The New Boy

Guns and Roses

The next few weeks flew by. I was now 8 weeks pregnant and was starting to show. I had had a couple checkups but I didn’t tell Nick about it because I think he got too stressed out by it. I noticed a change in his behaviour every time anything came up. I still hadn’t decided what to do after the baby was born. I wasn’t getting an abortion but I still wasn’t sure about adoption. Apart from that my life seemed to be fine. School was good. No more morning sickness and I still had time to plan a story about me being pregnant.

I had swimming in the morning and needed to tell Nick about the first ultrasound tomorrow. I know that was always an important thing so I thought I should tell him. I put on my suit and went to see if Hannah was ready when I noticed she was looking at my belly. I looked down to see that I couldn’t hide it much longer. I coughed to get Hannah to stop looking. She looked at me and shrugged. We went out to the pool and started the lesson. When we were finished I grabbed my towel from the side and went to his office.

“Knock knock?”

“Oh, Becca. Is everything ok?”

“Yeah everything is fine. I just wanted to tell you that I have an ultrasound tomorrow. I mean. You don’t have to co....”

“I’ll come don’t worry. Is it at the St. Marys?”

“Yeah it is. 4 o’clock.”

“It’s probably best if I meet you there.”

“Yeah...” I paused because I noticed him looking at my stomach. ‘Cough’

“Sorry. It’s just your showing.”

“I noticed.” I pulled on my swim suit. “This doesn’t help. It’s so tight.”

“Yeah I noticed. I mean...” My eyes widened.

“Right...well...Emm” I pointed to the door and he nodded. I got back to the changing room to see everyone had left. I put my back to the door and sighed. I stood there for a few minutes before continuing to get dressed. I went to my next class.

At lunch I got a text from an unknown number.

‘Hey it’s Nick. Just wanting to say sorry for what I said. I didn’t mean it in that way. –NJ’

‘It’s fine. Don’t worry about it. I had actually forgotten about it until now. So will I still be seeing you after school? – BK’

“Who you texting. Because I’m right here.” Hannah said over my shoulder. I sent the text and closed my phone. “No one.”

After lunch we had English. We were writing an essay on Jane Eyre. I looked at the clock to see that I’ve only written one sentence in ten minutes. Suddenly there was a loud bang outside. Everyone looked up from their books. A shower of screams filled the school. We all ran to the classrooms window looking into the hallway. A man was running down the hall. He had something in his hand. A gun. He stopped and saw us looking. He ran into the room and everyone ran to the other corner.

“Right. All of you are staying here until I get what I want. If anyone tries to leave I’ll shoot.” He fired two shots in the air. We all jumped. “All of you put your phones on the table.” We slowly reached in our pockets and took out our phones. I looked at Hannah she was holding my hand so tight and she had tears in her eyes. It was only then I realised what was really happening. Just then a phone on the table buzzed. The guy snapped up and pointed the gun at us. We all put our hands up. One of the screens lit up. He pushed the phones out of the way to pick up a phone and read the text on the screen. “ ‘Sure thing. We need to talk before though. Cya then. – NJ’ Aw sweet. Whose is this?” I put my hand up. “Is this your boyfriend?” I shook my head a ‘no’. “Throw this out the window.” He shoved my phone in my hand. I turned to the window and opened it. I threw it out of the second story window and it smashed on the ground. I saw everyone running and dart away from the phone as if it was a bomb. I looked at all the faces looking up at me and running. Every face was scared. Nobody cared what they looked like they just went as fast as they could. People fell and someone would stop and help them up. That would never happen usually. Funny how a situation like this can bring everyone together. As I looked down I saw a face. Nick. He stopped. Everyone ran past him and tried to get him to run but he stood still. His face white and cold. “Oi. You!” I turned back and looked at the guy. “Do it with anymore that ring.” I nodded. "Sit!" I went back to Hannah. She was so upset. It was now my turn to help her.