RAISING SUMMER

NO! NOT IN THE FORD FOCUS!

I helped Rachel into the car.

"What do you have on your arm?" She asked as I glanced down and I noticed the shopping basket was still laced around my arm.

"Oh no!" I covered my mouth in horror.

"Oh, what the hell now?" She shouted.

"I think I shoplifted!" I whispered. "What do I do?" I dropped the basket as if it was burning.

"Nothing, you don't have time to do anything!" She grilled me. She rested her head on the back of the seat and took deep breaths as I hopped in the front seat.

"Hurry!" She scolded me.

"Don't you think I'm trying to?"

"JUST DRIVE!" My heart started to race as I felt cramped for time. The hospital wasn't too far from here. But the fact that I had my pregnant, in labor, best friend in the front seemed to make time move slower. We hit traffic a mile away from the store. I started to panic and anxiously started to tap the steering wheel occasionally laying on my horn.

"You have got to be kidding me." Rachel whined and held her round baby bump in pain.

"It's okay Rach, the hospital isn't that ..." I was interrupted by a long pained scream.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." I chanted nervously.

"Why, why did Hollywood do this to me? Why do they make this look so easy." She comforted herself with sarcasm. She looked at me with a painful glance. "This is soooooo not easy!" I attempted to speed past the cars, apparently I was white line certified. We were just a few blocks away from the hospital now. I noticed a flashing red and blue light from behind me, the police.

"Don't you dare pull over!" Rachel commanded.

"I have to!" I pulled over to the side of the road. I sat behind the wheel, waited and watched as the young officer walked up to my Ford Focus as slowly as possible. This is it! I'm gonna get arrested for driving like a maniac! I told myself before recalling that I had just sped out of a grocery store parking lot with stolen goods! Yep straight to the slammer!

"Hello ladies, what's the hurry?" He asked leaning in my car window.

"What's my hurry?" She asked the officer in sarcasm. "My hurry is that my baby is about to be born in my best friend's Ford Focus and you decide to pull us over!" She shouted, her face turning a steaming red.

"Woah, no, no my niece is not going to be born with my brand new Ford Focus!" I argued.

"I don't see any of you doing much to prevent it!" We both glared at the officer who was gathering all the information for a minute.

"Right now, oh right, sorry ladies I will give you a police escort to the hospital. Would that be helpful?" He asked.

"Very!" Rachel yelled as he turned around to get into his car.

"Thank you!" I yelled after him before turning to Rachel.

"Huh, Men." She rolled her eyes as we followed the police officer to the hospital. She seemed calm for a moment but still in pain. Once we finally arrived at the hospital I quickly found an abandoned wheelchair and rolled it over to the passenger seat.

"You're crazy if you think I'm going to sit in that." She said grouchily.

"Well you don't exactly have time to be picky now, do you?" I scolded.

"That's okay I will just sit here." She crossed her arms stubbornly.

"You are not having the baby here. No, not in my brand new Ford Focus!" I yelled at her and dragged her out of the car against her own will.

"Words can not describe how much I despise you at this moment, Jane!"

"Oh trust me you'll be thanking me later." I promised.

"Oh really? And why is that?" She asked sarcastically.

"For preventing you from becoming a headliner in primetime news by six o'clock for having a car baby!" I could see she was imagining the horror before I wheeled her into the hospital. I called out for help. Nurses in blue scrubs approached us and started to take over. Rachel's hand was pulled from mine.

"Sorry, ma'am family only." One of the male nurses explained.

"But..." I stood up straight.

"She's my sister." Rachel lied and gripped my hand, I smiled back at her. He nodded before he began to push her wheelchair into one of the open rooms.

"The doctor will be with you as soon as possible," he said as the nurses helped Rachel into the hospital bed. My heart thudded like a hummingbird in my chest. I was terrified. I shouldn't be here, I have a tendency to pass out at the sign of bodily fluids and screaming. I tried to imagine what Rachel was thinking. She was about to give life to someone and she knew it wasn't going to be easy. I know she imagined her family being here also, but I was all she had. I grabbed her hand and squeezed it to let her know she had my support.

"Jane, can you call my brother?" She begged.

"Of course. I will be right back." I let go of her hand and stepped outside of the room. I searched through my phone for Luke's number. Luke was Rachel's emotionally distant older brother. He was one the bad boys in high school, the one that every good girl wanted. Nobody really knew the real him except Rachel. I just knew he wasn't all the emotionless bad boy everyone thought he was. We personally didn't get along when we were kids. I haven't talked to him since my sophomore year of high school. The phone rang and I waited for him to answer it.

"Hey, what's up?" His calm demeanor set me on edge but I'm not sure Rachel even told him remotely anything she's been in her own little bubble with the pregnancy.

"Luke, thank God you answered!" I sighed. "You won't believe what's happening right now..."

"Hold up one sec, Nah I'm just messing with you! Congratulations you got my voicemail! You know what to do." The voice died and the beep sounded to leave a voicemail.

"What a douche!" I shouted in the waiting room, all eyes turned to me. "Sorry, misguiding voicemail." I apologized. I hate it when people do that! I pressed the redial button angrily three times before I relented. I decided to leave him a message for him to get back to.

"Hey Luke, it's Jane look I know this isn't the kind of message I should leave over the phone but Rachel is going into labor and she really needs you to be here. I tried calling you but I'm guessing you're busy or just ignoring me so just call me back when you can. Or not whatever is cool with you, but delete that answering machine would ya?" I could hear screams from the room behind me and I flinched.

The message beeped to inform me that it stopped recording. Really? Or not? Whatever is cool with you? I scolded myself for my lacking ability to communicate correctly. I sat in a rough navy blue chair in the waiting room, it felt like the whole world was spinning way too fast. I rested my head in my icy cold hands and tried to prepare myself for what was about to happen. I can do this. I can be there for her. She's always been there for me.

I can do this.