Kate didn't come to school on Monday, which really worried me a lot. She also wasn't answering her phone, so I had no way I could have reached her. I was thinking about actually going over to her house until I bumped into her in front of the school.

"Kate!" I nearly shouted when I saw her, and she quickly shushed me so no one would look over at us. Doing as I was told, I now whispered, "Where were you today? I've been calling and texting you and you haven't responded at all! You were really starting to worry me!"

She grabbed onto my wrist, pulling me away from the front of the school and back onto campus without saying a word to me. This freaked me out even more, but I said nothing to her as she continued to drag me.

"I wasn't at school today because I went to the doctor. My mom forced me to," Kate finally told me once we stopped behind a building a few yards away from the basketball courts. "The doctor just confirmed what I already knew. I'm five months pregnant."

"Five months?" I nearly shrieked, not believing that she was that far along without knowing for sure that she was pregnant. "How are you not showing yet?"

Kate shrugged, wiping at her eyes so she wouldn't start crying, but I knew there was nothing she could do to stop the tears from flowing. "My doctor says that everyone's different, but I'll probably start showing really soon."

"Did you find out the gender?" I had to ask, because that had always been the most exciting part about having a baby. "I'm pretty sure you can find out the gender at five months."

Kate shrugged again. "I don't know, my doctor didn't talk about the gender. He'll probably talk about it the next time I see him, but I don't want to know the gender. I want it to be a surprise."

I just smiled at her. She was excited, I knew she was, but at the same time I knew she wasn't as well. She wanted to have a baby at a young age, but I knew she didn't want one this young. She had told me so many times that she wanted to marry Logan, but I had no idea how he felt about any of this.

"Logan's playing at the basketball courts today, right?" she asked me now. "He told me last week that he was going to play with the guys today."

"Yeah," I nodded, remembering that both Johnny and Zach had told me that they were going to be playing basketball after school. "He should be over there, unless he got stuck in class for some reason."

Kate took a deep breath. "I'm going to tell him today."

"Really?" I asked, my eyes widening at her. "But... he's with a bunch of guys right now!"

Kate shook her head. "I'll make them go away or I'll pull Logan away. If I don't tell him right now, I don't think I will. I'll be too scared if I don't do it now."

I nodded at her. "Okay, then now's the time to do it."

"You'll be there when I tell him, right?" Kate sniffed, twiddling her thumbs nervously as she stared down at the ground. "I really don't want to be alone for this."

"Of course I'll be there with you," I smiled, grabbing onto her hand and smiling at her encouragingly. "Maybe we should go and tell him right now. The faster you do it, the faster it'll be over."

Kate didn't move for a moment, and only stared at me for a moment. I stared back at her, waiting for her to speak now.

"I... I think I actually want to tell him alone," Kate mumbled, staring down at the ground now. "I'm afraid that... he'll be embarrassed if someone else is there. So can you please just... wait for me?"

It probably would have been a good idea if I wasn't with her. Logan might have been a nice guy, but who knew how he was going to react to news like this? It was something that would be really hard to take in.

"Sure," I smiled, leaning up against the wall to show her that I would wait. "I'll be right here the entire time."

She smiled at me, saying thanks before scurrying off in the direction of the basketball court. And I waited, doing as she said so I wouldn't get in the way. I only waited for about five minutes before I heard familiar sobs.

I pushed away from the wall and turned to see Kate running toward me. My stomach dropped straight into my gut, and I couldn't think of anything to say to her right away.

She ran my way and stopped when she got to me. "Maxynn, Maxynn!" she sobbed.

"What? What did he say?" I cried out in surprise, not expecting her to come back to me like this. She had been crying beforehand, but not like now.

"He said he doesn't want anything to do with the baby!" she nearly screamed, and my jaw dropped. "And if I keep it he doesn't want anything to do with me!"

This couldn't have been happening. I was almost one hundred percent sure that Logan was going to be there for her and the baby! He never seemed like the kind of guy that would just leave her like this!

"I was so upset that I slapped him!" she cried, still wiping at her eyes as she tried not to cry any longer. "I didn't even mean to! I couldn't control myself! I was just so angry and I couldn't believe what he said!"

"I'm going to go talk to him," I nearly growled, spinning on my heal and making my way over to the basketball courts, leaving Kate behind me because I knew she wasn't going to come with me to see him.

When I got to the basketball courts, I saw that Logan was the only one there. He was sitting on a basketball, his face in his hands as he just sat there. He looked like he was thinking, but that wasn't going to stop me from talking to him.

"What just happened?" I demanded, my arms crossing over my chest as I glared down at him.

"Oh, great," he sighed, his forehead in the palm of his hand as he rested his elbow on his knee. "You're here."

This was not like typical Logan, who was always loud and obnoxious, but welcoming and happy. This was not the kind of person he was.

"Yeah, I'm here," I snapped, letting my arms fall to my side now as I look at him. "And you're going to talk to me no matter what. I'm not going to cry and run away like Kate did."

"Are you going to slap me?" he spat, standing up from his spot on the basketball and showing the giant red slap mark on his left cheek. "Because if you are, I think I'll be the one to run away now."

I had to take a breath. "No, I'm not here to hit you. I'm here to yell at you."

When Logan rolled his eyes and turned toward me, my hand automatically turned into a fist without me realizing it. And before I even knew it, that fist was flying toward Logan's face.

"What the hell," he started, his hand slapping over his now bloody nose, "is your problem? You said you weren't going to hit me!"

"Well, I lied!" I shouted right back.

"Maxynn--"

"Are you insane?" I screamed at him now, pushing him back a few times in the chest now. "You told her you wanted nothing to do with it? Are you that stupid? You idiot! It's your baby too, you know! You can't do anything to change that fact!"

"Maxynn! Maxynn!" Logan cried, grabbing my wrist so I'd stop pushing him.

For some reason, I started crying now. I just couldn't stop myself. Kate was my best friend, and Logan was a good friend of mine as well. Their lives were being ruined because of this. Everything was going to have to change now.

"What the hell is going on?" a new voice now said, and I stopped crying for a few moments to see that it was Zach.

"Zach?" I swallowed, for some reason not wanting him to see me like this. "What are you doing here?"

"I was late. I got held up in class," he told me, a confused look on his face.

"Since when do you ever get help up in class?" Logan nearly sneered, letting go of my wrists to cover his bloody nose. Zach now turned toward me. "You're always the first one out of class."

Zach shrugged. "The sub for Ms. Cassidy is hot. I thought I'd go welcome her to school."

I made a horrified look at him, and it wasn't helping anything that was happening right then. "You're seriously a pig! You're seriously hitting on a teacher now? Really? Andie wasn't enough for you?"

"She's not a real teacher," Zach smirked. "At least, not at school."

"That doesn't matter! It's still the same thing to me!"

Zach now looked at Logan and then to me. "Did you seriously hit someone else?"

I turned away from him in a pout, my eyesight blurry from my tears. "I hope I broke his nose like I broke Aveline's."

Logan's eyes widened at me in horror. "That was you?"

Before I could say anything, Zach cut me off. "Do you think you could maybe tell me what's going on? What's up? What's wrong?"

"Your best friend's an asshole, that's what's wrong!" I shouted, not even meaning to do so.

Zach smirked, even though it was completely the inappropriate time to do so. "That's a really mean thing to say about Johnny, Maxynn!"

"You know I was talking about Logan!"

"Were you?"

Why did I have to deal with these two idiots? One of them gets a girl pregnant and doesn't care, and the other could have easily gotten another girl pregnant without caring in the slightest. What was I supposed to do when both of them were obviously against me?

"Anyway," Zach continued now. "What's the real problem?"

"Logan got Kate pregnant, you know that!" I informed him, and Logan looked horrified that I was speaking so loudly. "He got her pregnant and you won't be a man and be a father with Kate!"

"I was being a man!" Logan shouted again, and my hands became fists again as I tried to lunge for him again, Zach grabbing my waist and pulling me back against him before I could.

"And how exactly are you being a man by letting her take care of a baby on her own?" I screamed again, and Zach still wouldn't let go of me. He knew I'd kill Logan if I got my hands on him, so holding me back was the best thing he could have done. Even though he was holding me too close... "That's not being a man! That's being a little boy! You're acting like a child!"

"I don't think he's the one acting like a child right now..." I heard Zach mutter, causing me to elbow him as hard as I could in the stomach, but he didn't even flinch or let me go.

Logan let out a sigh, wiping at the blood from his nose. It had stopped bleeding, so I was pretty sure I hadn't broken it. He didn't say anything for a few moments, as if he was trying to think of what he was supposed to say.

"I'm not going to be a good father," he sighed, shaking his hand to get the blood off of it. "I'm an eighteen-year-old boy, an immature eighteen-year-old boy... You both know I'm an idiot. I'm not mature, I'm not ready... I'd just be bad for the kid."

All I could do was stare at him.

"I don't care if you think you're going to be bad, you have to be there for Kate," I started calmly, finally pushing away from Zach so he was no longer holding onto me. "She's the one that matters right now! Everything is going to change for her, which means everything's going to change for you, too! You love her, don't you?"

Logan said nothing to this, and I didn't back down. I wasn't going to let this guy ruin Kate's life just because he thought he was going to be bad father. He didn't even know if he'd really be a bad guy or not.

Logan looked at me, then at Zach, and then at me again. He sighed loudly, sitting down on the ground now as he said, "I do. I really do. Kind of like Zach loves you."

Both Zach and I jumped as we shouted, "What?"

Logan laughed loudly, winking at us now. "Just kidding!"

Now this was the Logan that we knew and loved, and I couldn't help but laugh with him now. Zach didn't laugh, not even a little, but he wasn't my main concern. He wasn't even supposed to be there right then.

"So, will you help her out?" I asked Logan now, crouching down beside him a smiling. "She really needs you right now, you know."

Logan nodded, wiping at his nose one last time. "I'll be there for her. I think Ineed her more than she needs me."

I smiled even more now. "Oh, and I'm sorry for hitting you."

"Eh, I deserved it."

I laughed with him again, and I couldn't believe how fast this had changed from a serious confrontation to something that we could have talked about every day. Zach, surprisingly, didn't join in. He was still there, but he didn't laugh and joke with Logan and me. He was just completely silent, which just wasn't normal for Zach.

~*~

It was twelve o'clock at night, but I still wasn't able to fall asleep. I had school the next day, and yet I just couldn't fall asleep no matter how hard I tried.

Kate and Logan had patched up everything after we had left the basketball courts, so I was glad that that was taken care of. But I still had things with Johnny to take care of, and I was surprised that he hadn't been able to realize that things were weird for me yet. It was just so weird to think that he loved me every time I saw him.

I still wasn't asleep when my door opened, which caused me to sit up in bed in surprise. I turned to see Zach, who smirked at me as he turned on the light and shut the door behind him.

"I didn't expect you to be awake," he told me, that smirk still on his face. "I was going to wake you up."

I glared at him. "What are you doing in here?"

"I can't sleep," he sighed, plopping down on my bed next to me. I gave him a look, but this didn't make him move. "Entertain me."

He still didn't move, even when I shoved him away from me. This only caused him to move closer to me, and there was nothing I could do to make him get away.

So I gave up, just lying next to him now. For some reason, I felt a lot calmer with him in bed with me. I felt like I could fall asleep, but that seemed to be the last thing Zach wanted to do.

"I'm glad you didn't break Logan's nose," he informed me as we both stared up at my ceiling. "That'd be the second time you broke something of someone's."

I rolled my eyes. "Aveline deserved it."

"Did the cashier at the convenience store deserve it?"

"Yeah."

"Uh-huh."

"I know I went a little overboard today," I sighed, rolling on my side to face him now, "but I just couldn't help myself. I acted the way I'd want someone to act if I was in Kate's position. I'd want someone to fight for me."

Zach's eyebrows rose. "So if Johnny gets you pregnant, can I punch him?"

"Zach," I snapped.

"What if I get you pregnant?"

"Oh, I'd punch you then."

Zach's eyes flickered down to my lips, and I said nothing as I continued to stare at him. There was really nothing I could say to him, because he kissed me before I could speak.

"Is this seriously all you can think about?" I demanded once he pulled away from me. "Just kissing, and sex, and all of that. Did you really think you could just come in here and I'd make out with you?"

Zach smirked, leaning in again. "Well, yeah..."

"No," I snapped, placing my hand on his chest and pushing him back a little bit. "I'm not going to just make out with you in the middle of the night, especially when we have school tomorrow. If you want to talk or something, then that's fine. But I'm not going to just make out with you."

"You want to talk, huh?" he asked, lying back on my bed now and looking up at the ceiling. "What do you want to talk about?"

"I don't know," I shrugged, falling back onto the bed with him.

"Then I say we make out."

"Zach!"

He laughed, rolling onto his side so he was now facing me. I turned my head toward his, and we just stared at each other, neither of us saying anything at all. And honestly, it was kind of nice. After a few minutes of just staring at each other, we started talking, and I didn't even know how long we stayed up for. All I knew was that I was going to be very, very tired when I woke up the next morning to go to school.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, since this story's in the Watty Awards, I want to put this story in for the special awards too, but I don't know what for yet.I was thinking about putting it in for best trailer, but then again I think I might want to put Ethan as funniest character. The problem with that, though, is that he's ten. I don't know how well he'd do against teenagers and/or adults.

Because no matter how hilarious the character is, I feel like people might just vote for the hottest guy on the list. :/

So what category should I enter this story in?

This is for the 2012 Watty Awards! Please COMMENT, VOTE, and SHARE! <3