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**August 21 2002**

Tension was building in the Carter household. What used to be a warm and happy place was now filled with pain and discomfort.

Charline didn’t come out of her room at all. Aaron moped around the house like a complete zombie, while everyone else kept a low profile, knowing that the slightest thing would set him off.

“This is so stupid.” Sophie grumbled, after making sure Aaron was nowhere near. Her, Steph and Joce were sitting on the back porch. “They should just get back together already, that would solve everything.”

Steph shook her head as she sipped on a can of sweetened raspberry Iced Tea. “No, because they’d just drift apart while they’re away and it would hurt her more.”

“Like you and Nick.” Joce stated. Steph thought about that for a moment, and then tried to deny it.

“Nu uh cause we were apart for four months before we came here. Steph explained, sounding totally sure of herself. Still, she couldn’t push the worry out of her head. Although, Nick wasn’t the type of person to leave that until the last minute, so she figured that she was okay.

Joce didn’t buy her answer, but went along with it, as though not to upset Steph. “Whatever.” She replied, rolling her eyes. “Hey speaking of Nick…” She trailed off, wanting to lighten things up by getting into a good gossip session.

“What about him?” Steph asked, not picking up on Joce’s suggestive tone.

“Did you guys ever…you know…”

Sophie smiled slyly and she pulled her chair in closer to where Steph and Joce were sitting. “I hear he was really good in bed.” She whispered, wriggling her eyebrows.

Steph scoffed. “That’s just because you’re friends with-” She rolled her eyes and started talking in a mocking type voice. “Willa Ford.”

Sophie got all defensive and crossed her arms across her chest. “You guys, she’s really nice!” She protested. “Besides,” She said accusingly at Steph. “You just pick people to hate and you hate them.”

Steph took a sip out of her drink. “Nu uh. I hate her cause she was a bitch to Nick.” She explained.

Sophie sighed. “Whatever, that doesn’t matter, did you guys have sex yes or no?” At that, Joce burst out laughing.

“No.” Steph answered honestly, even though she knew her friends wouldn’t believe her.

“Do you think Charline and Aaron did?” Joce whispered, grinning like an idiot.

Sophie shook her head. “No way. She would have told us.”

Steph nodded in agreement, thinking that when she saw Charline sitting on her bead, off in space last month, it meant nothing. “Speaking of Charline, maybe we should go check on her.” She suggested, looking back into the house through the back window.

Joce stood up. “Alright, let’s go.”

Five minutes later they were standing in front of Charline’s bedroom door, arguing over who had to knock.

Finally, they just threw Sophie onto her door, causing a loud crash. When all was once again silent, they head Charline’s muffled sobs coming from inside her room. After a few exchanged glances, Steph slowly opened the door.

The first thing they saw was Charline lying on her bed, stretched out on her stomach, crying her eyes out. Steph, Sophie and Joce sat down beside her. Their mission: Cheer up Charline. The last thing they wanted was a depressed Char sharing their tour bus, because they knew a depressed Char would turn into an angry and grumpy Char. Not a pretty sight.

“Char,” Steph soothed, tickling the bottom of her foot. “Don’t worry, it will all be okay. He was you first love, but you’ll get over him eventually. Remember Matt?” She asked, referring to her first love. Their relationship had been nothing but lies, betrayal and heartbreak. Come to think about it, Steph had had her share of bad relationships. “At least Aaron wasn’t fat.” She joked, trying to lighten the moment, and Joce stifled a giggle. They had always bugged Steph about Matt being chunky. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the right time to be joking around.

Charline sat up on her bed and threw her pillow forcefully on the floor. Then she glared at the others. Carefully, they proceeded to try and cheer her up. It didn’t look like that was about to happen, though.

“Char-” Sophie started, but Charline snapped back at her.

“Shut up Sophie, don’t try telling me that it will all be better, cause you don’t know! You don’t even want a boyfriend! Dan from O-town liked you and YOU SHOT HIM DOWN!!!!” She yelled, and Sophie was taken back by her sudden outburst, even though that was the kind of thing you could expect from Charline.

“She’s just trying to help.” Joce replied, and her reply was met by and icy stare from you-know-who.

“Shut up you guys, just go away.” She mumbled, falling back onto the bed. Sophie stood up to leave, but Steph pulled her back down, shaking her head.

“Char, what is your problem?” Joce questioned, thinking that there had to be something deeper than just the breakup.

Again, Charline sat up, but this time she didn’t get angry, she just sat in the middle of the bed, knees curled up to her chest. She looked so weak and helpless; it made the others feel even worse for her. “Can you guys keep a secret?” She asked in a meek voice.

“No.” Steph answered, and Sophie stifled a giggle.

Joce rolled her eyes and ignored them, eager to hear what Charline was about to say. “Yes, you know we can. You also know that Steph is just a putz.”

“I think that I’m pregnant.” Charline whispered, not wanting to take the chance of anyone in the house over hearing, especially Aaron.

Joce’s eyes widened and she looked over at Sophie, whose jaw just sort of hung open in disbelief. The only one not in shock was Steph. “That’s bull Char.” She scoffed. “You can’t get pregnant unless you’ve had sex.”

Joce breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s right. You’re probably just late.” Sophie nodded in agreement.

Charline fell back onto the bed yet again. “You guys are so stupid.” She sighed. “What if I told you that I haven’t been telling you much for the past couple of moths?”

“We’d wonder what you’d been doing.” Sophie replied, through clenched teeth.

“Char…when?” Joce stammered, unable to think of something better to say.

“When you guys went to see Star Wars.” Charline explained, rubbing her eyes. They look quite sore to the others, probably from crying so much.

Instantly, Steph jumped off the bed. “In here?!” She exclaimed, disgusted.

Charline shook her head. “In the water. We went skinny dipping.” Steph breathed a sigh of relief and sat back down on the bed.

Sophie glared at her in disapproval. “You’re thirteen years old!”

“But I loved him.” She replied sadly, making Steph and Joce feel extremely sorry for her.

After a minute or so of silence, Steph finally piped up. “I’ll run to the store and buy you a test.” She offered.

Sophie shook her head. “No way. If the paparazzi see you buying a pregnancy test, we’re screwed.”

Joce nodded. “She’s right.”

Charline threw her other pillow onto the floor; it hit her stack of CDs and knocked them over, causing a loud crash.

“I don’t care about the stupid paparazzi!” She exclaimed. “This is a little more important!”

Joce sighed, switching sides. “Well, Soph, she does have a point.”

“Whatever.” Sophie grumbled, walking out of the room. This pissed her off to no end. She knew she needed to be there for her sister at the moment, but she didn’t understand how she could be so stupid and irresponsible. Then again, this was Charline.

As she walked throughout the house, going nowhere in particular, she passed by Aaron in the computer room.

He was surfing random websites and chatting to his friend on MSN, but his mind was somewhere else. Charline hadn’t set foot out of her room since yesterday morning at breakfast, and he hadn’t seen her since the breakup. He wanted to talk to her, but he knew that was no longer his place. Besides it would be too hard for both of them. So, secretly, he was glad she had yet to come out of her shell.

Sighing, he turned back to the computer screen, wondering how people already knew of their breakup.