning. Her school uniform was fresh from the dry cleaners, her teeth white and immaculate, and her strawberry-blonde hair hung down to her shoulders and swayed with each step she took. Today was a special day, one she had been looking forward to for years. Now it was finally here, and Katie was so filled with anticipation that she'd had trouble sleeping. Years of planning and careful preparation were about to come into play.

Katie came from a good family. Her father, after more than a decade as chief of police in the small city she lived in, was recently re-elected mayor and was widely popular. Her mother was the school superintendent and headed several large charities and nonprofit organizations. As such, it went without saying that the Petersens were regarded as pillars of the community: wealthy, influential, and very highly thought of by just about everybody. Katie had known this from a very young age; being a Petersen meant the world was your oyster.

Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Katie's parents made sure their daughter didn't grow up a spoiled brat. From an early age they impressed upon her the value of hard work and self-reliance, and they went out of their way to make sure that Katie didn't expect the world to be handed to her on a silver platter just because of her name. Katie took these lessons to heart. In fact, she took them to heart more than her parents could have possibly imagined.

For Katie had a secret. A secret plan, a secret longing, a secret desire.

Most young people her age had big dreams and goals in life. They had plans about where they wanted to go to college, what sort of career they wanted, when and whom they wanted to marry. Other girls might want to be doctors or lawyers or big industry executives, but Katie?

All Katie wanted was to get pregnant.

She wanted, more than anything, to have a child, and for more than half a decade now she had worked toward making that goal a reality.

It all started when Katie was in the sixth grade. She showed up to Mrs. Johnson's science class that day expecting to learn about frog anatomy or something, but instead, her teacher taught the class about human reproduction. Katie hadn't been naïve at the time; her parents had already told her what sex was, but this was the first time someone explained the process of procreation in detail to her. She'd known, in broad strokes, how babies were made, but Mrs. Johnson explained what came after a woman's egg had been fertilized. How a tiny human grew and took shape inside the mother, how it gradually became larger and larger, and how the mother's body changed and transformed as the pregnancy progressed. Most of the other girls in the class at the time found the whole thing vaguely icky and Mrs. Johnson ended the lesson with a warning on the dangers of premarital sex and pregnancy, but Katie was hardly even listening by then. She was absolutely awestruck. She'd known, then and there, that she wanted a baby of her own, and that day she vowed to dedicate herself toward that one, singular goal.

Everything Katie did in the six years since that fateful afternoon had been, in one way or another, aimed at achieving that goal. Katie wasn't ignorant; she knew that motherhood was a tremendous responsibility, and she had no intention of being a charity case or held up as an example of some irresponsible girl who got pregnant before she was ready. She embarked upon her quest with her eyes wide open, aware of the life-changing implications her baby would bring. She wanted to care for her child properly and give it the life it deserved, so her planning was meticulous.

First, Katie knew she needed to get hands-on experience with kids. There was so much for her to learn, and only a scant few years in which to learn it. As soon as she arrived home after Mrs. Johnson's lesson, Katie asked her mother if she could begin babysitting for some of her neighbors. Her parents were pleased and impressed at their daughter's initiative and were happy to help, and soon Katie gained a reputation as the neighborhood babysitter, eager and willing to care for as many children as possible. Katie's mother and father might have been less supportive if they knew what their daughter's true goal really was, but Katie didn't dwell on that. At her request, they also helped her open a savings account into which she deposited every penny she earned, and over the years her babysitting became a small business in all but name. Katie's strong maternal instincts and excellent childcare skills meant she could charge higher rates for her services, rates that many parents were only too happy to pay. You couldn't put a price on peace of mind, after all. If you were going to leave your child in the hands of another, it was best to make sure they were in the best hands possible. Those hands were Katie's. By the time she turned fifteen Katie had already saved up thousands of dollars, and her parents set her up with a financial advisor and an investment account to help increase her earnings further. The advisor was very good at his job. Thanks to his guidance, Katie's savings grew rapidly into several hundred grand. It was a considerable reserve of cash that she was going to put to good use when she got pregnant.