Waiting For You

Chapter 23: No Tricks

Chapter 23: No Tricks

Amelia

The rain is pounding against the classroom windows on Tuesday afternoon and every once in a while I'll hear a low rumble in the sky coming from miles away. It's the day before Halloween and the students have been particularly restless, so I'm glad for the calm now that school hours are finally over.

It's the day before Halloween. Tuesday, October 30th.

I'm exactly twelve weeks pregnant today. I'm officially in the second trimester.

My gaze darts out of the window again as another crack of thunder opens up the sky; this one is a little closer to home. I'm hoping the weather will improve by tomorrow otherwise the kids will be completely drenched when they go out trick or treating.

It's been a few days since Sam's return from New Orleans and things have begun to go back to normal. We've called the rest of our family to tell them about the twins. There's no point anymore of turning it into a huge announcement, although I did go out to lunch with Abby on Sunday to tell her in person. We also uploaded a few cute photos on Facebook and Instagram for the rest of the world. It's been a pretty fun ride to read all of the positive comments, and I've even shared my blog with a few people that were interested in our slightly unconventional journey to parenthood.

Sam is working late tonight so I'm in no real hurry to go home. Instead, I've been hanging out here, grading papers and writing a new post for my aforementioned blog. Writing has been therapeutic lately, and it's kept my mind off other things like morning sickness, scheduling appointments with my new ob-gyn and a husband that's been getting drunk and having fun in another city without me.

I've been getting more reads and people are beginning to interact with me in the comment section, which is really exciting but also a little nerve-wracking. Suddenly I've got an audience. I've got people reading what I've got to say, personal things that even my family doesn't completely know about.

To be honest, it does make me wish I had some pregnant friends in real life to talk to. Sam is really great and all, but he's not so good at the whole 'girl talk' stuff. He's not a girlfriend that I can just go to for advice, or even just to complain.

I actually joked to Abby the other day that she should have a baby too, that way we could go through the whole process together. I haven't convinced her yet, but maybe by the time my nine months are up she'll be following in my footsteps. Who knows?

"Mrs. Willems?"

I look up from the paper I'm grading and smile.

Genevieve Martin walks into my classroom with her head bowed and her hands clasped tightly together in front of her.

"Hi Genevieve, what's up?" I ask.

"Hi," she smiles shyly.

"What's up?" I repeat and push away the stack of papers on my desk.

"I wanted to ask a favor if you don't mind..." she begins and I nod, encouraging her to go on. "I know signups ended last Friday... but I was wondering if I could still enter the creative competition." She just hovers there, and I get the impression that she's ready to bolt out of the room at any moment.

She's talking about a state-wide writing competition that offers a pretty serious cash prize to the winners in the form of scholarships. It's the first year since I was a student that the school has actively participated. It's a bit of extra work on my part, but I'm actually really excited to work with the handful of kids that signed up.