Paige was really pissed off now.  It was lunch and she didn’t know any more than she did that morning.  Ellie and Marco were no where to be found and Craig hadn’t been at school all day.  Now Hazel was fussing over Jimmy and Paige was left to sulk.  And that’s what she did.  She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that Hazel had to elbow her twice to get her attention.  “Ouch!  Watch it Hazel,” She snapped and finally looked at Hazel who was giving her the shut up sign with her eyes.  Paige finally got the hint and looked across from her.

“What?”  Marco said around a bite of his cheeseburger.

“Hey hun!” Paige said sweetly.  “I have been looking for you all day.  Where have you been?”

Marco took his time chewing and swallowing his bite of burger.  Paige was looking at him like she was ready to pounce.  “Why are you looking at me like that?  I’m not afraid to admit it.  You’re freaking me out.”

“Oh nothing.  I heard you and Ava had a little spat.  I also hear it was over Ellie.  So I was just wondering why that would be.”

“Um no it wasn’t.  I wouldn’t let her borrow my biology notes.  She just freaked,” Marco said with a big fake smile.

“Lie much?  Obviously not cuz you totally suck at it,” Paige said smirking.

“Paige I can’t talk about what’s going on with Ellie,” Marco said hoping she would let it drop.  Yeah right like that’s gonna happen, he thought.

“Sure you can.  Come on Marco we always swap gossip,” Paige coaxed.

“Sorry Paige.  You’re going to have to wait to hear this from El,”  Marco said and got ready for the backlash.

“Hear what from El?”  Ellie asked sitting down beside Marco with her tray.

Thank you God!  Marco said to himself happy for something to get Paige off of him. 

“We’ll get to that.  But first what the hell are you eating?”  Paige said with a wrinkled nose. 

“Eww El is that Shelia’s goulash?”  Marco said disgusted. 

“Yeah.  It’s not that bad.  I don’t know it just looked good to me.  Enough about my lunch.  What did you want to ask me Paige?”  So she finally knows.  I’m actually surprised it took her this long,  Ellie thought to herself.

“I was just wondering why Marco and Ava were fighting over you?  I mean what could Marco have said about you that was so bad Ava thought she needed to butt in?”

“Well I guess that’s because Marco wasn’t very happy about me having the baby?”  Ellie said with a shrug.

“Wait rewind.  Baby?”  Paige said shocked.

“So that’s why you freaked on Paige for talking about Liberty,”  Hazel said smiling, happy with herself for figuring that out.

“Yep you heard me right I will be having a baby around the end of March.”

“Oh my god.  I just never expected this from you Ellie.  I thought you were smarter that that.”

“Yeah me too,” Ellie said sadly.

“El I’m sorry okay?  I didn’t mean it like that.  You just kinda caught me off guard.  I thought it would be some lame secret like Sean was coming back or something.  Speaking of Sean does he know he’s going gonna be a papa?”

“It’s not Sean’s and I’m not talking about this with you.”

“Ellie Sean is the only guy you have dated except Marco,”  Hazel said trying to make her admit to something.

“Well don’t look at me” Marco said quickly.

******

Ava and Craig finally waked into the Caf.

“Where have you two been?”  Hazel asked and looked at Paige with a smile.

“Liberty stopped us.  Something about helping with yearbook,” Ava answered.

Craig plopped down beside Paige and kissed her cheek.  After looking at each other for a few seconds they turned to the stares of their friends. 

“What’s this?” Jimmy asked with a big grin.

“Paige and I went out last night and had a great time.  Or at least I did,”  Craig said and looked at Paige expectantly.

“I did too,”  She smiled at him.

“Oh my god!  What’s next?”  Marco yelled.

“Yesterday it was Ellie and today you two.  Anyone else hiding anything?”  Marco demanded.

Ellie immediately looked at Ava.  Everyone else’s eyes followed.

“No.  I don’t have any secrets.  Sorry to disappoint.”

Just then the bell rang.  “Well I’m off,” Ava said as she practically ran out. Leaving everyone looking to Ellie for an explanation. 

“Oh I gotta go pee.  Sorry you know pregnancy and all.  See you all later.”