TITLE: Strength Within Me
AUTHOR: Hayley
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RATING: PG-13 and possibly higher
DISCLAIMER: I own no one
DISTRIBUTION: Ask first please

PROLOGUE

In the still of the night, she sat alone on the park bench as a bell nearby tolled 12:00 midnight. Hiding under a canopy of trees, she watched as the drops slid down the slippery coating of the green leaves. The rain mimicked her tears as she fiddled with her hands. This wasn't supposed to be happening. She was smarter than that. And now, her senior year had been ruined and it had only begun. Standing up, she knew she just had to get away, but to where? His house? No, she couldn't. How could she tell him? Pulling her coat tighter around her shivering body, she splashed through forming puddles on the sidewalk as she made her way home.

Heart racing, Amy chewed on her bottom lip as her tears blurred her vision. Wiping them away with the back of her hand, questions about what she was going to do flooded her at once.

'How could this happen? We'd been so careful! It was only a couple of times, god what am I going to do? How do I tell my parents their 17-year-old daughter is pregnant?! PREGNANT?! How do I tell… him?' She cried to herself as she turned the corner and saw her house down the street. She thought she was going to pass out as her head whirled around in nauseating circles and before she knew it she was at the front steps. She had practiced what she was going to say but now her mind was drawing a blank.

She stood there idly for a couple minutes debating whether or not to go in now or later. Reaching for the knob, the wooden door swung open and she was greeted by two worried looking faces. She was surprised to see them there together, her dad had moved out a couple weeks ago while they sorted through plans of separating. She felt her knees buckle below her as her dad caught her in a fatherly embrace. She saw her mom wince in neglect that she had 'chose' him over her. She always did, she was daddy's princess. She didn't want the moment to end, being in her dad's arms and her parents in the same room without a curse thrown at one another. But she knew that they'd have even more problems to deal with here after.

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