Chapter 45: Sofia

I rush toward my car in the school parking lot with one thing on my mind.

And that's stopping at the pharmacy on the way home to get a pregnancy test.

In my two years as a high school counselor, I've had several girls pop into my office, frightened that they could be pregnant. The first thing I tell them is to talk to their parents because this isn't an issue they should deal with on their own. The second is to take a test. For the most accurate results, I advise them to make an appointment with their family doctor or Planned Parenthood to run blood work and take a urine test. If they aren't comfortable with either of those options, I tell them to pick up a home pregnancy test.

Most of the time, they stop in and tell me their results were negative. We then have a come-to-Jesus discussion regarding safe sex practices. Abstinence is the only foolproof method, but that's not a realistic option for many teenagers nowadays. And I get that. We go over the different kinds of birth con