Meant to be

"I don't want to wear blush," Joey pouts as he and his wife head into the television studio.
"You're getting awfully whiney," Ramona teases. "It's just an interview."
"Mr and Mrs. Armstrong?" an intern looking person asks.
"Yes," Joey says very suave like.
"Follow me."
"Being called Mrs. Armstrong still sounds weird," Ramona mumbles. Joey just laughs.

"First, we'll do your makeup and then it only leaves you a matter of minutes till you go on set," The intern says, leaving us in the care of make-up artists.
"No blush," Joey warns as he takes a seat in the chair. Ramona takes the next chair and allows the make-up artist to apply foundation.

"So typically, how do you wear your make-up?"
"Usually just a thin line of black eyeliner, sometimes smoky eye shadow."
"You have a really good complexion," She states as she finishes up with the foundation.
"What about me?" Joey questions eagerly as his face gets coated with foundation as well.
"You have an oily forehead," His make-up artist states, "You should use a moisturizer."
"But I only use moisturizer for-"
"Don't think you need to say that," Ramona cuts off as the make up artists start to laugh.
"Yes dear," Joey says in slight mockery.
"And it's lube, not moisturizer," She adds in once the make-up artists leave.

"Armstrongs!" someone calls, "You're on."
"Oh yay." Ramona laughs as Joey links arms with her and they head out onto the set.

"Welcome to the show," Carlie, a plump woman in her mid-thirties, says as she hugs them in turn.
"Nice to be here," Joey says, plastering a smile to his face.
"So you two, how's married life? I heard you two just got back from your honeymoon."
"Married life is awesome," Ramona says, Joey nods in agreement.

"So because of your dads, you've known each other your whole lives, how did you know you were officially dating?"
"Well our fathers walked in on us making out and I guess that settled it," Joey laughs, "We were fifteen at the time."
"Fifteen!" Carlie exclaims, "That means you two have been together for ten years."
"Wow," Ramona says laughing as she squeezes her husband's hand. "Time flies."

"So why'd you wait so long to get married?"
"Couldn't exactly get married at seventeen could we?" Ramona laughs.
"Well technically we could," Joey says, thinking, "But we wanted to finish college first and get our careers on track."

"And what careers you have," Carlie says, nodding, "You might recognize Ramona, as an advice columnist for The Bay Area News and Joseph is a researcher for Adeen Athletics. So tell me, what's coming up?"
"Well, I just got a major project in Italy, for their pro soccer team. So we'll be living there for the next few months."
"Lovely, lovely, and Ramona?"
"Well, all my work can be done from my lap top, so I'll be tagging along."

"Now did your fathers or their careers have any affect on your career choices?" Ramona glances at Joey and nods to him signaling he could answer first.
"Well my father used to play soccer all the time with my brother and I, encouraged us to play for the school teams and stuff. I even played a bit in college, but I was nowhere good enough to go pro. So I chose to design gear for soccer, since I know first hand what the players need."
"Ramona."
"Well, I had almost always been interested in writing, I mean my dad's band had always been in the tabloids and I wanted to bring the truth. When I was taking journalism in college I really took to advice columns so I got a degree in psychology to go with it."

"And the fact that your fathers are from the infamous band known as Green Day, how do you think that affected you?"
"Brought us together." Joey laughs. "I don't know, we went to school like normal kids, only difference is on our vacation breaks we'd get to live on a tour bus. Our parents tried to raise us normal."
"Our fathers never really pulled us into the spotlight, we got some media attention, but not much," Ramona states, "I mean Madonna's daughter is a wreck because of her media attention, but we stayed low key, so we're functioning members of society."

"It has also brought to my attention, Joseph's brother has been mentioned in the tabloids."
"WHAT!" The couple says at once. Carlie picks up a magazine and opens it to reveal a picture of Jakob and Stella kissing outside of Condolia's.
"Holy shit," Joey mutters under his breath.
"So I guess there's more Green Day children love in the air," Carlie says, smiling. Ramona plasters a fake smile on her face.
"Well, they hooked up a while ago." She nods, "I sure as hell didn't expect that."
"Oh well, this magazine also has pictures of your wedding." Carlie smiles, "It looks like a lovely reception."
"Thank you," Ramona says casually.

"What about your brother, Fran-kit-oooo?"
"It's pronounced Frank-eee-toe, but we just call him Frankie," Ramona corrects.
"Yes well I heard he's in a band of his own."
"He was hired as a replacement drummer for Seethen Heights for their summer tour."
"Their original drummer went on a 'spiritual' year long journey," Joey says, laughing.

"And your fathers, what are they up to?"
"They want to record another album." Joey laughs, "They'll be touring until one of them dies."
"Oh." Carlie laughs, "Determined."
"Yup, they crave touring, stage time shit like that," Ramona says casually.
"I think my father's exact words were, 'the only way one of them can leave Green Day is in a body bag'."

The interview finishes up with a few more boring questions and the couple leaves the set. Just as they head out to their car Joey pulls his cell phone out of his pocket to call his brother.
"Hello."
"Jake! There's a paparazzi following you and Stella around."
"What? What the hell are you talking about?"
"Pick up a STAR magazine and you'll see a picture of the two of you kissing outside Condolia's."
"Shit."
"Yeah, where the hell are you?"
"Stella and I are going to the woman's clinic, baby stuff."
"Alright, just be careful, okay?"
"Yeah, thanks Joe," Jakob says thoughtfully as he hangs up the phone.

"What happened?" Stella asks worriedly from the passenger's seat.
"Someone's been taking pictures of us," Jakob says, pulling over in front of a 7/11, "I'll be right back."
"Jake!" she calls after him, confused as hell. He returns to the car moments later with the latest copy of STAR magazine. She takes it from him and looks at one of the headlines.

"Love is in the air for the spawn of Green Day," She reads, "This is about Joey and Ramona's wedding, not us." She shakes her head.
"Open it," He says as he starts up the car again. She rolls her eyes as they start back up the street.
"Ramona, Joey, you and Joey, me and Ramona, Ramona and Joey. Told you these are just wedding pict-" she takes a breath, "Shit!"
"Told you."
"Shit, shit, shit, how'd they get this!" She exclaims angrily as she skims through the text.
"Do they know about the pregnancy?" Jakob asks as they pull into the clinic parking lot.
"Umm, no. Just that a second set of Green Day kids have found love."
"That's all?"
"Yeah." She sighs in relief. They climb out of the car and head into the clinic where Stella signs in.

"You didn't have to come you know," Stella whispers as they sit patiently in the waiting room.
"I was free today, I wanted to be here with you," he says sincerely.
"Thanks, you're a sweet guy. You're not told that often enough."

A couple of old ladies sitting across from them are whispering and pointing psychotically. Jakob glances down, one of them is holding a STAR magazine. Stella seems to notice to as she turned her face away.
"What's Green Day?" One of the women whispers.
"I think it's that hippy band, you know save the environment, I'll ask my grand-daughter, she's visiting me today you know."
"But is that them, the ones from the picture?" The first one whispers as she pokes at the picture.

"YES!" Jakob yells. "We are, we're them! And Green Day is not a hippy band, they're a punk band with a shit load of attitude, you might have remembered their anti-Bush campaign?" He takes a deep breath, "And we don't appreciate being gawked at."
"Well you're just a rude young man," The one holding the magazine says, shaking her head.
"Well you were being awfully rude yourselves, pointing at us like zoo animals!" Stella says angrily.
"Being in the public eye, you should be used to this," The second one says.
"No! Our father's are in the public eye, not us," Stella says firmly, "we did not okay them to publish that picture."

"Miss Pritchard, the doctor will see you now," The nurse says casually. Jakob takes Stella's hand and they follow the nurse to the doctor's office.
"Hello, I'm doctor O'Brian," The doctor says, putting her hand forward to shake it. Jakob and Stella shake her hand in turn. "Well then let's get started," She says, handing Stella a pee cup and a hospital gown. Stella rolls her eyes as she steps into the bathroom. The doctor looks over Stella file nodding her head ever so often.

"Pritchard, I've heard that name before," She mumbles, suddenly her eye bulge, "Green Day. . . . sorry." She flushes red. "What did you say your name was?"
"Jakob Armstrong, and yes, Estelle is Mike Dirnt's daughter and I'm Billie's Joe Armstrong's son."
"Holy shit," She says, turning a deep shade of red. "I'm sorry, I really am. I was a big fan as a teenager, oh god now I'm making an idiot of myself."
"It's okay," Jakob says, amused, "About that, could you possibly keep the pregnancy secret, because we've been getting some unwanted press attention and-"
"It's no problem," Dr. O'Brian says, nodding. "Doctor-patient confidentiality."
"Thanks."
"Anyway, I know it's probably all over the internet, but does your family have any medical history?"
"Umm, my grandfather on my dad's side died of cancer and my cousin on my mom's side is bi-polar." He thinks for a moment, "Stella's dad has minor heart problems, and family history of panic attacks and that's all I know."

"Cup filled," Stella announces as she steps out of the washroom. The doctor takes the cup from her and labels it.
"I'm going to send this down to testing," She announces as she leaves the room for a second.
"Did I miss anything?" Stella asks as she slides onto the observations table.
"Medical family history, told her about you dad's heart condition and panic attacks."
"Okay," She says nodding, "Still have to tell her about asthma on my mom's side."

"Well then, anything else I should know?" Dr. O'Brian asks as she looks over her clipboard.
"Well, asthma on my mom's side."
"Okay, well let's have a look then." She pulls a cart with a bunch of metal instruments to the side of the bed. Jakob's eyes bulge at the site of them.
"Jake honey, are you okay?" Stella asks as she puts her feet up in the stirrups.
"Uh, uh yeah," He says as he looks away from his girlfriend, feeling uneasy. He stares at the four corners of the room while the doctor does her work.

"Alright, everything looks okay," Dr. O'Brian announces, "Now we'll just do an ultrasound to get the overview." Ultrasound, Jakob much preferred the sounds of that, it was just a television screen. "I'll just get the machine." The doctor leaves the room and Stella bursts out laughing.
"Jakob, you were so squeamish," She teases.
"It's all the metal proddy things!" he exclaims, "I don't see how you're so comfortable with her prodding around down there."
"Hey I let you prod around down there," She giggles as he turns red. "I think that's what got us here in the first place."
"I don't like hospitals," Jakob mumbles.

"Here we are," Dr. O'Brian says wheeling in the trolley with the ultrasound machine on it. Stella opens up the front of the hospital gown a bit to reveal her bare stomach. The doctor smoothes on clear gel and turns on the machine. "Three weeks along, we'll have some idea of the sex by the speed of the heart beat, if you want to know that is."
"Umm," Jakob says glancing at Stella, "we haven't discussed-"
"Don't tell us for the time being," Stella says quickly.

"Good strong heart beat." The doctor nods, "Healthy placenta walls." Jakob squirms at the word placenta, "And that's your baby." She points at a dot on the screen.
"Wow," Jakob says, blinking a couple of times in awe.
"Here, I'll print it out for you," she says pressing a button on the machine. The machine slowly prints out the black and white ultrasound as the doctor wipes the gel from Stella's stomach. "Well, I have other patients to tend to, and I'll call you if I find anything wrong with your urine sample." With that Dr. O'Brian leaves the room.

"Oh my god Jakob," Stella squeals as she wraps her arms around her boyfriend, "We're really having a baby."
"Yeah I know," He says holding her close, for the first time it seemed so real to both of them.
"I'm excited and nervous at the same time," She says into his neck.
"I love you Stella," He says sincerely.

*
"So this is Jakob," Kendra says as the couple gets back to Stella's dorm.
"Yeah, that's me."
"Knock my best friend up." She shakes her head in disapproval.
"Uh."
"Kendra, piss off, I had as much to do with the baby-making sex as he did so lay off," Stella mumbles as she leads her boyfriend to her desk. "I'm going to send this to my parents." She plugs in her portable scanner and scans the picture.
"Send it to my parents too," Jakob says leaning over her to see the screen.

Dear Soon-to-be Grandparents,
We went to the first doctor's appointment today and got a picture of the ultrasound, have a look. The baby's strong and healthy and everything's fine. We haven't decided whether or not we want to know the gender so we'll keep you posted. If we don't talk to you before, we'll see you at the end of semester.
Lots of love
Stella and Jake

"That okay?" Stella asks as Jakob reads it over.
"Yup," Jake says, nodding as she presses send.
"So are two getting married or something?" Kendra asks from her end of the dorm.
"Kendra lay off!" Stella says pissed, "she's really getting annoying."
"Yeah well at least your roommate has good hygiene," Jakob says and they both laugh.
"True." Stella laughs. "She brings in her man-skanks though, and they don't always have good hygiene."
"I heard that!" Kendra yells from the washroom.
"GOOD!" Jakob laughs.

"Well I'm off," Kendra says, stepping out of the washroom and out of the dorm.
"So what do you want to do?" Stella asks casually, "It's six o'clock."
"Let's have a night in," Jakob says as he sits on the bed and pulls Stella onto his lap, "Order a pizza, watch a movie, Kendra's gone."
"Yeah, that sounds fun," Stella says leaning her head against Jakob's chest listening to the sound of his heartbeat.

"Are you just with me because of the baby?"
"Stella!" He says insulted, "You know I love you, before you told me to shut-up at the café I was saying how glad I was we were giving us another chance."
"Sorry," She whispers as she goes back to listening to his heartbeat, "I love you too."

"So we said pizza," Jakob says, trying to change the subject, "What kind do you want?"
"All dressed," She says as she reaches over to grab the phone. "Oh fuck, what's the number?"
"Here," He says taking the phone he dials the memorized number for he and his roommate ordered pizza every other week.
"Gino's Pizzeria, take out or delivery."
"Delivery, a medium all dressed."
"Address?"
"Kingston Street, dormitory four, room seventeen."
"Alright, if its not there in half an hour it's free," The operator says before hanging up.
"And movies," Jakob says thinking.

"We'll go see Felicia," Stella says, getting up and grabbing Jakob's hand.
"Who?"
"She has every movie on the planet, she's a burning nut." Stella laughs as they leave her dorm room.
"What do you want to watch?"
"Comedy," She says shrugging, "I won't make you suffer through a mushy love story."
"Thanks honey." Jakob laughs as she bangs on a door marked 12.

"Yup, oh hey Stella," A tall, pale skinny girl says cheerily. "What can I do for you, oh a boy toy."
"Got any good comedies?" Stella asks casually.
"Do you actually want to watch the movie or-" she raises her eyebrows perversely.
"Yeah we want to watch the movie!" Stella exclaims, "If not tonight then tomorrow morning." Felicia laughs as she leads them into her dorm.

"Comedy, comedy, ahh here we are," She says picking up a stack of discs. "Here this one's pretty good. Just in case I'll lend you this one too."
"Thanks," Stella says appreciatively.
"Oh! Don't return them before noon tomorrow, you know what before three o'clock tomorrow because I'm uh, having company," Felicia says running a hand through her hair, Jakob just laughs as they head out of the dorm.
"Use a condom!" Jakob yells.

"Wish someone could have yelled that at us." Stella laughs, "I still love you baby," She says patting her stomach.
"Yeah honestly, my father spent all his condom lectures on Joey, and that's because they found one of his, but they never found any of ours. I think they should've been worried then!"
"Jakob, stop making me laugh or I'll pee myself," Stella says as they step back in her dorm.

Jakob pushes Stella onto her bed and tickles her until she's a laughing mess.
"Ahh so what movies did we get?"
"Zoolander and Austin Powers four."
"Four? Holy fuck, how many did they make?"
"Uh, I think there's six in total."
"Let's watch Zoolander then, I don't want to confuse my little head with Austin Powers." Jakob asks putting on puppy dog eyes.
"Fine, I don't want to expose our baby to a horny freak just yet." She laughs.
"This baby will have to meet Tre eventually, now what about these movies." Stella slaps his arm as she bursts out laughing.
"Just put the movie on Armstrong," She says, pushing him off the bed.

He stumbles over to the TV set and turns its stand so it's facing Stella's bed and he puts on the DVD. There's a knocking at the dorm room door and Jake goes to answer it.
"Medium all dressed, eighteen-fifty," The delivery guy says, holding up a box.
"Keep the change," Jakob says handing him a twenty. As the delivery guy leaves some other guy comes up to the door.

"Hey dude, do you know which dorm Felicia is in?"
"Twelve," Jakob says, chuckling.
"And do you know anywhere to get some good weed?"
"Uh not anywhere around here," Jakob says, shutting the door and sitting next to Stella on her bed.

"I realized I'm going to have lighting up."
"Well not necessarily, but I'd prefer it if you did," Stella says as she presses play on the remote.
"It's not like I smoke pot all that often anyway," Jake says as he opens the pizza box. "I only do it at parties and shit."
"Hear that Jake." Stella laughs, "That's responsibility."
"Shut-up." He laughs as they each take a slice.