Drama Momma (Surprisingly Perfect Sequel)

What Were You Thinking?

Mom's hand flew to her head. She pulled out a chair at the kitchen table and took a seat. Chrys rolled her eyes and kept cooking. The boys went back to smacking their plastic spoons against their high-chairs.

"Look Mom! Identical twins! Can you believe it?" I said.

"I know that I can't," Chrys said, taking a pot of sauce off the stove.

Mom sat in total silence. She was looking from me to the blueprint and back, again and again. She reached for the ultrasound picture, which I handed her.

"I'm about five weeks now, so that's why I'm not showing yet," I said. I sat down across from her. The silence was freaking me out. "It's okay, Mom! Once I tell Chase, I'm sure he'll pay for everything!"

"Tell who?" Mom asked. There was an edge to her voice and she had that I'm-about-to-kill-somebody look on her face.

"Uh...Chase Hetcher...I've kinda been seeing him for a while."

"Poppy Tulip Everston! Please, for the love of everything, tell me that this is all some big joke!"

She looked over at Chrys, who was laughing to herself. I remembered back to last year, when this whole situation was reversed and I was watching her tell Mom while I ate a bag of popcorn.

"This is a joke, right?" Mom asked, almost like she was begging.

"It's not, Mom. The condom must've broken or something. I'm sorry."

"Poppy, you're fifteen! This isn't something where you can say 'sorry' and forget about it! You're a freshman in high school and you're having twins! You're way too young to be in this situation! What the hell were you thinking?"

I shrugged. "I dunno...that I was attracted to my boyfriend."  

"Poppy, are you kidding me right now?" her voice was getting so loud that the boys were crying now.

"Hey, no fair! You didn't flip out on Chrys when she told you she was having the boys!" I said, getting out of my chair.

"Well the same thing kinda happened to me twice! Can you blame me for being a little upset that both of my daughters are going to be teen parents—but to more than one baby each! I'm going to be thirty-six in June and I'm going to have four grandkids!"

"That's not a bad thing! You always told us that all lives are precious!" I said.

"Yes, Poppy, but it's different when you're so young. Chrys was at least going to graduate before the boys were born. You'll only be halfway through your sophomore year."

"I can do online classes! I'll be fine!"

"Can you two quiet down? I can't hear myself think and I'm trying to follow this recipe!" Chrys said.

Both boys were upset, but she chose to pick up Ollie, who was screaming at the top of his lungs. It was like every time Blaze cried, Ollie had to beat him at his own game and cry ten times louder.

Mom picked up Blaze, who nestled into her shoulder and started smiling. Her loved hugs and kisses.

"I don't know what we're going to do. We were cramped with the three of us in here, and with five it's nearly impossible. I have no idea how we'd even survive in here with seven, even with the addition," Mom said.

"Don't worry. We'll figure everything out."

"That's easy for you to say. I'm the one who has to sort out all of the renovations. We'll probably have to move. There's just no way we can all fit in here."

Chrys gasped. "But we've been here our whole lives! I don't want to move! Way to go Poppy."

"Hey, I never said anything when the boys changed everything! They keep me up all night when I have to go to school in the morning because we share a wall! You never hear me complaining about that, or how their toys are all over the carpet or how the trash stinks of their dirty diapers!" I said.

Everyone quieted down again. Chris started pouring stroganoff into our plates.

"I just can't believe this happened," Mom said, still hugging Blaze, who was getting sleepy. "Really, Poppy, what were you thinking?"

What was I thinking? Sure Mom, I'll tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking that I was going to have another normal night of being intimate with my boyfriend, like every other normal teenager out there.

Better yet, how about I tell you what I wasn't thinking: that Jace Hetcher would crawl out of his cave somewhere and poke a hole in the condoms we were using, for some reason, probably to get revenge on the twin brother he's been jealous of his whole life. How about that, Mom?

"I just wanted to feel normal for once! All my friends are sleeping with their boyfriends and girlfriends! Why can't I?"

I ran up to my room and locked myself in, holding onto Hugsley the bear and crying myself away into my pillow. You want to know what I was really thinking just a year ago, when I ate popcorn while Chrys told Mom she was pregnant? That this could never happen to me.