"When are you due?" Julie asked suddenly, interrupting the conversation about schoolwork.
"The assignment's due tomorrow," Julie replied with a worried tone in her voice, "and I am fretting that I am not going to have it done in time."
"No, silly," her classmate sighed, "when is your baby due?"
"What baby?" Angela looked confused. "Am I supposed to have one?"
"Well, no," the other girl said, leaning heavily on Angela's table, "but I thought you were going to."
"No, I'm not," Angela said, surprised. "I wouldn't even know where to get one. Why did you think I would?"
"Well," the schoolgirl began, rubbing a hand over her belly, "you've been getting pretty big this year, like me, and I am going to have a baby. So I figured that you were too."
"Do you need to be bigger to have a baby?" The thirteen year-old girl's eyes widened.
"Kind of. It turns out that I am getting bigger because the baby is growing inside my belly."
"Oh, pull the other one."
"No, really. I know I look like I am getting fat, but in actual fact my body is filling up with a baby."
"Is that normal?"
Julie shrugged. "Apparantly."
"So, how did it get in there?"
"I don't know. The grownups won't tell me, but Marcy reckons it is from kissing boys."
"Pfft. I've done that lots of times, and far more interesting things besides. There's no baby inside of me."
Julie raised an eyebrow. "How would you know? Until just now you did not even know babies grew inside girls."
"Oh? Just girls?"
"Apparantly."
"So, what do the boys do then?"
"As it turns out, chase after me more the bigger I get."
Angela nodded with a measure of understanding. This year she had little trouble getting attention from the boys when she wanted it. It had never occurred to her that it was her size and shape that attracted them. She had always been on the plump side, but a healthy appetite and a love of video games had added some weight to her body in recent months and showing no signs of stopping.
"So," Angela said, echoing Julie's earlier question, "when are you due?" Apparantly that was the right way to say it.
"In about three months," her classmate replied, rubbing her belly.
"So, is this getting your work done?" Mister Jones demanded sternly from behind them, startling them. The background buzz of students talking continued unabated.
"Uh, no sir. Julie just told me the strangest thing and I had to know more."
"Did she?"
"Yes sir. She says there is a baby growing inside her body."
"Yes," their teacher sighed. "It would appear so."
"Is that normal?"
"That depends on what you mean by 'normal'. Is that how it works? Yes. That's normal. A lot of girls here at this school have babies growing inside them right now, so you could say that's normal too. Some don't know it, and the rest do not really talk about it. Their own friends may not be aware what is happening to them."
"So how do we get a baby inside us?" Julie asked. "No-one will tell me."
Mister Jones sighed deeply. "I am not allowed to tell you. Even giving you hints could get me fired."
"What do you mean?" asked Angela.
"The state government banned us from teaching or explaining to students how to prevent a baby starting in your body apart from telling you not to do whatever it is that does it. The school board went one further and forbid us from telling you in any detail what that act is. Apparantly someone on the PTA kicked up a huge fuss that it was immoral to discuss it with minors. All that we teachers can say is, whatever it is don't do it."
"That's silly."
"That's life. Sometimes people with the authority to make decisions that affect others make the wrong choice and the others have to endure the consequences. So now we cannot discuss in any way some very important details about how your bodies work. And if the rules get any stricter I won't even be allowed to tell students that I am not permitted to tell them."
"That's crazy," insisted Angela.
"Yes, it is," agreed the teacher. "Now if you'll excuse me I have to go and pretend to rouse on more students."
When the class ended the teenagers all headed to lunch. As Angela made her way through the milling crowd she paid attention to just how many girls had been putting on weight lately. She estimated that at least one in twenty were noticeably heavier than when they started the school year, but she could not be sure if that meant they had a baby growing inside them. For all she knew they were big eaters like herself. Some of them, she began to realise, were wearing special uniforms. They were similar to the standard uniform, but shaped differently to allow for larger bodies. Was this another clue?
She considered her own uniform. It was tight on her in many places, especially across her belly. Maybe one of those big girl uniforms would be a good idea. This one was never a perfect fit - she was fairly tall for her age and did carry some extra weight - but it was becoming more constricting as the year went on.
When she had acquired a sizeable meal on her tray she sat down at a nearby table and was quickly joined by a couple of boys she was fond of. She graciously allowed them to feed her lunch to her while she kept her hands under the table. When the meal was over she kissed them both on the lips and left the table, chuckling to herself that she doubted that would have started a baby growing in her.
She had to admit, though, her uniform did feel rather full.
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