In this story you will be following the story of an 18 year old girl named Debbie from a small town in Oklahoma. She has a boyfriend, Alex, and has already received a scholarship to an awesome college that she is very excited to attend. Debbie is an only child with supportive parents. Her father is the pastor at a local church which her mom helps out at. Otherwise, her mom stays-at-home and focuses all her energy on Debbie.
[[Next->Senior Prom]]
You decide to call your friend Cheryl. You ask her what happened last night and she says "I barely remember, but I think you had a little to much to drink and passed out with Alex. How are you feeling?". You both talk for a bit and she recommends you take an advil and go back to sleep.
About a week later, you've been going about your week and realize that you're late a couple of days for your period. You're still unsure about what happened that night and get a little concerned. You've been feeling a little nauseous.
[[Get your parent's opinion]]
[[Ask Megan's opinion ->Get your friends opinion]]
[[Get your boyfriends opinion]]
[[Google it yourself]]
Your decide to call your boyfriend Alex. You ask him about what happened and he says, "I don't really remember, you drank a good amount last night and I didn't want to wake you up this morning. How are you feeling?". You both talk for a bit and he recommends you take an advil and go back to sleep.
About a week later, you've been going about your week and realize that you're late a couple of days on your period. You're still unsure about what happened that night and get a little concerned. You've been feeling a little nauseous.
[[Get your parent's opinion]]
[[Get your friends opinion]]
[[Ask Alex for help again->Get your boyfriends opinion]]
[[Google it yourself]]
You take an advil and go back to sleep.
About a week later, you've been going about your week and realize that you're late a couple of days on your period. You're still unsure about what happened that night and get a little concerned. You've been feeling a little nauseous.
[[Get your parent's opinion]]
[[Get your friends opinion]]
[[Get your boyfriends opinion]]
[[Google it yourself]]
You decide to approach your parents about this. You know they might get mad, but you know they mean well. When you tell them they get a little upset, but are happy you came to them immediately. They recommend a pregancy test to double check and give you a nice long talking to (about making sure you don't ruin your life).
You're happy you came to your parents now.
[[Take Pregnancy Test with Parents]]
You call your best friend Megan, and she says that it's probably nothing and you should wait a day to triple check.
After school the next day, you still haven't had your period and are even more worried.
[[Google it yourself]]
Alex assures you that it's nothing and tells you to google it to check. Then he quickly hangs up. You do some homework and sleep on it.
[[Google it yourself]]
You decide to just Google it. You find out that, among other things, you could be pregnant. One recommendation is a pregnancy test, but you still don't know what to do and decide to sleep on it. You feel uncomfortable going to the local pharmacy and buying a pregnancy test.
You go to school the next day and wonder what to do about this whole situation.
[[Tell friends]]
[[Keep it to yourself]]
[[Tell your parents]]
[[Tell boyfriend]]
You tell your friends what you've found. They are out of ideas and suggest that you try to work this out with Alex. He deserves to know.
[[Talk to your Boyfriend]]
Alex is upset. He doesn't remember much of that night either, but he is fairly certain that nothing like that transpired. Regardless, he knows that he can't have a rumor like this spreading about him.
He mutters incomprehensibly to himself as he storms away from you.
[[Days Pass ->Talk to your Boyfriend]]
You keep the possibility of being pregnant to yourself, and the stress slowly starts to build. You keep waiting, hoping that you get your period. With each passing day, you become more and more worried. You can't sleep at night, and you fail two big tests. Your grades are slipping, and you're worried you'll lose your scholarship if you fail any classes. You don't know what else to do, so you reluctantly tell your parents.
[[Tell your parents]]
A few days have passed and you decide that it's been long enough, and you need to tell your parents about the situation that you are in. You find them in the family already talking in hushed tones. They both glance up with concerned looks on their faces as they hear you come into the room.
Your dad holds up a pamphlet ad from Target and from Babies 'R Us and then hands them to you. You open the Target pamphlet to a "Congratulations!" banner and full page ads for Huggies, strollers and cribs alike. Your dad gives you a stern look and inquires if there is something you need to tell them.
You breakdown and tell them everything from the night of prom until now.
[[Next]]
You deal with the social backlash at school on your own. Everyone but your closest friend, Cheryl, has essentially shunned you. Alex continues to slut shame you even though you have no idea what happened that night. You know that sooner or later this news will reach your well-connected father in this small town. You know you must get ahead of it.
[[Tell your parents]]
It's the night of your Senior Prom and you are incredibly excited. You have a great time at prom and go to an after party afterwards with your boyfriend and friends. At the after party, your friends convince you to have a couple of drinks and before you know it, you wake up with little to no memory of what happened the night before, a pounding headache, and sick to your stomach.
[[Call one of your friends to hear what happened]]
[[Call your boyfriend]]
[[Go back to sleep]]
You decide to keep the rest of the situation to yourself and listen to your parents about the pregnancy test. Your parents handle the purchase of the test, and you take it at home with their support. The test comes back negative, and you feel a heavy weight lifted off your shoulders.
[[Life continues]]
This is one of the first times you've heard your parents yell. They don't know why you didn't come to them sooner. They ask her if she ever thought about her future or the future of her father's church for that matter.
You have tears in your eyes, but you know they are right. You don't know what you were thinking. They tell you that the pregnancy should be confirmed with a test. In the meantime, you should contact your school about possibly withdrawing from your scholarship. You don't know what the future will hold.
[[Life Goes On]]
After several awkward days pass at school, you come home one evening to your parents at the dinner table. They explain to you that after some careful thought, they have alerted Alex that you will no longer be able to see each other, and that they will not be allowing you to attend the same college. In their eyes, the pregnancy test doesn't matter; you have shown a great lack of judgement, and they question your future decision making ability. You feel that your life is out of your hands now.
Debbie lays in bed, wondering how her life has got to this point.
Debbie pulls up to campus that fall. She is finally at her dream school, and ready to start moving in. Having broken up with her boyfriend, she is excited about her fresh start, and she's already joined her church's local small group. Her relationship with her parents has never been better.
She contemplates her life as her parents finally pull away with tears in their eyes; she's come so far, but she's not done yet.
You wake up Friday morning to go speak with Alex again. As you begin to get ready for your day, you find your phone blowing up with missed texts and calls from your friends. You read through some of the texts and see things like "Is it true!?!?" and "Why didn't you tell me!?". You call your best friend and find out that Alex posted on social media that you cheated on him and got pregnant. You decide to stay home and try to figure out what to do.
[[Hide it from your parents]]
[[Tell your parents]]