It Happens
"Why is that when something wrong happens someone says 'It Happens'?", Ms. Beatty asked not meaning for anyone to answer but twelve hands shot into the air. "I didn't mean for you to answer I meant for you to think about it and then write me a 500 word report telling me why you believe this. Any questions about the assignment?" No one raised their at first but then a hand crawled toward the low ceiling of the tiny classroom. "Yes Tiffany?" "Ma'am I would like to ask on behalf of the entire class,um, what does this have to do with anything that we will ever need in the life that is ahead of us? And if it does have anything to do with anything then what will it teach us about the lives we live today? And finally where will it take us tomorrow?" "Well I can't answer all of those questions but I can say that it will benefit in the way you speak around others and it will enable your speaking ability. What you just asked was how it will help you in anything you do. It may help you to be a better person and friend. It may help you get a better job. But since you asked 3 questions when you only wanted one question you have earned the class an extra 1000 words. If this isn't turned in tomorrow then you will fail this class. Although you will all be leaving Friday this is your final in this class. It is a take home. And I don't want to see guys hand writing for the girls, or girls hand writing for the guys. I want this to be thought about and taken as seriously as possible. Now with the remaining time in class you may work on this or you may whisper quitely to one another." "Thanks a lot Tiffany. You just cost me basketball practice. If I don't get this finished then I don't get to go to finals next week." "Oh put a sock in it Joe. How was I supposed to know that she was going to assign more work if I asked more than one question? You jocks really don't understand the ethics of anything and even if you did then you wouldn't be able to use it in everyday life. So you and your jock friends can harrass me all you want but I am a strong independent person and you won't phase me with your stupid jock pranks." "Oh go find your mother and hide behind her skirt. Or better yet go hide behind your dork friends in the chess club. They'll be the ones laughing once you are humiliated in front of the entire school at graduation." "Who says I'll care? See that's what makes me so different from you. I don't care what the others say about me behind my back. You do and it's really pathetic. Why don't you go find your whiny girlfriend and sleep with her like you always do after you've won a game." Silence fell over the conversation, then without even a blink Joe softly kissed Tiffany on the cheek. Tiffany was shocked. The bell had rung while they were in their crude conversation. School was out. "So Tiffany do you want to come back to my house so you can help me on my final and then I can help you on yours." Joe winked at Tiffany and smiled. Tiffany became furious and slapped Joe so hard he nearly fell over. "I would never come to your house for anything of that nature. Even if I did come to your house then I would wear a protective body bag to keep your nasty body off of my nice, clean, perfect one." Joe grinned, "Your body really is perfect.", he places a hand on her waist. Tiffany moves away from his hand and slaps him again. "Fine then Tiffany just be the little up tight girl that you've always been and you will never get this chance again." "Who says I wanted it in the first place Joe? You're the one that made the first move." Joe started walking away and she hated when people walked away while she was talking. "Joe, even if I wanted you then I wouldn't try for it because you're a jock and I can't date one of you because if I did then I would be known as something that I don't want to become." By this time Tiffany realized that she had followed Joe all the way home. "Well I guess I shoud say thanks for walking me home." Joe and Tiffany smiled a small smile. "So do you want to help me write my paper in a friendly way?" "Sure but I have to write mine here too." "Sounds cool to me." Tiffany and Joe slowly enter his house and head to the kitchen for some snacks. Joe grabs some cereal and milk. Tiffany grabs some grapes out of the crisper and shuts the refrigerador door. "So you're a fruity girl." Tiffany laughs a nods her head. They head up to Joe's room. Once there Tiffany sits on the bed while Joe cleans off his desk. Joe flings clothes, books, assignments that he never did, and pens onto the floor. Tiffany decided that she would help him out just a bit by picking up the clothes and putting them in his hamper behind the door. Stacking the books in the corner and putting the pens in a cup on his desk. The assignments were placed in a neat stack on top of the books. Joe gave Tiffany a questionable look then a wry smile. "So what do we need first?" "Well...." Joe thought. "You need to relax a bit. You look so tense just sitting there." Joe got up from his desk and went into his bathroom and got two wine glasses of water. He handed one to Tiffany and gave her a friendly smile. Joe took a big gulp of his while Tiffany took small sips. Tiffany started to take a sip when Joe reached over to tip the glass up further so she would drink more. Tiffany then felt faint. She excused herself but before she could even walk two steps she fell over on top of Joe. When Tiffany awoke she was naked on Joe's bed. She couldn't remember how she'd gotten like this. She tried to lift her head but it hurt to badly. Suddenly there was Joe. "Joe? Joe what happened?" "You blacked out and then you came to for a second and told me to take your clothes off because you were warm." "Oh ok." Tiffany got up and dressed herself. Two months later Tiffany started feeling funny. She started throwing up on a regular basis. But she didn't eve feel sick until the moment she threw up. She went to the school nurse and she told her to take a pregnancy test even though Tiffany had told her that she was a virign. The next day Tiffany was called out of her last block class to the nurse's office. "Tiffany Webber?" "Yes." "I'm afraid that I have some news that you may not like." the nurse took a breath. "I actually have two little things of bad news." she took another breath. "One you aren't a virgin and two you're pregnant." Tiffany nearly fell over from the disbelief from all of the shock. How and when had she had sex and not remembered it. She then remembered something. She stood and stormed out of the nurses office back to Mr. Calthe's class. "Mr. Calthe can I have a word with Joe Reeves out in the hall for just a minute?" She knew that he wouldn't be counting the minutes. "Sure Tiffany." Joe slid out of his seat very confident that she was going to give him good news. "Yes Tiff?" "You lied to me. You said that I just passed out 2 months ago at your house. Then that I came to for just a second to tell you I was warm." "Yeah that's what happened." "Wrong. You raped me." Joe got wide eyed and he knew that she was right. "You can't prove that." "You wanna bet? I'm pregnant because of you." "No you're not." "Then I guess we'll just see in 7 months how you feel when you have to pay for the mistake that you made." Tiffany walked away and Joe hit the nearest thing. The following day Joe quit the basketball team. Tiffany quit all of her extra caricular activities and started walking home so no one would notice that she was pregnant until she was at least 8 months. Seven months passed and Tiffany gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. She had Joe's nose and icy blue eyes. Three months after the birth Tiffany sued Joe for rape and she won. But she also won the arguement for child support payments from Joe's mom and dad. "Ten generations have passed since that fateful day in court." "Grandma, what ever happened to Joe?" "Well I don't really know James." "Well did he get out of jail?" "We'll save that part for tomorrow." "Goodnight Grandma." Grandma Jean closed the book of stories that her great great great great great great grandma Tiffany had written back when she was 16. Jean went to bed and she fell right to sleep. Only the next morning she didn't wake up. Eleven years later James found out that his grandma that he loved so much had written a book full of stories when she was 16. And so had every generation since Grandma Tiffany. So that very day he began his own book of stories for his grandson to hear.
Copyright © 2004 Lucy Midnight |