Emily was at her desk studying one evening when the phone rang. She forgot that she had left the phone on her desk after she was done talking to Melissa. She answered the phone.

 The caller asked, “May I please speak to Margaret Collins?”

 Emily smiled. Another salesperson. She was going to have fun with this one.

 “May I ask who’s calling?” Emily asked sweetly.

 “This is Jane Smith from MNBA.”

 “Hey, Jane, you want to know something?”

 “What’s that?”

 “I hope I never have to be a telemarketer when I get older.”

 “Why?”

 “Because I hate when people hang up on me.” Emily hung up the phone and returned to her studies.

 “You look awfully tired, Amanda,” Emily said to Amanda in their psychology class.

 “I didn’t get much sleep last night,” Amanda replied.

 “I hate when that happens,” said Emily.

 Amanda had been fiddling with her wallet the entire time they were talking. She suddenly dropped it, and the contents went flying all over the floor. Emily bent down to help Amanda pick her things up, and among the receipts and crummy dollar bills, she noticed a baby picture.

 “Aww, who’s this?” Emily asked, looking at the picture.

 “Give me that!” Amanda snapped, snatching the picture from Emily’s hand. She looked at it for a moment, then tucked it away into her wallet. She cringed a little, made a face and was silent for a moment. Then she looked at Emily.

 “I’m sorry about that,” Amanda said apologetically. “Emily, do you think... you can come over to my house tonight and... help me with my math?”

 Emily was puzzled. Amanda had been so secretive until now. Perhaps she did need that much help in math. “Sure. What math are you in?”

 “Geometry.”

 “I’ll see how much of it I can remember. I’m in trig this year... it’s been a couple years since I had geometry. I don’t even remember stuff from last year. Where do you live?”

 Amanda got out a pen and paper and drew out a map for Emily. “Last house on the right. It’s two stories and it has green shingles. I really need to pass my exam. That’s why I need some help.”

 “What do you have right now?”

 “I got a C plus first marking period and I have a B so far this marking period. But I want to bring that up, and I always chicken out on exams.”

 “Okay. I’ll come over tonight. I’ll call you before then.”

 “You don’t need to. I’m always home.”

 The teacher called them to attention, and they began their work for the day. Emily remembered when she was a tenth-grader like Amanda. She hadn’t had a social life, either. Emily had tried asking Amanda to join her and her friends when they went to the movies, to parties or out driving, but Amanda had always declined.

 That afternoon, Emily went to Amanda’s house. It was a green, dilapidated shack at the end of a dead-end road, with a broken-down car in the dirt driveway and a garage with the roof caved in and a rusty door half-hanging in the doorway.

 “Perhaps this is why Amanda keeps to herself,” Emily thought to herself as she climbed up the stairs of the rickety porch. “Her family must be poor.” She knocked on the door.

 An older woman who looked just like Amanda answered the door. She had a hearing aid in her ear, with a wire attaching it to a small box on her waist.

 “Is Amanda here?” Emily asked.

 “Yes... just a... second,” the woman replied slowly, using sign language along with her spoken words. “I’m... Amanda’s... mother.”

 “Who’s there, Amy?” a man’s voice called from inside.

 “Amanda... friend,” she replied.

 The man came to the door. He was tall and skinny, with a dark beard, dark hair tumbling over his forehead, and glasses. He was very well-dressed. “Amanda will be down in a second,” he told Emily. “Why don’t you come in for a second? I’m Jim--Amanda’s dad.”

 “I’m Emily,” said Emily, shaking hands with Mr. Strittman and walking into the living room. Inside, it was very clean and bright. She smiled and sighed. Maybe this wasn’t such a bad place after all. “I came over to help Amanda with her homework.”

 “You look older than Amanda.”

 “I am. I’m a senior. Me and Amanda have psychology class together, but she said she needed help with geometry.”
 Amanda came down the stairs. “Hey, you’re here!”

 “Ready to study?” Emily grinned.

 “Ugh,” Amanda groaned. “Want anything to eat or drink?”

 “Not right now. Maybe later.”

 “Well, I’m starving.” Amanda went into the kitchen and got a bag of chips, then started heading back up the stairs. “My room’s up here. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

 Emily followed Amanda up the stairs to her room. It looked more like a baby’s room, with the crib, mobile and pastels. Amanda’s bed and desk were the only large pieces of furniture in the room.

 Amanda looked into the crib, and Emily decided to see for herself. The baby girl from the picture was sleeping in the crib.

 “She’s adorable!” Emily said softly. “Your little sister?”

 “No,” said Amanda. “My daughter.”

 Emily looked up at Amanda, shocked. This explained the secrets and the sleepless nights. She had a baby!

 “I know it’s kind of a shock to you,” said Amanda, reaching into the baby’s crib and letting the tiny fingers grasp her finger. “I would have told you sooner... I wanted to tell you at band camp, but... there was something that kept me from that.”

 “Which was...?”

 Amanda paused for a moment. Then she said, “This baby’s name... is Andrea Wallace.”

 Emily thought for a moment. This baby couldn’t be....

 “You mean to say that... this little girl is Nate’s baby, too?”

 Amanda pressed her lips together and nodded silently. “When you told me that you were Nate’s ex-girlfriend... I couldn’t tell you about Andrea. I don’t know why... I just couldn’t. I had her a couple weeks before I went to band camp. And a few weeks before that, we moved here.”

 Emily still couldn’t say anything.

 “Nate thinks she’s not his,” said Amanda. “He thinks I was sleeping around with other guys while I was with him.”

 “What a jerk!” Emily exclaimed, clenching her teeth and clutching her fist around the crib railing. She looked down again at the tiny, sleeping baby and saw the resemblance--at least in the soft, thin, light-brown hair that covered her head. “How can he say that she’s not his when she looks just like him?”

 “I know,” said Amanda, resting her chin on the railing. “He just doesn’t want the responsibility. He’s selfish, and he doesn’t want to own up to his mistakes. I’ll admit that yes, she was a mistake... but she’s the best mistake that’s ever happened to me. She’s the sweetest little thing and I love her to pieces. I might not say that when she’s two-and-a-half, three years old and being a holy terror... but I’ll always know it.” She sighed and continued her story. “My parents know she’s Nate’s baby, and so does one of his friends. Did you ever meet his friend, Derrick Cass?”

 “Yeah. I met his friends, Derrick and Brandon. I never knew their last names, though.”

 “Derrick Cass and Brandon Greenwald. Derrick saw Andrea once and knew right away that she was Nate’s baby, and he tried to tell Nate, but he wouldn’t listen. I guess Derrick and Nate aren’t very good friends anymore. He’s still friends with Brandon because Brandon took his side.”

 “What about Nate’s parents?”

 “They don’t know. I think if they did, they’d help me out.”

 “Can’t you tell them?”

 “I wish it was that easy. They hate me. They know I’m poor--they always looked down on me and thought he could do better than a little street rat like me. They avoided talking to me at all, if they could. They met my mom once, and they thought she was stupid because she’s deaf. That made me mad.”

 “I know what you mean. I don’t think they liked me very much, either. I don’t think it was because I wasn’t rich, though--I was just way too eccentric for them.”

 Emily and Amanda laughed together. In her home, Amanda seemed to be much more at ease.

 “Well, Nate eventually did do much better. He’s got the richest brat in Hillsdale. Amy St. John. Her parents practically own Hillsdale. The whole family is stupid, though, except for one. Angeline’s only eleven, but she’s already in eighth grade, and she can’t stand her family. Amy goes to that prep school, but she goes to the high school part of the time, and that’s how her and Nate met. Angeline refused to go to the prep school because she didn’t like the people there, and they were holding her back.”

 “Maybe we can try to get Amy on our side. Stupid people are so easy to manipulate.”

 Amanda thought for a moment. “You know, that might just work! I’ve never met Amy, but I think I’ll try to sometime. And she can meet Andrea. Maybe she’ll help.”

 “Well, we’d better get to work while she’s still sleeping,” Emily finally said.

 At that moment, little Andrea woke up and began to cry.

 “No such luck,” said Amanda, taking Andrea out of her crib and cuddling her. “What’s the matter, little girl? Have a bad dream?” Andrea stopped crying and opened her big blue eyes. Emily suddenly saw the resemblance between Andrea and Nate.

 “Want to hold her?”

 Emily smiled and held out her arms. Amanda carefully placed the soft pink bundle in her arms, and Emily gently cuddled her. Andrea thought it appropriate at that moment to grab a piece of Emily’s shirt and proceed to chew on it.

 “She’s teething, isn’t she?” Emily asked, slightly annoyed but still smiling.

 “Yeah,” said Amanda. “But that means she likes you.”

 “Amanda, I have a mission now. I’m going to help you get Nate to be the daddy he should be.”

 Amanda smiled. This time, it was a sincere, truthful smile, unlike the fake smiles she had always managed before.

 “You and your friends have been so good to me this year. I--I can’t thank you enough. Well, there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with her. I’ll just put her in this swing here, and we can get to work.”

 Emily and Amanda worked through the afternoon and early evening while a happy Andrea sat in her swing, chewed on her toys and babbled contentedly.