Blooming

“Savannah, hurry up! We’re gonna be late!” Darren shouted from the other side of my bedroom door.
“I’m coming!” I yelled back, grabbing my bag and making my way towards the door. But just as I passed my reflection before reaching it, I stopped. The soft yellow t-shirt I had on just barely covered the beach ball that was hidden beneath it. My blue maternity jeans came up past my stomach just enough to cover the half of my baby bump that my shirt couldn’t.
All in all, I looked liked I’d swallowed a watermelon.
After Darren and I had reached the bottom of the stairs, I looked up at him, mustered up the best puppy dog face I could, and sighed heavily.
“Do we have to do this?” I pouted.
His expression immediately deflated my act.
“Yes, Savannah,”
“Uuuuuuuuugh,” I moaned, throwing my head back dramatically and rolling my eyes.
“Why are you so set against birthing classes?” he asked, taking my hand and leading me to the front door.
“Darren, all the people there are going to be in their twenties and thirties. Not sixteen and seventeen years old.”
He helped me into his enormous Jeep before closing the door and walking around to the driver’s side.
“Hey, I’m gonna be eighteen tomorrow.” he reminded me.
“Not helping,” I stated flatly. “What if the birthing instructor lady treats us differently? What if everybody stares at us?”
“What if an elephant dropped out of the sky and fell on us right now?”
He looked at me seriously before cracking a smile. I mirrored his but punched him in the arm.
“Shut up,”
He rested his arm on the consol between us and leaned over so that his face was just inches from mine.
“Everything is going to be okay, Sav. We’ve got the house; we move in on Monday, we’ve got everything thing we could possibly need for our son, Riley and Lucy will always have our backs, and we have each other. It’s gonna be all right, I promise.”
Although I loved the way he spoke so soothingly and patient, all he had to do was give me that look and I knew it was true.

Once we’d reached the local Riverson Gymnasium, where the classes were being held, Darren helped me out of the car and to the front doors. Just as we were approaching them, I noticed the sign out front that read:
LONDA MELD’S BIRTHING CLASSES, HELD SATURDAY, MAY 8-10 AT 3:30PM.
Londa Meld? What kind of a name was that?
Looking through the clear glass doors to the gym I could see several pregnant women with their partners sitting at the tables that had been set up for the class. Just as I’d suspected, they all looked to be in their mid twenties to early thirties.
But, then again, what pregnant teenager would come to birthing classes?
Oh. Yeah.
I quickly clawed my nails into the doorway.
“Savannah, come on,” Darren hushed, trying to pull me forward.
“I can’t!” I shouted in a whispered voice. “You go!”
He furrowed his brow.
“What? I can’t go without you. C’mon, you’re going to make a scene.”
“What if she looks at us all funny and just scolds us for getting pregnant as teenagers?! What if she throws us out?!”
“Savan--”
“Welcome!” A voice cooed from behind us. An older woman appeared in the doorway. She had on a bright green suit jacket, black dress pants, and black shoes. Her dark brown hair was down, although her bangs were swept back and fluffed up by what could’ve only been three cans of hairspray. She looked to be no more than forty.
In fact, she looked as though she’d stepped out of a job interview in the eighties.
“Hello, I’m Londa Meld.” she said taking a closer look at me. When she did, I could’ve sworn I’d seen her eyes change from welcoming to hostile. “I’m assuming you’re here for my birthing classes?”
As she said it, she stared at my bulging belly.
“Yes, we are,” Darren said, shaking her hand.
She paused before going on.
“Well, come in, then. Take a seat.”
She led us in and to a lone table between two other expecting couples. Once Londa Meld was out of earshot, I turned to Darren.
“She’s hates us!” I whispered.
“She does not--”
Just then, Darren turned his attention to our table. Looking down, we both saw what had to have been the ugliest baby ever known to mankind, even if it was plastic. It had one eye and its hand appeared to be halfway chewed off. It’s little baby eyebrows looked to be slanting down ever so slightly that it appeared to be angry. One of it’s eyes was blue while the other looked as though it’d been colored in with some form of a red marker.
“Is it even legal to have a baby this frightening?” Darren asked, staring at it in fright.
“What if our baby looks like that?!”
Darren picked the baby and put its horrifying face to mine.
“Mama!” he joked as I laughed and shoved it away.
Just then, a hand slammed down on our table.
“Something wrong here?” Londa Meld asked.
“Just talking,” Darren answered, his smile slowly leaving his face.
Londa’s face turned hostile in the flip of a switch.
“Well here in Grownup World, we don’t play with toys anymore.”
Just then, she reached over and took the baby doll out of Darren’s hand and placed it on the table in front of us before walking back up to the front of the room.
“You can take your plastic babies and shove it up your--” I mumbled before Darren stopped me.
“Sav, relax. She’s right. Let’s not make a scene.”
“Darren she--”
“Okay, class!” Londa shouted staring directly at mine and Darren’s table. “You may notice the baby dolls at your tables which we’ll get to a little later in the class. But for now let’s start out with some deep cleansing breaths.”
All around was the hushed sound of fifteen women breathing slowly in and out. I looked around me wondering if this was real or all just a dream.
“Do we have a problem here, Ms.?” I was suddenly aware of Londa Meld’s face right next to mine.
“Uh, no,” I stated awkwardly.
“Why aren’t you breathing?” she asked.
I paused before going on. Darren had said not to make a scene, so I wouldn’t. Even though I was seven and half months pregnant and moodier than I’d probably ever be in my whole life.
“I guess I just didn’t hear you,” It was a lame-o excuse, but I never claimed to be good at lying.
“Well I’m not going to put up your teenager crap, okay?” she whispered, getting right in my face so that no one else could hear her. “You either listen or get out,”
Just as I opened my mouth to say something, Darren took hold of my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.
Londa returned to her place at the front of the class.
“Can you believe her? She thinks that just because we’re pregnant teenagers doesn’t mean we’re not responsible!”
Hearing the words come out of my mouth made them sound a little less intelligent than I’d hoped.
“Okay, okay. So she doesn’t like us. Just ignore her. We’re doing this so that we can be ready when the baby comes.” Darren answered.
I took a deep breath and nodded. He was right.
“Nobody knows how this day of birth will turn out. Not you, not your partner, not your doctor; nobody. Only the stork knows,”
I laughed at her cheesy metaphor and received a dirty look in return.
“But what we can do, is plan for that day,” she went on.
For the next half hour we listened as Londa Meld explained the different birthing methods.
Finally, we moved on to the plastic babies.
“All right, class, now we’re going to work on changing your baby,”
“It seems like such a hard task,” Darren leaned over and whispered in my ear. I couldn’t help but laugh.
After Londa had given everyone instructions as to how to put a diaper on a plastic baby, she walked around to each table, inspecting everyone’s....progress.
When she’d reached ours, Darren and I already had the diaper on our demon baby.
She looked from Demon Baby, to Darren, to me, and back again as if she was trying to find something wrong with it.
“Did we pass?” I asked sarcastically. Darren grabbed my hand under the table, though I noticed the smile on his face.
“Yes,” she answered, mirroring my sarcasm. “Congratulations, you can put a diaper on a baby.”
I could feel the anger rising in my chest.
“Do you have a problem with us being teenagers?” I asked even though I knew the answer.
All around us, couples seemed to be busy talking or still changing their babies, completely unobservant of us.
Londa Meld leaned her face in close to mine but turned eyes to Darren.
“Raising a baby is a tough responsibility, one I don’t believe teenagers take seriously enough,” she spat.
They seemed to look at each other for a long moment before Darren spoke. He looked like he’d just realized Londa was acting like Godzilla.
“That’s it,” Darren said, getting to his feet. “We’re leaving. C’mon, Sav.”
As I sat there looking at Londa Meld, I couldn’t help but think that she looked strangely familiar. The anger in her eyes matched someone else’s I knew....
“You don’t hate us because we got pregnant as teenagers.” I said. “You hate us because you’re Carla’s mom.”
As soon as I said it, I knew it was true. Now, some couples were starting to stare. I looked up at Darren.
“Why did you take me to Carla’s mom’s birthing class?”
He sighed.
“I didn’t know she was teaching it. I didn’t realize it until a second ago, when I wanted to leave. I’d never met her before.” he said. The tone of his voice and look in his eyes was genuine and sincere.
“This wouldn’t have happened if you had just stayed with my daughter,” Londa said to Darren. “You could’ve avoided all this,”
Again, I could feel my chest starting to burn with fury.
“I’m perfectly happy with my decision,” Darren replied.
“You had your whole life ahead of you. You could’ve had such an amazing career in basketball. You had all these friends. The perfect girlfriend....”
It sounded as though Carla’s mom was trying to talk Darren out of being with me. I hated listening to all of the things I’d taken away from him.
“Look at you now,” Londa went on. “Seventeen years old with some knocked up little--”
Just then, I took Demon Baby and smacked Londa Meld in stomach with him, his head flying off his body on the impact.
She doubled over, holding her stomach in her hands.
And, with that, I walked out the gym and out to the car, praying that what our crazed birthing instructor had said to Darren hadn’t made him see me any differently.