He was a senior in high school, and she was a junior. They had met in algebra class at the beginning of the school year. He was a math whiz; she wanted to be an English teacher. They helped each other with their homework. He helped her solve "x + 4y = 8," and she helped him write 250-word essays. They loved going to the beach on weekends. When it was cold and windy, they dressed warmly and walked for miles. When it was hot, they wore their swimsuits and spent hours in the water and on the sand. They talked about everything under the sun. She had fallen in love with him. He wasn't in love with her, but he sometimes told her that he was. He really enjoyed her company, but he figured that when he started college, he would find new girlfriends. There were plenty of fish in the sea. One day at the beach, however, she told him she was pregnant. "Are you sure?" he asked, after a moment of silence. She was. "Well, what are you going to do?" he asked. She said she was hoping that they would get married. "You can't be serious," he said. "We're both way too young to get married. We haven't even graduated high school yet." Besides, he said, without jobs they couldn't begin to afford a baby. He had a friend who knew someone who could solve this problemâfor a fee. Don't worry, he said, he'd pay the fee. "I think we ought to keep our baby," she said. He told her not to worry about itâthey would start a family after college.
