The teacher told them that they could work in groups on a project about the greatest literature throughout history and she let them pick their own groups. Of course she chose Bailey and Blaze and the three of them went into the corner to talk. But before they got to work she filled them in on what her Dad did with getting a statement from Ryan and his Dad to send to the prosecutor to get Austin's charges dropped.

"I had a talk with Mason on the way to the hospital about what Ryan had done to make Austin so mad and I think he understood that Ryan had it coming," Blaze said.

"Really? You were the one that told him all the stuff Ryan did? I just figured Ryan had grown a conscience and confessed it all to him," Jolie said, laughing.

"No that was me. I do think Ryan feels bad about all of it though. If he didn't he wouldn't have asked them to drop the charges."

"Thank you for doing that Blaze. It made all the difference because without those two statements to send to the prosecutor they would be a lot less likely to drop the charges."

"Yeah well Ryan, Austin and I used to all be friends back in elementary school. We went our separate ways in middle school because I started feeling left out when Ryan started making plans for just him and Austin to do things without me all the time and I started hanging with a new group of people. It's alright though. I'm not mad about it now or anything. I still have some really good memories from that time," Blaze said.

"Well with everything that you've done lately I'd say you've proven that you were Austin's true friend and not Ryan. Your definitely best friend material," she smiled.

Jolie's phone vibrated and she looked down to see a text from her Mom.

'I scheduled a doctor's appointment for you to get that shot right after school today. I'll be waiting for you out in the parking lot at the end of the day.'

That worked out well because Austin had football practice right after school today and it was going to last for hours because tomorrow was the big homecoming game against their biggest rival. She sent Austin a text that she was going to the doctor with her Mom and when she got out front there she was waiting in her white Range Rover.

She hopped in the front seat and her Mom smiled at her and asked how her day was.

"It was good," she said truthfully. It had been a good day.

When they got to the doctor's office Jolie started to feel nervous but she was relieved when she found out it was a female doctor.

"Hi Jolie, I'm Dr. Huang," the small Asian doctor said with a warm smile. "So your Mom tells me you want to get a birth control shot today?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"So how long have you and your boyfriend been together?"

Jolie squirmed in her seat.

"Umm. Not long. A couple weeks," Jolie said.

"Ok," the doctor said with a judgmental tone to her voice. "Are you exclusive? I mean do you know for sure that he's not going to sleep with anyone else?"

"Yes I'm sure," Jolie nodded.

"How many sexual partners have you had?"

"None. This will be my first," she said, looking down at the floor and fidgeting with her shoes. It was so awkward having this conversation with her Mom in the room. She wanted to just crawl under a rock.

"How many sexual partners has he had?" the Doctor asked, scribbling a bunch of notes in a notepad.

"I'm actually not sure," Jolie said, feeling really stupid for not knowing that answer. She probably should have had that conversation with him.

"Did he always use protection with the people he slept with?"

"I don't know," Jolie said, shaking her head.

"Has he been tested recently for STD's?"

"I don't know," Jolie said again, feeling a little overwhelmed now with all these questions.

"Well this shot will protect against pregnancy but not against STD's. Until he can come in and gets tested, I would suggest using a condom."

After that long interrogation of uncomfortably awkward questions the doctor gave her a goodie bag with a bunch of condoms in it and Jolie's face turned bright red. 'This is the most embarrassing day of my life' she thought. Finally she gave her the shot and asked when her last period was.

"It just ended yesterday" she answered.

"Ok then this shot will be effective immediately. It's 94% effective at preventing pregnancy."

Jolie was so relieved when that appointment was finally over and she could be on her way home.

"That was the most excruciating hour of my entire life. It was so embarrassing!" she told her Mom as they got in the car.

"Oh yeah? You thought just talking about sex was embarrassing?" her Mom laughed. "It's much worse being pregnant and going there for exams and having the doctor inspect your hoo ha every time. Now that's embarrassing. You want to put that off as long as you can," her Mom laughed.

"I plan to," Jolie agreed.

Austin was so tired by the time he finally got home from football practice that she watched him collapse onto his bed through her bedroom window.

'Long day?' she texted and waved at him when he looked up.

'The longest. How was the doctor? Did you get the shot?' he asked.

She figured this conversation was better off spoken because it would take too long to type out so she called him.

"Yeah I got it. It was fine but just a little embarrassing with all the questions they were asking. They wanted to know if you had been tested for STD's and how many sex partners you've had and if you always wore a condom. I felt really dumb for not knowing any of that about my own boyfriend. I guess we should've talked about all that," she said.

"Yeah I guess we always talked about how you had never been with anybody but not about me. I've been with 3 women. My first time was in 9th grade when we went on a ski trip to Aspen and I met this girl that was my age and she was on vacation there with her family too. The second time was at basketball camp the summer after sophomore year. It was a co-ed camp and I met a girl from Florida who was a basketball player. The third one of course was Mandy. I wore a condom every single time."

Jolie hated hearing about him being with other women because it made her feel so jealous. She was actually surprised Austin had only been with 3 women in his life because the entire school wanted him.

"Have you been tested recently for STD's? She said until you go there and get tested we need to use protection."

"No. I've never been tested, but I can go there tomorrow on my lunch break and do that if it makes you feel better," he said.

"That would be great," Jolie said. "I'd rather just know for sure. Plus if your tests are all negative we wouldn't have to wear a condom the doctor said, as long as we're in a committed relationship where we've both agreed to not be with anyone else."

"Well that's no problem. I don't want anyone but you. How long does the shot take to work?" he asked.

"It was immediate."

"Really? So in theory we could actually NOT wait until Saturday. You could just come over here right now and put an end to my torture of needing a cold shower every time I think about you," he whined.

"No Austin! We have to wait until Saturday. It'll be more special if we do it after the Homecoming dance."

"I guess," he exhaled. "Oh I forgot to tell you. I booked us a really nice hotel room for Saturday night because I want your first time to be perfect. I thought you might like that."

She smiled. "Thank you Austin. That's really sweet."

"Well I'm exhausted from that long practice. I'll see you in the morning Jolie ...... unless you change your mind and want to come over tonight. I'm down."

"Good night Austin," she laughed. "I'm not changing my mind. I'll see you in the morning. Love you"

"Love you too," he answered.

The next day was Homecoming game day so everyone wore blue and gold to school, the football players wore their jerseys and the cheerleaders wore their uniforms. Austin gave Jolie one of his extra jerseys to wear to school like he had done before and she put on some black leggings and high top converse with it. She left her hair down this time and straightened it and put on some makeup.

She wanted to look pretty for school today with it being game day and she looked at herself in the mirror and noticed the worried expression on her face and realized for the first time how nervous she really was about tomorrow.