Meanwhile, Shay began packing his things for his flight the next morning. As excited as he was to prove himself in the tryouts, he still in melancholy. Moreoevr, contemplating his last goodbye to Erika.

He happened to glance over to a framed picture of him and his ex-girlfriend, wishing that their farewell to each other did not end in a depressing way. Shay could not help tearing up as well.

"Here are your clothes," Mame chimed in, carrying the young man's folded attires. "Fresh from the laundry."

The guy wiped his face, and turned to her. "Thanks, Mame, just put it on my bed."

"Do you need help packing?"

"No, it's okay."

Mame saw his lashes were wet. She went closer to him, and held his face. "Time will heal your heart," she told him.

"Thanks, Mame," Shay snifled. "I wish you could come with us in L.A."

"Me too, Honey. I'll miss you so much. You take good care of yourself there, okay?"

"I will. And don't worry, if I get in, I will visit you every off-season."

"When you get in," Mame corrected him. "You will get in. You practice so hard for this tryouts. Believe in yourself. I know you will be a Super Tundra player."

Shay just smiled at her until his father came in. "Are you done packing, Duke?"

"Uhm... Almost, Dad," the young man stammered. That was the cue for Mame to leave the father and son alone to talk.

"Okay. Hmm... You don't look excited to leave," Rome said after seeing his son's glum face.

"I am. I'm just gonna miss... Everyone in school," The young man sighed while continuing to pack his things.

"That's life for you, son. People come and go. I learned that the hard way."

Shay had to expect that kind of advice from his father. "Right," he replied.

"Plus, you're going to make new friends anyway. Super league friends, to be exact."

The young man closed the zipper on his luggage. "Okay, I'm done packing. I'm gonna go out, and hangout with my teammates."

"Alright, don't be out late. Our flight is at 4:30 in the morning," Rome reminded.

----

At night, Erika had to take the bus to get back to her area, sitting alone in tears once again as she stairs at her positive pregnancy test. Furthermore, she contemplated what could happen to her, such as her dream school, and the reaction from her parents.

Once the teenager got to her stop, she exited the bus, and walked her way home since it was few blocks away. Erika wiped her tears before getting to her street.

When she arrived home, thinking that her mother was not there yet. However, that was when the lights were turned on, "Honey?" Celine was in the house, sitting by the single couch in the living room with a look of doubt.

Erika was like a deer in the headlights, and hid the pregnancy stick in her pocket. "Mom..." she gulped.

"Where have you been?" 

"I... I was with Chris in her place to study for the finals."

Her mother looked at her in a weird way, "Really? That's where you were?"

"Yeah," Erika stammered. "Ahem... You're home early, Mom."

"Well..." Celine was about to explain until it was interrupted.

All of a sudden, Collins came barging in the house, "Celine, have you heard from our daughter yet? Is she...?" he asked frantically, then saw his daughter with this ex-wife. "Erika, you're here."

"Dad? what are you talking about?" Erika started to look confuse. "Mom, what is going on? Why is dad here"

"I called your father, thinking that you were with him," Celine explained. "Why he's here, well, I don't know."

"I thought something happened to you. I got worried and decided to come here," Collins said.

"What are you guys talking about? I'm fine, I just went to Chris' house to study," the teenager insisted. "That's all."

"Do you know why I came home early? Because your school called, and they told me that you fainted today," her mother mentioned. "So I rushed to get here, and I even bought you some medicine."

"Erika! Is that true?" Collins gasped.

Erika began to panic again yet tried to calm down to act like nothing was wrong. "Yeah..." she mumbled.

"She's been sick since this morning," the ex-wife informed, then turned to her daughter. "Sweetie, what's going on? Is there something you're not telling me?"

"It's nothing." Erika's tone became defensive. "I just got tired, that's all."

"They said that you fainted today."

"Yes, but I'm okay now. Let's just leave it alone."

"Erika, is there something going on?" Celine confronted. "I feel like there's something you're not telling us."

"Okay, Mom, everything is just so overwhelming, okay?" The teenager claimed as she just wanted the conversation to stop, and leave it alone. "Everything is happening so fast now that high school will be over in just couple of days."

"Stop lying to me."

"I'm not!" Erika argued and was about to storm off but her mother managed to grab her arm that the bag fell on the floor that the pregnancy stick slipped out. The parents were wide-eyed. "Shit."

The mother quickly picked it up and turned to her teenage daughter, "What is this?" she grumbled.

"Mom..." the girl gulped.

"Erika Row, why do you have this?" Celine interrogated and her daughter knew she was screwed that she began to cry. "Answer me! Why do you have this!?"

"Celine, stop it," Collins told his ex-wife as he got between them.

"Stay out of this."

"You're scaring our daughter."

"Erika, answer me! Is this yours? Are you pregnant?" the mother demanded a response. However, her daughter shook her head and closed her mouth tightly so Celine took out her phone. "Fine, you're not going to talk? I'm going to call Duke."

"What? Why?!" the girl panicked and started crying.

"Maybe he knows about this?"

"No, don't do that! He doesn't know. He doesn't know anything!"

Celine became confused. "What are you saying? That there's another boy? Is that it?"

"No, no, it's not like that, I could never do that to Shay."

"If it's not Duke's, then who?"

"Mom..." Erika weeped.

"Answer me!" the mother urged.

"Celine, that's enough, you're scaring our daughter," Collins defended his child from his ex-wife.

"You stay out of it!" Celine shouted.

"How can you expect her to tell you anything when you're yelling at her?"

Erika watched her parents were arguing right in front of her, and it was stressing her more that she wanted them to stop. "I WAS RAPED!" she screamed.

The parents did stop fighting though they were frozen in shock, and darted to their daughter. A news that no parents wanted to hear. "Wha... What did you say?" Celine trembled in shock that she dropped the pregancy stick on the floor.

"Oh, my God." Collins covered his face with his hand from what he heard from his daughter's mouth.

"How...?

"I was raped. It happened in Trevor's party... I don't remember what happened but... I woke up in the pool house and... my hips hurt."

"Erika, you can't keep something like this to us," her father snapped, furious that his daughter was assaulted. "I'm gonna find that son of a bitch! And beat him to a bloddy pulp."

"Dad, please, just stop. I'm freaking out already," the girl sobbed. "Because I think I'm..."

Celine glanced over to the P-stick, and saw the result that no parents wanted to see from their teenage child, especially their daughter. "Pregnant?" she choked.

"We have to report it," her father suggested.

"NO!" Erika agaped.

"We need to go to the police."

"We have to go to the hospital first for a rape kit," Celine added.

This was what the poor girl was afraid of. "Hold up. We're not gonna do that," she told them. "I don't want to do that!"

Her mother and father were astonished by her request. "We can't just let this go," Collins told her. "We have to report it."

"Dad, I'm begging you, let's not do this," Erika whimpered.

"But..."

Celine saw her daughter's despair. "Let's not do it."

The father was appalled. "What? So we're going to let our daughter's rapist walk free? He shouldn't get away with this. He assaulted our daughter, Celine. We have to report this."

"I know, but..." the ex-wife grumbled. "Look at her."

Once the man glanced towards Erika, and saw how afraid she was. "Alright," he huffed, then gave her a hug.

"It's going to be okay, sweetie," Celine added.

"How? Mom, I'm pregnant by that jerk. This is just one pregnancy test. It... It could be false, right? Happens all the time, right?" the teenager rambled, looking very desperate that the result might be faulty.

Celine and Collins were hurt just watching how their child looked so frightened to be pregnant at her age. "Maybe," her father muttered.

"Yup..." the mother choked. "Do another test."

They calmed down later on, but the anxiety were still there. Erika was in the bathroom taking the test again to make sure if she really was pregnant. However, she could hear her parents talking.

"I still think that we should report it," Collins voiced. "Someone assaulted our daughter, he can't get away with this."

"I know, I feel the same way, but it's not that easy," Celine said. "Right now, as much as it hurts us, it's a lot more for Erika, she needs us to be here for her."

It took one minute to see what the result was in that pregnancy test yet that was the most stressful one minute of their life. Once the time was up, the teenager got out, and went straight to the living room, holding the stick in her hand like a zombie.

Her parents immediately stood up, "Honey, what's the result?" her mother asked nervously.

"Whatever it is, just tell us," her father added.

Erika glanced at them with this look of utter sorrow as she showed them the result. It was positive. Another slap about the truth of her assault, and its outcome.

As much as they prepared for the worse, they were all shattered the second time to see that two red lines in that pregnancy test. The poor girl weeped even harder then began punching her stomach. "I don't want it! I don't want it! I don't want it!" she screamed.

"Honey! don't!" Celine grabbed her daughter's fist to stop her.

"You're gonna hurt yourself," Collins told his daughter.

"What am I gonna do?" Erika cried.

Afterwards, her parents wrapped their daughter with their arms to console her. "We'll figure it out," The mother reassured. "It's going to be okay, honey."

"We're here for you," the father said.